Chapter 41.2: Guard Duty

Penny gritted her teeth and held her arms stiffly at her sides, waiting, at the ready but unmoving. She, Minkus, and Yult held themselves in place that way, their backs pressed into the earthen face of one of those forty-foot plateaus that were so common to the region. It barely shaded them from the afternoon sun, but more importantly, it kept the three out of sight from anyone coming up the rise out of Thaumacore’s southern inroad—the delightful falls of dirt and pebbles that came crumbling down the cliff’s face every time Penny moved half-an-inch were just an added bonus. That and the gallons of sweat running down her face from a stifling combination of heat and existential dread. She had no intention of dying outside some backwoods science lab in the middle of nowhere. It was funny, then, that that was all she could think about, despite her efforts to focus on what was before her: the plan, the rescue, settling accounts with both Kikka and Ippi—hell, even Ventyr. She was making things right, and at the same time, she wanted nothing more than to escape the whole thing before all of it went to Torment. Gods, somehow she was both ready to knock in Kikka’s door and run screaming for her life.

Penny shook her head to clear it, and more dirt rained down the bluff. She clamped her hands even harder against her thighs and swore under her breath. If she tried brushing it away, more would only follow it—nature was a pain in the ass. Besides, she knew they were very near the passing of the next guard rotation; these asura ran like clockwork, a pair of guards passing every thirty minutes. She held perfectly still, her fingers simultaneously itching to grip their respective triggers and swat the dirt out of her hair. She did neither.

Instead, she glanced once again across the broad dell and up the opposite rise into the treeline, where the other three members of their weird, little team lay along the ridge, watching the slope that led out of the complex, waiting for the next patrol to approach the outcropping that hid her, Minkus, and Yult from sight. She knew that Jinkke, Wepp, and Jindel were somewhere up there, but in the shade of the trees, it was impossible to tell quite where.

The difficulty of their plan was that Penny, Minkus, and Yult wouldn’t be able to see the guards’ approach any better than the guards would be able to see them, so the success of their ambush hinged on their communication with the three on the ridge. Penny had always imagined her eventual death would come at the hands of a client she shouldn’t have taken, after a stiff drink, and comfortably within the walls of Divinity’s Reach. But what if Jindel didn’t flash the signal at the right time— or if Penny, Minkus, and Fjornsson didn’t see the shimmer of light when she did? Well, this stupid, little adventure would end very badly, very quickly, and Penny would follow her dumb father into the mists with dolyak-load of regrets.

She watched the thicket for flashes of sunlight on steel. And it came.

Her heart raced and stomach churned, but Penny hesitated only a moment, putting her a step behind Yult and Minkus, which worked perfectly. She leapt out from behind the outcropping of stone and earth and snapped pistols free from their holsters, training them on the two guards, one gun for each, and the pair hopped a step backwards in surprise. One instinctively reached for his weapon, and the other seemed to flail, unable to even find the rifle slung loosely over his shoulder. Minkus cast one of his translucent, magical walls between the two groups, and Crusader Yult fell into position alongside him with that massive greatsword drawn.

Penny called at the guards from behind her odd pair of bruisers. “Hey boys. You are both boys, right? Sometimes it’s hard to tell with asura.” She forced more snide confidence into her words than she actually felt. Her cocky grin just seemed to follow along. “Never mind. Either way we have you two in a pickle, so if you’d like my big friend here to leave your heads on your necks, drop the weapons and come with us. We have some questions we need your help with.”

“We only want information,” Minkus added. “We— we do not want to hurt anyone.”

Yult glowered down at the two, flexing hands so tightly around the sword’s hilt that Penny heard the creak of the leather. She wasn’t sure the norn agreed with Minkus.

The two asura guards held their ground. Or more accurately, the asura who had control of his weapon held his ground. His posture as rigid as the lines in his sharp, arrogant face, he assessed Penny, then Minkus, and finally Fjornsson. His partner, however, had only just gotten an unsteady hand on his own rifle, raising the weapon slowly into position and visibly shaking.

“Alchemy,” the sturdy one barked, glancing at his fumbling companion, “get composure!”

“I’m trying.” The response came out as nearly a whimper. The fearful one pointed at Minkus’ wall. “Wh— what is that thing?”

“What do you think? Some sort of barrier, most likely of magical origin. One of these imbeciles thinks himself something special.”

The unsteady guard tried to look down his rifle’s sights but couldn’t take his eyes off the norn standing in front of him. The almost comical size difference between Fjornsson and the anemic, pale, little creature became even more apparent. “I am not fond of our probability of success,” he said.

With a scowl to cut glass, his counterpart huffed and put his attention back on the attackers. “Whichever one of you is projecting the shield, you can’t maintain it indefinitely. It will come down eventually.” He raised a leg and set it back down a foot’s length behind him. “And that’s assuming it factually does something for you  right now.” He did it again, taking another backwards step.

“Maybe,” he continued, slowly moving again, “it’s simply some form of mesmeric illusion.”

Penny raised both pistols higher and almost chortled. “Where in Torment do you think you’re going? You plan to backpedal all the way to your lab? It’s a half-mile out, genius.”

Her jibe didn’t stop him, though. The guard continued his backwards progress, leaving his befuddled partner standing between him and Minkus’ iridescent barrier. 

“Penny,” Minkus asked, a hint of strain coming into his voice. He squinted at something. “What’s that?”

But the guard was still moving. “Look, we’re not kidding, you little shit.” Penny leveled her gun at the asura. “Don’t take another step.”

“Penny,” Minkus said again, “I think he’s trying to reach that—”

The Inquest guard took one more step, slapping a foot on a steel disk that Penny only just now noticed. There was a loud crack, then a hiss, and all three of them heard the grinding sound of gears beneath the ground. A small, onyx pylon with glowing, red panels rose from a shaft in the earth, and a smug expression came across the guard’s face as he took another step and turned to run down the incline.

In front of Penny, Minkus’ hair stood up. It literally stood up, each hair rising to a right angle off the side of his scalp. She put a hand to her own head and found the same. The pylon continued rising, and she could feel the crackle of electricity jumping invisibly through the air. This wasn’t good.

“Do you two feel that?” The norn held his position, thick muscles flexing with tension. He stepped uncomfortably

“Yes,” Minkus almost squeaked. “The air, it— it tingles.”

Even as the other two recognized the problem, Penny noticed that the runaway guard was still going, and not strictly in the direction of the complex. In fact, he was hardly in the direction of the complex at all, veering off more southward than actually following the wall of the plateau. What in Torment was this guy—

Then Penny saw it: the sunlit glimmer of another steel disk hidden in a patch of grass. “Gods.”

Her heart and feet fought her for a moment, refusing movement, but her mind won out; damn it, if she didn’t do something, the situation was only getting worse. She wasn’t about to die, not here.

“Gods, don’t just stand there,” she barked. “Stop that contraption before it fries us.” She pointed at the nearer pylon, fully risen from the ground and charging. She pushed herself into a trot and then a run, in the direction of the wayward guard.

“How do we do that?” the norn rumbled.

Penny was already popping off shots. “Hell if I know,” she called back. “Hit it real hard?”

Out of her periphery, she saw the huge form of the norn leap forward at the black pylon, sword pulled back overhead. He was apparently good with that plan.

Gods, she hoped it worked.