Ascendancy Origins Trilogy

by Bradford Bates

  Once we pulled onto the road, I started reading. The document outlined some basic information about where the shop was located and what other businesses operated around it. Also included was a map detailing escape routes if for any reason things got out of hand. Glancing over what the warlock had been selling, I was surprised that we had not heard of it sooner. It seemed the information was only passed along to us because he had sold a potion to the brother of one of the humans we employed. When the potion backfired, and the warlock demanded more money to cure the person’s ailment, our employee reached out to us. He confessed to buying the potion and what happened afterward. One of our healers cured the man, and detailed the incident in a report. It’s funny how a little piece of paper can get things moving so quickly.

  Warlocks were a nasty bunch. Humans infused with the power of Demons. Each of them had different strengths and weaknesses based on the type of Demon they had bound to themselves. I always wondered how the humans got the impression that warlocks and witches used magic. The truth was much simpler; they used demonic power to get what they wanted. The stronger the Demon was, the stronger the warlock would be.

  I had been part of a raid two years ago where we had interrupted the binding ritual. The result was a gory mess. The Demon, finding itself free in our world, killed the would-be warlock before we could slay it. That memory always stayed with me. The Demons hated to be bound, and it was risky for a human even to try. Were they willing to do so much just to gain a small taste of what we could do naturally?

  If a human successfully bound the Demon inside of himself, he gained access to that Demon’s power. Some of the most fearsome warlocks and witches had absorbed more than one Demon, giving them access to a wider range of demonic abilities. Sarah and I had seen firsthand the cost of trying to bind a Demon that was too strong for the host to handle. We had faced down the Spider Queen in 1851. That image still haunted me today, the upper half of a woman, and the lower half of a spider.

  As we continued to roll slowly through the city, I wondered just how strong this warlock was going to be. Further review of the documents provided me with the creature’s name, Elijah Cane. He lived and worked out of his shop, The Prince and The Pauper. Financial records indicated that the shop had been open for three years. Each year, the shop grossed slightly more income than the last. No legal trouble had been reported at the address in question. A quick questioning of the surrounding shop owners provided little or no information. All of them thought it was a gag shop, or a place someone could purchase a curiosity.

  The owner of the shop was well liked and respected by his neighbors. Some of them went so far as to offer to provide character references for Mr. Cane. It seemed that our little warlock had created the perfect cover for himself. I was looking forward to seeing just what he had to say about his little enterprise. He had better talk quickly, because I wanted to get back to find out what happened with Sarah’s pursuit of the Ifrit.

  Our driver pulled to the side of the road a few doors down from The Prince and The Pauper. I took the lead; a quick glance up and down the street showed me that we wouldn’t have to worry about any interference. The street was mostly deserted, but at this late hour, I would not have expected anything less. Joshua climbed out of the car and joined me, both of us taking in the plain exterior of the building. Its only eccentricity was the brightly painted sign hanging over the door and the door itself. Other than that, we could have been walking into any shop on the street.

  The frosted-glass door made the shop look warm and inviting. The golden stenciled letters on the door stood out, seeming to glitter even in the hazy night air. I started across the street, glancing over my shoulder once to make sure Joshua was still following me. I motioned for him to stay behind me and whispered, “When we get inside, try and follow my lead.”

  When I opened the door, the gentle tinkle of a bell greeted my ears. I should not have been so surprised that the charming exterior carried inside. The store seemed to be one large room; it was completely open from the door all the way to a counter at the back. The walls to each side were lined floor-to-ceiling with shelves that contained all manner of bottles. The sizes, shapes, and colors were enough to confound the mind. Never had I seen so many different styles of glassware.

  What were the different bottles used for? Would the makeup of the bottle affect the potion he brewed for it? I had to admit I did not know too much about potions; that was a more subtle skillset than I was used to employing. A quick look back let me know Joshua had silently followed behind me as I asked. He was bent over looking at a few of the vials. I would have to ask him later if he knew anything about potions, and what the different types of glass would mean. He looked up and saw me watching him, and I caught his eye as his gaze shifted behind me. I turned around to find our illustrious target waiting for me behind the counter.

  I gave the shopkeeper a solid once over, taking in the small eccentricities that stood out in his appearance. He was a short man; my guess would have placed him at five feet tall. The weight he carried around his midsection made him look even more unassuming. What really made him stand out was his beard; he wore it with such pride. He had the bottom of it woven together, hanging down about a foot from his chin. The rest of his hair was tied back in a greying ponytail.

  The clothes he wore would have looked more in place at the university than they did here in this shop. Not exactly what I would have expected from a warlock. Most warlocks flocked to bright colors and had an extremely vain streak deeply imbedded in their attitude. As far as I could tell, his only indulgence to his vanity would have been his plated beard. When he turned his head, I noticed a little bit more, picking up a glint of gold from his ear.

  His smile reached his eyes, and with a dramatic flourish, he bowed to us. “Welcome to The Prince and The Pauper, gentlemen. What can I do for you today?”

  I looked back once to make sure Joshua was ready to act when I did. He gave me a slight indication with his chin. I hoped that meant he was ready. I hoped he would be able to keep up once things started to move at a faster pace.

  I turned my gaze back to the shopkeeper. “Well, I’m looking to pick something up for my friend here. One of our acquaintances gave him a gift from your shop the other day; he seemed to be riding high on the hog until about a day or two ago. Now it seems as though he can’t do anything right. He told me this was a silly idea, but I just knew there would be something you could do to help.”

  On cue, Joshua bumped into the shelves almost knocking several of the glass pieces to the ground. He reached out to grab one of the shaking bottles to steady it and accidently knocked it to the floor. The glass shattered on the ground at his feet. He bent over to try and gather up the broken shards, and his back bumped into several more bottles, knocking them to the floor around him.

  I tried my hardest not to smile. I hoped I succeeded when I said, “See what I mean, this type of thing has been happening nonstop. I just knew I needed to get him here to see you.”

  The shopkeeper sprang into action, running around the counter, and moved Joshua gently away from the shelves toward the center of the room. He tsked then said, “My, it does seem as if you have run into some trouble. I would hate for you to think it had anything to do with something I sold. Thankfully, I have a cure for almost any misfortune.”

  He walked around Joshua giving him a nudge here and a poke there. I was happy to see Joshua kept playing the part. After a particularly rough poke that I was sure had more to do with the broken glassware than any type of examination, Joshua threw himself to the floor.

  Whatever the shopkeeper pretended to be doing, he kept up with it as he helped Joshua back to his feet. “Ah-ha. I have figured out exactly what is wrong with your friend here. I can completely reverse it.” His voice dropped. “For a price.” The warlock smiled wider, and I could see the tips of his sharpened teeth. Just a little bit of the Demon had slipped out in his eagerness.

  I gave him a stern look. “Well, friend,
you kind of have us over a barrel. It’s not like he can keep on going like this for too much longer. So tell me, how much is this miracle cure going to cost us?”

  Mr. Cane made a show of walking back around the counter, pulling a pencil from his coat. He picked up a pad of paper and started writing. Every so often, he would move the eraser to the corner of his mouth like he was deep in thought, then he would scratch something else and keep writing. Now he was looking at Joshua and talking to himself as he kept writing and scratching out figures on the paper. Just when I thought that I couldn’t take it anymore, he stopped.

  He walked away from the counter and into the back room, quickly reappearing. “I hate to tell you this, gentlemen, but the ingredients for what he needs are very rare. My supply cost for these things has increased dramatically over the last few months. Also due to the severity of this man’s ailment and the time frame in which he will need the potion before his state becomes permanent, I would have to peg a rough estimate at around two hundred and fifty dollars.”

  I let out a low whistle. Two hundred and fifty dollars was almost enough to buy a car, and not some cheap piece of crap car, either. I watched his face for moment to make sure I had heard him right, and then he added, “Not to mention the cost of the broken glassware, and that is assuming that everything goes right the first time. I could run into additional expenses if we have to tweak the formula.”

  He watched me with a small smile on his features. The fat toad thought he had just earned himself another payday by swindling a hardworking man out of a fortune. But it was my turn to smile. “I have a different price in mind.”

  I gave a nod to Joshua and watched as he straightened himself up. All signs of being controlled by any kind of spell quickly fell away. I had to say I was impressed with his acting. He walked back over to the shelves and swept an armful of them to the ground. I let out a little laugh as I watched them shatter into pieces. How many lives had this thing destroyed? Now it was our turn to repay him for those acts of unkindness.

  Mr. Cane made a move to run around the counter and stop Joshua from destroying any more of his precious bottles. I shoved him roughly back behind the counter and shouted, “Stay put!”

  I gave Joshua the signal to continue, and he methodically walked around the room knocking bottles off as it pleased him. His act was having just the type of effect on Mr. Cane that I’d hoped for. When the shopkeeper sprang up, he moved much faster than before, his speed enhanced by demonic energy. What he didn’t expect was that I would be ready for him. I picked him up as he ran by and slammed him into the ground, hard. I had hoped that he would get the message, but he still tried to struggle against me as I pinned him to the ground with my foot.

  I watched in horror as his hands started to crack and bleed. They changed into sharpened claws before my eyes. Yep, we definitely had the right place, and the right person. Mr. Cane must have missed the message I had been trying to send. His face shifted, and the next thing I knew, my leg was flying off of his chest. The creature leapt to his feet and tried to charge at Joshua. He only made it three steps before I had his legs solidly incased in ice.

  Joshua looked a little shocked at the man’s transformation. I was, as well. He must have been a strong warlock indeed to be able to control his demon side so well. His head reminded me of a lizard now, all teeth and eyes. An extra-long tongue darted back and forth across his teeth as he watched us. He wasn’t strong enough to break the ice, but that wouldn’t hold him forever. Already, he struggled against it, knowing what was coming.

  I poked him once in the back. “I would suggest you try and calm yourself. Any further acts of aggression will be met swiftly and with pain.”

  Joshua moved around the creature to stand with me behind his back. Mr. Cane snarled and threw his body from side to side, but the ice I had cast around his legs still held. Joshua leaned against the counter as if he didn’t have a care in the world. This creature’s distress did not affect him in the slightest.

  I took a moment to examine what the man had become. His claws still had four fingers and a thumb. Each digit was now covered in scales and had an inch-long claw instead of a fingernail. His head still reminded me of a lizard, but I could see the intelligence in his eyes. I wondered just how many humans he had killed with his bad potions, and those claws. Luckily for us, we weren’t human, and this creature’s time had come to an end. Slowly, the creature’s face started to shift back to its human form. The sounds of bones breaking as his skull reformed was horrible to hear.

  With a look of resignation on his face, Mr. Cane looked at me. “So what happens now?”

  I was a little disappointed he gave up so quickly. I would have much rather killed him in battle. I hated playing executioner, but sometimes, it had to be done. He was a Demon at heart, and I would sleep well tonight knowing there was one less of them in the world.

  I stepped around to face him. “It has come to the attention of the Ascendancy that you have breached the Accord. Not only have you risked exposing our world, you have profited from your misdeeds. If you would have been selling potions alone, we could have worked something out, but what I have found here is deceit, bribery, and possibly murder. I am surprised that you thought you could do this kind of business under our nose.”

  I released the ice binding the warlock’s legs, and to his credit, he did not try and run. Joshua stayed where he was, looking content to watch what was about to happen. I turned my gaze back from him to the newly reformed Mr. Cane. He started to babel a bit, and I could not tell if he was trying to cast a spell or if he was begging for his life. Joshua moved from his position at the counter and slammed a fist rapidly into the warlock’s side. As the air rushed out of his lungs, the creature fell to his knees. I created a razor of fire around my arm and quickly cut off the warlock’s head.

  I spoke a few words over his corpse. “The Ascendancy finds you guilty of breaching the Accord, using your demonic influence against humanity and risking the exposure of our world. The punishment for your crime is death.” I used my gift to finish incinerating the warlock’s body; you could never be too careful. Some of them were harder to kill than a cockroach.

  I walked to the phone behind the counter and placed a quick call back to our base. The cleaning team should be here soon enough, so we didn’t need to stay and wait for them. I wanted to get back home and find out if Sarah was okay. I hung up the phone and walked past Joshua toward the door. I stepped around where the warlock’s body had been, trying not to get his ashes on my boots.

  I looked back, and Joshua was already following right behind me. He looked at me as we walked back toward the waiting car and asked, “So you didn’t want to hear why he did it? I’m surprised. People have told me that you enjoy asking questions.”

  I stepped into the back seat of the car and was surprised he was still staring at me, waiting for an answer. “Normally, I would have tried to find out if he was working with anyone else in the city. It is almost certain that he was, but tonight, my partner was sent out to battle an Ifrit, and I am more concerned about her.”

  Joshua smiled and sat back, getting comfortable for our ride back. “I got the impression from passing her in Adam’s office earlier that she could take care of herself.”

  We both laughed at that. It was true there was nothing that I needed to worry about with Sarah being out there alone, but I still wanted to see her as soon as possible. Just because you shouldn’t worry does not mean that you don’t.

  4

  Edward

  1348

  The delicious taste of tobacco smoke played over my tongue while the smoke itself curled lazily up into the rafters. The Slaughtered Calf Inn had far exceeded my wildest expectations for such a small village. The food and drink had been superb, and the service was on par with the finest in all of England. In my estimation, that had earned the innkeeper the right to bend my ear for a little bit longer.

  I raised my eyebrows to let him know to continue his story.
/>   He began to speak in a hushed and hurried tone. “When the first animal disappeared from our barn, we thought that maybe somehow it had escaped. There had never been much thievery in our little hamlet, so that was the furthest thing from my mind. When it happened again, our thoughts turned to bandits or maybe a poacher passing through. The third time we lost a sheep, we found bloodstains in the grass, and eventually tracked down some bones at the edge of the forest. None of us knew what kind of animal could carry a sheep that far and devour it in a day.”

  I filled my pipe with another pinch of tobacco and continued puffing contentedly as the innkeeper continued his story. “So we started to take turns in the fields at night, hoping to get a glance at whatever was killing our sheep. In the dark, we couldn’t keep track of the entire flock very well and continued to lose animals.” The innkeeper shrugged as if to say what more could he have done.

  I listened to the man’s ramblings, but I already had a pretty good idea of what had taken his sheep. It wasn’t something that I had expected. For Lycans to be this sloppy so close to the capitol. I wondered just how many were lurking out there in the darkness. A sheep a day would probably sustain more than a few if they were staying in their human form. Some missing sheep was not a great concern for me, but if it was the Lycans killing them, that could mean there was work to be done. I thought about gathering my men and heading out, but we deserved at least one night of comfort. If there were enough Lycans in the area, we could end up staying here for several weeks.

  I enjoyed another small sip of my ale and refilled my pipe as the innkeeper called over one of the serving girls to refill his own mug. He motioned for the girl to fill mine, as well. I placed a hand over the top of my mug. Two draughts would have to be enough for tonight if there were Lycans in the area. While I had grown comfortable with the occasional drink, or ten, while out on the road, this situation called for a little prudence.