Chapter 9

9.
         Johan blinked as he stepped back into the lacerating slash of sunlight that greeted him. He didn't feel any of the heat though. It seemed too nice a day, he had expected to have stepped into pure melodrama, the lashing rain, the forlorn wind, dismal atmosphere, all of it. Instead, it was all just happening in his head. Tristian had been leaning on the wall of his house and he started to move when he saw Johan. There was a question in his eyes, but he said nothing.
         The Agent was standing off to the side, watching some people gather a small group of bodies into a pile. One of the people not carrying bodies appeared to be attempting to light a torch. Nobody seemed happy with what they were doing but none seemed sad either, they had the blank expressions of acceptance, of someone who's life has turned into hell and they're expecting to wake up from the nightmare any second now.
         Tristian walked silently over to the Agent. His eyes were also on the scene. "You told me there would be magic here," he said almost accusingly.
         "And I did, and you found it," Agent One said calmly, his hands clasped behind his back. "But you wanted the simple, easy magic of youth, where wonders sprang pure out of nothing, where there weren't any consequences and everything was for the better." The Agent gestured with an outstretched arm. The sunlight shafts caught the fabric of his robe, shining through and coloring Tristian's shirt crimson. "Ask these people about magic, any of them and they'll tell you. They'll tell you it exists." His eyes seemed to be shadowed. "But some things magic can't help, Tristian. Some things have to be done and experienced without the crutch. Life is still life, regardless."
         "So it seems," was all Tristian said. He stared at the pile of bodies, no doubt finding some metaphorical significance to relate itself to his life and then with an apparent effort he tore his vision away from the spectacle. Too much death. Too many reminders of death.
         Tristian sighed and stared around, trying to avoid staring at the impending pyre nearby. "You said you diverted part of the army, where did they go?"
         "To one of the larger cities, I think, I believe it was the one Johan was coming from when we ran into him."
         Tristian blinked. That time felt so long ago now, even though it had only been earlier in the day. He tried not to feel the cuts and bruises that dotted his body. The conditioning would probably keep him going but for how long before it couldn't shade him anymore and he just dropped dead right where he was standing. How long could any of them handle this?
         Tristian stared at the Agent sideways suddenly. "How come you didn't just stop the army completely? I know you have enough power for that."
         Agent One laughed a little at that. "You know that, do you? Do you know you'd be wrong if you assumed that?" His face became sober. "As it turns out, I don't have that kind of power here. I can mostly just move energy around, teleporting and shields and the like. Offensive stuff tends to take a bit out of me. Won't wipe me out, mind you, but I want to keep all the strength I have, I have a feeling we're all going to need it."
         Tristian merely nodded but then shot back with, "But why didn't you just drop a shield around the army to keep them from moving?"
         "Says the mortal," Agent One replied dryly. "I should give you the power for a few hours so you can see just how horribly limited I am. Here or anywhere."
         "That still doesn't answer my question," Tristian noted.
         Agent One rolled his eyes. "Hm, aren't we feeling obstinate today."
         "People dying tends to do that to me, just answer the damn question. Why didn't you just encase the army in a shield."
         "Because someone would have noticed it," Agent One returned intently. With a lowered voice, he continued to explain. "Imagine you're watching a radar screen, you might see little blips and stuff, but nothing serious, so you don't pay much attention. But then something the size of a small country lights the monitors then." His glance held the answers to Tristian's questions. "Wouldn't you be just a little bit curious as to where that came from?"
         "So someone is watching us," Tristian stated. He resisted the urge to stare around nervously, like he could look up and see a passing cloud reveal a giant eye staring down on them. In the distance he heard the sound of something catching fire. Crackling.
         A small wind blew the acrid smell of smoke to their nostrils. Agent One nodded curtly and gathered his robes around himself. "Someone is indeed watching us and yes, I could have created the shield but then they might have come around and broken it anyway." His eyes looked down briefly. "And then come after me." He stared at Tristian and stood up straighter. "Not that it mattered that much, obviously as I found out later, they know we're here."
         The realization struck Tristian suddenly, as two pieces squeezed themselves together. The stinging strench of smoke bit at his eyes and caused tears. "Your brother didn't stand much of a chance, did he?"
         "With better preparation, perhaps." He didn't sound as if he believed his own words. "I'm sure he fought back until it was almost impossible to. If they're letting him think now, wherever he is . . ." the Agent trailed off and seemed to shudder at the thought. Tristian wasn't sure how much was theater for him. They weren't human, he had to keep reminding himself of that sometimes. They just weren't.
         Another brief awkward silence meandered past them before Tristian finally spoke again. "When are we leaving?"
         Smoke was drifting past them now, heavier and blacker. Trisitan made the mistake of glancing at the near bonfire nearby and instantly regreted it. All the feelings that he had managed to supress in the aftermath of the battle started to come back. Clamping down again, he wrenched himself away from the slitted view and faced the Agent, ever so paler.
         "I think our work here is done now," Agent One said softly, staring unflinchingly at the fire leaping and snarling not too many feet from them. It shifted suddenly, sending flames jumping higher and it was like the half formed people inside of them were trying to escape. Black limbs grasped as some concept of heaven before everything vanished into smoke. Into thin air.
         "Are we leaving now?" came a nearly flat voice from behind them. Tristian almost jumped in surprise, the only sound he had heard before that was the snapping of the fire. He turned to face Johan, and was started by the facial change. In one day, his eyes had turned bland, his face not so much slack as uncaring, his entire stance a walking dead slouch. And yet he was still there, willing to fight.
         Glancing at the Agent, who nodded faintly, Tristian nodded in turn as well. "Yeah, in a few minutes, I think."
         "Okay," was all the other man said, inclining his head barely. Tristian could barely stand to look at him, the change was so evident. And yet he kept fighting. And yet.
         "I think we're ready now, actually," Agent One announced. He was uncommonly tight lipped suddenly. "Let me warn you gentlemen before we leave that I've no idea what we're going to encounter in the city itself."
         "Didn't you warn them?" Tristian asked, the thought occuring to him for the first time. So many details. So many lives.
         "There wasn't enough time, alas," Agent One replied, not sounding overly sad at the prospect, as if he had already steeled himself against the deaths and found it not worth thinking about. There were other things to fret about. Like the living for instance. Just like the living. "I had to get back here to keep the damage to a minimum." His face was grim. "I sent them to the largest city in an attempt to save lives, as strange as that might sound. With a larger army they would be able to hold them off longer before-"
         "Enough with the explanations, man, just get us there!" Johan suddenly snapped, surprising Tristian with the ferocity. Even the Agent seemed taken aback but that was but brief. His composure flickered back over his face like it had never departed. Crimson flashes circled the air.
         "Very well," Agent One murmured.
         The world flashed red and gold and gold and red and turned inside out and upside down and before Tristian could even start to get sick they reversed everything again and he was somewhere else.
         Or was he? He still smelled things burning, but there was a different stench to it this time. As if it had been burning for a while. His vision was more blurred than usual but that might have been because of the smoke. His head spun a bit but he regained control of it.
         "Where have you taken us-" he heard Johan start to say and Tristian realized that there was smoke all around them. The buildings were all on fire. Taller and more ornate than before, or so he presumed, they loomed overhead. Each one roared with flames. Smaller piles of debris, all of it fiery, littered the ground around them. In the smoke there were other dark patches. Some seemed to be moving.
         The clamor made it hard to talk and Tristian had to shout for Johan to hear him. He knew the Agent could hear him fine. "This can't be safe standing around here like this, we have to find shelter before-"
         And then his words were drowned out by the sound of something breaking and falling. It was a horrific sound, the losing cry of defeat from a structure that had fought a winning battle against the elements long enough to realize how unfair this fate was.
         From somewhere he could sense something falling, just from hearing the sound and the wind tearing around him. But the smoke that clogged his lungs and tore at his face was too thick. And when his eyes caught the ever quickening slab like shape breaking into pieces above them, it was too late.
         Motion coming to him instantly, he rushed at Johan, going to shove him out of the way, slamming into the and knocking the air out of both of them, fighting for every last precious inch, feeling the guillotine of the flaming building bearing down on them with heavy gravity.
         Every last inch. Time moved in slow motion as he seemed to hover over the ground and jockeyed for distance, fighting the infernal slowness of his too human body, fighting the damnable weight of himself, of the person he was trying to save, fighting for life.
         And then the ground grew close and he hit it, feeling fire erupting all along his side, feeling himself rolling, rolling, landing on his back with Johan not too far away, seeing nothing but smoke and the black monolith and knowing that he hadn't gone far enough away.
         Instinct caused him to close his eyes.
         After a few seconds, curiousity caused him to open them again.
         The world was awash with red. Not the red of blood but the red of pulsating energy. Getting up on one knee, he saw the flaming embers of the wreck of the building hovering over his head, the threat still there.
         And the smoke wavered and wisped and for a second it revealed the form of the Agent, arms thrown wide, crimson radiating out from those arms, from his body, from his whole form. In this case, it was enough. Enough to stop death.
         Behind him, Johan rolled over onto on his side and expelled a sharp breath, coughing a little as he drew in the tainted air and said one word.
         "Magic," he whispered.
         Tristian didn't argue.
         The Agent turned his head around a bit and said loudly, "If you gentlemen are going to gape, could you at least do that from a safe distance? It would be rather silly for me to save you from near certain death just to have an accident happen and it all be for naught."
         Tristian leapt to his feet and helped Johan up. The two of them worked their way out of the shadow of the building, occassionally coughing at the smoke curled around them.
         "What are you going to do?" Tristian shouted to the Agent. "You can't just let it drop."
         "That thought did occur to me," the Agent replied mildly, "but I think I'll probably have to wind up-ah!"
         Tristian had seen the two shadows moving around seemingly aimlessly in the smoky mists, but didn't realize what they were until the moment two huge shapes barreled out of the semi-darkness and slammed into the Agent, growling and snarling all the while. The Agent gave a shout as both of the beasts, the same that had attacked Johan's village, knocked him over, sending him flopping along the ground.
         At that same moment Tristian saw the red glows flicker out from around the building.
         Without another word he grabbed Johan and shoved him to the ground just as the building seemed to defy gravity for just a second before crashing to the ground in a smoking, steaming, flaming heap. Tristian turned to the side to avoid getting anything in his eyes and only partially suceeded. Coughing and spitting, he and Johan half dragged each other to a nearby building that by some miracle wasn't on fire.
         "This is insane!" Johan shouted, and Tristian could only nod as he attempted to clear his vision.
         The roaring from the toppling building seemed to go on forever, like the death throes of some giant animal. When it finally ceased, the silence seemed almost out of place. Tristian and Johan glanced at each other and then back at the flaming wreck of a structure.
         "I thought you said they couldn't be hurt," Johan said almost too quiet to hear.
         Then something seemed to shift and then glow and then a large section of the downed building was blasted into the air, disintegrating as it went. In the midst of all this debris, a red cloaked figure floated into the air.
         Tristian had to supress a grin at the show of theatrics. "And I was right, they can't be hurt."
         Agent One floated over to them, robes flapping in the wind and seeming little worse for wear. There was a faint smile on his lips.
         "No need to worry it seems," he said as he landed lightly. "Alas, I can't say that for my two fast friends. They weren't quite as . . . resilient."
         "Stop patting yourself on the back," Tristian said, suddenly realizing that those two might have more friends running around. And they couldn't keep dropping buildings on people. "We have to figure out what's going on around here."
         "What's going on?" Agent One asked archly, one eyebrow raised. "I think that would be obvious. This town has been taken over."
         "Great," Tristian sighed, running a dirty hand through smoked hair. "And what happened to the army that was supposed to delay the army you sent over here." He turned to face the building and then spun back around to face the Agent. "Dammit, all the people who died here are dead directly because of you!"
         "They would have come here eventually," Agent One said quietly and firmly. "Johan's village wasn't an isolated incident, I'm afraid. Whoever is playing games, is playing for keeps this time. Going for broke, as it were."
         "But why," Tristian asked, his voice questing for understanding, even just an inkling. "Why and who? What is the reason for all this killing. They're just wiping people out, for no reason! Or is all of this . . ." and he gestured to indicate the entire range of flaming buildings, just as another lost it's war and slid down to the ground, screeching and fiery, "the point? Just destruction?"
         "I don't know, Tristian," Agent One murmured, his voice lost in musings. "I don't have all the facts yet. Logic works the same for me as it does for you."
         Tristian leaned back against the building, letting his head rest against the ambiently warm stone. "Then I don't know what we're going to-"
         "Guys!" and it was Johan's voice. Tristian started and realized that the man had been missing for most of the conversation between him and the Agent. "Over here!" The voice was coming from inside the house they were standing near. Tristian glanced at the Agent just as he turned to go in. The Agent didn't look surprised at all. He probably had watched Johan slip away and had said nothing the entire time. Manipulative bastard.
         "What did you find?" Tristian asked as he stepped through the door. But even as he stepped in, he thought he saw what had caught Johan's attention.
         "Look at this place," Johan said intently, moving from point to point in the room, gesturing almost wildly. "Nothing is . . ."
         "Nothing's touched," Tristian finished his sentence for him, distantly thinking about how much he hated when people did that to him. Like when the Agents did it. Often. But he thrust the thought out of his head and stared around some more. "It's like the army was never here." Every piece of furniture was in its plcae, it seemed. Even food was on the table, ice cold but still there. There were no signs of struggle, no signs of anything at all. Not even any blood.
         "It's like everyone left," Johan marveled, striding around the room. He stared back at Tristian, eyes wide. "Could they have found out what was coming and gotten out ahead of time?"
         "But where?" Tristian asked, shaking his head. "This city looks fairly large, how do you move all those people so quickly? And without the army catching up to you."
         Agent One answered with a smile from the doorway. "Magic," was all he said.
         Tristian glared at him impatiently. "That's what I keep hearing, but I don't see anything. Besides, what kind of magic could get all these people out of here? Did they all teleport?"
         "In a sense," Agent One replied smoothly. Turning to Johan, he said, "Tell me, is Cloudion near here? In the general area, maybe?"
         Johan cocked his head to the side in a moment of thought and then his eyes snapped wide. "Yes, it's . . . it would be if . . ." his face became questioning, "but I thought it was just a fancy made up by the rich. Something to keep us in our place."
         "No, it's quite real, and I'm sure that's where everyone went." Agent One clapped his hands together. "Ready for another trip folks?"
         "Not really recovered from the last one," Tristian replied a little too sharply. All these jumps were making him remember how much he had hated teleporting around.
         Agent One gave him a benevolent smile. "Sorry about the extra trip but I had to be sure that the danger was severe enough to warrant dragging Cloudion into this." He made a bit of a face. "I'm still not all that popular there."
         "Why is that?" both Johan and Tristian at nearly the same time. They glanced at each other in surprise but said nothing else, perhaps afraid of another echo.
         "All in due time, gentlemen, all in due time. But for now," and he gave a wicked grin at this, "we're off to see the king."
         And before anyone else could respond, the world went red and gold and they were gone, leaving only the red and gold of flickering embers behind them.