Phoenix Down

The scene I returned to was vastly different than the scene that I had left.

I emerged from the Shadow directly across the street form the Coop compound, just on the chance that a trap had been laid by the Dream Weavers. But there was no sign of them.

Instead I saw the flashing lights and heard the idling motors of several fire engines. Emergency personnel crowded the streets as firemen moved to hook up hoses, police officers were keeping the growing crowds of spectators back, and camera men moved to get clearer shots of the orange flames that were so greedily consuming the Phoenix Coop.

I didn’t see anybody I recognized from the Coop in the gathered crowds or being assisted in any way by emergency response crews, so I summoned the Shadow before I was noticed and slipped back into the Shadowland.

The normally dull and silent landscape of the Shadowland was a kaleidoscope of clashing colors formed by crowds of people, the chaos of the battle that had just been fought, and the physical destruction of the Coop itself by the fire. Instead of trying to slip through the crowds, I allowed myself to float over it, passing above the commotion below and through the perimeter of the Coop grounds.

The massive energy of the fires raging through the Coop made it difficult to sense anything else coming from inside, but I had the nagging sensation that Ravyn was still inside and in need of my help. I sped up.

On a hunch, I slipped around the back of the house and landed near the now gaping hole that led into the library. The fire raged all around, but I was able to pass through it unfazed, as the vast majority of the damaging energies were limited to the primary world. The afterimages that I saw here were the shadowy essence of the fire itself.

I pushed through the blaze and into the library, looking for any clues to the whereabouts of Ravyn, Katherine, Zenny Al Farhan, or any of the students of the Coop.

The floor of the library was normally crowded with tables and chairs and several comfy sofas for the small group of students who used the place for their studies, but it was quite evident that a battle of some sort had taken place here. Bits and pieces of the tables lay scattered about and the sofas had been pushed back and overturned. I stepped over one to come into a space that looked like it had been the epicenter of some sort of blast.

The haze cast by the raging fires in the real world obscured almost everything, but something moved, catching my eye.

I pushed forward. I was glad to not have to worry about getting toasted, but I was also worried as to what I might find.

I was right to be concerned.

Stepping over another overturned couch and over the debris of another table, I came to the center of the room and saw two figures.

The one laying still on the ground with her Spirit form growing dimmer by the second was obviously Ravyn. The second figure was leaning over her, face down toward her neck. It was a Bane. As her Spirit dimmed, his grew stronger, darker, and more vibrant.

I drew Excalibur and stepped from the Shadowland into the blazing heat of the real world as if it were one easy action.

If the noise of blaze was any indication, we were standing in the middle of a raging inferno. I had to yell to make myself heard, although I think the creature sensed my arrival more than he heard what I had to say to him. “Get off her, asshole!”

The creature rose to its full stature, which was considerable, although it was shorter and stockier than the form Anthraximander had used. Its face may once have been human, but it was extremely hard to see any resemblance. His skin was as black as ebony, so dark and shiny that it reflected the light of the raging fires around us. He had two horns sprouting from his forehead, which swept up and curled back so that the ends pointed backwards over his head. He had a snout that protruded from his face like that of a bat, but with much sharper and longer teeth than any bat I had ever seen. Blood dripped from his mouth. Enormous black wings were fold on its back, each tipped with a wicked looking claw. He had two enormously muscled arms tipped with large ebony claws.

The creature looked at me with feral yellow eyes and flicked a forked, snake-like tongue across its fangs.

It said something in response to me, but his words were lost in the loud crash as supporting beams of the second floor came crashing down behind me.

For once, I decided to take Drake’s advice and just attacked. I didn’t really care to engage in conversation with this thing.

I leaped forward, holding Excalibur back as I did until the last moment, figuring it would lash out with one of its huge claws.

It didn’t disappoint. As it swung up one arm to toss me aside, I brought the blade down in a huge overhand slicing motion right at the wrist joint, hoping to use my momentum and the power of the blade to sever the wrist.

It almost worked.

The blade smashed into his hand, driving it down easier than I expected, but the blade didn’t really penetrate his exoskeleton-like skin. That was a first.

I did, however, manage to exert more force than he expected me to, pushing him backwards. Luckily, he was large enough that his step back was big enough to avoid crushing Ravyn’s skull.

Despite my surprise at Excalibur not being able to penetrate his skin on that first blow, I rained down a series of blows. Each one making solid contact, each one bouncing off of the hard skin of his arms or legs, but each impact driving him backwards away from Ravyn.

It didn’t take long however, before he was able to deflect a blow with a blow of his own. That stopped the momentum of my attack and threw me into a defensive posture as he spread his wings and took a more aggressive posture, ready to attack.

Excalibur was no longer glowing like it normally did during confrontations with creatures of this ilk. For some reason, it no longer seemed interested in the battle, which was another first for me.

The creature seemed to sense the changing dynamics of the situation and licked its lips as it roared and pounced towards me.

Keeping in mind that Ravyn was laying on the ground behind me, I used every ounce of concentration that I possessed to land right next to her, shielding her body with mine and calling the Shadow to slip both of us through the Shadowland and to a world before the creature landed on us.

I half expected the creature to follow us into the Shadow, but was relieved to find just the two of us laying on the rocky precipice that I brought Bernstein to once before. I shuddered at the fact that my subconscious had decided to bring us to this place.

I laid Excalibur to the side, just in case the Bane decided to show up later, and looked down at the battered and bloody form of Ravyn Fyre.

She lay there almost completely still, barely breathing. Her face was blacked by soot and bruised, as if the creature had bashed her in the side of the face. Blood trickled from the gash that ran along her cheek and down the left side of her neck. Her clothing lay in smoking tatters loosely around her, revealing more bloody wounds and blackened skin. Her left arm splayed out at an odd angle that indicated that it was definitely broken in more than one place.

I had no idea how, but she still lived.

I reached down to touch her face. “I’m sorry I didn’t get back to you sooner, darling. I’m going to get you to someone who can help you.”

Remarkably, she stirred at my touch, calling out a name softly. “Jim?”

“It’s Rusty.” I had to keep my face close to hers in order to hear her.

She seemed to nod, it was almost imperceptible.

“Where are the others? Do I need to go back in there?”

She licked her cracked, blackened lips and seemed to shake her head slightly. “They’re gone.”

“Where to?”

She swallowed, it was painful to watch her do it, but I could tell she wanted to respond, so I waited. “Safe. I sent them away.” Her body shuddered as she heaved with pain, gasping for more breath. “Betsy gave herself up to make it happen.”

I could see that she was using vital energy to speak, using her nearly indomitable Will to keep her body conscious and functioning in the face of tremendous pain and physical trauma. Looking at her Spirit form, I could see that it was dangerously diminished, as if her very Spirit had been drained by that creature and her exertions.

“Hush now. I need to get you to the Frau and Cerrydwen. You are in dire need of medical attention.”

Her Spirit seemed to flicker briefly as she exerted herself one more time to speak. “Tell Jim that my answer is…yes.” The last word came out in a sigh as her body went limp.

I panicked as I saw her Spirit form separate from her physical form. I called out to her. “Ravyn, don’t you leave me! Your time is not up yet, dammit!”

She looked at me, at her body laying beside me, in a distant, dreamy manner. She smiled and waved as her Spirit form dimmed and then disappeared without saying anything, pulled by some unknown force from this dreary place.

I was left cradling her broken, battered body wishing for all the world that I could shed the tears and release the emotion that I was feeling at that moment…