Fragments of Ash Vol. 2 (Urban Fantasy)

Chapter Five: Infestations

It was the morning after. The snow remained settled on the ground, the mist had risen making the entire street look like it was nothing but a sea of white. Ada sat in bed and examined her wounds. A few bruises, nothing serious. The radio was on in the background, just crummy music, she was waiting for the news. Perhaps there'd be more details about the events that had transpired the afternoon before; some sort of clue as to what was responsible for the event that occurred, perhaps it was too much to ask for the police to manage to dig any information up, but one could only hope.

Ciel was sitting next to her reading one of her books. Several hundred pages in, however he wasn't reading it in any conventional manner, no, he was simply looking at the bizarre symbols and signs. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get his head around them. It was nice of him to visit though, that was all that mattered. Eleanor walked in,

"I made breakfast. Do you want me to bring it up or...?" she trailed off, expecting an answer,

"Oh I'm feeling fine, thank you. I'll be down in a minute. The news and bounty sightings are about to come on. I just want to see where our next hit will be," Ada replied,

"Hm... you almost got eaten yesterday. Are you sure you're in a condition to go around chasing bounties?" Eleanor raised an eyebrow,

"Its fine if you come with me," Ada smiled, "we'll be unstoppable!"

Eleanor looked uneasy.

"Number one on our list of bounties for today comes in response to the current crisis in Poitem City," said the newscaster, "the coastal town, which was once a peaceful place to live, has now been completely overrun by outlanders. Scouts have reported that no-one in the town survived the infestation, and that it may well be the largest nest in the world. Truly a sad day for the people of Melchiezedek,

"A bounty has been placed on each and every outlander, at a premium rate of one thousand dollars each,"

The radio announcer went on, but Ada lost focus, she was too distracted by some sort of furious energy emanating from Eleanor. Her mother was fuming,

"Are you ok Eleanor?" she asked,

"It's no coincidence," said Eleanor, "the appearance of the goliath outlander and the ones in Poitem."

"What do you think was behind it?"

"Not what. Who. Outlanders don't breed so quickly, and they don't just come out of nowhere. These ones were summoned, with very powerful magic," Eleanor narrowed her eyes, "there was a sick individual who was personally responsible for all those deaths."

"So it's another spellcaster, one powerful enough to cast summoning spells," Ada shivered; summoning spells were extremely high level spells, the idea of someone with that level of skill who had no qualms about killing people terrified her.

"Alright," Eleanor stood up, a determined look on her face; she began to storm out of the room,

"Eleanor! Where're you going?" Ada knew where Eleanor was going,

"You know where I'm going," Eleanor said,

"Without me?"

Eleanor sighed, "You're not really in any shape to..."

"I feel fine," Ada got out of bed, "all I needed was a night in bed. I couldn't be better!"

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, Ada, I don't want you getting hurt again," added Ciel,

Ada tried her best to imitate Eleanor's trademark look of determination, "I'm sure."

Eleanor recognised it and smiled, "Then grab your sword," she said.

***

Amelia walked up to the prison chamber. It was dark. Almost pitch black. She was using the small, modest town hall as the base of operations, and the cellar was shoddily repurposed to be a prison.

"Looks like I've got no use for you after all," she said,

"I see," a faint voice wafted in from inside the room,

"Turns out the person I wanted to use you for is long gone."

No reply,

"You know who I'm talking about yeah?"

"No,"

"The Head Priestess of Melchiezedek. She's trash."

No reply,

"Don't you care?" Amelia frowned,

"I don't know who she is."

"Yes you do; why would you pretend not to?"

"I'm not pretending,"

"Hm..." Amelia thought for a moment, "well if you can't remember then I guess there's no point in keeping you alive."

No reply,

"Aw, I'm just kidding, haha, I'm not that cold. You need to survive at least long enough to see the fireworks, right?"

"Fireworks?"

"That's right. A beautiful light show, courtesy of yours truly," Amelia grinned.

"I see..."

"Anyway, while you're here I guess I can make use of you. Some of the outlanders are getting restless. They need a woman."

The voice inside gasped slightly,

"Aha! So that one got you huh?" Amelia chuckled, "don't worry I'm kidding. I'm not the type to share. Besides, they got more than their fill from the women of this town. Like children in a toy store."

"Are they... dead?"

"Considering what the outlanders did to them I think it's a good thing they did die," Amelia said flippantly, "you and I, along with two other spell fencers are the only humans left in this town."

"You're wrong."

"Hm?"

"This town is crawling with abominations; nothing more."

Eleanor cA2.