Inquisitor Imperialatis XXIII frowned beneath his mask as he and the rest of his collective climbed out of the Imperial Road Transport just outside the malfunctioning pylon.
While it had been his idea to summon the collective, he sometimes forgot how disjointed their thinking could get when they were gathered together outside the enclave.
It was hard for him to keep his own thoughts separate as the excited chatter of the others filled his mind.
The site had clearly been visited by people strong in the warp. And there had been a great deal of it used in the vicinity.
Unfortunately, that meant the images they could call upon were either especially potent or mere fragments. And either of those were enough to set his colleagues into a series of useless conjectures.
At least it was easy enough to replay the memory of how the pylon had been resealed, an act that would have been foolish, had one of the participants not had the keys of the empire.
It could have been their target. The skyfaller certainly had enough access for such a low level site.
Yet Twenty-three couldn’t fathom the reason behind it. The skyfaller could commandeer an entire train, simply by walking up to it, if they wanted. What use would they have for a broken pylon?
Then again, Twenty-three couldn’t fathom why the skyfaller had chosen to land upon one of the Empress’ holy maintenance vessels either. Perhaps, if the skyfaller had commandeered the vessel, to deliver them to a more appropriate destination, it would have made fathomable.
Yet there had been no override. The skyfaller had simply ridden it like they were a regular chaffen.
Twenty-three’s brow twitched in annoyance at the last word. That was a derogatory slang word some of the collective used for the citizens of the Empire. Eleven and Twelve had been loudly decrying the local chaffen, and it seemed the word had slipped into his lexicon without his approval.
Yes. Quite annoying, having the collective gathered outside the enclave. Still, their workings would be stronger, the results clearer.
For the greater good, Twenty-three reminded himself as Three, Seven and Ten started their usual flirting, broadcasting entirely inappropriate sensations over the network. At least they were compiling composites of the warp as they did so, creating a clearer picture of that had happened there.
It was somewhat surprising to see the image clarify into a heavy duty meat heater. He fought the urge to place his beak in his hands when he realized they’d tuned in to the several beings having dinner, yet the only details they could pick out was the demon meat and the grill. It was possible that one of them was the skyfaller, but even with the whole collective contributing, the warp was too disrupted to identify any of their forms.
If only his collective had arrived before whoever had been fiddling with the barrier pylon had sent out that pulse, it would have been much clearer.
That half the collective was treating the outing as a reunion, when it was possible they had a lead on a genuine-
One’s calming presence brushed against Twenty-three’s mind, and he stilled his thoughts.
Yes. It was only annoying because of his fervor. Yet fervor was best tempered with patience, as One had reminded him. It was good that the collective was so full of life.
Twenty-three took a breath, allowing the sensations of his fellows to wash over him.
And he felt… something. A disturbance in the warp.
Turning his head, he found his gaze drawn towards the reflective dome at the peak of the pylon. There was something…
Except no, the warp was blank.
Twenty-three turned back to the others, a smile making its way onto his face under his mask when he saw seventeen bringing up an image he was familiar with. It seemed the skyfaller had been here. Now they simply needed to see where else they’d gone.
…Isekai-eh…
After their little visit from the Sniffers, Gwen had a hard time getting back to sleep.
So, like a civilized gentleman, Jed said, “Could give you a massage, if you’d like.”
“That would be great,” Gwen said, moving over and plopping down in front of him, pulling her blonde hair forward and exposing her neck.
Jed reached out, not surprised to find her back thick with muscle. And equally thick with knots. His focus was disrupted slightly when Mythlyn moved behind him and started giving Jed a massage of his own.
When his hands got sore, he patted Gwen on the shoulders, leaning back against Mythlyn’s legs. “All done for now.”
“Thanks partner,” Gwen said, the words slurred as she slumped back. Soon Gwen had fallen asleep against Jed’s legs, and Jed had drifted off into a not-quite dreamlike state himself, just barely aware of the warp around him.
It was strange, since in this state, Mythlyn almost felt more real than in his normal wakeful state. As though she were more dream than reality.
“It does feel that way, at times,” Mythlyn said, hand stroking his head, making Jed realize he’d mumbled his last thought aloud.
He wanted to say more, but found himself slipping away.
This time when he woke, he found he’d slid over onto his side, slumped over between Gwen’s duster and the back of the couch. It was surprisingly warm and comfy.
When he managed to straighten out, he found Mythlyn by the window once more. It had been her voice in his head that had woke him.
“Your mentors have returned,” Mythlyn sent, turning away from the window, gliding across the floor, wings flaring behind her. “I believe our time to leave this grand city is upon us.”
Jed nodded, prodding Gwen with his boot. His new partner made some incoherent noises even as she drew her handgun. By the time she realized it had been Jed nudging her awake, she’d drawn and aimed the revolver at his chest. “Oh. It’s just you.”
“Starting to think you’ve slept in some rough spots,” Jed said, brushing off his shirt as if to wipe away the shot she never fired as she put the gun away.
“Grams liked to send punks after me,” Gwen said, pushing to her feet.
“And… you needed a gun to scare them off?”
“Grams believes in tough love,” Gwen said, her voice sharp. “It wasn’t so bad. At least she let me know when to be on watch… at first.”
“Wait, just how bad were these guys she sent after you?” Jed asked, stopping to look back at Gwen.
“Let’s just say, Grams didn’t send morally upright individuals,” Gwen said, shoving her revolver back in its holster as she made her way over to the pudding dispenser, collecting several wafers.
“That’s… rough,” Jed said, shaking his head as they moved to the teleport door.
“Grams didn’t want me to go the way of my parents,” Gwen said as she popped one of the wafers into her mouth.
“What happened?” Jed asked once they’d appeared on the other side.
“Couple of jumped up marshals decided they wanted my mom to entertain them,” Gwen said, voice hard. “Dad tried to stop them. Got a belly full of lead for his bravery. Mom got a belly full of something else, took a walk off the edge, and left me behind.”
“Wow. That’s…”
“So, yeah, Grams decided I need to be able to fend for myself,” Gwen said as they reached ground level. “And fending for myself means being able to fend off the sort of trash that’ll come up to a gal while she’s catching some sleep.”
“No wonder you sleep with your gun. I thought that was just ‘cause of how stressful the last couple days’ve been,” Jed said, shaking his head.
“That sure doesn’t help none,” Gwen said, pausing when they reached the door leading outside. “Really hate this part.”
Jed gave her a half-smile as he took her hand, Mythlyn choosing that moment to disappear and return to the revolver.
They moved through the door, and this time, Gwen was able to stay standing, even if she did look a little disoriented.
“You okay there?”
“Yeah, just… ah, it’s fading now,” Gwen said, blinking rapidly. “For a second, it felt like I could see… not rightly sure.”
“You touched the warp. Your sensitivity is increasing, as is your stability.”
“Right. That’s good,” Gwen said, nodding as she stepped up beside Jed.
Together they hustled over to the buggy, where Sotas was waiting with his rifle raised as he scanned the dark streets nearby.
“Problem?” Jed asked as he and Gwen approached the buggy.
“In the night, Imperial Guard visited, most uninvited,” Sotas said, looking up. “Metsa thinks you should be ready to run once the pylon is activated, yes?”
“Yeah, okay,” Jed said, “Speaking of imperials, we had a bunch of them in black robes stop by in the middle of the night.”
“Sniffers,” Gwen said, using the word she’d used the night before.
“This is good,” Sotas said, his posture slackening slightly. “If come and gone already, then trap we have avoided.”
“Still, I’m gonna do that running thing,” Jed said over his shoulder as he jogged back to the pylon.
“It is a risk, activating the pylon, with the Imperial Guard so close. They’ll be here in minutes. Even in my day, they didn’t worry about collateral damage.”
“Risk worth taking? Might serve as a distraction,” Jed said as he wove between the junk piles then darted up the stairs.
“I… do not know. The Imperial Guard were hardly subtle. Nor were they particularly talented at tracking a target. They were the hammer other institutions used when they found a nail and wanted to keep it from coming back up. I do not know enough about these ‘Sniffers’ to assess their danger.”
“Right, we’re working with information that’s a couple millennia out of date,” Jed said as he reached the big switch. He glanced at the central controls, having a thought. “Actually… might be something we can do.”
“What did you have in… ah, yes. That will certainly make it more difficult for them to track us through the warp.”
Jed nodded, finishing the changes before teleporting back out of the control chamber. Kneeling down, he rested his hand over the switch, eyes locked on the exit. Only after taking a deep breath did he pull it down, dashing towards the exit, skidding slightly as he caught the corner and started down.
It must’ve taken him less than a minute from the time he threw the switch to the moment he appeared outside the pylon. And even so, he could hear the sound of something that sounded disturbingly similar to the sirens of an ambulance back in Canada.
Sotas grabbed his arm, hefting him into place on the back of the buggy and thumping the roof. Before Jed’s feet were in place, Metsa had Cella rocketing forward, the front tires raising off the ground for half-a-second before slamming back down.
Latching a hand on the rail-bar, Jed pulled himself forward as Sotas laughed.
“A good way to start the day,” the large man said, clapping Jed on the back once he was standing on the deck.
“Definitely gets the blood flowing,” Jed said, giving the man a smile of his own. Behind them, he could hear the sirens fading into the distance. He let out a sigh of relief. Hopefully the pylon being restored would serve. Which is when he noticed there was another siren, and it was getting closer.
“Perhaps the wakeup, it is not over,” Sotas said, patting Jed on the shoulder while raising the rifle with his other arm.
Thankfully, the siren passed by on another street, and other than a glimpse of shining black and spinning green lights, they missed them.
“Good driving,” Sotas yelled, thumping the roof of the buggy. A pair of thumps sounded out from inside in response.
The next couple minutes were calm as Metsa took them deeper into one of the other shadow districts. It was only when Jed happened to glance to the side that he started having doubts.
“Hey, Sotas,” Jed said, ducked down slightly to reduce the amount he was looking into the wind. He’d taken his goggles off after cracking them and hadn’t thought to grab them again when they left. Even so, he was pretty sure of what he was seeing. “That is the rim-rail, isn’t it?”
“Do not worry,” Sotas reassured him, patting his back. “The line here, it has not run for centuries.”
“That wasn’t what I was worried about,” Jed said, watching through the gaps in the buildings. Even with the buildings blocking most of his view, he could tell why the train hadn’t been running. There were huge gaps missing in the rail line. And not just the line. The actual ring itself. He could see a lot more empty air than he was comfortable with. Especially considering they were no more than a single not so thick line of buildings away from those gaps at times.
“You have survived skyfalling once, surely you shall survive a second time,” Sotas said, laughter rolling off the back of the buggy.
“Right. Skyfalling,” Jed said, glancing over. He’d forgotten that he wouldn’t fall forever but would get plucked out of space by the warp and thrust back in somewhere else. Couldn’t afford to be losing mass to a little thing like people throwing themselves off the edge, after all.
Jed’s fears suddenly got a lot more real when Metsa adjusted course and took them out onto the tracks. Suddenly instead of being close but over there, the fall was directly below them. It only lasted a minute before she moved them inward once more, but that was plenty of time for his imagination to run wild. And for a truly crazy thought to strike. If they wanted to get as far as possible, taking a jump would do it. Before he could explore that though, Metsa changed directions, wheels skidding as she turned a full ninety degrees, taking them away from the rim.
For the best, really.
The Eye slid free of the sun just in time to bath the road ahead in light right as they drew near the edge of the abandoned section of Vaskerville.
And then, with no one nearby to so much as bat an eye, they were out, rolling down an old dirt road into the countryside.
Jed glanced back at the towering stone walls that had failed to keep out the demons. And had failed to keep them in.
He suspected it would be a long time before he saw those walls again. At least from so close.
After all, on the ring, few things were truly out of sight for long.