Pocket Mage: World of Altrea: Book One by Ross Kingston

Author:Ross Kingston [Kingston, Ross]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-11-25T00:00:00+00:00

CHOICES AND COWARDICE

Flicker was paralysed by indecision as the man in heavy armour cleared the distance and roared at Jerome, bringing his heavy, bladed weapon down on the Hunter’s head. She wagered her lack of resolve would have cost Jerome his life if he hadn’t moved at the last second, employing an eerie speed for a man with a foot buried in the grave.

“Ah, the father. Plutus, join us,” Jerome said, in a tone with which one might offer tea.

Flicker finally wised up to the situation. It was her father rushing Jerome, and he seemed intent on cutting the Hunter down. How could he even see them?

The smoke only works on those who don’t know the true form of what they’re looking at. Jerome had told her a few times now.

Flicker locked eyes with her father when he glanced in her direction, before he snarled at Jerome. “When I suggested you take care of your business in Home, I didn’t mean kidnap my daughter, fiend.”

There was barely controlled rage on her father’s face, and darkness coalescing in his eyes. The grave behind the templars’ eyes – the same that had been within the priest’s. It was growing into a common theme amongst the people they were meeting.

“Hmm, unfavourable,” Jerome said. “What power have they been feeding you? Are you still in control? Plutus Roswen, what have you seen?”

Flicker had never seen her father in such obvious turmoil. She had witnessed people in the Fringe devolving into madness – an anger unsatiated by distractions. The common recourse they took was harming themselves. Something was haunting her father, and she couldn’t hope to understand. There was one thing she could do, however.

“Father, take me home.”

She swore the entire building went quiet. The silence seemed unnatural. As if there had been ambient white noise up until now, but it had just been sucked from the strange courtyard entirely. Something unpleasant had left their presence.

“Take me home, and Jerome can keep up the hunt. We know the Mage needs to be found, and it was I who followed him.”

Plutus looked conflicted, but it seemed more natural now. Like the expression of a father who had just found out something was his innocent daughter’s fault. Both father and daughter turned to the Hunter, as if requesting his permission in the whole plan.

“Disappointing,” Jerome said. “You would make an exceptional Pocket Mage. But I suppose this is for the best. I can kill my prey and move on.”

“You… you aren’t going to release the city from the spell?” Flicker asked.

“Kid.” Jerome stuffed his pipe with a green-and-purple weed, and shrugged. “I’m not convinced that would be the wisest move. The world outside isn’t any less hostile. Perhaps even more so. You are safe within the Sanctuary spell, from what I’ve gathered.”

“They’re locking people in trances… They’re bleeding, and now something is killing them, Jerome!”

“The Mage is from outside the Sanc⁠—”

“Then how bloody safe is it, really?” Flicker snapped. Her frustration only grew when the Hunter offered his open-palmed shrug again.

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