Episode Thirty-Two: Burning Questions

Ivetta gasps audibly and stiffens in fear staring at the familiar white towers and the islands hanging in the sky innocently behind them. Castor looks at what she sees. “Are those…?”

“If those were not the towers he was talking about, what are? They look exactly like what I saw…in there.” Just as Ivetta’s words fade Castor is hit with her vision.

Those two towers in the distance are set on a precipice, they are so tall they sway slightly with the wind. She flies to their tops. On the Southern tower on a pedestal in a glass case sits a familiar black rectangle. The last waypoint. And yet a foreboding bears down, a storm rides the wind, something feels wrong.

She blinks it away but the pit in her stomach remains.

“Didn't Hollenzoller say to stay away from the tower?” Tobias asks. Ivetta nods slowly.

Castor bites her lip, “I, um, have some pretty bad news.” She rubs her temple, “If we want to get out of here, we have to go to the top. The- the waypoint is up there.”

“You’ve had your vision then,” Tobias asserts. Castor nods solemnly.

The color drains from Ivetta’s face, “There has to be another way—” She’s interrupted by a horn honking at them. A man in his wheel box shouts at them to get out of the way and they move out of the wheel box’s way.

“I don’t think we have a lot of time,” Castor says, “it- it feels like something is coming.” Ivetta bites her lip. They begin to feel the eyes on them. People are staring at them. Everyone around is dressed oddly to them but they are dressed equally as oddly to the other. Castor says, “Let's get some clothes maybe blend in a little bit before we figure this out.” The others nod and they walk to a small shop selling clothing. The bell to the boutique door chimes as Castor, Ivetta, and Mrs. Barber enter. Tobias is held back by a voice.

A man in blue wearing a hat and a shiny badge addresses Tobias, “Sir? Sir?” It takes a second for Tobias to realize he’s being talked to before he answers him.

“Yes?”

“Could I talk to you for a moment?''

“Of course, can I help you?”

“Yeah…” He stares for a moment and motions to all of him, “You headed to a reenactment or somethin’?”

“I’m sorry?”

“Your firearms. Not usual for people to be walkin’ around with so many.”

“They are strictly for protection, I assure you.”

“Might be feeling a little too safe.” He mumbles more to himself. He speaks up again, “Can I see some identification?”

“What kind?”

“Driver’s license.”

Tobias looks slightly sheepish, “Ah, nobody’s ever asked to see my directive from the pope, but I suppose…” He shows him the parchment indeed containing his directives from His Holiness.

The policeman looks at the old paper written in a language he doesn’t speak before giving him an odd look and chuckling slightly, “Alright buddy. Now look, I support your right to carry but I’ll just say cover it up and there's nothing we can do about it. Alright? What was your name sir?”

“Sounds agreeable. Thank you. Tobias König.”

“Have a pleasant day.” He turns away and follows his companions into the shop.

Each picks outfits to their liking from the colorful and weird clothes of this world. Ivetta and Mrs. Barber pick out simple dresses, Castor a jacket and pants and Tobias gets an overcoat. Apparently, priest robes never go out of style.

When they finish, they bring the heap of clothing to the woman at the front. She pokes at a box that dings and says, “That'll be $3,247 dollars.” Ivetta pulls out her sack of gold coins.

“I'm sorry we only accept USD here. Debit or credit?”

“I’m not sure what USD is but can we barter? You like gold, right? These are vintage high purity gold colds. I know it's unconventional, but I was hoping you would accept these.” She holds out a handful of coins to her.

The cashier’s mouth drops open and her eyes light up. Elated she rambles, “Looks like we’re closing early today. You can change into them here if you like. Here, a complementary bag for your old ones. I'll take care of the receipt…no wait I’ll burn it later. You have a real good day now.” She ushers them out of the shop and hangs the ‘sorry we’re closed’ sign on the door.

“What a nice lady.” Castor comments.

Ivetta says. “Let's go to the pharmacy.” The other three agree and move to cross the street. They come to a group of people waiting to cross the wheel box road, then moving when the colored lights hanging above change hues. More people from the other side move as well. Ivetta’s attention is caught by a woman coming their way. For a second she thinks she recognizes her. She’s not quite the same but she looks like a younger version of her mother. Ivetta thinks she’s going insane. Her head turns with her as she passes. The woman notices her gaze. She too looks back and stops dead in the street. “Do I know you?”

Ivetta stops as well, “It's hard to explain–-”

“I’ve seen you before…” she breaks off as her eyes slide past Ivetta. Her hand flies to her mouth accompanied by a gasp. Shouts sound around them, murmurs, people pointing. Ivetta turns on her heel just in time to see a huge white thing fly into the tower. One of the men in puffy coats exclaims, “oh shit! What was that!?”

Castor takes off running toward the towers Tobias and Mrs. Barber on her heels. Ivetta shouts for them, “No! Wait! We can’t go there!”

“We have to help!” Cries Castor, not slowing down. Ivetta hesitates, looking between her mother and her slowly disappearing friends. She feels the pressing of time. Stuck in fear of the warning of her father, she turns to her mother. “How do you know me?”

“It’s-- hard to explain but-- your friends--the building is on fire!” She, herself, starts running toward them. Ivetta follows her.

“Wait! Wait!” She pushes through crowds, but she can’t catch up fast enough.

Castor, Mrs. Barber, and Tobias make it to the base of the tower and press their way inside. No policemen stop them, but firemen show up slowly. The lobby remains open, but most are thronging out. Ivetta and her mother catch up to them and she shouts hopefully, “Please wait!”

Tobias shouts, “If I don’t get that waypoint, I can’t help Germany!”

“Just stay out there, we’ll be right back.” Castor shouts, pushed along by the crowd.

Ivetta wants desperately to follow her friends into that building, but she feels the dread in her bones telling her to stay away. “Wait,” Ivetta grabs her mother’s hand, pleading with her to come with, “I can explain it, but we can’t be here.” They retreat to a few blocks away.

They talk together. Ivetta explains that she’s been warned to stay far away from those towers. Her mother explains that she’s seen Ivetta in her dreams, that she’s seen these…visions. Ivetta tells her that she is her daughter, her future daughter. Her mother doubles over in pain, clutching her head, “mom!”

“Gah—I saw your friends—a priest, a woman, and—and—and angel. They’re in trouble!” She grabs Ivetta’s arm, “If you don’t go in there right now, you’ll never see them again.” Ivetta pales. She turns on her heel and despite her instincts screaming, she runs toward the towers. Another huge object slams into the same tower her friends are in. She dodges the newly erected police line and sprints up the steps as fast as she can.

They finally make it to the elevator heading up. Castor hits the topmost button. She finds no handles to close the doors, so she jabs the button multiple times as her impatience gets the better of her. They wait awkwardly in the elevator. No one gets on for obvious reasons. At last, they are ascending. This lift seems much faster than the ones they’ve been on before, so they have no idea how high they are when they feel a huge lurch. Their stomachs drop as they find themselves free falling in their tiny box. They scream in absolute fear as they plunge down in darkness.

The emergency breaks fire and bring them to a halt slow enough they don’t get hurt. Red lights come on. Mrs. Barber is not having a good time. Castor cracks it open and wedges it that way with her hammer. “There’s a ladder.”

Tobias takes a brief glance outside. He looks up finding a fiery hell ball, radiating heat and the gaping maw of infinite darkness below. He steps out onto the ladder first, climbing up and attempts to help up the other two. He tells them, “It would be wise not to look down.” Castor coaxes Mrs. Barber to come out and start climbing, assuring her she’s right behind her. She does so but shaky. Castor grabs her hammer and follows as well. They climb for several minutes but don’t find an exit. No elevator doors to pry open. And they find themselves unable to go up father as the heat is far too much even 50 stories away. Mrs. Barber begins panicking again, “What are we going to do?! We’re trapped here!”

Castor tries to calm her, “We’re going to get out of here were going to be fine, we’ve been in worse binds.”

Tobias pulls out his small torch from the base, “We can cut a hole in the wall and find some stairs.”

Mrs. Barber jumps on it, “Yeah! Let’s do that!” It takes a few minutes, but Tobias successfully opens a hole. The metal sheet falls inward, and they scramble in one after the other. Castor slips slightly on the way in.” Inside is an office. Strange, flimsy half-walls surrounding them. People are clamoring to the stairwells moving down. They follow suit but push ever upward. Some people try to stop Castor as she runs but she shouts something about needing to find her dad. Tobias ops to claim, “We’re with the fire brigade.” But it’s likely no one buys that bullshit.

The stairs seem never-ending, their legs feel jellied. But the higher they climb the fewer people they find. Each of them is soaked from exertion and suffering from the blistering heat to which they grow ever closer. Finally, they make it to a dead end. Debris covers the stairwell making it impossible to continue. Castor and Mrs. Barber combine their magic and it even feels powerful, but they can’t move it. Instead, they exit onto the floor. Another room of cubicles and desks. They cut through the offices find map says there’s more stairs on the other side. But they’re blocked once again by debris. A huge wall of flame and carnage stops them, but it doesn’t feel as hot as it looks. On the wall are more elevator shafts. Castor pries one open but reels back as flames burst forth and scorch off a few hairs.

Once they all enter this dead-end room, the door slams behind them. They try opening it but find it locked. They even look to the window but when Tobias goes to touch it, his hand touches a molasses-like surface. “There’s magic here Castor.”

She and Ms. Barber examine it, revealing a teal glow that surrounds the room, symbols glowing faintly in the teal.

“We’re trapped in here now?” Ms. Barber laments. Tobias tries tapping the aura with his magic-dispelling glasses. He taps once, nothing happens. He taps again and they fly out of his hand and stab into the wall, shattering a lens.

Castor rubs her hands together and tries to dispel the magic. She digs in, pressing, she really feels like she’s getting into the guts of the magic but after a few moments she’s shoved back out, the feeling of dread stabbing at the base of her spine again.

In the center of the room, between the cubicles a swirling purple portal opens. A jolt of hot fear prompts Castor to cry to her friends, “Hide! Please! NOW!”

Ms. Barber readies her magic, “No, I’m standing with you.” Tobias simple nods and prepares his rapier.

Soldiers file in through the portal before they spread out or asses the enemy, Tobias tosses a grenade into their midst. One man immediately throws himself on it, losing his life but also taking the blow form his companions.

Castor rushes in and swings at the closest solider. When she misses, she magically pulls a weighty computer monitor to hit him in the face. She pushes it into another guard then pulls it back to the first guard, hitting all 3.

Tobias engages two around the far side, but his sword skills fail him, and he takes a slash on the shoulder. More soldiers pour out of the portal that closes behind them and surround Castor. They all take a slice at her with their swords. Ms. Barber, Ellen, fairs much better as she gets the drop on three soldiers. She shatters a window and throws one of them out of it. She throws another into a wall and the last backward into the inferno. Tobias’ luck changes as he draws his pistol and shoots with his free hand while he parries a strike with the other. One of the attackers drops dead and the other is unable to strike him.

Still surrounded and scared, Castor lights her laser spell and motions in an arc, clenching her eyes closed. The several in front of her are sliced in half and fall to the floor.

Two of the soldiers kneel behind a glowing shield, holding it in front of the ranks. One behind the shield tosses it over the barrier right at Castor. She sees it in midair and tries to push it back at them. It doesn’t go back quite far enough but luckily; Father Tobias shoots it before it gets closer to her. It explodes and Castor is far less hurt than she would have been. Ms. Barber parries a sword slash with magic then tosses him away like his companions. Tobias then moves back and around the cubicles so he can shoot them behind their shield. He takes out one, shoot him twice. Once in the shoulder the second in the heart. Castor swings her hammer that crashes into the last one of the men left in around her then ducks for cover. Ms. Barber, an absolute force, magically wields the swords of the men she’s thrown and stabs at the unlucky few coming her way, dispatching them with ease.

From behind the shield one of the magic using soldiers tries to push Castor but she stands stoic and unmoving, not even noticing they were attempting anything. Tobias moves into position to finish off the last three soldiers remaining. But before he shoots, Castor throws two of them into the raging inferno to the left. The barrier falls leaving a final man standing.

The last soldier rushes at her with a grenade. The pin falls to the ground even as she tries to magically push him back. He cries, “Mors proditoribus!” (death to the traitors!) just before he tackles her and both are enveloped in an explosion.

Castor wakes to the familiar, tender hands of Ivetta bandaging her up. “Ivetta? How are you here? Am—am I dead?”

She gives her a concerned half smile, “You’re not dead. I’ve been trying to find you for the past 80 floors and when I find you, you’re half dead!”

Confused, Castor asks, “I—I thought you weren’t coming…your dad--"

“I had to come. I… If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have seen you guys again.”

Castor looks worried even as she tries to smile, “I know it was hard for you to come in here. Thank you.”

“we’re still stuck here.” Ms. Barber points out.

Castor looks to the shattered window, “we could try that way.” They all look over and see the flames reaching for the air but they’re stopped by an unnatural barrier. Ivetta perks up and notices, “why aren’t we burning alive right now?”

Castor says, “there was a glyph, a really powerful one. It was surrounding the room before,” Ivetta nears the window, the wind trying to suck her out, but she presses her hand against a barrier. She stops, “I guess it still is.”

Ms. Barber’s attention is elsewhere, and she suddenly speaks up, “hey, look at this.”

They turn to look but see nothing. “Do that again.” Ivetta raises her hand to the barrier. In front of them, spayed before the inferno and shimmering are 11 symbols. They repeat in a pattern. Two tall rectangles, a string of numbers, a straight line with a squiggly line below and a dot under both lines, a red, white, and blue cross, a block of blue, red, and white rectangles, two horizontal parallel lines above one another with five lines connecting them, a straight line and a squiggle beneath, a dark square above and a lighter one below, a yellow and green oval plant, a crescent moon, and finally a triangle. Only one glows brighter than the rest, the far left, the two tall rectangles, side by side. They approach it.

A riddle appears, simmering in the blue light beneath the symbol of the two tall rectangles. It reads: *This is a place of fear. Once to be avoided, but now embraced. Witnessed in the past but lived in the present. What am I?*

“These could correlate to locations.” Ivetta says, “Eleven realms, eleven symbols. I’m betting these are the towers. Lived in the present, this is where we are now. But we don’t know what happens if we guess it wrong.”

Castor nods, “That seems right. I trust you, Ivetta.”

“Usually, the answer to a riddle is not so simple as that which is right in front of you,” Father Tobais warns. “Are there other symbols that look like they relate to places?”

“some of these look familiar. These rectangles don’t look like they match anywhere else. We should guess. Even if it’s wrong, we’ll see what happens if it is.

“The towers.” Ivetta says aloud in hopes of answering the riddle verbally. The symbol glows brighter and shatters, the sound of a break in a glass cracks in their heads. The next symbol, the string of numbers, glows and another riddle appears below.

*Tiny things, crawling on my skin. Broken in more ways than one. Twilight becomes me before too long. What am I?*

Castor ponders a moment, “in the camp, the prisoners, they had numbers tattooed on them and bedbugs. Maybe twilight is death? They’ll die before too long? The prisoners? The Jewish people? The camps?”

Ivetta says, “that makes sense but what’s the answer? There’s only one.”

“The Jews?” Castor asks tentatively. A lightning strike sounds. All the clues disappear and a huge dial flashes before them, a line cracks as if a clockface before it vanishes once more.

Ivetta, with recognition shining in her eyes says, “now we know we don’t have unlimited tries.” The riddle returns.

Ellen adds, “what does it mean by twilight?”

“It could be literal or figurative.”

“What about that old guy we met? Didn’t he have rats?”

Castor asks, “Benny?” Another glass shatters and the next symbol glows. The straight line above a squiggly line and below both, a dot.

*The blackened heart of it all. A constant problem, but without it, the journey falters. A provider of hope and fear. What am I?*

“It could be the creature we fought, that tree.” Ivetta proposes.

“The Bay’hanahk?” Castor asks her.

“that’s its name?” Ivetta asks incredulously.

“Yeah. That’s what his name was. I think. That’s what he screamed when he died so maybe not.”

“I don’t know that it provided us hope. But it was a blackened heart of it all. Literally.” Alright, “the tree, the Bay’hanahk.” Lightning strikes and they grimace. “But perhaps it was the pit?”

“That provided us hope?” Castor asks.”

“When we went into it, you said there was a glowing cross.”

“It was always there. Alright, the pit.” A lightning strike sounds and another crack on the clock face. They surmise they have 17 more incorrect guesses before…something happens.

Ellen adds, “could it have anything to do with the ship? Any of the ships we were on?”

Ivetta contemplates then lights up, “the heart of it all, and a constant problem. Black like coal, they constantly needed to keep it going, if they don’t, they die. It provided hope to keep going and fear that if it ever stopped, they died. That’s it! The Titanic! The boilers!” Glass shatters, hope fills them.

The red, white, and blue cross glows. *A reminder of the past, found among the muck. Long forgotten, recently remembered. Treasure in a cursed land.*

“I know what this is! It’s the coin I got that that man dropped. It was a Florin in that Southern town. A Florentine Florin.” Glass shatters without argument from anyone. The three rectangles sat side by side blue, white, red.

*Man or woman? Rich or poor? Tall or short? Holy or militant? Good or evil? I am all these things and more, but as you answer more and more, the more of me do go. What am I?*

Tobias tries his hand wondering aloud, “It could be people. As we spoke to more and more people the less and more information we had. Fewer and fewer people become sure of guilt. You lose suspects.” A glass breaks and again, the riddle fades revealing the next glowing beneath two horizontal parallel lines, five lines connecting them.

*A place of vice in purity. Where children of God go to sleep. I am the darkness below the light. What am I?*

“This is part of Rome,” Ivetta says.

“It could be the crypt.” Tobias offers

“Children of God go when they die. And the light above is the church.”

Tobias says, “It could be the place we rescued you, Castor. A holy place overtaken by evil.”

Castor says, “Below the monastery? The cells.”

“that could be included in it. It could be that that is the place. The ‘darkness’ in the guise of light, a church. That sounds right. The monastery.” Lighting strikes the dial cracks again.

Castor pipes up, “That place wasn’t not pure, that monastery was run by the Mora vos Malus. The Vatican was taken over by them, corrupted and soured but it was still a place of light. I was lured to the dungeons, the crypt. That has to be the darkness below the light. The Vatican’s crypt.” Glass shatters. A straight line with a single squiggle beneath illuminates. They’re pleased they’ve made it halfway.

*A small trinket, nothing of note, but to those who know of the joy it brought, only sorrow remains. What am I?*

Tobias comes out swinging, “Ollie. That boy on the ship. He had tin soldiers.” Glass shatters.

The seventh symbol shines, a dark square above, a lighter one below.

*Crusade, crusade, oh how men of war crusade. Men, nature, God, and spirit, all fall before me. In my hands lay a salvation that I refuse to witness. What am I?*

“My first thought is you, Tobias. You have a holy book you carry, and men fall before you in different ways. You take life with your gun but when you are pope, they kneel. But it’s what, not who. But then Benny was what question as well.”

“But God falls before no man…” Castor points out.

Panicked Ellen shouts, “we don’t have time for this! We need a guess; I wasn’t there with you!”

“We have chances to spare. Father Tobias.” Ivetta states. Glass shatters. A yellow and green plant. one they recognize as corn.

*Two so unalike. One near, one far. A yin for a yang. Different in so many aspects, but alike in their most important. What am I?*

“What’s a yin and yang?” Castor asks.

Ellen explains succinctly, “opposite but interconnected forces.”

“Like the English settlers and the Powhatan in Jamestown.” Ivetta says.

“How are they alike?”

“They’re human, trying to survive. Except the Quartermaster. One near one far. Their distances were pretty far.”

Castor guesses aloud, “the English and the Powhatan?” Lighting strikes.

“Is there a person you’d consider to be a counterpart to the Quartermaster?” Tobias asks.

Ellen shouts, “who is the Quartermaster?!”

“He was a Chati. An evil one.”

Tobias perks up, “It could be Castor. You are both alike in nature and dissimilar in your actions.”

“What about Otawniack and John Smith. They were different but both leaders.” Lightning strikes.

“Ah! Alright maybe it is me and the Quartermaster, but I don’t’ think I would be part of these riddles.”

Tobias grows exasperated, “These questions were written by the sorceress, she’s biased.”

“Aright fine! Me and the Quartermaster!” Glass shatters, the crescent moon glows.

*Not once, not twice, but thrice. Their wisdom is seen and heard, known and followed. They know of gold, trinkets, and sorrow. What am I?*

“Was there anyone in Mecca that stood out?” Tobias prompts.

Castor replies, “James. He was a kaldien. But he was the only one.”

“It may not have been that there were three of them, but you may have met them three times. Gotten three pieces of advice, something along those lines.”

“There were three people in the royal family. What about them?” Desperate, Castor guesses, “The royal family?” Lighting.

Ivetta sits for a minute. “What if it has to do with other realms. One of these was in Mecca. What have we encountered three times?”

“Have you done Aschar three times, Castor?”

“Wait, it’s the Jewish people! They did the banking in Mecca. Lee had a trinket on the Titanic, and they were sorrowful in the prison.” Glass cracks leaving the glowing orange triangle.

*Two, found here, were lost in time. Eager to learn, but never to have. One gone, but one remains. What am I?*

Castor grows sad and pensive, “Our friends…They two were lost. We left them behind. Marco is gone. Viridis stayed in Jamestown with her sister. Marco and Viridis.” Glass shatters for the final time, the fire blazes before them now free of its shield, they feel the incredible heat of it. Castor tries to magical blow a gust of air onto it. It barely dents it, and the flames simply bend and bound back as the spell finishes.

“We need something more powerful, why don’t we all try it?” Ms. Ellen Barber asks. Castor nods, Ivetta agrees. They all summon a gust, the windows shatter all around them. The wind is sucked in from outside. The fire gutters, the magical energy leaves them but then fire rages up once more.

The foundations of the buildings shake. Inhuman metal groaning echoes beneath them. It sounds as if the building has come alive, a monster. They’re out of time. Castor knows there’s only one way to save them.

She takes a deep breath and closes her eyes. When she flicks them open, they burn with a yellow light. Wind whips through the building swirling around her. Any remaining glass shatters, the cubicles fly into the far wall. Some of the fire goes out. Ms. Barber, Ivetta, and Tobias back up as Castor rises into the air. Information and knowledge flows through her, she knows how to help.

She snaps her fingers; the fire is extinguished.

Ivetta tries to shout to her though the chaos, “get the waypoint!” But whether she heard her or not she can’t tell. The entire building lurches. Castor rearranges the matter of the steel beams holding up the building, melting them back together and returning the structural integrity. The large hole in the side is repaired as well.

Her attention turns to the second building, aware that to fix it she needs to get closer.

CNN news crews, amongst many others, aiming their cameras at the tragedy unfolding before them spot the acrid black smoke cease and the listing building right itself. The incredulous crowd below spots a floating woman emerge from one of the shattered windows nearing the top of said building. Energy is pulled from everything in the surrounding area, lights turn off, electronics everywhere explode– police lights, fire engine sirens, cameras, cell phones in people’s hands, streetlights.

Castor looks to her left and finds a wonderfully large river. She pulls some of it up, dashing it across the fire successfully dousing it. Next, some of the plentiful concrete from the ground is pulled up and adhered to the structure, preventing the collapse of this building as well. Work complete, she senses her powers fading and returns to her friends.

Castor floats gently back through the window, wind dying down. She steps through and continues forward several paces before coming to a stop. She stands there breathing heavily, she blinks the yellow glow from her eyes. The dread knotted in her stomach loses and fades away. She smiles at her friends, her knees shaking, then she collapses.

Ivetta runs to catch her, steadying her with ease. Castor gives her a tired, grateful look.

Ms. Barber exclaims, "what--h-how did you do that?!" Shocked at the unleashing of raw power she'd just witnessed.

"Unfortunately, it's a magic I can't teach." Castor replies.

They take a few minutes rest. Then trudge on to find their goal. They locate the second stairwell and ascend. As they reach the top, they encounter a sad sight of bodies piled at the scratched-up door. Castor laments as she breaks the lock with ease, and they emerge at the top of the World Trade Center.

They see the other tower, the only thing as tall as them, as well as a vast expanse of city scape covered by splotches of gray smoke, yet to dissipate. On the roof there is a double staircase leading down to a blue shed-like structure, doors on all four sides, Castor recognizes it from her vision. They all descend the stairs to enter it.

They see the pedestal in the center of the small room, the waypoint sitting atop it, covered with a glass case, just as Castor saw. (inside joke: cat go spin!)

Castor approaches and taps the case gently with her hammer, shattering the glass. She reaches for the waypoint but her hand goes through the rectangular box, grasping at empty space. She tries to touch it again but it’s an illusion! A trap!

The glass doors around them shatter. Each of them is pelted with glass but remain unhurt.

From the hazy gray smoke outside, they hear *click, click, click.* The heart-stoppingly familiar and terrifying gait of their favorite villain. Her unmistakable laugh permeates the air as her silhouette emerges. “Looking for something, Castor?”

Characteristically hesitating for a snappy reply, she simply raises her hammer waiting to strike.

The Sorceress screams, speaking to herself again as if she were two, “Yes! Yes! We found her! *Now shut up! Shut up! SHUT! UP!* Yes, you’re mine now, Castor. You’re out of mana, tired, and afraid. You have *nowhere* to go. Surrender to me and I will spare your friends. *But I want to kill them!* I don’t care, this is more important. *Arrgghhhh!* There’s nowhere left to go, you’re *mine now!*”

“Wh-what do you want me to do?”

“Throw down your weapons.”

“Then what?”

“Come over to me."

“Then what?

“We leave.”

“To where?”

“Wherever I take you.”

“Why do you–”

“LISTEN TO ME!”

“What do you want with me!?” Castor shouts back, equally frustrated.

“What do I want? I want you! You evil bitch, I want *you. WE* want you for what you’ve done. This pain you've caused*.* All the horrors you’ve created, you’ll die for it!”

Ivetta asks terrified, “who–who are you?”

“BITCH shut up! *Shut up!* I’m talking to *her!*”

Castor butts back in, “I don’t *know* what you’re talking about! I’ve tried to do only good things, help people! I haven’t created any kind of horrors or anything like that!”

“Then do your last good deed, Castor. Come here. Like a good Christian girl. Come here.”

“Who are you? Why would me going with you benefit anyone but you?”

“If you don’t come with me, I will *kill* your friends. Make your decision *now!*” Castor gives a furtive glance to her friends. Ivetta looks at Tobias who steps half in front of Castor.

He raises his gun and says, “I’m afraid Castor is on a journey that isn’t quite finished yet. So, you're going to have to wait.”

She lets out a peel of laughter, doubling over with mirth. After several moments she straightens, “ah, the priest. Have you not learned your lesson? Or do I need to throw you off this roof as well?”

"Don't you dare!" Castor steps forward. Shaking, Ivetta comes up beside her.

The sorceress cocks her head and stares at Ivetta, "and you! The wayward daughter. Thinking of your father I assume. I can tell you; I hardly remember him. But I can say breaking him was no small feat but all crack in time, all men break. And he told me *everything.* Everything I needed to know about you. About *you* Castor. And you…” she looks back pointedly at Ivetta, “He didn't have anything to say at all. Seemingly he barely knew you!" She cackles. “A broken cohort. You have nothing against me. Surrender yourself, Castor.”

Castor stays silent. Anger, fear, and resolve on her face.

The sorceress’ temper flares. In a deadly calm she says, "I will count down from 10, Castor. If you don't surrender and come with me by 1, I will kill your friends. And not quick deaths, oh no. Slow, painful, intimate. I will break them over years and years until they beg for solace, the sweet release of death. Castor, you will give yourself up. NOW!"

Castor grips her hammer harder to keep herself from shaking, her knuckles turning white. "10." She stares daggers at the sorceress.

"9." Her jaw clenches.

"8." Ivetta steps up and holds Castor's hand, putting it over top of her grip.

"7." Tobias stands steady, gun trained on the sorceress.

"6." Ivetta squeezes Castor's hand looking imploringly at her.

"5." Castor's shoulders move, breaths heaving.

"4." She looks down at her hammer.

"3." Castor opens her hands and the hammer falls to the ground.

The moment it hits her friends unleash their attacks. Tobias rapid fires, Ivetta throws a burst of flame, and Ms. Ellen Barber shoves her backward. After the maelstrom of attacks, the smoke clears. She's vanished.

In their heads they all hear, "so…you've chosen death then."

"No! Leave them alone!" Castor cries to the void.

She cackles again, "You’ve had your chance, Castor. But I don’t need to fight you, I have someone to do that for me. I think you’ve met before. This should be a fun little reunion. "

From behind they hear a slam as something big drops from the precipice. The metallic chime of chains echoes on the wind.

They all turn to face him. His shiny new mask gleaming, The Masked Man, risen again.

TBC