Tybalt cursed and wrung the water out of his cloak as he surveyed the disaster that this had become. Not only had the Dark Pentad been defeated, but that damned jester had somehow found a path to power and had humbled Tybalt himself! "Kraken, give me an accounting!" he snarled. If the day had had one saving grace, it was that Kraken had been revived by the massive surge of water the jester had summoned, and could attend to his people. The tentacled warrior was a goodly distance away, but his voice carried easily over the deathly silence of the Darklands. "Ironwood and Ben Sidhe are battered, but recovering. Necropolis is around somewhere, but hasn't pulled a new body together yet. I don't know where Char is, he blew away before you arrived. And our mounts' necks were snapped by the force of the wave." Tybalt snarled, a ripping sound that didn't belong anywhere near a human throat. No mounts, two missing members...the Pentad would be useless in pursuit. He would have to go himself, try to catch these "Exarchs" before they could escape the Darklands. "Kraken, see to your forces, I will pursue..." Tybalt stopped abruptly as one of the nearby pools of water turned blood red and began to swirl. Within seconds, it had risen to form the image of his master. "My lord, Gentle Gift of Crimson," Tybalt bowed, wishing that his sodden hair didn't spoil the effect of the flourishing gesture. "What is your bidding?" The image laughed with a sound like a bubbling brook. "I bid you rest, my ratcatcher. Your prey may find it...difficult...to leave the Darklands. And even if they escape, you know they will certainly return." "Yes, my lord. But they will have time to rest, to plan." "As will we," the image burbled ominously, sounding more like blood bubbling from a punctured lung now. "They know so little about their new ally, or even about themselves. Should they cease to be amusing, I will simply tell them the Truth. And the truth shall destroy them." @>-`-,-`-,-`-,`-,-`-,-`-,-`- \\ // -'-.-'-.'-.-'-.-'-.-'-.-'-<@ .|,Coherent Comics Presents \\ // #15 - "Oppilo et Oppidum" --X------------------------- E }X{ ARCHS copyright 2003 by the '|` A Superguy Tale // \\ Dvandroid (Dave Van Domelen) @>-`-,-`-,-`-,`-,-`-,-`-,-`- // \\ -'-.-'-.'-.-'-.-'-.-'-.-'-<@ Seafixer grunted as he was hurled back to the ground for a third time. "It's no use," he wheezed as he levered himself back to his feet. "That bastard has bound me to the Darklands. I can't leave. Even putting on the armor that Jack gave up hasn't helped," he gestured to the immortal standing well outside the Darklands. The others had convinced Jack to leave the armor on until he was outside of the sphere of influence of the Darklord, but now it glistened blackly on Seafixer's body. "Options, people?" Skysabre gestured at the subtly shimmering barrier. Normally invisible, Seafixer's straining had made it glow slightly in unhealthy colors. "We can't stay here much longer, someone's bound to notice the stresses we're putting on that." "Leave me," Seafixer insisted. "No way!" Oakthorn rebutted. "That crimson guy would find you and kill you if you stick around there alone!" Seafixer was silent behind his helmet. "Leaving you is not something any of us want to do," Skysabre agreed. "We could stay in there with him," Forgeheart ventured. "Maybe combining our powers would let us break through?" Katena suggested. "Would raw power be enough?" Skysabre cocked an eyebrow. "Something tells me we'd need a better plan than 'pour it on!'" "Power raw, or power cooked / There's something that you've overlooked / It's not the wall it seems to be / A tether makes the man unfree." "Who the...?" Skysabre whirled to see a blue-skinned man in a black turtleneck sweater, a thin cigarette dangling from the corner of his mouth. "This hell on earth has caught the eye / of demons, devils, even I / A mandarin in days gone past / I keep the beat and make it last," the strange figure grinned sardonically then took a drag from his cigarette. Jack had strolled back towards the border, with Louie now perched on his shoulder. The squirrel snorted. "Whatchoo doin' here, Blue Beatnik? Kansas ain't zactly yer cuppa." The Blue Beatnik flicked a bit of cigarette ash in Louie's general direction. "True, this ain't a happ'nin' joint / Norm'ly you would have a point / But even Squaresville can be swell / when turned into a minor hell." "It'll be a major hell soon enough," Seafixer sighed, nervously scanning the eastern skies. "But what did you mean by a tether?" "He's got you by the apron strings / pulled so tight, your soul, it stings / Suppose that I could help you folk / and make things clear by blowin' smoke." With that, the Blue Beatnik blew a smoke ring that drifted lazily past Seafixer, then stopped dead as if it had caught on something. The ring uncoiled into a gray-blue snake of smoke that wound its way along an invisible cable that emerged from Seafixer's back. "A tethered soul / looped through the hole / a Gordian Knot / so take your shot," the Blue Beatnik winked, then was gone. "Okay, I think I speak for everyone when I say...whaaaAAA?" Oakthorn scratched his head. Louie scampered off Jack's shoulder and ran to look at the smoke- entwined mystic tether. "Short form, Woody: when China went commie, it shook up the whole infernal bureaucracy. Some of the demon mandarins lost faith in the system and looked for another way, a new Dao. That freakjob ran into Jack Kerouac on the road. And the beat goes on." "Fine. But what do we do about that?" Oakthorn pointed at the wisps of smoke that twisted and writhed as Seafixer tried to turn around and get a look at them. "If it's tied through a hole in his soul, just blasting it might not be a good idea." "But the reference to a Gordian Knot implies that cutting is exactly what we're supposed to be doing," Skysabre mused. "The smoke's dissipating," Katena noted. "And if we can't see the tether," she waved her arms around in the vicinity of the smoke serpent, "and can't touch it, how do we cut OR untie it?" The smoke serpent uncoiled one end and hissed at Katena before vanishing into the air. "Great, now we can't even indirectly see it." "Too bad I lost my magic," Forgeheart sighed. "Louie, do you know any...?" "Nope, dis ain't one a' da dozen 'r so spells I know, goldie." "Everyone quiet," Forgeheart stepped towards Seafixer. "I want to try something." Anna's eyes defocused, almost glazed over as she looked sightlessly at the space behind Seafixer. Slowly, she reached out with the massive right gauntlet of her armor, as if feeling her way through a fog. Then the shining bronze fist clamped closed like a wolf's jaws, and Seafixer stiffened with a gasp of pain. "How did you do that?" Oakthorn peered at the closed fist, trying to detect any sign of something physical emerging from its grasp. Anna let out a held breath. "I imagined a cord, willed myself to see it," she replied, loosening her grip slightly as she noticed Seafixer's pain. He relaxed slightly. "We've got it," Skysabre noted, pulling the pommel of one of his swords from his belt and activating the cloud blade. "Now, do we cut it?" "Yes, cut it!" Seafixer exhorted. "The last thing I want is to stay bound to the Gift...even if it hurts like hell to sever the link." "Wait a moment," Jack interjected. "A DEMON told you to cut it. I've spent a lot of time around demons, and even when they're trying to be helpful, they're not to be trusted." "He's right, ya know," Louie added. "Da Blue Beatnik ain't a bad sort, but he's still a demon. Da solution he suggests might work, but it ain't gonna be th' ideal solution." Forgeheart started feeling her way along the tether until she got to Seafixer's back. "Maybe if I imagine a knot, I can try to untie it?" "Maybe," Seafixer shuddered slightly as the cord tugged at his soul. "But the demon was probably telling the truth about the Gordian Knot aspect. The Gentle Gift of Crimson does nothing in a straightforward and simple manner if he can accomplish the same goals in a baroque and ornate way. You could be untying knots until the end of the world...which would be a few months from now, most likely." "Guys, it occurs to me that while we mess with this spirit cord, whoever's at the other end has got to be feeling what Seafixer is feeling. Or at least he's *aware* of it," Katena noted. "And for all we know, the best solution would be to sever the cord at the other end, which isn't really something we can *do* right now. The bad choice may be the *only* choice." "She's right," Skysabre nodded. "Seafixer...do you still want it cut? If the Gift is as convoluted as you say, cutting the tether probably comes with a cost he knows you wouldn't want to pay." Seafixer seemed to deflate. "Sig.Lad...there's no price I haven't already paid. I've paid in the blood of worlds, in the loss of part of my own soul, in years of pain and humiliation. Cut the cord." Anna nodded and grasped the tether with her other hand, then held a segment of the invisible cord out taut at arm's length. "Picture a thread passing between my hands, Skysabre. If you can see it in your mind, you can cut it." Skysabre held one of his swords out, checking the swing to be sure it would pass through the tether, and not through Forgeheart. Then he closed his eyes and concentrated. He swung. "AAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!" Seafixer howled. Then there was silence. Into that silence, a faint voice whispered into Seafixer's mind. ++free...++ Seafixer fell to his knees. "nononononononono...." * * * * The Gentle Gift of Crimson felt the bond snap, a faint memory of pain and then nothing. He smiled. "I stole half of your soul, my jester. Did you think I would not find a suitable use for it? Did you think you had yet plumbed the depth of the pain I would visit upon you? You may now be able to leave my domain, but you will never truly be free of me." The halls echoed with cruel laughter. ============================================================================= Author's Notes: Given the tone of the final scene, I figured it'd be best to pass on the traditional teaser questions this time. Originally I was going to have the Park Stranger come in and reveal the existence of the tether (okay, ORIGINALLY I was going to have the tether snap as part of the Exarch-ing, but I decided it'd be more fun to make 'em work for it), but when the "Power raw or power cooked" bit popped into my head, I knew the line needed someone else to say it. After abandoning an animal version of Etrigan (including a demonic bird, the Etrigannet), I took inspiration from the Blue Mandarin card in Shadowfist and created the Blue Beatnik.