Ryk E. Spoor's Blog, page 24

Princess Holy Aura: Chapter 32

Things seemed to have taken a turn for the worse, and they were bad enough already...

 

Chapter 32.

     Even as that happened, Procelli loomed somehow larger, though his physical form changed not a bit. "Another wish granted," he said with a slasher smile, turning to Holy Aura. She could see Cordy, now in her father's embrace, but her face showed only the shock and anguish and confusion of the impossible; even a father's presence could only do so much.

"You . . . obscene . . . thing," she choked out, unable to even form a proper insult. "I hope you're ready for a beating!"

It laughed, and she saw the shadows behind it laugh, too, crawling like the memory of the shoggoth in the dark space at the far corners of the room. "Dear, dear little Maiden, I was already matching you, was I not? And now I am stronger! How can you possibly face me alone?"

Holy Aura bared her teeth in a snarling grin; behind her, another voice was speaking: "To avert the Apocalypse, and shield the innocent from evil . . ."

The sneer vanished from the Mirrortaint's face and it lunged forward, obviously trying to prevent Seika from completing her self-summons, but though it vanished and reappeared, arm raised to strike, it found itself forced to dodge with inhuman speed as the Silverlight Bisento cleaved the air where it had been but a millisecond before. "Too obvious, Mirrortaint!"

Fire-bright light erupted throughout the hallway, and once more Princess Radiance Blaze emerged from fire. Even as she materialized, her flaming chains were streaking out, crisscrossing the entire area with purifying heat and light, forcing Procelli to retreat partway down the stairs fifty feet away.

But why did Seika change back? Why wasn't she Radiance Blaze when I arrived?

"Back up, Holy Aura," Radiance Blaze said. "He can come at us TWO ways in the hallway."

"So what?" Holly said, turning partway so their backs met. "Now one of us will be facing him no matter where he comes from."

"Where should I be going?" demanded Tierra. "This superhero crap's going to get me killed!"

"Get in the classroom over there," she answered. "You'll at least be out of the line of fire." Tierra glanced at Procelli, bit her lip, nodded, and practically dove into the biology classroom. Holly felt Seika-Radiance's hand grip hers . . . and something, two somethings, complex and metallic, were pressed into her hand. What the . . .

Procelli was surveying them from the stairs, obviously trying to decide how—or if—to continue his attack. Since her body was facing the other way now, Holly risked a glance at whatever it was Seika had slipped to her under cover of the maneuver.

Brooches. Two elaborate brooches of a design she could not mistake.

All of a sudden it made a ridiculous sort of sense, and she resisted the urge to look into the bathroom again. But without Silvertail, what use are these brooches anyway? She looked back at their enemy.

The Mirrortaint straightened and smiled. "Well, I really must deal with you two, I suppose. You'll keep interrupting my fun otherwise. Although,"—he paused, tilting his head, listening—"I am able to keep things interesting now."

The roar of chaos outside had grown louder. Police sirens were audible in at least two directions, and it sounded as though much of the crowd had regained its anger. The humanlike creature smiled, and its mouth was filled with razor teeth that had not been there before. "Now I can affect things around me. And the more they indulge their dark passions, the stronger I can become."

Crap. We have to take this guy down fast . . . but Silvertail said once he was out it would be almost impossible . . .

But on the other hand, would Silvertail have gone and left them without . . .

Of course I wouldn't, came the voice she most wanted to hear. But the situation is desperate and I admit . . . we are not yet prepared to face him.

I don't have a choice, Silvertail.

The creature began to stalk forward, a slow, measured pace, watching, waiting for one of them to move, obviously looking for an opening. Rather than attacking right away, Radiance Blaze began backing up herself; Holly went along with it. She knew they needed time to figure out a strategy.

A sensation of worry and guilt. I know you don't. But . . .

At that moment Tierra MacKintor stepped from the biology lab door to Procelli's left, and unleashed the full force of the lab fire extinguisher directly into his face.

Focused as it had been on the Apocalypse Maidens, the Mirrortaint did not even realize its danger until the fog of chemical dust was already plastering its humanoid face. It staggered back, choking for an instant before it was able to regain control of its body, and in that instant Radiance Blaze's fiery chains hammered it in five places. Clothes on fire, it hurtled like a meteor, spinning slightly sideways, ricocheting off the wall, and then tumbling down the stairs.

Holly had frozen at Tierra's action. And now I'm sure. Dammit. Another of my friends . . .

Yes. And it is now your time. You, not I, must do this, for I cannot.

"Sei—er, Radiance Blaze, go, go, keep him busy, I just need a minute!"

The brilliant smile from beneath Radiance Blaze's spectacular head of hair told her the other girl understood. "Hell yeah."

With Seika on her way, Holy Aura ran quickly to Tierra, who dropped the extinguisher. "That worked?" Tierra said, an uncharacteristic squeak in her voice. "I thought I'd get killed."

"It worked. But we'll need a lot more to finish this, Tierra, and you're going to have to be the one to help."

"Me? What, I'm nothing like you guys! I can't—"

The redhaired girl's words cut off with a gasp, and Holly could see understanding in her wide-eyed green gaze. "You're kidding."

"I wish I was. This is real, this is dangerous, you could die, Tierra, and I don't have time to explain everything. But once you accept it—once you accept the power—there's no going back."

The entire building shook, and fire and darkness flared from the stairwell.

"That's little Seika fighting that . . . thing," Tierra said after a second. "Do it."

For an instant Holly felt panic. What was it? How did Silvertail do this? I didn't see what—

Calm yourself, Holy Aura. I am with you, and I assure you, the memory and knowledge of the power lies within you too. Just speak; the words are there.

She swallowed, and the part of her that was Steve closed his eyes. One more kid drawn into this war. Dammit. "My name is Princess Holy Aura, and you, Tierra, are one of the Hearts we have Sought, bearer of the Courage that is needed, the Will that is eternal. Take you up the Apocalypse Brooch and become one of the Maidens who will stand against the ending of all things!"

Tierra MacKintor snatched the brooch from her hand, and the gold, silver, and crystal blazed. Her eyes widened anew as she realized she was speaking, words she had never been taught flowing from her lips with the irresistible force of an avalanche:

"To avert the Apocalypse, and shield the innocent from evil, and stand against the powers of destruction, I offer myself as wielder and weapon, as symbol and sword!" Tierra's voice, clear and high, still rumbled, shook the ground with the incomprehensible might of an earthquake. "Mistress of the earth, foundation of the world, I am the Apocalypse Maiden, Princess Temblor Brilliance!"

The ground quaked and leaf-green light burst from Tierra MacKintor, levitating her into the air. The luminance burned across her body, erasing her to a sketch done in mist and shadow, and she spun—or the world rotated about her—as a new self condensed from the ancient magic, hair waterfalling like crimson flame, boots of dark green crystal solidity, armor of silver and gold and sapphire and topaz. A coronet of blue steel and transparent diamond bound itself across her brow in a flare of Earthlight and a detonation of force that staggered Procelli, who had just regained the top of the stairs.

The tyrpiglynt's mouth fell open. "Another one?" He barely dodged Radiance Blaze's fiery kick. "Oh, this is becoming actually annoying."

He caught a whipping fiery chain, wincing visibly as he did so, and yanked hard, sending his opponent flying up the stairs and down the hallway, smashing into the wall as she did so. He shook his hand like a man who had grabbed the handle of a pan that was far too hot, but smiled as he glanced back. "But I have my own ally."

A man's voice spoke from lower down the stairwell. "Let's see if I've got this right, Procelli. I wish that I'd be safe coming up there with you."

Procelli grinned broadly, showing sharklike teeth. "As you wish, so let it be."

Holly felt the pulse of power wash around her, as the newcomer advanced up the stairs. Wait. I know him. Assistant coach on the boys' side, John something. With the recognition, and Steve's longer experience, she realized that she'd actually seen this guy more than she'd seen any of the other boys' phys-ed teachers. Oh. So that's why.

Exactly, came Silvertail's equally cold thought. That was what drew the two of them together.

John's eyes widened with appreciation as he saw them, and the broad grin that spread across his face made his interest obvious. "Oh, boy. I wish—"

Procelli's hand snapped up. "Wait, my friend. My power cannot directly affect them. Not yet, anyway."

"Well, can I say I wish you were stronger?"

Shit.

Procelli's laugh was inhumanly loud. "DONE!"

"And I wish those other girls were waiting for me at the exit, know what I mean? 'Cause I'm not much into fighting."

"You slimebag!" A flaming chain streaked straight for the assistant coach even in the moment Procelli said "Done!" again; but the chain rebounded from thin air three feet from the startled man's face.

"Stop, Radiance Blaze," Holly said. "Our fight's with that monster. The other guy the cops can handle, if we win."

"But—"

"Are you sure?" Procelli's voice said, strangely reasonable, eerily compelling. "Even without me, is your justice so sure, so reliable? How much does it protect you, girls? How many boys get to walk away?"

Tierra/Temblor's teeth were bared in a snarl. "Oh, I just wish—"

Both Seika and Holly's hands were across her mouth instantly. "Don't!"

The other girl blanched. "Oh, my god. That's . . . that's how it works."

"It'll grant anyone's wishes," Holly confirmed, seeing Procelli's grin stretching even wider, beyond human limits. "I think it has to grant any wishes directed at it, or at least in its presence. But it gets to choose how to grant them. For an asshole like Coach John, there, well, his wishes fit with Procelli's goals, but us? I don't think we'd like what we got out of any wish from him."

"Wisely reasoned, little Maiden. Yet not entirely true. He wished for power and for certain pleasures forbidden by your people. But I could just as easily grant your desire for justice, for him to be seen as he is. He wished me greater power, and I can now reach farther, much farther, and draw strength from far more people. You do not need to be my enemies. Were we allies, now, there would be little that could stand against us."

The three Maidens looked at each other. Holly could see her own desperate resistance against that echoing, tempting voice reflected in the eyes of the others. But looking at them also reminded the part of her that was still Steve of why he had become Holy Aura . . . and a similar realization sparked to life in the others, snapping them out of an almost entranced state.

"Enough of that," Princess Temblor Brilliance snapped, and she leapt forward.

The tyrpiglynt dodged, watching her narrowly—but he was clearly alert for the manifestation of a Maiden's weapon, and so left himself utterly open when the crystal-armored heel of Tierra's right boot smashed into his shin.

Procelli went down, flat on his face on the stairs, and only the preternatural quickness of the creature kept the axe-kick follow up from crushing his skull. Instead the impact blasted a hole in the staircase that broke through to the floor below, leaving twisted rebar rimming a seven-foot hole. "I am gonna gesso your canvas right now, creep!"

The creature leapt up and shot a clawed hand toward his opponent, but one of Tierra's long legs came up, blocking it, looping around the arm, and then straightening, sending Procelli hurtling into the wall with a shocked expression on his face.

Holly sprang toward the two along with Seika, and for a few moments there was a furious exchange of blows. They were driving the Mirrortaint back, landing punches and slashes and kicks, and Holly thought momentarily that they might actually be winning—that they could take the monster down here and now.

But as it recovered from the startlement and confusion of dealing with three Apocalypse Maidens, its defense began to harden. Impacts that should have sent it flying were now merely nudging it, and its blows no longer rebounded from the Maiden armor harmlessly; they hurt, and Holly staggered, saw a tremendous blow to the face send Tierra reeling, a punch to the solar plexus leave Seika momentarily stunned and retching.

Procelli stepped back, grinning, the scrapes and cuts and bruises they had inflicted fading away like dreams. His next blow created a literal shockwave, a tsunami of pressure that left all three of them sprawled, gasping and pain-wracked, fifty feet down the corridor. "That might have been sufficient when first I emerged, little girls," he said, dusting off his clothing, which also was magically mending itself. "But do you understand the term exponential growth? Each increase in my power broadens my range, which allows me to further increase my hold on those within it, which grants me more power to expand my influence. I am already fifty, a hundred times, perhaps, more powerful than I was then. You might hurt me with your most fearsome attacks, but then, I do not think this building, or many of the innocents in and around it, would survive."

Holly pushed herself to her feet, feeling Tierra grasp her arm and help her up; she gripped Seika's hand and helped her stand as well. "We're . . . getting stronger, too. Can't help it—not when one of us just got born, right?"

"True, true. And who knows which might win given all the time in the world? And so I will wait no longer. All three of you will die, this very mo—"

Without warning, a dark-skinned arm snaked over Procelli's shoulder, around his neck, and clamped tight in a classic chokehold.

Whatever powers Procelli had to bend reality, Holly realized, were constrained in the same way as theirs or Silvertail's: Physical law held sway unless and until magic was deliberately used to negate them. And Procelli's powers had been focused on protecting him from the Maidens. For a moment, his eyes bugged wide and his mouth gasped, pure shock overriding his prior confidence.

Behind his shoulder, the grim face of Devika Kaur Weatherill tightened, and the taller girl bent Procelli backward, leverage lifting his feet from the ground and preventing the Mirrortaint from bringing its own strength to bear against the girl.

But this was a being of nigh-unlimited power, and only the momentary surprise of yet another entry into the combat had given Devika a chance. With a voiceless snarl Procelli shifted his hands into clawed talons and sank the black claws deep into the arm holding him. Devika screamed in pain and shock; despite an astonishing attempt to maintain her hold even with five claws embedded in her arm, Procelli tore free and hurled the basketball player over his head; only Seika's quick reactions kept Devika's head from smashing hard on the polished stone floor.

Shit. But once more I've got no choice, do I? "Temblor Brilliance, Radiance Blaze, take him—there's a combo you should be able to do!"

Holly hoped Seika would understand, both what she meant by "combo" and why she needed the two of them to attack Procelli. She bent over Devika, who was sitting up, cradling an arm now bleeding dangerously, spilling red all over her clothes and starting to pool on the floor.

"Devika, that was awesome. But you'll need a lot more strength to fight that . . . thing." She ripped a strip from the ribbony decorations on her skirt and started tying it tight. A tourniquet, something to slow the bleeding I hope . . .

Devika's mouth was half open, yet the ebony eyes were more alert, less stunned, than Holly had expected. "I . . . see that. Sure."

Seika and Tierra had driven Procelli back with a double strike; now, as he reeled, the two linked hands. "Volcanic Eruption!"

A seething mass of liquid stone, glowing a brilliant orange-white, spewed forth from the Apocalypse Maidens' joined hands and caught a furious, shocked Procelli squarely. You got it, Seika! Please let that be enough to keep him slowed down.

"You can be one of us," Holly said quickly. "One of the Apocalypse Maidens, fighting monsters like that—you saw what it was doing outside. But if you say yes, there's no going back. You're one of us forever. And I can't explain all the—"

Devika cut her off with a raised hand—the injured hand, still covered with blood, and even Steve Russ doubted that he could have forced himself to move his arm that badly hurt. "Is this a Dharam Yudh?" At Holly's blank expression, she said, "A righteous war?"

"Um . . . I think so. We're fighting things that will destroy the world." Procelli tore himself from the hardening stone, and his form was no longer human; it was skeletal, fanged and clawed, trying desperately to rebuild itself from its encounter with incendiary rock. "But . . . we could fail."

Devika looked at her as though she was an idiot. "It doesn't matter if you fail. What matters is that we fight for the right reasons." She nodded. "Do . . . whatever you must."

Jesus, I want to cry. Don't think I've seen this kind of bravery from adult men I've known, and here I'm seeing it in people not old enough to vote.

But she shoved that to the back of her mind and took out the other brooch. "My name is Princess Holy Aura, and you, Devika, are one of the Hearts we have sought . . ."

As she completed the invocation, Devika took the brooch and her own words echoed out, humming with power and touched with the scent of ozone, familiar, yet changing at the end to define the Maiden she would become: ". . . Mistress of the storm, ruler of the winds, the very air eternal, I am the Apocalypse Maiden, Princess Tempest Corona!"

A sphere of lightning burst outward, enveloping and transforming Devika Weatherill, the crackling lambent purple outline lengthening, black hair stretching out like a cloak, as armor of lightning white and corona indigo and incandescent orange, crystal and cloth, coalesced from pure energy to clothe her. Her crown brought with it a streaming cover of deep-blue silk, a chunni that covered the cloak of hair without concealing its magnificent length, and in her hands materialized a great double-edged sword.

Procelli froze, mouth dropping open. "Oh, come on!"

Holly laughed, not merely at his stunned expression but at seeing the transformed Devika whole, uninjured, and feeling a renewed surge of power through her own body. Every time one of the Maidens is born, all of us get stronger!

With a dramatic, gymnastic whirl of steel and cloth Tempest Corona entered the fray. Procelli snarled in frustration but met her halfway, a blackened plate of bone forming on his arm to parry the blow as he struck back. "This will only delay the end, Maidens!"

And despite the surge of strength, Holly felt a creeping conviction that Procelli might be right; he was still strengthening, and if they couldn't take him down soon . . .

The bathroom, Maidens. Bring him back here. Drive him in, by whatever means you can.

What? Silvertail, I sure hope you know what you're doing.

Vision of a furry-faced smile. Trust me, Holly, Seika, and our new friends Tierra and Devika. I know this monster is fearful, but you must hold out only for a few minutes longer!

Devika's voice answered. I have no idea who you are. But . . . I see Holy Aura does. So yes, I will trust you. A flash of a mental smile. Then trust me.

Suddenly they saw the battlefield through Devika's eyes, and a strategy in motion. I get it. It's like a passing strategy in sports, to move Procelli like the ball on the court. Do it, people!

"On it!" Seika sang out aloud, and leapt over Procelli's head. Tierra matched her and the two landed on the stairs just behind the Mirrortaint; but he was so fast that by the time they landed he was already facing them, claws lengthening, and Holly knew there was no time—

Procelli staggered, clutching his head as though a knife had been rammed straight through his ears, his scream of shock and rage echoing through the hall. Holly had no idea what had happened, but for the moment the tyrpiglynt was entirely gripped by the pain that had assailed him.

And that left him wide open.

Another channeled-lava strike sent Procelli straight toward Devika-Tempest Corona. She whipped her blade around like a baseball bat, the flat of the blade smashing into the monster and sending him hurtling farther up the corridor, directly toward the Silverlight Bisento. Holly spun the huge ball at the end around and with a tremendous impact Procelli streaked through the air, through the bathroom door, and hit the far wall so hard that he went halfway through it as well. The creature shuddered, momentarily stunned, giving all four of the Maidens the chance to follow. Tierra kicked him away from the wall, through a stall, and into the center of the room; the four of them now faced him in a ring, even as Procelli slowly, waveringly rose to his feet. "What . . . how . . . one of my mirrors is broken!"

Holy Aura glanced, puzzled, at the mirror. It was pristine, untouched.

Tell him it is time for him to be banished hence, to return from the world from whence he came.

Holly raised the bisento, guarding herself from any strike. "Procelli, it is time for you to return to the place that was yours, to leave this world and be banished from it forever."

Shocked though he must have been, Procelli managed another laugh. "Banished? Little girls, you have not a prayer. You need a full pentacle to do that, and the point must lie in my own world!"

And then he froze as he heard, from the mirror itself, Cordelia's voice speaking, filled with anger, with the roar of the sea behind it. "To avert the Apocalypse, and shield the innocent from evil, and stand against the powers of destruction, I offer myself as wielder and weapon, as symbol and sword!" Cordy said, and her voice was the thunder of wave and cataract. "Mistress of the seven seas, ruler of rivers, the water of life itself, I am the Apocalypse Maiden, Princess Tsunami Reflection!"

 

 

 

 

Princess Holy Aura: Chapter 31

The tyrpiglynt was out and apparently so was their secret...

-----

 

 

Chapter 31.

     "Holly? Seika?" Tierra said after a few frozen moments.

"Fuck," Seika said succinctly in the powerful soprano of Radiance Blaze. "But, that's the way the meme rolls, right?"

Holly found she'd covered her face with one of Holy Aura's hands. "Yes. Yes, of course it is."

Is Tierra going to be one of the Maidens? Or one of those ordinary characters that happens to learn the secret?

If it was the latter, whether Tierra survived the next hour would depend on just which memes were in play.

"What the hell is going on?" a desperate voice said from in front of them. "I don't understand any of this!"

Tierra's gaze shifted and her eyes widened even more, as Holly realized the voice was coming from the mirror. Cordy! She can talk to us from the mirror?

Even as she thought the question she wanted to smack herself for it. Of course she can. The tyrpiglynt could and it swapped places with her; stands to reason she gets to talk like he did, at least for a while before the magic wears off.

She looked at Radiance Blaze, saw the same "what the hell do we do now?" look on her face, then shrugged. "Cordy, Tierra, okay, we don't have much time at all, so I'm going to have to dump a lot of this on you all at once and explain the rest later." She took a deep breath. "That spirit Procelli you were talking to is a monster called a Mirrortaint and he gets more powerful by granting wishes and warping people's personalities, and your last wish got him out of the mirror and into the real world. Seika and I are the Apocalypse Maidens who are—you don't know what mahou shoujo or 'magical girl' means, do you?"

At Cordy's confused, stunned headshake, she went on, "Okay, we're like Supernatural's brothers, but with magic powers, we hunt these things, it's more complicated than that but that's the thing right now, we've got to stop this monster as fast as we can, and get you out of there back to the real world."

The two other girls stared blankly at them for a moment. Tierra recovered first, tossing her flame-red hair back and giving a half-disbelieving grin. "Ooooo-KAY. I wouldn't believe any of this if I hadn't seen it but I did, so I do." The smile faded as she looked back at the mirror. "How do you get her out?"

I have no idea. Silvertail? I could really use your help right now. "Cordy, look around. He switched places. Are you basically just in a mirror version of this bathroom, or is there more to it?"

Cordelia Ingemar blinked, shook herself violently, then stood, still leaning on the glass as though hoping it might somehow open and let her out. Her gaze tracked around, looking around as well as behind her, and she shuddered. "There's . . . at the edge of the bathroom, past wherever you'd be able to see standing anywhere in front? There's like . . . swirling red and black mist. There's the door to the bathroom, too. Don't know where that goes."

"Maybe it goes to other mirrors," Seika said. "How many mirrors did you bring this guy to?"

"Only three," Cordy said after a minute. "My compact mirror, my dresser mirror, and this one. He asked me to bring him to more, but I didn't want just anyone walking in on him everywhere. Even if he said he only appeared to me, I'd heard other people talking about the trick to summoning him."

Holly looked around; there was no sign of Cordy's purse. Then she looked up and saw the purse still securely slung from Cordy's shoulder. "Cordy . . . is your compact in your purse?"

She looked down and then reached in, pulling out a circular compact. "Yes."

"Can you break that mirror? It's the one you summoned it into first, right?"

Cordelia stood, dropped the mirror on the reflected floor, raised her heel, and stamped hard.

"Ow! That felt like stomping on marble!" She lifted her foot. "Nothing. Even the plastic backing didn't crack."

Naturally, Holly thought grimly. It's infused with magic, inside the Mirrortaint's natural world. The thing wants its mirrors intact. Ordinary force probably can't break it inside the glass; that's why it sent her in there. A perfect way to protect it.

"Oh, fuck," Radiance Blaze/Seika said. "How can we break a mirror that's in a mirror?"

"If we can get her out of the mirror, that's not going to be a problem, her compact comes with her. And if we can't get her out, I don't know if we can break this mirror; what'll that do to Cordy? She's not some transdimensional super-monster with somewhere else to go."

"So check me on this, guys," Tierra said. "You two are really Holly Owen and Seika Cooper, right?"

"Right," Seika said, still studying the mirror.

"And there's some kind of monster that was in the mirror, and it's somehow switched places with Cordy so she's in there and it's out here."

"You're with us so far."

"And you've got no clue how to get her out."

Holly bit her lip. "Not really. Beating the tyrpiglynt, the Mirrortaint thing, might do it, but I really need to know more. We've got to go find Silvertail. He'll know."

"Silvertail? What, is that the codename for Power Ranger control or something?"

Holly couldn't repress a snort of laughter. "You're closer than you think. Yeah, if mahou shoujo means nothing to you, we're sorta the first couple fighters in a sentai show like Power Rangers. And we do need to find our boss, he'll have ideas."

"Go, Holy Aura. Find Silvertail and see if you can find the tyrpiglynt," said Radiance Blaze.

"Shouldn't we both—"

"No, someone has to watch this area. That thing's still going to have connections to its mirrors, according to what Silvertail said, and we've got two of the three right here."

Holly realized that Seika was right. They needed Silvertail's advice, and they needed to start interfering with the monster's plans right away—before it got new anchors in this world. And they couldn't leave Cordy or—now that she knew—Tierra alone. "Got it. I'm on my way, I'll be back as soon as I can!"

She sped out the door, charging down the corridor at a speed even a cheetah would have envied, bursting out into the wintry day in mere seconds.

There was a roaring from the crowd that sounded like the game had already started again. Were we in there for the whole halftime? Didn't seem long enough. She glanced around, thinking. Silvertail? Silvertail, answer me, we need your help bad!

But there was no answer. Where is he? Somewhere he can't see me, maybe on the other side of the crowd?

The dull roar rose louder, and it sounded . . . savage. The announcer's voice was barely audible: "A vicious hit by the Blue Devils' defense! The old rivalry's back in full force, folks, and it looks like . . . yes, Hawn, the White Lions' running back, is down, clutching at his leg. The referee's calling in the stretchers for the second time already in the third quarter, and doesn't the Whitney crowd love it!"

The usual concern for the injured isn't even being expressed, Holly thought with growing horror. This monster's worse than I thought. It's only had a few minutes, maybe ten or fifteen at the outside, to do this work.

But while she couldn't remember the math, she remembered the concept of positive feedback. The tyrpiglynt gets its power from the darker impulses of people, and it can make those impulses worse, grant wishes to make people indulge them. So it gets more powerful, grants more wishes, pushes people more . . . yeah, that's something that doesn't take much time at all to get rolling.

But she couldn't locate the thing. She found she could in some way sense its magic, but it lay like a dark miasma over the entire field, a repellent aura permeating everything in its range and growing darker and more powerful by the moment . . . and obscuring any sense of where it truly originated from, like a spring of dark water.

Well fine then. I'll have to force it to come out. And maybe Silvertail will spot me then.

She meditated for just a moment, preparing herself for battle. I don't want to be caught unfocused again. Then in three huge bounds, Princess Holy Aura sprang to the very top of one of the banks of lights that illuminated the field. "STOP!" she shouted.

Her clear, high voice cut through the ugly snarl of the crowd, the grunts and shouts on the field, the increasingly enthusiastic narration of the announcer, a ringing cry like a trumpet across a battlefield, and everything paused, held for an instant by the sheer astonishment of that echoing voice.

She raised the Silverlight Bisento and concentrated, let its pure holy argent light shine like a beacon. "Remember yourselves! Is this who you are? Look at what is happening to you!"

As the crowd began to murmur—with a tone shifted, less hostile, less hungry—Holy Aura felt a pressure on her, something trying to dispel her light, to repress her will, and she instead set her feet and lifted the weapon higher. "Those are children on that field! Some of them your own children! Do you truly take joy in their pain, in this becoming no game, but a battle?"

Mutters of confusion, of denial, began to rise below her, and now that pressure began to have a sense of direction, for the oppressive, mounting corruption was fragmenting, dissipating, and only near its source could it continue. She whipped the blade around and pointed down, as near the center of the remaining shadowy taint of the soul as she could judge. "And I know you are here, monster! Tyrpiglynt, Mirrortaint, I call you by your name, Procelli! You have brought harm to the innocent and unleashed the darkest of our natures, and for that, this Apocalypse Maiden says that you are going down!"

A slender form slowly rose from the bleachers, and the power gathered about it; now that she knew where to look, she could recognize the beautiful young man who had stepped from the mirror. "Oh, brave words, little Maiden, and well spoken!"

Without even a pause, the thing was there, not ten feet away on the narrow catwalk atop the light assembly. "But are you not human? Surely there are things you desire, Princess. Something I could grant you, even—for I have become strong indeed already, and will become stronger yet."

At close range, directed at her, the words struck with almost physical force. She could feel the truth in its speech, that it could grant many, many desires, especially the ones neither Holly nor Steve wished to acknowledge . . . nor could completely deny. And she knew that it would happily join power to hers, for she offered it a wellspring of almost unlimited power to draw from; together . . .

"Together," it whispered, as though it could read her thoughts, "together we could transform the world. Perhaps even save it from the Nine Arms, save it for ourselves . . ."

Holy . . . I'm actually considering it!

The sheer shock of realization broke the momentary hold, and she whipped the Silverlight Bisento down, pointing directly at Procelli's heart. "I deny you, Procelli," she said, hearing her own voice shaking, forcing it to steady as she remembered her friends, her ideals, the reason she had become Princess Holy Aura. "Your power has no hold over me and never will. I deny you a second time, and I laugh at the thought that you would ever dare oppose the mistress that surely caused you to be summoned! And I deny you a third time, and you can see your victims are already leaving, slipping through your fingers!"

It was no longer smiling so broadly, but the smile had become more that of a shark. "Oh, for now, yes. For now. But once I have removed you, little Maiden, then they shall return, and more besides. But you are right, I would not be fool enough to oppose She of the Nine Arms; instead I will spread darkness over this world and welcome her, and be set above all others!"

Only sheer instinct and the speed of Holy Aura saved her; she spun her weapon up and behind her, to catch the impact from the Mirrortaint. That teleporting trick will get real old, like about now!

The huge lighting fixture shuddered and jangled with the force of the blow, and then rang anew as she and Procelli exchanged multiple strikes, the bishonen Mirrortaint's arms flicking in and out like striking snakes, rippling as though boneless, hitting with the force of sledgehammers. Screams echoed from below, and the crowd began to evacuate in earnest. Most were running, but she saw Devika Wetherill and a few others trying to direct the crowd; the tall basketball player looked up, light flashing from the Khanda emblem on her chunni, gave what looked like a quick salute, and then returned to urging the others on.

The momentary encouragement didn't help much, though, as the creature's blows almost made her knees buckle. It's ridiculously strong! I'm pretty sure I've been getting stronger all along, but this thing's pushing me, just like the damn stalker-thing!

But she'd also made sure she was focused when she began her speech. She could feel the power of the stars, of the universe surrounding all, and while it was inconceivably outside her ability now to channel anything like all of it, she could call on far more, draw upon the power of the Cosmos that lay behind, above, beyond all things. She blurred into motion, matching the Mirrortaint's teleport-trick with a reaction speed that almost overmatched the thing, and it barely, just barely, parried a lunge by the Silverlight Bisento, parried it with arms that morphed midmotion into dark nightmare blades.

"So eager for the kill, are we?" it said tauntingly, though she thought she heard, beneath that sneer, a caution, perhaps fear from the nearness of the strike. "But is there not an innocent trapped? Or is she disposable, do you think?"

"And you'll let her out? I laugh at you, Procelli. Maybe we'll find a way to free her after you're no longer alive to hold her?"

It laughed. "Ha! Oh, foolish girl!" A flurry of whirling blows, and she was forced to leap away, dropping to the fast-emptying stands below, but it was already there, waiting as she fell, and she twisted desperately, feeling one edge scrape across her armor with a blackboard-fingernail screech as the other was caught in the nick of time by the shaft of the bisento. "My mirrors are my weakness, as you surely know . . . but you can no longer reach one of them, and the one who holds them is powerless to destroy them! Her will must be nearly gone by now!"

Holy Aura felt her forehead crease in thought. That last speech was true . . . yet not. Cordy was on the edge of panic, but hardly without will. I'd be panicked in her situation too.

They separated in that clash, both jumping back for a new angle, a reevaluation of their opponent. The tyrpiglynt's head tilted, and suddenly it smiled broadly. "Ohh, but what's this? A distressed panic, someone desperate indeed, desperate and faced by the impossible? I sense . . . a wonderful opportunity, before I rejoin a most promising ally!"

It vanished.

Holly cursed, but concentrated. I've been close to you now, monster. I've fought you one to one. You can't hide from me that easily, with the crowd no longer—

Oh, no.

She ignited in white power and streaked across the field, back toward the school. No, that's bad, if he meant what I think, it's really, really bad—

The bathroom door was off its hinges, and she could see Seika and Tierra sprawled outside, shaking their heads. Seika? What happened? Did the thing somehow force her to change? What's going—

Another voice was speaking from inside the room. "I just wish I could get to my little girl!"

CRAP.

She lunged through the door, for the second time that day, seeing Mr. Ingemar standing before the mirror in horrified desperation, and the grin widening across Procelli's face. "DONE!" he shouted, even as Holy Aura screamed, "NO!"—a cry echoed by Cordelia from the mirror.

Two shouts an instant too late.

Mr. Ingemar vanished. Nausea and rage welling up in her, Holy Aura skidded to a halt, to see the form of Cordy's father falling to his knees . . . within the mirror.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Princess Holy Aura: Chapter 30

The tyrpiglynt was now on the loose...

-----

 

Chapter 30.

     Silvertail felt the fur rising on his back even before his more conscious senses recognized the surge in power from within the building that the girls had run into. Oh, no, Lemuria's Memory, no . . .

It was the merest flicker of motion, a motion only eyes like his own could have seen, but he knew instantly that the worst scenario was now upon them. A Mirrortaint was now free, and in a crowd . . . a crowd whose emotions and lifeforce would not only feed it, but mask it.

If only I had been able to follow them, perhaps I would at least be able to recognize the creature, know the form it has taken. But that hadn't been possible; as Trayne Owen he had dropped the girls off, and been watching from beneath the bleachers as Silvertail. A white rat could not in any way keep up with sprinting humans, even if it didn't care whether it was seen.

How could it have escaped into the world so soon? It must have been active in the school longer than they had thought. Either Cordelia was making use of its powers much longer, or she brought it to the mirror I saw much earlier, perhaps near the beginning of the school year.

But analyzing the past would have to wait. The tyrpiglynt was already here, among the people. The creatures were intelligent, and capable of subtlety; this thing would not be found so easily as a shoggoth or the stalker-monster. It would wander through this crowd, sensing desires, offering in veiled words to grant those desires that struck its fancy as either corrupt or likely to lead to chaos, looking perhaps for a partner as well as tool. Silvertail scuttled along under the bleachers, sniffing, listening, trying to sense anything that indicated the creature's presence.

Attuned as he was to the particular magical signature, he sensed the Apocalypse Maidens' transformation. If only I could establish my telepathic link with them! The link would work at considerable distances after it was established, but to make the link to begin with required that he be either very nearby, or within direct sight of the Maiden. At the moment, Silvertail remained on his own.

He scuttled around the bleachers, listening, sniffing, sensing. It will not have left. There are so many opportunities. It will be looking for the best chance to sow chaos, to encourage dark fantasies, to trigger dangerous events, perhaps to find a person more fit to be an ally than Cordelia. It was slightly less noisy now, with the cheerleaders performing their halftime routines; there were more conversations but less of the coordinated roars of the crowd during the actual game. Still, he was surrounded by hundreds of people talking loudly on a hundred different subjects. If he didn't get lucky . . .

". . . a wish?"

No human could possibly have heard the words, or distinguished them from the babel of background noises; but rat senses enhanced and filtered by both magic and thousands of years of experience helped. Silvertail froze, then turned his head, letting the highly directional ears focus the sound more clearly.

"Within reason, yes." The voice was unfamiliar, but Silvertail knew by the undertones that this had to be the tyrpiglynt. "I—"

The laugh was deep—this was an adult man. A father or possibly one of the teachers, then. "What a bunch of crap." The overtones of the man's voice were amused, yet there was a faint touch of . . . hope? Desire? The words of a Mirrortaint are very hard to ignore. It speaks with magic that works on the level of your subconscious; hypnotic, suggestive. "If you're so bright, then I wish . . . you'd grant me what I want right now."

Silvertail couldn't see the two yet, but he could easily imagine the smile. "Based on what I see I can guess what you want. Do you give me permission to grant that wish?"

"Sure, magic-boy, go for it, then after it doesn't work, go bother someone else."

Now Silvertail felt the magic, activated not ten feet from him. There! Yes, right there, whoever's seated in the—

A roar from the crowd, but not like a cheer. Some of it was gasps, others appreciative whistles, others shouts of "Oh my God!" In the distance he thought he heard a commotion on the field, girls Holly's age angered or distressed.

"Holy shit," the unknown man's voice said. "What a show. You did that?"

A smug tone. "I did. Was that not what you wished?"

"Sure as hell was."

The noises on the field and from the announcement finally told Silvertail—indirectly—what had happened, made even clearer as several girls were hustled off the field wrapped in coats. That salacious monster. But that was a Mirrortaint's specialty, working with suppressed or hidden desires, and in this society such desires were terribly dangerous. And rightly so.

The tyrpiglynt was focused on its prey—or possible partner—now. Silvertail set his tiny jaw. I will at least minimize what damage you have done.

He visualized the entire field, the people, the geometry, and then touched on the hidden geometry of symbols he had been carefully burying about the school for weeks. One set of symbols created a pentagram around the stadium, focusing his power. He laid out the spell's parameters precisely, then cast it outward, speaking the ancient phrases as quietly as he could.

Immediately he heard a momentary catch in the creature's conversation, but he was certain the thing did not know what direction the magic it sensed came from; as it resonated and was amplified by the pentacle the real power would seem to come from all directions.

As for the effect . . .

"Damn. My camera must've glitched. None of these pics are in focus!"

He allowed himself an instant's satisfied grin. He had been honing his ability to interfere with electronic devices for decades, and specifically to locate and edit particular images from any imaging systems. This was of course mainly to prevent pictures of either himself or the Apocalypse Maidens from being recorded, but it applied to anything he chose to modify. Your memories I cannot touch, but those girls' privacy will not be violated repeatedly, nor transmitted to the world.

But now he had to act swiftly. The tyrpiglynt would undoubtedly guess what had happened, and more importantly had found someone very open and amenable to its peculiar talents. It would not be long before it was granting even more dangerous and vile requests . . . and hunting down the source of interference.

With the unexpected events on the field, the halftime had been cut short, and the teams were now returning to the field. This is no better. With the emotions such a contest engenders, the Mirrortaint will be able to turn a simple sports contest into something more closely resembling the worst gladiatorial arena.

Princesses Holy Aura and Radiance Blaze had not yet emerged from the school. Complications must have happened if they have not yet pursued the monster outside. I must go, be ready to advise them.

As he bounded toward the school, his ears caught another voice, a man's, ahead of him. "Where is she? Why wasn't she on the field?"

"I don't know, Mr. Ingemar," a girl's voice answered. "She was really upset about something, not even into our routines. Last I saw she ran into the school, but that was a while ago."

Silvertail could feel the man's worry, the concern over his daughter, and it echoed, resonated within him as he recalled his terror over what his own Aureline was to face.

And the combination of the Mirrortaint's sudden release with a father's worry suddenly clicked, and Silvertail knew what had happened, and—just possibly—how he could fix it.

He transformed to Trayne Owen as he emerged from the shadow of the bleachers, caught up with Mr. Ingemar as he was heading for the school. "Mr. Ingemar, I know where your daughter is . . ."

Princess Holy Aura: Chapter 29

They'd figured out who they needed to talk to...

-----

 

Chapter 29.

     Holly shivered a little, then pulled her coat tighter. "Jeez, I'd forgotten how cold it gets sitting in the bleachers."

"Did you forget how boring this is?" Seika muttered to her, barely audible over the cheers and other shouts as Whitney High's White Lions contested with Columbia's Blue Devils.

"You don't know anything about football, do you? This is a pretty good game."

Seika gave her a scandalized look. "You call yourself a geek and you like football? You are not one of us!"

Holly blew a raspberry at her friend. "Hey, at least I'm less bored because I know what's going on."

Seika rolled her eyes. "Okay, okay, I'll listen to the explanations a little. But I'm watching down there mostly."

Holly felt the smile fade from her face. "Yeah."

"Down there" was at the sidelines, where the cheering squad was. Even to Holly's untutored eye, there was something subtly off about their routines, and most of the apparent mistimes and bobbles were happening around Cordy Ingemar. "She's missing her cues a lot, isn't she?"

"Looks like it. I mean, I'm not a cheerleader, but it's not hard to see what they're trying to do, and it's not working."

"The half's almost over. Maybe we can work our way down there and see if we can somehow catch her?"

"I think the cheerleading squad's supposed to perform at halftime, but maybe they get a break before they come out. I guess we could try."

It wasn't easy to thread their way through the crowd—because it was a crowd, despite the chilly late-fall clouds above; the White Tiger/Blue Devil rivalry had been a fixture of Whitney High football since before Steve had graduated, she remembered that. But finally they got near enough to see that the squad had in fact gathered together to the side, near the gymnasium entrance that faced the field. The two of them made their way closer, trying to look as though they were just taking advantage of the way the big building cut the wind.

As they approached, it became clear that they needn't have bothered pretending. None of the cheerleading squad or the two coaches were looking at them.

". . . wrong with you, Cordy? You've missed timing on half the routines today!"

 

Cordelia Ingemar's reply wasn't audible; her tone was half-apologetic and half-apathetic, as though she was sorry to have made people mad but didn't care about the actual subject of the argument.

The older coach—Mrs. Banner—rolled her eyes. "For heaven's sake, Cordy! You don't even seem to be paying attention to me! Honestly, after all the complaining you did about poor Glynnis, I would think—"

Holly had winced at the mention of the dead girl's name, but Cordy's reaction was far more violent. She suddenly gave a muffled scream into her hand and then turned, shoving her way blindly through her teammates and running away headlong into the school building.

"Oh, god, I shouldn't—" Mrs. Banner said, a contrite tone in her voice, but Holly didn't bother to listen to the details of the coach's self-recriminations. Where's she going to go now? Upset, thinking about Glynnis, about her own failure? The part of her that was still Steve was grimly certain. Dollars to donuts she's heading for a bathroom.

     A bathroom with a mirror.

Seika followed as Holly ran. The other cheerleaders were hesitating—probably wondering what they should say, or whether they could afford to chase after Cordy when they had to be back on the field in a few minutes. That gives us a chance to catch up with her alone. Holly wasn't sure what they could say to Cordy, but she figured the first business was to catch up with her and find out if they were right about where she was going.

The first bathroom—part of the locker-rooms off the gym—was empty. The two of them checked to be sure; there was no one in the stalls, let alone in front of the mirrors.

"Of course," Seika said. "She knows this is where the rest of the team, or the coach, will look for her."

"But then where—" Holly smacked herself in the head. "Second floor!"

"Right. Where she's talked with it before."

It didn't take long to reach that bathroom, though it seemed longer, with their footsteps echoing emptily through the deserted corridors. But finally they saw the door ahead; Holly slowed, gesturing for Seika to do the same. They didn't want to startle Cordy at this point.

The sound of someone—Cordy—sobbing was audible even through the door. Holly reached out, grasped the handle—

And another, different voice spoke. "I am truly sorry, mistress."

It was a pleasant voice. A warm, intimate tenor that sounded like a sympathetic boyfriend. Yet Holly could somehow hear another undertone, something darker and cloying, something that reminded her of the voice of the slasher-monster she and Seika had fought.

"Sorry?" Cordy snapped, voice brittle and shaky. "You said you meant to kill her! Said you wouldn't even try to bring her back! I never wanted her hurt, and you went and killed her!"

"Mistress, please! It has been centuries since someone like you called me, let me serve them, found the way to open the door! Back then, if someone wanted a rival removed, they meant for me to slay them! I had no idea!"

Seika and Holly exchanged glances. "You're not buying his excuses, are you?" Seika whispered.

"Not for a splintered second, no."

"And it is not that I won't bring her back, it is that I can't, mistress. I am not nearly so powerful yet. I have tried my best to serve you—were you not pleased by the results of the first wish?" The voice held a strangely compelling property; even though the words were not directed at her, Holly found that it actually took effort to disregard what it was saying. What must it be like for Cordy? "Did I demand too high a price?"

"I just wanted perfect skin! That's . . . yes, that was nice, thank you and no, just asking to be able to speak to me from other mirrors, that was fine. But . . . but this was—"

"A mistake, a lack of understanding. I will try to understand your world more, if only you will stop rejecting me." The voice dropped lower, and Holly strained to catch the words. "Just turn back, call on me, I will grant you any desire within my power. And that power is growing, Cordelia, has been growing much greater since you brought me here. Perhaps soon I will be able to restore the dead."

For a moment Cordy was silent, and Holly began to slowly turn the handle. We'll have to intervene. Should we change? But if we do that'll alert everyone—

"N-no." Cordelia Ingemar's voice suddenly firmed. "I . . . I can't trust you, Procelli. I wish you would just go away, leave the mirrors, all of them. All the mirrors I've brought you to, stop appearing to me in them."

"You cannot mean that, Cordelia!" Its voice was sharper. "That is your third wish? Truly?"

"Yes! I wish you would get out of this mirror, and never appear to me in this or any other mirror ever again!"

Suddenly Seika gasped, and Holly caught on an instant later. But Procelli was already speaking. "And you will pay the price for this? You accept the price for this wish?"

"I cost someone their life!"

Holly yanked on the door handle, but the door opened slowly, slowly, the pneumatic system resisting opening almost as much as closing. Even as she began to shout a warning, Cordy said, "Yes! I accept the price, whatever it is!"

"DONE!"

The voice shook the room with a triumphant laugh, and light blazed through the doorway. As the door came fully open, Holly could see a tall, slender, dark-haired young man in archaic clothing standing before the mirror, looking at it with a broad grin.

And in the mirror, a stunned Cordy Ingemar stared back, pressing against the other side of the glass.

"A simple and symmetric price, yes? I have left the mirror—all mirrors—so in return you are in the mirror, all the mirrors I once occupied, and therefore can never see me in this or any other mirror." The voice was wavering, no longer sounding quite so pleasant, the undertone more clear. "And I sense such an assemblage of young and vulnerable people, feel their emotions . . . Thank you . . . mistress"—an ironic emphasis on that word—". . . for releasing me so swiftly!"

The form blurred and vanished.

The two girls ran into the bathroom, to stare in horrified shock at the desperate, despairing face of Cordy Ingemar. "Oh my God," Holly murmured. "How do we get her out?"

"That thing's gone to the crowd outside," Seika said, still staring. "Crowd's signals were so strong the thing didn't even notice us. We can't take too long here!"

"It's out. Out of the mirror. Dammit, I thought it would take longer—"

Seika shook her head. "You heard it—the first price it required from Cordy was to bring it to other mirrors. It's been here for a while. Lot longer than we thought."

"Well, the feline's escaped containment," Holly said, winning a very faint smile from Seika. "This is a job for the Maidens!"

"What about her?" Seika said, glancing at the mirror.

"She's already involved. I don't think there's much point in hiding anything from her." She raised her arms. "To avert the Apocalypse . . ."

Holly became aware of another sound to her right, just as they completed the invocation, ". . . Mystic Galaxy Defender, Princess Holy Aura!"

And in the detonation of sacred white and fiery red luminance, she saw the astounded face of Tierra MacKintor staring at them from the open bathroom door.

 

 

 

 

Princess Holy Aura: Chapter 28

Silvertail now knew what they were up against...

-----

 

Chapter 28.

     "A . . . tyrpiglynt?" Holly repeated. The word sounded somehow creepy in and of itself. "What is that, exactly?"

"A Reflecter of Desire," Silvertail said wearily. "Also called a Mirrortaint. A being from far Outside, so far that it has a difficult time manifesting in our ordinary world and can do so—to begin with, at least—only as a projection that echoes an existing projection in this one. A reflection, in short, which is a projection of the features of the world on some surface." He began stuffing chunks of leftover pizza into his mouth, obviously famished.

"There's an awful lot of mirrors in the world," Seika pointed out, looking worried. "Why aren't these Reflecters all over the place?"

Silvertail tried to answer, but talking around a mouthful of cheese and sauce produced only incomprehensible mutters. He gave a heroic swallow and spoke again. "Because it is not that simple for them. Leaving aside the fact that they can only reach our world at all when the connection between Earth and the . . . well, underpinnings of reality—magic if you will—strengthens, that is to say, during times such as this . . . they still cannot randomly find their way from mirror to mirror. They must be summoned, called to a mirror or other reflective surface, and that mirror becomes their home, their only contact with the world. Only if they make a connection with a native—a human, in general—can they expand their range to include any other mirror into which their connection looks and calls upon them."

He took a few more bites. "Of course, given the fact that the tyrpiglynt generally operates by playing on the secret desires of their victims, said victims often are very careful not to try to summon them unless in privacy."

"What do they want? Or what is it they do? Could this tyrpiglynt have actually killed Glynnis?"

"Could it? Certainly, if it were strong enough—if it had gained enough power from its connection or connections to begin to affect the world beyond the reflection. Causing accidents is an energy-efficient way of accomplishing such goals; rather than having to actually put forth the effort necessary to snap a neck itself, the tyrpiglynt simply tugs or trips the victim at the top of the stairs or something of that nature." Silvertail paused in his eating and studied them grimly. "As for what it does . . . it seeks out targets with uncertainty, often those with a veneer of confidence that is itself important to them, the vain (for who else will look in the mirrors frequently) and offers them favors. What the victim does not know, of course, is that accepting a bargain with the Mirrortaint is in effect giving it permission to use their soul, their spirit, as part of the power needed to accomplish their wish."

Holly frowned. Her Steve-memories were ringing bells. "I think I've read some stories like that."

"No doubt. Tyrpiglynts are one of the primary sources of the legends of magic mirrors, genies, and such—especially the tales where things eventually begin going very wrong for the wisher."

Seika toyed with one of her tight ringlets of hair. "You said 'connection or connections.' These things can make bargains with more than one person at a time?"

"They can, but of course they will be cautious. Unless and until they become strong enough to physically enter the world, their connection can still be broken, and one way to do that is to shatter every mirror they are connected to. This does not kill them, you understand, but does cause a painful backlash and leave them once more Outside until summoned."

Holly thought that over. "When you say summoned, is that just as easy as, oh, the Bloody Mary legend? I could go to the bathroom mirror and say 'Tyrpiglynt, tyrpiglynt, tyrpiglynt,' and it'd be summoned?"

Silvertail laughed for the first time since he had staggered in the front door and collapsed back to his default form. "Fortunately it is not nearly that easy. The initial summons must be by someone who understands not just how to perform the ritual, but exactly what they summon and for what purpose."

"And that means that people like Cordy are victims, right? She couldn't have summoned it herself?"

"Absolutely not, no. It would require someone on our opposing side. Possibly Lady Nyarla has chosen some operatives of her own and sent them into the school, or has them posing as the sort of people who can enter buildings fairly easily without questions—repair workers, survey takers, salespeople, and so on. Or she performed most of the ritual and allowed the key remaining parts to be known by her target."

"Do they only feed on someone when they, well, make a wish?"

"Say rather they can only do so once their victim or victims have made at least one, but they feed on more than merely the fragment of spirit used to make the wish. After all, they can at the beginning only take very small pieces of someone's spirit and such pieces would ordinarily be mostly or completely expended in granting the desire of the victim. However, the focus of the wish is also connected to the tyrpiglynt, and it can take an at least equal amount from the target if it is a living being. Moreover, once it is connected to a mirror, it can feed on the overall destructive impulses of those within its range—hatred, fear, vanity, self-loathing, and so on."

"Oh, fuck."

The clearly-enunciated curse made Holly snap around and stare at Seika.

The other girl's eyes were wide and her brown skin had a somehow pale undertone. "We've got to get on the job fast, Silvertail."

"I agree, but you seem to have a particular urgency in mind. What—"

"Cordy's brought the thing into our school. And if there's any group of people filled with unstable emotions, self-loathing, uncertainty, vanity, envy, fear—that's teenagers."

Silvertail froze, then closed his eyes, giving vent to what must be a Lemurian obscenity. "You are absolutely correct. It is a public place. It won't need to make more bargains, just feed off the connection to that location, to all the people who enter that room. It will also of course try to protect that mirror, so it likely will not be so simple as walking into the bathroom between classes and smashing it with a hammer."

"Even then, it's still going to have whatever mirror Cordy first, well, met it through, right?"

"Yes." Silvertail looked pensive. "And, possibly, another mirror that our enemies summoned it to; although it is quite likely they used their own peculiar connections to the Outside to attract the creature's attention and prepare it for Cordy's summons. We must discover what mirror that is. Unless it is destroyed, the tyrpiglynt will continue to grow."

"What happens if it keeps getting stronger?" Holly asked. "Other than the obvious 'it'll be harder to fight,' that is. And for that matter, how do you fight something like that, other than by just breaking a lot of mirrors?"

Rodent or not, it wasn't hard to recognize that Silvertail's face was grim. "If it becomes sufficiently strong, it will be able to manifest fully—in other words, it will be able to emerge from the mirror and take on full existence in this plane of reality. At that point it will be a terrifying enemy indeed, with the ability to affect both matter and minds, difficult to harm even with the powers of the Maidens, and ultimately far, far harder to defeat.

"Even if it does not quite reach that level, it will be difficult to attack. It is, as I said, not fully here in any ordinary sense, so any assault will have to take place partially in this world, and partially in that of the mirror."

"Why did I guess a Through the Looking-Glass trick was going to come up here? You can't just break all the mirrors?"

"Not nearly so simple, no. That would indeed weaken it, but it would still have an anchor—the person or persons who summoned it. The anchor would allow the tyrpiglynt to stay near, in cosmic terms, this reality, and be summoned to other mirrors with no need of special preparations, simply the intent to summon."

"Crap and double-crap. How do we break that anchor, then?"

"The person or persons would have to be cleansed, which amounts to them fully rejecting the Mirrortaint and reclaiming their spirit from the creature . . . or . . ." Silvertail hesitated.

"Or what?"

"Or, if they are unable or unwilling to attempt this, forcibly cleansed, by the powers of the Maidens. But that could be . . . well, fatal."

Holly saw that Seika's face was as horrified as she felt. "You mean we might have to kill Cordy—or someone else who's bargained with this thing?"

Silvertail raised his eyes and met their gazes steadily. "Yes. We will do everything we can to avoid that eventuality, of course, but it is possible that even the effort to cleanse them will kill, for it will depend on their strength of spirit—a spirit which will have been slowly eroded by the tyrpiglynt." At their silent regard, he drew himself up, somehow intimidating despite his diminutive size. "Why do you think I wanted at least one of you to be an adult to begin with? These are not decisions to leave in the hands of children."

Holly blinked, and suddenly felt Steve's viewpoint wash to the fore. "Hell no, Silvertail. I did not sign on to this to kill children."

"Steve," Silvertail said, iron regret in his voice, "I know this. And know that I will do everything in my power to ensure that it does not come to that. But understand: We cannot afford to lose this battle, or any of those that are to come. A tyrpiglynt fully unleashed upon the world? Think of your legends, imagine what a being capable of granting twisted, vicious wishes could do once fully manifest, no longer restricted by the barrier of the dimensions? It is intelligent, Steve, Holly, Seika. Intelligent and malevolent, but also more than capable of practicality. If it encounters someone who makes wishes that help its purpose, the Mirrortaint is more than capable of choosing not to twist the wish . . . and then they can gain a victim who is also a willing partner and protector, one who can even be a conduit for the thing's power, and thus serve as a primary combatant and, in honesty, disposable shield."

"Fuck," Seika karkatted. "So you're saying if we don't get a move on we will have a super-powered soul-draining jerkass genie out of his mirrored bottle, with some sidekicks he can send the superpowers he got from the souls he siphoned off of everyone else."

Silvertail blinked, then nodded. "In a nutshell . . . yes. And if that happens, it will be almost impossible to stop it, especially if there is a large source of the sort of spiritual power it can live on nearby."

"Almost impossible?" Holly heard the seriousness in Silvertail's voice. "Are you saying that if this thing gets loose, we may have lost the war?"

Silvertail hesitated. "Perhaps not entirely lost, but if we cannot somehow contrive to defeat it, the tyrpiglynt will wreak havoc until Azathoth of the Nine Arms is confronted and banished—and it will certainly intervene in that battle if it can."

"Jesus. Then we need to find a way to talk to Cordy and get a hold of the mirror she used. Fast." Holly wrinkled her brow. Now that she thought about it, she didn't know anything about Cordy, really. "Seika, you know anything about her? What she likes? Maybe we could connect with her . . ." She trailed off, seeing Seika's cynical grin—an expression that definitely didn't belong on that usually cheerful face. "What?"

"The only thing I know about her," Seika said, "is that she's one of the best cheerleaders we've got."

Holly felt her stomach drop. Even as Steve I never interacted with the sports-guys much, let alone the cheerleaders.

But I never had this motivation, either. She forced herself to smile. "Well, in that case, we'd better get our team spirit on!"

 

 

 

 

Princess Holy Aura: Chapter 27

Silvertail had some investigation to do...

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Chapter 27.

     Silvertail wriggled harder, and managed to get his furry shoulders through the small hole near the foundation of the school. That accomplished, he could easily drag the rest of himself through. It is fortunate that rats can fit through any hole their heads can go through.

He had parked the car at a nearby restaurant. Making his way to the school from there, mostly in rat form, was the real challenge. Proportionately, rats were faster than humans—but proportional speed meant nothing when you were up against absolutes like the land velocity of a car or truck. It had taken him almost ten minutes to find an appropriate window of time to cross in.

I could have found a different parking spot that wouldn't require me to cross here, he mused as he made his way through the damaged insulation and into the school's interior, but unfortunately that would involve more streets, though smaller ones, or going through yards with alert dogs. Which, while not a danger to him, would potentially attract attention. Naturally he also could have used a subtle spell to ensure a gap that would be sufficient . . . but given the errand he was on, using any magic at all would be foolish, unless he was already discovered.

Of course, if he was discovered, it might well be far too late already.

From a rat's-eye view, the hallway was a shadowed cavern to equal fictional Khazad-Dûm from Tolkien's Lord of the Rings; immense stretches of glossy, dim-lit passageways suited for giants, cyclopean doors—some closed, others yawning half-open with nothing but eerie shadows hinting at mysteries within. It was so silent that even the faint, faint sounds of his passage echoed, sent a scratching whisper of sound out into the unfathomable distance, to return as an echo of sibilance.

Let's see. The bathroom she mentioned would be in this direction; second floor, B-Wing.

As he began to negotiate the stairs, a rumbling, muttering sound reached his ears, and then rose with startling swiftness to a low, resonant roar. Silvertail froze. What in the name of Lemuria . . .

A thread of warm air coursed from a grate set near the stairs, and Silvertail chided himself for overreacting. Just the sound of the heating system activating. I must keep a clear and level head. I must react only to real threats, not perceived ones.

Each step was seven inches high, not much less than his whole body length, so climbing the staircase was something like an adult man having to climb up a succession of twenty separate five-foot-high walls. In this case proportionality worked in his favor; he was proportionately much stronger than a human for his size, so he didn't simply collapse in exhaustion at the top. Still, I would much rather not have to do that very often.

He kept to one side of the hallway as he continued the seemingly miles-long trek; as a rat or a human, the comfort of a solid wall on at least one side was not to be ignored. At last he thought he was approaching his destination; he smelled a faint odor of other rodents, wood shavings, possibly a touch of formaldehyde. She said it was across from the upstairs biology lab.

The bathroom door loomed before him; shut, of course. However, there was a large gap at the bottom—large for a rat, anyway—sealed only by some rubbery weatherstripping. It was the work of a few minutes with the sharp, chisel-shaped teeth to cut away enough to allow him to squeeze inside.

Windowless, the bathroom was as dark as a cave; motion-cued lighting did not notice something the size of a rat. Even if Silvertail hadn't been a very unusual rat, this wouldn't have been a terrible handicap; rats normally have poor vision by human standards, but make up for it with excellent hearing, smell, and touch senses, using the vibrissae, or "whiskers," to touch and evaluate objects around them. But he had at least been allowed to retain his enhanced wizard's sight when he was transformed, so to him the bathroom was clearly visible. He tried to ignore the smells; it wasn't bad by the standards of other public bathrooms, but it was of course nowhere near his own standards of cleanliness.

It took only moments to climb up to the countertop; finally he had reached his destination.

The mirrors showed the usual reflections, seeming to be mere low chrome barriers between this and another, identical bathroom—one with another white rat peering in at him. Faint smears on the glass showed that this, at least, was not the case. Attuning himself to the faintest magical traces, Silvertail reached out and touched the surface of the nearest mirror.

The flare of lingering malevolence and hunger stung, burned like placing an unwary hand on a cooling ingot of metal, and Silvertail's squeak of pain echoed two or three times around the empty room. Oh, no doubt of it at all. A powerful manifestation happened here, very powerful, much more so than I had expected.

Worse, he thought he recognized the signature. A Reflecter of Desire, a tyrpiglynt in the old tongue. This Cordy must have been strong-willed indeed to reject it after having partially accepted it before. But this manifestation . . . there is something—

It was only the gut-level instinct of one who had survived millennia that saved him. Without an instant's thought he found himself diving off the counter, falling to the floor and pressing himself up against the floor ducts. Though the mirror remained unmarred, there was a green-blue flash and a ringing hiss, and a thousand shards of glass exploded outward, ripping through the air he had just occupied.

"Still you have the speed of light itself, Varatraine Aylnell," came a voice with the deceptive, toxic warmth of a poisoned cookie straight from the oven.

"Queen Nyarla," he said, bowing his head the smallest fraction of an inch. "I see you expected me to visit."

Queen Nyarla stepped from the darkness at the far end of the room. Her form was still veiled in shadow even to his sight, and what could be seen of her was nearly as dark as the pitch-black room itself; only the faintest, eerie phosphorescence outlined her form, but gave away no details that would allow Silvertail to recognize her current human guise. "Expected might be too strong a word, sweet sorcerer. Hoped would be a better one. It has been so long since we have spoken, Varatraine; can you blame me for such a hope?"

"It is even longer since we had any words for each other that were not mere cloaks for the duel to come," Silvertail replied. He judged the distance to the door, the angle he would have to take.

He was under no illusions; this was a very, very bad situation. Nyarla might not choose to kill him—no one, not even he, knew what might happen to the binding enchantment then—but if she captured him, or even badly wounded him, the consequences could be immense.

Worse, he dared not take on human form. They must not figure out who he was in the mortal world. While his magical powers were considerably greater in rat form, not being able to assume human form drastically limited his physical options.

"You could still reconsider, old friend," she said quietly. "Your knowledge and skill at our disposal? She of the Nine Arms would reward you beyond the dreams of mortals. And"—another smile, this one private, warm—"you would no longer need walk alone in eternity, Varatraine."

Silvertail slowly kept backing toward the door, one tiny rat step at a time, trying to keep her words and voice from distracting him. "You could do the same, Nyarla. You need not serve Azathoth Nine-Armed. Remember who you truly are, who you claimed once to be, and admit to yourself the truth of Her drive to conquer this place: she fears us . . . Halei."

Was there a flicker, a shadow of memory, a hint of regret, a softness that momentarily veiled the contemptuous manipulator? He could not be sure; perhaps it was only that he hoped and desired to see it so much. But it was gone even as he wondered, and she threw back her head and laughed. "Fear you? Oh, Varatraine, you silly man. There is no fear, save for those in the lower orders. You cannot destroy us—one of your precious Holy Auras tried, you remember? The seal didn't last nearly so long that time, did it? But you can be destroyed, and all that need happen, as I told my servants but a short time agone, is that we win once."

"Yet you are now the second in command. Whence the others, Nyarla? How many of her powerful servants have not yet returned from the shadows of the Beyond?" He bared his front teeth in a rodent grin. "You were supposed to remain at her side, yet here you are, trying to open the way instead of watching from safety. Either you're not in true favor any more, and need to prove yourself . . . or she's running out of those who can be Openers of the Way."

The smile faded for an instant—but it definitely faded. I'm right! We have been wearing them down over the centuries!

Then her smile returned. "Perhaps, my sweet sorcerer . . . but in this cycle, Yog-Sothoth will bear a new brood. I will have new sisters to train and to take up the cause. How many more sorcerers of Lemuria have you trained lately, Varatraine?"

He felt his tail touching the door, moved the pink appendage until he could feel exactly where the hole was.

Either Nyarla finally noticed something, or she was simply finished with taunting him. "But enough; you won't take our offer, so . . . I think it's time you were removed from play. Let your little girls try to finish this task without you!"

She pointed at the darkest corner of the room, high above the floor, and voiced an eerie, inhuman call.

And distant, reverberating howls answered her.

Silvertail spun and squirmed desperately through the hole under the door, and gestured upward as he did so. He heard the lock bolt slide out and engage with a metallic sound. That might slow Nyarla up if she maintains her current form . . . but . . .

But the Hounds were coming, and no place of corners or angles was safe within the range of the Calling.

He popped out into the corridor, but despair was already close on him. The eldritch howls were closer now, and echoing from every facet and angled join of the walls. I must get out of this building! In outdoor settings I have the sky to call upon, but within a building, all right angles? This is their territory, this is the center of the Call.

But they would be here in minutes, perhaps less; already he thought he saw dark wisps of smoke and vapor beginning to emanate from the corners of the hallway, felt the cold miasma of the Hounds' approach. I cannot outrun them. I cannot transform to human, either; Nyarla may still be watching, scrying through their monstrous eyes.

Even less-sensitive creatures could tell something was terribly wrong; he could hear scuttlings and squeaking panic in the biology lab . . .

Hamsters.

A desperate hope galvanized him into motion, loping at top speed across the floor; the lab door was closed, but unlike the bathroom it had no weatherstripping to speak of, so Silvertail squeezed under with barely a pause. Looking up, he saw several cages, sensed the motions of trapped fear—and watched the smoke beginning to flicker, show signs of the flames that always accompanied the dreaded monsters.

But he also saw, gleaming faintly in the light from the windows, a curved shape of promise.

Silvertail lunged up, caught a drawer handle, pulled himself up, even as hungry, alien growls grew more distinct, more real, with every passing second. Another handle above me. A third. The ledge of the lab counter—must it jut out so? Surely a mere inch would have been sufficient! This polished granite is almost impossible to grip!

As he gained the counter, a bubbling, moist-warm growl shook the room, and he saw one of the Hounds of Tindalos.

Just seeing one of the Hounds was perilous; his eyes and brain, steeped as they were in sorceries and rituals of a hundred civilizations, refused to accept what they saw, for it was something not merely monstrous, not merely alien, but impossible. It had a head, emerging from the coiling darkness and green-hot flame . . . but what was it like? There was no dimension or shape to it, nor did it lack those qualities—it had a clear structure yet not one Silvertail could grasp, or ever wanted to grasp, and yet he could see it, all of it, inside and out, front and back, all at the same instantaneous moment; there were jagged, angular teeth and twitching rectangular eyes and a long, grasping, zigzag tongue with a rectangular, sucking, hooked orifice . . . but even that was only what it looked like for this moment, not what it was.

Silvertail gave a squeak of horror and denial and tore his gaze from the emerging abomination, scrabbling across the black granite and leaping the last foot and a half as something massive and repellent landed on the counter, stinking worse than the grave or the infernal realms.

But Silvertail had reached his goal and dove through the circular opening, casting a sealing spell even as he did so; the hamster ball closed itself instantly, a perfect, polished sphere of plastic that shimmered to absolute, sealed perfection a moment later; even the air holes were gone.

Not much time, but there's air enough in here for a few minutes.

The Hounds instantly stopped, and their not-heads tilted, very doglike, in puzzlement.

Angles. They can only manifest from angles. They cannot manifest—nor even truly perceive—curves.

And a sphere is nothing but pure curvature.

He began moving forward, and the ball moved with him. Despite his effective undetectability, he was far from safe. They would feel it if he bumped any of them, and there were now four, five, six of the unspeakable things in this room alone. And of course he had to get out of here fast, before he ran out of air—or risk making holes that might have enough of an edge to see.

But I am on the second floor, and any of the doors is many, many yards of corridor away. More of the Hounds will be stalking the hallways until I am far away from the place of Calling.

He had to get out, and get out fast. And his magical power was starting to feel its limits. He had one or two more decent spells left in him . . . but after that, there would be nothing.

Silvertail sighed. "This . . . may hurt."

Then he turned around and started running as fast as he could.

The ball began a cheerful, speedy roll down the dark-granite countertop. The first Hound crouched—or was it standing tall?—on the counter, but it was big, and with a leap and a turn Silvertail sent the sphere careening between the bent, angled legs with the raggedly-bent claws, past it—

An instant too late, Silvertail saw the spike-furred tail twitching, and the hamster ball brushed against it.

Immediately the Hound whirled, snarling, puzzled, trying to understand what had touched it. It made a swipe through empty air that missed the ball by the width of one of Silvertail's hairs.

But ahead was the glow of streetlights, and Silvertail called out one more invocation. Every window in the laboratory flew open as one, and as the Hounds rushed toward the various windows, the plastic ball shot outward, straight through the window, and plummeted to the ground below.

The Hounds tried to follow, but they could not see the ball. Even though the air inside was beginning to grow foul, Silvertail laughed squeakily. Survived! I have survived!

But as the ball kept rolling farther and farther from the school (and thus closer to safety), the elation began to fade.

Nyarla herself has greeted me, and there is a tyrpiglynt loose upon the world.

The war is joined in earnest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Princess Holy Aura: Chapter 26

Holly had a new friend who was an old friend, and a new conundrum...

 

-----

 

 

Chapter 26.

     "Okay, I like that," Nikki said with a grin.

Tierra looked confused. "Is there a joke in Dex's character's name? I don't get it."

"Seriously?" Holly said. "Geraldine 'Geri' Rigger? Never heard the term 'jerry-rig' or 'jury-rig'?"

"Nope."

"Basically," Dex began, then stopped as he realized Holly and Seika had already started speaking—both of whom stopped at the same time. After a couple of "oh, wait, sorry" moments, they let Seika explain.

"It means to put something together in an emergency using stuff that wasn't really meant for the purpose. I think it came from old navy stuff."

"Okay, I get it. Sorry, I'm so thick sometimes," Tierra said.

"Oh, bah," Dex said. "Not knowing stuff doesn't make you thick. You know tons of stuff I don't. Like how to make art. I suck at that. I don't even know the terms for whatever it is you do to make some of these things." He gestured at the intricate steampunk jewelry and symbols Tierra had made over the weeks. "So anyway, yeah, Geri's a researcher with a focus on archives and gadgets. One of her key aspects and catchphrases is 'I can rig something up.' Holly said you guys needed someone who could help you find out key information and maybe do quick fixes in the field if you dragged her along."

Since Dex was new, this session had to be spent on character creation—which was just as well, since the weird encounter with Cordy had Holly tense. She glanced over, saw the hint of white that told her that Silvertail was once more watching them. Me and Seika need to talk with him afterward.

Dex was now concentrating on figuring out details for the character and starting to investigate good connections for his character to the others. "So, Dex," Holly said, not without some trepidation, "what did happen to your other group?"

The blond-haired boy didn't look up, but his shoulders hunched the tiniest bit as he answered. "The GM, Steve . . . he had to move. Finally got a decent job, which he really deserved, but it wasn't near here. I couldn't walk to any of the other guys' houses, though, not in reasonable time, and I'm not old enough to drive after dark. Well, I could walk to Anne's house, but they have cats and I'm allergic to 'em, so that was out. That plus the fact that none of the others wanted to GM, well, it just faded away."

Crap, now I feel terrible about that too.

"So you didn't just choose our group 'cause it's all girls," Caitlin said.

His head came up just a little, and while there was a darker shade to his cheeks he was smiling a tiny bit. He must have expected that question to come up. "Um, well, I won't pretend I didn't notice, but no, gaming's like the only thing I've done with other people, so it's important to me. I've never put myself in a group that way, though, so I was pretty scared coming up and asking. Wait, I guess I should say I've never physically come up and asked. I met Steve through online RPG stuff and that was how I got into that group to start with."

"Boy, you are a total geek," Tierra said, but she did smile at him.

"Yes, I am," he said. "And my old group said that I sometimes get too loud and pushy so if I do here, I want you guys to tell me right away."

"Don't worry," Holly said. "If none of the others do, I will lay the smackdown on you."

The rest of the meeting proceeded smoothly; during one point when the others were talking with Dex, Holly texted "need 2 meet" to Seika; the other girl just glanced up with eyebrows raised; Holly nodded emphatically.

 

As Holly boarded her bus, Seika jumped up behind her. "Hi, you can drop me off with Holly."

Tillie, the driver, nodded and waved her back. "Your dad already texted me to let me know. Everyone sit down!"

The bus ride seemed longer, somehow; they both talked about school stuff on the way, but neither of them was really thinking about what they said, but about what might be said later. And Seika doesn't even know what's up yet.

Finally, however, the bus halted, the doors opened, and the two of them bounded down the steps and ran up the driveway. "We're here, Dad!" she called.

Silvertail, in his human guise, stepped out of the kitchen. "Just getting dinner ready. It will be a few minutes. Hello, Seika. Your father texted me to let me know you were on your way." His expression shifted. "Am I to assume there's Maiden business involved in this sudden change of plans?"

"Yes," Holly said. "By the way, how the heck do you get here so fast?"

"I drive, Holly. I put my car in various nearby locations so I can reach it easily, and leave as soon as it's clear you're on your way out. With of course wards on my car to make it less easily noticed wherever it is parked."

"Oh. Duh." She saw Trayne pull out his own phone and text something quickly as he went to check on dinner. "Who're you texting?"

"Seika's father, of course; he had asked if this was . . . business, so I am letting him know."

Naturally he'll want to know that. Things had gone mostly back to normal between Holly and Seika's parents in the last couple of weeks; they had apparently questioned Seika extensively and made her promise to speak about anything that made her uncomfortable—which was all exactly as it should be—but they were adapting with startling speed. Maybe Silvertail was right; the magic knows we have to stay together, so it makes it easier for parents to accept us if we force the issue.

"All right, girls," Trayne said a few minutes later, putting helpings of a chicken casserole in front of them, "What's our situation?"

Holly described her strange encounter with Cordy Ingemar. "I took her purse to the office to make sure she got it back," she finished, "but I'm sure she didn't have a chance to put her phone away, with the timing and all, and if she had, well, she'd have had her purse in her hand, so why would it be on the counter?"

Trayne looked pensive. "I wish you could have notified me of this earlier, Holly—"

"Your phone disappears when you turn into a rat, Dad. I can't text you, and I'm not going to talk to you in person, or next thing you know they'll call me the Rat Whisperer."

He rolled his eyes. "As I was saying, I wish you could but I understand that it was not feasible. Still, I will have to go back there tonight and see if there are traces of mystical powers in the area."

"Mirrors," said Seika positively. "Check the mirrors."

"Why . . . ohhhhh, yeah," Holly said. A number of films and animations ran through her head, along with urban myths such as "Bloody Mary." "If she wasn't talking on the phone, the mirror's a meme-riffic candidate as an alternative."

"And one that goes back centuries, yes," Trayne said. "With some exceedingly dangerous beings that have made use of mirrors, reflecting pools, scrying crystals . . . yes, I believe you have hit upon a very likely source." He ate a few bites thoughtfully. "Do you agree with my interpretation of the dialogue you quoted? She had arranged for something, or asked for something—"

"—and the result wasn't what she wanted. Sounds like a classic 'Jerkass Genie' to me," Holly said.

"A . . . colorful description, but a well-known phenomenon. Unfortunately there are a number of beings that can offer such bargains, and each of them will be somewhat different in terms of how they are to be dealt with. And several, I am afraid, that could potentially be using mirrors."

Seika looked thoughtful. "But these things aren't just going to be randomly popping up in mirrors, right? I mean, if they did, the chances they'll just freak people out is huge, and that doesn't get them anywhere."

"An excellent point. If we are correct, your Cordy must have had some reason to expect to communicate with something through a mirror or similar means. She would have invoked the being. Now unless her family has some extremely old and esoteric traditions, this would mean she heard about it from someone else."

"Got it. You're saying our enemies would've introduced it as some kind of rumor and Cordy must've given it a try. Must have scared her half to death when it worked."

"Yes. But once invoked, such beings already have some small hold upon you. It is not easy to simply turn away and leave them, or to avoid summoning them again." He frowned. "And for many of them, a true attempt to reject them once a pact has been made is very dangerous."

"Crap. So Cordy is in danger—"

"Or others may be, if Cordy is persuaded to continue to work with this being."

In danger. The words nagged at her, and suddenly she remembered the announcement. "Oh my God."

"What is it, Holly?"

"Dad—Silvertail—these things, can they kill people?"

"Some of them certainly can, if that is the request made."

"Someone at our school just died. They announced it this morning."

He leaned forward. "What? Give me the details."

"Don't have many details, but . . ." She thought back and quoted the announcement as best she remembered it. Seika corrected her phrasing slightly.

Trayne Owen looked very grave now. "That fits with Cordy's reaction, and with several possible causes. Holly, you and Seika stay here. I must go examine that bathroom immediately, and I have a far better chance of doing that unobserved than either or both of you."

"But what if something does see you?"

"I have become extremely good at escaping over the millennia, Holly. Had I not, this war would have come to a very bad end a long, long time ago." He strode to the door. "I assume I will know more this evening once I return, but in any case, you must discover how Cordy heard of this phenomenon, and if possible find a way to talk to her, to keep an eye on her. For almost all of these beings will try to increase their hold upon their victim . . . and expend their victim's own soul and will in the process."

As the door closed, Holly and Seika exchanged glances, and she knew what the other was thinking. The last attack was obvious.

     But now our enemy's getting smarter.

 

Princess Holy Aura: Chapter 25

Well, now that Seika's parents hadn't killed them, life had to go on...

 

 

Chapter 25.

     "I can't believe it's this cold!" Holly said, shivering even within the thick, puffy blue coat she was wearing. "It was seventy three days ago!"

"Welcome to New York," Tierra said with a smirk, shoving the door open ahead of her and holding it to let the others pass. A tall blonde girl zipped in between Holly and Seika, muttering a quick "'Scuse me!" and then sprinted down the hallway, causing one of the guards to call ineffectually after her, "No running!"

"What was her rush?" Nikki demanded.

"Dunno," Seika said, puzzled. "That was Cordy Ingemar, she's second on the cheerleading squad. Maybe she's late for a practice."

But if that's the case she's going the long way around, Holly thought, but then shrugged. The bell had rung and they didn't have long to get to homeroom.

The usual stream of announcements was interrupted by Principal Robinson. "I am sorry to announce that one of our students, Glynnis Van Buren, has passed away due to a fatal accident late last night. We will have a moment of silence to respect her memory."

The shock of the announcement itself was enough to enforce the moment of silence; people were still absorbing it by the time the principal's somewhat gravelly voice spoke again. "The Counselling Office will be open to anyone affected by this event."

Holly was sure no one else heard any other announcements; she certainly didn't. "Who was she? I don't think I knew her," she whispered to Seika.

"Wasn't she a sophomore?"

"Yeah," said Tom Pratt from the next row over. "New on the cheerleading squad."

"God, how terrible," another girl—Dylan, Holly thought. Name I always associate with guys, but hey, things change.

The whispered conversations were still subdued; mortality had brushed close by. And a lot worse is going to happen to a lot more people if I screw all this up. Large high schools usually lost a person or two across four years; as Steve, Holly could remember one of his classmates not showing up to school and finding out that he'd had an accident with a thresher.

But it won't be accidents this year, not once our enemies get moving.

With an effort she shoved the issue out of her mind. World-saving heroine or not, she still had schoolwork to do, and until the next manifestation, she might as well do as well as she could.

Now that she was adjusting, she could apply a lot of Steve's experience. Yes, some of the methods for classroom teaching had drastically changed, but it sure didn't hurt to have those twenty extra years of knowledge. She still had to do the work, but boy did it go faster.

That did make her feel a little guilty, looking over at Seika. Holly was staying neck-and-neck with Seika in all the classes, but Seika didn't have Steve in the back of her head; she was doing it with inherent brilliance and focused determination.

Eh, it won't matter. She won't be competing with me when the real timeline comes around.

Of course, that would mean that she wouldn't be Holly's friend any more, and the thought hurt. That was another feeling to shove away, though. Neither of us will remember it. It won't matter.

But somehow, that made this friendship all the more important.

Mrs. Rizzo greeted them with a pop quiz, plopping sheets of paper facedown on their desks. "Keep them facedown until I finish explaining. I see you trying to peek, Gerald! There are five questions on this sheet. You will choose three and answer them. They are essay questions"—a weak groan rose from the class—"but not long essays. One or two paragraphs should be enough. You will mark the chosen questions by circling the number. If you have time and want to try, you may select one of the other two questions for extra credit; mark that one with a square. And don't forget to fill in name, grade, and class at the top or I'll dock you ten points for laziness! You have thirty minutes. Now . . . begin!"

Biology questions were easy, and Holly finished the selected three in fifteen minutes, picked a fourth, and finished that well before time was up. She put down her pencil at about the same time Seika did.

"Did you do an extra credit? Which one?" Seika asked as they left the class.

"Sure, number four. Right after I finished the one about the Coelenterata."

"You mean the Cnidaria," Seika corrected her.

"Aaaaaugh!" Holly smacked her forehead. "Damn my . . ."—she barely caught herself in time—"my dad's old-fashioned books! Rizzo hates people getting the names wrong!"

Seika's smile was at least somewhat sympathetic. "I know, but what can you do? At least you can afford to lose a few points, right?"

Holly rolled her eyes. "I guess, but still . . . ugh! What a stupid mistake!"

The mood around the school was still subdued by the time lunch rolled around, but sitting with their little group lightened things. "Meeting still on for tonight?" Tierra asked.

"Far as I know. Nikki? Didn't you say something about having to cut out early?"

Nikki tossed back her now-violet-dyed hair and shook her head. "My parents were going to go out which would've stuck me with Jill and Aaron, but the people they were going with called this morning and said they were sick, so no, I'm good!"

Caitlin reached out and snagged the pickle spear off of Seika's plate. "Hey!"

"Oh hey, what? You never eat your pickles!"

"You could ask!"

"Too late, I'm already eating it." Caitlin made a big show of stuffing the whole spear in her mouth, making all of them break up.

Of course, right now either Seika or me could blow them away in the eating department. The worst trial school currently presented was that they couldn't eat as much as they wanted to without making spectacles of themselves. Seika had discovered that the day after her first transformation. She didn't quite keep up with Holly in the eating department, but she was now eating more than anyone else in her house, easily.

"Um . . . excuse me?"

The voice was as completely familiar as it was unexpected, so Holly jumped a little in her seat. Luckily so did the others.

Richard Dexter Armitage stood there, a few feet away, looking uncertain and nervous. His eyes flicked toward Holly then looked around at the others, then down at his feet.

"What is it?" Tierra asked. "Who're you? No, wait . . . you're in junior year, right?"

"Yeah. Dex, Dex Armitage. Sorry to bother you, but, um . . ."

"Well, go on," Nikki said. Holly was still trying to figure out how to react. His nervousness was making Holly nervous. What's wrong with me?

"Well,"—Dex took a deep breath—"I, um, heard you guys talking a couple times and then saw you'd started a new club and it was about Steampunk Adventure, and it's role-playing and I really like gaming and my old group broke up and I was wondering if I could join yours, but I mean it's okay if I can't, because I don't want to push, you know, and maybe you just wanted it for your own group so maybe this was a bad idea, you know, maybe I should just forget it, sorry, um . . ." The whole huge unfinished sentence exploded out of him like foam from a shaken soda bottle, and the blond-haired skinny form was already partly turning away.

Caitlin blinked and Nikki giggled—not unkindly, but Dex's cheeks went visibly pink. Jesus, I'd forgotten how utterly terrible Dex was with people he didn't know. Once he knows you he's sometimes too loud and sure of himself, but before?

Holly held up her hand. "Hey, don't run off yet, we didn't even say yes, no, or maybe. Give us a chance before you decide for us, huh?"

"Oh. Uh, yeah, sorry." He went even pinker and winced. "Sorry. Sorry, I'm really, you know, bad at this."

"Dork," muttered Tierra, but her tone was more sympathetic than the word would imply.

"So you're asking if you could join the game, right?"

"Right." Dex straightened the slightest bit, and caught himself before he apologized again.

"You game already?" Seika asked. "We're using the Spirit of the Century rules with some mods, you know it?"

"Oh, yeah, cool system," Dex said, some animation entering his voice. "Like the character generation, the way it links characters together."

Holly could see Seika relax a little. That was the right reaction, Dex; showed you're 'one of us,' and did it by mentioning one of the parts of the system that isn't about kicking people's asses.

"I dunno," Tierra said. "We've got a lot of players already . . ."

"But you've got a couple NPCs you're always relying on," Holly pointed out. "If Dex could play someone that'd take their place—"

"That's mostly a support role, though," Nikki mused. "Don't know if—"

"Hey, I'll try anything," Dex said, then winced again. "Sorry, didn't meant to interrupt."

"At least you recognized it before I kicked you."

"Sor—"

"You can't join if every third word out of your mouth is 'sorry,' though," said Seika emphatically.

"Sor—" Dex broke off and then burst out laughing.

Never noticed he has such a bright smile before. It lights a room.

"Okay," Dex said. "I, um, apologize for interrupting your lunch, but does this mean . . ."

Holly looked around. "Well . . . all in favor of giving Dex a chance?"

Seika and Nikki's hands went up immediately; after a moment, the other two joined. Holly raised hers. "It's unanimous, you can join. Provisional member. We'll see how it works out. Okay?"

"Great! I mean, I'll try really hard." He ran his fingers distractedly through the long golden hair. "Guess a support role's a good idea. My . . . old GM, he told me I needed to learn to not be a star all the time. Bet he was right. Usually was."

The sadness in his voice made Holly's gut tighten. Wow, I'm haunting myself while I'm still here, even.

"Okay, then we'll see you tonight right after school."

"Great! I mean, really! I've got my books in my locker, I'll bring 'em!" Dex practically skipped away, clearly buoyed by relief that he hadn't completely messed things up.

"This'll be okay, right?" Caitlin asked, looking a bit uncertain.

"Dex? I think he's fairly harmless," Tierra said. "Plus they've got the guards staying after now for all activities, after the freakshow last month."

"We'll see. If he doesn't work out, he goes. No problem," Holly said.

They had to finish eating a little faster to make up for the conversation, and then there were the afternoon classes. In the middle of English, Holly found herself unable to wait; nature was calling with an urgency she didn't recall from Steve's prior life. Dr. Beardsley granted her a grudging pass to go to the bathroom.

As she put her hand on the handle, Holly became aware of someone speaking inside the bathroom; it would've been completely inaudible during a change of classes, and even now it was faint. Whoever it was, they were speaking in very low, urgent tones.

". . . that way!" the other girl said. A pause. "I know I did, but the last time was different!" Another pause. "No. Why can't you fix it?"

Talking on a cell phone?

"No," the voice said, and the girl sounded horrified. "Go away."

Holly gripped the door handle again. Somehow she had a feeling she should enter. "Go away"? Is that something you say to someone on a phone?

"No, I mean it! Go! Don't come back! I never want to speak to you again!"

There was a rushing sound of footsteps and Holly barely stepped back in time to avoid the door as it whipped open and Cordy Ingemar ran out. She was already turning to run down the hallway and didn't even notice Holly standing there, but even from the side Holly could see glittering tracks of tears on her face.

Cordy also wasn't carrying a cell phone.

Holly went inside cautiously, the hair on the nape of her neck stirring, goosebumps rising on her arms. On the counter was a small purse, with a smartphone's shape visible—a phone sealed inside a zipped inner pocket. Cordy wouldn't have had nearly enough time to put that there.

She looked around, tense, listening, watching. All was silent. The broad mirrors reflected the empty stalls.

There was no one there at all.

 

 

Princess Holy Aura: Chapter 24

They were explaining the situation to Seika's parents...

-----

 

 

Chapter 24.

"Both died a while back, honestly. Look, I know this is all crazy and you're going to need a lot of time to adjust, but there's one more big bomb we've got to drop on you."

"Another?" Dave looked torn between amusement and outrage. "More than changing the whole world we've known and telling us Seika's some kind of . . . magical soldier-girl?"

"Sorry, sir, but yes, and if we don't tell you . . . it's all about the willing sacrifice, right? I mean, you understood that part?"

"That it's what the girls . . . and maybe us parents and people like Trayne . . . have to give up, and choose to give up, that gives you the power to fight the monsters? Yes, we understand, I think," Lynn answered.

"Well, it's also about doing the right thing. And constantly choosing kids to fight the war, Silvertail . . . I mean Trayne . . . he knew it was wrong and he finally decided he had to change something. He could choose anyone to be Holy Aura, the first Apocalypse Maiden."

Lynn closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead. "Then . . . Holly, are you . . . yes, you must be. You're saying you're not what you look like either?"

"Well . . . yes and no. I'm not like Dad—Trayne. This isn't some phony form that's being kept up, I'm really like this now. And I think of myself as Holly most of the time, and I feel like Holly, and . . . I am Holly Owen." She swallowed and repeated the strange self-discovery she'd made when trying to explain to Seika. "I've been happier as Holly than I was . . . before, and that . . . kinda scares me. But that's what the bargain was, like Silvertail said. Sacrifice. The more you give up—the more you willingly risk for the sake of the world, the more power you have as an Apocalypse Maiden."

"So you're . . . an adult, really?" Lynn said, studying her. "Transformed, but originally much older?"

"Someone who could truly understand what was being asked of them," Silvertail confirmed. "I had grown heartsick and weary with having to choose half-children for a task they could hardly begin to grasp. And it finally—after far too long, but then I, too, was caught in the snare of assumptions and, as your modern world calls them, memes—finally dawned on me that I could, at the least, make the ethical choice with the first Maiden, even if there was no way to change what would play out—"

"Shit." David Cooper's curse was quietly spoken, but he had risen from his seat and was staring hard at Holly. "You wanted someone who could be a fighter, and who'd be giving up as much as possible to become this warrior-girl."

Lynn blinked, then her own incredulous gaze focused on Holly. "Oh, my God. Trayne . . . you aren't saying . . ."

Holly swallowed. "You guessed the punchline, huh. Silvertail chose an adult man this time."

Before the others could recover, Trayne Owen said, "An adult man who risked himself to protect others—a child and what he saw as a helpless animal—from a pack of unearthly monsters. A man who showed himself not merely willing to endure pain, and horror—"

"Silvertail, don't—"

"It may offend your humility—another good point—but I need to emphasize this. As I said, not merely willing to endure physical pain and horror, but able to recover quickly from the shock of having his worldview shattered when there were other lives at stake. A man who, as well, showed himself willing to subject himself to privation in order to spare others. It was a fearsome test to which I subjected him, and one very, very few would have passed . . . but Stephen Russ passed it with flying colors. And then, even knowing what it would cost him, when others were in peril, he chose to take up the Star Nebula Brooch and become—irrevocably—Princess Holy Aura."

Holly felt her face flaming red, the heat burning in her cheeks so intensely that she thought her whole head might melt. Seika looked at her. "Wait, you never told me about this test or whatever!"

"Seriously," Mr. Cooper said, still staring, "you . . . Holly . . . you're actually a . . ."

"I'm actually what you see." Couldn't hurt to emphasize that. "But I started as Stephen Russ, and yes, I can still go back to that . . . to him. To the old me. Crap, how do you even discuss this? Anyway,"—she braced herself, both for their possible reactions and for the old sensations that she was no longer looking forward to—"heeeere's Stevie!"

It was a real jolt looking at the Coopers as he materialized. For a split second their eyes were still focused on where Holly's eyes had been—which was somewhere on Steve's chest. And while Mr. Cooper was still taller than Steve, the black eyes that rose in shock to meet his were very close to his own level, while Mrs. Cooper looked up from what felt like a very long way down.

"You . . . this is your real shape? You're really . . . this is you?"

Unsurprisingly, David Cooper was having some trouble forming coherent sentences. Steve didn't smile; there was nothing actually funny in this situation. "Well . . . no and yes, sir. I was born like this. Well, not grown up. But I was born Stephen Russ. Holly Owen's just as real and—right now—she's more real me than this is. This feels like I'm wearing a huge fat suit."

The Coopers didn't say anything immediately, so he went on. "But . . . I guess I'd end up feeling like this was normal again if I went back to it for a few months. The magic does make it feel more natural to be Holly or Holy Aura, though. There's . . . traces, I guess, of the prior Holy Auras, and they help the new one learn the ropes faster. Which really freaked me out even while it was helping me."

They were silent for a moment, and then Mr. Cooper said, "All right. Steve—I can call you Steve, right?"

Tone's awfully calm. "When I'm like this—which I probably won't be very often—sure."

"Steve, would you come out back? I'd like to talk to you in private." He glanced meaningfully at Trayne, who hesitated, then sat down.

"No problem."

"Dad—"

"Stay put, Seika."

"Do as your father says," Lynn said.

Steve preceded Mr. Cooper through the door into the darkened backyard. The air was cool but not cold, and there were only a few clouds blocking out stars above; the moon was nearly new and had gone down pretty much with the sun.

"Is that story the whole truth, Steve?" David Cooper's voice was hard and level. "Or is it that maybe you're not sacrificing as much as . . . Trayne thinks you are?"

Even being prepared for the question and insinuation didn't keep a spark of anger from flaring up. Steve damped it down hard. If Mr. Cooper hadn't had this reaction, or some form of it, he'd have been irresponsible or clueless or both. At least it didn't start out with a punch.

"You mean, am I actually a peeping tom or pedophile who hit some kind of magical jackpot?" Steve said. Technically, the geeky part of his brain noted, it'd be ephebophile. "No. I can't prove that to you, of course. But if you believe anything at all that we've told you . . . choosing someone like that would be completely against everything Silvertail's trying to accomplish. It would make Holy Aura weaker than she's ever been, and who knows, might do worse. Corrupt her. Maybe make it possible for this Azathoth of the Nine Arms to use her rather than fight her, I dunno."

"You've spent . . . a lot of time alone with my little girl," Dave said. "How do I know—"

"You don't." He sighed, sat down on the steps of the deck, looking around. A high fence surrounded the backyard, which was large—most of an acre, he guessed. The Coopers had a nice setup. "Dave, it was my idea that we tell you guys everything. The . . . well, the memes that run this whole magical girl thing usually assume it's kept secret from everyone but the girls and maybe a couple close friends. But that was wrong, and Silvertail's whole reason for choosing me instead of some girl like Seika was to do the right thing, pick someone who, like you said, was sacrificing a lot for this, and who really understood what Silvertail was asking."

He held up his hand, looking at the huge, broad expanse of the palm, the thick, powerful fingers, and found himself shuddering. Holy crap, in only a few months I've gotten myself an incredible case of body dysphoria. "Something else Silvertail didn't detail is that this whole thing is . . . well, temporary."

"What do you mean?" The voice hadn't . . . changed, exactly, but the question showed that Mr. Cooper wasn't just stewing in anger and building up to a punchfest.

"If we win—if we get all the Apocalypse Maidens together and beat Azathoth, seal the gateway or whatever again—the whole period of time when magic and monsters were rampaging through the world gets . . . run back, erased, like rewinding a tape. I won't remember, you won't, no one will."

"Really?"

"Silvertail says so, and given that everything else he's told me has checked out, I'm not going to doubt him on that. But it's not like we risk this for no reward; he says that if we succeed, we get, well, blessed. Things will work out really good for all of us in the regular timeline, no matter how bad they were or might have gotten before. As long as," he said, emphasizing the words, "as long as we're still alive at the end. Because anyone who gets killed by our enemies will be dead in the new timeline, they'll just be recorded as dying of some mundane cause."

A long silence. Steve didn't move or say anything more for a while, just stared up at the stars and remembered the vision he'd seen as Holy Aura of the cosmos and how it all connected.

"What do you want us to do?" David Cooper said finally.

"Just . . . know, for the most part. Realize that sometimes we'll have to run off to do the superhero thing, and help cover for us. Otherwise just let us keep going as we were, perfectly normal."

"Including my daughter spending time at your house?"

Steve sighed. He was so tempted to just turn back to Holly—he wanted to go back to being Holly to a frightening degree—but if he did that now it'd look like he was trying to manipulate Mr. Cooper. "We . . . Holly and Seika . . . are friends. That's not a lie and it's not a trick. So yes, I'd like that. She would too. She's already learned the truth, we've gone over it, she's accepted that that's Holly's past. And she knows that if I did try anything on her as Steve, she could kick my ass as Radiance Blaze."

A blink, barely visible in the gloom. "She . . . she could?"

Steve gave a genuine laugh. "You still don't quite get it, do you? That wasn't just a light show in there, Dave. Your daughter's a genuine, bona fide, one hundred percent superhero as Radiance Blaze, and as Steve Russ, I'm just a big ordinary guy. I can't do anything superhuman in this shape. Radiance Blaze could probably lift your house off its foundations with her bare hands." He recalled the various feats of speed and strength he'd done as Holy Aura, remembered the lightning-fast speed and power of Radiance Blaze. "She might be stronger than Holy Aura, though not more powerful overall."

"Damnation." Cooper was silent for a moment. "Don't suppose I could get her to help me rebuild that stone fence next week."

The sheer relief made the feeble joke a hundred times funnier than it really was, and Steve found himself laughing until his sides hurt; Dave chuckled alongside him.

"Can I change back, Dave? To Holly?"

"I . . . guess. Now."

Being back in Holly's body flooded him with energy, a young energy that was an astounding reminder of the difference. She felt so light and right again. Holy Jebus, I really am separating from my past. "You mean now that you don't think you have to punch Steve's lights out?"

"Don't suppose I'd have been able to anyway; could've just turned into that Holy Aura and whipped me, right?"

"I could, but I wouldn't. If you wanted to punch out me-as-Steve just on general principles I'd already decided I'd just stand there and take it. I wasn't going to fight my best friend's dad."

"You mean that? The 'best friend' part."

"So much it scares the hell out of the part of me that's Steve. Yeah. The worst part of that attack on the school was knowing Seika was in danger . . . and realizing that if she became one of the Maidens she'd always be in danger. If there was some way for me to do this alone, I would. If there was a way for me to take that power away so that she'd be out of the firing line, I would, too. Though she'd probably hate me for it." She looked up at the same stars Steve had, and realized she could see them twice as bright, twice as clear. "But at the same time I was so happy that I'd be able to finally share the secret with someone I cared about."

"I guess your . . . old life had to be left behind."

"Yeah. No more job at the bagel shop, no more of my bachelor pad nights. Just early bedtimes and homework."

Cooper shook his head. "Well . . . Holly, this is going to take a lot of getting used to . . . but you're going to be Holly, right?" He started back toward the house.

"Except when I have to do explanations like this, or if some emergency happened that required me to change, yes, sir. I'm Holly pretty much for good now, until we win this war."

The living room seemed almost to have been in a time stop while they were gone; Seika, Trayne, and Lynn were in the same positions, sitting tense and silent, as they had been when the two left. Seika jumped to her feet. "Dad . . . ?"

"It's all right," David Cooper said, speaking more to his wife than Seika.

"Are you sure, Dave?"

"Pretty sure. We'll talk on it tonight. Maybe tomorrow, too. But . . . I think it's okay."

Trayne stood. "Then I thank you for your patience and understanding, Mr. . . . no, David, Lynn. We will leave you to your own discussions, then. Of course, if you have any other questions I will be more than happy to answer them to the best of my ability."

"Just tell me—to my face—that my daughter's safe with . . . Holly. And you know exactly what I mean."

Trayne's face grew solemn. "Mr. Cooper, your daughter is safer with Holly, and myself, than almost anywhere else on Earth. In all ways, save only one: that she has the responsibilities of an Apocalypse Maiden, and that risk, alas, none can shield her from."

"All right, then. We'll call you if we have any questions."

Holly and Trayne walked out the front door with normal, if slightly stilted, goodbyes from the family. Getting into the car, Holly let her breath out with a whoosh. "OhGodOhGodOhGod I was so terrified they'd freak out!"

"That did, indeed, go . . . excellently well," Silvertail said. "Possibly the magic works for us in the sense that the Maidens must remain able to work together, and thus there cannot be too many internal forces working against us." He put the car in gear. "But that is only the first."

"Yeah," Holly said as the car rumbled its way down the street. "One down, three to go."

 

 

 

 

Princess Holy Aura: Chapter 23

As Seika had noted, telling her parents was going to be the hard part of this...

 

 

 

Chapter 23.

     "Well, Trayne? You called this meeting, it's your show," Mrs. Cooper said. "Little Van's over with one of his friends for the night." Marilynn Cooper was almost as petite as her husband was huge, but she had her daughter's sharp gaze and an adult aura of responsibility. Both parents are formidable, Silvertail thought. And both must be our allies in what is to come.

He thought of how badly this could end, and cringed internally. Yet Steve-Holly had been right. This was the right way to handle the situation, to bear the standard of light. Truth.

"Thank you, Marilynn."

"Oh, just call me Lynn, please."

"Then thank you, Lynn." He looked around the moderate-sized living room of the Coopers and made sure his thoughts were arranged precisely; Holly looked nervously at him from her nearby seat on a floral-print chair. And at least the youngest child is not here; I suspect Lynn recognized there was some serious aspect to this meeting. "This has to do with that . . . incident at the school."

"You know something more about it?" Dave Cooper asked curiously. "Because all I know about it is what Seika's told me and the say-nothing press releases. Which scares the hell out of me and Lynn."

"Yes, I do," he said. "And we're right to be scared. This and those . . . other monster sightings, they're connected, as I am sure you've guessed."

"Cop we talked to . . . Gilbert, I think? . . . anyway, he as much as said so. But you know they are?"

"I do. And . . . this is going to be very, shall we say, challenging to explain."

"You aren't responsible for these . . . events?" Lynn asked pointedly.

He laughed; it was a small laugh but real enough. "Rather the opposite, actually. I am involved in trying to put a stop to them."

"You're with the police? Or some other government agency, the FBI?"

"I am afraid not. For the most part law enforcement has neither the knowledge nor the resources to oppose these things, and the few that have any of either do not fully understand what they are dealing with, or have mistaken ideas of the proper way to deal with them, and so are unfortunately prone to making the situation worse rather than better."

The two were now regarding him with the wariness often accorded those that were suspected of being less than sane. Or who are saying things that speak to fears that one would rather not face. "Holly, Seika, I think you two girls should go somewhere else," Dave said slowly. "Why don't you—"

"This involves us, Daddy," Seika said in a small voice.

"We were there," Holly added.

"I'm not sure—" began Dave.

Lynn held up a hand and her husband stopped. "Girls . . . you know what he's here to talk to us about?"

"Yes, ma'am," Holly said; her nervousness was unmistakable.

"Yes, Mom."

David and Lynn rose from their seats simultaneously. "You talked about . . . this to our daughter before you talked to us?" Lynn's eyes were narrow below her short-cropped hair, and Silvertail could see her—quite justified—anger rising.

"It was not something I had choice in. As you will see if you will allow me to continue."

Both Coopers looked at him very carefully, then at the two girls. Finally they both sat down, slowly. "All right. Go ahead, then. But I am not comfortable with this."

"If you were, I would be most concerned. You should be uncomfortable about this, and I am afraid it will not grow easier." He took a breath, let it out slowly, trying to breathe tension out of himself as he did so. "First, I want to make sure you understand this: those reports—of the rock-worm monster at that shopping center, and of the creature at the mall—are not exaggerations. They are not delusions, ill-considered publicity stunts, or any form of mistaken identity. In those two events—and the one that took place last week at Whitney High School—mankind was confronted by supernatural adversaries. If you cannot at least accept that as a possibility, my explanations will be meaningless."

The Coopers looked at each other, shifting uncomfortably. Finally Dave nodded. "Friend of mine was at the mall that day. He's still pretty freaked out. I believe you, that much anyway. So you . . . what, hunt these things, like that show Supernatural?"

"In a sense, yes. It is not that simple or direct." He considered how to continue. "Under normal circumstances, these powers cannot enter our world for more than the most fleeting of moments. Every so often, in intervals generally measured in centuries, however, conditions permit them to attempt to enter this portion of reality."

"You mean 'when the stars are right'?" Lynn said with an eyebrow that was raised in a half-humorous, half-frightened expression.

"That is as good a phrase as any, yes."

Lynn closed her eyes; Dave looked slightly confused. "And you try to . . . what? Make the stars not right?"

"Say rather that I am charged with finding a way to shut the door that the stars have opened, before what lies in wait behind that door can pass through fully. Thus far . . . I have succeeded."

"Whoa, hold on," Dave Cooper said. "Centuries. You . . . You're saying you're—"

"—much, much older than I appear. Yes. I am in fact old enough to have watched not merely this country, but all of the countries you have ever heard of rise and fall." He had decided there was absolutely no point in minimizing this. The Coopers—and whatever other families might follow them—had to understand the stakes and the sheer scale of the threats that loomed over them.

"That . . . do you understand that you're sounding, well, crazy, Trayne?"

"I understand very well what it sounds like. But consider my words in the context of the monsters you concede do exist, and the fact that this threat has reached the high school your oldest child attends. There are uncountable lives at stake here, and I have neither time, nor honestly the right, to dissemble overmuch on this situation."

The two were again silent. Lynn finally said, "All of these things . . . they've happened here. Near here."

"And will, in general, continue to do so. Although there are indications that the rest of the world will begin to see sporadic events as well. There are other . . . powers, shall we say, which are becoming active with the gateway beginning to open. But they will be far less common than events here, and if—I must emphasize, if—my efforts are successful here, the mundane world that you remember will return."

"So we could just . . . move. It wouldn't be easy, but we could pack up, Dave could transfer to—"

"I am afraid it is too late for that," Silvertail interrupted. "Was too late some months ago, in fact. Oh, you could move . . . but that would not release you from your involvement in this."

"What involvement?" Lynn paused and shook her head. "No, wait. First I want some evidence, something to show me why I shouldn't be calling CPS to get your daughter away from a lunatic."

"Very well. My powers are relatively limited when not directed against my particular adversaries. Nonetheless . . ." He smiled wryly and gestured, muttering words he remembered from childhood.

The serving tray, with its assortment of cheese, crackers, and other little snacks, suddenly lifted from the table, floated up nearly to the ceiling, and then described a smooth arc all the way around the room before returning to its place directly in front of the wide-eyed Coopers. "Cool," Seika and Holly breathed.

"Obviously," he said, "this does not prove my essential benevolence or other points of my narrative, but it certainly should show that my contention of being something other than an ordinary human being is true. If you want proof that these monsters exist, or that I fight them . . . I must confess that you will get that eventually, but the exact moment of such proof lies beyond my control, alas. I can neither predict nor direct their manifestations, and you should really be more prepared before confronting such things in any case."

"I'm not sure I was prepared for that! Holy shit, Lynn, did you see that?"

"I saw it, Dave." She reached out, touched one of the crackers as though to verify that it was still there, withdrew her hand and then picked up the iced tea she'd brought with her, sipped at it in silence for long moments. "All right, Trayne. Tell us what you have to. I'm convinced you're not crazy."

Thank goodness. He had hoped they would be basically rational people—given Seika's overall levelheadedness, it had appeared likely—but even very rational people did not always deal well with the apparently irrational.

"The story begins many thousands of years ago, in a land that you would call Lemuria," he began. He carefully summarized the background, including how he and the others of Lemuria had finally devised a weapon capable of defeating and sealing away Azathoth of the Nine Arms, but left out—for now—the details of exactly what that weapon was. He finished with a description of how this had led to the repeating cycle of confrontations.

I am so sorely tempted to use just the slightest of enchantments to make them receptive, willing to believe and trust . . . but I must not. Steve was unfortunately all too right; either we do this the right way, or we weaken ourselves in the very way we can least afford.

Lynn's eyes sharpened their gaze and darted from him to Holly to Seika, and the resemblance between mother and daughter was incredibly strong. "Your daughter and ours . . . we can't just move away because they are connected to this somehow. Tell me I'm wrong."

He tried to smile, but the weight of worry prevented it. "I wish I could, Lynn. But you are correct. Holly and Seika are a part of this, and that is why there would be no point in your moving. Danger would follow you wherever you went."

Despite his dark complexion—even darker than Seika's—Dave visibly paled. "My God." He pointed at Holly. "Holly Owen . . . Holy Aura."

"What?" Lynn said, puzzled.

"That's . . . my friend, Martin, he said that's what the girl that took the monster down called herself, Princess Holy Aura. And so . . ."

Holly bowed her head. "You're as sharp as Seika, both of you."

Lynn shot to her feet. "Oh, no, you did not! Your weapon is not—"

"Yes," he said quietly. "It is, I am afraid. And the first to carry that terrible responsibility was my own daughter, when Lemuria was lost. I know exactly what you are feeling, Lynn, David. Believe me, I do. My daughter . . . and her friends . . . knew what they were volunteering for, and we knew it was the only way to save the human species from extinction. And still it tore out our hearts to do it, and I am the only one living who remembers what it was to first forge my child into a weapon." He tried to keep his tone quiet, level, but he heard his voice tremble, as it always had . . . and, he thought, always would . . . at the pride and pain of that memory.

"Seika? Honey, you aren't—"

"We both are, Mom," Seika said. And with just a glance between them, the two girls stood up.

"To avert the Apocalypse, and shield the innocent from evil," they began, and a glow started up about them, one white as sunlight on water, one red as gold in fire, "and stand against the powers of destruction, I offer myself as wielder and weapon, as symbol and sword!"

"Mistress of the spirit," Holly said, the light beginning to rise about her form.

"Mistress of the flame," said Seika at the same moment, red-orange light burning its way up her body, the two perfectly synchronized.

"Bane of winter, I am the Apocalypse Maiden, Princess Radiance Blaze!"

"Ruler of the stars beyond, Mystic Galaxy Defender, Princess Holy Aura!"

The double transformation detonated like a silent bomb of light, shaking the house, and when the fire-touched white light faded, both Apocalypse Maidens stood before the stunned Coopers.

Lynn was the first to speak. Taking a shaky step forward, she stared at the taller, slender figure before her. "Seika?"

"It's . . . me, Mom," Radiance Blaze said hesitantly. For those who knew Seika, the similarity was clear in the voice, yet it was a voice with more power and clarity than Seika Cooper herself could ever have mustered, and no one who did not know Seika well would ever associate the two voices.

"It . . . is you. My God. And . . . yes, that's Holly. But the two of you are so . . ."

"I know," Holly said instantly. "It's kinda . . . annoying. But the power works that way, hooks onto what people expect and believe."

"I see." Both Lynn and Dave stared for a few moments, then turned back to Trayne Owen. "Why?"

He didn't pretend to misunderstand. He told them: the symbolism of the half-child, half-adult, the power of willing sacrifice and courage, the prices that had to be paid, the cycles that repeated and were wiped from the memory of the world. During the narration, the girls dismissed the Apocalypse Maiden forms and returned to their mortal selves. Best that way. Now that the point is made, no need to push it farther . . . and even with my preparations, it is possible our adversaries might have detected the transformations.

Lynn nodded slowly; unwillingly, so did Dave. "So," he said after Silvertail had paused, "so, what did you sacrifice?"

"Besides having to allow my daughter to make this choice, and help her make it, you mean?"

"Yeah. 'Cause to be honest, Trayne, that's really mostly her sacrifice. No matter how much it hurts a parent. Right?"

"You are absolutely correct, Dave. And I am pleased to hear you say it that way. What did I sacrifice?" He smiled with an unavoidably bitter edge. "Most of my humanity. Literally. What you see in front of you . . . is magically maintained. Most of my remaining power goes into keeping this false front working. If I need to work any significant magic, I have to let it drop."

"What do you mean?" Lynn and David shifted slightly backward, away from him. "What are you, then?"

"Nothing . . . horrific. Though there are people afraid of what I am, it's nothing to do with looking terribly dangerous. As you ask . . ." He allowed his false front to dissolve.

Seika's parents simply stared, as Silvertail bowed. "This is what I am reduced to. And at that, I was fortunate; of the thirteen in the circle, the thirteen most powerful magicians in all Lemuria, I am the only one who survived at all, and that because the enchantment required a living, constant lynchpin to keep it active. My friends and I understood we would be consumed by the power we summoned."

He let them stare a moment longer, then resumed his human form. "This is . . . a real form, in the sense that it is physical, but most of my remaining strength is used in keeping it real."

They were both silent for moments, then Dave finally stirred. "Well . . . Trayne . . . I . . . I think we really need to think this whole thing over. You said there's several of these Apocalypse Maidens? So you're going to have to do this with other parents?"

"I believe you begin to see our problem, yes."

"Hell, I wouldn't want to try to explain this to anyone. And they're all students at Whitney?"

"In all vast probability, yes."

"Can you—"

"—remove the enchantment? No. Unfortunately while I can select the first Maiden, the remainder proceeds utterly out of my control. I will attempt to guide and train them as they emerge, but I can neither select which girls will be the next Maidens, nor shift that selection if the chosen girl attempts to reject it. Seika Cooper is Princess Radiance Blaze, and there is no power on Earth or the heavens that can change that, nor that could have prevented her awakening when she came to the assistance of her friend."

"Wait, what was that?"

"Well, Dad, we didn't tell the police the truth about that!" Seika said with a hint of tense exasperation.

Holly and Seika then summarized the true events behind that battle at the school. Silvertail caught the Coopers' eyes. "Be proud of your daughter, both of you. She made a choice to protect her friend, a choice of great courage and personal risk, and it is undoubtedly that spirit that led to her being chosen as Princess Radiance Blaze."

He could see they were looking at their daughter with a new perspective, and felt himself relaxing. There is of course one more great hurdle, but these people, at least, understand the idea of choice and responsibility, and are glad their daughter does as well.

"Holly's not actually your daughter," Lynn said suddenly.

He raised an eyebrow. "You are correct. But might I ask—"

Dave Cooper answered. "'Cause we could hear what losing your real daughter did to you. I can't imagine a decent man then being able to go out and have another daughter and raise her into this. Hard enough to pick kids for the job, I'd think." His voice was tense and his phrasing clipped.

"You . . . understand me well, it would seem. Yes. Though in truth I rarely have had the opportunity; the power to return my old body to reality long enough to be useful is rarely available unless the cycle has begun again, and then I hardly have time for dalliance. But on the occasions it was possible . . . no, I would not have done that to either a new wife nor to any child we might have had. I would not raise a child to be a tool, and in the end that is what it would be if I allowed it to happen."

"So what happened to your parents, Holly?"

Silvertail saw Holly set her jaw in a very Steve-like manner. Yes, this is the time.

But may the gods protect us if we cannot get through this part of the tale.