Reality Falling (The Book Wielder Saga 2) (15 page)

“What- what would you do to me? If I did tell you what you wanted to know?” he began bartering.

It always astonished Veronica how brave men could get when their cocks started doing the thinking for them. “Oh, what wouldn’t I do for you?” she said playfully, tossing the scalpel on the floor; she could see the instant relief in his eyes. She had him.

She moved back down his body, again deliberately keeping her breasts pressed against his body all the way down. “So will you tell me? Did you see Lucius that night, leaving the hotel?” Veronica asked sweetly as a school girl, as she grabbed the base of his cock firmly with one hand and licked slowly with her tongue up to the tip, where she began brushing her lips side to side against it.

The man wriggled excitedly. All his fear had been replaced with pure lust-filled animalistic desire. “I saw him, but just don’t say anything to anyone else...”

Veronica spat on his cock and positioned it in-between her breasts, making it disappear completely in her amazing cleavage. He sighed with ecstasy as she used her hands to move them up and down, but all she could think of was how Winston’s was much bigger. “My lips are sealed, I promise.”

In between a pleasure filled sigh, he breathed, “Lucius left the hotel with that blonde guy. You know, the weird one that hangs around with Winston and the Archmage all the time.” He paused to enjoy the moment. “They got into one of those strange Gloom cars with the faces and legs.”

Veronica knew it. Lewis hadn’t said fuck all about it, and she knew either him or the Archmage had taken Lucius out. It was probably the same for Brooke and Alexander, and maybe Lynette and Kavarne too. Omniosis and Lewis were separating Winston from the people closest to him, and that meant that she was next.

She undid the bonds around his legs and then brought herself face to face with the receptionist once again. Veronica could see the excitement in his face as she undid the straps around his arms, and she could feel him trying to poke his dick inside of her. Once his restraints were off, he tried putting his arms around her. Veronica slammed him against the wooden rack and hopped off onto the floor.

“What? But I thought-” the man stuttered feebly.

“You thought what?” Veronica said harshly. “I’m a married woman, the worst I do is sharesies. Now get the fuck out of here while you still can!”

The man slid off the rack, looking both terrified and extremely disappointed. He put his hands over his erect private parts as best he could, and looked around like a scared rodent for the exit. Veronica approached him. The man started shaking again, and she grabbed his shoulders and gave him a ‘gentle’ shove towards the exit.

“Keep going that way,” she said, shaking her head at the pitiful sight. “You’ll see some light. Follow it, and it will lead you to the stairs out of here.”

The man got out of her sight a lot quicker than she thought a human could move.

Veronica started to weigh up her options in her head. The first idea she came up with was to wait for Winston to return so she could have a private word, but then would Lewis and Omniosis let that happen? She decided to hold out as long as possible. She’d get some supplies together and leave for Industria at the first sign of trouble, and hopefully she’d be able to get a hold of her new husband somewhere in-between. At least she had a slight advantage; they didn’t know that she knew what they were up to, or so she hoped.

She continued running scenarios in her head as she walked into the adjoining torture room, taking a large plastic vat of industrial strength acid with her. Veronica surveyed the scene with a hint of sadistic pride. Frank hadn’t been very talkative at all, even as she’d ripped his fingernails out and cut off his toes. He’d held his tongue all throughout the barbaric removal of his limbs, skin, and innards. He’d been as silent as the grave as Veronica had slowly but surely butchered him. But she hadn’t expected him to tell her anything, for when she’d cut him at the beginning of the session, black blood that stank of death and decay had seeped from the wound. After that first cut (coupled with her vividly unpleasant memory of Mortissa’s alteration of the Inquisition troopers), she’d realised the awful truth that Gloom water could start transforming people into Alts, even without Mortissa’s needlework and Demon sorcery. Suddenly, Lewis’ overall behaviour made a lot more sense. Veronica bet her bosom on the fact that he’d been under the Archmage’s control right from the start, even if he hadn’t been fully aware of it.

Breaking the seal and removing the lid of the acid vat, Veronica began liberally coating the gore splattered room, cleansing it of the black-blooded meaty remains of Frank. Watching the acid steam as it slowly dissolved the body parts and innards from existence, Veronica wished that she’d brought some bleach along with her. It would have worked a lot faster.

Alice stirred her potion and thought about how well the meeting between the Inquisition, Trinity and Tropican powers had gone. Azalea’s new gift of swaying people had Alice wondering whether it too was magical in nature and had come along with her mysterious foresight from her half-Mage awakening. Nevertheless, thanks to her influence, all factions, gangs and every other collective group of Supernaturals, freedom fighters, or in some cases both, were now working towards a common goal alongside the Trinity of Old and Inquisition.

Alice didn’t consider their plan to be great, but it would do considering that the war was not going in their favour. The alliance of resistance movements would increase their guerrilla attacks on the Archmage’s weak points, making life for their supply movements as uncomfortable as possible, and feign attacks on Imperia and Industria City. The hope was that Omniosis would mistake their forces for being spread thin and throw too many resources at his Tropican offensive, which would cost him lots and gain him little. With the amount of preparation Azalea had put in, he would have to reallocate more and more forces to Tropica if he ever wanted to merge the world completely, and that would open up yet more areas for resistance retaliation. For the first time in a long while Alice actually felt like the war was winnable.

Azalea had assured all sides that the only person able to ‘unmerge’ the locations would be Winston, and any damage to those areas would be pointless, which had dismissed Alice’s idea to restore her Inquisition science team’s space rockets back into DVO missiles. With that new information, Alice was once again reminded of her mission from the Twins. Not only would she have to sway Winston away from his partnership with Omniosis, but she would also have to convince him to undo his work, and she still couldn’t think of a feasible way to get through to him.

Alice had left Azalea on relatively good terms. She still considered her desertion and renegade behaviour to be a capital offense against the Inquisition, but couldn’t deny that they would be lost without her actions. She arrived back on Central Isle feeling quite uplifted, but it didn’t last long.

Commander Anthony Stein, who she had left in charge of the Isle and Inquisition affairs while she was away, had come to her as soon as she had left the extremely well-guarded Catacomb entrance. The bald headed, clean shaven golem of a man had spoken gravely of the last convoy of refugee ships that had attempted to gain asylum. Alice knew what had happened before he’d even explained himself.

He told the tale Alice already had predicted in his hard monotone voice. The convoy had arrived a few days after they had lost Industria. A fleet of newly built sleek silver and white Inquisition battleships had sailed out to bar their passage, but the refugees had continued sailing towards the Isle at full speed. The Inquisition fleet checked the incoming ships with their high-tech thermal scanners, because after the brutal attack on Central Isle that had led to the assassination of Autocrat Edgar Aurelius II the whole place was more than equipped to flush out possible Gloom Freak activity. The scanners confirmed that there were large numbers of non-humans amongst the refugees. The fleet’s Admiral had radioed Commander Stein with the news and he gave the extremely difficult order back in return. The refugee ships had been completely annihilated with cannon and plasma fire.

To make matters worse, Commander Stein had more to add to his grim tale. Helicopters in the distance, flying as far out from Industria as they could with their fuel allowance, had captured the whole event on film and the footage was now the primary fuel in the anti-Inquisition propaganda machine.

Alice thanked him for his report and told him that it was a hard decision but an unavoidable one, although he didn’t look that fazed at all. She had picked him to take charge on the Isle precisely because of his uncompromising manner, and asked him to keep up the good work. She’d gone up to her room at the top of the Central Tower, slipped out of her armour and showered quickly. She had some rations and then tried to relax, tried to get some decent sleep, but her mind was so busy it wouldn’t let her drift off.

The propaganda issue was unavoidable, but she found it infuriating how people could be so stupid at times. Why couldn’t they see that they were being spoon-fed what to think? It just seemed so obvious that the Archmage and his allies were not the good guys. She had to remind herself that it didn’t matter what the people thought. Alice and the Inquisition had a duty to protect the people whether they wanted that protection or not.

Finally giving up with the futile attempt to rest, Alice radioed Stein and told him that she was leaving for the Catacombs again. Completely forgetting her place, she was stopped by Inquisition guards when she walked through the first portal under the ruins on Central Isle. Alice waited there patiently while Jonathan finally came to collect her. He was surprised to see her, but didn’t ask any questions. He told the guards it was fine and off they went.

“I want to go into the Gloom,” Alice had informed her handler. “I need to put my hammer in something’s face.”

“You sure?” He was shocked. “I mean you can if you want, we definitely need the supplies.”

“Definitely sure. If you watch the news coming from Imperia and Industria you’ll understand why,” she said through gritted teeth.

“I saw,” he said sadly. “There was nothing that could have been done. I bet you there were a ton of Freaks on those boats ready to cause more trouble for your people.”

“There was,” Alice replied. “Can you get me together some collecting kit, like before?”

“Sure,” Jonathan nodded, giving her a longing look before guiding her through some portals to a supply room.

After getting Alice another handled duffle bag filled with alchemist’s harvesting gear and storage compartments, and some guards to accompany them, they made their way through the network of underground portals to another secluded safe house. This one was in a large house on the outskirts of a tiny village in eastern Rura, in-between a seemingly endless forest, and a vast plain of crops and farmland.

“Not too long this time,” Jonathan said chidingly, preventing Alice from taking the duffle bag until she agreed.

“Not too long,” she agreed with a smile, “I promise.”

Jonathan had smiled back and handed her the bag. Alice wondered if he was the real reason for her impromptu journey into the Catacombs and Gloom.

She had kept her promise and only stayed for a short while. Jonathan had packed another ‘alchemy for beginners’ book for her that focused on energy and stamina enhancing potions, so she spent her time in the Gloom trying to grab a few ingredients off the list. It was definitely the distraction she’d needed. Instead of fretting over things she was powerless to change, she fretted over how to shoot down a Skull Crow without burning its valuable jet black feathers, killing and plucking the stingers out of Sleeper Wasps without waking up the rest of the hive, and gunning down with fiery plasma fury and smashing the crap out of dozens of killer scarecrows when she was busy picking Blackcorn seeds in the fields. She returned to reality feeling like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders, and extremely messy and ruffled.

Jonathan had offered her use of a residence, but Alice had other plans. She wasn’t ready to return just yet.

“Can you teach me how to make potions?” she asked after Jonathan took the heavy bag from her hands.

“Sure,” he grunted. “Why do you want to know? I didn’t think it was your kind of thing.”

Alice hesitated. She considered telling some sort of lie, but decided to confide in the Mage. “I don’t sleep well. Just want something to keep me busy until I’m ready to pass out, something other than worrying about the war for reality. That, and I can stick it to Cherriesa the next time she makes a dig about how I can’t make them.”

Jonathan laughed. “Okay, sure. You should definitely have a wash though. No offense, but you smell a bit... chargrilled.”

“Oh, that’s probably the smoke from burning all those scarecrow Freaks,” Alice said dismissively.

Jonathan raised his eyebrows, shocked at the blasé manner in which she approached the threats of the Gloom. “You’re one tough lady, Alice,” he complimented.

She shrugged modestly. “It’s nothing really. Just my power armour, plasma lasers and magical hammer that give me an edge in there.”

Jonathan chuckled. “I bet you never thought you’d be saying a sentence like that so casually a few months back.”

Alice shook her head as Jonathan continued to lead her to his permanent residence. “No, definitely not. It’s mad to think how fast this stuff becomes normal, but then under the circumstances I could either man-up and deal with it or have a nervous breakdown. I think I made the right choice, even if the old me would riddle me with holes in a heartbeat for being a heretical unholy traitor.”

Jonathan put his free arm around her shoulder, a gesture that was slightly dampened by her thick armour. “Everybody changes when they’re exposed to the truth behind the normal world. For what it’s worth I think you’re doing great, especially considering the amount of things you’re responsible for.”

“Thanks Jonathan,” she replied kindly.

Alice thought about getting free from under his arm as they walked through the clean stone tunnels to his place, but she couldn’t be bothered. Maybe it was just the lack of sleep making her weak, but she was tired of fighting away whatever it was that the two of them had together. She had no intentions of reacting the way a ‘normal’ Supernatural girl would to the situation, however.

When they got to his dwelling Jonathan left her and the duffle bag of reagents, so that she could get out of her armour and have a wash. She left her armour piled in the corner of his quaint living room. The underground house was a lot better furnished than the temporary dwellings she had seen, but it still felt like visiting a museum, and had a very quick bath to wash out the smell of damp burning cloth. When she got back in the living room she found that Jonathan had left her a long white and blue dress, some matching slip-on shoes and some lacy black underwear. She got changed into the fresh clothes gratefully and threw her plain old underclothes into a pile on top of her armour.

A little time later he’d knocked on the door and Alice had let him in, although she thought it was amusing considering it was his place. In one hand he had a stack of large plates covered in tinfoil and in the other was a green sack. They had taken the tinfoil off of the plates and had a quick snack of freshly cooked sliced turkey, chicken, beef and pork with some buttered fresh bread. Afterwards Jonathan had pulled out a variety of plastic and wooden containers from the sack, and invited Alice into his alchemy lab.

The lab was a medium-sized square room lined with worktables, sinks and an impressive array of scientific equipment both natural and magical. Shelves of books, vials and small drawers covered the wall space above, and there was a large hole in the ceiling that stretched upwards into pure darkness to let the fumes out.

“If I show you how to make an energy potion first, I’ll let you and your book handle a Stoneskin potion after and interrupt if necessary,” Jonathan said placing the containers out on the worktable.

“Okay, sure,” Alice agreed. She assumed Jonathan would be interrupting a lot during her attempt.

Jonathan had guided her through a basic Energy Potion, giving a well explained narrative as he completed each step. He also explained how Energy Potions were usually sought out by human Book Wielders for their trips to the Gloom and people who didn’t like sleep or coffee, and how Stoneskin potions were a Mage’s best friend when it came to combat situations as they weren’t as durable as their Vampire and Werewolf brethren. As he was squeezing the venom out of several Sleeper Wasp stingers and sprinkling pinches of Ashroom dust into his bubbling mixture, he also explained how the Trinity had been forced to close the Shadow Market. It was the Catacomb’s magic equivalent of a shopping mall, and it had been shut down and had its seller’s regents seized at the beginning of the current world crisis, as crossing into the Gloom had become extremely difficult and dangerous following Winston’s interactions with its denizens. After a few minutes of boiling, the strange mix of Gloom-based ingredients and a few real-world mixers had turned into a clear yellow fluid with sparkling purple swirls. Jonathan explained that Alchemists usually put their own unique flourish on the Potions they brewed, like an artist’s signature. Most were cosmetic embellishments, but some upped the rarity and value by adding additional beneficial effects.

He switched off his magefire stone, a flattened cone shaped rock engraved with runes and enchanted to emit a powerful blue flame on command which Alchemists used instead of gas fuelled Bunsen burners. He took his beaker of energy potion off its metal stand to cool.

“Right, your turn,” Jonathan had said chirpily to Alice as he set up a fresh set of crystal-ware for her to use.

“Okay... where do I start?” Alice asked, sounding rather dumb.

“Your book’s got the best info on potion making, on par with the best published materials or better. Where is it, anyway?” he asked curiously. Most Book Wielders were inseparable from their books.

“Oh, whoops, one moment.” She neglected her book an awful lot.

Alice quickly walked to the living room and rummaged around her pile of power armour until she found the catch that opened her thigh compartment. She pulled out the minute version of her book, upped its size until it was a large tome, and brought it into the lab.