Guise, p.32
Guise, page 32
The Liege tried to cope with an entirely new situation. His raw energy was unsuited to the delicate task of locating and removing such a minor entity. He struggled to fashion a response. While he did, Darwin acted.
He remembered his brush with telepathy. He used it to reach out to the minds around him.
“Patience,” he said directly into her mind. “I need to see your catalyst ability. Can you show it to me?”
“Why?” she asked.
“There is no time for explanations,” he said. “I need that knowledge if I am to defeat the Liege.”
Patience pondered.
“Please,” he begged. “Trust me.”
Patience acquiesced and thought of her ability.
“Thank you,” said Darwin, leaving a trace of a connection with her mind and focusing on Bo.
“Your power. What is it?” he asked.
“How are you doing this?” she asked, frightened.
“No time. I need to know your power. Please, show it to me or we are all doomed.”
Bo hesitated.
“Please. I can’t do this without you,” pleaded Darwin.
Bo thought of her ability.
She had the power to share the consciousness of animals. She could share their senses and, if the animal was willing, guide their movements. The power was similar to what Darwin had done in possessing Sheryl and April, but different.
“Thank you,” he said earnestly.
Once more he left a thread of thought behind. He focused on Yoki.
The entity known as the Herald blazed brightly with power, but he was a dying candle next to the nova of the Liege’s power. Darwin masked himself in the brilliance of that power and dove deep into the Herald’s consciousness. There, tucked away, was a nodule wherein resided the last vestige of Yoki.
Darwin dared to speak to her.
“Yoki?” he said.
“Darwin!” she cried.
“Yoki,” he said. “I’ve come to free you.”
“You can’t,” she said, despondently. “He is too powerful. Besides, he has taken most of my memories. There is so little left of what is me. I can feel myself fading. I will not survive to the end of the ceremony.”
“You will,” stated Darwin.
“You always were sweet,” said Yoki, softly.
“I have to go,” said Darwin.
“No,” cried Yoki. “Can’t you stay with me until the end? I don’t want to die alone.”
“You won’t die at all,” said Darwin. “Trust me.”
Reluctantly, Darwin left. The thread of thought he trailed behind him seemed terribly delicate and fragile, but he didn’t dare leave a more robust trail.
Darwin returned his focus to his own mind.
“What are you playing at you wretched mote!?” roared the Liege. His essence reverberated in Darwin’s reality, nearly shattering his mind.
Darwin ignored the question. Instead, he focused his attention on the Herald.
“Do you think to challenge me?” asked the Herald haughtily. “You are a gnat, riding a dragon. You have no power of your own and are too weak to do more than cling to your ride for fear of being obliterated.”
“You are the one who should be afraid,” said Darwin. “For I have come to kill you and banish your Liege.”
The Herald laughed, a great booming sound.
“How will you do this most insignificant of minds?” asked the Herald with contempt.
“Like this,” said Darwin.
Darwin tapped into Yoki’s knowledge of her projecting empathy power via the telepathic link he had maintained. Using his link to Patience, he employed her catalyst power to boost Yoki’s. With the combined ability, he fed the Liege’s distrust of others. The Liege turned the spotlight of his power on the followers assembled in the chamber. None were prepared for the scrutiny. Three withered and died, before they could shield themselves. The remainder, except for the Herald, raised shields to save themselves.
The raising of the shields fed the Liege’s overwhelming paranoia. He smashed aside their shields in his quest to see if they were planning on betraying him. One by one, they were overwhelmed and destroyed.
As the Liege consumed those who had opened the way for him, Darwin turned his attention to the Herald. He used the ability to possess others mixed with information concerning Bo’s power to give him the insight needed to see how he could take control of the Herald. Charging his power by tapping a fraction of the Liege’s might in a fashion similar to how Patience catalyzed others, he moved once again to Yoki’s remaining consciousness.
He located the conduit the Herald was using to siphon the memories and life force from Yoki. Suddenly, it was the most obvious thing for him to reach out and change the dynamic between captor and captured.
“What are you doing?” thundered the Herald, concern coloring his thoughts for the first time.
“Saving the world,” said Darwin simply.
He enacted his change.
“No!” roared the Herald, but it was too late.
Darwin gifted Yoki the ability to take possession of the Herald. As she employed that power, the relationship between her and the Herald turned inside out. No longer did she languish inside an ever-shrinking mindspace, tormented by the Herald. Instead, it was he who was trapped within her mind. He whose memories were being pulled from him. He who was powerless and at her mercy.
Yoki reveled in her new freedom. She took back her stolen memories, brutally ripping them from the mind of the Herald as he screamed in agony. Restored, she thought to thank Darwin, but he had moved on.
As the Liege immolated the last of the Invaders, Darwin focused on the dimensional bridge. Without the stabilizing influence of the assembled Invaders, the portal between dimensions was vulnerable. He marveled at the complex network of peculiar circumstances that made such a connection possible.
Darwin did not have the power to close the portal. Nor did he have the ability to destroy the Liege. However, as he had done in his dream, he could influence small aspects of the underlying components, resulting in unanticipated ripples in the reality of the structure.
Within the chamber, the Invader lashed to the wheel burned as the wooden structure he was lashed to suddenly burst into flames. Next to him, the Invader in the iron maiden was frozen solid as the temperature of the metal plunged to minus one hundred degrees. The radical thermal differential in the confined space caused the portal to wobble and start to shake.
Darwin used telekinesis to thrum the inverted cross, setting it vibrating at a pitch that worked in harmony with the instability started in the portal. The forces keeping the portal open started collapsing in on themselves.
The Liege sensed what was happening and turned his terrible attention to the portal. His essence was stretched between the realms, making him vulnerable. He focused his power on stabilizing the rift so that he could complete his transfer into this dimension.
Darwin capitalized on the Liege’s distraction to finally shield his mind.
“You believe you can stop me insect?” asked the Liege, sensing the change in his promised host.
“I have,” said Darwin simply.
The Liege flew at Darwin’s mind but could find no purchase this time. Even with all his power, the Liege could not occupy a prepared mind.
“Fool!” shouted the Liege. “You have stopped nothing. I will simply go to another.”
“No,” said Darwin quietly.
The Liege searched the minds in the area. Darwin’s was shielded. His plans to break the barriers protecting Patience’s mind required his full might, which he could not spare. Yoki’s mind was protected by the Herald trapped within her consciousness. Bo’s mind, ordinarily unprotected, currently enjoyed enough protection through the telepathic link with Darwin to keep her safe.
All the Invader hosts were dead, killed by the Liege in his rage or by Darwin in destabilizing the portal. There were no minds local for the Liege to possess.
“Annoying irritant,” spat the Liege. “I will just look further afield for a host and then you shall suffer.”
“Possibly,” conceded Darwin. “But your time is up.”
“No!” screamed the Liege.
Despite all his power, the Liege could not maintain the portal. As he attempted to flee back into his home dimension, the gateway between realms collapsed and closed, sundering his essence between dimensions. The ceremony chamber was consumed in a flood of unfocused psychic energies.
Darwin, Patience, Yoki, and Bo weathered the storm, drawing strength from each other through the telepathic link Darwin had established. One by one each member of the group passed out, overcome by the psychic storm.
Yoki, the weakest member because of her ordeal, was the first to fall unconscious. Bo joined her shortly afterwards. Patience tenaciously clung to consciousness almost until the end, her injuries finally overcoming her will. Darwin fell unconscious moments after Patience, the telepathic link between the four dissolving, as he did.
As Darwin slipped into unconsciousness, his final thought was that somehow, he had failed his mission.
--- o ---
Upstairs at the party, Bob stopped pushing Margie toward the exit.
“Did you feel that?” he asked.
“Was that an earthquake?” asked Margie.
“Not here,” said Bob. “We left those behind when we moved years ago.”
“I don’t know honey. That’s what it felt like.”
“You think we should go look?” asked Bob.
“Downstairs?” asked Margie.
“Yeah,” agreed Bob, slowly. “For some reason, I feel the need to head downstairs.”
“Me too,” said Margie. “So I guess we’re going to the basement.”
Bob turned Margie around and the two headed for a service elevator. When they reached it, they found it waiting for them, doors open. The two exchanged looks.
“Curiouser and curiouser,” said Margie, as Bob wheeled her into the elevator.
“Yeah,” agreed Bob, pressing the B2 button.
They arrived at the lower basement. Bob walked them out and turned left. Slowly, they made their way along the empty hallways, following a subconscious lure. They turned a corner and saw a large metal door open at the end of the hall.
“That does not look like something that should be here,” said Bob.
“Always the master of understatement,” said Margie.
“I’m taking you back upstairs and calling security,” said Bob.
“Oh no, you are not,” corrected Margie. “We are going to see what is inside before we go anywhere else.”
“What if it is not safe?”
“Then we will be unsafe together, dear.”
“Let’s at least call security,” said Bob reasonably.
“You know there’s no reception down here,” said Margie.
Knowing better than to argue further, Bob rolled Margie forward. The two reached the door and peered inside. Seeing nothing threatening, they entered and slowly advanced down the hallway. At the end was an open doorway. A dark room lay beyond it.
When they reached the open doorway, they could dimly see objects inside. Bob stepped in and looked to the left and right for a wall switch. He found one and turned on the lights.
The fluorescent lights in the ceiling blazed to life revealing a startling scene. Darwin sat slumped in the center of the room, strapped to a large charred wooden chair. Bo lay atop a table, apparently locked to it. Nearby, Patience sagged from clamps holding her to a blackened metal cross. Between these three, on the ground, lay Yoki. All of them were naked.
Piles of twisted metal and charred wood were clustered around the room. Around the edge of the room, were burnt piles of clothes and costumes.
Bob stared, open-mouthed at the scene before him. Margie stared in silence, trying to make sense of what she was seeing.
“I guess there was a different kind of party down here,” said Bob.
CHAPTER 45
Darwin dreamt.
The tiled room was of an indeterminate size, the walls lost behind lazily shifting curtains of steam. The floor was covered in large red, yellow, and orange tiles, forming a geometric pattern he was certain he could make out, if only he could see more of it. In the center of the room was a massive, ivory, claw-foot tub.
The tub was filled to an inch below the lip with a steaming milky liquid. A woman rested, unmoving in the fluid, the tops of her breasts barely breaking the surface. Her head reclined on the edge of the tub.
Darwin’s viewpoint shifted and moved closer so that he could get a better look at the woman’s face.
She had a mass of chocolate brown hair piled atop her head, held in place by a lacquered hair clip in the shape of a scarab. A small braid dangled from her right temple, the bright green tip changing to an eggplant purple at her scalp. A small pair of turquoise beads rested near the tip. Her bangs reached to three small rings – brass, copper, and steel – piercing her left eyebrow. Her eyes were closed.
Her left ear had a plain platinum hoop earring dangling from the lobe. Three tiny ruby studs provided an arc of color along the top of her right ear. A scrimshawed tusk hung from the right lobe, turning slowly.
An aquiline nose, thick lips and a slightly cleft chin rounded out familiar features.
How her features were familiar to him was a mystery since he was positive he had never seen this person before.
Suddenly, the woman’s eyes snapped open.
Darwin fled. He soared up and behind her. He tried to escape the room, but the walls prevented him from leaving. He crouched in a corner trying to make himself as small as possible.
The woman sat up, almost sending liquid splashing out of the tub. She swiveled her head back and forth, searching. She rose to her feet, turning back and forth. Stopping, she methodically quartered the room, turning slowly in a counter-clockwise circle as her gaze traveled across the room from floor to ceiling.
As she searched, Darwin moved to keep himself at her back. He had no cause for his panic, but he was terrified of being seen.
While she searched the room, Darwin noticed a large tattoo on her right shoulder blade. It was an intricate drawing of a barren oak tree. The image was extremely realistic and detailed. So convincing was the image that he imagined he saw branches swaying as she moved.
The woman completed her circuit of the room. Cautiously, she reached down and lifted up a large white towel resting on a brass and glass table next to the tub. She began to dry herself off, continuing to twitch her head around, searching for whatever – or whomever – had disturbed her.
Above the oak tattoo, on the right side of her neck, was another tattoo. Darwin risked moving closer to get a better look. At first, it appeared to be a rearing horse, but as he looked up her neck, he discovered that the white hide of the horse changed into colored feathers. The front legs were clawed bird feet. Just as he realized it was a hippogriff, the image was obscured as the woman released the scarab clip and shook out her luxuriant mane of chocolate brown hair.
Darwin scuttled back as the woman stepped from the tub. A warning hiss filled the air. He looked down and saw a blue and green Eastern dragon tattoo coiled around the woman’s left thigh. However, the head of the tattoo extended out of her flesh, black eyes glaring at him as it hissed. While he watched, the front legs emerged from her body, talons dimpling her flesh as the tattoo pulled itself into three-dimensional life.
The woman turned to face him. Her hand stroked the dragon’s head, soothing it as it glared and hissed at Darwin. The lower half of the creature writhed on her skin while the upper portion raised a taloned foot and took a swipe at him. Her brow was creased as her eyes searched the room for whatever was agitating the dragon.
She looked right at him.
Darwin found himself staring into two of the most astonishing eyes he had ever seen. The woman’s left eye was a mesmerizing robin’s egg blue. The right was completely black, making it impossible to determine where the iris ended and pupil began.
“Impossible,” murmured the woman, stroking the dragon’s head to calm it. The creature slowly sank back into her flesh, turning into a tattoo once more.
The woman frowned, eyes flicking right and left.
“It can’t be,” she said to herself.
Dropping the towel to the floor, she raised her arms over her head and stretched.
The motion did fascinating things to her anatomy, causing Darwin to avert his gaze. He looked around the room but kept coming back to the woman. Finally, he focused on the tattoo on her stomach as a compromise location for his eyes.
The tattoo centered on her navel was an ornamental pond. There was a small pile of rocks off to one side with water tumbling down them. Cattails and other plants dotted three different spots. A moss-covered stone huddled near the water’s edge.
The pond was filled with what appeared to be a dozen colorful koi. The fish languidly circled the pond, occasionally surfacing. One large white and orange koi leaped from the pond, splashing back and sprinkling the woman’s stomach with a tiny shower of delicate water droplets which she absently wiped away.
Resting on the stone was a Totoro wearing a straw hat. He had a bamboo fishing pole with a line dangling in the water. The koi ignored his line. The Totoro looked up at Darwin and blinked. Giving him a broad grin, he pulled his fishing pole from the pond, shouldered it and strolled from the scene. He made his way across the woman’s belly towards her hip with a jaunty amble.
The woman finished her stretch and turned away from Darwin. She strode across the floor to a small vanity area. As she walked, the Totoro rounded her hip. He no longer carried his fishing pole or wore his straw hat. He jogged onto her buttock and stopped. Giving Darwin a toothy grin and salacious wink, he froze, looking like an ordinary tattoo.
The woman stepped around a small plush vanity stool and sat.
Darwin stared open-mouthed at the woman, realizing two things.
