The old man’s cane clicked against the marble floor as he walked too and fro on the stairs. As the great door to the tower opened Laurence set his eyes upon the figure and smiled, before striding over and grabbing the old man’s free hand. Without uttering a word, he walked over to Fen and tied a similar statuette to the one he had given Peter around the boy's neck. There was a small ripple in the air as he used mana to lock the totem in place and smirked.
“It's good to see you old man,” he said as he turned back to the figure with the cane.
“You too, old man,” the figure replied. The old man looked at the motley crew that followed Laurence and smirked. “Wow, you've downgraded”.
“Can someone please tell me what is going on?” Peter growled, “Is this Jim? Or the link to him or something? What is happening?”
“So, I sent you both away to look for Rishif and to be big neon distractions for what I was doing, which was signing to Jim that I was here in a way that only I could do”.
“There was a certain sign we derived back when we were children,” the old man said as he moved closer. After removing a brooch on his chest each step seemed to shed years of age off him. “It was part of a cant that only those of us from Spring Street would even recognise. Law and I decided that should we ever need to meet, he would show off that sign in some form or another and we would move to the final meeting point as the mark suggested”.
“So what about Rishif and the mango seller?”
“The mango seller was a sign that Jim set up. His crates were all packed with unripe mangoes in the thieves symbol for a bolthole”. Laurence paused as he turned to the man who looked like he was noe about thirty years old. “You know I would've missed that one if I was looking even slightly less carefully”.
“That's because it was a masterpiece of manipulation. I convinced him that the shape was lucky, and so he began putting it into things he would carry every day. The mangoes being in that shape was in the hope they would sell better”.
“Okay, well that still doesn't explain who Rishif is”. By this point Peter was thoroughly incensed. He had been messed around by the two men who were in front of him and even when they were explaining themselves to him they still talked in circles.
“Who Rishif are. It's a family name that my pseudonim is the ancestor of, or rather the brother of the ancestor of. About an eighth of the people in that flea market have it as a middle name, but none of them of speak it outside family, so if you know the name but aren't part of the family then you're seen as very suspicious”.
“Okay, so I kind of get your plan, though I still think the concept us ridiculous. There's one last thing that's bugging me. How did you know we would be here?”
“Process of elimination,” the now mid twenties Jim replied.
“What?”
“I knew Law will only ever go to four places within Thought. The first is mine and Winoa’s, but to get in contact with me he would've had to have spoken to her. The second is the Hephaistia tower, and I watched that get rebuilt not six hours ago. The third is the market, but I was told you left there, so that only left the last place”.
“Here,” Fen said.
“Exactly, my boy!” Jim bent down and ruffled the young boy's hair. “How are you doing, and how is your sister?”
“I'm good. And Ruko is playing in our new toy”. Fen smiled and raised the soul puppet he found to Jim's eye level. On its own the puppet waved slowly at Jim before covering where its mouth would be as if to giggle. “She's having lots of fun”.
“Is that...?” He glanced wide eyed at Laurence. “Did you make...?”
“We found it at your flea market. Cost him two silver shards”.
Jim let out a string of expletives before laughing. “He's a lucky one”.
“And you are not, James,” said a woman at the base of the stairs. Her pitch black hair curled around her pretty, but furious face. “I will not let you escape me again”.
“Carla,” Jim swallowed. “You've changed your hair again”.
“How nice of you to notice. You'll have a chance to see it in all different colours when I've got you chained to my bed”.
“While the bed seems lovely, you've never dealt with my complaints about the chains. I'm just not the kind of man who likes to be tied down!”
“You're a Caesar. You belong to the clan”.
The moment she stopped speaking Jim's face hardened. He turned to Laurence and winked. “We're done here. Saddle the invalids and children up because we're gonna have to run through a city that hates us. Oh and deal with the Adjudicator... who is her brother”.
“Is that why you haven't just left?” Laurence asked as he grabbed Fen and tied the boy onto his back with his ropes of light.
“Yeah...” Jim winced. “Not for want of trying though”.
“Good thing I can just skip the Adjudicator with where we're going next. Peter, you got Rose sorted?”
“As much as it pains me, she is back within my ring”.
Laurence nodded, kissed his crystal pendant for luck and dashed directly at Carla. As he moved his old hammer appeared in his flesh hand and he began to exude an aura akin to that of a natural disaster.
“Stop!” The woman before him cried out. The ambient noise of the city stopped, the birds and animals in the undergrowth stopped, even the air that pulled in the rain and whispered through the buildings stopped, but still the War Immortal charged. Seeing her imminent death, she leapt back and watched as Laurence skittered to a stop beside her, his smile devilish and his aura even wilder than normal.
“You broke. You chickened out, and you know what?”
“What?” she growled through clenched teeth.
“With the headstart you just gave Jim, you're never catching him”. He turned and sprinted off, laughing maniacally as he disappeared from her view.
“THERE'S ONLY ONE WAY OUT OF THOUGHT,” she yelled as he left, “AND I AM EVERYWHERE IN THIS CITY!”
He glanced back, and shifted direction as he watched her dash off after his friend. His head turned on a swivel as he looked around for malicious figures, but it seemed that Carla had called all her thralls to her to cause problems for Jim. As he caught up to their chase, he watched as people fought each other until blood was pouring from their hands and wounds were covering their body. Even in the Absolution section of the city they were unrestrained in their use of hard control. Thrumming explosions of mana followed the couple as the masses behind them went to war. Once the waves of mana ceased and the two Immortals had gone ahead the general public below separated from each other’s throats and regained their senses. Wherever Laurence looked he saw collapsed bodies of people injured by themselves or each other. He hoped that the Absolution clan would come and rectify the carnage in the wake of Jim and Carla, but his focus was his fleeing friend.
They moved through the gateway, there was a moment’s reprise for the people of Thought as the equidistant gateways near the stele lit up and two Caesars were spat out, followed by Laurence and Peter. The four sprinting figures kicked it up a notch, but Laurence pressed ahead at a rate that was beyond what the other three could keep up with. A cloud of dust kicked up as he passed by unsuspecting figures making their way to or from the exit of the city. Some subconsciously moved out of the way but others bore the brunt of his movement and were bowled over by even the slightest contact with his body, however the path was relatively short, and within seconds he was skittering to a stop near the stele.
His truesense rippled out in the three remaining directions and watched as Peter and Jim
made their way to his position, while turning to face the still furious Carla. The woman was faster than either Jim or Peter, but she still had to get through the wall that was Laurence and Fen.
Her hair flickered in the wind as she glared at Laurence. She slowed down, but raised her arms and began channeling mana at an absurd rate even as she slowed to a walk. Her hands split apart and she roared “Child, STAB HIM!”
There was silence for a moment as people waited for something to happen, but as the mana diffused into the air ineffectually Laurence just smirked. Jim and Peter landed and moved closer to the stele as Carla tried summon her power again. “Child, you are my thrall! STAB HIM!”
Once more the mana built up and diffused into nothing but before Carla could summon her power again, Laurence grabbed his companions by the arm and leapt through the stele. He would have loved to see the result of her rage, but it was not worth the effort in trying to escape again.
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