When Vex was hit by Ex, it felt like someone had thrown a person-sized metal doll at her, but with the weight and material of a battle wagon. That mass, even casually flying at her waste was like being tackled by a wrecking ball. In that moment, Vex had been enraged enough that she turned the lantern on her attacker on reflex. She’d lost track of her surroundings and forgotten that Trouble and Ex were in the space.
Vex came back to her senses just in time to witness a confusing scene in Ex’s shadow. An impressively handsome and well-built human man sat with an older gentleman, sharing a glass of something strong. The handsome guy looked to be in his mid-twenties, dressed in a clean gray button-up shirt and crisp jeans over shoes both stylish and practical. The dark gray of the image made his hair seem dark brown, cleanly styled, and standing with frosted tips. His face displayed a chiseled jaw with a shadow of a beard set over a shapely nose and cheeks, and bright eyes.
That had to have been Alex. Vex had figured he must’ve been handsome, but this was ridiculous. He looked like a sports team superstar. He had said that he was a famous AdRec star when he was mortal. No wonder he was so popular. That chick-magnet playing the part of monster-slayer hero.
But where Alex was handsome, the other man was… stranger. He appeared in his late fifties. Dressed in a fine suit from a much older age in history, black and charcoal, with a chained pocket watch tucked into one pocket and an Ember Ruby rose-headed cane resting at his hip, where he sat. The man’s features were almost human, but not quite. Even at first glance, his features were just barely human-adjacent, if not human. Adding to this disconcerting air about the man were his eyes. While the image showed them as gray, the slit and split pupils and glowing irises spoke to something not even mortal. Adding an intensity to the glow of those eyes was a shadow cast by his short top hat, set atop ink-black locks of hair that ran down his back.
Vex took all of that in, confused at the sight, then she noticed that Ex, atop her, was screaming like he was dying. “Oh, dreck!” Vex spat before yanking the light away from the Soulforged. Alex fell back, away from Vex, and she scampered back to press her back against the wall, even without standing. With the lantern in one hand, as she threw herself backward to a solid surface, the light fell on her brother. It was only for a moment, and this time, she saw her brother’s natural reaction before seeing the image behind him.
The moment the light touched Trouble, he fell to the floor, convulsing. “Oh fuck!” Vex snapped at herself before scrambling to turn the light away and seal it shut. The image that splashed the wall behind Trouble was only there for an instant, but it was enough. Everyone saw it clear as day. A view that was instinctively etched into memory out of primal fright. The sight was simple enough. A mouth full of shark teeth flying at the viewer’s perspective, inches from consuming.
Vex threw the lantern aside and rushed to Trouble’s side, where he lay on the floor. His body had calmed from the brutal seizing it had done. Now it was only twitches, like that of a dying insect. Vex didn’t know if that was him easing from the sudden assault or fading, dying from it.
Vex checked his face, throwing away his purple glasses to check his strange eyes. The pupils were rapidly expanding and contracting, and not in rhythm with each other. Vex zipped his jacket open with panicking hands, before checking his breathing, pressing her ear against his chest. His lung wouldn’t have been completely healed from her gunshot. His regenerating trait was simple and slow. Sure enough, Vex heard the gurgling of blood seeping into a lung. Worse yet, his breathing was erratic.
“Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!” Vex cursed at herself in panic as she raised her head from Trouble’s chest and yanked her hat from her head. She shoved her hand into the pocket space, up to the shoulder, grabbing crafting equipment at random and throwing it to the floor. “I can’t believe I did it again! Please let me have something that’ll fix this!”
One after another, things skittered across the carpeted floor. A brand etcher, an essence leacher, elemental resisting clamps and pliers, acid engraver, crystal battery tap harness, disruptor agitator, and resonance tuner. Vex paused her panicked throwing to stare at the last three devices. She knew something, but wasn’t sure what. She pressed her brain harder. When the answer came, she slapped herself in sheer personal frustration.
Vex turned to Archi, who lay numbly on the floor, in emotional shock. That told Vex something about the man, but that discussion would have to wait. “Hey! Fuzz-Face!” Vex snapped at the Alchemyst. He didn’t hear her. So she reached into her hat again and withdrew Potato. “Wake him. Don’t eat him,” Vex told her pet, emphasizing the second part. Then she chucked Potato at Archi’s face.
Potato latched on to Archi’s muzzle, but not too hard. “AH!” The Vhenari panicked, yanking Potato free before turning to glare at Vex. “Is stripping my emotional stability bare not enough for you?!” Archi demanded. “Now you must harass me with your freakish pet?”
“Shut your snout and HELP ME!” Vex snapped.
Archi looked around the room before turning back to her. “Should we not be checking Alex, too?”
In answer to Archi’s question, Potato scampered over to the Soulforged and started scratching at his face. Ex started to moan in response. “His voice doesn’t sound staticky or looping. He’ll be fine…. I think.” Vex said before waving the Alchemyst over. “Do you have a drainage syringe on you?”
“I…um…yes. I believe so.” Archi replied as he walked over and knelt down on the other side of Tro. “Why?”
“Because he’s got blood in his lung,” Vex said, pointing to the lung in question before turning away to pick up one of the tools she needed. “We need it drained. It’ll mend on its own and stop within an hour or two, but we need to keep it clear till then.”
“I’ll need a larger and longer needle for that, as well as tubing and a container.” Architallis stood. “You collected two of those earlier, and I have the remaining.” He moved for the door. “I’ll be right back.”
“You’d better be,” Vex growled at the Alchemyst as he reached the door.
Archi paused with his hand on the handle. He didn’t look back when he replied. “I have been atoning for my wrongs, and will continue to do so. You have my word, I won’t let your brother die.” Without another word, the Vhenari was past the door and gone.
Vex grabbed the crystal battery tap harness. It was a forked pair of jumper clamps, two on either side, linked with a thick and insulated wire. Vex ripped Trouble’s shirt open and strapped the clamps to poor Trouble’s nipples. When Tro woke back up, those were going to smart like a fiend.
As Vex finished stripping the side of the disruptor agitator to expose the projecting crystals, Archi was returning with a wind of clear tubing, a large bottle attached to one end. The other end bore a sinisterly long and thick needle. Archi hurried over, set down the bottle, and disinfected the needle and site before sticking Trouble in between two ribs.
Vex mounted the other two clamps from the harness to the agitator’s projection sources. Then she turned the device on and slowly cranked up the intensity.
“What are you doing?” Archi asked.
“His core is caught in a seizing feedback loop. I need to do a frequency flush of the thing and manually restart it.” Vex said as she watched her brother while turning the dial painfully slowly. “I need to be very careful about this,” Vex spoke softly and slowly, though it was clear the panic still clawed near the surface. “Gotta hit just the right disruption frequency to null the loop.” As soon as she said this, Trouble’s body gave one massive seize before falling still and limp as a doll. No breath. No twitching. Nothing.
Vex let out a massive sigh before unlatching the harness from the agitator and mounting the same clamps to a pair of protruding Resonance Myst crystals at the top of the resonance tuner. This time, Vex acted with quick and sure hands. “I need to hurry before his core flips the switch to restart him.” Vex powered up the device and started adjusting the output frequency of energy.
“Would it not be a good thing for his core to restart naturally?” Archi asked as he monitored the lung drainage.
“Not so much,” Vex replied. “His core has two modes. Has em right in the thing’s name. The Heart of Harmony and Defiance.”
“I certainly do not like the name of Defiance Mode,” Architallis said with a shudder. Vex knew that he’d noticed just how dangerous her brother could be if Trouble wanted.
Trouble’s body gave a much smaller jolt of motion before his breathing resumed. Trouble’s moan of discomfort echoed that of Ex’s, who still groaned like he’d been struck by lightning and fell from a tree to lie at its base. Tro reached up with one hand to grip his head. “Aaww,” was all Trouble said as he slowly sat up.
Vex tackled her brother in a desperate hug, wrenching the clamps from his nipples with painful force, drawing and even more vehement “Aaw!!”
“Oh! You’re back! You’re back!” Vex cheered, and she squeezed her brother like she was never going to see him again.
“Breathe! Need Breathe!” Trouble choked out.
“Oh! Sorry!” Vex said as she pulled away from her brother. “Here.” She said as she picked up the bottle containing Trouble’s draining blood. “Let’s get you to bed. Your lung opened back up, so you need to stay leaking for a bit. Stay lying down for the rest of the night. Focus on resting and healing. We’ll get you something nice in the morning.” Vex helped Trouble walk across the room, out into the hall, and into his own bed.
With that done, Vex returned to Alex’s room. The Soulforged was still moaning in an endless drone. She wasn’t totally sure he was okay after all. Vex gestured for Archi to bring her the agitator and the harness. The Alchemyst did as bade and set both beside Vex, who stood over Ex. Vex knelt down to straddle the Knyght as he had her before. The Hexxen Bane strapped the harness to the agitator, same as before, and mounted the other ends to the Soul Core’s harness in Ex’s body.
Vex turned the device on and slowly turned it up, just as she had for her brother. Alex’s groan distorted to sound like he was lying in a vibrating massage chair. The pain in his droning call dampened until Ex sounded like he was enjoying himself. Then he spoke in a dreamy mutter, “Tingly.”
Vex gave the unconscious mechanical man an irritated glare before cranking the dial. Not high enough to be lethal or even dangerous. Just high enough to be a nasty wake-up call. “Dreck!” Ex shouted as he shot to a sitting position as if he’d been slapped. “What was that for?!”
Vex pressed an index finger hard against the bone between Ex’s eyes, in an effort to knock him off balance. When the attempt failed, Vex remained unfazed and said, “Because you were enjoying yourself after we went through an emergency while you were lying there.”
“Hey!” Ex said defensively. “I’d like to see you spring into action after getting struck by lightning and falling from a thirty-foot tree.”
Vex arched a speculative brow. Her assumption of the sound had been surprisingly on point. But, no. She had to remain cool. She’d been the one to screw up. Vex knew that she’d flown off the handle after the drugging attempt. Archi had pushed so hard on the topic. Too hard. Then he crossed a line. They needed to have a talk, but she couldn’t lose her cool in front of them again. Vex needed to act unfazed and defiant as ever. After a talk with Archi and a long bit of rest, she would need to apologize.
“I could definitely jump into action after a bolt and a fall.” Vex boasted with an over-the-top pose. She knew that she was laying it on thick, so she needed to get out fast.
Vex stood from atop Ex and stepped aside to collect the Last Light Lantern. She calmly picked up the Omen and just as calmly walked it over to the table in the room. She set it down with a bit more haste before spinning around to look at the other two with a stiff and closed stance. “Ex. You don’t need to sleep. Keep an eye on Drake and the Lantern.” She wagged a finger at the Knyght. “Don’t zone out. Stow the thing and lock the bathroom door.”
“But I just-!” Ex started in protest, but Vex snapped her stance and shifted her focus to Architallis. “You!” Vex curled the finger in an angry, almost sinister ‘come hither’ motion. “We are clearing the air before you try anything else that might get you killed.” Vex put venomous emphasis on those last two words, drawing an audible gulp from the Alchemyst’s throat.
Vex felt satisfied having made enough of an impression before she moved to scoop up Potato in one arm before heading for the door. She stopped long enough to ensure the Alchemyst was following before opening the door. Vex coaked Potato back into his space in her hat.
“But you left a mess of dreck! It’s all yours!” Ex called after Vex.
“I’ll be by in the morning to pick it up,” Vex shouted back over her shoulder.
Vex led Architallis into his room. As much as she hated for him to have home-field advantage with all of his gear, she hated the thought of him in her room even more. A room smelling of lemons, peppers, and who knew what else sounded better than the drugger getting his stink mixing with sweet smells of hot metal, Potato musk, and road dust.
She opened the already cracked door. The guy must’ve been in a hurry if he left his door cracked on the way out. He seemed like someone who valued his privacy. The room was a mess, if one of organized chaos. The desk was occupied with a mess of beakers and tubes with fluids of various colors and viscosities. Across the floor was a mess of parts for various small devices: traps, trackers, and deception gadgets of all kinds littered the floor in organized sections. The only thing spared from the organized chaos was the bed, neatly made with hospital corners, freshly cleaned, and free of wrinkles.
Vex set herself up beside the door, leaning against the wall, arms and legs crossed. With her stance closed, Vex kept a hand close to the grip of her hex-gun. The Hexxen Bane was done screwing around. If the Alchemyst thought to try anything funny, Vex would put a bullet in his chest and walk away without a second word.
Architallis poked his head inside the space, peering around like a rat peeking from a hole for a hunting cat. When the Vhenari spotted Vex beside the door, he gave a slight twitch before entering his room. Archi picked his way across the room with careful steps before standing against the wall opposite Vex.
“What was that damned dreck?” Vex asked in a calm voice.
“Which dreck are you speaking of?” Archi replied with his own question.
Vex pointed an accusing finger at Archi without fully uncrossing her arms. “Don’t give me that. The drugging.”
Architallis gave a shrug, but the motion was drained of energy. The Alchemyst seemed more tired than ever. “Can you truly blame me for not being certain of what ‘that’ you speak of? I pressed you and attempted to drug you. Then you flew the roost and attacked the rest of the lance. A fair bit occurred in only those few moments.”
Vex grumbled under her breath, but could not deny what he said. So she focused on the problem at hand. “I’m talking about pushing my buttons before trying to trick me with a laced drink. Were you really that desperate for answers?”
Architallis’s shoulders slouched before he knelt down to pick up a seemingly random device to fiddle with. Vex’s body tensed, and she coiled, ready to strike if the Alchemyst used the gadget for sinister means. “I have had my worries and fears for a fair time now,” Architallis said. “I’ve found your actions and reactions somewhat… impulsive and unhinged at times.” He spun a gear in the piece of equipment like a fidget toy.
“So you think I might be insane. Dangerous.” Vex said for personal clarification, gesturing with a roll of one hand.
Architallis gave a nod without meeting Vex’s eyes. “To some degree, yes. I have only just reclaimed some limited form of freedom, and I am deeply reluctant to forego it. However, I am no fighter. I have no skills in martial combat. Yet you have thrown me into threatening scenarios time and again. Beyond that, you bring danger upon us, if not through your own actions and compulsions, then through those distasteful Rose women who stalk you.” Architallis stepped around to the side of his bed, facing Vex. He set down his makeshift fidget before locking eyes with Vex. “I may not want to give up my freedom, but I want to die even less so. You have shadowed secrets in your past. I needed to know just how sinister you can be.”
“So you thought it okay to just drug me?” Vex demanded, leaning in to glare at Archi, despite there being a solid four feet between the two.
Architallis broke eye contact, looking down and to his right in shame. “I will do whatever is needed to reach my own goals. I owe them that much.”
“Owe who that much?” Vex questioned. She thought she knew where this was going. The revealing shadow had told a story that Vex was still piecing together, but she could already see the cracks in the Vhenari man’s heart.
“My wife and children,” Architallis muttered, only just loud enough to be heard in the still room. The air grew thick with tension.
“That preggers rat lady in the shadow,” Vex stated. “She was the one.”
Architallis squeezed his eyes shut and numbly nodded.
“And she was the reason for that nightmare?” Vex asked, her words calm.
Architallis gave another, single, deep nod. Pain etched on his face as he clearly remembered the scene again.
“Why?” Vex asked. “Why go so far? I saw she was sick. Was there no cure?”
Architallis bared his teeth in a silent snarl, even with his eyes closed. “She and I were both cursed by a former co-worker of mine. Our genetic material would break down at an inexorable pace. There was, is, no cure. My Teela. My poor Teela was consumed by the foul condition before I could save her.”
“Save her how?” Vex asked. “All I saw was you melting people with that strange syringe of yours. How was that supposed to save her?”
Architallis rested his face in his hands, shaking his head gingerly back and forth. “The syringe was a tool granted to me through a deal. I was told it would save me from my encroaching fate. I was told that it needed tuning… Injecting my own faulty genetic code into others until the device recognized my code naturally. I managed to save myself, but… The pregnancy changed the parameters for my poor Teela. Because she was carrying our children, it complicated the code integration process. I needed to hone the device on pregnant women using Teela’s genetics. But I never managed success before I was apprehended. I was informed just before my trial that my wife had passed away due to her condition.”
Vex was silent for a long time as she chewed on this realization. Archi seemed perfectly fine, sitting in thick silence and his own stewing misery. The man carried a massive weight atop his shoulders. But Vex still needed answers. “You said earlier that you were atoning for your sins. Then you said that you would do whatever was needed to get to your goals.” Vex traded the position of her folded legs and adjusted herself on her wall perch. “Explain. From what I’ve seen, you're calculating and efficient. You took charge of the man hunt quick and easy… even if I didn’t like it. You’ve remained calm and cool while things are falling around you. Sometimes literally. Don’t think I didn’t notice that you sent the whole Shadow Saber lance tailing me.”
Architallis looked abashed as he said, “Apologies for that.”
Vex shrugged. “You helped later. So on that mark, at least, we are even. But you talked about atoning. Does that mean you’re working toward mending those mistakes of yours?”
Architallis shook his head again, this time with a bit more energy. “There is no undoing what crimes I have already committed. I promised to my wife before she passed that I would first and foremost take care of myself. After that, I would aid others where I could. I might be a man of science and analytics, but that does not mean I am devoid of a heart and soul. I simply am not skilled at expressing myself.”
Vex covered her mouth with one hand as she gave an amused snort. “You're damn right about that. You’ve been such a confusing mess to me,” she waved off her own comment. “Since you shared your explanation of your shadow, it's only fair I do the same.” Vex pushed off from the wall and picked up a gadget at random from the floor.
“I would not fiddle with that unless you want a face full of pepper spray, similar to your brother earlier,” Architallis said with a nervous smile.
Vex traded a look between the device and the Alchemyst before abruptly setting the thing down and wiping her hands on her armor. “Well, as I was sayin’. What that shadow showed was not my proudest moment. The slither-spined lady you saw me picking apart was part of the Gilded Rose. She’d killed a girl.” Vex rubbed her upper arm with one hand as if she were cold, her gaze locked on the floor. “A girl I was pretty close with. She was like a little sis to me. Always looked up to me. Asked me questions. Followed me around like a lost pup.” Vex found herself wearing a sad smile as she remembered how Cillina used to act around her. “She was a sweet girl. Always loved to smile and laughed lots.” The same smile turned bitter as Vex remembered the sight of Cillina’s corpse, lying on her bed, bruises around her throat from a pair of slender but strong hands. Reesa had always enjoyed picking on the poor girl. The awful woman would always mock the girl for small things. She even occasionally tried to get physical, but any time Vex was there, she put an end to it. Cillina had only just gotten her Adventurer class the week before she died. The young Warrior grew a spine despite not even having sparred with a weapon. Reesa had been visibly irritated that Cillina was taking no dreck anymore. Of course, something would happen.
“The bitch had killed the Cillina because my little sis was done taking dreck from a bully. But that bully didn’t want to give up the same without one final big win in her book.” Vex spat onto the carpet at the thought of Reesa. “But I made sure her games were done. For good.”
Architallis gave an understanding nod. “See, that was all I needed. It seems clear to me that you have a potent case of Paladin Syndrome.”
“What?” Vex asked in confusion.
“An over-defined moral compass defined by a compulsion to act on behalf of others,” Archi explained with a casual roll of one hand. “You see wrong being done, and jump into action with little thought. But I take it this is the reason you are fleeing from the Order of the Gilded Rose.”
“Yeah,” Vex said, sounding drained of energy. She really needed sleep. Some thought was itching at the corner of her mind. Something she should think about and act on. But Vex’s brain was little more than goo. “I think I need to call it for the night,” Vex said as she turned for the door. She paused and turned back to point a finger at Architallis. “We good? No more drugging?”
Archi gave a raised sign of confirmation with one hand, a circled forefinger and thumb. “I vow to behave so long as you do.”
“That doesn’t inspire confidence,” Vex muttered. “But I’m done for tonight.” She opened the door and gave a half-hearted wave back. “Don’t wake me unless it's an emergency.”
