Cinzy and I had just landed on the side of a very tall tree’s treehouse, and rebounding gave us the jump on the many, many pursuers who were after us.

“I don’t want to leave you like this,” I told her.

“Then don’t leave me, you idiot!” she cried.

But people say things they know can’t happen, like ‘you’re going to be all right’ when they’re clearly not going to live through the next few minutes. Cinzy and I weren’t about to die, I wasn’t about to die, but I was running out of time and options.

The Agency people now had a cloud of folks surrounding us. It was a huge perimeter. There was no way to evade them outside of Saxwhacket. They would easily be able to close the distance and surround us, then catch us. Neither could I just open the storage closet and have Fletcher III take us into the Agency HQ. The reason we were doing this was to keep all the Agency people off OG Fletcher as he made his cure.

“I want to make love to you one more time,” I told her.

“At a time like this? You’ve got to be kidding me.”

She had a great point the. I set us down in a busy market and looked for a door. There were plenty, once you got past the spiky creatures, the floating creatures, the very tall creatures, the smoking and flaming creatures, and all the other ones busily moving here and there. Market stalls were made of everything I could imagine, and several things I hadn’t. Behind those, the market had been set up in a ring of buildings that were shopfronts and also warehouses, with even more warehouses behind.

“Will you be okay if I buy you a nice gift?” I asked, bringing her hand to my lips and giving her my best come hither look. I also studiously ignored the number of Agency personnel landing in a wide perimeter around us, along with the number who were just now floating above us. The crowd was the armor… but I wondered how long that would last. Human beings have a blind spot for collateral damage when it comes to high value targets, for one. Non-human creatures and objects have a higher change of becoming collateral damage, but other humans aren’t out of the question either.

“You are not going to be able to seduce me in this huge game of cat and mouse, Christopher Jiminyjangles Fletcher,” she said.

My expression turned. “You were part of the crew that gave Chrysta that idea, weren’t you?”

A small smile appeared as we walked together. “Let’s not distract from the fact that I just used your middle name, which means you are in trouble, mister.” I could see she was flicking her eyes over her shoulder and around to where the Agency people were moving in.

“I have to let you go,” I said. “I was hoping to give you one last present, and maybe a few parting orgasms, but I don’t think that’s going to be feasible.”

“You charmer,” she said flatly.

“I’m sorry, Cinzy. Things aren’t going as fast as I’d hoped.”

“It’s fine. Look, there’s a jeweler over there. You can get me something outrageously expensive.”

We were in a kind of communist society here on this planet, or whatever you’d call a society where gems and precious metals could be grown in someone’s garden and just as easily shaped with their magic. Money wasn’t a factor.

Cinzy approached the jeweler, her jaw clenched. I knew the pressure of not looking over your shoulder well. The booth was exactly like what you’d see at a craft fair, if you were on acid or in the middle of a very strange dream. The booth itself was made of green jade, and the woman who was working there was ninety percent bangle. She had chains of jewels running to other chains of jewels, which would make a young Indian woman on her wedding day seem ridiculously conservative by comparison.

“Well hello there,” Cinzy said with forced cheer.

“Darling, your arms are simply too bare! And your throat shines with not one single jewel. I see you have some simple earrings. Let Lady Lapis change all that, won’t you?”

“We are a little short on time,” Cinzy said, “and we’re looking for something romantic… something that speaks to a Bard loving a Healer, and amazed to be not only carrying his child, but somehow pleased to be carrying his child.”

The overly-bejeweled woman rubbed at a string of rubies that ran from her lower lip down below her chin to connect with a thick necklace. “Bard loves a Healer, you say?”

“The Healer also loves the Bard,” I told her. “Just so that’s clear.”

I received a punch on the arm for that one, but Cinzy grinned and squeezed my hand tighter all the same.

The very sparkly, gaudy creature chose a gold necklace with a pendant on it, pointed one fingernail at the circular central gem, and we watched as it turned colors. It had been turquoise before, but now the colors became more like a yin yang, one half bright pink, the other half clinical blue of hospitals. Smaller gems surrounding this, set into the pendant went into a rainbow of colors on the pink side, while the Healer hospital colored side became surrounded by tiny, intricate flowers of matching colors.

“That… is… gorgeous,” Cinzy breathed, and her tone and focus told me she’d entirely forgotten about the tightening noose of Agency personnel. She then bent while the woman looped the necklace about her and clasped it, then showed her how she looked in a hand mirror.

Anything would have looked amazing on Cinzy, but this pendant really spoke to her and I. Inside the bigger yin yang parts were tiny hearts of the opposing colors.

“Fletcher I love this,” she said, beaming, but then caught a glimpse of something over my shoulder.

“Don’t worry about it,” I said, then turned to the merchant at the stall. “How can we pay you for such exquisite work?”

“You are the Fletcher?” she asked. “You are responsible for giving me my house back, and my possessions?”

“I… healed the God of Doors, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“There is no need for payment, in that case.” She reached up to Cinzy’s neck, touched the pendant, and effortlessly recreated the entire thing, like pulling the skin off a shedding snake. But it was an exact copy of the pendant’s central jewel, in ring form. “You take this. Should you part, it will serve as a reminder of your love and devotion.”

She slipped the ring onto my finger. Fresh chapters posted on NovєlFіre.net

“I’m pretty sure we’re married now,” Cinzy said, giggling at my expression. Then her face fell.

“Are they here?” I asked, not wanting to turn. I was ready to disappear, but I wasn’t at all ready to serve her up to them on a platter, or leave her to them.

“No… he’s here.” She hunched over and clutched at her belly. “Fletcher… I think my water just broke.”

The air Sorcerer chose that moment to strike.

***

Richter watched as the woman who scared him descended out of the sky, swooped down on the crowded market, and just as quickly lifted Fletcher and the girl off their feet. The two went spinning into a ball of swirling wind, which blew over the jeweler’s market stall and several others nearby. People were blown back and kept their footing, but a few of the smaller floaters were hurled away entirely.

“We have him,” the Wizard nearest said unnecessarily.

“I can see that,” Richter hissed, and the scrying circle held between the Wizard’s hands flickered for a second as his concentration faltered. The young woman wasn’t used to being scared for her life in the line of her duties, and Richter was a pretty scary guy.

“Your orders, Commander?” another one asked.

“I will believe that Fletcher is in our custody when I have his neck in my hand,” he said. “Concentrate on keeping him and holding him. Give the order to keep him from moving.”

Richter wasn’t far. He had his Guardians and his soldier Wizards with him, the ones that could use a stun spell. They moved like a wall through the city square, abilities for intimidation blaring loudly and rudely in the crowded city block. Those who failed their checks against the Guardian wall went scurrying away, while those who succeeded had the choice of getting trampled underfoot or move out of the way anyway.

One large woman, a close likeness of the Guardian in Fletcher’s team, stood unmoving, with a few smaller natives gathered behind her. Richter’s people moved around her, ignoring her questions and her annoyance at what they’d done.

“Are we certain that’s not his teammate?”

“One hundred percent, Commander,” the Guardian team leader said. “That one is Yarelle. We’ve had someone watching her ever since we noticed her.”

They closed in on Fletcher and the girl, who were clutched tight to one another inside the Sorcerer’s ball of wind.

“You need to let us go right now!” Fletcher was shouting. The Sorcerer, the scary one with the dark skin and the white dreadlock Mohawk,

“I’ll make the demands here,” Richter said. “Now, where are the rest of your confederates?”

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” he said. “Now, look, she’s—”

“Try me,” Richter snarled.

“Your boss’s boss used his bonded Nakamamon, who’s like a super powerful dark aspect demon to freeze them in time. My companion here—”

“You’re right, I don’t believe you,” Richter said.

“You’re very rude,” Fletcher said.

It was at that moment that a hand fell on Richter’s shoulder, a large one. He turned to find the huge orange Nakamamon with the far too much hair and the martial arts uniform staring down at him with a displeased expression.

I asked you what you were doing with this man, she said, directly into Richter’s mind. You ignoring me is a good sign that you are engaged in nefarious activity, and the Healer is right: you are rude.

“Go back about your business, citizen, this doesn’t concern you.”

This man healed a sick god here only days ago, Yarelle replied. His welfare is absolutely the concern of every citizen of the city of Saxwhacket. Now, answer the question.

Richter glanced around, finding a lot of natives staring at the conversation, such as it was. He opened his mouth to tell his people to drag Fletcher out of this city and the powder keg it represented, when Fletcher ruined it yet again.

“She’s having a baby!” Fletcher blurted.

***

After Trent successfully tossed three of the metal ritual circles out of the castle, security became heightened. Alarms started going off throughout the castle, and people were rushing here and there looking for us.

The Agency had employed something like 90% of its people to come after me in Saxwhacket though, and the ones who remained were almost entirely guards outside the castle, and Wizards to relay messages back and forth, and keep the top brass appraised of the situation.

The castle was huge, and the Wizards were not handling things well.

Now, Wizards in their normal environment, were suited for libraries and deciphering heiroglyphics in ancient ruins and such. They were supposed to be sitting in Wizards’ towers, where they could conduct some spells in peace. They were not typically suited to having their orders changed again and again, or having their limits continuously shoved back and forth. The scrying Wizards had been told to make flight potions. They had been told to ready stun spells. Now they had been instructed to find the intruders, by searching every inch of the castle from top to bottom and bottom to top, if they had to.

Running around without getting winded was not in the Wizard playbook. Constantly taking new orders and breaking the peace of reading through tomes of spells was not in their playbook. Some of them were having nervous breakdowns, while others were simply walking around not knowing what they were doing.

At the Saxwhacket command base, one or two were just sitting in their ritual circles, pretending to do work.

And if they did run across a small team of humans and Nakamamon, searching for the fourth gigantic metal ritual circle, Azalea and Vellenia had two wildly different ways of immobilizing them. Both were quite adept at doing so.

“My girls,” I breathed.

“I don’t know where the final ritual circle is…” Trent said at last. “Mana’s getting very low. I feel…” He didn’t have to finish the sentence, but instead swayed on his feet, and braced himself against the wall.

“You’ve done great. I think it probably worked after the second or third one… there’s no way he has more than six.” Four at the corners, and one each at the very top and bottom points. With three of those gone, Trent could almost certainly sense the hidden room we were looking for. “You can feel it… can’t you?”

Trent closed his eyes and held Garnet up to the ceiling. He then shifted Garnet to the wall to my left.

“It’s… off to one side.”

My divining rod was a large orange crystal. We followed Trent, not walking through many walls, but not encountering many people either. One rushed on down the hallway adjacent and just didn’t turn her head to look at us. Another turned the corner toward us, spotted us, and caught a poison barb in the leg. He slowly crumpled to the floor. The third one, some ten minutes later, stopped, saw us, held up his hands, and slowly went back the way he’d come.

“It would be hilarious if the Wizards were staging an opt out,” I said.

Trent laughed weakly. He’d already taken the mana boosting potion, so that was it for today, unless he wanted to poison himself.

“Far?” I asked.

“Not far.”

Vellenia and April supported him up a flight of stairs, and we turned to push him up past the landing when he fell on his butt, much like the Wizard had just a few minutes ago.

“You’re gonna make it, soldier,” I told him.

“No, this is it.”

“What do you mean this is it?”

It turned out the space beyond the wall directly ahead of us, at the landing of this stairwell, just wasn’t accounted for. It was an unassuming place in the castle for obvious reasons. It also wasn’t very large.

“You sure this is it?”

“It could be another ritual circle,” he said.

“Well, we’re in no position to do anything other than find out what this is. Could you kindly create a small door, and we’ll leave you here to recharge your mana?”

Trent reached a tired hand forward, and swept it in a small arc, big enough for a border Collie to enter easily. Vellenia took my hand as Azalea hurried to enter.

She had been propelling herself through the hole with her hair tentacles but then let out an undignified squeak sound and toppled to the side.

“Azalea?”

“I will go,” April said. “Better to keep you away from danger, Master.”

“The Master thing is still weird,” Trent muttered, and sighed.

“No no no, I’ll go.”

This is Christopher getting on hands and knees, and crawling through.