“This is it. Spook central, population: zilch,” Carry-On said, scratching the craggy landscape with their bare toes
.
“What could those people need in a place like this?” Lakshmi muttered as she tapped her claw against her lower lip.
“Yeah, all the money in the world and they wanna get their crummy mitts on this dump?” Carry-On sniffed and spat on the old wooden steps that led up to the aged porch. The pair stood before a mansion that was shaped like an abandoned dream of grandeur, left to languish in obscurity after neglect and regret.
This was the next clue in Lakshmi’s sole crusade against the DNAlchemy Corporation and every step she took in that journey pained her spirit as much as it invigorated her.
“I don’t have a doubt in my mind that the researcher that lived here was working on the stone!” Lakshmi said with a raised fist.
“Ya know sweetheart, maybe outta consider havin’ more doubts,” Carry-On said with a cheeky grin. But Lakshmi ignored this and started making her way to the mansion door. Carry-On’s pupils shrank and swiftly clapped their paw on Lakshmi’s pauldron. She stopped immediately and turned to see Carry-On’s quivering muzzle and grimace of anxiety.
“What’s the meaning of this…?” Lakshmi asked patiently, foot slowly tapping on one of the porch steps.
“Hey pal, maybe we oughta, like, take it easy with this one. Be all caution-like, ya know?”
“Carry-On, I have never known you to avoid stepping in. Anywhere.” Lakshmi said with a deadpan only an old friend could convey. “You have never met a premises you wouldn’t hesitate to trespass.”
“Ain’t got proof a’ that,” Carry-On lied. “I’mma legitimate rogue, ya know!”
“Changing the subject will not stop me. What’s wrong?” Lakshmi said as her eyes narrowed. She stared straight into Carry-On’s big silver eyes that seemed to shiver under gaze. Carry-On had to flinch.
“It’s.. I can smell it,” Carry-On said as their big black wet nose twitched. “It’s beat us here…I can smell it…”
Lakshmi’s eyes widened. She knew what Carry-On meant. The beast was here. The beast that escaped from that village they had tried to save. The village was saved, but not by them. Not directly. But the girl who did most of the work would never be the same. That girl was banished. And for her aide, so was Lakshmi, but from something much greater than the village. Would she ever again be able to kneel before the order again? And raise her hammer in righteous glory for the honor of good deeds and the smiteing of wrong action? Would she ever see the swelling pride of her grand cardinal and award her a parish for her distributing justice?
Not while the beast was out there.
“Then we have to go in!” Lakshmi finally shouted. “We don’t have a choice anymore!” Carry-On’s fluffy tail stiffened right up as they put both paws on Lakshmi’s shoulders.
“We can’t go in there! You’re scared outta freakin’ mind out here!”
“Don’t you dare project on me!”
“I ain’t projettin’ nothin’! After all the otha’ times I know ya’ scared!”
“Then let me face my fear in defiance of that creature!”
They breathed heavily, staring dead eyed at each other as they got their frustrations out. Then they both slouched and turned to face the mansion. Lakshmi drew her hammer, hanging it from her hand by its strap. Its handle was short but its head was huge and square like a sledgehammer. Carry-On loosened the buttons on their vest and started subbing their claws against it.
“I’m wit’ ya, but I don’t like it,” Carry-On said with a resigned grin.
“You never do,” Lakshmi said, not at all matching the smile and instead marching straight to the mansion door.
“Yeah, I’m a real pal like that. Maybe more than you,” Carry-On grunted sarcastically as they brought up the rear.
The front door wasn’t much to look at, it almost stood out in how unmarred it was. Lakshmi reached to open it, but as though it had read her thoughts, it turned inward and opened its maw to a purple grey foyer. Before them was a double staircase, half of it rotted into a massive hole that hopefully led to the basement. The other side was just a little rickety and blanketed with cobwebs and dust. Which could be said for the high ceiling with its cracked hanging chandelier, the balcony that surrounded the upstairs like a cage, and the doors that presumably led to whatever else this house had to offer.
It was a surprise it had any illumination at all, but the windows weren’t boarded up or shuttered. This fact was the only reason why they could tell the walls were lined wall-to-wall with books. Thousands upon thousands of them, as though the building was made to house them rather than people.
“Nerd den,” Carry-On muttered as they ventured into the house.
“Only nerds would research the stone,” Lakshmi replied with a shrug. Once the two were fully in the house, the door behind them suddenly slammed. The two didn’t flinch. They just looked back at the door and then back at each other.
“Real cliche,” Lakshmi said with the contempt of a literary snob.
“I could write a betta’ movie than this,” Carry-On agreed.
Nnnneeeiiighghhrrrr
In an instant Lakshmi and Carry-On were in each other’s arms, looking around the room.
“It’s here… truly here…” Lakshmi said trying very hard not to shake as her heart was trying to escape her throat.
“I toldjya I toldjya!” Carry-On barked back with their tail between their legs.
Clop
Clop
Clop
Clop
“It’s moving,” Lakhsmi said. The pair let go of each other and Lakshmi skillfully twirled the hammer around her wrist and gripped its handle tight. “We have to find it!”
“The Thing or tha’ papers ‘bout this crummy-ass stone?” Carry-On said with a shudder.
“One will lead to the other,” Lakshmi said. “And the Philosopher’s Stone is not “crummy-ass”.” she added with a huff.
“It’s gotta be if the DNAss Corp and the… Thing, want it…”
“If the legends are true then power granted by the Philosopher’s Stone would be catastrophic to all!”
Whiiiiiiiiiinrnrnrnnnrnn
The call echoed through the house soundlessly. Lakshmi and Carry-On froze again.
“Why is it freakin’ doin’ that,” Carry-On asked in a hushed whine.
“Maybe it hears us. Maybe it is close to the knowledge of the stone. Either way, we cannot dally. We can smite this wrong together!” Lakshmi replied with her voice vibrating as she couldn’t get the creature’s noise from repeating in her head.
“Spoken like a true pal.”
There was no indication of life had dwelled here in decades. Which meant that DNAlchemy hadn’t raided the building yet. But it wouldn’t be long. They had scanned the walls of books in the foyer but there was nothing of interest. It was an extremely well maintained library of possibly every book on the subject of every element on the periodic table of elements. The second floor of the foyer was walls of books about alchemy. It was all very academic, very boring, every book seemed to look like a textbook or research paper from who knows when.
What was not boring was the layers upon layers of dust. What was very clear was how undisturbed this house was. It was very still, save for the occasional insect and the breeze coming in from the more damaged windows. No people in a long time.
No signs of the creature either.
But it was definitely here.
There was no way it wasn’t.
It had to be.
That’s what Lakshmi thought as she scanned the books. She was lucky she could focus at all on this detective work when it was in there with them. Somewhere. But she couldn't’ dwell. She had to keep the faith. The faith that would guide her to smiting wrong action. It was what she had left after the excommunication.
It was so frustrating how the order couldn’t see her fulfilling her duty as one of their active practitioners. All they saw was a big mistake that saved a village, and then wrong action against no action at all. It was wrong to preemptively strike. That was true, Lakshmi knew that and believed that in her core. But what does one do when you find plans and schemes? When the machinations come from a company? And no direct action can be found? When there’s no clear persons to stop? Answers her cardinals couldn’t give her.
Why did she help that girl? Well the why was obvious. The town was being attacked. Her name was Deb. She was lanky, maybe 17, wore strange old-fashioned clothing from another world, and had markings around and under her eyes. But those markings weren’t there when they first met. Lakshmi could see her clear as day, an almost blank dreamy expression but there was more going on behind those eyes. Deb smiled.
Lakshmi jumped with a sharp intake of breath, squeezing her battlehammer. What was she doing here? Where did she come from?
“D… Deborah Castman?” Lakshmi said slowly, grip on her hammer loosening. Deb tilted her head to the side and smiled wider. “What are you.. How did you get here?”
“Sumthin’ tha matta’?” Carry-On called from the other side of the upper foyer.
“It’s The girl from the village! It’s Deb, she’s here!”
“What? What’re you talkin’ about, I don’t smel-,”
Deb had run off towards the stairs. Lakshmi gave chase.
“What’s goin’ on? Whaddaya doin’!?” And Carry-On gave chase as well. Deb glided down the stairs and made her way into a side hall and Lakshmi was desperately right on her. She followed Deb straight through and the door slammed behind her. There was a low thud and sudden “oof”. Lakshmi stopped and looked back to see the shut door and she ran back to it. She pulled on the handle and shook it back and forth, the door rattling as she tried. It wouldn’t budge.
“What’s the big idea? Lemmie in!” Carry-On shouted as they banged on the door.
“You think I’m not trying?” Lakshi retorted as she slammed on the door with her gauntlet. What was it made of? It should have been regular old wood, right?
Clop
Clop
Clop.
Clop.
“OPEN THE FREAKIN’ DOOR! IT’S HERE” Carry-On shrieked, slams on the door becoming more and more desperate.
“NO! NO!” Lakshmi wailed as she raised her hammer and bludgeoned the door’s handle with a loud CLANKS. Tearing it down one massive chunk at a time. All the while Carry-On still banging on that door.
“Get away! GET AWAY FROM ME YA FREAK! GET OUTTAAAUG-.”
Silence.
Lakshmi raised her hammer above her head and didn’t hesitate. Saving the one from the wrongs of the other. Right Action.
“Light The Path To Wrongs. Benthandorf Unleash Right!” Lakshmi called to the god of her order. The order didn’t believe in her. But she didn’t need them to do this. Her faith was strong and she could feel it in the glow of her hand and hammer as she brought it down and the door blew clear forward off its hinges. The door soared and landed into a darkened hall with no window light to guide the way. Lakshmi rushed in. Right over the ruins of the door she destroyed. Stomping past doors and books. Breathing. Searching. Where. Where? Her eyes glowed white. The dark was no problem for demons like her. She could see the way but not what she was searching for. The hall seemed to keep going. And… Wasn’t this supposed to be the foyer?
She slowed down as the thought dawned on her. Where was she? Where was-
Deb?
Deb was standing before Lakshmi again, the strange kid seemingly unaffected by the dark.
Then she heard a voice.
And she knew that voice. But didn’t know where it came from.
“Sweetheart!”
“Carry-On?” Lakshmi shouted into the ceiling. Where had the voice come from?
“You’re gettin’ cold. N’ warm at the same time. Lemmie see if you rememba’ this.”
Clop
Clop
Clop
Clop
Lakshmi stopped breathing.
“You.” She said.
“That’s right, pal!”
“D-don’t call me that. Y-yyou havve no privilege to call me that!” Lakshmi screeched.
“Whateva’ ya say, sweetheart.” Then the thing laughed. But it wasn’t Carry-On’s laugh. It was a huffed snort.
Brugh
Brugh
Brugh
Not the voice of a human. Not the voice of a werewolf. “Nice ta’ see you both drop by. I actually needed a pair a’ hands to help me out. Ain’t easy goin’ through secret labs when ya’ shaped like I am.”
“Happy to be of service,” Lakshmi said through gritted teeth. She was a little calmer now. This meant that Carry-On was still alive somewhere “It is my duty to serve.”
“Oh and I thought this hairy thing I got was the sarcastic one, but you got some bite. Speakin’ a which.”
Clop
Lakshmi turned around and faced Deb again, who had her blank smile.
“This chick from the village where we first met. Oh the things you helped her do. Bet ya’ Benthandorfians didn’t like that. Tsk tsk tsk. Ameteur sealing magic like that? With a minor? How could ya do such a thing! With you supposed to be upholdin’ them rules n’ all?”
“What choice did we have? Your creator’s monster was unstoppable in short notice!” Lakshmi cried, burning with the memory. Why did she help the girl why didn’t she just wait? Or find backup? Why that choice of all others?
“Now her people’s thrown her out. Who knows when that thing will come outta her again n’ rampage? You could have a real chickzilla on ya hands at any time. N’ it’d be all. Your. Fault. Some pal you turned out to be.”
“Shut up!” Lakshmi roared.
“No.”
Clop
“You shut up.”
There was an inhuman bellow from behind Lakshmi and she knew it instantly. She she broke into a cold sweat as she slowly turned and saw a monster where Deb once stood. And Monster was accurate, lacking any specific animal analogues. Such was the point of its creation.
Four squinting eyes glowed red with their sights aimed directly at Lakshmi. Under its eyes were black markings. The same under Deb’s eyes. Lakshmi drew her shield.
The monster that was Deb lunged forward, teeth and a pair of lower tusks gaped at Lakshmi. She could fit her whole head in there. She raised the shield and the beast slammed into it but didn’t flinch. Lakshmi was just flung aside. She hit a wall and cracked the wood and plaster. But she was still on her feet, shield upright. Thank the smiths for light platemail. That didn’t stop her from feeling rattled. As she stopped seeing stars, Deb swung her long bladed tail. It embedded itself deep in the wall right next to Lakshmi’s pointed air. She heaved and moved away from the hulking mass. Deb bellowed again and swiped to reach for Lakshmi with her long claws.
Lakshmi swung her shield in response, deflecting the swipes. But every hit pushed her back and her shield was denting with every hit. She tried to look for an opening in the assault. Between the claws and tusks, finding somewhere to hit was essentially impossible. But she had the right distraction. Lakshmi jumped back from the latest swipe of the claw and flung her shield into the beast’s face. Surely a mindless monster wouldn’t see that coming.
Didn’t matter.
The shield was shorn into ribbons with a single swipe.
Lakshmi was defenseless.
But not offenseless.
She dove in with her hammer as the beast yelled and she yelled in response. As she went in to strike, she saw four purple eyes. Human eyes. And hesitated.
She hit the wall and was on the floor. Hammer still in hand. As she looked, the beast that was Deb placed its foot on her chest and screeched in her face.
Prevent the wrong action of murder. Right Action. She gripped her hammer tight and stared Deb in the face.
“Prevent The Act of Wrongs! Benthandorf Defend Right!” Lakshmi declared. Her faith was strong. She knew what to do.
So why wasn’t it working. Her eyes widened. She panicked. She looked at her hammer. The holy power... Where was it? She had kept the faith, hadn’t she? She defied the order but never Bethandorf’s will! Unless… She…
“Screwed up on that one. Looks like you finally fell outta ya’ god’s favor. Maybe ‘cause you were about to murder a kid you screwed up ya’self!”
No. This can’t be. She was good. It’s all she knew how to do. Only that and… Surviving.
This was frustrating. It was tiring. And she was going to die. And so would Carry-On…
Flames burst from her fingers. She let go of her hammer and let the fire consume both hands. Here she was, relying on the power of a god of an order that betrayed her. Completely ignoring her mortal power. The kind that came from a devil demon.
Lakshmi screamed.
The flames engulfed.
The flames extinguished.
Deb was gone.
There was nothing left.
The hall was scorched.
And Lakshmi was on her knees.
Why?
Just because her friend was in danger?
Did it justify this?
Did it?
“No.”
DID IT?
“NO!” Lakshmi cried. She was selfish, she thought. To save herself. She had to destroy the life of this teenaged girl.
She looked over and saw her hammer laying on the ground. What right did she have to wield it? It was all she had left. She had to leave. She took the hammer. And slammed the hammer head into the floor. And she prayed. One last time. Or she would. If any of it felt right.
How could she do that? How could she have been so powerful on her own to burn a living creature with no trace? Unless. It wasn’t real.
Clop
She was on the floor in the middle of the hall. She was fine. Unharmed. Mostly. Her hammer and shield were in hand and her back hurt. The walls were covered in dents and there were two scorch marks on the floor where her hands were. So she imagined it? Deb? The fight? Her body was flailing at ideas?
Clop
“Imaginatin’? If that’s what you wanna call just a bit of what I can do! ”
Clop
“GRAAAR!” Lakshmi roared as she swung her hammer into the wall with splintering force and a Crack!
Clop
“N’ all you do is just violence ya’ way into anythin’!”
Clop
“GNNRRAGH!” Whack!
“It really is true what they say,”
“Stop it!” Crash “Shut up!” Wham!
“When all you got is a hammer,”
“Shutupshutupshutupshutup!” Whack Whack Thwack Crack!
“Every problem looks like a fail!”
“STOP USING THEIR VOICE!” Lakshmi wailed, her ever haggard breath hung dead in the air as her eyes glowed hot white as she wildly swiveled her head. Where was the exit? There had to be an exit! It maybe an abandoned mansion, but it still had to make sense. Why was the room was so still. Why was the world so still?
Clop.
Clop.
Clop.
Clop.
“Sh-Show yourself you monster!” Lakshmi shouted as her blood ran cold from the sound.
“What a joke! What kinda rogue would I be if I went around showing people who I was?”
“Stop! Stop Using their voice!” Lakshmi screamed, tired of this mockery of Carry-On.
“I’m only usin’ the words they know, sweetheart. Ain’t you more comfortable? It’s just us, pal! Just you n’ me!”
“What did you do to them!?” Lakshmei screamed again. She breathed. It was strange. How the air had to taste. How still it was. Almost as though… It was never there at all. She sighed. “I’m sick of these mind games.”
Clop
“I never lost my faith at all.”
Clop
“I’m waking up.”
ClopClopClop
“Light The Path To Wrongs!”
ClopClopClopClopClopClopClopClopClopClopClop
“Benthandorf Reveal Right!”
From above a light shot down like a bolt from the blue and struck Lakshmi’s raised hammer. It shone with the holy light of her righteousness. She would know the truth. Even if no one else did. And the world around her changed.
The damage done to the house in the previous visions was there. But she was back at the center of the foyer. She looked up and watched as her faith led her eye up the stairs. And there was her friend at long last. And there was her tormentor at long last.
It was grotesque. A hulking beast twice the size of its typical species. Four delicate hooves and forelegs that led up to four grotesquely bulged thighs. A body the size of two barrels haphazardly put together. The color of a barrel too. A long black whipping tail with that moved lazily in the light. The front was the worst part. It’s where the neck should have been. And it technically was a neck, the neck that looked like a hunched over human torso made from more bulging veins and muscle than should be allowed to exist in this world.
And to think that it was once a horse.
This all lead up to the head. Its face. Long, horse-like, almost ordinary except in how unusually round it was before the protrusion of the muzzle. The ears were too low on the head, like a human’s. But the eyes were uncannily on the sides where they were supposed to be if this thing was truly a horse. Lakshmi looked into the eyes and gasped. And then grimaced. Because the eyes were big and silver.
So she looked to see her friend on the beast’s back. The scruffily well dressed Carry-On whose body was slightly limp but still steady on the creature. On Carry-On’s eyes were like that of an animal. But the wrong animal. The socket was almost filled to the brim with blackness. The thing that was Carry-On’s head lazily angled itself towards Lakshmi with a goofy grin.
“Hey sweetheart, how’s it been!” It was Carry-On’s voice but it was definitely not Carry-On. The only difference was that now it was real instead of the psychic echoes that were playing with her mind. “I gotta say, ya’ friend here has been the best at helpin’ me find the right books. Looks like this dump don’t got it all, but it’s got just enough to get to the next step.” the beast chuckled, using Carry-On’s body to hold 3 small tomes.
“To making the Philosopher’s Stone…” Lakshmi said gravely. “You think I won’t stop you?”
“Afta’ this pitiable show I don’t gotta worry ‘bout you. You ain’t ever gonna stop bein’ afraid of me. I make you lose your faith, and the Benthandorfian Order ain’t helpin’ you. Neitha’s ya friend right now that I got ‘em.” the beast snorted again. Lakshmi swung back to toss her hammer but paused mid-swing. The beast and Carry-On never flinched. “You ain’t ever gonna risk that. You wouldn’t be a real pal if you hurt your friend doing nothing wrong right now.” At that last comment, Lakshmi’s head erupted in flame.
“You will never use my friend’s mouth to utter that word!” She yelled as fire leaked from her mouth with every word. “No one, especially you, has earned that right! No one else, after every mistake I’ve made to fight DNAlchemy and you, has believed me a true Paladin but Carry-On.”
“You rational entities and your sentimental pride,” the beast whinnied with disgust, spitting those last two words with its actual horse mouth. “I think I might keep this vessel. Always good to have opposable thumbs.”
Lakshmi released the handle of her hammer and grabbed the strap.
“Not if I have anything to do with it,” She muttered. She spun the hammer around on its strap and raised it high, turning and turning into a blur of light. Her faith was strong and she knew that she was right.
Psychic slavery.
Robbing of personal autonomy.
Wrong Action.
“BENTHANDORF!”
