“What in hades was that?” Liszt spat, still deeply unsettled.
“I don’t know. But whatever it is, we need to make sure the others are alright.” Asmo muttered, nervously.
“Ugh, do you think they took their fight outside…” Liszt bemoaned.
The two looked at each other and laughed. “Okay, stupid thought,” Liszt chortled. “There’s no way they’d be that responsible.”
Liszt pulled a candle off the wall. It was electric, but it was still better than nothing. Asmo yanked the old penlight off his belt and the two made their way slowly back to the main foyer, moving back to back and scanning their surroundings.
As they approached the west wing, they ran into Nyx, also brandishing a torch.
“Whatever it is woke me up.” Her voice dropped to a guttural grain. “And I don’t like being woken up before I’m good and ready.”
“Oh great, Nyx is doing the voice again,” Asmo said with a sigh. “Good thing we found her before she tracked it down herself. Don’t need a repeat of the time the Joy bunny stable broke.
The three of them ran into Lili and Vie, both deeply concerned.
“W-what are we supposed to do? Basil is out late tonight!” Lili groaned nervously.
“It’s simple. We kill the intruder,” Nyx spoke, cutting through the silence of the hall.
There was the audible sound of Nyx racking a handgun. And the rest of the children turned to her horrified.
“Too much?” Nyx asked softly, in her usual voice, while brandishing a large blued-steel hand cannon.
“yes, very much so.” The others replied flatly, and in unison.
“We JUST had a family meeting about collateral damage yesterday. How about we DON’T use things that can penetrate walls and hit whatevers behind them. You know. Just a thought,” Liszt answered pragmatically.
“I like guns as much as the next person, but all I'm saying is maybe it’s just Basil doing some work in the backyard, or something. You never know. And I kinda like some of the things we own, and would rather not accidentally put AP rounds through walls and into vases and monitors. Again,” Liszt added, using the mom-voice.
She narrowed her eyes on her little sister. “Are we clear?”
Nyx holstered the firearm.“Okay, we do it the old fashioned way.” She reached out and pulled a fire axe off the wall, wringing her hands around it.
“Beats blind firing .45 AP I guess,” bemoaned Asmo. Instinctively rubbing the scar on his left calf. “Not that I’m holding a grudge about the last time or anything.”
“No one died and you learned to be more present when analyzing your surroundings,” Nyx said flatly, while gliding through the atrium to look for more improvised weapons. “Not my fault your reflexes are lacking.”
The other four of them fanned out, each scampering to find an improvised weapon. Reminding themselves that using real firearms, fireballs, or magical swords in their home at night against an unknown intruder was probably not the wisest idea.
Asmo picked up a fireplace poker from the nearest fireplace, and Liszt returned from the kitchen with a heavy cast iron pan.
They looked at each other and shrugged, seeing the practicality of brandishing iron.
“They’re gonna hate this.” Asmo chuckled.
“Yeah I know. That’s the point.” Liszt grinned back.
Lili grabbed a loose chunk of marble that had become dislodged during an earlier family skirmish, and put it in a thick wool sock, spinning it tightly. As they reconvened, Vie led the procession out back.
The Fey sisters hissed at the choice of iron weapons, but eventually agreed that it was probably still better than unloading stopping power in the general direction of the sound.
Upon reaching the grass and soil of the garden’s edge, Vie reached her hand out above the bare soil, and dramatically pulled a thick root out of the ground with a flourish. She molded it into a glave, and grasped it tightly.
The others glanced at the sight for a moment before returning to their tracking state.
Vie found herself more than a little disappointed by the crowd’s lack of reaction in the majesty of her abilities.
Noticing her pout, Asmo clapped politely.
“Much obliged,” Vie muttered dejectedly. Well I thought it looked cool, She thought to herself.
Each of them clipped a floodlight to their chests and they began sweeping the garden.
“So what do we do if we spot… whatever it is?” Asmo asked, glancing around the dark landing.
“Plan 1A4,” Vie announced loudly.
“Hit it until it stops moving?” Liszt asked, concernedly.
“Okay fine. Plan 2A4.5,” Vie groaned.
“Cool, good thing I always carry a paracord!” Asmo chimed in.
They heard a crash to their left and spun around, blinding… something?
“What in the-?” Vie asked, squinting her eyes to see through the floodlights.
To their surprise the noise was a young Lamiae child tearing through the garden. The child looked newborn, and was tearing through the plot blindly while screeching.
“So, i’m going to kill that little-” Nyx started, her skin glowing violently. She shouldered the fire axe and began practicing her windup.
“OR, or we could reason with it!” Liszt said, waving her arms to get Nyx’s attention.
“I got this!” Lili yelled, bounding at the child on all fours.
To her surprise, the infant outmaneuvered her, leaping out of reach, and causing Lili to fall face first into mud.
“Okay, now I’M GOING TO KILL THAT THING!” She snarled.
"What happened to non-violent-" Asmodeus was cut off but a flying dropkick to the face, and the young wolf was knocked backwards into a planter.Vie cut the small daemon child off, and grabbed him by the leg, but was met with a pair fangs into her arm. She yelped as the beast ran off.
Vie struggled to calm the child down, and despite its violence, she couldn’t help but sympathize with it. Small, helpless and tearing at anything in its path.
In his attempts to flee, the child bounced off the barrier startled. The confusion was just enough for Lili to wrap her arms around him, and pull him in for a tight hug. The siblings breathed a sigh of relief. They were bruised and muddied, but the beastie had been wrangled.
As Vie looked down from the overlook and into the woods, she saw a young Fey woman. The figure was wrethed in a cloak of indigo and violet, and she bowed to Vie before slipping back into the shadows. As Vie looked upon her siblings, she felt her throat drop to her stomach. Because for the first time in 17 years, someone had thrown a wrench into her plans.
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