Cold Breath

"A demon can't turn human without a Conduit," Caia said, perfectly affecting her bored voice even though Alan's words sent an unpleasant shiver down her spine. She strolled casually around the room, straining her ears for any delicate lingering noises. At first she heard nothing but the hushed voices of her companions. She sighed and pulled off her black gloves, pressing her fingertips to the walls in the hope of catching a vibration. She caught sight of her reflection in a splintered mirror on the wall. Her hair was pulled back in a messy bun; the decorative chopsticks stuck through it could double as needle sharp knives. Her skin looked especially pale from the cold, making her ruby lips stand out almost shockingly. She was bundled in a thick black coat whose collar and hood were lined with fur, as were the tops of her black knee-high boots. She looked like some sort of feral ice witch. She smiled at the thought.

Caia moved away from the others while Alan pored over scrolls and Adelita stood still, eyes closed and palms open toward the ceiling. As she walked, Caia started picking up on sounds. Excited, she opened her senses more to her Syrienne power. Now she could hear the heartbeats of the others, but she blocked them out. She moved swiftly up the hall, and realized she could hear voices. They were speaking in a language she did not know; an ancient demon language. It was guttural, harsh. Caia closed her eyes, concentrating. She could make out three voices. The demon, the summoner, and the Conduit, she assumed. They seemed to be arguing, but it was hard to tell. She hit a wall and opened her eyes. She pushed open the door she had come to, and immediately recoiled. Screams battered her ears. Screams filled with pain and terror. Caia staggered, but shoved into the room anyway. The screams were old, the lingering death wails of the family who lived here.

But why were they in this room and not where the bodies were? Caia stopped short, heart pounding. Because the souls were trapped here. Trapped inside the large symbol painted on the floor in dried blood. Caia could see them dying now, reliving their savage murders over and over.

"Jervan!" Caia shouted. Only she could hear the screams, lucky her. "Jervan, now!" Caia covered her ears, and pulled her hands away covered in blood. She couldn't stand much more of this. She had never heard anything like this before. She raced to the circle and knelt beside it. She watched an icicle pierce a small girl through the stomach, blood blossoming. Frost spread out from the wound, freezing her slowly from the inside out. "No you don't you son of a bitch," Caia said through gritted teeth. She tried to remember the incantation to shatter a binding spell like this. Her father had taught her as much as he could, wanting her to be prepared for the evils of the world. But the screaming interrupted her focus, and she knew she forgot some of the words. She was dimly aware that the others had arrived, but she was out of patience.

She slapped her hand into the blood, breaking the circle. It was effective, but highly dangerous. A black shadow rippled up from the floor, winding like a snake. But Caia was just relieved that the screaming had stopped. The family's souls blurred, and disappeared in a gentle wisp of light. The shadow moved, pouncing on Caia's chest. She heard Jervan and Alan shouting frantically; Alan a spell and Jervan her name. The shadow tore through her jacket, then reared back with a hiss of pain. Smoke rolled up from the silver pendant around Caia's neck.

"Not so tasty now am I, motherfucker?" She grabbed one of her chopsticks from her hair and stabbed the thing in the eye. It was corporeal enough for that to hurt it. It backed away, making a horrible, shrill noise.

"Get rid of it!" Caia snapped at the mage. She crawled away from the shadow on her butt. Alan finally finished his spell, and the shadow dissolved.

"Well it took you long enough." Caia stood, waving Jervan away when he tried to help. Caia's ears and head were throbbing.

"Are you all right?" Jervan asked.

"Yeah, Jervan. Blood is gushing from my ears, and a binding spell just came to life and tried to eat my heart. I'm fucking wonderful. How are you?"

"Why would the summoner keep their souls trapped here?" Tate asked.

"Power," Alan replied. "Astral energy is quite potent. The summoner probably continued absorbing strength, in a smaller dose, by the family reliving the murders again, even in spirit form."

"Great, then we can expect this at every other murder site too." Caia shook her head, then immediately stopped as nausea rolled over her. Her head felt split in two.

"I'll send word to the Conclave to have mages sent to all the homes to undo the circles. It was incredibly reckless of you to physically break this one." He shot Caia a look.

"Well it worked, didn't it? What was I supposed to do, let my eardrums explode while your 'elite team' took their sweet time breaking it?" She scowled and headed for the door. "By the way, your demon, summoner, and Conduit were all here."

"She's right," Adelita said. "I could sense the presence of three. It was hard to make out much; they cloaked their magic extremely well. The easiest to make out was the Conduit, who was human, and female." She looked apologetic. "I'm afraid I wasn't able to get anything but vague silhouettes of the others."

"That's extremely helpful information," Jervan said reassuringly. Caia didn't hear her response because she slammed the door and stalked up the hallway, muttering curses. "It was incredibly reckless of you to physically break this one," she mimicked in a high-pitched voice. "Well it was reckless of you to bring along a team of useless-" She stopped short and glowered. The arachnid was still in the living room, studying the pattern on the floor. He looked up. "You're bleeding."

"Oh thank you ever so much for that brilliant observation. Did the Theurgians send you for your astounding power of stating the fucking obvious?"

"You're not well versed in people skills, are you?"

"You're not people," Caia shot back. "You're a bug, and I don't trust bugs."

"What did I ever do to you?" The arachnid's tone was light, but his eyes were hard.

"Consider it a hostility down payment for whatever shady thing you do in the future." Caia marched past him and knelt in the snow outside, pressing cold white powder against her aching ears.

"What happened?" Thaddeus came jogging across the yard. "You're bleeding."

Caia looked down at her bloody hands and pretended to be shocked. "Well daggummit, I am bleeding! Would you look at that!"

"If words could kill, Caia's would be razor sharp, poisoned darts," Jervan remarked as the others poured out onto the porch.

"And you'd all be dead," Caia added, standing. She swayed, dizzy. She sank back into the snow, pulling her hood up and lying on her back. "Just come get me in like, three years." She shut her eyes and ordered her roiling stomach to settle down. Now that her adrenaline was wearing off, the effects of her injury and the toll of breaking a binding circle were catching up to her.

"We have healers back at the outpost," Jervan said. "Someone can carry you if you can't walk."

"No one carries me," Caia growled. Despite the protests of her head and stomach, she climbed to her feet, faking a smile. "See? I feel fine." She tried to take a step and promptly fell on her face. "I did that on purpose," she said, through a mouth full of snow.

"Tate, assist me would you?" Caia was lifted up and found herself supported by Jervan and Tate.

"I can walk," she complained.

"You can crawl maybe," Tate said, smirking. Caia stepped on his foot. He yelped and glared at her.

"Whoops." She smiled sweetly, batting her eyelashes. "Clumsy me."

"This girl is impossible," Tate said to Jervan. Jervan barked a laugh. "You have no idea."



The healers finally released her, three excruciating hours later. They had fixed her battered ears with ease, but they wanted to check her for Taint; see if any of the demon summoner's spell had seeped into her when she broke the circle. They finally declared her clean, and Caia slipped away to her room to wash off the blood and change into clean clothes before making a beeline for the dining hall. Her damp hair hung loose around her, leaving little water droplets behind her as she walked.

"That's a serious slipping hazard," Tate remarked when she walked in. "Bite me, Metal Man." Caia sank into a chair, finding Hex already happily lapping away at a bowl of thick beef stew. "Are you a Hellcat or a Hellpig?" she asked. He yowled at her and went back to gorging himself.

"Feeling better, Caia?" Dash asked.

"Yeah you still look a little pale." Thaddeus snickered. Caia smiled. "Tell me, do you value that which makes you a man? Because I can make you dump that piping hot stew all over it."

He shut up. Satisfied, Caia dug into her own stew when it was placed before her. Jervan shook his head. "Kids, play nice."

"He started it." They managed to get through the rest of the meal in peace. Caia let her spoon clatter into the empty bowl. She wandered through the outpost, Hex hovering around her. She brightened when she found the library, which had a sleek, gleaming piano in front of the fireplace. Hex sat on top of it while Caia began to play an intricate ballad. She felt in better spirits as soon as her fingers touched the keys. When the final note was ringing through the air, she heard someone in the doorway. Turning, she found Alan, Dash, Tate and Briar all peering at her.

"Can I help you? Or is it just a shared hobby to go around spying on people?"

"Uh," Alan said, "Jervan wanted me to let everyone know that tomorrow we're leaving for Centrum Mundi."

Caia fought the urge to groan. It would take three days to reach the capital from here. She was going to be stuck in close quarters with these weirdos. Lovely. She rose from the piano bench and pushed past them into the hallway.

"Ever hear of saying excuse me?" Tate asked.

"Ever hear of getting out of the way?" The four of them followed her to the guest wing.

"Are you naturally so unpersonable, or do you have to work at it?" Tate stared at her incredulously.

"I'm all natural, Metal Man. Now your carefully mussed hair, on the other hand. How long does that take you in the morning?" She shot him a sugary smile and shut the door before he could reply.