The Brotherhood of The Black Rats

5.47 Old Magic

Reginald Bison smiled to himself as the shimmering lights of the Aurora Borealis came into view. The glowing swirls of green and blue across the darkened winter sky reflected in the tint of his goggles hiding the delight in his eyes from the Shadows at work loading the remaining Spell Doors. As the Dreamweaver sailed onward over cloud and mountain toward the eerie otherworldly lights Bison and his crew came closer and closer to the finale of their perfect crime.

“I got to admit, your play is a brazen one,” Called a voice from behind him. 

Bison turned to find a trio of harried looking young men staring down his Shadows and The Spell Doors as the cold wind whipped at their faces and hair. He was surprised to see the thieves had actually managed to make it this far. However when he spied the twin blades the two younger ones carried the picture of their success suddenly made sense. 

“Simon McQueen,” Bison began calmly stepping towards them “Manhattan’s very own Alchemist of Shadows, I had hoped our paths would cross at some point. Your numbers look a little…dwindled. ”

“So do yours,” replied Simon “I’ve heard a lot of things about your black market but I never took you for the type to rely on…” he let his words fad as the remaining Shadows turned their attention toward them. 

“…Zombies?” finished Bison with a leering sneer as he approached the Shadow nearest to him and placed a hand over its red masked face. “Good labor is so hard to come by these days and when the vendetta is vengeance against the Belvedere Court every penny counts.” 

Bison removed the mask of his servant revealing the withered eyeless features of a corpse long parted from its mortal self. In the lingering darkness it was all but impossible to see the deepest shade of green that remained over what had once been human skin, however the smell that accompanied it was not one any of the black rats would soon forget.   

“So that’s it then?” stated Simon “You Infiltrate the court, get them bidding on living Fae, then black mail them into shame in front of The Queen Witch herself, while you make off with the money and the items? That really is a stroke of genius.” 

“I’m glad you like it,” Replied Bison “However you’re missing the final step.” 

“Oh? You mean there’s more?” 

“Oh yes...The real masterstroke comes when we send the entirety of The Belvedere Court plummeting to its death while they’re all still trying to outbid one and other in the dreaming...I’d like to think of it as my piece de resistance.” 

The Shadows were on the three Black Rats before any of them had time to reply to Bison’s statement. Pushing them back toward the edge of the platform and the gathering crowd of undead awaiting them below. Simon ducked as a pair of red masked fiends stepped forward. Using the two levitation cards that remained to him he sent the pair flying overhead passed the rear of the floating ship.

“The masks,” shouted Simon as Colin and Calvin drew their swords beside him “Break them and it destroys the spell!” 

Armed with the knowledge that their adversaries were little more than puppets of long dead flesh The Cadbury Twins unleashed a triad of attacks all their own, combining their newfound skill with the sword with their remaining cards with awe-inspiring results.

Calvin disappeared from one fallen corpse into a trio of others using his remaining teleportation spell to deliver a whirl wind of sharpened steel upon the disposable minions. In one instance he skewered an approaching Shadow leaving his blade stuck in the middle of the enchanted body only to shift around to its back using it as a meaty shield, while he tore across the entrails of another.