To Rule In Shadow

"What's happening?!" Abby yelled over the sounds of the panicked crowd as they headed towards the exit.

Cornelius spared her a momentary glance, causing him to bowl over an emaciated man in monk's robes. The poor passerby was trying to drag along a crate that was nearly the same size as him, and didn't seem to be making any progress.

Her superior didn't bother to apologize to the monk, and simply resumed his pace once he was clear of the obstacle. "I've gotten word that and extremist faction of the Liberation Front might be making a move tonight, but it was supposed to a demonstration. Part of the reason we were assigned to attend was to ensure that it remained peaceful, or at least didn't involve the normies."

All traces of his gentlemanly persona had vanished, leaving behind the battle-hardened veteran she knew him to be.

"Why did we bring Adrian in, then? Wouldn't his presence cause more problems?" She asked while dodging around a fallen kiosk emblazoned with the tagline 'Save the Fae Realms! Help Us Stop the Uncontrolled Spoliation of these Pristine Natural Wonders.'

"Boss's orders. Besides, would you really want to leave someone that dangerous to his own devices?"

"Aren't we doing that right now?"

Cornelius ducked under a low flying sprite before answering, "No choice. That duel wasn't ending anytime soon, and they need us out there dealing with this situation ASAP. There's a charity event going on upstairs. If this building comes down, we're going to have a hell of a mess on our hands."

[We could have at least said something before vanishing. He probably thought we abandoned him.]

Their progress came to a crashing halt when they slammed into a large crowd of panicked convention guests that were apparently unable to push through to the exit. Judging from how quickly people started piling in behind them, Abby could tell that it was fixing to become a dangerous situation.

Cornelius pulled out a small vial, which she assumed contained one of his concoctions, drank it, and then grabbed her arm. "Come on. We need to find another way out."

He began pulling her through the crowd with his now chemically enhanced strength, making a path through it with brute force alone. They headed towards a back hallway that was thankfully clear.

Once there was no longer any need to drag her behind him, her superior let go, and proceeded to march through the deserted corridors like he knew where he was going.

Abby took one last look back at the milling crowd before following after. She hoped he knew what he was doing.

If not, this was going to become a tragedy.

---------------------------------

"A p.l.e.a.s.u.r.e doing business with you Mr. Maldris." Adrian called without looking. "If you need anything else in the future…well, you have my card."

The practitioner didn't bother to respond, breaking into a run as soon as the dueling ring deactivated. He appeared to be partially motivated by his concern for the rest of his order, but Adrian figured that there was a bit of fear pushing him to get away as fast as possible.

[Well, that takes care of that. Now, I just need to track down Alexander and get him to fulfill his end of the bargain, and I'll be done here.]

He glanced up at the ceiling as another distant rumble rolled through the building. [Then again, it might be better to simply grab my people and get out. I can always extract my payment at a later date.]

"Pavuk, do you have an idea of where the others I came here with are currently located?"

"One moment, my lord." His shadow murmured. As it did so, Adrian briefly noticed long, thin lines of darkness that seemed to extend from his silhouette in multiple directions like wires, or maybe threads. However, the image quickly vanished.

"The majority of your acquaintances are still upstairs in the ballroom. By all appearances, they are preparing to evacuate and will soon be able to reach safety. I have taken the liberty of contacting the limo driver and having him staged and ready to receive them."

Adrian nodded. "That's fine, but what do you mean about the majority of my acquaintances?"

"Miranda appears to be located somewhere on this floor, but my connection with her has been partially severed. As a result, I cannot get a clear picture of her position."

He paused to consider the implications. [Barring the highly unlikely situation where she infiltrated the convention on her own, if she's down here, that means someone from the Underworld has brought her. Considering my general lack of allies from that crowd, she's probably gotten kidnapped somehow. While it's possible this is unrelated, I suspect someone is planning on using her against me.]

For some reason, the thought rankled him a bit, so he took a moment to do some introspection. [While she knows a fair amount about my operation and identity, it's not enough to really harm me should she be interrogated. She's also not particularly crucial to my plans. It would be inconvenient to recruit and train her replacement, I suppose, but that's hardly a concerning matter. Why does this bother me?]

The answer finally came to him as he examined the small stone statue he'd acquired as part of his deal with Gavin. It was carved in the crude likeness of a spear-wielding warrior from an ancient time, edges worn smooth by the generations of Druids who'd handled it in the past. Regardless of its origins, it was something that he'd earned through his wits. Something that now belonged to him.

The thought of someone trying to take it caused dark emotions to rise within him. Ones he didn't think belonged to him alone.

Placing the statue into a pocket for safekeeping, Adrian addressed his shadow again. "Get me as close as you can."

---------------------------------------------

Miranda opened her eyes, and had to close them immediately as a spike of intense pain shot through her head. Once it had subsided, she opened them again cautiously to take stock of her surroundings.

By all appearances, she was in some kind of janitor's closet. There were shelves full of cleaning supplies, a mop bucket, complete with mop, and several types of brooms. In one corner was occupied by a filthy utility sink, and a single fluorescent light was humming overhead.

She was lying on her side with her hands tied behind her back. Based on the feel of the material, she assumed her kidnappers had used a zip tie. Beyond that, there was no other restraints in place.

[They tied my wrists rather than my thumbs, didn't keep me restrained to any permanent fixture, and didn't do anything about my feet. Unless they were pros in a serious hurry, my kidnappers must be amateurs who've seen a few too many action movies.]

She tried to recall what had gotten her into this situation, but only had hazy and fragmentary memories. The last thing she could remember was going into the women's restroom to put herself back together after Adrian's relative shattered any illusion of her having value in his family's eyes. It was far from the worst tongue-lashing she'd ever received, but coming from an unexpected person, one she'd been hoping to turn into an ally, the blow had been quite severe. It didn't help that Adrian had said nothing in her defense.

"Come on Miranda, pull yourself together." She'd told her reflection once she'd determined she was alone. "You can't show weakness in front of this crowd, or they'll eat you alive."

After a few deep breaths, she'd been in the middle of touching up her makeup when a group of men had burst into the room. They'd surrounded her before she really realized what was going on, tensed and ready to spring into action. She'd thought it kind of strange, once her mind had caught up to her situation, since there was little chance of her successfully getting away while wearing a dress and heels.

Something about their appearance had also bothered her, now that she thought about it. They were dressed in suits, and could have blended in with the other attendees of the charity ball, but something had been off about them. Some detail that had set them apart.

With a start, she realized what it was. Their eyes. They were all staring at her with blank, soulless gazes that made her question whether or not they were even alive.

One of them, who had taken up a position on her right pulled something out of his jacket. She looked over at him just in time to catch an impression of something cylindrical before there was a flash of light and everything went dark.

"F.u.c.k." She muttered under her breath. Although she couldn't be sure, the evidence suggested that she'd gotten caught up Adrian's supernatural shit again.

She rolled over onto her knees, stood up, and began scanning her surroundings for anything that might come in handy. As yet further evidence of her captor's inexperience, they'd obviously not thought to search the closet for sharp implements, and she was able to use a paint scr.a.p.er to cut her bonds after a few minutes of awkward maneuvering.

Her purse was nowhere to be seen, which meant that her cell phone was gone as well. It would have been nice to simply call up Adrian and play the damsel in distress, but it appeared she was on her own.

She assumed that her captors were holding her for some purpose, likely as a negotiating tool, which meant she was probably in no real danger until they started bargaining. Afterwards, it would depend on a number of unknown variables, but in the worst-case scenario they'd kill her anyway. Which meant that her best hope of avoiding a grisly fate was to escape on her own before the situation changed.

Now came the tricky part. Normally, there would be at least one guard stationed outside the room. She had the benefit of surprise, but seriously doubted that she could fight her way past a bunch of fully grown men, even in the unlikely event they were unarmed.

No, she needed to play this smart. Thankfully, her captors didn't know what they were doing, and they'd effectively given her everything she needed. All she had to do was prepare it.

"Brother Derek, how fares the prisoner?" Came the cracking voice over the radio as his employer checked in on him for the fourth time in the last hour.

Derek glanced back in the direction of the janitor's closest to confirm that his thralls were still guarding it. Three of the mind-controlled men were situated around the door in question, by all appearances having not moved a muscle since the last time he'd look.

"I'm not getting paid enough for this nonsense." The mercenary muttered as he picked up the radio. "Target's condition is unchanged. How much longer are we going to need? I don't want to still be sitting here when the building goes down."

"Although such a death would mean a glorious sacrifice in the name of our cause, I understand your apprehensions, brother. Fear not, the conclusion of our sacred quest is nigh. In due time we shall inform you of our success."

The mercenary had to suppress a sigh from the very depths of his soul. After a few seconds to calm himself, he was finally able to reply with a simple. "Acknowledged."

Setting the radio down again, he went back to scrolling through social media again while muttering to himself, "This is the last time I'm working for those fanatics. I don't care how well they pay."

It was about that time that he caught a whiff of something acrid.

[Ah, don't tell me the building caught on fire now. That's the last thing I…] He lost his train of thought when his captive started screaming from within the janitor's closet.

"Damn, the stunner must have worn off." Derek muttered while standing. He quickly commanded his thralls into action. "Well what are you standing around for? Get in there and stun her again!"

All three of them stared at him for a few moments, as the command sunk in, before finally moving to enter the closet. The one he'd given the stunner to pulled it out and prepared to follow in after the first two, once they'd cleared the path.

As soon as the first thrall walk through the door, Derek heard glass shatter. For a second, he thought the woman must have knocked over a bottle of something in her struggles, since neither of the other thralls seemed to respond any differently. However, that changed when he saw the last man to enter the door suddenly fall backwards. His mouth was open, gasping for air.

Before Derek had a chance to really comprehend what was going on, the captive woman burst out of the closet. She had a damp rag tied around her face, evidently to serve as a sort of rudimentary gas mask, and was holding the stunner in one hand. As soon as she caught sight of him, she pointed the cylindrical device in his direction and started fiddling with the controls, obviously unfamiliar with how it operated.

[If I can just get a little closer…]

"Now hold on there, missy. That's a dangerous item. You wouldn't want to do anything you'd reg-"

The rest of Derek's statement was cut off as the stunner activated in a flash of light.