Chapter 2
The Hunted Comes to the Hunters
Vigau, Arielle, Bonaventure
Inspector Andress stared at the list of members of the Phoenix Guild. Why did he keep returning to the ones who were missing and presumed dead? Two names in particular nagged at him. Barz Falkner and Kamellia Reis. But why?
For some reason, he felt it had something to do with Giger Taus. Things had been off ever since he followed up on that tip about the fugitive lycéennes. It seemed so perfect, the chance to scoop up the fugitives and Giger Taus all in one sack, but the cottage was abandoned and the Inspector's team was attacked by some lunatic on the loose. They were left in such a humiliating state that he did not think he could ever live it down.
The most logical conclusion was that when the informer Henrietta Gamble went missing from their group, the fugitives figured they had been compromised and quickly cleared out before the Inspector could send patrolmen to keep an eye on the place. The trail had gone cold. There were times when he thought about going back to check for any clues he might have missed, but every time the thought entered his head, it was like there was an unseen hand pushing him away from pursuing it further.
He considered coming up with an excuse to get the building condemned and demolished just to spite the man who slipped through his grasp. The landlady would not be happy about it, but the city could compensate her for her loss.
He shook his head. Abusing his power to settle a petty grudge? That was not the standard he held himself to. What had happened to him? It would seem his failure in the Grimalkin Incident drove him further from his ideals than he would like to admit.
The Phoenix Guild, or at least the members who could be found within the Inspector's jurisdiction, were mostly in hand, save for a few exceptions. It was time to expand operations to round up everyone else who had any magic potential as well as any suspected Cast-offs. There was little other option than to go door-to-door. The Inspector was going to have to deputize at least as many people as he had for Operation Wasp's Sting, probably more.
They were going to have to brace themselves for a difficult fight. It was one thing to arrest known mages and lunatics who appeared out of nowhere, but when the Witch-hunters started arresting people left and right for merely having the potential for magic, especially when a lot of them would have been born after the Vigau Incident, people were going to resist. Violently.
Their only hope was to strike quickly and be thorough about it before people could organize. Of course, even if they were able to complete their sweep, that did not mean people would meekly give up on their friends and family. It would take the Army to quell any uprising, but there were not nearly enough soldiers to pacify the entire county, and the many of the soldiers were bound to have people close to them who were caught up in the net. They could very well be looking at open revolt, and if the mages were to take advantage of the situation...
Speak of the devil...
The door opened and in walked two men. One was tall, with black hair and glasses, and the other was quite possibly the last face Inspector Andress wanted to see in all the world.
"Giger Taus!"
The Inspector immediately drew his revolver. He was not going to take any chances.
"Hands up!" he shouted.
The two men complied with the order, but as the tall man was raising his hand, he flicked his fingers and when he did, the Inspector's revolver began to glow red. He did not even get the chance to drop it due to the heat when the bullets in the chamber cooked off, causing the revolver to explode. The Inspector was so taken by surprise that his cry of pain was rather understated. Had he been properly steadying his aim, he would have been left with two mangled hands instead of one.
"Unless you gentlemen want the same, you'll be the ones putting up your hands," the tall man said to the other officers in the room.
No one tested their luck, either out of sheer animal instinct or because they knew that a mage who could cast a spell without a magic circle, incantation or focus was in a whole other class from anything they had ever dealt with before.
"I see you don't have Master Turco with you this time," the tall man said.
"This time?" the Inspector asked through gritted teeth. "Have we met?"
"In a different time and a different shape, yes," the tall man replied, "but you wouldn't remember anything about that. However, I'm not here to reminisce with you, Inspector Andress. I'm here to put an end to your witch hunt."
"There are four Witch-hunters in this room to the two of you," the Inspector said, knowing full well that the odds were still not in his favor.
The tall man seemed quite aware of his advantage as he was thoroughly unfazed by the Inspector's threat.
"It only took one to best four of you, which, by the way, I forgot to thank you for that."
The tall man flicked his finger and the Inspector's knee burst apart, as if someone had shot him with an elephant gun.
"Mordekai!" Giger Taus shouted. "What the hell happened to no killing!?"
"He's not dead, Giger," the tall man replied.
The Inspector was writhing on the floor, struggling to not make too much of a shameful display of himself. He quickly realized that not looking at the leg that was just barely still held together was an important part of achieving that goal.
"Mordekai..." the Inspector groaned. "Mordekai... Grummond... You... You're supposed to be dead..."
"I got better," Mordekai Grummond replied.
With a sweep of his arm, the hands of the other Witch-hunters were instantly encased in what looked like blocks of ice. He then approached the Inspector and crouched down beside him.
"I suppose it's not fair of me to punish you for a crime you don't even remember committing."
He snapped the string around the Inspector's wrist and the memories suddenly came flooding back. The raid on Giger Taus' cottage, Kamellia Reis, the shootout, the blood, Inspector Coriolis' betrayal, gathering in a circle and the blank that followed...
"I... I knew something was wrong..."
"Memory manipulation spells are never perfect," Mordekai Grummond said, "but it bought Kamellia and those girls some time. I'm glad I came back when I did.
"And now, we're going to have a little talk. You're going to tell me where you sent all the mages and Ancients you arrested."
"Ancients?"
Mordekai Grummond glanced over his shoulder and asked, "Giger, what was the name they used?"
"Cast-offs, I think," Giger Taus replied.
Mordekai Grummond looked back to the Inspector and said, "Cast-offs. Where did you send the Cast-offs?"
"Why... should I tell you?"
"If you don't want to spend the rest of your days as an invalid, you'll tell me what I want to know. My powers are not entirely destructive, you know. I can give just as easily as I can take. The information will cost you an arm and a leg, or rather, it will gain you an arm and a leg."
"I would die before I tell you anything."
"That can be arranged," Mordekai Grummond replied. "The Ministry has declared war on our kind and those of you who execute their orders are their soldiers. Tell me, Inspector, what do you do to an enemy soldier in war?"
"Mordekai, you said we weren't killing anyone," Giger Taus said.
It would figure that a petty criminal like Giger Taus would lack the resolve to go all the way, the Inspector thought. It added to the contempt the Inspector had for the man. At least this Mordekai Grummond had the unbending faith in his convictions to make him a worthy adversary.
"ARCANUM will destroy you," the Inspector vowed.
"I think not," Mordekai Grummond said. "I'll be taking the war to them soon enough. Last chance, Inspector. Tell me what I want to know."
"You can go to hell."
"I may take up business there when I'm done sorting out this hell on earth. For now, though, you're going to give me that information."
"I said you can go to hell."
"You seem to be mistaking something. I wasn't asking."
Mordekai Grummond seized the Inspector's skull and his voice seemed to change, like a hundred voices were speaking at once.
"Where are the mages you arrested?"
It felt like hot spikes pierced through the Inspector's skull and plunged into his brain. The pain was unimaginable. The voices compelled him to answer and mere human will was far too flimsy a thing to resist.
"ARCANUM has a facility outside of Belmondo... El-Kasamar... The mages are all being sent there..."
"And the Ancients...the Cast-offs?"
"As per the orders of His Lordship the Count-Regent, the Cast-offs are to be sent to Ladrieu."
Mordekai Grummond pulled his hand away and everything went white as the Inspector was freed from the pain. He felt like he was floating. Not only could he no longer feel the pain in his head, but also the pain in his hand and leg were gone. In fact, he could not feel much of anything other than the sensation of floating and perhaps a slight chill.
Although it probably could not be said that he was even capable of thought as people reckon the function of a rational human brain, the Inspector nevertheless thought he heard a voice saying, "Ladrieu... That's closer, so we'll start there."
If the Inspector was capable of thinking about things further, he might have thought, God help the people of Ladrieu.