Lord Wraith
Crimson Flame
Punished GNMeanwhile:
Across the country map, in a San Francisco alley, Alex Dozer wasn’t really looking for a fight. He’d moved to the city to escape that Midwest rage. And normally, living his more honest life, he could manage it. But the fucker in front of him was just begging to bring it to the surface again. It was one of those typical SF nights, where the wind carries the chill from the coast with a bite as it travels through the slopes of the city. But even wearing only a leather harness and some Levi’s, the cold didn’t register for him. Alex was a fit guy, barrel-chested and imposing, but the disheveled guy in front of him barely seemed to register his presence—even with Alex’s arm pinning him to the wall.
“Asshole, are you even listening?” Alex demanded. The man just lolled his head up toward the sky, as if he were looking for stars that weren’t there. Like he was wishing to be anywhere else. Which pissed Alex off more. “Hey!” Alex gave the man a quick slap to the cheek. “Are you fucking tweaked?”
“Look,” the man responded with a slight English accent, still not looking at Alex, “I’m just standing here waiting for my ride, yeah? A little preoccupied right now.”
“Yeah? Like you were when you were tongue deep in my fiancé in the bar?”
The man rolled his eyes, and Alex resisted the urge to throw a punch. “Look, I’m sorry, okay? And I wasn’t tongue-deep, I didn’t even get to the kiss before she said she had a fiancé. But you’re right, I saw her ring and still—”
“What? No, I’m not engaged to a woman, I—”
“Oh! The one with the eyebrow piercing?” the man laughed and shrugged, “She should have been here by now. He wasn’t wearing a ring, we had a lovely conversation about the weather in your city here. Nights like these with the chill and clouds –almost like there could be a fog or something else expected…but I digress. Then he bought me a drink.” The man shrugged out of Alex’s hold. He looked to the sky once more, puzzled, before looking at Alex with a raised eyebrow “I could show you what all the hype is about, so you know it’s nothing personal.” There was a gust of wind. “Where the hell is sh— "
The man’s words were cut as Alex swung, rage bubbling just over its brim, and connected with the drunk mans cheek. The slug was more push than force, but it had the necessary effect. “You’re fucking disgusting and drunk, bitch.”
The alley now seemed a bit mistier. Almost as if the fog from the Bay was already coming in.
For the first time, the man seemed in front of Alex completely aware of his surroundings. And Alex thought maybe the light was tricking him, because the man’s dull brown eyes now seemed silver. “And you’re lucky, love. The last man who sucker punched me like that got to meet the greatest invention the French ever made. That one was free.”
Alex had met suave guys like this one. They were all talk, and maybe knew how to scrap. But Alex didn’t have a gym body. His bulk came from chucking farm work and tough winters working at home and a side job. “No, that one was just the beginning. I’m sick of fucks like you trying to claim whatever they want. Because they never had to struggle or learn from a mistake.”
A sneer crept up the man’s face. Alex had struck a nerve. “High assumptions from a wet-eared babe. You aiming to be the one to try and teach me a lesson? I got some time to give you some much needed attention, love.”
“The hell you do, oldhead.” A new voice spoke, from seemingly nowhere.
What happened next, Alex didn’t bother trying to explain to his fiancé afterward. The mist from the Bay started to catch the light, as if it were sparkling in the dim-lit alley. The man rolled his eyes, “Oh, bloody—finally.”
The sparkling mist thickened into a smoke before Alex. He felt his heart quicken and instinctively began to reach for his inhaler. A fire? Where? How—but it before he could settle on which question, a greater question arose. Was this smoke starting to gather into the form of a person?
“’Finally?’ Boy, don’t even start with me. Yo ass playin in a bar when I told you damn well to stay outside to make this test-run easier.” This wasn’t…how? Why was that man talking to smoke? Alex’s thoughts swam before his vision followed and he felt a rush of falling to the hard pavement.
The drunk man, still in conversation— “It was cold out, Nals,”-- snapped his fingers. Alex didn’t feel himself hit the ground. Instead it was a firm yet pliable surface that caught him. He looked down to what could only be described as large gelatinous cube, pulsing with blue light. “And you know what the cold does to me…it makes my nipples hard.”
“…I will beat you with my grandaddy’s cane, you keep playing the way you do. Now c’mon, ‘fore you make a fool of yourself again. Which you can’t seem to stop doing today. First the Archaic Gem. Then you insulted my Auntie, which she won’t shut up about how you—”
“Yes, yes, yes. I’m terrible. Off now, before the beefy bear decides to come to.
The last thing Alex saw was them walking into what looked like a plume of darkness and smoke, before he felt himself sink to the concrete and black out.
--
“—so you better have an apology for her if you ever want a pot of Gumbo again,”
“Nals” Nahlia continued, returning to her normal form as she walked through the portal into the arcane study she’d just left. She’d left the window open and could smell the thick earthiness of Louisianna air.
“Now hold on, I think that’s a little rash. I only meant—”
“Mmmmhm. Now he wanna be concerned. And another thing, another reason it took me so long,” She picked up a set of weathered scrolls and a notepad of translations, “is because your translation of your own scrolls is incorrect. The first ley line for the prep rune needs to carry a hail of transport, not one of beseeching. Which is why the central conduit wouldn’t respond to my—are you even listening??”
Nahlia threw a pen at her mentor. Without a movement from him, the pen was enveloped in a glowing cube of magical energy, halted in the air. But he was pressing a finger to his forehead, brow furrowed.
“…Sarks?”
The Magni master looked up at her and smiled, “Oh sorry, love. Yes, I’m absolutely splendid.” While she’d been speaking, Sarks had felt a vibration in his neck followed by a tinkling of a conch breaking. He knew that sound, a summons token only held by three people in the world currently. One of them was off-world. And the other was in this room. It could only be one person.
“I need you. Go to where I left you with the tab.” There it was. That sly little hero.
He turned on his heel and walked to a wall in the study that was filled with magical relics. “Change of plans, Nals. Let’s put a pause on our test runs. We’ve got a guest appearance to make for a man who wants me so bad he hates me.”
He took a skeleton key from the shelf and turned off a lamp next to it. Sticking the key in the shadow, he pulled it back and took a step back as a door of redwood oak expanded in front of him.
“Come now, Nals. After you.”
