Between

Episode 21

Episode 21

Trixie clip-clopped along the hallways of Spearhead, the castle at the peak of Upper Shard. The place was an Escheresque nightmare with twisting sideways halls and levels that alternated their ceilings and floors. Such had not always been the case. Prior to the current Overseer's reign, it had been much more accessible, but the mad little ball of fur was less interested in usability and more interested in defense. There were certain roles that, if left unfulfilled, would cripple Shard. The absolute most valuable individuals of them all were the spotters.

Spotters were mystics with the gift or training to detect objects and creatures at a distance. A spotter worth his, her, or its salt could detect the arrival of a newcomer to The Between within moments of him or her slipping through to the dimension. An accurate spotter combined with a fast fetcher was the difference between gaining a powerful recruit for Shard or losing it to their rivals in Heartcore. The best of them were pampered like gods. Of course, all the reverence and luxury came at a price. A rival illusionist with enough strength or proper timing might conjure a false appearance, a decoy intended to lure away a fetcher on a wild goose chase. Such a mistake could be ruinous for Shard, and thus those taken in by a deceptive decoy were... encouraged not to make the same mistake twice.

Trixie finally reached a small round door in one wall. It was a curious thing, a hatch three feet in diameter that was mounted in the center of a mostly bricked up doorway. In lieu of a standard handle, it had a lever with a perpendicular handle that looked a bit like a perch. Without so much as a knock, Trixie pushed down the lever and crouched through the doorway.

The room was certainly not the sort that any human would choose to live in. The only furniture came in the form of stout, swinging rings hanging from the ceiling. Hooks lined the walls and were adorned with assorted necklaces and pendants, and prominent in the center of the room was a circular mirror that stretched nearly from ceiling to floor. It was mounted in a brass jewel-encrusted frame and secured by four chains, two hanging it from the ceiling and two anchoring it to the floor.

"What possible reason could anyone have to enter my domicile without..." muttered a posh voice from behind the mirror.

A curious creature emerged with an awkward, strutting gait. It was three feet tall, covered in mottled gray-brown feathers, and had a face dominated by massive, motionless eyes and a small hooked beak. If not for its size it might have been an owl, and in keeping with standard mystical naming conventions, it had thus been dubbed a Great Owl. This one in particular was nursing a rather serious injury. One wing was entirely missing, and the other had been pinned down by a bandage tied in place to treat the first one.

"... Egad! Another damned fetcher! What more can you do to me, you blasted ruffians?! If I'd detected anything, I would have alerted the Overseer directly! And it has been made quite clear that I'm not to alert him to things I'm not certain are there, so if you've heard nothing, that it's because there is nothing," he said, the feathers around his neck fluffing out in anger.

"Relax, Ovid. Relax. I'm not here on behalf of the Overseer," Trixie said.

"Well if you are not here on his behalf, then you have no business here at all."

"No business he needs to know about."

"Huff!" he said, hopping up into the ring. "I won't have any part of your underhanded dealings. Do you see what he's done to me?" He lowered his voice. "Or rather what he's had done to me. The scoundrel can't be bothered to mete out his own punishments."

"Yeah, yeah. Listen, I'm just going to ask you a few questions."

"I shan't answer them."

Trixie sighed and drew her hammer. "I tried to be nice, but you had to be difficult. I'm going to have to take that other wing now. And me without a knife." She pounded the hammer against her palm. "This is going to get messy."