Later the same afternoon, the circle stood in front of the door to the mage’s tower, uncertain what to do for the best. Everyone seemed to have their own idea of how to retrieve the meteorite that Rishomen wanted. Predictably, Hideomi was all for walking straight in and demanding the artefact from the mage. By contrast, Merick thought that if they used diplomacy he could talk Marten into giving them the meteorite. Takashi thought that there was more to be said for waiting until nightfall and stealing it. And, as usual, they looked to Serena to decide the matter. If she was honest with herself, Serena was not happy with any of these plans. Takashi’s went against her deep-seated instinct for what was right and honourable, however direct it was, she was not convinced of Merick’s diplomacy skills, and she was certain that a mage powerful enough to summon a demon would have put up innumerable wards and protections around such a rare and powerful object. Finally, though, she said that they would follow Merick’s plan, since she herself was quite a good speaker, if that failed Hideomi could give his method a try, and if all else failed they could break in during the night. She hoped, as she knocked politely on the door, that it wouldn’t come to that. The man who opened the door came as something of a surprise to Serena. She had expected old, grey, wizened… your stereotypical old hermit-guy. Instead she would have used the word elderly rather than old, with a hard face that looked somewhat like it had been chiselled straight from a rock and short, neat but plentiful hair the colour of slate. His eyes were chips of ice, and suddenly Serena was extremely glad that she hadn’t settled for the ‘march in and demand’ method. He said nothing but merely stood, tall and erect, one elegant eyebrow raised in a subtle enquiry. Serena pulled herself together. ‘Good afternoon, sir. We have come to speak with you about a rather delicate matter.’ ‘Excuse me? I’m afraid I don’t understand.’ ‘She means the me-‘ Hideomi began, before Takashi (much to Serena’s relief) elbowed him in the stomach. Merick continued rapidly to cover the interruption. ‘We are referring to your, er, recent acquisition.’ Marten grinned, rather humourlessly. ‘Yes, I thought so. What else could have attracted the attention of four Solar Exalts to our humble little village?’ He seemed totally unperturbed by their un-disguisable expressions of astonishment. ‘Won’t you come in?’ He led them inside the tower. The room they were in took up the entire space except for a central spiral staircase, and obviously doubled as a living room and library. Serena noted Merick’s longing glance at the many bookshelves on the walls, as well as Takashi’s furtive glance up the stairwell. ‘Might I ask, sir, how you were able to identify us?’ Serena realised that she was being unusually formal and wondered why for a moment, before realising that they had no real idea how powerful this man was. Even her subconscious was being cautious. ‘Come now. You may have fooled the villagers, but I am more knowledgeable than they, considerably so. What I saw was no dragon-blood scale passing through, but a circle of Solars being rather predictably heroic. And as I say, I doubt you would have journeyed here just to settle a dispute with some unwashed savages. I must say, though, that I enjoyed the spectacle: those butterflies are really something, aren’t they. But, to business. What did you wish to ask me?’ At this point, Merick took over. His speech was long and complicated, with so many examples and rhetorical questions that his circle-mates soon lost the thread, although they gathered that at the moment he was trying to persuade Marten not to summon a demon. Serena noticed Takashi wincing every so often, and realised that his wound from the battle earlier must still be bothering him. She frowned, wondering how to help him. She was still wondering when Merick finished, and it was a few moments before she noticed. When she did, however, she jerked her head to look at Marten. Would it work? ‘You seem to be in some pain there, my young friend,’ he said unexpectedly, looking at Takashi. ‘Here, let me do something about that nasty cut.’ He held out his hand, there was a small whooshing sound, and the circle watched impressed as a vial of some red liquid sped to the mages hand. He opened it and prepared to dress the wound. ‘Er, are sure, that will work, sir?’ Serena stared at Merick: his voice sounded as though he was trying to stifle a laugh. The older man bristled. ‘Of course. I have studied medicine extensively, you know.’ ‘Yes, I’m sure you have. The thing is, that vial contains Firesnake venom, which would kill any mortal and would be quite serious even for us.’ Hideomi snorted into his hand. Marten looked embarrassed and annoyed. ‘Of course. Maybe it needs some more time… and anyway, I am not experienced in the treatment of Exalts…’ Serena could see that Marten was flustered, and decided to press the advantage. ‘Marten, I will ask you plainly. Are you planning to use the meteorite to summon a demon?’ He looked her squarely in the eye. ‘No. I am not. I wish only to continue my study of first age artefacts and their construction.’ Hideomi breathed a sigh of relief. At least that was sorted out. Then he looked at the mage. ‘And will you give the meteorite to us for safe-keeping?’ Takashi put his head in his hands and groaned. He muttered, ‘Subtle, ‘Omi. Real subtle.’ Marten smirked. ‘Oh no, I must keep it: I have been unable to find such a wonderful source of Starmetal, I need it for my experiment.’ Merick launched into another speech, this time warning Marten about the dangers of surrounding oneself with temptations, but even Serena could tell that Merick was clutching at straws. Eventually he trailed off into silence, and everyone looked around, waiting for someone to say something. It was Serena who finally broke the silence. ‘Marten, we have been instructed to return with the meteorite, and that is what we intend to do. How would it be if we found you some other Starmetal?’ Marten considered this. ‘Well, it is possible. In fact, I believe a genuine first age Starmetal artefact would serve even better than what I could make from the artefact, and I have often heard rumours that such things exist, hidden in the forests hereabouts. Yes, if you return to me with such an item, I would gladly give you my meteorite.’
That night, the circle camped in a forest clearing. It was cold and damp, and their efforts to light a fire had been a spectacular failure: there was nothing here that would burn. Tired, cold and miserable, they attempted to sleep. They had searched all afternoon and had not found so much as a first age eggcup, despite having found numerous ancient burials: none had had anything of worth in them. They were beginning to wonder whether Marten had deliberately set them on a wild goose chase. Finally, they fell into a fitful slumber. Afterwards, Serena was always slightly hazy trying to remember what woke her. All she knew was that, suddenly, she was awake and that the ground around them was shaking. ‘What the hell’s going on?’ she yelled at the others, who were all looking up at her, still half asleep and slightly dazed. Soon, though, they were on their feet, and squinting in the direction of the village. ‘There’s something there,’ Takashi muttered, ‘but I can’t see it properly.’ Thinking fast, Merick woke Silkwing who had been dozing on his shoulder. The Mospid was annoyed at being woken up, but eventually agreed to take a look at the disturbance. Merick could use his link with his familiar to see what it saw and hear what it heard, and with Silkwing’s heightened senses, Merick could easily see the village, even so far away. ‘Great skies… the tower’s on fire! Or… no, it’s some kind of magical explosion, it looks like a huge pillar of purple flame!’ ‘What do you think has happened?’ ‘I have no idea. The only thing I can suggest is that Marten has summoned a demon. This magic isn’t coming from him.’ That was enough for Takashi. In a moment he had used a few motes of Essence to activate his favourite charm, Graceful Crane Stance, and with the enormous speed and grace of movement it gave him he sped like the wind in the direction of the tower, leaping from tree to tree by the light of the moon, leaving the others to follow at their own pace.
Impulsive idiot, Serena thought to her self, as she ran in pursuit of the dark-clad figure, now no more than an occasional shadow against the moon. Takashi was keeping pace with her, but had decided to run straight through the undergrowth rather than employing the graceful combination of leaping and ducking she had chosen. Merick struggled on behind them: he was the least athletic of the circle and was having to rely on Silkwing’s senses to guide him through the woods. Since Silkwing was perched on his shoulder, this made running quite challenging. He fell over several times. Takashi almost literally flew up the spiral staircase in the centre of the tower, past the second floor, which was clearly Marten’s living quarters, and up into the third, where he paused, surveying the scene. Obviously Marten had summoned a demon- a succubus, no less, a pleasure demon of not inconsiderable power- but had failed to bind her appropriately, and she had turned on him. As Takashi watched, the foul thing finished playing with Marten’s now broken body and plunged her hand, with its sharp, claw-like nails, into his body. When she withdrew it, she was clutching the mages heart. When she heard the soft scrape of Takashi drawing Sun and Moon, the succubus turned, snarling, and readied herself to attack.
About two hundred meters from the tower Serena paused, allowing Hideomi to rush on past her. The column of purple fire, easily visible from this distance, had flickered slightly, wavering in the darkness. Serena decided that she had to do something. She drew an arrow from the quiver on her back, put it to the string of her Power Bow, Mospid’s Flight, drew back the string and concentrated. She poured her Solar Essence into the arrow until it glowed golden with the power it contained. Drawing upon all her considerable skill in archery, she aimed at a tiny slit of a window near the top of the tower and fired the Solar Spike. She ran on, tracing the course of the arrow. Miraculously, it went through the window dead centre, and disappeared from view for a second before a brief flash of sunlight illuminated the village. She did not hesitate but hurried on, wondering if the shot had been at all effective, or whether she had only made matters worse for Takashi. All Takashi knew was that what looked like a bolt of pure light had zoomed through the narrow window just as the demon pounced, catching her in mid air and pinning her to the opposite wall, almost on top of Marten’s corpse. He did not hesitate, or stop to think, but attacked with a will, swift and accurate, his training in Martial Arts coming to the fore. The succubus hissed, unable to parry most of the blows and still in pain from the searing Solar Spike. In frustration she cast a spell. The effects were as dramatic as they were useless. Takashi didn’t quite see what happened: all he knew was that he was suddenly in the open air and an entire storey lower down: the evil sorcery had destroyed most of the tower, but he was miraculously unscathed, and continued his harassment of the she-fiend. The succubus screamed in fury, and spat black fire at Takashi, catching him in the chest. He dropped to his knees, feeling his life force being rapidly drained by the spell, but it was too late for his adversary. With a roar, Hideomi was there; enraged not only by the murder of Marten and the very presence of the foul creature, but also by the harm it was causing his friend. Heaven’s Light struck like a thunderbolt, as unstoppable as an earthquake, and the head of the succubus, wearing a look of shocked surprise, fell from its body, which began to dissolve into green smoke and dust. Soon, nothing was left.
Serena and Merick arrived at the tower soon after. Hideomi wanted to tell them of the glorious battle with the spawn of evil, but Serena looked worried. Takashi had been drained by the battle and had a nasty cut on his legs from the demon’s claws and needed time to recover. And, of course, they had to find the meteorite. The search didn’t take long: Merick, who wasn’t all that keen on heights, went down to search the debris of the upper two storeys of the tower. It was quite large, and Hideomi had to help him carry it up, but there could be no doubt that this was what they were looking for: a roughly spherical lump of rock and metal. Somehow, it was rather disappointing. Serena was just examining it when she heard Hideomi say, ‘Er… Serena?’ ‘Yeah?’ she said distractedly, still looking over their prize. ‘There’s, er, something coming.’ That was Takashi, and he sounded worried. Serena frowned. Takashi and Hideomi worried. She looked up at Merick, who was staring over her head with an expression of paralysed fear on his face. She spun around and gasped in astonishment. What was approaching the village at great speed appeared to be a bonfire caught up in a hurricane. It roared in a way that wasn’t just the wind, and was making straight for them. ‘Bloody hell,’ Hideomi muttered. Serena agreed. ‘We’ve only gone and attracted the Wyld Hunt.’
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TheCityAndTheStars/ChapterTwo