Better Supernatural, jump #54

[Dresden Files redux, jump #54] aka Better Supernatural

Drawbacks: The Hex, Big Old Apocalyptic Trilogy (1600)

Rolled Chicago

Wizard (1400)

Magic 101 (Free)
The Sight (Free)
Wizard Tricks (Free)
Clued In (Free)
Power to Burn (1250)
Refined Spellcasting (1100)
Worldwalker (800)
Soul Source (500)
Best Ale in Chicago (Free)
Blood, Mind, and Heart (100)
Supporting Cast: Elodie (0)
-Serious Business: Sidhe, Creature Features (Free), Glamorous (Free), Seelie Magic (Free)

Every good detective story starts and ends with a certain client. Sometimes, that client is a leggy blonde with cleavage that could kick eternity in the face and cleavage that goes on for miles, unless I got those two mixed up. Sometimes, that client's a mysterious stranger in a fedora so old it wasn't contrarian to wear them back then. This...wasn't that kind of detective story.

A couple years ago, after catching some troublesome blood rites I'd hired Harry Dresden to track down an ancient enemy after digging up some hauntingly familiar information about the local eldritch horrors. A horror of such magnitude that if it was not a sovereign among Outsiders, it was only by choice or sheer malignity. The investigation hadn't really gone anywhere because something else turned up on his plate that had Harry abandoning the case, getting into a tussle with some Red Court leeches and getting saved from an ambush by me arriving to check up on my premier investigator's progress.

In the meantime, I kept myself busy. I founded a gardening and landscaping business. Under my divine auctoritas, it grew almost as fast as the subtly enchanted plants I provided to the general populace. It existed partly to support the influence my apprentice's summer magic, and partly to invest a little magic of my own as protection over my neighbours, and mostly to keep myself busy while I kept track of the wizard's progress in Chicago. I spent a couple months gladhanding mayors, architects, rich lawn enthusiasts and politicans perfectly above board, with only the faintest hint of miraculous synchronicity.

Have I mentioned I have the miraculous gift of perfect timing? I hope I haven't. That save after the blood rites was a coincidence, I'd swear blind later, but the fact of the matter is I'd taken pains to dodge exactly what kind of being I was. To Harry, it was a courtesy undertaken to keep his mind at peace I came to regret as the gruff investigator turned out to be a dork after my own heart and a great drinking buddy. To the supernatural powers of the world, it was a polite fiction to avoid reprisal or coercion. Then I learned what was battled counstantly at the Outer Gates, and immediately committed my kingdom to destroying it-not defending against it, DESTROYING the Outsiders-at once. Such was their horror that we sustained casualties at all. Such was our might that the Outsiders struggled to ever again draw near the Gates, and Winter quickly recognised us as a power despite my subjects' resounding contempt for signing onto the Accords.

The White Christ's restrictions and my decision to respect them within reason bred resentment from much of my kingdom. But in all of Atziluth Eternal, my word was more than mere law-and as I explained, the promise of an eternal Nevernever was more than good consideration from my creator. Even with that, I knew many of my subjects and creations would bridle and chafe at that commandment. So I forbid almost all of them from interacting with the world without my permission and oversight. As a result, for backup in Chicago I had little more than levies of first circle devas from my titanic subjects and Elodie.

Elodie bore the brunt of the jealousy from my ragged citizens, and as I had taught her centuries ago diverted, soothed and rallied against it magnificently-even if she did confide her exhaustion in me in private. Perhaps that's why why she took an interest in Molly from an early age, showing her some spring magic tricks-and heading off what could've been a nasty psychomantic incident long enough for the adults to arrive. Her parents certainly preferred Molly styling her hair after Elodie's natural hair colors, and judging by the knowing looks they shared I was positive that at some point both had talked about their...uncomfortable mentor crush feelings. Harry and I both agreed our proteges were better off for having each other, and drank more beer to toast one more crisis averted.

Time passed, and with it my reservations about not being entangled with the residents as I grimly realised that dark forces were drastically escalating supernatural dangers beyond what one increasingly harangued wizard could reasonably expect to handle. I nicked a slim volume, making several visiting necromancers very, very cross. Elodie and Molly fought a Blackula LARPer with illusory garlic concealing the true garlic from the creature. Harry saved my burgeoning garden business from a slime monster, and my prized orchards from a Red Court firebombing. And inch by inch, I found myself thinking of Chicago as a home away from the war with the Outsiders. I stopped flying between skyscrapers in a bolt of lightning, and started taking the cab.

Magic is, in many ways, an extension of will and relationships more than any mere ordinary well of power. Of evocation I found myself attached to conjuring rays of superfocused sunlight that directly melted instead of exploding, and from Kemmler's notes devised a form of necromancy beyond the Laws: Necrobotany, the invocation of long-dead plants as iron-hard tendrils. For thaumaturgy I favored harmonious, orderly effects-a sort of counterpoint to entropomancy that increased the aggregate order in the area for similar feats of synchronicity. So it was that my deepening attachment to Chicago drove me to stop wildly lashing out with miraculous actions, dreadful Arts and time-tested Charms to instead knuckle down and-in this Chicago dwelling mortal emanation-really study magic. I was in quite a good position to begin with, my gifts setting me just shy of the Senior Councilmembers' might before the gracious gift of Creation's flame that Heaven's spymaster had furnished upon me.

While Harry was clumsily reigniting his love life, I was using the Charm Power From Darkness to rip occult knowledge from lesser minds. While Harry was confronting the Council, I was invoking Mythos Complementation to be the greatest wizard of the era and The Dream that Dreams Do Dream Of to blind the Council to my leaves of absence. While Harry was having days off, I was creating Spirits of Intellect with Ephemeral Spirit Induction and preordaining them to gather occult knowledge for me throughout the world, then enacting Inevitability Entanglement to render them vessels of knowledge for wizards long past. By the time of the naagloshii attack I was effectively a one-man White Council. What I lacked in the Archive's comprehensive storehouse of all written knowledge, I compensated for with research that had never been written and otherworldly sorcerous principles blended into my magic. The days blurred into one another, and looking back I realised that it was my relationships with notable locals and visitors that stood out.

A shady man representing local crime magnate John Marcone had approached me after he'd become a freeholding lord, setting up a meeting. I'd met Marcone in passing trying to check in on Dresden and being roped into a more immediate case of his; he'd frequently ended up trying to strike up a conversation for want of trying to escape Dresden's endless references, allowing me to "good cop" a favor here and there for Dresden in turn. He struck me as a true king out of his era. At the dinner he now made an effort to be polite ("as I trust" he had said, over a meal of exquisite porterhouse and a glass of Tignanello "you have as well, since you have passed on such /useful/ information to my trusted associates despite your...friendship with the wizard") and to impress me on being the third Chicago local (Molly had a good idea by now) to realise there was more to me than the old talisman and standard-issue Warden's sword. He spoke of expanding his (quite reasonable, his faded green eyes seemed to say) rackets to encompass more of Chicago. I spoke of how the encroaching Red Court was the least of what was to come, and he nodded slowly. As we came to an arrangement he tentatively asked if I could POSSIBLY stop lending the wizard a hand for a SECOND and I slowly shook my head.

Marcone showed up briefly, but frequently, at events around my business. I had a sense he wanted to ask more of me, but couldn't, and was more than happy with my patronage, and in any case needed to keep an eye on me, and approved of the fact that for two men studiously not considering each other friends I was much more aloof about it than Dresden. Later on his norse security consultants actaully bought one of my buildings to use as his stronghold .We nodded politely at each other and moved on, me having little interest in the criminal element in light of ongoing events, him happy to have a neighbouring wizard who didn't constantly threatent to burn the place down. Once he showed up looking like he'd spent the night up having a firefight with an army of ghouls, and spent most of the night complaining about white court unprofessionalism.

As for Michael Carpenter? I'd met him in the course of inspecting a delivery of bonsai trees to a house he'd been renovating, sensed the aura of heavenly power about him long before I saw him in armor. A good man, and another fine drinking partner. His wife Charity watched me with as much suspicion as Dresden at first, but quickly warmed to me when I gave them several hearthstones to restore the body and spirit. Privately with Charity I confided that moreso even than Dresden, I felt it would be safer for her family and household to stay and arm's length-an argument I had made to Michael, desperately trying to hint at deeper things going on than a gardener-wizard with a day job, which he kept waving off-but somehow ended up talking to her reservations with Dresden, and speaking of the times he'd risked his life for their family. After that and the incident on the island, I was simply not allowed to avoid Carpenter Sunday family dinners anymore.

The wielding of Summer magics had also, inevitably, drawn attention from the fairy courts. Aurora's attack had come on the pretenses of seeking Elodie to account for debt incurred to her, but one look at her soiled soul sounded alarm bells for Outsider influence. A plan was set in motion: My Elodie the bait, Molly the skirmisher, Harry the coordinator for the Little Folk battalions of the region and I the exorcist. Had I not wielded Soulfire like a small sun with my holiness, it would have been hopeless. The taint in her had fought back, writhing like a living thing. The massive favor Summer owed me for seizing it free was nothing compared to my joy at thwarting one of many foes, at last.

Winter's interest followed swiftly. The capricious, fickle Lady had reminded me uncomfortably of my first daughters almost as much as the true leader of the White Court had. She had an interest in me, then gave her full attention upon two realisations. First, that the Winter mantle simply could not stop me from having sex with her (It was a very intense negotiation about the Lea situation. Don't ask) for the simple reason that I had long adapted to being flayed by worse, which gave her the first genuine smile in centuries. Secondly, that Akuma of mine could buck the limits of their inherent nature while retaining their free will. Near-constant proposals for me to skip down, head to a not-so-discrete part of the Nevernever and be as vioent with her as I wanted while publically flipping off her queen bombarded my office. It was fortunate for many, Mab had told me pointedly, that given her sheer incompetence as the Winter Lady and the danger of a certain athame that it may have been for the best for all involved that a certain rebellious daughter meet an untimely end only for her soul to be plucked from the brink of death, endure as a mere powerful Sidhe shackled to a different master and take a low post on the Outer Gates with some holidays. The whole fiasco had earned me a corresponding standing favor from Winter, but I was too distracted by the Queen's lovely, fierce eyes to register that

Yes, much had happened and throughout it-it had slowly dawned on Harry that I was something much more than just any highrolling wizard. The realisation he'd never successfully soulgazed me, for one. In spite of how much we'd come to respect and rely on each other, the doubt picked at him all the way to the

[Peace Talks]

On this particular day, Harry was jogging with his brother Thomas when I showed up.

"-so yeah, I said to him over there" said Harry, explaining to Thomas our working relationship "the building was on fire, and it was technically both our faults"

"Don't listen to him, I just supplied the trees. HE lit the match" I brazenly evaded as I jogged along. "So, about that case..."

"Right. Yeah, that case" he said sheepishly while Thomas tutted. I'd actually paid in advance, and good enough to keep the lights on before they were firebombed. It wasn't a biggy.

"I don't know how to tell you this" said Harry carefully "but I don't think Lovecraft wrote down all the names correctly. Sorry man, this 'Nyarlathotep' you're looking for. Are you really sure it's out there?"

(1/8)

"Oh, it's out there. Under a different name, but this, this" I waved my hands vaguely "you know, the border issues. This bears it's mark"
"You sure about this? After EVERYTHING? I'm not sure I even can do any private investigating, technically, being the Winter Knight and all"
"Positive. The ways things are going, I won't turn down an extra pair of eyes"

It was at this point that Thomas announced Justine was pregnant, and I decided to withdraw coolly to go do something else. Like say, return to manning the war at the Outer Gates. Elsewhere, I stepped out onto a blasted heath before enormous gates built on the powdered bones of older defenders.

I strode up past ranks of bowing winter fae, looked over the parapets and oversaw the current engagement. The Outsiders, an amorphous wave of beaks and talons and tentacles and fangs, clashed with an army of first circle devas. Amidst them second circles coordinated, while above them third circles rained merry hell. And in the distance came thunderclaps of gold and silver, the thunder of Incarnae aboard their vessels, the phenomena-forms of Imperators and the looming bulk of jotuns* raged on in the distance.


I startled, finding a twitching humanform jotun belonging to one of my citizens. Mother Summer nursed Ruin's mangled stump of an arm while her maelstrom-jotun fought on. Instinctively I reached out, spread a healing aura over the chipped bone.

"Like...poisoned needles in...brain" gasped Ruin's Careless Whisper.
"Hush. No pain" I said, frantically flooding her with soulfire, cleansing blocked essence routes with the raw stuff of creation. "No pain whatsoever in my presence. It's a geas. You'll heal, you'll mend, you've done enough"
She spat blood and grinned, even as Mother Summer tutted and struggled with seeping corruption along her back. "My king, I'll have done enough for you when I've brought you a Walker's soul in a beaker. Until then...once more, into the fray"

"How many of mine are bedridden?" I asked quietly. "Two dozen" she murmured.

The gates opened.
Long-dead trees burst out of the ground around me, dead branches alight with Soulfire leaves.
I lunged at the oncoming wave like a comet.

*Yes, there was a bit of misunderstanding with Father Christmas about language use for a while

(2/8)

I came back to Chicago with a ringing sensation that felt like swimming deafness mixed with an ice cream headache, and a black substance that whispered blasphemous insinuations about the fundamental futility of existence dripping out my ribs. This was a problem because my immune system kicked in by shooting firework-like sparks out of those ribs as I loudly said "Wow, sticking fireworks under my shirt was a BAD idea" as I hurried off to find out where Harry had run off to.

I have the gift of perfect timing. This doesn't always mean showing up immediately or in a timely fashion, it means showing up when you need to be there. And in this case, the horse-sized slimey beast with a mass of tentacles for a head that moved like an insect gave a very clear reason why. There was no hesitation. One moment the creature freezed as it took notice of me, the next I was surfing 20 meters of rocketing undead oak on a one-way pain train to Destination: Hound of Tindalos, Population: Pain.

The IMPACT of splintering, soul-ignited wood carried us over a row of houses. Earlier the archangel Uriel had warned me using Soulfire regularly would result in running out of both soul and experiences. I briefly pondered just how much of both I had before enduring the lash of tentacles long enough to somehow get a grip on a handful and snarling "CAST DOWN STARS CONDEMNATION" at the creature.

And it was this timing that saved Harry and Ebenezar from being dogpiled, by a burning flailing Hound soaring out of the sky and smashing into it's co-locating bodies like bowling pins. Not to be outdone, Harry pulled a move we'd practice before: Converting the excess energy of the blast into a circular barrier before it could wreck neighbouring houses.

Then the absolute madman cast a banishment spell in that ring of fire, which is the wizardly equivalent of an experimental fusion reactor.

(3/8)

"Good grief" I said admiringly later, paying the man's tab "did you SEE the look on that thing's face?"
"They have faces? Should've aimed for the snout" asked Harry moodily.
"They were terrified of you! This whole Starborn gig, this once every 666 years event where some lucky fella like you's born with the life force frequency that's the mirror opposite and cancellation of the Outsiders thing. That's pretty sweet, huh?" I said, toasting him.
"Well, hold your applause because my brother's beaten and imprisoned by the Svartalves for attempting to kill their king, and my grandfather wants me to leave him for being White Court" grumbled Harry, "so...that case I dropped the ball on? I can't, this is personal"
"And that's fine. Family first"

We toasted. We drank. I tipped Mac. He grunted at me.

"I could really use a hand here" said Harry.
"How can I help?" I said. After everything Chicago had been through, we were a bit beyond a standard client-detective relationship. Harry's mouth opened and shut like a goldfish as he pondered the sheer number of people his brother had pissed off, and tried to figure out how much help I could provide.

"It's, fuck it's really bad this time. I need a straight answer. What kind of power are you fielding out there?"

"Hngh. Power. Never liked that question" I drank my beer, thinking hard "misses the point. Okay so, let's say for the sake of argument I lead an order of beings powerful enough intention and result are as one to them, within certain themes. Beings with worlds for bodies, apocalypses for bodies, legends for bodies. Beings the likes of which the ones who can't OBLITERATE galaxies, can certainly drown them in a miasma of dreams or reduce them to literary stanzas. And that the spirits I've set as the local neighbourhood watch" I waved vaguely outside where six devas patrolled a rooftop "are infintesimal pieces of my citizens holding the line at the Outer Gates"

Harry gawked at me. I'd kind of alluded to my kingdom taking up a good part of the Nevernever, but I'd always had a chance to dodge fully answering the question before.

(4/8)

Like I said, he'd soulgazed me once. The fact that he hadn't seen ANYTHING, just felt the ambience grow warm and bright had clearly given him food for thougt.

"That's not getting into our creations, champions, guests and kids. Believe it or not, I tried to keep things informal back in the day when it was just me, my oldest partner and the kids"
"You got family?"
"They're all family in a sense. Truth is I never wanted to rule, always saw myself as more of a, a gardener. A shepherd. But to get down to brass tacks, the stickler's free will and propiety. Have you not noticed there's a kind of threshold over your world? A closed system that brings death to the immortal in October, among other things. Many of my peope would be...hemmed in, like trying to swordfight in an air duct. I don't know HOW well, exactly, their shaping defenses would hold up against them but-they're forces of nature in their own right too, it's a two way street and I don't mess around with uncertainty. And the fallen angels and servants of the Lord have invested so much into the, uh, the morality chess, that ONE of us walking around with improper control could draw fire from all fronts. And that's WITHOUT getting into how nasty some of them play"

(I milked the giant cow for this part, trying to simplify the concept down into a bar ramble)

"How nasty?"
I grimaced. "Lara Raith's talking shop with some of my oldest daughters. I'm not sure who to be afraid for"
He nodded slowly, eyes wide. The gears turned as we contemplated our beer. Finally he said, "How do you feel about parties?"
"Ah. Shall I catch another shiv*?"
That got a grin from him. "Maybe later. I need leverage on Etri. Maybe others"
"Yeah, I can do that"
"But you didn't sign the Accords"
"Didn't stop them from letting me and mine hold the line at the Wall and well, I never did call in those favors with your boss**. Let's figure out how you want me to hobnob"

*The last time I caught a shiv at a party hosted by the Red Court to earn favors from Summer, I'd needed to chop off my hands and burn them for good measure.

**The last time I earned favors from Mab, I'd needed to chop out my eyes and burn them for good measure.

And that's how I ended up going to the peace talks.

(5/8)

You'd expect peace talks to be about diplomacy, negotiation, learning about other cultures. No such thing happened. As if some sort of conservation of narrative shaped current events, as I munched on Sidhe cheese on toothpicks while eying the crowd, I could see the skeins of destiny conspiring to delegate such events to a later period of time.

Santa wasn't there, legally, but Vadderung was and we hit it off by the fire while pretending not to notice Harry, Lara and some valkyrie embarking on yet another heist adventure this time to steal [spoiler]Thomas[/spoiler] out from Etri's nose. "Good party. Fireplace crackling, the chill of winter" said Vadderung, nodding at Mab "on everyone's shoulders. Reminds me of back when I was Beowulf"

I damn near spat out my drink. "I knew it! You're a Jumper, Odin!"
He winked, the scoundrel. "Told you I didn't even know what that is, but I like the sound of it"
"You moonlight as Santa too! You're also surrounded by well-armed beautiful women! Tell me, do you have a different Benefactor or has mine been keeping secrets!?"
"Hah. Kids these days, just because you lived and fought like a mortal to defend and train humans against Grendel's evil path Bigfoot tribe they start attributing interdimensional travel powers to you" he said, passing the mead flagon.

We drank, and we drank. 10 flagons later I realised 1. the wine was divine and 2. that bastard Odin considered the 10 flagons to be a warm-up. Being simultaneously drunk and not drunk on account of the mortal meatsuit plugged into your greater existence is a strange feeling. I was sober enough to waltz up to Etri at one point to call him "my main elf man dude" while somehow simultaneously applying Eclipse-level etiquette to svartalf etiquette, and drunk enough to realise Dresden had bigger priorities this night.

(6/8)

(DRESDEN. HEY, DRESDEN) I screeched telepathically and drunkenly.
(Ow!) said Harry.
(IT IS IMPERATIVE, RIGHT NOW, THAT YOU GET THAT BUFF REDHEAD VALKYRIE PUSSY PROPOSING A BISEXUAL ORGY WITH KAREN FOR PUTTING A GUN IN HER FACE WHILE CRIPPLED ON LOCK AND ROPE IN LARA TO MAKE IT A FOURSOME) I mind-yelled.
(Stars and stones, this is not the time I'm literally trying to smuggle my brother out of an archaic privy chamber) thought Harry)
(Harry, you NEED to make the good moments last where you can get them, or else you'll end up up the shitter without a paddle! Have you any idea how bad things are getting later this year!?)
(That doesn't even make sense! I'm not going to have sex with more than one woman, and that's final! Team Free Will andalsomonogamy for life!) thought Harry furiously.
"DAMN YOU HARRY DRESDEN! YOU WILL RUE THE ARROGANCE YOU HAVE SHOWN ME ON THIS DAY!!" I shouted at nobody in particular. Many of the guests nodded in sympathy. I swear Mab was one of them. Odin was laughing.

Shenanigans ensued. Dresden turned a Sidhe into an ice sculpture just before the heist. Vadderung stared down Ferrovax to prevent him from spilling the beans on Harry's escape. It was all a very good party until I sensed an incongruity, and reached deep for the ghosts of elms.

By the time I got out, the enemy strike force was embattled with phantom branches, not that the two inhabitents of the truck even broke stride on their way to the party. One was the toad-like King Corb of the Fomor. He walked in and threw the head of Gwynn ap Nudd at the gathered partygoers. And his companion held him by a chain wound on the leash around his neck: A giant, divinely beautiful woman made of bronze and crystal with hair like "silk spun from silver", with one emerald eye and one closed yet mangled one-who moved quickly enough to kick Mab through several walls and literally in half.

...
...or you know, would've if I hadn't gotten in the way.

(7/9)

The metaphysical weight of the blow broke ME in half instead. Legs went flying over the canapes. Torso got stuck in the chandelier. And Ethniu, daughter of Balor, The Last Titan looked more disgusted than anything that mortal clay had actually stood up to her.

She forced Ferrovax to introduce her by will, declared the world to have manifestly failed due to the Accords and advancement of mortality supposedly killing the divine. The only being she spoke to with respect was Vadderung himself, claiming she had no quarrel with him-just the mortal world.

"Enough. ENOUGH of this rubbish" snarled someone. To general surprise, it was me. Light erupted from my broken portions. When it faded, I wielded a staff of forbidden light and a glove fit for reality's architect.

Her eyes narrowed. "No human could have survived that. Therefore, you must be one of those marginalised by these pathetic CHILDREN. It should be you, standing with me as I bring an end to this pathetic alliance"

"And who are YOU to pass judgement? Do you fathom your actions on the brink of war with the Outside? How many worlds have YOU built, nurtured, LOVED AS A CHILD? You DISGUST ME. God, called Yahweh, has entrusted your kind with the world itself! How can you be so prideful as to judge it? You say you never had a choice, and yet you brazenly endager all creation and free will?! NO LONGER! By my honor as King of the Shattered Annex, you shall not pass!" I bellowed.

I forgot the plan. I nearly forgot Harry, watching this all from a corner. I hadn't felt this offended, this morally outraged since learning the true extent of the Incarnae's negligence. And living dead wood converged on the goddess from all directions.

I may as well have been throwing foam and cardboard. The splinters burst and caught alight as she surged at me. Missed, only because of a perfect defense. Her will fell upon me like an anvil, and as my face cracked the floor my broken jaw forced out the words: "Titanic. Heretic. Form"

White-silver flame erupted around me as I let out a sharp kiai, the Titan's confidence eroding upon realising she actually had to try to reach through the mandala of sigils and legends wreathing an anima-icon of my least shintai. "UNFURLING ANGEL ATEMI" I added, burning wings of cold, white fire whipping out and striking her a thousand times in a second, shedding feathers of flame like snow..

The Titan did not falter, and met each of my blows with her own limbs. Like a charging ox she held her ground one moment-and in the next was already dragging me to one angle before our positions reversed. Our battle carved gouges in the floor, tore upwards through the walls and shattered the ceiling we tried to throw each other through-she crazed with hate and humiliation, I beyond all reason from utter outrage. The building shook like a leaf in a storm, nearby guests knocked aside from the energies released between us and few if any there realised how time itself bent to our struggle.

I stared frantically at the mortal musicians, the lesser guests, my mortal body's broken bones animated only by divine pith as I reached for other arts. KI RATA: TOTAL LIFE OBLITERATION: FIVE FINGER, FIVE POINT STRIKE I thought, a breath like a thunderclap making me faster than mortal bearing. In the time between moments she scoffed as I punched, kicked and flailed at what later I learned was titanic bronze, an aloy only the Hundred-Handed Ones could forge beyond mere physical force, striking into my holy flame. KRAYU MAT: TWIN SOUL TECHNIQUE I thought next, noting with interest how the tintinnabulation of my soulfire fists gave her more concern than my flesh ones, even when a hundred blows flung in a second fended off the assault.  Then she unveiled her eye and stone shattered to dust, fabric burned and the castle's magical defenses shattered. TITANIC HERETIC STYLE: BROKEN WINGED DIVE KICK I heard myself call as if from miles away, the screaming phoenix of violet flame around my foot barely cutting through the primordial hatred around me, as I passed back into the walls I had been blasted through to kick a surprised Ethniu in the face. Dimly, I noticed King Corb banished to safety. Within moments, the mere release of that energy threatened to kill electricity throughout Chicago, leaving it in darkness.

STRIKER! I shouted, my voice reverbating from the thunderclouds, as she leapt through her own crater to retaliate. Out of nowhere, Elodie leapt from an unassuming Summer Court delegation. Once again I drew forth the dead wood-but this time as a soul-burnt spear further fanned by my adopted child's Seelie magic. The kick and the spear-thrust to the Titan's good eye happened all but instantaneously, and broke her concentration.

"Impudent son of man!" she roared, focusing the devastation on my fleeing sidekick.

MUTILATED AND INCORRECT BASTARD OF A BASTARD I retorted, parrying her gaze with a burning sigil of Old Realm.

"Meddling fool!" she hissed at me.

I KNOW YOU ARE BUT WHAT AM I

Again, and again I lashed her with ambient soul-magic shaped into thorned vines of light. Her kicks and punches shattered three in quick succession, but they bought me the time I needed. STRIKER I yelled again, carving a portal to the Nevernever-through which Fair Eyes unloaded the famous Solar Death Ray into the wretched creature's eye while Makoto dragged her into the Wyld. STRIKER! I yelled yet again, and this time it was Lilith on silver wings who forcibly dragged her beyond Marcone's walls, into the streets. STRIKER! I called for the last time, even as Ethniu braced herself from the many portals around her. Arrows made of misfortune and heartbreak pelted her flesh. Vast dragons made of the elements roused to battle ambushed her-and the shadows of those elements too opened their jaws. A golden blast of light hammered the ground around her to less than powder.

And still she stood, and still she readied to retaliate-just a moment too late for me to reach through the light that was my being and essence, and cry out at last TITANIC HERETIC STYLE: CHRYSALIS CROSS-COUNTER as a block was suddenly writhed in burning, carapace-like essence that violently exploded into a thousand shards as Ethinu herself lunged at me.

It was just a chink.
Just a slash bisecting the metal above and below her good eye.
But with a scream of rage, Ethniu at last fled into the night.

"Well fought...guest" said Mab behind me. "As of one hour past, I am informed the Outer Gates are under intense attack. Though it seems Winter owes you" she winced "yet another debt, we must convene immediately to discuss our war preparations"

I shut my eyes. There was one loose end, however- "Yes, that would be the responsible thing to do. Elodie, go find Harry"

"Why? I should be here, helping you..." My apprentice wrung her hands, wide-eyed. "...set the lake on fire, I guess?!"

"Because there's something much more important at stake than the Formor being in league with the Outsiders" I told her gently. "Something irreplacable and precious"

"I can take care of it, whatever it is! Tell me what's a stake!"

"A good husband's soul" I said, staring into the distance.

I wasn't there. I was at the Outer Gates, my hallowed fires rushing out beyond the bounds of reality where my infinitude could express itself as a wave of restoration and protection around my weary citizens and an oncoming barrier of annihilation for their assailents. I was at Marcone's castle, fending off the cooing of the once-Winter Lady and politely ignoring Mab's twitching eye from Ethniu mentioning how she'd wept when Merlin cast her out, and questioning whether he'd be proud of what she became.

I wasn't there to see Harry fight his grandfather, and get beaten senseless, only for that to be an astral projection inhabiting an ectoplasm construct-long enough to broaden the rift between them when he realised Ebenezer would kill Thomas even knowing he was his grandson for being White Court. But I can imagine how the conversation went there.

Harry would have thought to himself, "My brother's too injured. Whatever Lara thinks, imprisoning him in Demonreach even though imprisonment forces prisoners to endure the suffering they've committed, is the only way to keep him alive AND safe from the svartalves' vengeance".

And Elodie would have shown up, saying something like "Stop! Anon has sophisticated First Age-era healing tanks! I can just take Thomas to his corner of the Nevernever to heal!"

It wasn't what I'd hoped for. It didn't bring me any closer to finding Nyarlathotep. But it was still a worthwhile thing to do for a man who had been through too much already.