Sword points are not generally something I want shoved in my face. Nevertheless, here was one barely an inch from my nose.
“I’m not an assassin,” I said, pushing the sword gently out of the vicinity of my head with my gauntleted hand. “I’m not a mercenary. I’m not a bounty hunter. I don’t kill people for money.”
“You misunderstand,” the Harbinger drawled. “You won’t get paid.”
“You should also know,” I half whispered. “That swords aren’t the best motivators for me.”
I ducked, rolling to the right in preparation for an attack while tossing a lightning bolt at the Harbinger. He anticipated my attack and sidestepped the strike, but my hair rose around my head from the electricity and my gauntlet fizzled unhappily. That wasn’t a good sign.
“You know this won’t end well for you,” he said, voice full of barely disguised excitement.
“I could say the same,” I replied.
“I suppose you could,” he admitted. “But that wouldn’t make it true.” He leapt forward, his platinum sword trailing an ethereal light. He was fast, inhumanly fast, but I still managed to block his conjured blade on my gauntlet. This wasn’t the first time I’d dueled with non-humans.
I twisted, dislodging the sword and freeing my arm while aiming a kick at the Harbinger. His weight of his attack carried him right into my boot, which knocked him back a few steps.
“I’ve seen things that could kill you with a thought, things that are above time!” he roared. “Do you really think you can beat me?”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, big whoop,” I muttered. I was trying to figure out where I could get charcoal. There were trace amounts of potassium nitrate and sulfur in the ground, but I needed charcoal. If I got charcoal, I could turn the cobblestones into black powder. Judging from the ominous fizzing coming from my gauntlet, it only had one or two good blasts of fire before it short circuited. “Now, if you’d just be quiet….”
The Harbinger didn’t move, but I felt the temperature plummet abruptly. At first it felt like nothing more than a draft, but soon I could see my breath in billowy clouds, which I was pretty sure wasn’t normal for summer on Alaran.
He made a throwing motion with his right hand, and a spear of ice materialized already in motion. It shattered when it came into impact with my gauntlet, but the force knocked me off balance. Now I realized that the oversized icicle had a hidden purpose. The joints in my gauntlet were frozen, leaving it completely immobilized. The dead weight combined with the force of the ice spear’s momentum was enough to knock me to the ground. I tried to summon a fireball, but I couldn’t force the frozen fingers of the gauntlet into the trigger position. That meant no fire and no lightning.
The Harbinger sauntered towards me, a look of mock disappointment plastered onto what I could see of his face. “Really? A little ice is all it takes to stop Nyx the Alchemist?” I rolled my eyes. I hated it when someone other than me was gloating. When I didn’t respond, the Harbinger continued. “Now, back to my request. You’re going to kill Corso Ghostfire. If he’s not dead in two weeks, you will be.”
“Look, it’s pretty obvious that you’re stronger than me,” I snarled. “Why don’t you do it? And who is this Corso, anyway?”
The Harbinger didn’t answer, just gave me a cold smile. The edges of his form began to fray, splitting at the edges like an old tapestry. With a flash of light, he vanished.
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I draped myself on the couch and stared at the ceiling while picking at the burn holes in the fabric. I always went to my lab to think. Pieces of my gauntlet lay sprawled across the table, but I hadn’t made a move to repair it. I’d had to deconstruct it to fix the lightning setting and insert the last ingredient which I’d stolen from the tower on Alaran. For once, though, I didn’t feel like tinkering with it. I had a difficult dilemma to work at.
On the one hand, I could just kill Ghostfire, job done. Except it wasn’t. The Harbinger had promised to kill me if I didn’t do as he asked, and he was powerful enough to do it, too. But then he would realize that he could push me around which I didn’t want anyone to realize. And if he realized that, he’d continue to use me as his personal thug, the very thought of which filled me with dread.
On the other hand, I could decide not to kill Ghostfire and carry on with my life until the Harbinger caught up with me and tried to kill me. I could set a trap for him, or run away, but a trap was risky and running had unpleasant side effects like extreme paranoia.
I looked around my lab, at the empty terrariums and test tubes full of bubbling liquids. As I surveyed the room, one of my beakers exploded with a muted pop, spraying viscous fuschia liquid in every direction. This was a common occurrence, so I watched the drops burn holes in the creaky floorboards. My lab was starting to look like a dalmatian, but there was no place on any world that I’d rather be.
I swung my legs off the couch. Regardless of my decision, I’d need my gauntlet in working order. I mixed the frost giant’s blood into the centrifuge of my gauntlet and began tinkering with the lightning channeler.
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Half an hour later, I tucked a lock of red hair behind my ear and looked at the finished gauntlet. I hadn’t managed to repair the lightning setting. One of the parts had short circuited and been reduced to a melted piece of scrap metal, but it could be replaced.
The simplicity of working on machinery was calming; it cleared my mind. I decided that I needed more information on the Harbinger before I could make a decision. And for that, much as I hated the idea, meant contacting him.
I slipped my gauntlet on and felt the familiar leather slide back into place.
I needed more information on the Harbinger before I could attempt to defeat him, and who better give me information than the Harbinger himself? Finding the Harbinger and getting information out of him wasn’t going to be easy. I couldn’t just interrogate him, so I’d need a plan, and if I wanted to contact him, I’d need magic. I wasn’t very good at magic, alchemists didn’t need to be, but soon I’d need everything I had. I’d also need to coax answers out; I wasn’t ready to cross swords with him again. The Harbinger was dangerous, so I needed to find his weaknesses and fast. If I couldn’t then I wouldn’t have any choice but to kill Corso Ghostfire.
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