Colin Tabor - The Fall of Ossard

He’d know where my family was!

“Stop!” I yelled, as I went for the door.

The cultist stood at a street stall, but must have sensed me, for his head snapped about.

I dropped to the cobbles.

“Wait!” Sef called out.

The cultist watched my charge, my power surging.

He just stood there.

My spirit soared as I closed. I reached out with my hands in the mortal world, and with spectral limbs that rippled with power in the celestial.

But my eager hands passed right through him.

What?

I stopped hard against the stall, its merchant staring at me in fright. I stood there in confusion, the cultist’s image fading as my celestial limbs also failed to entrap anything.

An illusion!

I looked around.

There, down an alleyway, he again stood grinning at me. His voice hissed for only me to hear, “You’ve so much to learn.” And it dragged through my mind like bog-dirty fingers.

I charged after him again, my heart thumping like a drum.

He turned and ran down a dirt alley that doubled as an open sewer, heading for the heart of Newbank’s slums.

I ran on, not caring for anything else. Every time he tried to lose me in those twisting ways, I’d just keep on.

He darted ahead and around a bend, past stalls, bleak refugees, and a pair of men betting on knuckles. I just kept going. Finally, the alleyway opened into a small square hosting a crowded local market.

I came to a stop, but couldn’t see him.

I moved through the crowd towards an alley that seemed to be in the direction he’d been heading, but to no avail. I turned about to search the broader crowd.

Where was he?

With a sinking heart, I realised he’d chosen this place to make his escape. I searched the celestial, but already his scent was stale.

“Juvela!” It was Sef, with the others not far behind.

I fell to the ground to pound the dirt as my frustration overwhelmed me.

Sef rushed to my side

I spread the flats of my hands on the ground and cried out long and low in grief.

He looked down, not knowing what had happened, but knew it had something to do with Pedro and Maria. He also knew that whatever the clue had been, that I’d lost it. He pleaded, “What can I do?”

I hissed, “Damn them!”

“Cultists?” Sef asked as the others gathered about.

And then it cut through the celestial, “Mama, is that you?”

It was Maria!

I cried out as tears flooded my eyes.

It was her!

Sef asked, “Can you sense her?”

And again it came, stronger this time as she sang out in desperation, “Mama!”

Sef and the others started; even they’d felt it.

I spoke the words and sent the thoughts, “Maria, I’m here! Tell me, are you alright?”

“Mama, where’ve you been?”

And the guilt her thoughts aroused was almost enough to overwhelm me. “I’m so sorry, my darling! Please, tell me where you are!”

“Mama, they moved us. Please come and get us!”

“Do you know where you are?”

“It’s windy, there are windows, but they’re too high for me to see out of. All I can see is the smoky sky. Mama, Papa’s sick!”

And my joy faltered. “Oh Maria, what’s wrong?”

“They’ve been cutting him.”

And my soul went numb. “Can you see him, is he there now?”

“Mama, they steal his blood. They do it every day. They’ve taken him away to bleed him some more.”

“Maria, I have to work out where you are. Do you know? Is there anything more that you can tell me?”

I don’t know, Mama. It’s windy and cold.”

I begged her, “Maria, please, my love, tell me more. Are you sure you can’t see or hear anything else besides the wind and smoke?”

“Sometimes I can hear the city, but the sounds are always faint.”

I lifted my head and looked about. “It’s Maria and she’s close.”

Sef also started looking around. “Where?”

“She doesn’t know. She says she can only see the sky out of the windows and nothing else. She must be high up.”

And at one end of the square, rising up and over it, with a few ramshackle buildings crowded about its base, climbed a tower. It didn’t look mighty like the Turo, but amidst a slum its strong stonewalls made the five level building loom like a fortress. Its three top levels were each marked by small square windows, one set in the midst of each of its four walls.

Sef was looking the same way.

“That must be it!” I cried.

“I guess so,” Sef answered, his words drowning in gloom.

I looked to him in surprise.

He was shaking his head. “We need to be sure. Ask her about the windows, ask her where they are in the wall, how many, and if they’re long, round, or square.”

“Maria, we need to be sure of which building you’re in. Describe the windows; where are they in the wall, and what are their shapes?”

“They’re small squares above even Father’s head. There’s one in each wall, in the middle.”

“Good girl Maria, I think we know where you are!”

“Come soon!”

“As soon as we can.”

I turned my attention back to Sef. “That’s it!”

He sighed in disbelief. “That’s Kurgar’s, the old tower I was telling you about.”

“What?” I howled.

The others just stood there, but I could read their thoughts:

All else in Ossard is corrupt, that’s why we follow Juvela.

Kurgar couldn’t be involved in the kidnappings, could he? It had to be a mistake. If he was involved, then he was linked to the new saints, which meant the Reformers already held two-thirds of the city.

All was lost!

Felmaradis was right; the Inquisitor, the man who’d ordered my death, was the city’s only hope.

As the shock of it all faded, my anger only grew.

All along Kurgar had wanted an alliance with the Reformers and been annoyed by my objections. I’d also been searching all of Ossard for Maria and Pedro except Newbank, where I thought they could never be.

Damn, I was getting angry!

And that fury stirred my power. I could feel the air about me cool and hear it crackle with energy that leaked between worlds. Amidst my rising rage a wave of black sparks rippled out from me to glitter in the dirt.

Sef and the others jumped back, startled.

Baruna said, “Juvela, you’ve great power, but you must control it!”

I just wanted my family back – and to destroy their looming prison brick by brick…

…yet Baruna spoke sense.

I had to stay in control. If I left it to my anger, I’d level the tower in one terrible moment, bringing its bulk crashing down upon the slums. I could wrap my family in a protective bubble and save them, but only after trading their lives for hundreds of others.

I looked to Sef. “I want to get them now. If we leave to come back later they’ll just get moved. They already know we’re here because of the cultist I followed.”

He nodded. “Juvela, I agree, but we must be careful. When we do this we’ll be turning the Guild against us and perhaps all of Newbank – and so much more.”

He was right, and the more he spoke of was his fellow Kavists. If we moved, we’d have no friends left in Newbank and the wider city. We’d no longer have a choice; we’d have to leave.

Baruna said, “Don’t worry, we’ll get your family, but let’s also ready our flight from Ossard.”

I nodded. “Sef, do you know much about the tower? Can we get into it or do we need help? I feel like I can unleash enough power to bring it down, but not handle it carefully enough to do much else.”

He shrugged. “I’ve passed it a hundred times, but never been inside. They left it standing when they dismantled the old wall. I’d expect its layout to be unremarkable, much like the new wall’s towers. Getting in will be the hard part, and then having the strength to overcome whatever force awaits. It can’t be big in numbers, or I’d have heard about such a thing, but if they’re cultists they might also have priests.”