Kyle the Apprentice Warlock

Alex wasn’t doing well.  Her legs were barely moving, and it was slowing Sam down.  This was a problem because Gleipnir could see the glee come over the warehouse monster’s face as it realized that and changed its ponderous trajectory to hunt them.  This was not good.

“Carry her.”  He shouted at his warlock.  For her part, Sam rolled her eyes so hard she could have sprained them.

“With what superhuman strength genius?”  Always feisty, Sam’s snap took Gleipnir by surprise. 

“Your patrons. Duh.”  If he had a genuine face, it would have sneered at her incredulously.  As it was, his voice dripped with disdain.  “Use. A. Spell.”  Sam gave a single sharp bark of laughter because she couldn’t afford more while she was exerting herself so strenuously.

“Which one.  I don’t know a strength spell.”  For a second, Gleipnir was stunned silent. 

“Of course, you do.”  He argued, because how could she not?

“No.”  It came out as a huff between gasping inhalations.  “I don’t.”

“Yes.  You do!” The pact item insisted.  “Fortification.”

“That just makes… me resistant to things… that could harm me… it doesn't… make me able to… preform… feats… of… strength.”  Sam was coming to a gradual stop and took a second to catch her breath.  Glancing over her shoulder, she saw that the monster was far enough away for a break, but not far enough to be safe.

“Well, shit.”  It wasn’t eloquent, but it was a succinct evaluation of their situation.  Her pact item paused for a moment, then wiggled the end of his ribbon tail in his version of a shrug, “Eh.  Then leave her.  No one will know.”

“Gleip!”  Eyes widening, Sam gave a chuckle.  She could tell from his tone of voice that he didn’t mean it.  Things weren’t that dire yet.  But Sam also knew that he’d knock Sam unconscious and drag her to safety while leaving Alex behind in a second if he thought that’s what was necessary to keep her safe.

Twisting her body to get a better look at the monster as it closed on them, she sighed, lowered her shoulders and lifted her wand again. 

“Vefa ok sauma.  Handleggr.  Grund.”  Weave and sew.  Arms.  Earth.  Two disturbingly human-looking hands of soil erupted from the fractured and uneven asphalt.  The hands were attached to arms of earth.  And the hands secured themselves around the monster’s rubble and twisted metal legs. 

A brief struggle showered the trio with rubble and dirt.  But the improvised prison held, and Sam took the opportunity to hurry Alex to their car.  Shoving the shivering and shuddering junior agent into her seat, Sam began fumbling with her seatbelt only for Gleipnir to interrupt her.

“Forget that.”  He hissed, as the monster continued struggling against the restraints on its legs.  “I’ll secure her.”  To show he meant it, Gleipnir floated into his spot behind and between the two front seats, but instead of letting the length of his flexible ribbon tail drape beneath him, he looped it over and around Alex, securing her in place.  “I got you, kid.”  He patted her face as her frenetic breathing finally started calming.

Sam had already hurried around to the other side of the car and after securing herself, started up the vehicle.  Slamming it into drive, she accelerated.  Though she’d been careful on the drive in, Sam did not take the time to carefully navigate her way through the large, uplifted chunks of asphalt, cracks in the road, or the overturned vehicles that littered the sides of the street. 

Instead, she took the turns as fast as she could, dodging around obstacles recklessly.  The communication scroll on the dash showed the last instructions from Frank.  She gave it a tap so it would reroll and display messages from where she had last checked it when she parked.

“Gleip, could you read that for me while I drive?”

“Indubiously.”

“Indubitably.  Gleip.”  Alex corrected as she started becoming a bit more coherent and her shivering subsided.  Sam chuckled with relief as she rounded a sharp turn.

“If you’re fighting with Gleip then you must be okay.”  There was grunt from Alex and a glowering growl from Gleipnir, then silence.  “Could you read the messaged for me?”  She gently reminded Gleipnir as the silence droned on.

“Ah.  Yes.”  He made a throat clearing sound, the one that always annoyed most people because they assumed that he didn’t have a throat and began narrating.  “Frank says, ‘Sam, Alex, or Gleipnir, if you’re still alive, we’ve withdrawn to the secondary perimeter.’ I think,” Gleipnir added helpfully, “That he means they ran away to where the destruction of the road stops so it’s easier to flee like the cowards they are if we aren’t able to take care of that thing on our own.”

“Ahahahaahaha!”  Borderline hysterical laughter came from Alex as she listened to Gleipnir.  The pact item turned the blank metal of his ‘head’ to ‘look’ at her.  Which was unnerving because he had no face and no expression.  Sam just raised an eyebrow and smirked.  What?  That was funny.”

“You think I’m joking?”  Voice a little higher with indignation, Gleipnir confronted the woman. 

“Well, of course.”  She nodded amiably.  “No one could possibly expect the two of you to handle something that size on your own.”  Now Sam chuckled, covering her mouth with her hand for a moment, then quickly putting it back on the steering wheel to correct course around another hole in the road.

“Oops.  My bad.”  She made a show of focusing on the road and straightening in her seat.  “You gonna tell her Gleip?”  The befuddled Alex looked between the warlock and pact item pair with amused suspicion.  They were putting her on, pulling one over on her.  It was just another one of their jokes.  Gleipnir turned to his warlock.

“I will tell her.”  He spoke with all the superiority he could muster then swiveled back to Alex.  “I…” he paused for dramatic effect while drawing himself up his ribbon tail lengthening with additional coils around him, “am Gleipnir.” 

That was it.

That was all he said.

Glancing at her partner, Alex could see that Sam was sucking on her lips to prevent herself from laughing.  Whether at her partner or at her pact item, Alex wasn’t sure.  But even though she was blocking the sun with one hand and squinting through the sunlight, Sam’s face was fighting a smile.

So, Alex focused on the proud and posturing Gleipnir.

“And…?” she prompted.  “I knew that.”

“What?  But…” The haughty set of his ribbon and the jaunty angle of his body shifted down slightly.  “Don’t you know what that means?”

“That you are a sentient magical pact item from some famous powerful magic being.”  She paused thoughtfully before adding, “Oh yeah, and you’re old as dirt.”  Sam laughed.  But it was a short terse laugh.  Despite the levity they were trying to bring to the situation, Alex couldn’t help but notice that Sam was checking the rearview mirror regularly. 

She took a look herself and regretted seeing the moving form of the thing that had almost eaten her struggling to escape the bindings that Sam had placed on it.  Maybe they could handle it themselves?  No.  Maybe?  No…?

“I’m Gleipnir.”  He corrected her gently.  Alex refocused her attention on him.  Still the words didn’t mean anything to her other than his name.  So what?  He was Gleipnir.  How was that name significant? 

She searched her mind, and she could have sworn that the needle-sword thing was gazing at her expectantly, searching her face even though it had no eyes to see with.  Gleipnir.  Norse mythology.  Fenrir.  Ragnarök.  That was back in 2012.  Scary shit.  Gleipnir was what they called the thing that they tied up Fenrir with.

“You’re named after the thing that used to hold Fenrir before Ragnarök.”  Alex guessed.  If anything, the sentient pact item seemed to become more disappointed with her.

“I am Gleipnir.”  He told her firmly but softly.  “I was created specifically to hold that poor child, Fenrir, restrained and imprisoned for hundreds of years before my conscience finally won out and I released him.  But the point is, that monster,” he nodded behind them, “…it’s just a manifested being.  Powered by the arcanes it’s leeching off the dead creature within it.  It’s small, compared to Fenrir.”

“Oh.”  Finally understanding why Gleipnir had the kind of cocky swagger he did in every aspect of his personality, Alex’s eyes and mouth had formed round ‘ohs’ of understanding long before the word had escaped on a breathy sigh.

“Yeah.”  Sam grimaced, getting their attention.  “We’ve found the calvary.”  It wasn’t said with sarcasm, but it did take on another meaning now that Alex understood that all those mages barricading the street with their vehicles and flashing lights weren’t super necessary or doing anything particularly helpful.  “This is your stop, new kid.  Hop on out.”