The rain hadn't stopped and fell through the city into the evening, only thinned to a curtain of silver needles that hissed against plastic coats and the cold steel of police vehicles.
Lea stood just behind the blockade, her thin rain jacket clinging to her shoulders. The mudslide before them was a colossal wound carved into the earth, a churn of clay, stone, and drowned branches that still steamed faintly in the storm's breath. Even after the water slowed, it would take some time to clear a safe path.
She measured the slope with her eyes, a hand braced on her hip.
Beside her, Kade's voice was a low grumble, pitched just under the rain. "This is pointless. Some of us could cut right through it now. Be at the hotel already."
Lea opened her mouth, but the thought was stolen by a louder voice.
"Not a chance."
The words carried over the drizzle, hard and nasal. The speaker was a police officer standing just ahead of them. His body was round and plump, his coat straining against his middle. A thick, curled mustache crowned his lip like a brush dipped in tar.
His boots squelched deep into the muck as he turned on them, lifting his voice loud enough for every officer nearby to hear.
"This is a police investigation," he barked, jabbing a stubby finger. "You freaks are just the back-up. Remember that."
The word freaks cracked like a whip, but neither Lea nor Kade so much as flinched. They had heard it before. Instead they exchanged a quiet glance and let the man's voice sink into the storm.
Lea tilted her head slightly toward the two other Paladin standing further down the line. Their figures were still, statues beneath the drizzle. She dropped her voice so that only Kade could hear it in the rain. "Those boys may be in trouble."
Kade didn't look at her, his gaze was locked on the mudslide as though he could will it to crumble faster. "They'll handle themselves," he muttered. "We should worry about other things." His tone drifted. "But then again, did you see their names on the bounty board?"
Lea's stomach knotted at the words. She gave the smallest nod. "Yes." Her eyes flickered toward the other two Paladin that had conveniently arrived from outside the city only a day ago. "Do you think they are here because of that?"
There were enough Paladin in the city of Brumália for the low number of Phantasm that they experienced. They were a low danger zone territory.
Lea's gaze lingered on them.
The first was a tall, stern woman with hair the pale platinum colour of the winter sun, scraped back into a sharp ponytail that revealed the cut of her jaw. Her eyes were green like absinthe poured into glass.
Even standing still she felt like the authority of a sharp blade ready to cut.
Beside her, there was a girl that was impossible not to look at. Her beauty was blinding and even many of the officers were distracted by the young maiden's appearance.
Her hair was a burning cascade of red, vivid against the grey storm, as though fire itself had taken shape in human strands.
Her eyes were a deep crimson, the hue of blood spilled across untouched snow. To meet them was to feel the pressure of death. She carried herself as if she were born to command.
Even without any words spoken. Both women radiated danger. Lea's chest tightened, a deep unease gnawing at her as she wondered not for the first time, what side am I on?
Kade's voice cut through her thoughts. "Oh yeah. I heard of something while I was in the city."
Lea glanced at him. "What?"
"People snapping." His voice dropped lower, like he didn't want the officers hearing. "Random attacks. Civilians going mad in the streets. Against others and themselves too."
Lea frowned. "I've been away too long. I don't know about it."
She had only gotten back with the boys less than three days ago. She hadn't had much time to go out to her usual activities.
Lea's thoughts itched to pull the thread, but the rain was too heavy, the mudslide still present. She forced herself to shake her head. "Later. One problem at a time."
And then they felt a differing presence.
Everyone felt it. A shudder ran through the air, wrong and crushing, the weight of something that wasn't meant to exist pressing into the world. Lea stiffened. Kade's hand went unconsciously to his weapon.
"Phantasm." He muttered.
The shadow fell across them before anyone could speak further. Elise Vogel's voice rang out in the storm. "Look out!"
The officers turned upward, and froze.
It wasn't the stormclouds above them anymore.
A vast shape moved overhead, slow and terrible, gliding against the downpour like a leviathan through black waters. Its body is bulbous, scales slick and glistening in shades of night-oil blue. A maw yawned wide at the center, jagged white teeth curving inward like the bars of a cage.
From its brow jutted a grotesque lure, a glowing orb swinging on a stalk of flesh that dripped faint light across the hill below.
An angler fish. Enormous. Skyborne. Its fins were veils of shadow, rippling like banners in windless currents, and its eyes glowed from within the hollow sockets, white and lidless, scanning the hillside with a deep hunger.
The thing drifted higher up the slope, its shadow engulfing police and Paladin alike as it passed. The lure swayed lazily, painting the mud with sickly illumination. The air itself seemed to curdle where it went.
Gasps and curses rippled through the officers. Some fumbled at weapons that would do little more than irritate it. Others stood rooted, their courage undone by the sheer alien wrongness blotting out the rain.
Kade's lips twisted into a grin that was half grim, half savage. He raised his voice, loud enough for the plump officer with the mustache to hear every word.
"Well," he said, calm and cutting. "I guess now it's a Paladin problem."
***
The room erupted when Benedict spoke.
"I just noticed a few missing people." The old man said, voice trembling as his round glasses slipped lower down his nose. "And then… then I saw Fionn wasn't here."
The words spread through the lounge.
"I only noticed Tibo was gone," Annelise added quickly, her hands gripping the arms of her chair, knuckles pale.
Atalanta's brow furrowed, her eyes were steady. "I saw Tomas take Fionn. He said he was taking him to the bathroom." Her voice was iron, "Then Tibo disappeared."
"And you didn't think to say anything?" Corbin asked, his tone struck with anger.
"I have performance anxiety." She replied quickly. She wasn't taking the situation seriously.
Gareth was already on his feet, his soldier's instinct snapping like a whip. "Then we move. Group up and search every floor." His hand went to his holster out of habit. "Together we…"
"That's stupid."
Corbin's interruption was flat, brutal in its certainty. His arms slung over the back of the couch, his eyes sharp with disdain. "If the killer's already picked them off, splitting into a panicked mob will only help him."
Gareth's chest swelled, his shoulders squaring as his jaw locked. "Say that again boy." His tone promised a fist behind him. Hearing him felt like receiving whiplash.
But the sound of a sharp clap cut them both.
Ruben stood, his palm still raised from the motion. His face was calm but his eyes were hard, his voice was steady enough to carry a room. "All of you will stay here." His words landed with authority not unlike Dario's, brooking no argument. "I'll go on my own."
Sera's gaze narrowed like a hawk tracking prey. "And what exactly are you thinking?"
The answer came before the words. Four small, wingless dragons shimmered into being around Ruben, coiling myths given flesh, eyes glowing faintly like a lamplight. The room rippled with gasps, a couple of people shrinking back in awe or fear. Marta's hand pressed against her lips.
But Willow McCarthy only smirked, Atalanta de Clair also didn't seem to be too phased by them.
Ruben's eyes didn't leave the group. "I can find Fionn faster this way."
Marta's voice quavered. "What about Tibo? And Tomas? What if they are in danger too?"
Ruben's gaze slid to her. "I'll search for them as well. But my priority is Fionn." His words slowed.
Those two alongside Fionn have now promoted themselves to the prime suspects.
Silence pressed against the group. Marta's throat worked, but she nodded.
Within moments Ruben was in the corridor, his dragons scattering ahead like hounds on a scent. His stride lengthened into a run, the carpet swallowing the impact of his boots. Fionn's trail drew him upward, past the second floor, until his nose sharpened on the third floor.
Sera's last words echoed behind him, "Five minutes. If you're not back, I'm sending Corbin."
He nodded. He knew Corbin would have to stay to guard the others, just in case the killer might not even be Tibo or Tomas.
Ruben's thoughts twisted as he ran. The body. Cormac Ó Briain's body had been hidden. Left in one piece, up until it was found hanged hours later.
It was most likely the effect of some Ego. He sifted through the few people that told Sera they had one. And it only left three names. Atalanta de Clair, Willow McCarthy and Tibo Costel.
And only Tibo was with Fionn right now.
Ruben pushed faster. He had risked the boy's life by baiting the predator. It had been reckless. But he had banked on something he still half-believed in, that even killers hesitated with children, that there was that humanity in everyone he had met. He hoped he was right.
The scent thickened at the end of the third floor hall. The bathroom. Ruben's hand touched the doorframe, and he pushed inside.
Fionn was the first thing he saw. The boy stumbled out of a stall, buttoning his trousers with trembling fingers. Behind him, slower, was Tibo.
"Fionn." Ruben called softly.
The boy froze. He looked up, his eyes went wide, his small shoulders shaking as though someone had poured cold water over him. Fear rippled across his face. His gaze darted once toward Tibo, then back.
Tibo only sighed, the sound like wind through hollow reeds. His expression was calm, too calm.
"I found him wandering the hall," Tibo said. "Looking for a toilet."
The lie was flat. Empty. Ruben felt something was wrong immediately. He stepped closer. "And where is Tomas?"
No answer.
Another step.
"I don't know," Tibo said, his hand pressing gently on Fionn's small shoulder.
Ruben's own hand reached, laying on Fionn's opposite side, pulling him subtly behind. His nose caught it then, the copper sting of blood.
Tomas had been here.
Ruben's voice hardened, his eyes narrowing. "Is Tomas dead?"
For the first time, Tibo met his gaze directly. He looked Ruben up and down, assessing him like a butcher assessing the weight of a carcass. "No. Just incapacitated."
Ruben swung. His fist shot forward like lightning, but Tibo's head slipped aside with inhuman grace, his body bending away before the knuckles ever landed. He retreated two paces, expression unchanged, as Ruben pulled Fionn tight against him.
"It was going so smoothly," Tibo said, tone casual, almost conversational. "Untill I figured out about that boy. It all became more work than it needed to be."
Ruben's heart pounded. He was standing before the killer.
"You don't need to fight me," Tibo went on, his face a blank mask, voice smooth and eerily devoid of emotion. "The job is done. I'll be leaving now. You should step aside."
"Why?" Ruben snapped, his voice sharper than he intended. "Why him? Why this? What about your job here? And the rest of these people?"
"I don't work here," Tibo replied, as if explaining to a child. "The staff here are wonderful. But they don't truly know what's going on. Their memories have been toyed with, well before I ever stepped foot into this building." He tilted his head. "The kill, honestly it meant nothing. It was pointless."
Ruben's blood roared. He felt hot. "Then why?" His voice rose, a thunderclap of fury, bloodlust radiating from him like heat.
Tibo didn't blink. "It was an order. That's it. An order from the guild."
The Guild? Ruben didn't know it.
"What about him?" Ruben snapped, jerking his head toward Fionn, who quivered and clung to Ruben's sleeve like a drowning child. "You planned on killing him too."
Tibo sighed again, a sound of weariness more than malice. "Fine."
His eyes sharpened faintly, something dangerous glinting behind the dead mask. "My Ego is called [Gigant]. Through touch, I can command scale. Shrink or expand objects. Mass follows form. A weapon fits into my pocket. A pocket becomes a vault. Or make a pebble a boulder. I can even shrink into the size of a coin. But when I let go of what it is I am touching, the clock starts. Three hours and everything reverts back to size."
He watched Ruben carefully. And Ruben could feel a sudden shift. "I added a Promise to it. If I explain my Ego to my opponent, it grows stronger. That's why now, I don't need touch. I can shift scales as long as I can feel them within my field of vision."
Ruben crouched slightly, pulling Fionn fully behind him. His body trembled with readiness.
Fionn whimpered… "R-Ruben…" His voice was a broken stutter.
"Oh yes," Tibo said, as though remembering something trivial. "One other thing. I left a souvenir in the boy. A shrunken shamrock necklace. From Cormac Ó Briain's neck. Nestled neatly inside him." His tone was calm, indifferent. "In three hours it will return to size. Or," his lips barely curved. "I can decide if it happens now."
The blood drained from Ruben's face.
"Move," Tibo said simply.
The building rumbled around Ruben before he could answer. The wall to their right split open with a brutal crack as Corbin came through it like a hammer, his voice booming.
"Or instead…" His boots slammed against the tile, his eyes burning. "I can pummel you into meat paste!"
But even as he landed, the air itself curdled. A pressure heavier than gravity itself pressed down on them. Every breath turned sharp, every shadow deepened.
A Phantasm. Its presence was unmistakable.
Ruben wrapped his arms around Fionn, his voice fierce but low, into the boy's ear. "It's alright. You'll be fine. I promise."
"Ruben," Corbin barked, his stance lowering, fists tight. "Get ready-"
But the world exploded in white.
A harsh, blinding light swallowed everything. Ruben's eyes seared shut, Fionn's small hands clutching his sleeve as he held him tight. The ground seemed to fall and rise, the air folding like a wave around them.
When his vision cleared, the smell of blood and tile was gone. He blinked hard, his heartbeat still savage in his chest.
He was standing in the cafeteria. Fionn clutched him still, eyes streaming with fear.
Ruben stared around, disoriented, rage burning hotter than the confusion.
"...What the hell?"