Emancipation

episode 15

While Beaoul was invisible to basically everyone else in the square Raen easily saw the female hellhound running ahead of her. Raen followed her as closely as she could. The speed she managed to run surprised her. Maybe it was true that Raen was something more than an ordinary human. Raen glanced back to see Mira Black in pursuit. The literal Queen of Darkness moved at a respectable ground-eating pace while still maintaining the illusion of effortless pursuit. When Raen turned her attention back to Beaoul, she nearly missed the hellhound taking a turn down an alleyway. Raen wanted to yell no. It was a blind alley. It ended in a large locked door that hadn’t been opened in decades.

Raen put on the speed and soon caught up to Beaoul. Nearly breathless, Raen exploded at the hellhound, “Great! You led us down a blind alley!”

“Oh, shut up, I know what I am doing!” Beaoul stopped in front of the door and sniffed at the lock. “I have a key on a necklace around my neck, take it and use it to unlock this door!”

Raen took the key from Beaoul, “Why don’t you? I thought you could do anything I can!”

“I have paws, no thumbs. I would usually use my telekinesis, but that dart Mira gave you to use on me blocked almost all of my abilities!”

Raen hesitantly trusted Beaoul. What choice did she have? She took the key and inserted it in the door’s lock. Shockingly the key turned. Raen tentatively turned the knob and pushed the door open. The light on the other side was blinding. “Come on, she’s right behind us. If we don’t get this portal closed she’ll be able to follow us!” Beaoul growled. She stalked through the door past Raen, the scraping of her claws on the cobblestone fell silent as she stepped through the portal to something.

Raen hesitated to follow the hellhound. After all Beaoul had been Mira’s servant most of her life. The truth was that Beaoul had never chosen to follow Mira, and she had run away from the Queen of Darkness on her own.

Raen sighed, pulled the key from the lock, and ran through the portal. Blinded by the light of their destination, Raen could only hear the sound of Beaoul slamming the door closed behind her, closing the portal between Tradehub and this new dimension of reality abruptly. “About time, I could see her coming. She almost had us!”

Raen blinked against the brightness after the darkness they had come from. Her eyes watered and then cleared. They stood in a space of infinite whiteness. It extended in every direction from their position, even above and below. There was nothing she could detect supporting them where they stood. Raen took in the openness and felt her head spinning. She was incredibly dizzy. Motion sickness that she had never experienced before left her losing her nut loaf onto the surface where they stood. She was too busy falling to her knees to find the way the surface absorbed her vomit entertaining.

“Are you okay?”

“Where are we?” Raen held her head, she felt perilously close to passing out.

“A middle of everywhen, it is a living bubble of space-time separate from the regular universe outside. We’re safe here,” Beaoul sheathed her claws and put a steadying paw on Raen’s back.

Raen wondered at the hellhound’s definition of “safe.” “I feel like I’m going to pass out!”

“I should have warned you. In stepping through that portal you stepped from a moving object, into a completely still place. This place doesn’t revolve around poles or orbit anything. As a psychically sensitive person, you can sense that and…” The rest of Beaoul’s explanation trailed off as Raen finally passed out.

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

Ferguson flipped through her paper message slips. The only interesting one was marked urgent from Raen Davis, "Ferguson, I am investigating a shady situation, and if you don't hear from me to start an investigation." Ferguson checked the date stamp. It was from several days ago. Ferguson searched her memories. She hadn't seen or heard from Raen in much longer than that. She wondered what Raen was investigating. Leave it to Raen to find trouble.

Ferguson logged into the Baerd Guild database and scan on Raen's digital activities. She had probably sent the message and forgotten to get back to Ferguson. That was when the search got weird. The database gave a short error message, "No entry found." That couldn't be right, Raen was a prominent guild member. Ferguson used a back door trick to scan each of the other guilds with which Raen was affiliated. Again varying error messages that amounted to, "No entry found."

Ferguson got up from her desk and decided to follow the message slip to its origin. According to the origin markings, the message was dropped off at the front desk and Maleus Farkin was responsible for taking it down. Ferguson spent a few minutes tracking Maleus down.

"Guildsmen Farkin?" Ferguson tapped him on the shoulder as he bent over a sandwich.

"Yes, why are you interrupting my lunch break! Oh, I apologize Journeywoman Ferguson."

"I just received a message slip from five days ago, and it marks you as the one who took it down," Ferguson handed the slip to Farkin.

"Yeah, that is my stamp but I don't remember this message. Who is Raen Davis?"

"You know, the woman who saved Jayden Baerd from the silver striped serpent, and located the Basuram shipment that Totchky misplaced."

"I remember that shipment, but for the life of me, I can't remember the name of the member that found it."

Ferguson scoffed, "Come on man! Basuram! You really don't think you should remember this?"

"Probably, I just don't." He went back to eating. Ferguson held her hand out for the slip. Farkin noticed after a while.

"What?"

"My message slip?"

"What message slip?"

"That paper tucked beside your sandwich wrapper."

Farkin plucked the slip from beneath his greasy sandwich wrapper with greasy fingers. He shrugged and handed it to her. The message was smeared beyond recognition. Ferguson sighed. She spent the rest of the afternoon questioning people she knew should know Raen. None of them could recall her in the least.

Ferguson went to the streets, she had met more than a few of Raen's friends and pseudo-family from her time on the streets and she knew they had a vested interest in remembering Raen's kindnesses. The trouble was she couldn't find them now. Word was that a lot of the street kids had died from some mysterious illness passing through the poorer sections of the city. It was particularly devastating and killed everyone infected. Word had been spreading to even the affluent portions of the city.

Ferguson was about ready to give up when she remembered Raen's relationship with Master Honor Baggood of the Apothecary Guild. Ferguson made her way to the shop he managed, only to find it closed due to quarantine. Despite the quarantine, a crowd had gathered outside. Ferguson recognized one of the shop's apprentices talking to a stranger dressed in a dark gray suit. The man in the suit laid a hand on the side of the apprentice's head and then walked away. It seemed odd.

"Hey Jobbie, have you seen Raen?" Ferguson asked the apprentice.

Jobbie, shook his head to clear it, "Who?"

"You know, Raen. Raen Davis?"

"Nope."

That is when the man he had been talking to walked up to Ferguson, "Miss, I hear you seem to be looking for someone, perhaps I can help you."

Ferguson looked the man over. He was particularly hairy and smelled of trouble, "No thanks."

He attempted to place his hand on the side of her head. She dodged him. He growled like an animal which caused her to look back in his direction. The moment she faced him he sprayed her in the face with a foul-smelling aerosol can. "What in the heck!" The man disappeared into the crowd before Ferguson could react. She swatted away the smell. This had been her last lead on what she could do to find Raen. Ferguson headed back towards the Baerd Guild Hall. By the time she reached the complex, she wasn't feeling well. She decided to head to her apartment and attack things again in the morning.

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

Beaoul