Chapter 56: Ch. 55 – Never Forget to Lock the Back Door!

“[Polymorph - Tree Stump]!” Momo cried out as she plummeted towards the platform. She felt the same terrible sensation of her limbs being contorted into bark. It was quickly replaced by a more terrible sensation, however, as she crash landed into the stone flooring. The stump hit the platform at an odd angle, sending a shockwave of pain up Momo’s spine.

Still – she was alive. And so was Dusk, telling by the sensation of skeletal paws clawed into the top of her. There was also a throbbing pain at the base of the stump, a long crack in the bark, but it was survivable. Most importantly, she was out of view. The explosion of dark, Nether ash had momentarily hidden her from sight.

“There’s no way she survived that kind of fall,” Pol announced, and Momo breathed a sigh of relief. They either hadn’t heard her cast Tree Stump, or had assumed she’d die regardless. “We must retrieve the pocket watch immediately. Alert all of your men. Make sure the Hall is surrounded. If the prisoner escapes, Nam’Dal itself is in imminent danger of destruction.”

The entire city? In Imminent danger of destruction? Momo gulped. Either the chained woman somehow grabbed the pocketwatch herself, or someone else had done it while Gunther wasn’t looking. From the look of those chains, she doubted it was the doing of the prisoner herself.

She didn’t have time to wonder. She immediately cast [Demorph], and groaned as her limbs expanded to their normal size and shape. A long, nasty cut ran up her leg, at the same place that the stump had suffered a crack in the wood. It was bleeding heavily. As she stumbled forward, she started to feel lightheaded.

I need something to stop the bleeding, she thought uselessly. She looked around, but the platform was empty. Looking down at her own tattered robes, she had an idea.

“Dusk,” she whispered painfully. “Claw off a long strip of my robes.”

The cat quickly obliged, sensing Momo’s weakness. It cut into the robe like scissors, a long stretch of blue fabric falling to the ground. Momo picked it up, tying a makeshift tourniquet around the deepest part of the cut. The robe was luckily made of thick, sturdy fabric. She was grateful she had gotten it from Bruda, and not some cheap shop out of Kalendale.

It wasn’t perfect, but she could walk. She hobbled as quickly as she could towards the attached corridor, the knights’ attention diverted. They didn’t seem to notice her as she slipped out of sight, towards the Judgement Room. It was thankfully a quick walk, and the door was very obvious: a large, golden, ornate entranceway. It was cracked the slightest bit open. Someone had recently entered it.

Momo’s eyes widened. Is that where Vivienne went? Maybe the Con Artists had managed to catch her without Momo’s help at all. As she inched towards the door, she heard slight chatter behind it; she recognized the two female voices immediately.

“She’s a good luck charm, all right,” Nia laughed. “More like a good luck bomb, actually. You put her somewhere, add a little ammunition, you can bet all your coin the place will go up in flames.”

“Bomb is right. She blew my back out with that whole mage tower incident,” Vivienne grumbled. “Hell, the girl likes being locked up. Why did she have to make me chase her? I was just going to put her back in prison like she wanted.”

Momo’s heart raced. Nia had betrayed them. Just like she suspected – Vivienne and her were connected somehow, and clearly on better terms than she let on. She feared the worst for the Con Artists. If she opened that door, would she find them…?

“Gods, my head hurts like I got hit by a four-hundred pound hammer,” Teddy groaned. “You didn’t have to slap us around like that. I woulda’ stepped in the cage out of my own volition!”

Momo blinked. Teddy was alive. And the us suggested the others were too. Had they known about the plan as well? Was everyone in on it but her?

She was about to be really pissed if so. She hated being left out of things.

She weighed opening the door. There was a chance that she was still running into a very obvious trap, but the alternative didn’t look so good either. With the chained woman missing, the entire Hall would be surrounded. The knights would also be running to her location at that very moment. Finding that she was not dead, they’d hastily make it so she was.

Walking headfirst into the trap it is.

She pushed the door open, and it creaked as the entire room was revealed. At the center of the large, ornately decorated room, stood Vivienne and Nia. Off to the right, the Con Artists were stuffed in one of the cages used for the other criminals, mana-depleting handcuffs around their wrists. They looked bruised and annoyed, but certainly alive.

Nia whipped around, and Momo’s eye immediately went to the device in her hand – the pocketwatch. Her and Vivienne's feet had been previously obscuring the figure sitting in front of them, but when Nia turned, Momo could see the chained woman.

Momo gasped. It had been Nia to steal the pocketwatch. Of course. Momo knew Nia moved fast, but it made sense that the woman could also move invisibly. It was no coincidence that she had been able to sneak up on Momo so many times, even with her [Cheese Vision]. She was part-phantom.

“Momo,” Nia grinned. “It’s great to see you.”

“I –” Momo stuttered, unable to process what she was seeing.

“Took long enough,” Radu coughed in the corner. He sounded exhausted. His body was visibly caved in, as if he’d been struck by a huge spoon. Despite his injuries, he seemed genuinely relieved to see her.

“I had my hands full out there,” Momo mumbled in response. “I feel that I should mention that I have no idea what’s going on. Am I going to die now?”

“Yet to be seen,” Nia shrugged, and Momo was uncomfortable with the fact that she could not discern if it was sarcasm or not.

“I am so confused,” Momo said, grasping her head with both hands.

“Fairly so,” Vivienne said, not sharing her conspirator’s warm smile. She still seemed upset about the whole mage tower incident. “Nia did a good job keeping you in the dark. She’s terrible like that.”

“I am,” Nia grinned. “But you have served us so well, Momo. You deserve an explanation.”

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Served? Momo’s head was swimming. She thought she had been drowning in information before, but that had only been a kiddy pool compared to the reality that was facing her now. She was looking at a certified information tsunami: her singular ‘friend’ was locked in a cage, suffering grave injuries, an assassin and her holy nemesis were talking like old comrades, and most gravely of all, an alleged city-ending witch was sitting in the middle of it all, silent as a lamb.

The Great Nap was calling again. Either that, or Momo was losing so much blood that she was about to faint.

“I think I’m bleeding out,” Momo said breathily. “Could you repay me by making sure I don’t die, if that isn't too much to ask?”

Nia’s eyebrows rose as she looked at the long cut on Momo’s leg.

“Oh, poor thing,” she frowned. “Vivienne, do your weird magic.”

“Weird? You’re one to talk. You just spit dark fumes everywhere and go invisible.”

“You’re the one who can summon dogs made of fire.”

“So that was your dog!” Momo gaped. “You tried to kill me.”

“Not kill,” Vivienne clarified. “Just encourage.”

“Encourage?”

“Sure. Encourage you to make a huge mess, as you love to do, and distract Pol and the rest of them,” Vivienne explained as she stepped closer, reaching her hand down to touch Momo’s leg. Normally, Momo would be mildly flattered – but she wasn’t exactly the hugest fan of this particular woman.

“[Healing Touch],” Vivienne cast, pleasant light radiating from her palms. Momo took back her hateful thoughts in an instant. That felt wonderful. She watched as the wound visibly closed, zipping up like a hoodie. The thumping pain gave way to a pleasant, aloe vera like sensation.

“I need to learn that skill,” Momo said, her mind clearing like a sunset after a storm.

“I fear you can’t,” Vivienne rolled her eyes. “No necromancer could.”

“Well not with that mindset,” Momo mumbled.

“Exactly, Vivienne,” Nia grinned. “Don’t underestimate our little firecracker.”

“Oh, I’m not. I’ve seen what kind of destructive power she has in that tiny body,” Vivienne returned to Nia’s side, putting her hand on her hip. “I simply can’t imagine it being used for healing.”

“Oh gods, I’ve heard quite enough of this,” Teddy moaned from the cage. “What is your endgame? Here I thought you whacked us over the head and caged us up so you could turn us in with the rest of the criminals. Get some kind of cut of a deal with Vivienne. But you don’t seem to be doing much but talkin’ and whisperin’. Not to mention this poor chained up lass you floated into the place…”

Teddy gestured to the woman who remained on the floor, mute and unmoving. Up close, Momo could slightly make out her face. It was shielded underneath a black hood, and bandaged up to the nose. All that was visible were her pupils. Two piercing blue eyes looked back at Momo. Momo hiccupped in fear, quickly averting her gaze.

“Ugh, men,” Nia rolled her eyes. “All you ever do is complain. Be patient. Good plans take time. This is why you haven’t reached Expert.”

“Why I oughta,” Teddy scowled, gripping the bars of the cage. “That mouth a’ yours –”

“[Charm],” Nia flicked her fingers, and Teddy immediately fell to his knees, eyes gone absent. Nia really enjoys Charm-ing anyone she doesn’t feel like talking to anymore, Momo observed. She envied the spell greatly. If Momo had the mana, she’d probably use it on every person who tried to talk to her.

“The man has a point, Nia,” Vivienne grimaced. “We can’t wait around all day. We have to get the chains off of her soon, before Pol finds out I’ve betrayed them. The magic seal on the Judgement Room is powerful, but he can dispel it – eventually.”

“What? Magic seal? But I just walked on in here,” Momo blinked.

“Through the back door, yes,” Vivienne said, and then trailed off. “Shit. I forgot to seal the back door.”

—

“Lord Gunther, I see her!”

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