Infernal Investigations

Simultaneously feeling internal relief while puppeteering my face for a subtle expression of fear was quite the trick.

I spat and cursed their names and made a lunge for Voltar that saw me clubbed to the ground with the butts of muskets. It wasn’t an inspired performance, but I might as well do all I could to mask the collusion between me and Voltar. They didn’t want me dead so I could add some flourishes, knowing the worst I’d get would be broken bones.

I avoided that, except for a final blow that made the entire right side of my chest feel like it had burst into flames. A rib, maybe two, but hopefully not too badly broken. Not enough that the mask slipped. I’d unfortunately been trained to keep it on with much worse pain.

They wrestled me to the ground, as I swore Versalicci would find eternal vengeance over Voltar and that doxie traitor Malvia Harrow.

Lord Montague looked down at me, disgust on his face. I kept my silence, not wanting to push this further. Too many broken bones would make escape an issue.

“As much as I would love to have this one shot right now, I fear she’ll have to live a while longer. Till she answers our questions at least, then I’ll toss her to the watch. I imagine it’ll be the noose for her?”

“Probably,” Voltar said. “She’s wanted under various crimes that’ll fetch execution, although not the noose. I’ve heard they’ve been preparing a new, more humane form of execution they wish to try out. It’s called a guillotine.”

“Hrrm. Perhaps I’ll attend. Maybe her leader will be the first in line to try it out as well?”

Voltar chuckled. “Oh, I’ve learned to never count on catching Versalicci in a trap, your lordship.”

“Even if I get her to confess?”

“Especially if you get her to confess. We’d need to find wherever he’s secreted himself away to. But that should be a discussion for another day.”

“A discussion for later. Hammond, bag this trash and take it out the back way if you would. No need for anyone else to know she’s been here.”

“If I might interject, your lordship, it might not be the best idea to have her secreted away,” Voltar said.

Montague sighed. “Detective, I am trying to avoid making this public. I do not want the spectacle of her being dragged, publicly, through-”

“Lady Karsin’s garden, your lordship,” Voltar said. “No one even needs to know you are here, but also the Watch is after Miss Skall for current and previous crimes as part of the Black Flame. It is possible they never realize, but if they were to find out you had her and didn’t inform them.”

“A fair point,” Lord Montague conceded. “I can talk to Colonel Gisons by the end of today, which should handle that. I don’t see any reason to make this any more public than it is.”

“It’ll end up public eventually,” Lady Karsin noted, speaking up. “There’s too many interested parties to keep this secret, Bartholomew.”

“The other reason is protecting Lady Karsin and her family, and yours as well. Since the Black Flame would be looking to clean up loose ends. If they suspect Skall is being held here or at your estate, they may try to raid either of them, but if they think you have had her moved to a different location…”

“Pure brilliance, detective. Except for the part where they now know where to find her,” Lord Montague said acidly.

“Yes, but it provides a location where you know they’ll go after her as well. If you bring the Watch in on it, it will be quite unassailable.”

“It would speed up resolving this matter,” Lady Karsin remarked.

Lord Montague considered me like one would a rat that had wandered into their home, then nodded. Guards grabbed me and dragged me out of the room, past Doctor Dawes, who gave me a slight sympathetic look that almost earned him a kick with my hoof from me.

Play the role, damnations!

By the time we’d reached the bottom of the tower, they let me walk instead of dragging me, just to make things easier after they realized I wasn’t fighting back. I kept an expression of resignation and fear on my face, the look of someone being marched to the gallows.

Walking through the garden, I glanced about, trying to figure out what the play was. Voltar had agreed, otherwise he could have just used my actual identity. The question then was, how was I supposed to get out of this mess?

Running for it in the gardens would be difficult, considering the shackles, the servants, the guards, and the fact it was approaching noon. Any public attempt at escape would cause a chase, and in my current condition, I doubted I’d make it far.

Maybe the plan was to spring me once I’d reached my destination. Assuming Voltar knew where that was. But no, that would isolate me even more and give me even fewer opportunities.

I needed to escape here and now, but how?

Someone had piled several boxes there, marked with various company logos. Supplies for the house piled up by servants who were putting off taking them inside. A little strange, given the tight ship Lady Karsin had run the times I’d been over here.

Not as strange as the small box sitting on the top of the pile. Looking at it made my remaining eye ache as the symbols carved into it tried to repel my gaze.

The box containing my diabolism focus.

This was my method of escape? Were they insane?

I half-stumbled in my step, but a rifle butt to my back prodded me back into the same pace.

I had a little time. Not much. A minute before we passed by them? The leg shackles slowing me down bought some time.

The hells was the detective thinking? Diabolism? This would draw attention on its own even if using that art wouldn’t currently cause parts of me to rot, bleed, or slough off.

Perhaps that was the point. Voltar had been shocked to find out I was a diabolist. What were the odds that the webweavers behind this knew that?

Vermin ran when given a fright. It was instinct. Maybe it was time to make some vermin run and see what tracks they made on the ground.

“Twenty-five rats must be a fair bit, in terms of sacrifice,” I mused out loud to the confused and annoyed stares of the guards. “How much would it get on the market with the proper focus?”

Something rammed into the back of my head, sending me to the ground, woozy and feeling ill. Above me, one guard muttered something about the demonic influence in my veins driving me mad. I didn’t pay attention, being much more focused on something else. Not that she was far off.

A fair bit, if you’re willing to spend it all at once, the Imp said, malicious glee in its voice. Are you ready to unleash me?

“Not quite,” I got out before a boot kicked me in the side. I shrieked as something broke under the blow. “Distraction and mischief, but never permanent injury.”

That drew further attention. Someone pulled out a revolver and yelled something else at me.

You’ll need me to reach the box, but the box has what it needs to do this safely. Your permission?

I wasn’t so far out of it to not understand that, even as guards barked orders at me. We were attracting a small crowd now, most servants who were tending to the gardens.

The Imp needed permission to cause permanent harm to me. If I couldn’t heal it, this would be permanent.

“It’s all flesh,” I said. “Either harmed here or somewhere else. The only question is which to risk?”

The guards made that choice for me. The roar of a gunshot was only matched in intensity by the fire that spread through my arm. A bullet smashed into my elbow, and I screamed as it burst from the other side, spraying blood onto the ground.

Another guard grabbed me, putting their arms under my shoulders and yanking me up. Another guard loomed close to me, yelling at me, but it felt distant, like the words were traveling through water.

It is ready.

I wouldn’t use an arm at first. Best to save that when more came into view to distract. Instead, I opened my mouth, the guard recoiling from the rows of pointy teeth, anticipating a bite.

“Vex,” I intoned, and my tongue melted into a scalding hot brew that burned the inside of my mouth.

The guard recoiled, screaming as terror spawned in his eyes. I couldn’t tell what he saw, but it sent him screaming towards the edges of the garden. I focused on swallowing the boiling liquid that diabolism had made of my tongue.

It could be regenerated, but having the pieces inside helped, so I swallowed, even as it scalded the inside of my throat.

Something hit the back of my head, and my vision grew dizzy as I hit the ground. I rolled, turning up to face the other three guards.

One of them had a gun ready, and I doubted they’d go for wounding shots. I pointed with my left arm, gathering power. Thought and intention would have to guide the diabolism.

Vex!

My arm went completely limp, and I shrieked as bone and flesh scraped against each other. Something burned for an instant before disappearing. Ligaments, tendons, whatever it was, my arm was essentially a sack now, all the contents inside unconnected and scraping.

All three of the guards screamed. Two of them clawed at each other while the third went into a fetal position on the ground. I scrambled up to my feet with my good arm.

All the servants had fled, the sound of screams echoing across the estate. From the tower, figures emerged, all of them in Lady Karsin’s colors and wielding rifles. Two of them gestured towards me, orange balls of flame forming above their heads. I’d need to make this fast.

I rushed towards the box, taking the lid off even as it burned me. The burning in my hand was nothing compared to the rest of me. Behind me, the screaming continued from the four incapacitated guards.

Another gunshot. I went to the ground, my leg giving way as I collapsed. My calf burned as I got back up, my injured hand grasping the eight-sided star. It cut into my fingers, blood going across its surface.

It needed to be now. I wouldn’t escape if I took another injury to my legs.

I couldn’t intone, but will alone would be enough to guide. Chaos and confusion were specialties of Diabolism. But I could not be in chaos. I needed to be calm. Anything else and this risked coming undone and ripping souls from bodies, maiming for the sake of pain. Calm.

I raised the star above my head, closed my eye, and willed vexation one more time. I opened my eye again, deliberately not peering into the arcane.

Melting my other eye out of the socket would not be the best move.

Tendrils of red and black emerged from each point on the focus star, stabbing into the ground ahead of me. The grass darkened around me, helping feed the spell as the last of the rat’s life forces I set aflame to spark three different spells.

The two mages across from me sent their fireballs flying, both the size of a head and hurtling towards me. Two of the tendrils tried to rip themselves from the ground. I forced them to stay in, my heartbeat rising as I forced the energy to redirect.

On my focus, an eye opened in the middle of the sun, and flame spat from the metal star, striking the fireball and sending it off course. The second one was already off target, splattering across a building, flames burning across its surface. I swallowed as I watched it spread.

Two more fireballs were already rising.

I weaved, tendrils sending the energy flowing through the ground. It needed to be fast, but rushing too fast meant mistakes and I could not make mis-.

I stopped my runaway thoughts and forced myself to breathe, grasp the energy, and move it. I directed half of it towards the shadows on the ground cast by the tower above.

Shadows grew, shapes within them moving as they towered over the remaining guards. The two mages turned on the shadows, fireballs flying straight through them. Things inside caught alight, the flames swallowed within the shadows, but it mattered not. The shadows weren’t the danger.

I grinned. I’d always wondered about the exotic nature of the plants and how they could survive here. All that mattered now was that these plants were here and ready to be used.

The plants surrounding the guards swelled, red rippling along them as roots ripped out of the ground and vines grew. Bullets fired out, most aimed at the plants as they struck, blasting holes in the vegetation too small to have an effect. But they’d aimed some at me.

Fire belched from the focus’ eye once, twice, thrice. It didn’t stop the fourth on-target ball, and I screamed as fresh pain ripped across my hand. I pulled back, my ring finger falling to the ground, severed at the knuckle.

No more bullets though, as vines and roots entangled the lot of them, pulling tight across struggling forms. They’d pay for that. The vines would tighten until none of them-no!

I pulled on the focus, forcing tendrils out of the ground, forcing the plants to still. The Imp shrieked inside my head, but I ignored its castigations. No one died today.

I pulled the focus away entirely, but now new lines of red and black burst from the ground, crawling into the sky as if on a wall. Shit. How bad was the cost going to be? I couldn’t stay to find out.

Spiderweb cracks of red formed in the sky, spreading across it like fractures in glass. With each passing second they grew, till a hole tore itself in the sky in the shape of a diamond, three feet from one side to the opposite. Beyond, a landscape of red and black roared, heat blasting from it around the head of a devil peering through. Horns gleamed as pale blue face peered outside the portal, eyes burning green as it exhaled, ice forming on the air.

My breath caught. A voice in my mind screamed to run, but nothing could respond. I knew the face well.

Our gazes met. Green vortexes swirled, and I stared back up at them, feeling myself lost. Something was lurking behind those shades of green, a mystery. If I could just peer further I would find it-

The demon waited perhaps a second before bursting into laughter, a deep booming sound that made the glass shudder.

I unfroze, taking a few steps back.

The nobles, Voltar, and Dawes came out, emerging into the writhing and restrained crowd of their guards and mages’ bodies. More guards were at their back, although the rifles weren’t being aimed at me but the devil in the hole.

I tried to let out a cackle, only for my lack of tongue to prevent it. I settled for saluting with the hand carrying my focus, the other still threatening to come undone as meat and bone slid to the lowest points.

Then I vanished.