239 - Tight Spot

Lexie aimed a large ball of VOID and blasted it through the walls in front of her, eating up the concrete until they burst out into a courtyard.

Unfortunately, the courtyard had guards who also started shooting at them. Not to mention three of four watch towers surrounding the lattice of shorter buildings that made up the prison.

Alarms blared around them.

Thunderous footsteps echoed, along with bullets, laser blasts, and the rumbling of statues coming to life. The forcefield flickered red to signify lockdown.

At the same time, Lexie felt Pvilycht suck even more of her power, and she was so tempted to cut him off, communicating through telepathy, “What on Earth are you doing?”

"This is a complex system. I’m working it out," he responded. “I am almost to the end.”

As the shield swirled around Lexie, she aimed at the guards, blasting them with balls of VOID.

At least she was doing so until Irina grabbed her arm and announced, “Wait! Some of them are…innocent. Or spies sent from my family.”

Lexie paused. “How do you know which ones are the spies?”

The woman gave her a bashful look. “I don’t. Sorry.”

Lexie gave a sour look and heaved a sigh. She debated on whether to keep shooting, but she decided she might as well save her energy and just run.

At least her shield was adequate in stopping their bullets, and she focused on keeping it up for now, without retaliating as she zigzagged around the courtyard searching for a way out. She activated the ability portion of her lightning zombie card, using it on its lowest capacity to stun the soldiers in front of her.

She also weaved a few of them together to immobilize or, at the very least, confuse them, but she didn't want to do too much to prevent exhausting herself.

“Where are we going?” Irina asked as they ran towards the back of the prison, where a fenced wall separated them from the forcefield covering the entire place.

“What do you mean? I’m looking for an exit."

“You will not be able to get out without the warden's permission. Not even with a void."

“Well, where’s the warden’s control room?”

“You will not find it. It’s hidden by Alchemy.” 

“Oh, give me a break.”  She was suddenly extremely annoyed and regretting every life choice that led to this. 

The earth sprouted hands beneath her feet and tried to grab her, but Lexie dismantled it.

Lexie zagged left as she saw more guards coming from the front, about to surround her and trap her. She wasn’t sure how long she could keep up the promise not to eliminate them. Between holding everyone and whatever Pvilycht was doing, her strength was lagging. Her head was pounding.

She needed to find a way out and quickly.

“There!” Irina suddenly yelled, pointing at a tower.

One of the guards was standing there, unmoving. He seemed to be staring at them and pointing a gun without shooting. "I think he is one of us."

"I hope you're right," Lexie said as she rerouted her steps and flew above heads to land on the other side.

She raced up the stairs, and the remaining soldiers barrelled after her.

She saw, from the corner of her eye, a flying jet circling in the sky. Were they about to drop a missile?

That seemed overkill.

The soldier was ahead of her, and he moved through the doorway, which moved like molten black metal.

Lexie dashed down the corridor toward it. Her plan was threefold. To find a place to hide until Pvilycht was done, find a way out of here, and also to give the guards something else to do, so they didn't have time to chase her.

So her plan was simple. To enter the warden's control room and DECODE the security system to collapse it entirely. That would likely release all the prisoners, which would then keep the guards sufficiently busy. Then Lexie and co would barricade themselves in one of the rooms until Pvilycht was done, and then they would escape through the collapsed forcefield.

Great plan. Simple in theory. Difficult in execution.

She wished she had her father’s pocket dimension right now. She could hide in it for some reprieve and figure out a way here.

Wait, was a pocket dimension doable when teleportation was disabled? Lexie didn't really know. She would ask her dad when she got out of here.

If she got out of here.

Thankfully, they reached the doorway without any problem, and it was open for them.

Unfortunately, the soldier who had led them there was dead on the floor.

And the man in the room pushed a button that caused the open doorway to change into walls, trapping her within a dark, tight, airless compartment.

Damn it.

She tried to use VOID attacks on the walls, but they swallowed them.

Lexie was really starting to hate alchemy.

She could still hear the noises of the soldiers around them, but no matter how many VOID balls she sent at the wall, it didn’t give. Neither did it react to fire or pulses of lightning.

Lexie started to hear them coming closer, directly in front of them. She reached out to touch the walls, attempting to use some of Pvilycht's power to figure out a way out of it.

“We’re caught,” Irina said, and her voice was not accusatory, only diminished. The man in the bubble on top of them was back to his praying, and the others seemed filled with dread. They didn’t think they would escape this.

Lexie was a little offended by their lack of belief in her ability, but she told herself it was okay because they didn't know her. They didn't know what she was capable of.

As Lexie pulled from Pvilchy, she sensed something familiar. Something that felt like...

Yasycht?

What was he doing here?

She reached into him and felt him rumble. Lexie could almost swear she heard a response. I could ask you the same thing.

Suddenly, a fizzing sound surrounded the chamber, and it started filling up with a sort of gas that was probably meant to kill its inhabitants, given how panicked Irina sounded when she yelled out, “Hold your breath, everyone!"

Lexie obeyed, but she really didn't need to. It probably wouldn't kill her, the same way starvation wouldn't kill.

But it might damage her human body, and she didn't have time to go to Ryn to fix her.

Speaking of which, was Ryn still around? Lexie should check in on her.

So much to do, so little time.

But now at least, Yasycht's presence made things easier for her.

She reached out to Pvilycht mentally. "Are you done?"

"Almost."

"What is taking so long?”

"I’m doing my best! I don't work as well under pressure!" The frustration in his voice was so human that Lexie could almost see him huff.

"Alright, alright, don't get pissy, now," she said before she disconnected.

She thought about it and announced to the soldiers outside, “You might not want to do that. Kill us, that is. If you kill us, you will never find the docket, and the Emperor will be very upset with you when it lands in the wrong hands."

Suddenly, the gas emissions stopped.

Lexie kept going. "I have the docket. Kill me, and you will never find it."

“She’s lying.” Lexie picked up one of the voices outside. "We cannot afford to keep her alive. Look at all she has done!"

“I’m not lying," Lexie shot back. "And you should know that I’m a real-life witch. Don’t you want to know how I did everything I did? I’m sure your emperor would want to know. He might even want to hire me for a fee.”

There was quiet, and Lexie knew that she had them.

"I can't go anywhere right now. So I'll wait here while we discuss it."

In the meantime, Lexie searched for exactly how Yasycht had accessed this doorway.

Was there a dungeon nearby? Maybe underground?

How did it get there?

And how was it connected to this doorway?

Well, if there was one thing it confirmed, it was that Neqal and Vulcan were definitely working with the Emperor, or at least, someone in the Emperor's employ.

Lexie was suddenly reminded of the dream he’d had of her being trapped and her powers being siphoned. Was this how it happened? Were they going to keep her here forever?

She took some of Pvilycht's power and enhanced it now. She wanted to know if she could somehow collapse the alchemy trap if she needed to.

The soldiers outside were arguing and contacting the Emperor about her. Hopefully that would keep them busy till she–

"I have it!" Pvilycht said.

“Great!” Lexie was flooded with relief, and she smiled at Irina. "Mission accomplished."

****

Not for the first time, Aiden wanted to kill Vacek. 

The man had activated his powers to prevent Aiden from going after Lexie.

He also prevented Aiden from using his magic in general and followed him everywhere, not relenting, no matter how much Aiden snapped at him.

“You’re going to get her in even more trouble if you go," Vacek said.

"Don't talk to me. This is all your fault."

“You think I would send her there and not have eyes on the situation? The second she’s in trouble, I’ll know, and we can both get her out ourselves.”

"Please. Like you would do that and risk your precious association's jurisdiction."

"I would. Just relax, Aiden. Trust me, she has it under control."

Aiden didn’t relax. He thought about how angry he was. He thought about all the ways he could get rid of Vacek and Vulcan and everyone who wanted to keep introducing danger into his daughter's life.

In his darkest fantasies, he would eliminate them all and keep Lexie safe, somewhere pretty and soft and far away from all this ugliness.

Although he wasn’t sure how to keep his daughter from endangering herself. She seemed to enjoy jumping feet first into trouble. 

“Aiden, relax. She’s fine.” Vacek said, but it didn’t stop him from pacing back and forth, wearing a path in the rug.

He bit his lip and glared at Vacek at each turn while the other man regarded him coolly. 

“If the Emperor has Lexie in his grasp, I will know.”

“What if it’s too late by then?”

“He won’t kill her even if he could," he said. "He’d be far too curious about her, and he’d want to use her for his own–"

Suddenly, the air in the room split with lightning, and a strange man walked out. 

Not just him.

He and a whole host of other people, some of whom were encased in the forcefield that was covered in blood splatters.

The man had splatters of blood staining his clothes, too, and was carrying a wounded-looking woman who looked very familiar. 

Vacek shot to his feet. “Irina.”

“Dominic.” She blinked at him with her one good eye while the other was swollen shut. “What are you…where are we?” She glanced around her. “Did we just teleport?”

“Yup,” the man said casually, in Lexie's voice. He placed the woman on one of Vacek's couches and also lowered the people in the forcefield to the ground and let the bubble pop. 

Then he transformed back into Lexie.

As Irina jerked, Lexie lifted her hands in the air and said, "Tada."

“Wait.” Irina shook her head. “You’re a child.”

“No. I’m thirteen, I think,” she said. Then she told Vacek, “I got it. Transferring it to your inventory now."

"Are you okay, honeybee?" Aiden asked her, kneeling to run his hands over her.

"Yup. Not a single scratch on me."

“What the…” Vacek was still blinking, trying to make sense of what he was seeing. “Lexie, I sent you to retrieve an item, not a whole host of people."

"Yes. You should know, though, that things didn’t exactly work out as planned.”

“What?”

She sighed. "Well, when I got to the room you indicated, I overheard them torturing someone. Her name is Irina David; she’s Darina Shadowbane’s sister. Anyway, they were going to kill her for reasons I still do not understand, and I couldn’t just let that happen, and so long story short, I saved her life and might have partially destroyed the royal penitentiary. Also, I learned something important that I'll tell you later. Not bad, for a few minutes of work, huh?"

***

Lexie waited, but no one gave her accolades.

Her father looked horrified, and Vacek still hadn’t recovered from his shock of having all these people appear in the office.

“And the rest of them?” Vacek asked. "You said you only saved Irina, so why are they here?"

“Irina said she wouldn’t leave without her team, and so I had to bring them along.” Lexie sighed. “Anyway, they probably need somewhere to lie low for a while. I think the Emperor’s going to be pissed.”

“He’s going to be more than just pissed,” Irina flashed her angry gaze at both Vacek and Lexie. “You two have no idea what you’ve done. He’s going to go after my family. He’s going to charge them with treason, and he’s going to–”

“Relax, Irina,” Vacek said and put a hand on her shoulder. It felt like the woman was on the verge of hyperventilating. “The Emperor won’t be able to do anything to you or your family. You have my word on that.”

“How are you certain?”

“Well, thanks to a little gift someone has brought me, I now have him by the..." He trailed off, noting that Lexie was still in the room.

"Balls?" Lexie suggested. "My Uncle Max says stuff like that all the time, and much worse. So you don't need to hold yourself back on my behalf."

Vacek shook his head. He then came over to her, ignoring Aiden's snarl and staring into her eyes. "Thank you, Lexie."

She shrugged.

"It was no problem–" She choked on the last word, body wracked by a coughing fit.

She coughed into her palm and involuntarily spat out a dark, inky substance.

Eldritch blood.  

Aiden paled.

Irina stared at Lexie closely for some time. “What are you exactly?"

“I’m Lexie," she murmured, wiping her palm on her dress and giving Aiden a guilty look. "I'm fine. I promise."

"You look like someone I used to know." The praying man spoke up for the first time. "She too was a young child assassin."

Aiden stiffened. He didn't look at the man, but the look he gave Lexie told her to keep her mouth shut.

"Let's go," he said.

While Vacek and the rest continued to scheme, Lexie and Aiden went home. He scolded her the entire way there, and in between scoldinngs, Lexie told her father what she found out about Yasycht, and he said he would tell Vacek later.

Lexie was confined to strict bedrest, and she stayed there for most of the day and night, only visited by Emma, Tate and Uncle Max, who Aiden had apparently gone to in order to rant about her escapades.  

When Max showed up and sat by her bed, he looked like he didn't know whether to be proud or angry that she put herself in that situation.

He sure did enjoy hearing the story of it, though, and made her tell him in detail everything she did.

He shook his head. "Man. Bane is going to go crazy when I tell him this. He's already your biggest fan."

"You're not telling anyone," Aiden said, coming up with a bowl of soup. It was the third bowl he'd made her drink in as many hours. "And Lexie will not be doing anything like that again."

"I'm fine, Dad."

"You coughed blood."

"Yeah, that's just because I haven't figured out how to use power in my new body yet. But the living cards will help me. And if I make them in enough time, they could help Tate, too."

Lexie hadn't wanted to tell Tate about that possibility yet, because she didn't want to cruelly get his hopes up. After fighting it for so long, he seemed to have made peace with his condition, and she didn't want to start that whole cycle of hope and disappointment for him yet again.

But she was in a hurry to make it through, not just for him, but for a whole host of people.

Finally, the next day, Lexie was cleared to go back to her dungeon to work on cards.

“You okay?” she asked Pvilycht after she summoned him into the dungeon. She was worried that he might have overdone it yesterday, but she need not have. “You certainly look okay. You look like you're glowing."

"Yes," he said with a smile. "I feel better."

"Because of yesterday?"

He hesitated, then nodded. "It was nice. I felt...purposeful."

"Yeah, that was fun," Lexie said. "Was your power as strong as before?"

"No. Not like before." He sighed. "I'm weaker and already the will is fading. But we make a good team, Master." He said the last part a tad shyly.

"Yeah, we do. Also, just call me Lexie." She clapped. "Now, let's go back to work."

That morning, they created several cards with living pathway prototypes. Lexie took breaks to pop in and assure Aiden she was okay before going back into the dungeon.

Then, when they had good enough prototypes, she decided it was time to bring in the expert.

Lexie waited until after school hours, when he was alone, to pop into his office.

Professor Madswick jerked back when Lexie appeared, but rather than fear, he looked ecstatic.

"Lexie Sparrowfoot!" He spread his arms wide and got out of his seat. "What an auspicious day! I'm glad you are back in the land of the living and have found time to visit me."

"Thanks. I'm sorry this isn't a friendly visit, though. I need your help."

"Yes, of course." He gave her a sly look. "But you do remember from last time...that help from me comes at a cost, correct?"

"Yeah, but I'm here to offer you something even better than a soul contract."

"And what is that?"

Before Lexie could answer, she felt a tug at her soul, like she was being summoned, and a linked card vibrated within her.

She frowned, instantly sensing what was happening.

Was Little Fae calling her?