 
Necrofairies 2

By

Shane Griffin

Smash Words Edition Published by Poupichou Press

Copyright Shane Griffin 2014

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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Table of Contents

Start

About the Author

Other Titles by this Author

#

Neen stood, frozen in place. An army of orcs, freshly raised from the dead, stood between her and escape. The stench of rotting flesh was bilious within the vast underground burial chamber. The cold chill of death enveloped her causing her extremities to go numb. Her breathing became laboured, rapid and shallow. It was as though the despair and torment from these twisted lost souls was sucking the life from her. She wanted to leap into the air and fly the hell out of there, but found her wings would not respond!

"Neen, we have to go!" whispered Sliver with urgency.

Suddenly off to one side of the chamber there was a howl of desperate glee as Agnor found his lost ring. The docile orcs were triggered into frenzy by the sound and those nearest to Agnor scrambled towards him. Agnor seemed unaffected by the overwhelming sensation of death and galloped towards the staircase that lead back to the city above. The squat dex used his four powerful limbs to move at incredible speed. Several undead orcs who had already lumbered into his path had their legs knocked out from under them as he ploughed through them like a bowling bowl knocking down ten pins.

The orcs closest to Neen and Sliver, also now frenetic, started to charge towards them in a tangled wall of raging horror. Sliver reacted immediately and unloaded several rounds from his guns into the chest of the nearest shambling orc. It lurched backwards from the impact, but did not stop its charge.

"Shit! Neen move!"

Neen was still petrified so Sliver wrapped an arm around her waist and dragged her, with enormous effort, into the air with him. They narrowly avoided the cold grasping claws of the orcs, but she was a dead weight in his arms. There was no way he would be able to stay airborne all the way across the chamber so he holstered his weapon and used his free hand to slap her hard across the cheek. Neen stared back at him blankly for a moment and then shook her head.

"I...I don't know what happened, it felt like I was dying. Like I was being drawn into the abyss, it was terrifying!"

"I felt it too, but you have to concentrate and put it to the back of your mind like any other fear."

Neen nodded and gritted her teeth. Burying her fear was something she had learned to do a long time ago. There were many times in her life where being emotionless was the only way to survive. With firm resolve she raised both her guns.

"I guess it's time to shoot our way out."

"You're wasting..." began Sliver, but Neen had already fired several rounds at the orcs below who were now piling on top of each other trying to reach them as they hovered several feet above the horde. The orcs she hit fell back, but once again rose to their feet.

"What the hell? Those were dark elixir rounds!"

"I already tried that. The only way we can stop them is to get back to the surface and seal the chamber."

The pair of them flew side by side above the howling mass of undead, right across the chamber to the stairway leading to the surface. However by the time they reached the stairs there were several orcs already blocking their path.

Neen reflexively pulled out both her pistols again as she flew for the stairwell and this time shot the nearest orc in the head. Her aim was to distract it enough so they could get past, but to her surprise it fell to the ground and stayed down. Neen glanced back at Sliver, he had seen it and already had his guns drawn and was firing at anything and everything he could hit.

"I always wanted an excuse to shoot my way through a crowd of orcs!" he yelled gleefully.

"There is no way you are going to be winning this body count!" said Neen as she felled two more orcs who were already moving up the stairwell then another who was also blocking her path.

When they finally made it into the actual staircase Neen had expended all her ammo and had left a path of fallen undead in her wake.

"I'm out!" she called to Sliver.

"Damn! I will be too in a second, there are just too many of them!"

"The staircase is clear we need to get to the top, so we can seal them in."

As they started to fly up the spiral staircase a low rumbling of stone grinding against stone echoed down towards them from the surface.

"Agnor, don't you dare!" yelled Sliver angrily.

"Your greed and foolishness unleashed this evil back into the world, it's fitting you die with it!"

"Quick, drop your envirocoat and do not stop!" yelled Sliver already half out of his. Neen followed suit, it was the only way they could hope to fly fast enough to reach the surface before the door sealed shut. If that was not incentive enough, below them they could hear the undead orcs ascending towards them.

Neen started out behind Sliver, but in the tight spiral of the narrow staircase she quickly surged ahead of him. As she reached the top of the stairs she could see the heavy stone door was almost closed. In a final burst of speed she dashed through the gap. Only then did she realise that Sliver had fallen behind. She looked back at the door and it was just inches away from sealing shut.

"Hurry Sliver, hurry!" she cried desperately.

Sliver shot between the gap in the door with moments to spare, having to tuck his wings back against his body in order to squeeze through. With his wings tucked in he had no control of his trajectory and went hurtling into Neen. They tumbled end over end until they rolled to a stop on the dusty floor of the disused factory.

The wall sealed shut with a deep boom and Neen found herself lying on top of Sliver staring down at him, her long black fringe drooping down and touching his face. In a moment of relief, elation and the adrenalin rush that one gets from surviving a near death situation she leant down even closer. She had a sudden urge to kiss him and perhaps more, but then she saw the look on his face and the moment quickly passed.

"That dex is dead!" he cursed as he rolled out from underneath her and stood up.

The intense burst of arousal and emotion had caught her by surprise. She had always been strangely drawn to Sliver because of the inherent danger that surrounded him, but she had never felt anything. His inability to notice when she had temporarily let her guard down made her feel like she had been rejected and she didn't like it one bit. As her anger rose she could not help herself, she picked up a fist full of dirt from the floor and flung it at him in frustration.

Sliver's reaction was immediate and fierce. He pounced on her and pushed her backwards until she was hard up against the stone wall. He forced his body hard yet provocatively against hers. Neen was so angry that she did not back down and pushed back against him as hard as she could. It was to no avail, he was just too strong. He kissed her hard on the mouth biting her bottom lip firmly and aggressively in the process. She found herself both terrified and electrified.

"That is what you wanted wasn't it?" he asked sarcastically and then let her go.

"Damn you Sliver, you ass hat!" she said as she shoved him away as hard as she could.

"Sorry, but unlike you I don't get horny when someone tries to kill me. I get angry and then I get even," he said menacingly. For a moment it looked like he was going to pounce on her again, but instead he clenched his fists tightly until his knuckles went white, then took a deep breath. Suddenly calm he smiled briefly, almost to himself, and gently brushed aside the long fringe of dark hair away from her eyes. "You think you know me, but even you don't understand what I am capable of. So...let's just keep our relationship simple. I keep trying to make you another notch on my belt and you keep saying no."

Neen shrugged away from his touch then turned her back on him momentarily as the adrenaline rush subsided and she reined in her emotions. They were in a bad situation and she needed to be focused. It was certainly not the right time for them to be discussing the status of their dysfunctional relationship. If he wanted emotionless then that's exactly what he'd get. She turned back towards him and spoke firmly yet calmly.

"Screw getting revenge on Agnor. I want my money!"

"You're right, we need to keep our eye on the prize," conceded Sliver. "There is enough loot down there in that chamber to solve all our problems. All we need to do is come back with some serious hardware, eliminate the orcs and we both get paid."

"Kill off a few thousand undead orcs...and I was starting to think this job was going to get boring."

#

Neen hovered in the stairwell, just below ground level and watched the street warily. She felt completely naked with both guns sitting empty in their holsters.

"Hurry up!" she whispered back down over her shoulder at Sliver, who was carefully and cautiously punching in a series of numbers into the security coded door.

"I have this booby trapped with enough explosive to take out half the street, so maybe just shut up and let me concentrate," he whispered back tersely.

It had taken them over an hour to reach one of Sliver's safe houses. They had flown as high as they could amongst the sky scrapers to avoid detection by any half blood elves, who were still hunting for them in the streets below. If they were caught they would be as good as dead, especially when the elves realised that they no longer had the stolen elixir. To make doubly sure they had not been followed by any fairies who might be working for the elves they had taken the most confusing and frustratingly long path that Sliver could dream up. Only when he was absolutely sure they were not being tailed he brought them to the safe house. Unfortunately standing at street level in broad daylight, with her wings covered in an oily layer of pollution was not her idea of safe.

"You know, all the sneaking around we did is going to be for nothing if we sit here all day and get spotted by half blood elves!" she grumbled as she briefly glanced back over her shoulder down at Sliver again. He had finished entering the tediously long sequence and was now in the throes of a disenchantment spell. As soon as he had finished the door it glowed green for a second then swung open.

Neen rushed inside behind him as he turned on the light and then locked the door behind them. Neen looked around the apartment as her eyes adjusted to the dim lighting. It was very basic and extremely rundown. In the living area there was one small table, a single chair and a mattress in the corner on the floor that was pretending to be a bed. Most of it looked like it had been rescued from the garbage.

"Wow Sliver, now I know why you never invited me back to your place."

"Funny, it's a safe house for emergencies only and stocking up in times like this. You want luxury go rent a hotel room."

"Is there at least a shower? I have to get this stuff off my wings," complained Neen.

"Next you will want bubble bath," groaned Sliver. "The bathroom is in the back, if you are lucky there might even be soap."

Neen hovered into the small bathroom to find it was in the same shape as the rest of the apartment. It was disappointing, but would have to do. She clipped the door shut behind her and double checked it locked properly. She was too tired to play games with Sliver and knew that if she wasn't careful he would try something on.

She unstrapped her guns and her pouches of fairy dust and placed them into the nearby hand basin then stripped naked and tried to make the best of things. Despite the poor water pressure and powdery soap the feeling of water on her wings was wonderful.

After a considerable amount of time cleaning and preening her wings she finally stepped out of the bathroom. When she entered the living area she found Sliver lying lazily on the mattress in the corner.

"Climb on in babe," he said provocatively, with a broad smile.

"I'd rather sleep with an undead orc."

"Funny. We both need to get some sleep and there is only one bed so just get in. Besides it will be safer to move through the city when it's dark."

Neen rolled her eyes and reluctantly climbed onto the mattress beside him.

"If I feel one hand..." she began, but as soon she lay down he was on top of her. She tried to free herself, but he had both her wrists pinned firmly to the mattress and had hooked his legs in under her back. She was going nowhere.

She was so angry at herself for being so stupid! She wanted to scream, but she didn't. There was no way she would give him that satisfaction. She resolved to kill him as soon as he finished whatever sordid acts he had in his fevered lustful eyes. To her surprise however he lent down and kissed her ever so gently. His lips lingered on hers for some time before he pulled away again. She was speechless. She had only ever known Sliver to be calm, cold, calculating, ruthless or angry, never gentle. He rolled back off her and lay on his side facing away from her.

"I don't like the way it made me feel when you wigged out today and I had to save your ass. After this job we should part ways permanently."

#

Neen awoke to the sounds of someone rummaging around in the apartment. Instinctively she went to grab her pistols, but then remembered where she was. She climbed off the mattress and found Sliver in the tiny kitchen preparing two packets of instant noodles with some boiling water, from a less than hygienic looking kettle. He handed her one of the containers, she sniffed at it and frowned.

"OK, maybe I need to stock this place a bit better with food," he admitted as he forced down a mouthful himself.

"What is our next move?" she asked, putting the pot noodles back on the bench. Suddenly she was not that hungry.

"We arm ourselves to the teeth and go get our money, if anyone gets in our way we kill them. Simple."

"With what? Expired pot noodles?" she asked sarcastically.

"You may not be impressed with my hospitality, but I am sure I can cater to your professional needs. Let's go shopping," he said with a wry smile.

Sliver lead her back out of the kitchen and across the living area to where the bedroom should have been. However when he opened the door, hidden behind it was another heavy reinforced steel door.

"The whole room is a specially made vault. You would need enough explosive to take out the whole bottom floor of this building before you could break into it," said Sliver proudly. He then entered another laboriously long code into the touch pad on the door to unlock it. The door was so thick and heavy that it was on a hydraulic ram and it hissed open to reveal a treasure trove of weaponry. The whole room was filled with racking that held knives, grenades, assault rifles, pistols, shotguns and ammunition containers. Neen had her own weapons cache hidden in her apartment, but it was nothing even close to this scale! Her wings pulsated in excitement and she involuntarily lifted from the ground in an exhilarated hover.

"Just let me grab a few special items first and then you can go nuts, but everything you take comes out of your half of the loot."

Sliver entered the room first and headed straight for a long metal box in the rear. He lent down beside it and spoke the words of a disenchantment spell before opening the box. Whatever was inside must have been special and Neen was keen to see so she followed him in and tried to look over his shoulder.

After a few moments of rummaging Sliver pulled out what he was after, a long two handed sword. He held onto it almost lovingly as though he had actually missed it.

"You've been holding out on me Sliver. A weapon that old has got to be worth ten times everything else in this vault combined."

"It's worth more than you could imagine. This is Tathra. It was a gift to Prince Ethala for convincing the fairy clans to rise up to join the rebellion against the orcs and help win the battle of Tarva. It was forged by dwarves and enchanted with ancient Griffin magic and has some very special properties that might be very handy in our current predicament. It's also my retirement fund so if it ever goes missing you are the first person I am coming for Neen, so don't get any ideas," he said as he pulled out a fanciful black leather scabbard that was designed to strap the sword neatly on his back in between his wings.

"Don't worry about me I prefer my guns and a good dark elixir round to an ancient sword any day."

"You are missing out Neen, there is something special about the tactile sensation of ending a life with a good blade."

"I bet that's exactly what you said to its previous owner before you relieved him of it," she teased.

"How I came about this sword is none of your business" he snapped irritably.

Neen raised her eyebrows at his reaction. She had hit a raw nerve there somehow and it was something she wanted to revisit, as much out of curiosity as anything else, but she left it alone for the moment.

"Fine by me, lets load up and get this over with then."

The pair of them then went about methodically reloading and cleaning their weapons. Neen grabbed as many ammo clips as she could attach to her belt and strap to her leg holsters. Normally she would have been content armed with her pistols and enough ammo for a prolonged fire fight, but going up against an entire army of undead orcs was going to take quite a bit more. Sliver gave her an old envirocoat he had in the apartment. It was oversized and loose, but had plenty of space to clip on a dozen grenades. With those and an assault rifle slung over her shoulder for good measure, plus her repertoire of magic spells she finally felt up to the task.

Meanwhile Sliver had strapped his sword to his back, reloaded his pistols and equipped himself with two mini submachine guns held in chest holsters. He too stocked up on grenades and to cap things off a repeating shotgun, with a Tommy gun style drum shaped ammo clip filled with exploding dark elixir rounds.

"I'm ready to go send back some undead orcs right back into the abyss. How about you?" asked Sliver sounding almost gleeful.

"This better work Sliver, because when Clix finds out we freed his dex he is going to put prices on our heads so large that every bounty hunter in Myriad city will be gunning for us."

"Forget Clix, when we get the treasure secure we can pay him off. After that we can go find that damned orc wizard, kill him then sell that elixir to the highest bidder!"

#

Sliver and Neen stepped cautiously out of the safe house door and hovered their way up the stairwell to street level. As they did so several police cars went racing by at break neck speed with sirens blaring. They could also hear other sirens in the distance as well and the familiar sound of small arms fire.

"Sounds like a shootout," commented Neen resting her hands on her guns in their holsters.

"Let's just hope it's nothing to do with us."

The pair launched themselves into the air and started flying along the city street. They stayed at first floor level so as to have a good view of the street ahead and behind as they went. At first everything seemed normal, but as they continued towards the industrial area, they realised that the gunfire and sounds of chaos were getting closer.

Then, a little further on, they noticed that not only were there an unusual number of people out in the street, but they were all specifically heading in the opposite direction with increasing levels of haste. Neen started to have a sinking feeling in her stomach and her worst fears were confirmed when the urgency of the people in the street turned to outright panic.

They rounded a corner into another city block and found police everywhere, frantically bashing on doors and windows and dragging people from their apartment blocks in a chaotic ineffective attempt to evacuate them. At the other end of the street the road was blocked by police cars and heavily armed police. The gunfire, now joined by hysterical screaming, sounded as though it was coming from the next street across. There were even fairies flying at various levels in the opposite direction now.

"I think we need to get some altitude," said Sliver and they ascended several stories into the air as they moved down the street towards the police barricade.

"Look," said Neen urgently nudging Sliver, who was paying more attention to what was happening below them than in the air ahead.

"Bloody turncoats," he spat with contempt. "That's all we need."

Ahead of them, forming their own aerial barricade at altitudes above and below, were about twenty police fairies in their distinctive dark blue envirocoats.

The police fairies were sometimes referred to as blue coats, but more often as turncoats because they upheld human laws rather than fairy law. Even though fairy based laws had not been recognised for over one hundred years it was still a very sore point for most fairies.

As disliked as they were amongst their brethren, turncoats were highly trained, well armed and not to be messed with. Certainly the last thing they needed right now was any attention from them so Sliver quickly turned back around and descended towards ground level again.

Suddenly, all hell broke loose in the middle of the street below them. A huge undead orcish warrior, wielding a rusty and jagged edged battle axe, burst out of a building and into the crowd.

"How the hell did that get out?!" cursed Neen.

"I don't know," shrugged Sliver. "Let's makes sure we use the distraction to our advantage."

The orc lumbered forwards into the crowd and swung its battle axe viciously, slicing several people in half. The human police officers nearest to the monster drew their weapons and started shooting at it. None of them had the sense or the accuracy to shoot it in the head so their bullets were ineffective. The orc swung its axe again taking down several more unlucky souls before the axe lodged deeply into the side of a nearby parked car.

For a moment the orc seemed confused as it pulled at the axe in an attempt to dislodge it. A police officer ran up behind it and blasted it in the back with a shotgun. Angered, the orc left the axe and spun on the officer. It put one large rotting clawed hand around the man's neck, wrapped its free arm tightly around the man's torso and with a blood chilling undead howl tore his head from his body in a fountain of blood. The fear in the street turned to terror and chaos reigned. Even the police started to panic.

"We have to help them take that orc down before it kills everyone," urged Neen drawing her pistols.

"Screw that! They're only humans, keep moving," ordered Sliver.

At the far end of the street several more orcs burst through the police barricades under a hail of fire. One of the orcs went down with a lucky shot to the skull and it appeared to rally the police. Sliver ignored what was happening and made a bee line for a side alley. Neen followed more reluctantly, her desire to get her money wavering momentarily at the thought of leaving innocent people to die.

They moved quickly at just above head height and had just about reached the next street when a man came sprinting around the corner directly towards them. Right behind him was another undead orc. It caught him quickly and pounced on top of him. The orc gnashed at his arms with rotten teeth as he tried to fend it away and he was quickly bleeding from the bites.

Neen did not hesitate this time and spiralled down quickly over the head of the orc, drawing a single pistol as she went. Without slowing in her flight she let off a single dark elixir round into the back of the orc's skull. It slumped forwards immediately and fell onto the man, dead a second time over.

The man, still terrified, pushed the rotting orc off and shakily stood. He looked up at Neen thankfully and was about to say something when his body suddenly lurched into convulsions. His body contorted so violently that it seemed like it had to be breaking bones. Then as suddenly as they started they stopped and the man looked up at Neen again. This time however his pupils were fully dilated and he had a contorted and fevered look on his face.

With a brief sniff of the air the man charged hysterically at her, shrieking in a tortured moan as it went. Neen felt the same deathly cold sensation again that she had felt when the undead orcs were first released from their graves. This time however she managed to control her fear and raise her pistol. She never had the chance to squeeze the trigger however because Sliver downed the man with a bullet between the eyes.

"We are wasting time. Let's go," he said coldly as he flew past her. Neen holstered her gun and quickly flew ahead of him and barred his way.

"Are you mad? Did you just see what happened then? Whatever dark magic is driving the orcs is contagious! They have escaped the tomb and who knows how many are already infected! If we don't stop this now it's going to get out of control!"

"The humans deserve everything they get," replied Sliver pushing back past her again. "If you want to go play white angel you go ahead, but that treasure is all mine."

"What happens if it can infect fairies too?" she called after him.

Sliver stopped and hovered. He was silent for a moment then he bowed his head and let his shoulders slump. He turned slowly back around and stared at her for a moment.

"What do you suggest we do?" he asked reluctantly.

"Let's do what we planned to do originally, let's go and kill undead orcs," replied Neen drawing both pistols with a smile.

"Fine, you go first then. I think I'd still like to keep you in front of me when you have those things in your hands thanks."

The pair burst back out of the alley and into the street ready for action, but they were stopped dead in their tracks.

"I think we are going to need a new plan Neen..." said Sliver his voice hollow.

At the far end of the street a mass wave of human zombies, along with a smattering of undead orcs, flowed down through the street like a tsunami, engulfing everything in its path.

#

Neen sat perched next to Sliver high up on the top of a twenty story office block looking down at the streets below. Several city blocks were now infested with zombies and they continued to spread without any loss in momentum. The police were trying to set up blockades to contain them, but each time they were simply brushed aside through sheer weight of numbers.

Up at this height there was a chill wind, but even that felt warm compared to the unnatural cold that radiated from the streets below. It made her shiver involuntarily. The sensation darkened her mood even further.

"What have we done Sliver?" she asked in despair.

"Don't be so naive. If we didn't take on the job someone else would have," he scolded, but without conviction.

"What level of destruction and death do you need to see before your conscience kicks in?" she demanded.

"I am an assassin Neen, I can't afford a conscience."

"There is a difference between being a paid assassin and a mass murderer!"

"OK already, I get it! I screwed up and we are deep in the shit and I need to fix it," he yelled. "Just stop the whining for a few minutes and let me think. You're worse than a bloody harpy!"

"We have been sitting here for half an hour! There is no way we can shoot our way out of this one, not without an army. We need to find that orc and get the elixir back. Then maybe we can reverse the spell."

"Do you think I hadn't already considered that? If you are so smart then how about you tell me exactly how are we supposed to find him?"

"Clix seemed to know a little about our employer, at least enough to ask for that ancient coin to pay for the rental of his dex. Maybe he can tell us or knows someone who can."

"One small problem with that plan Neen. We let his dex get away when. When we turn up without it he is more likely to have us killed than help us."

"There is an undead army spreading through the city like a plague. I don't think we have choice."

#

Neen dropped down lightly onto the landing board at the front of Fade, Clix's night club. Sliver landed warily next to her, his repeating shotgun firmly in both hands and ready for action. The neon signs at the front of the club were off and the usual sound of dance music was ominously absent.

Neen pushed gently on the front doors, but they were locked. Undeterred she grabbed one of the pouches attached to her belt, the one containing the purple dust, her own special formula. She took out just a pinch, put it onto the palm of her hand and gently blew it into the lock. The mechanism glowed purple for a second then the door clicked open.

"Assassins first," she insisted teasingly as she clipped the pouch back into place then drew her pistols.

Sliver edged his way through the door first. The lights were off and it was dark as pitch inside. Even with their heightened fairy night vision they could barely make out where they were going. They had not moved far inside when Sliver bumped loudly against a chair, knocking it clattering to the floor.

"Seriously!" whispered Neen in disbelief. "I thought assassins were supposed to be stealthy?"

"Getting a clean kill is about surprise, you need to be in the place they least expect you at exactly the right moment. It's not about sneaking around in the dark!" argued Sliver.

Suddenly there was movement at the rear of the club and the lights came on. Neen cursed vehemently under her breath and rolled her eyes at Sliver. Sliver pointed a stern finger at her and was about to say something when a group of fairies came warily out of a back room.

Neen counted nine of them and they looked rough, like a street gang. The last to emerge was a huge fairy wearing black leather pants and a black leather waistcoat. He was bare-chested under the waistcoat and was bristling with muscles. His arms chest and face were covered in silver tattoos, the type that would change colour under UV light. The big fairy gestured for the others to fan out.

"The club is closed," said the leader sternly.

"I know these guys," whispered Sliver. "They are a bunch of amateur thugs who normally stand over small business owners for protection money."

"Do you think they are working for Clix or just working him over?" asked Neen as she pivoted left to cover that flank while Sliver did the same to the right.

The gang members were all armed, but with a mismatched variety of poorly concealed weapons. While they looked like they had been dragged from the nearest ghetto they were smart enough to know that Sliver and Neen had the drop on them with their weapons already drawn. That slim advantage was going to be their best chance at survival if things went bad.

"We are here to see Clix, we have some business to attend to," said Sliver meeting the icy gaze of the leader.

"An assassin with his gun already drawn only has one type of business on his mind. You gotta go through us first."

"If you know who I am, you know what I am capable of. You sure you want to die?" demanded Sliver his voice cold and sinister.

The leader just laughed derisively.

"Worth the risk for the bounty that is about to go onto your head."

Neen figured that the guy had to be either stupid or insane. Whichever it was they did not have time for an alpha male contest.

"Clix! We are only here to talk so can you get out here before Sliver kills everyone?!" she shouted.

At that moment Clix reluctantly emerged from the back room with his hulking granite golem right behind him. He looked at them both then around the club expectantly.

"If you are here to complete our business transaction then where is my dex?" he demanded while at the same time moving slightly behind the golem.

"These guys work for you then?" asked Sliver.

"Yes they do."

"Well there goes any chance of talking our way out of here," murmured Sliver.

"Where is my dex?" repeated Clix impatiently.

"There were some complications..." began Neen, but Clix cut her off.

"I know all about your complications! Have you seen the news reports? Half the city has either been evacuated or overrun," he snapped angrily. "If I had known what your employer was really after I'd never have agreed to the loan of the dex in the first place. However, business is business and needs are as the devil drives. Right now I need to secure my interests before things spread this far. If you don't have my dex then where is my compensation?"

Sliver very slowly freed one hand from the repeating shotgun and reached into his pocket to pull out a handful of gems he had grabbed from the burial chamber before the undead orcs rose from their graves to ruin his week. He carefully put them onto a nearby table. Clix gestured to one of his fairy gangers to grab them and bring them to him. He took one look and sneered.

"Is this a joke Sliver? It's not even a tenth of what that dex was worth to me!"

"It's not meant to cover your loss. It's for a twenty four hour extension on the loan and for some information. If you give us the information and the time we need then we can pay you ten times what that dex was ever worth. I'll even kill the back stabbing little toad for free to make sure nobody else has him."

Clix tapped his index finger against his lips thoughtfully as he contemplated the offer.

"I have never liked you Sliver, but the services you offer are valuable in such a competitive business environment. Business is business though and I don't have time to make pipe dream deals while there is an undead horde spreading across the city. Especially after the price the elves just put on your head. It's time to claim your bounty boys!"

At that moment Clix darted behind the golem while at the same time his henchmen went for their weapons. As soon as Sliver saw Clix move he was already firing at him with the shotgun. The rounds smashed into the wall behind and then onto the golem itself. Rock splinters went everywhere, but otherwise had no effect. Sliver then leapt into the air himself and flew as hard and fast as possible directly to the right and into one of the anterooms off the main bar, firing his shotgun in a wide arch at the gangers as he went.

In the same instant Neen also launched into the air, but instead of going right she went straight up, back flipped and came back down to land behind several rows of tables for cover. She also fired wildly as she flew, in the hope to have their opponents more concerned about keeping their heads down than firing back. Between the pair of them they managed to create enough chaos to avoid being gunned down immediately.

Clix's henchmen recovered quickly, each moving in different directions to avoid the hail of fire. Their leader was the only one who did not panic. Calmly he dropped to one knee and drew his own nasty looking silver plated machine pistol and sprayed a trail of bullets after Sliver as he hurtled through the air.

As soon as Neen had landed behind the tables she kicked a couple over to form a barricade. Then she took a crucial second to single out one of the gangers, who had not yet reached any cover, and shot him in the chest with both pistols. She did not wait to see him fall and was back in the air again spiralling erratically towards the opposite wall to gain another firing position. Bullets chewed up the tables she had previously been behind and continued to follow her around the room. Their fire was accurate and it was everything she could do to avoid being hit.

Sliver had also recovered and from his hard cover in the anteroom he picked off another foe, but was quickly forced back in a storm of debris as the leader and two others turned their guns on him.

Neen had just bounced off one of the walls to avoid more bullets when one of the gangers came charging at her through the air with a serrated edged blade in each hand. He slashed them hard towards her as he approached. Neen was able to easily dodge the larger fairy and his flashing blades. As he flew narrowly past her she pivoted and shot him in the back as he went by. He dropped hard onto the floor smashing into furniture as he dropped from the air dead even before he hit the ground.

More bullets careened into the walls and ceiling next to Neen and she spun to avoid them, but this time was not so lucky with one of them putting a neat hole through her left wing. The nerve endings in a fairies wing were as sensitive as human genitalia and she let out a sharp cry. The shock sent her tumbling hard back to the floor in amongst several tables.

Hearing Neen cry out Sliver instinctively started firing his shotgun on automatic, ripping chunks out of everything in sight with the explosive dark elixir rounds. He managed to take down another opponent and made the remaining gangers retreat to the cover of the bar.

Having forced the enemy's heads down he tried to see if Neen was alright, but he could not see her behind tables. Sliver had only glanced away from the bar for a brief moment, when he heard the words of a spell being cast. He looked back towards the bar just in time to see the fireball racing towards him. With just moments to react he dived back into the anteroom and onto the floor as quickly as he could just as the doorway exploded into flame.

Neen lay on the floor, hidden from the gangers behind the bar by the tables around her. She inspected the hole in her wing gingerly. It hurt like hell and at first she wanted to cry, her perfect wing would now be blemished forever. As she stared at her wound a rage took over with an intensity she had never experienced before. Someone was going to pay dearly for that! With fury in her eyes she holstered her pistols and gingerly unstrapped the assault rifle from her back. She kicked over a nearby table and stood up behind it. At that moment the fireball cast by the lead ganger destroyed the doorway that Sliver he had been using as cover.

Neen wanted to gun down the lead ganger with return fire, but found herself facing a charging golem instead. She unloaded the entire clip from the assault rifle into the golem's chest with no effect. As it reached the tables it ploughed through them like a wrecking ball sending splintered wood everywhere. As it reached her she flung the assault rifle away, gritted her teeth against the pain and leapt into the air, narrowly avoiding the golem's wild charge. The inertia of the heavy granite golem took it slamming into the far wall of the club before it had a chance to stop and turn around.

Neen had no idea how she was supposed to stop the golem and each flap of her wings bought her a fresh wave of intense, sickening pain. She needed to finish off the gangers and get to Sliver before she passed out. Assuming he was still even alive, together they might stand a chance against the golem.

With Sliver, either dead or incapacitated the remaining gangers behind the bar were now firing in her direction to keep her pinned as they cautiously manoeuvred towards her in an attempt to outflank her. She dropped quickly back down onto the floor in amongst the splintered remains and debris that had resulted from golem's charge. She stayed as low as she could to avoid being hit. If she did not think of something fast it would all be over yet she had no chance at taking all four remaining gangers out without herself being killed. As splinters of wood, chunks of plaster and glass fell around her from the gunfire she suddenly saw her chance.

Neen closed her eyes and momentarily shut out everything going on around her. She quickly whispered the words of a summon spell using the ancient tongue and conjured a small demon spirit and infused it into the debris around her. The possessed splinters of wood, shards of glass and chunks of plaster gathered into a small gremlin shaped creature with a torn beer coaster as a head. It stood no higher than her knees and the demon inside was not happy about that and started immediately abusing her in the most indecent use of the ancient tongue she had ever heard.

She raised her pistols above table height for a moment and fired blindly back at her attackers to keep them from rushing her. Then she crouched down so she was face to coaster with the demon.

"I need your help before I release you back to the abyss," she said urgently.

The demon shook its coaster head and folded its debris arms.

"It involves mayhem and destruction," she coaxed as she unclipped a hand grenade from her envirocoat.

The demon's demeanour changed instantly and it snatched the grenade from her eagerly.

"A gift for the fairy with the silver tattoos."

The demon put the grenade down for a second and threw itself into an over exaggerated military salute then picked it up again and went scurrying off. Neen slowly raised herself up to try and locate her opponents without getting her head blown off in the process. The four remaining fairies had split up, with two moving cautiously towards Sliver's position. Another was coming at Neen from the left and directly in front of her still behind the cover of the bar was their leader.

The fairy coming from her left was almost in a firing position that would leave her exposed so she stood briefly and fired rounds in his direction and had him diving back for cover. She dropped back down behind the tables as quickly as she had risen and was about to repeat the move when she heard the words of the fireball spell once again coming from the direction of the bar. At the same moment she heard the golem crashing its way through more furniture from behind.

"Useless little demon!" she thought angrily as she closed her eyes, took a deep breath and launched into the air again as the fireball raced towards her. She escaped the blast narrowly and used the momentum of the shockwave to arch upwards and over the charging golem to hover behind it as it skidded to a halt again. This time she used the golem itself as cover and fired upon the fairy to her left, taking him down as he fired back.

At that moment to her right the other two fairies had reached the anteroom and rushed inside. There were two shots and a few moments later Sliver emerged, much to Neen's relief, with his shotgun smoking and a satisfied look on his face. Sliver now turned his attention to the tattooed leader, but it was not needed because the little demon had finally emerged from under the bar and jumped onto his back.

The huge fairy tried frantically to grab at the demon, but it was too fast and able to stay out of his reach. It tormented him for a moment by pinching and punching him as it scampered about. Then quickly tiring of the game and the mortal world it moved around and launched onto his head. It wrapped its legs and free arm around his neck pulled the pin on the grenade with the other. Then it just hung on for the ride provided by the now panicking fairy and awaited the trip back to the abyss.

Neen, momentarily distracted by the explosive demise of the gang's leader, did not notice that the golem had already turned back on her. It swiped hard at her and she caught the swinging arm in her peripheral just in time to try an evade it. She was successful in avoiding most of the force of the blow, but was not able to completely get out of the way and was flung across the room. She landed hard and was dazed and disoriented.

The golem did not hesitate and moved towards her to finish the job. It came more slowly and methodically this time. Neen tried frantically to get to her feet, but she could not. The golem was almost on her when Sliver landed in front of her, his ancient sword drawn.

"If you take one step further I'll send you back to the quarry."

"You have come to harm my master. I must protect my master," rumbled the golem as it raised its arms and brought both of its granite fists down at once to crush Sliver. The golem was fast, but Sliver was faster and dodged the blow. As the golem's hands smashed a deep crater into the floor Sliver leapt into the air and swung his sword down hard, yelling the words of an ancient fairy battle cry as he did. The ancient sword glowed red and then quickly white hot as though it had just come from the forge as it arched through the air. It hit the golem's arms and sliced through them with ease.

The golem fell backwards bellowing in pain. Without hesitation Sliver dropped down on top of it and finished it off swiftly by driving the blade hard into its chest until it was buried to its hilt. The golem gave out one last short sharp gravelly groan then fell silent. Sliver pulled the sword from its chest and the blade rapidly cooled, back to red hot at first before fading completely back to its normal cold steel appearance.

Neen's dizziness and disorientation from the hard knock had passed and she was able to regain her feet, albeit still a little shakily. Sliver jumped down from the golem's chest and hovered over to her shaking his head. He offered her no assistance.

"That's the second time in as many days I've had to save your ass. I warned you about pissing me off like that," he said angrily.

"Well if you didn't spend half the fight hiding over there maybe I wouldn't have a hole in my wing!" she snapped back.

"One day you will push your luck with me too far Neen," said Sliver through clenched teeth as he sheathed his sword again. Neen frowned back at him.

"Likewise Sliver," she replied as she pushed past him. "It would be nice if you at least pretended you gave a shit about the girl you are trying to seduce into bed."

Sliver did not respond and the two walked in silence to the back room where Clix had fled at the start of the fight. The pair cautiously entered the back room with guns at the ready. The room was empty and they slowly crept to the only other exit which they knew lead to Clix's private office. They positioned quietly either side of the door.

"Clix..." started Sliver, but he was immediately cut short by a shotgun round that blasted a fist sized hole in the door. It was followed shortly by two more shots. Sliver was about to say something when Neen cut him off.

"Clix we just want to do business," she shouted.

"Bullshit! Sliver is going to kill me and you know it!"

"You are no use to us dead. We need information."

"As soon as you get what you want he's still going to kill me."

Neen rolled her eyes at Sliver.

"Nothing is ever simple when you are around is it!" she whispered. Then she shouted again to Clix. "Maybe we can make a deal? You wipe out our debt to you and give us the information we need and we forget this whole little incident."

"I also want the club," chimed in Sliver unexpectedly.

"What!" exclaimed Neen and Clix simultaneously.

"You wipe our debt, sign the club over to me and you leave the city for good. If you do that I swear on the Battle of Tarva that we won't harm you."

"I don't believe you!"

"Well you better believe this. You have about ten seconds to take the deal or not. Otherwise we throw a bunch of grenades in there with you and go on our merry way."

There was silence for a moment, followed by cursing, then the sound of a gun clattering to the floor.

"I'm coming out, don't shoot," yelled Clix and he slowly opened the door then came out with both hands raised. He was sweating profusely and looked terrified. Sliver patted him down checking for any hidden weapons while Neen covered him.

"Right let's get down to business," said Sliver.

"Um, Sliver..." began Neen as the pain in her wing, combined with the blow she had taken during the fight got the better of her and she feinted.

#

Neen was woken by a hot tingling sensation in her injured wing. Her eyes sprang open in alarm and she found herself lying on her stomach on top of a table. She started to move but a firm hand pushed her back down.

"No, you mustn't move, the longer you can lay there the better your wing will heal," said Clix sternly.

Neen pushed back against his hand in an attempt to sit up.

"Do as he says Neen, we have precious little time available to let that stuff work so you need to stay perfectly still for every minute you can," said Sliver. Clix was in her way so she could not see him.

"What did you do to my wing?" she demanded.

"It's a very ancient recipe for a healing balm. Very rare these days and very expensive! It's from my own private stock in fact and not something I'd normally share. Luckily for you Sliver is very persuasive with the butt of his gun," replied Clix showing his left pinkie finger, which was taped tightly to his ring finger so that the broken digit did not flop about.

Clix moved and Neen was finally able to see Sliver. He was sitting at nearby a table reloading both her pistols. Her hands automatically went down to her holsters to confirm they were empty. He looked over at her and noticed her alarmed expression and smirked.

"Don't worry I am just reloading them and refilling all your clips then you can have them back. You are going to need them where we are going."

"And where exactly is that?"

"Tell her what you told me Clix."

Clix paced back and forth nervously.

"When are you going to let me go?" he complained.

"When we leave you will be free to go and not a second sooner," growled Sliver.

"You heard that last news report while she was unconscious. The whole thing is out of control! They are evacuating the city and planning to bomb it to oblivion! We need to get out of here now!"

"Bombs! What?!" said Neen instinctively trying to sit up again only to have Clix pounce and push her down so she could not move.

"It gets worse. There have been reports of a possible second outbreak in Trendal. So far they appear to be containing that one, but they have shut down the sea ports, rail links and the airport."

"That's more than three hundred kilometres away!" replied Neen trying again to sit up only to have Clix push down firmly again to keep her in place.

"You would be wasting your time going there if that's what you are thinking. To move that distance in such a short time he must be teleporting. By the time you get there he will be long gone and you would just be walking into another army of undead. Even if you could kill them all you are only treating the symptom and not the disease. You need to need to find out how to reverse the spell," lectured Clix.

"How?"

"That's the fun part," sniggered Sliver. "We have to go see the elves..."

"Seriously?" asked Neen as she started to sit up again. This time when Clix pushed her back down she grabbed his injured pinkie and squeezed. He yelped in pain, but she did not let go until she had sat up. "No offense Clix, but we barely lived through a meeting with you! Imagine what the elves are going to do."

"I am not sending you to the elves. If only Sliver listened as well as he used his guns. I am sending you to one very specific elf. He goes by the name Heliodor. Contrary to what you may think Sliver, not all elves are alike."

"Where do we find this elf then?" asked Neen as she gingerly flapped her wings to test the pain threshold. The bullet hole had already closed over thanks to the magical balm and the pain had dropped to a level that was uncomfortable yet bearable. Sliver tossed her a map.

"Courtesy of Clix...after a little persuasion. We had better get moving. If they really are going to drop bombs on this place none of us want to be here when they land."

"My sentiments exactly, so at this point I will bid you both farewell," said Clix.

"Just remember Clix if I see you again or even suspect you are gunning for me I will make you hurt in ways you never thought possible," said Sliver his voice icy cold and menacing.

"And you should realise Sliver that we are all of us living on borrowed time if you two don't stop that wizard and reverse that spell."

#

Neen glided down towards the street from the front landing of the club. She tried to use her wings to power her flight as little as possible. She had left her envirocoat behind, it was already painful enough with her injured wing without the heavy coat, not to mention it was next to useless with a neat bullet hole in the wing sleeve. It annoyed her nonetheless that her wings were now soaking up the pollution. She touched down a little more heavily than normal, jarring her knees and causing her to curse loudly. Sliver fluttered down beside her.

"You ok?"

"I'm fine," she grumbled, "I just don't know why we need to walk."

"Because you are no use to me in a fight if you can't manoeuvre and the longer you stay off your wings the quicker that balm will work," snapped Sliver. "You're worse than a child sometimes!"

"Bite me Sliver!"

"I already did that and you didn't like it. Now let's get moving before this place gets overrun with undead."

Neen unfurled the map and studied it in detail as they walked. It showed a complex labyrinth of tunnels and chambers under the city with the outline of each city block overlaid in light blue ink as a reference guide to the surface.

"If I didn't know better I'd say this looks like the ruins of old Myriad, before the wars and before the humans came to rebuild it. It used to be a trade town for many races until it was raised to the ground by the orcs," said Neen.

"So?"

"Well, if this map is correct there is a lot more of the ruins still in existence under the city than I thought possible."

"After what I've seen in the last 48 hours I'd believe anything. Which way is it?" asked Sliver impatiently.

"This way," she said pointing up the street towards the north side of the city.

As the pair moved north they initially found the streets empty save the chaotic mess that a frantically evacuating populous leaves behind. They had not travelled more than a few blocks, however, when the streets started filling with stationary vehicles impatiently sounding their horns, all headed north as well, in an attempt to flee the city. Another block further and the streets were in complete gridlock. People were abandoning vehicles and filling the sidewalks. It was rapidly becoming too dangerous for the two diminutive fairies to continue on foot.

"Times up Neen," ordered Sliver as he launched into the air, rising quickly to a third story height so as to also avoid the bulk of the fairy traffic as their brethren joined the evacuation. Nobody it seemed was very keen to stick around and to be attacked by undead or blown up by the military.

The pair flew onwards towards their destination. However they quickly found that in order to avoid the attention of the blue coats, who were trying to direct the air evacuation with some semblance of order, they had to take a very winding path from street to street and block to block as they went.

The pair came to a large intersection and hovered cautiously, close up against a nearby skyscraper. On the other side were a group of three heavily armed bluecoats forming an airborne roadblock. In front of them was a large winding queue of fairies hovering impatiently and waiting to be let through. The bluecoats were shouting at the fairies in the line to drop their belongings before they would let them pass.

The pair waited quietly as they watched the bluecoats to ensure they were fully occupied with the crowd so they could slip down the side street to find another way forwards. Neen looked down onto the street below just as a precaution and she was glad she did. She nudged Sliver urgently with her elbow.

"Street corner, left," she said quietly to him.

Sliver looked down to see a half blood elf staring back up at them. He would have been impossible to pick in amongst the crowd only that he was a solitary point of calm in the pandemonium below. He was being very obvious, a little too obvious. It was almost like the half blood was bait, but for what? Then he realised.

"Up! Go, go, go!" he shouted at Neen as he surged upwards, dragging her with him the first few feet until she got her own wings going. A fraction of a second after they had moved an arrow thumped into the wall of the skyscraper where they had just been hovering. The arrow was enchanted with fire magic and sizzled its way deep into the concrete wall. It was followed in rapid succession by more arrows that landed dangerously close above below and beside them as they hurtled upwards.

When finally they were out of range they slowed and looked for their assailant. It was an elvish marksman who had been on the rooftop of the five storey building on the opposite side of the street. Neen flipped him the bird and turned back to see that although Sliver had stopped ascending, he was a long way ahead of her and continuing at speed towards their target. Neen did her best to keep up with her injured wing, gritting her teeth as she flew.

Much to her relief they did not have that much further to go and when they finally reached their destination, a subway entrance, she dropped rapidly down into the crowded street and flew directly inside. Thankful to rest her injured wing she landed on the empty platform of the subway station to find Sliver already dropping down onto the tracks.

"Which way?" he asked.

Neen consulted the map carefully again.

"Left. There should be a service tunnel in about two hundred metres."

Neen climbed gingerly down onto the tracks and followed Sliver until they found the service tunnel. They followed it until they reached a sewer line entry and then climbed down. It was too dark in the sewer even for their fairy night vision so Neen grabbed a small flashlight from a pocket and screwed it onto the underside of the barrel of one of her pistols. They followed the sewer about thirty meters until they came to another exit above them.

More than happy to get away from the disgusting stench Neen lead the way up the ladder, climbing to avoid the use of her wings. Sliver cautiously hovered behind her, drawing the two mini sub-machine guns from his chest holsters. When they reached the top Neen switched off her flashlight. It took an effort from the pair of them to slide away the heavy metal cover. Neen winced at the noise of rusted metal sliding against rusted metal.

"So much for the element of surprise," cursed Sliver under his breath. "On the count of three you go left I'll go right."

Neen nodded and on three burst as hard and as fast from the sewer as her injured wing would allow. As soon as she cleared the exit she broke hard left. She did not get far and neither did Sliver as a heavy and very sticky net fell upon them both, dragging them down to the ground.

"Neen, I'm pinned by the net, can you reach my sword?" asked Sliver urgently, with almost a hint of panic. Neen did her best, but also found herself stuck well and truly by the net which was covered in a sticky blue substance. She was still holding the one pistol in her right hand, but it was stuck at a strange angle that she could not adjust. They were both completely helpless. The only thing that was likely to get them out of this situation was magic. Sliver cursed loudly in frustration as he tried in vain to extract himself from the net with a violent burst of thrashing about.

"Sliver shut up and let me think would you!" she demanded as she racked her brain for a useful spell. An idea finally came to her and she started speaking the words of a spell in the ancient tongue.

"Really? You are going to try and break the net by using the sewer water to freeze it? I have been living in exile down here for a long time, but that's still disgusting," interrupted a voice from the darkness beyond.

Neen reacted by firing several rounds from her pistol in the hope that the one direction she could shoot just happened to have their assailant's forehead in the way.

"Tsk tsk, dirty little sewer pixies not satisfied in coming to rob me now you bring weapons with you. Looks like I'll be feasting on fried pixie tonight."

"We're not pixie's we're fairies!" retorted Neen, angered by the insult and frustrated by her inability to move as she tried even more feverishly to free the hand holding the pistol.

"Illuminate!" said the voice and suddenly the chamber was filled with a dull orange glow. The light came from a flame that appeared to be burning atop of a huge red crystal at the end of a metal staff that was held by their captor. Neen's eyes opened wide as she got a good look at him. He was tall and lanky like an elf, his eyes and ears were elven too. However that was where the resemblance stopped. His skin was mostly green, with patches of white and his jaw was heavy set and square like that of an orc. He even had two elongated lower canines that jutted up just above his lower lip. "Hmm so you are, that's even worse, meddling little creatures you are. On the other hand you do have more meat on you and I am getting sick of pixie meat."

"Stall him!" whispered Sliver as he continued to struggle against the net, albeit more subtly than before.

"We are not here to rob anyone we are here to find an elf called Heliodor. There is an orcish wizard who has stolen a spell that allows him to raise the dead and we need his help to reverse the spell."

"What did you say?" asked their captor as he rapidly came closer and knelt down to get a better look at Neen, all carefully out of the line of fire of her pistol.

"We have come to seek help from the elf Heliodor," repeated Neen.

"I am Heliodor!" he growled baring all his sharp yellow orc like teeth. "And don't call me elf! Now tell me who really sent you and why or I will burn your little friend here well and truly before he grabs his little sword."

Neen watched in alarm as Heliodor brought the magical flame on the end of his staff very close to Slivers wings.

"I already told you why we are here! An orcish wizard stole a potion from the elves and raised an undead army. They have already taken over half of the city above and whatever has possessed them is contagious! Clix sent us to find you. He said you are the only hope we have at reversing the spell!"

Heliodor reacted by bringing the flaming crystal close to Neen's face, shining it directly into her eyes. It was so bright that her natural reaction was to close them, but she found she could not. Heliodor leaned down very close to her and stared deeply into her eyes as though looking for something. It was hypnotic. Then just when Neen thought he was going to burn her face with the flame he pulled it away again and his shoulders slumped.

"I really was hoping you were lying little one, but there are none on this world who can deceive the flame. Dissolve!" he ordered and the net that bound them suddenly liquefied.

In a flash Sliver was in the air with his sword drawn and its blade already glowing red and about to go white hot. Heliodor jumped back and raised his staff, pointing the flaming crystal end directly at Sliver's chest. He growled fiercely. Neen quickly jumped between the two.

"Sliver no!" she yelled. "We need his help remember!"

"He's no elf, he is some sort of orcish abomination and he's dead!" yelled Sliver shoving Neen back out of the way.

"You were smart not to go for your guns little one," mocked Heliodor. "Tathra is a powerful sword, but do you really think you can hurt me with it?"

Sliver answered by flying at Heliodor and swinging his sword hard towards the much larger elf-orc hybrid. Heliodor responded by dodging backwards and swinging his staff down onto the sword.

"Extinguish!" he commanded and Sliver's blazing sword turned instantly back to cold steel as the staff contacted it. The sword went instantly cold, so cold that Sliver was forced to drop it. He suddenly found himself defenceless with the flaming crystal pointed to within an inch of his face.

"Stop!" yelled Neen as she leapt into the air and pushed both her pistol barrels against the side of Heliodor's head. "And if you're thinking my little pistols can't hurt you, think again unless you are immune to dark elixir."

Heliodor slowly lowered his staff and Neen followed suit with her guns.

"We don't have time for any more games. Where is the elf Heliodor?" demanded Neen.

Heliodor spun and faced Neen angrily.

"I am Heliodor and don't call me elf!" he yelled.

"OK, orc then."

"I am no orc either!"

"What the hell are you then? Clix told us Heliodor was an elf."

"That doesn't surprise me. That conniving little worm must not like you if he sent you here without telling you about me."

"Don't worry, the feeling is mutual. If I cross paths with him again he is dead," growled Sliver.

"Perhaps we have more in common than I first thought," replied Heliodor smiling briefly. "Clix has been exploiting my situation for years in return for trying to help me with my affliction. I have been waiting for the day that I don't need him anymore."

"Well I am glad you and Sliver will have some male bonding to do over the best way to torture Clix, but we need to know if you can help us or not? " insisted Neen.

"Yes I will help you. Come, let me reset my trap otherwise I will be up to my knees in pixies. Then we can go to my humble home. I have something there that I need to show you."

#

Heliodor sat back on a well worn armchair that had seen better days. His squat little shanty was filled with all sorts of strange spell ingredients, bubbling liquids and books. The one table in the room was a mess of scribbled on paper covered in runes, formula's and the feverishly scrawled notes of someone obsessed. The place was so crammed that there was nowhere for anyone else to sit so Sliver and Neen hovered in front of him. To make it even more unpleasant the whole place smelled of orc.

"What do we need to do to reverse the spell?" asked Neen.

"I am afraid to say my dear that there is no way to reverse the effects of a spell cast using that elixir. It is the most powerful magic ever created. Some say it came directly from the gods. A nanolitre has the power to cure disease, a single drop to raise the dead...permanently."

"So are you saying there is nothing we can do?"

"I am saying that you cannot undo the past. If you wish to stop the destruction of the living world as we know it we need to get the elixir back from Gravlok. While he still has it he has the power to raise the dead indefinitely. Even those you say you have killed could be reanimated at his whim."

"How is it that you know the name of this orc wizard?" asked Sliver suspiciously. "I worked for him for six months and I was never able to find out who he was."

"Let's just say we have a history."

"What type of history?" insisted Sliver.

"My current affliction is the result of experiments he conducted on me while I was his captive. In another life I used to be a pure blood elf and a very ambitious magic user. I was lured by Gravlok to learn the lost art of orcish magic. I planned to master this lost knowledge and to save it. Unfortunately I was to discover that his intentions were otherwise."

"None of this gets us closer to a solution," complained Neen.

"I've already told you what we need to do," snapped Heliodor. "We need to find Gravlok and get that elixir back. Then kill him and every last one of the undead and afflicted before their contagion spreads across the entire world."

"And how exactly are we going to do that? Any suggestions?" asked Neen.

"I believe it might be possible to predict where he will go next by consulting some of the ancient texts in the library of Adarna."

"Adarna is halfway across the country!" exclaimed Sliver.

"Distance is not a problem," replied Heliodor dismissively.

"Assuming we do actually find him, how do we stand a chance of defeating him when he can raise the dead at will?" asked Neen.

"With this," said Heliodor as he grabbed his staff, flipped it upside down and unscrewed the brass section at the bottom. From within the hollowed out section he produced a small thin black vial. "Inside this tiny bottle is a liquid called white light. It can only be extracted from the tears of a fallen angel who is willing to sacrifice their wings and become mortal. Needless to say it is extremely rare. I have done things to get even this tiny amount that I thought I would never be capable of. Even showing this to you I take a risk because there are many powerful people who would stop at nothing to get their hands on my little bottle here. It has the ability to elongate life, to heal and most critically to purge the undead of their tormented spirits, thus preventing them from being reanimated."

"That's nice, but how is that little bottle going to stop an army?" asked Sliver.

"White light does not work that way. We need to use it to bless something to convey its power. Pick a weapon each."

"Before I let you anywhere near my sword I want to know why you are helping us?" asked Sliver, his cynicism unsatisfied. "What's in this for you?"

"A good question. I would ask the same of you, but your intentions are clear to me. Revenge is a strong motivator all on its own. Wouldn't you agree Sliver?"

"Not enough to give up what you are offering."

"You are smarter than you look. You might be wondering why I have not used the white light to cure myself. The answer is; I have tried and it didn't work. The only magic that I know of that has greater healing powers than white light is the fabled elixir of life. For the last few years I have been researching every scrap of information I can find about the elixir, no matter how minute or seemingly insignificant. Until today I was convinced that I was chasing a pipe dream, but now I believe the potion that Gravlok had you steal was exactly that," said Heliodor. He raised his clawed hands and stared at them like he wanted to cut them off. Then suddenly he slammed both fists down hard onto the armrests of his chair. The rage in his voice was raw and Neen rested both hands on her guns just to be safe. "For almost twenty years I have been stuck in this form, shunned by my brethren as an abomination! All this time the elders and the high council had the power to save me yet they chose instead to exile me and make me suffer for my ambitions! I would give anything for a chance to be cured!"

"Sounds to me like your help relies on us giving you the elixir at the end of all this," said Sliver, ignoring the outburst.

"Yes it is, but not all of it, just one drop. That's my price."

"I don't trust this guy at all Neen," said Sliver switching to fairy instead of common tongue.

"When was the last time you were able to trust anyone Sliver? He is motivated and we need all the help we can get right now."

"So do we have a deal or not?" asked Heliodor impatiently.

"Deal," said Neen.

"But if you even think of crossing us, magic staff or not I will put a bullet between your eyes," threatened Sliver.

"I assure you that the feeling is mutual. Now hand me your weapons and close your eyes."

Sliver was still hesitant and elbowed Neen to go first. She elbowed him back hard, but when he did not budge she relented and handed over one of her pistols. Heliodor slowly opened the little black bottle. As soon as he did a pure bright white light streamed out. It filled the room blinding them all.

Heliodor, with eyes squeezed shut, up ended the bottle so the light was shining down onto the gun. He spoke in elvish the words of an ancient blessing and then resealed the bottle. When Neen was able to open her eyes again she looked down in fascination at the afterglow surrounding her pistol.

When she touched it she felt suddenly comforted, happy and at peace. She smiled broadly, hugging the pistol close to her chest as she leapt up into the air and twirled around like a ballerina. The aura slowly faded and so did the sensation of pure joy. She stopped spinning and dropped back to the floor, looking sheepish. She turned to Sliver and shrugged.

"You think it's too late to repent?"

"Are you serious?" grumbled Sliver

"Relax, any peace and content you feel will be short lived. A soul as dark as yours little assassin cannot be saved by this tiny vial," retorted Heliodor.

Sliver finally handed over Tathra and Heliodor opened the bottle. The light seemed just a little less intense this time. Heliodor blessed the sword in the same fashion as Neen's gun. When Sliver took back the sword he too was briefly carried away by the effects of the white light, much to his displeasure.

"What about you?" asked Neen, stifling laughter at the sight of Sliver's aerial happy dance.

"I shall have no trouble dealing with the undead if it comes to that," replied Heliodor confidently patting his staff.

"Let's get moving. We have a long way to travel!" snapped Sliver as he also returned to the floor and back to his normal demeanour.

"Yes, time is of the essence. Place your hands on mine."

"No way, I have had enough happy feelings shoved down my throat for one day thanks!" protested Sliver.

"He's not going to bless you Sliver. He's going to teleport us. Aren't you?" asked Neen a little excited and nervous at the same time as she placed her hands onto his claws.

"Yes. When you are held captive for as long as I was it makes your very observant. After a while Gravlok became complacent and I learned the secrets of teleporting. That is how I escaped in the end."

Sliver tentatively put out one hand while at the same time un-holstering one of the mini sub machine guns from his chest holster.

"Are you sure about this Ne..."

In a great flash of blue light all three of them were gone.

#

Neen suddenly had the sensation of travelling in all directions at once. It felt like her body was being dissolving. It was painless, but terrifying at the same time as she felt her mind detach from her physical form and then also slowly disintegrate to nothingness.

Then as suddenly as it started the sensation stopped and in a blue flash of light she found herself hovering mid air in the middle of a wide city street. Sliver hovered to her left and Heliodor stood to her right just as they had in the shack. It was approaching dawn but the street lights were off, which left everything in semidarkness. She felt a little dazed and let herself drift back to the ground. At the same time Heliodor fell to his knees.

"Are you ok?" asked Neen.

"It's teleportation sickness. I need a few minutes to rest," mumbled Heliodor, sweating like he had just run a marathon.

A tormented groan suddenly echoed out along the street behind them. Neen spun around instantly, drawing her blessed pistol as she did so. Sliver followed suit, but instead drew his sword. In front of them was the library of Adarna, an ancient fortress like stone building. It stood in complete contrast to the more modern office blocks that filled the remainder of the street.

In front of the library was a large crowd of undead who were clambering relentlessly over each other to get to the heavy metal doors that led into the library. Several huge zombie orcs were amongst them, but the majority were formerly human and they each battered away in a rhythmic pounding of flesh against metal. Despite their relentless determination the doors held firm.

"Looks like we are going to need another way in," said Sliver.

At the sound of his voice one of the undead orcs turned towards them and let out a deathly howl. Suddenly all of the undead were staring at them.

"Damn it! I should have anticipated this," gasped Heliodor as he tried unsuccessfully to stand. The undead started ambling in their direction en mass.

"Get up, we have to move!" urged Neen.

"I...I can't. I need more time."

"Great! What now?" cursed Sliver.

Neen pulled the trigger on her blessed pistol and dropped the two nearest zombies in quick succession. As soon as the bullets made contact the zombies each let out a chilling howl before disintegrating into a cold black mist as their souls were returned permanently to the abyss.

Satisfied with the result Neen holstered her weapon again momentarily and hovered above Heliodor. She grabbed one of the pouches from her belt and took out a pinch of sparkling silver dust. She mumbled the words of a spell and sprinkled it onto Heliodor's forehead. As soon as the dust touched his skin his head started to become transparent. The effect quickly spread across his entire form until he was completely invisible.

"We will try and lead them away. You have about three minutes before the spell wears off. Then you are on your own, so you had better get those legs moving!" ordered Neen.

She stowed her pouch again and drew her gun once more. She started floating down the street away from the now invisible Heliodor, disintegrating several undead as she went.

Sliver followed more slowly, hovering just above the pursuing mob, darting down amongst them to strike at them with his sword then quickly dashing back out of their reach again. Those that fell to his blade disintegrated into same black mist as they dropped, much to Sliver's satisfaction. It was almost like it was a game to him and he even started to use some more extravagant moves as though he were showing off for her.

The two were able to slowly draw the crowd of zombies away from the library, but as they went more undead seemed to be attracted into the throng. Soon they started coming from all directions and they risked being surrounded. An undead female half blood elf suddenly came charging at Neen from a side street. The half blood moved much quicker and more aggressively than the human zombies and she had to move fast to avoid her thrashing hands and gnashing teeth. She spiralled upwards firing downwards as she did so, disintegrating the half blood as she passed by.

Neen looked back down the street to see that Heliodor had rematerialised and was now on his feet and shuffling shakily over to the library. She expected him to head for the now vacant front doors, but instead he went around the corner of the building to the entry of a side alley and gestured for them to follow him.

Neen flew high above the growing crowd and emptied an entire clip into them in a frenzy of disintegration. Sliver followed behind her spinning like a tornado right through them, with Tathra slashing in all directions at once. Between them they had taken out two dozen or more, yet there were now more flooding the street than they had started against. It was a relentless torrent of death and Neen began to feel the unnatural cold creeping into her bones again. She could not stand it and accelerated to the alleyway.

She stopped at the entrance as she waited for Sliver to catch up. She looked back down the filling street with dismay. How the hell were they supposed to fight an entire city even with enchanted weapons? She snapped in a new clip and pointed her pistol right at Sliver's head as he arrived next to her.

"I never should have taken this job Sliver, you ass hat!" she said angrily. His eyes widened as he saw her fingers put pressure on the trigger. As she squeezed she tilted her gun just to his left and killed another zombie, as it came charging out of the building opposite, with a shot right between the eyes.

Sliver looked behind him just in time to see it splatter into black mist with an ungodly howl. He spun back around and followed Neen into the alleyway angrily. He swooped passed her shouldering her hard as he went by. He came to a stop beside a fire escape mid way into the alley. Heliodor was already scaling it and urging them to follow. Sliver turned towards Neen as she caught up.

"I never forced you to do anything, you took this on because you love it, because you like the money!" he said pointing an accusing finger at her.

"I was a thief, you made me a killer!" she retorted as they flew up beside the fire escape to the roof.

"What?" said Sliver stopping in mid flight. "Is this about your first job?"

"It's about everything!" she yelled. "I just wanted to make enough money to...and now everything is screwed up! Don't you even comprehend what we have done? The blood you put on my hands with this?"

"Grow up! If it wasn't us then it would have been someone else working for that damned orc wizard. Don't you give me that bullshit about me making you into a killer either! Nobody forced you to take on that first job. You love the thrill and the danger and you always have. You are a natural born killer Neen, you just don't want to admit it, all I did was give you the opportunity!"

"Opportunity! You used us all to get what you really wanted and you dropped us all into the shit while you did it! The only opportunity you gave me was to survive or die!"

"Yes and you learned a valuable lesson about yourself. Just like me Neen you will do whatever it takes to survive no matter who gets hurt. That's the reason you have never let me sleep with you. You're not afraid of me Neen, even though you should be, you are afraid that you are too much like me."

Neen was so livid she was speechless for a moment and could only manage what she hoped was the world's coldest ever death stare. It must have been pretty good because Sliver's hands moved slowly to rest on his own guns warily as he stared back at her. He had touched a very raw nerve and she wanted to rip the skin from his face. The problem was...

"Maybe you're right Sliver, maybe I am just like you," she said through clenched teeth. "So from now on you should watch your back!"

The pair flew the rest of the way to the roof in silence, watching each other warily. At the top they found Heliodor taking the cover off a modern air conditioning duct that was jutting out of the ancient stone roof and looking completely out of place.

"Have you two quite finished with your lovers spat?" asked Heliodor impatiently. His question was met with angry silence and dark glares from the pair of them. "This place used to be impossible to get into when those main doors were locked. They are magically sealed, a modern day tank round wouldn't even scratch them. Thank goodness that these days everyone wants air conditioning."

#

Neen used a sprinkling of purple dust on the air conditioning grate and the screws unwound themselves allowing it to swing open. She dropped down out of the opening and floated gently down to the floor with both her guns at the ready. The electricity to the city had shut down and it was too dark for her to make anything out, even with her fairy night vision. Sliver dropped down next and then much more clumsily and loudly Heliodor.

"Illuminate," he commanded and the red crystal at the end of his staff turned to flame. They had come out inside the air conditioning plant room and for the moment at least they were alone. Heliodor opened the door and stepped out into the hallway. They were in the service corridors behind the main public areas.

Neen was wishing she had a schematic of the place because she hated not knowing the layout of a building she was breaking into. It had long served her well to know the easiest way out if things went bad. Heliodor however seemed to know exactly where they were going and lead the way without hesitation.

"Are you sure you know the way?" she asked quietly.

"Relax little thief you are not the only one who has experience in break and enter. I have been sneaking around this place for many years in search of knowledge and for a cure."

They turned a corner and entered another corridor that was at least twenty five metres long. On either side were eight huge heavy round metal doors spaced evenly along its entire length. At the end of the corridor was a much more mundane closed door with a simple sign on it that read; "Public area beyond. Please keep door closed".

"Wow. This is some serious hardware. There are some pretty secure banks that don't have this type of protection," said Neen. She hovered over to one of the heavy round doors and ran her hands gingerly over it, as though she were placing them on the head of a wild animal in the hope she could tame it. She had never broken into anything this serious before and the thrill of what might be behind the door carried her away momentarily.

"Welcome to the place where true power and treasure exist. You are now staring at the mighty vaults of Adarna. Hidden within them are more knowledge and secrets than you ever thought existed!"

"If what is in there is so precious then why was it so easy to get in?" asked Sliver sceptically.

"Getting to the vaults is not the problem, getting into them is. The magic that protects them requires skills beyond any magic user living today."

"Some well placed explosive along these walls and you won't have to worry about the doors," snorted Sliver unconvinced.

"You could demolish this entire building with explosive and it would not help you. Only the doors exist in the physical world, the vaults themselves are magically bound to another plane."

"So you have never seen inside them?" asked Neen.

"No, the knowledge I have stolen from the library has been from the depths of the public areas or some of the less well protected sealed archives in the main library. Unfortunately I believe the ancient scrolls that we are seeking regarding the great wars are inside the vaults."

"Why go to so much trouble to protect historical documents?" asked Neen.

"You will understand when you see them."

"How exactly to you propose to break into the vaults if we cannot do it physically or with magic?" asked Sliver.

"We don't. We will go to see the Keeper and simply ask him to let us in. Unless he wants the world to end he will open the vaults."

"And if he won't?" insisted Sliver.

"Then we will make him," said Neen coldly. "I am sure you will have no trouble remembering how to torture someone Sliver."

"Maybe you should do it. It might help you find yourself," he retorted.

"Immobilise!" growled Heliodor and the flaming crystal at the top of his staff burned white hot in parallel with his anger. Suddenly both Neen and Sliver were frozen in place in mid air, kept aloft not by their wings, but by Heliodor's magic. Neen struggled in vain to move and she could see by the exertion of Sliver's face the he was doing the same. "It's worse than listening to the incoherent babbling of pixies! I have half a mind to eat you both just to shut you up!" Heliodor brought the flame from his staff tantalisingly close to the pair of them and licked his lips. "Now let's go find the keeper shall we before my stomach gets the better of me. Release!"

At this last command both Neen and Sliver were free again. Sliver was livid and Neen thought by the look on his face that he was going to kill Heliodor on the spot. Instead he took a deep breath and stared darkly at Heliodor's back as he followed him down the corridor. The only thing more frightening than seeing Sliver angry was seeing him brood.

She wanted to say something, anything, but she didn't know how to start. She didn't know what she wanted anymore. She felt pulled in two different directions, she felt as repulsed by him as she was drawn to him. At the same time one half of her wanted to bury her conscience in the same way he was able while the other half wanted redemption for her sins. The latter was the only thing that was keeping her focused to make things right. Perhaps if she could bring the world back from the brink she may save her own soul in the process?

She wondered what he was thinking as she flew. She wondered if underneath the cold exterior he was in the same turmoil or if his heart really was black to the core. She wished that he would say something to break the uneasy tension between them, but he remained stoically silent.

Heliodor lead them to the end of the hallway and, with some help from Neen's purple dust, through the locked door into the public area of the library. The library itself was expansive with row after row of shelves crammed with books, maps and scrolls. There were alcoves dotted all over, each with their own collections.

There were no windows in any of the chambers so it should have been pitch black, but instead they found lanterns dotted strategically all over the place. They moved between the book shelves and out into the main open reading space. Just beyond it was the service desk with the administrative offices behind.

The reading area, which should have been empty, was instead covered in gnomes. Although a full head and shoulders taller than a fairy the gnomes were still too small for the largely human sized lounges and soft armchairs that were scattered around the reading space. Some of the gnomes were sleeping, others were reading, but most were awake and huddled together in small groups talking in hushed tones. On closer inspection many of them looked dishevelled. Neen did a quick scan and counted at least thirty of them.

"Who are they?" she asked quietly.

"They are the caretakers of the library. The gnomes have been..."

"Intruders!" screeched one of the gnomes suddenly, when he noticed the three of them enter. All at once the gnomes scrambled and clambered over each other in a completely uncoordinated and comical flight to the safety of the service desk. They entered through the bottom half of a steel security door designed to open at half or full height to accommodate both gnomes and humans.

The service desk itself was long and arched in a gentle curve along one entire side of the reading space. As soon as the gnomes were all safely inside a set of clear glass screens thrust up out of the counter and locked into place with a sharp clang when they reached heavy metal clamps imbedded the ceiling. The place suddenly resembled the inside of a bank which put both Sliver and Neen immediately on guard.

Most of the gnomes peered fearfully back at them from various vantage points behind the protective screen while one, who looked more senior than the others knocked urgently on one of the office doors at the rear.

"I've never known a gnome who wasn't a complete coward!" said Sliver shaking his head in disgust.

"You should be glad. We are going to need their help and their compulsive avoidance of violence is probably what has kept them alive this long when the rest of the city has already joined the walking dead," replied Heliodor. As the three of them approached the service counter the gnomes all pulled back fearfully.

"Who is in charge here!" demanded Heliodor.

"I am," said a human who emerged from the rear office. He was in his late thirties, with short dark hair neatly cut. He was fit and wore a Government Issue dark grey suit. He strode up to the service desk carrying a mobile tablet in one hand and pointed an accusing finger at them with the other. "I want to know how you got into the library?" he demanded.

"We are here to seek audience with the Keeper not a bureaucrat. Where is he?" asked Heliodor.

"I'll ask you again. How did you get into the library?" he demanded.

Heliodor, leaning close to the glass screen so his heavy and hot orcish breath fogged it in a predatory type way. It had the desired effect of the gnomes, most of who hid as best they could behind and under anything they could find. It had no apparent effect on the human however.

The elderly looking gnome who had dragged the human from his office had now clambered up onto a chair beside him and was tugging on the man's arm. He looked scared too, but had resisted the urge to hide.

"Kio," he urged in a squeaky child like voice. Kio ignored the gnome and stared back at Heliodor unmoved.

"I am assuming that is supposed to be intimidating," said Kio mockingly.

"This guy is wasting our time, how about I just shoot him in the head and we get one of the gnomes to tell us where the Keeper is?" interjected Sliver, pulling back his coat and resting his hands on his machine pistols.

"Fire away, the screen is bullet proof. Then when you are finished you can say hello to these."

Kio tapped at his mobile tablet triggering four auto-cannons to drop down from the ceiling along the front of the counter and immediately aim themselves at Sliver.

"You have got to be kidding me! The three of you combined have the negotiating skills of a giant telage worm!" shouted Neen angrily. "You two, how about you save the testosterone for killing undead? And you, do you have any idea about what is happening right now? There is a magical undead contagion that is spreading like wildfire and if we don't find a way to stop it fast there will be nobody left alive! You need to let us see the Keeper, otherwise you may as well shoot us all now. It would be more humane."

The guns remained active.

"My orders are to protect the vaults at all costs from anyone and anything. You think that I can't tell you are thieves by just looking at you?"

"We are not here to loot anything," insisted Neen. "We are trying to stop the contagion. We just came from Myriad city and it has already been overrun. Who knows where else is already infected! There is information in those vaults that may help stop this."

The elderly gnome was still persistently and urgently tugging on Kio's sleeve. Kio finally leant down and listened while the gnome whispered something into his ear. Kio stared at Neen and then the other two for a few moments. Reluctantly he tapped the tablet and the auto-cannons receded into the ceiling again. Kio seemed to age visibly and slumped back down wearily onto a chair behind the counter.

"Screw it," he said dejectedly. "The last word I got from command was that we were alone in the city and I had to hold out at all costs until we could be evacuated. That was twelve hours ago and I have heard nothing except static on the emergency channel since."

"If you were sent here to protect the place then where is the rest of your security team? Agents like you don't work alone," said Sliver.

"They are all dead...or worse. They sacrificed themselves to give us time to properly secure the library. It has formidable defences inside and out during emergency situations, but they take time to initiate. The whole place is set up like a fortress. It has enough food stores to last a month and emergency battery power from the solar arrays on the roof to last a life time, as long as we only use the power for the core security systems. Until you turned up I thought this place was actually impregnable."

"If you don't want to be stuck inside the library until you run out of food and starve to death then you need to let us see the Keeper," insisted Heliodor.

"I wish I could, but he is not here," replied Kio reluctantly.

"Where is he?" demanded Heliodor.

"I don't know. I was sent here to protect him but his identity is classified and I have never met him. The gnomes are too scared to speak about him. They say he lives in the shadow world and they fear he will steal them away if they even say his name. I don't believe a word of their superstitious rubbish myself. Unfortunately that means he is probably dead because he is not in this library."

"Oh Great! Now what?" cursed Sliver.

Heliodor started to pace back and forth feverishly for a few moments, mumbling to himself incoherently as he did so. He stopped momentarily then shook his head in agitation before pacing around again. When he finally stopped he let out a frustrated sigh.

"There is just no way we can open those vaults without the Keeper. Our only option is to look through the public records. It's a slim hope but, it's possible we may still be able to find some useful information. I assume that is not going to be an issue?" asked Heliodor.

"Knock yourselves out. I'll even send Vassal here along with some of his gnomes to help. If they cannot find what you are looking for in the public area then it does not exist. Just don't expect me to leave my nice secure space here unless you are all prepared to give up your weapons. Oh and if you make any attempt at breaking into the vaults you should know I can flood this entire building with nerve gas in less than a minute!"

#

Neen threw the aging book at the shelves violently. She wished it was Sliver's head, but he had given up in frustration and skulked off several hours ago. Her outburst was so sharp and unexpected that even Heliodor flinched. The gnomes ordered to help them by Kio all scattered except Vassal.

"Creating disorder does not help your cause," complained the elderly gnome. He walked over to the book and picked it up with the same care one would use in picking up an infant and then put it back very gently into the exact place on the shelf from where it came.

"We have been at this all day and all we have found is poetry, plays and romanticised recollections of the battle of Tarva! How can there not be a single factual document about the great wars to be found in an entire library?"

"The great wars were very destructive. Most of the records of that time were destroyed or lost," explained Vassal.

"Or they were hidden on purpose. Which is why I wanted to get into the vaults," said Heliodor.

"I still don't understand why anyone would want to hide them," said Neen.

"I have my theories, but they are based on claims made by Gravlok."

"Wait, so this whole wild goose chase is based on the word of the very psycho we are trying to stop?" asked Neen incredulously.

"At the time he told me about the great wars he had no reason to lie."

"What the hell would he know about the wars beyond orcish bed time stories anyway?"

"He knows more than most. He saw what happened with his own eyes...he was there," replied Heliodor seriously. "It's why he wants revenge."

"Right," said Neen sarcastically. "Now you are telling us this wizard is over two thousand years old! Sliver is right you are a crackpot and this is getting us nowhere. I am done with this!"

Neen started to leave, but Heliodor stepped in her way. She looked up at him angrily and he looked back at her with an annoying sympathy in his eyes.

"Is this really the path you wish to take little one? Remember I have seen into your soul with the fire crystal. You know as well as I do that you are as responsible as Sliver for what is happening out there."

The words hit her hard, but she looked back at him defiantly.

"If I didn't take the job someone else would have."

They were Sliver's words, but it was the only thing she could think of to stop herself from crying. At that moment she wanted to be like Sliver more than anything, unfeeling, cold and without guilt. She needed to get away from everyone for a while to rest and think. Everything seemed so hopeless and she just wanted to curl up in a corner and cry herself to sleep. She flew briskly past Heliodor who made no further attempt to stop her.

She had not gone far when she realised she was being followed. She spun around and drew her pistols only to find Vassal lurking in the shadows.

"P...Put that away please," he insisted, petrified by the site of her weapons.

"What do you want?" asked Neen impatiently.

"I have to know. Is it true that this Gravlok has the elixir of life and is the cause of what is happening?"

"Yes."

"Then your story is not just an elaborate ruse to get into the vaults?"

"No."

"And you helped him steal the elixir?"

"Yes...I...we came here to try and fix what we had done. However it appears we are wasting our time. The unfortunate truth is that we are all destined to spend the rest of eternity as tortured souls who will never find peace. Money and power mean nothing anymore. There is only survival left," replied Neen wearily a single tear escaping down her cheek in a rebellious moment of unchecked emotion and fatigue. "Now leave me alone."

#

Neen fluttered dejectedly through the labyrinth of books. She wanted to sleep, but she was too restless. The hopelessness of the situation was overwhelming. In all of the crap she had been through in her life; her father's murder, her mother's subsequent descent into a life of drug addiction and prostitution and then her early days on the streets fending for herself, she had learned to be a survivor. Her entire life up to this point had been; adapt or die. She believed in evolution, survival of the fittest. It had always been her mantra, but in this situation there seemed no way out. No clear way to survive.

She briefly contemplated killing everyone else in the library and living inside the relative safety of the fortress until the food ran out. Even though it was a finite solution and only delayed the inevitable, at least it was something.

"No, better to face death with my guns blazing!" she thought angrily. What else did she have to lose? She was going to find that damned wizard and put a bullet right between his eyes or die trying. Momentarily serene at the thought dying on her terms she decided it was finally time to settle an old score with Sliver once and for all.

She picked up her pace and started specifically looking for him. It took her a little while, but she finally came across him in an alcove in the farthest corner of the library. She approached him as quietly and stealthily as she could. He did not appear to sense her presence. She wondered if he really did have his guard down or if it was some type of trap. He had not survived this long in his trade by being complacent. She waited several aisles back until his back was turned then she quietly entered the alcove behind him.

He had taken off his envirocoat, stripped off all his weapons and was attempting to make a makeshift bed from chair cushions that he had scavenged from the reading rooms. He stopped what he was doing and slowly turned to face her. The orange light from a nearby lantern made the scars on his face stand out and gave the lustful look in his eyes an alluring intensity that she suddenly found arousing rather than intimidating.

She stared at him for a moment as she fought with herself. There was just no permutation that she could think of where this situation they were in was going to end well. Not knowing if they were going to survive the next hours had finally given her the resolve she needed. However, now that she was actually in a position where he was finally vulnerable something held her back and as he stared back at her silently she knew what it was. Despite her better judgement she wanted it to mean something between them.

She slowly moved her hands down to her pistols. His eyes looked sideways towards his own guns that lay a full stretched dive away. He made no move for them however. His only reaction was to raise his chin and look back at her with a cold stare.

"You see what happens when you let your guard down and let people get too close. I just wish that you would have shot me when my back was turned."

"If I was here for that, you'd already be dead," she said shaking her head as she unclipped her holsters and let her guns fall to the floor.

Sliver watched in stunned silence as she slowly removed her clothes until she was standing completely naked in front of him. Still wary he slowly disrobed also then moved towards her, but she stopped him.

"No," she said as she gently pushed him away. She wanted him to understand what this meant, what he now meant to her and who she was prepared to become. She launched gently into the air and hovered several feet above the ground. Her wings started to flutter in a distinct rhythm. He looked up at her in astonishment and desire.

He also leapt into the air and hovered there beside her then made his own wings match her pattern of pulses in an ancient fairy mating ritual. Her arousal increased as their wings began to beat in perfect unison. Her own wings started to glow indicating her acceptance of him as a sexual partner.

Then she made the ultimate gesture of vulnerability and turned her back on him. With surprising gentleness and care he positioned himself up against her in between her wings. With her wings now pinned she had no chance to escape from the bond until he decided. He wrapped a strong arm around her waist to support her. From this point onwards it was he and he alone that kept them suspended in the air.

They became one and he was slow and gentle at first, but then with his free hand he grabbed her hair and pulled her head back hard. The feeling of helplessness only served to heighten her arousal and she lost herself in the pleasure of the moment. Their love making was vigorous and bordering on rough, but she was as much the driver of the intensity as he was. When finally they concluded and he released her she expected to be dropped heavily to the ground as would be the case in any other casual union, but to her surprise he quickly grabbed her again and lowered her gently back to the floor.

She held onto him tightly as they stood there and buried her head against his heaving sweating bare chest. She was speechless, overwhelmed.

"I'm only going to end up hurting you if we keep down this path Neen. You should have just shot me."

#

Neen woke again to her grumbling stomach. Sliver was still asleep beside her. She got up and started putting on her clothes. Her neck hurt like hell from sleeping on the lumpy makeshift bed of cushions. It was while she was pulling on her boots when she noticed the ancient book sitting on a desk in the alcove. She kicked Sliver gently to wake him and he sat up with a groan.

"Was that book here before?"

"What book?"

"That one," she said as she hovered over to it and carefully opened it. The writing in it was like nothing she had ever seen. It was in the ancient tongue, or a variant of it at least. The only books or scrolls she had ever seen written in language that old were spell books. This was no spell book yet she could sense a magical aura around it. The book has human sized and Neen did not fancy trying to fly with it through the confines of the library

"I think we better go find Heliodor, he is going to want to see this."

#

Heliodor and Neen studied the book intensely while Sliver floated from one side of the alcove to the other impatiently.

"It's definitely ancient that's for sure," commented Heliodor as he gently turned a fragile page. "This has to have come from the vaults."

"How did it get here then?" asked Neen.

"Perhaps the Keeper is not dead after all," replied Heliodor.

"So what does it say?" asked Sliver, unable to contain himself any longer.

"It doesn't say anything, it's a catalogue," replied Neen. "It's just page after page of dates and places followed by tallies and grid references."

"It's not a catalogue it's a record of the genocide of the orcs as perpetrated by the humans in complicity with the elves," replied Heliodor. "The place names are ancient orcish towns and villages that have not existed for two thousand years. The tallies are accounting for the dead and the grid references are the sites of the mass graves. My worst fears are realised, Gravlok was telling the truth."

"That cannot be true," said Neen shaking her head.

"Why do you think all the historic records of the great wars are kept in the vaults? The orcs did not die out naturally after the wars like we have been lead to believe over the centuries. They were systematically exterminated."

"He is not going to stop until he has raised every single orc is he?" asked Neen.

"He's not going to have the chance. We know where he's going so let's go stop him. I want that mother of a hobgoblin dead!" urged Sliver.

"It's not that simple little assassin," replied Heliodor. "The grid references are encrypted in some type of code. Can you decipher it Neen?"

"No," she said shaking her head in frustration.

"I bet the Keeper can. I think perhaps it's time to go and visit our friend Kio again," said Heliodor grabbing the book. To his surprise however it did not move! He tugged at it again, but still it did not budge until finally he was pulling at it with all his strength. "It has to be some magic from the vault," said Heliodor his brow beading with sweat from the exertion.

"Fantastic! Now we have a book we cannot read and cannot move. If I don't get to start shooting somebody soon I am going to start picking off gnomes!" groaned Sliver in frustration.

"Killing my brethren will not help this situation," said Vassal who had appeared unnoticed at the entry to the alcove.

Heliodor walked over to the old gnome and knelt down in front of him in a poor attempt to appear less intimidating.

"We need your help Vassal. We need you to get us into the offices so we can see Kio."

"Kio cannot help you. Only the Keeper can help you."

"But he knows who the keeper is doesn't he?"

"No. Nobody knows who the keeper is. The Keeper must be kept safe at all costs."

"Do you know where the Keeper is?"

"Yes," replied Vassal reluctantly.

"Then we need you to take us to him."

Vassal wrung his hands together nervously. He had a small brown leather satchel hung over one shoulder and he grasped at it suddenly like it was a childhood security blanket. He appeared about to speak, but instead started to pace backwards and forwards mumbling to himself in his own language.

"Vassal! We don't have time, we have to stop this now and we need the help of the Keeper," urged Neen.

He stopped pacing and looked her in the eyes as though searching for something. The pained expression on his face made him look like he bore the weight of the world on his little shoulders. He exhaled deeply and loudly and in a moment of firm resolve walked over to the book. He carefully un-slung his little satchel, stood on the tips of his toes, grabbed the ancient tome, lifting it with ease. The book was far too large for his satchel yet it seemed to shrink as he placed it gently inside. All three of them stood dumbfounded and speechless.

"I am ready," he said.

#

Vassal stopped a few bookshelves short of entering the open reading area. He had stopped intentionally in one of the blind spots between the security cameras. He knew that Kio would be monitoring everything and it would drive him crazy.

It was also a habit he had formed with all of the security agents that had been stationed in the library over the decades. That way when he needed to slip into and out of the vaults unseen it would not seem unusual when he disappeared for short periods.

The vault doors themselves were mighty structures that were truly guarded by some of the most ancient and powerful magic even conceived, but they were also a ruse. The actual entry to the vault was a privilege of the Keeper only. It was why his identity was kept such a closely guarded secret.

This last thought was what troubled him most. In all the centuries the identity of the Keeper had never been revealed. Today he had broken a sacred law set down nearly two thousand years ago and entrusted under oath to the gnomes. Vassal had no doubt that Kio would have been listening to every conversation between the fairies and their orc-elf hybrid via the security system. How Kio was going to react to knowing that he was the Keeper was anyone's guess so he had sent the others very visibly off to the map room to gather maps for their journey and then went to see Kio alone.

Vassal cleared his mind and meditated for a moment before he finally stepped out into the reading area. He immediately noted that the auto cannons were deployed and tracking his movement as he approached the front service counter. Kio was already standing there behind the protective screen with his portable tablet in hand.

"Don't come any closer," said Kio as Vassal approached the security door and was about to punch in the code. "You have broken your sacred vow...Keeper. In doing so you have committed treason."

Vassal sighed. He had hoped he could have done it the easy way, but it seemed he had no choice. He closed his eyes and slowly released the ancient magical energy hidden within him. It took all his concentration not to let it loose too quickly, that would be very devastating and he could easily find himself a slave to the magic rather than its master. A bright blue aura radiated from his body and slowly increased in intensity. Once again he reached for the keypad on the door.

"It's no use. I have changed the codes on everything."

"Do you think anything in this library is out of my control Kio? I am the Keeper!"

Vassal rested his hand on the keypad and the door clicked open.

Kio tapped at his tablet to try and activate the guns, but they did not respond. As Vassal entered he backed away and pulled out his sidearm, but before he could go any further Vassal raised his hand and with the flick of his wrist the gun was magically wrenched from Kio's grip and flung across the room.

"You have been an excellent security officer Kio during a trying time, but I think it's time for you to see things from a different point of view," said Vassal firmly as he backed Kio into a corner then reached up and grabbed his hand. Kio was immediately entranced.

"When I let you go you will forget that I am the Keeper and you will give the fairies whatever aid they require," commanded Vassal.

"Yes Keeper," he replied in a docile monotone. Then Vassal released him and as the aura around him faded Kio blinked and shook his head as though he had just woken up.

"What are you doing here Vassal? I thought you were keeping an eye on the fairies and that abomination?"

"They have asked me to seek your help."

"Why didn't you say so Vassal? Bring them to me and I will do whatever I can."

#

Neen tapped away on Kio's tablet while Heliodor, Sliver and Vassal sat nearby in the reading space patiently. Kio was on the other side of the service desk working away at a computer terminal.

"That's the best I can do in regards to a decent signal. It took some doing, but I was able to hook into a nearby microwave tower that still seems to be operational. Our receiver on the roof is not strong enough to pick up anything beyond the city limits."

"Thanks, it looks fine," replied Neen as she started to surf the internet looking for social websites that were still operating. She scoured entry after entry from scared and frightened people who were trying to communicate with loved ones or just trying to get messages of help out to the world.

One by one she shouted out the times and locations of every piece of information she came across and Heliodor marked it down onto a huge map of the continent that he had laid out on a nearby reading table.

After several hours of painstaking searching and reading the signal dropped out without warning and no matter how hard Kio tried it remained dead.

"It's no use. The tower is offline."

"Damn it!" cursed Neen.

"It's ok Neen, I think we have enough data," replied Heliodor pointing at the map. "If we follow the outbreak and the timeline it looks like he is heading northwest across the country in pretty much a straight line."

"But where too next?" asked Sliver.

"Here," said Vassal jabbing a stubby finger at the map. "Gorgak. It was the orcish capital before the wars."

"I have never heard of Gorgak." said Sliver.

"You have never heard of it because the only humans, fairies or elves that ever set foot within its walls were those dragged there as livestock. The city was hated and despised by all of the other races and was raised to the ground after the great war. Even speaking the name was forbidden and so it was slowly erased from history."

"Why do you think he wants to go there specifically?" asked Heliodor.

"He will go there because it is where the biggest collection of mass graves are. The city of Evara was built almost on top of Gorgak so the graves are probably under its outskirts."

"What are we waiting for then, let's go," insisted Sliver.

"Wait," interrupted Neen as she studied the map more. "Look at the distances between each outbreak. There are two other gravesites in between, one at Epak and the other in Vasak. We need to try and stop Gravlok before he makes it to the city. Epak is his next stop. I say we make our stand there."

Heliodor nodded in agreement as did Vassal. All three of them turned to Sliver.

"The sooner we find this son of a hobgoblin the sooner I can cut his throat from ear to ear!" he said with a delight in his voice that was macabre, even to Neen.

#

Neen let herself float back to the ground, she landed unsteadily at first, but the firmness of the pavement under her feet gave her an anchor and the disorienting sensation of the teleportation quickly subsided. Heliodor fell into a crumpled heap to her left and lay gasping for air. Vassal rushed over to him and offered him water from a bottle he pulled from his satchel.

Sliver dropped down just behind her and moved quickly so they were back to back and able to cover all directions at once. It was strangely sensual to have their sensitive wings touching when her adrenaline was already pumping.

"Um, Sliver...I think we are too late," she said as she pulled her enchanted pistol and leapt back into the air.

"I know," said Sliver following suit and drawing Tathra at the same time. "This place looks like it was vacated in a real hurry."

According to the map back in the library they should have landed in Epak directly above the long forgotten orcish graves. The street they had materialised in was typical of an outer city street. It was made up of a combination of small commercial establishments and apartment blocks. In the centre of the street was a large supermarket. Alarmingly there was not a single person to be seen and it was deathly quiet. She felt the wave of cold wash over her before she caught sight of the movement inside the supermarket.

"Oh shit!" she yelled as the first of a cascade of undead orcs came thundering out into the street, smashing through doors and windows as they went. "Vassal you better get Heliodor up and moving fast!"

Neen looked briefly behind her at Vassal who was desperately trying to drag Heliodor to his feet without success. There was no way he or Vassal was going to escape and there was not enough time for her to make them invisible. There was only one chance, she needed to meet the wave of undead head on and delay them as long as possible.

The cold sensation of death intensified as the undead orcs lumbered towards them. It filled her with a dread that was paralysing, but she gritted her teeth and forced her wings into motion. Behind her Vassal panicked as the unnatural cold reached him and he ran off towards a nearby shop in search of a good hiding place.

"Last one to die wins!" she said to Sliver as she burst forwards head on into the oncoming horde, spiralling between them with her gun blazing. Sliver watched her in awe at first, but then quickly snapped into action when she narrowly dodged the arc of a rusty scimitar. The thought of losing her was uncomfortable and it made him angry.

"Damn you Neen!" he cursed under his breath as he too burst into the orcs, slashing like a berserker with Tathra as he went until he was fighting by her side. The pair of them flitted in and out of the orcs in a lethal aerial ballet. Unfortunately the orcs were pouring out of the supermarket faster than they could return them to the afterlife. In no more than a minute they were swamped by sheer numbers and while they continued to play their dangerous game they were no longer distracting the orcs from Heliodor, who was now doing his best to crawl away in the opposite direction.

"I'm going to help Heliodor!" shouted Neen.

She broke free of the melee and flew back towards Heliodor in a last ditch attempt to protect him. She fired in quick succession at the few orcs who had almost reached him and they dissolved just feet short of their quarry. As she reloaded she had to dodge the gnashing teeth of another orc, intent on swallowing her whole. It came so close she could smell its decaying breath and it burned her skin.

Heliodor was desperately trying to get to his feet as another orc lurched toward him. As it made a dive for him Heliodor managed a clumsy swing of his staff in self defence and as it touched the orc it was disintegrated. In his weakened state however, the swing spun him off his feet again and before he could recover two more orcs were about to dive on top of him.

Suddenly Neen heard Sliver cry out as he was pummelled by the rotting fist of a nearby foe that had landed a lucky blow. With only Sliver in their way the orcs had quickly overwhelmed him. Tathra clattered to the pavement as he was thrown to the ground by the force of the strike. Without hesitation Neen angrily put a round between the eyes of the offending orc and several more who were about to crush him.

She cursed loudly. She was now stuck halfway between Heliodor and Sliver. There was no way she could get to both of them in time so she shot into the air with an electric burst of speed. She didn't know if her magic would have any effect on the zombie's, but she could not think of any other way. As she hovered above them she made her wings beat at an incredible speed until they started to glow. Then she closed her eyes and summoned the words of a spell.

The result was an intense flash of light that burst forth from her wings and enveloped everything in the street below. It was so bright and intense that it left the undead orcs stunned and they started to stumble about randomly. Neen dropped to the ground next to Sliver. The spell had sapped a lot of her energy and she landed heavily. Sliver was stumbling groggily to his feet. A nasty bruise had already appeared consuming the left side of his face and causing his left eye to start closing over. His nose was bleeding profusely. He was pale and looked as though he was going to vomit. Neen quickly grabbed Tathra and shoved it into his hands.

"Quickly we have to move!"

She propped him up so he could walk and the two stumbled towards Heliodor. Heliodor was now unfortunately in the same magically induced daze as the undead orcs that surrounded him. How she was going to drag the two of them to safety she had no idea. Then, just as they reached Heliodor, one of the nearby orcs suddenly turned purposefully towards them and groaned an undead groan. The spell was already wearing off! The orc lumbered towards them and others soon followed.

"It's useless Neen, just get out of here," ordered Sliver as he slumped dizzily to the ground again.

"No! Not now that..."

"This is what happens when you start caring about people other than yourself," he said angrily as he produced a plasma bomblet from his coat. "I said go!"

"You are such an ass hat Sliver, but I love you," she replied as she sat down next to him and placed her hand with his on the bomblet.

The orcs continued to close in and Neen was about to push down on the detonator with him when suddenly the orcs closest to them fell in quick succession as glowing white tipped arrows hit their marks causing them to dissolve into black mist as they fell.

"What the..." said Sliver as more enchanted arrows rained down upon the orcs.

Neen stood up and looked around to see the silhouettes of elves scattered across the nearby roof tops. Three more elves then suddenly emerged from a bank a little way down the street. They were dressed in black commando style fatigues and were heavily armed with various modern weapons as well as their traditional bows slung across their backs.

"Quickly!" yelled one of them who stayed at the front of the bank and beckoned them towards him. Neen dragged Sliver to his feet and helped him stumble towards the bank. The other two elves raced out to grab Heliodor, who was still recovering from the stupor caused by Neen's spell.

"I never thought I'd be happy to see an elf," said Neen when they reached the front of the bank. The elf ignored her comment and urgently gestured for them to enter.

Her elation at being saved was short lived. Inside they were greeted by twenty or more heavily armed elves all standing at the ready with bows drawn and all pointing at her and Sliver.

"Put your thieving hands where I can see them," ordered a tall angry looking elf, the only one that was not pointing a weapon at them. He had the typical blue eyes and blond hair of a pure blooded elf and the mirthless demeanour to match. "If you twitch the wrong way or try and speak any magic you will both end up skewered!"

Heliodor was dragged in behind them and dropped unceremoniously onto the floor. The elves then quickly shut and locked the security doors so they were sealed in. Neen had a lot of questions, but kept her mouth shut. The prospect of being impaled to the front door of the bank by an elvish arrow a point blank range was something she preferred to avoid.

"I suggest you all cover your ears," ordered the elf. They all hesitantly complied and it was fortunate that they did because the explosion that followed sent a shockwave through the street that penetrated even the thick walls of the bank.

"What the hell was that?" asked Neen, barely beating Sliver to the punch.

"That was the sound of the orcs being buried under a few thousand tonnes of rubble."

"It won't stop them Jamar," replied Heliodor in elvish as he slowly stood up.

"Do not dare speak to me in the pure tongue!"

"I am Heliodor first born son of Emlar of the house Odari! I am still a noble and still your superior...cousin," replied Heliodor sternly in common tongue.

"You stopped being part of the house of Odari when you let your ambitions turn you into this abomination!"

"You are an arrogant unforgiving fool just like the others!"

"For someone who has just been caught assisting the two fairies who stole the sacred elixir, it's you who is being arrogant. You should be on your hands and knees begging me not to end your life right now."

"You might try, but you would not succeed," growled Heliodor baring his sharp orcish bottom teeth.

"You see, you are nothing more than a beast! These two are wanted dead for their crimes, but you may still be granted mercy if you beg for it and if you give up your master."

"If you think I am going to give up my chance at getting that elixir and then beg for the privilege you are sadly mistaken."

"If you are not willing to give up your master then I have no choice. You will be executed on the spot!"

"No wait!" shouted a squeaky voice from behind the elves. Vassal came charging out from between them. Jamar signalled his men to hold their fire.

"Relax gnome I am not going to execute you, no doubt they bullied you into helping them."

Vassal reached up to grab Jamar's hand. As they touched Vassal let the ancient magical energy inside him seep out and flow into Jamar.

"Allow me to speak with them and I will get your information without the need for anymore senseless killing."

To everyone else in the bank there was no visible change in Jamar, but Vassal could see the magical blue aura glowing in his eyes as it entranced him.

"As you wish," replied Jamar staring down at the gnome.

Without hesitation Vassal quickly walked over to Heliodor, Neen and Sliver.

"I suggest if you are going to transport us you do it now Heliodor," he whispered.

They all quickly linked hands and Heliodor spoke the words of the spell.

"They are trying to escape!" yelled one of the other elves.

The alarm in his voice brought Jamar out of his trance and he suddenly snapped to attention.

"Kill them, fire, fire!"

Almost in perfect unison a row of arrows whistled lethally towards them, but they struck only the wall behind, as all four vanished.

#

Neen dropped to the ground quickly and stood still with her gun drawn until the giddy sensation from the teleportation passed. Sliver wobbled unsteadily beside her and fell to an awkward sitting position. His left eye was now completely closed over and he spat out some blood and a tooth. Meanwhile Heliodor had collapsed beside her completely unconscious. Vassal scampered over to him, completely unaffected by the teleportation and tried his best to wake him.

Neen quickly scanned their surroundings and to her relief they had materialised in a city side street and for a change it was completely free of undead.

"Where are we?" winced Sliver.

"Vassal take care of Heliodor while I scout around," ordered Neen.

"There is no need. We are standing over the ruins of Gorgak of that I can assure you."

"How do you know for sure?" asked Sliver sceptically.

"Because I am the only one who ever escaped Gorgak alive and the magic that curses me was conjured here. Many bad memories here..."

"If that's true then we only have one chance left to stop Gravlok. We have to find the mass graves before he does," said Neen. Vassal reached into his satchel and pulled out a mobile tablet. He placed his hand flat on top of it and spoke the words of an enchantment.

"Here take this," he replied, handing it to Neen. "It will guide you there. The rest is up to you. I will follow with Heliodor as soon as we can."

Neen took the tablet and studied it. A large green arrow pointed off to her left. As she spun the tablet around in her hand the green arrow stayed pointing in the same direction.

"It looks like I have an enchanted compass. I guess it's time to finish this job."

"Just make sure you don't you don't get between me and that orc because I want his head," said Sliver as he rose unsteadily to his feet.

"You are in no condition to fight."

"I have been in worse states than this and still killed plenty of people Neen. Besides, there is no way I am letting you get your hands on that elixir all by yourself. I might be in love, but I am not stupid!"

"Fine you ass hat, but if you get in my way I am going to put a white light round in your crippled ass!"

#

Neen hovered along just above head height of the humans in the street below. Sliver followed a few metres behind. His flight was a little more erratic than hers as he struggled to shake off the effects of the blow to his head.

The people in the street scurried along, their faces filled with worry. Most of the shops were still open in pretence of normality. An illusion that was shattered by the security bars, grills and shutters that covered every shop front window in sight. News had obviously reached the city about the terrible plague that was spreading across the country at incredible speed.

They passed a corner convenience store that was packed to the limit with people trying to buy every scrap of food and other supplies they could lay their hands on. A fight broke out inside the store and it started a brawl that quickly turned into a looting spree in the street. Neen shook her head in pity and avoided the commotion by flying higher.

"These people have no idea what is coming their way. Look at them, they are acting like it's just some terrible storm that they can weather by locking themselves inside their apartments for a few days!" she said dragging her eyes from the tablet momentarily to look back at Sliver.

"How much further?" he grumbled. He looked worse than before, he was pale and it looked as though he was struggling to breathe. She stopped and moved close to him. He tried to shrug her away, but she persisted and put her hand on his good cheek so she could get a better look at his face. That's when she realised that his nose was broken.

"Sliver you have to sit this one out."

"We are wasting time," he snapped as he pushed past her again.

"Ass hat..." she mumbled under her breath. What she wouldn't give for a touch of slumber dust to put his lights out for the next few hours and keep the stubborn jackass safe.

They continued to follow the directions of the enchanted tablet for several more blocks until they came to a street with several car yards on either side. There were new and used cars everywhere, but not a single person looking to buy. As they passed the second such car yard the tablet started to pulsate and the green arrow that had been giving them their direction started to spin.

Sliver flew over to the nearest car, dropped down onto the bonnet and drew Tathra from its scabbard. Then he gingerly lay back against the windscreen and lay the sword beside him within easy reach.

"Looks like we got here first for a change," he said with a sigh as he closed his good eye and tried to relax.

"What? That's it? Are you just going to lay there and wait?"

"We are going to need a distraction and the state I am in it may as well be me. You on the other hand should find yourself some concealment."

"No way, he's going to kill you if you try to face him alone."

"You just make sure you put one right between his eyes as soon as you get a chance and let me worry about staying alive."

Reluctantly Neen found a position behind a car deeper into the car park where she could easily cover Sliver from all angles and displace to other concealed firing positions if needed. She did not like the plan at all and had to force herself to stay hidden as the minutes passed.

Suddenly a gentle breeze started which quickly increased in intensity. She looked up and in the sky above storm clouds started to form in a concentrated ball that seemed localised directly over head. Then there was a bright blue flash. Neen cautiously peered around the side of the car to see two figures materialise onto the street.

The first sank to his knees almost immediately. It was Gravlok and he was suffering from teleportation sickness. It was the perfect opportunity and too good to waste! She was about to burst out of her hiding spot with guns blazing when Sliver made his presence known by emptying a full clip of one of his mini submachine guns into the air.

This immediately caught the attention of the second figure, a Minotaur, who bellowed wildly. Even as far as Minotaur's went this one was huge, far bigger and more imposing than the orc wizard even. The beast did not wait for Sliver to finish firing even before it charged savagely towards him. Sliver leapt off the car just in time as the Minotaur ploughed head first into it, flipping it upside down like it was a toy.

With surprising speed and agility it continued to pursue Sliver, jumping from car to car as it went. Neen suddenly realised that Sliver was trying to lead the beast away from Gravlok. It was now or never so without further hesitation she burst out from behind the car with both guns drawn.

She flew quickly across the car park towards Gravlok, but the Minotaur was not so easily fooled and Neen caught sight of the used car hurled in her direction only just in time to avoid it. In doing so she dived too low, bounced across the rough tar of the car yard and slammed into the side of another car.

She recovered quickly and was back into the air and out of the path of a second flying vehicle just in time. This time she spiralled towards the Minotaur firing both guns like crazy as she went, a hale of dark elixir rounds spewing forth from one and white light enchanted rounds from the other. The head of a Minotaur was surprisingly hard to put a bullet through, especially a fairy sized one, so she fired at its chest.

To her surprise the bullets bounced off and the beast charged at her again. She dodged it and as it passed by she realised why. It was wearing nano-carbon body armour. The armour was made up of a series of plates so it did not cover every part of the Minotaur, however the parts that were left exposed were the ones where the Minotaur's hide was at its thickest.

Neen buzzed around the beast as fast as she could and started firing at it from every direction in an attempt to hit something vulnerable. She even shot it in the head, but that just seemed to make it even angrier. She was getting nowhere and she was running short on ammunition.

Sliver suddenly burst past her, bumping her out of the way as he went. He fired his mini sub machine guns at the beast as well as he went. The Minotaur turned his attention back to Sliver who had now dropped his guns and had Tathra in his hands again.

"Get Gravlok now!" he yelled angrily.

Neen raced away from the melee and back towards Gravlok who was still on his hands and knees in the middle of the street. She could have shot him from halfway across the car yard, but she needed to get the elixir first so she flew to within a few feet of him before she stopped.

"You have till I count to ten to give up the elixir. If you do I'll put a bullet between your eyes and finish you quick. If not I am going to let Sliver cut you up nice and slowly piece by piece!"

Gravlok did not move or acknowledge her presence. She was about to just pull the trigger when he spoke.

"Immobilise!"

She realised too late that he had already recovered. She was frozen in mid air, held in place by his will alone. Gravlok stood up, walked over to her and plucked her from the air and wrapped his huge clawed hand completely around her. Her arms were pinned to her side and her delicate wings were crushed hard and painfully against her back.

She wanted to cry out, but she couldn't, her face was frozen in place just like the rest of her body. The only thing she could manage was to breathe and even that was difficult. She cursed herself silently for being so utterly stupid as she awaited death.

"Before I squeeze out your innards and drink them down to quench my thirst little one I will give you the privilege of first watching Sliver fight the mighty Deetas. He has been a death cage champion for three years running so it should be a notable event."

Death caging was an illegal cage fighting league where two fighters went in and only one was allowed out alive. It earned fighters huge money and allowed them superstar status for as long as they survived. To survive for three years meant that Deetas was nothing less than a ruthless killing machine.

Neen tried desperately to get her tongue and mouth moving so she could form the words of a spell and at least help Sliver. No matter how hard she tried nothing worked and she could only look on helplessly as Sliver dodged, ducked, lunged and parried. He swooped in close then away from the Minotaur as fast and nimbly as his injured body would allow, all the time slashing away with Tathra.

Sliver was now so focused on the fight that he did not notice the predicament that Neen was in. The Minotaur was now bleeding from each blow that he had managed to land in between the armour plates, yet it did not seem to slow Deetas down in the least. Sliver on the other hand was clearly tiring and suffering from his previously injuries.

He tried to disengage, but the Deetas pursued him relentlessly. That was when Sliver finally looked back towards her and realised what had happened. His eyes locked with hers for the briefest moment and she saw a look of longing and sadness in them that she had never ever seen before.

Sliver suddenly spiralled straight up into the air high above the Minotaur. At first she thought he was trying to save his own skin and escape, but then he looped over backwards and hurtled back towards to ground like a meteorite. Tathra's blade went white hot and he aimed himself directly towards Deetas with the sword thrust out in front of him like a lance.

The Minotaur made no attempt to dodge him and bellowed loudly in defiance. As the two came together Deetas thrust his horned head into the oncoming Sliver impaling him right through his chest. At the same time Tathra hit its mark and plunged deeply into the neck of the Minotaur, severing a main artery. The great beast thrashed around in pain for a few moments, blood spurting from the wound like a fountain, as the glowing blade burned its way deeper into its flesh. Deetas finally collapsed face forwards. He was dead before he hit the ground and so was Sliver whose body hung limply from one of the beasts mighty horns.

Neen screamed inwardly. Part of her wanted to race to Sliver's side in the hope that he was still somehow alive, or at least hold him in her arms just one last time. With Gravlok holding her firmly in place with his spell she was powerless to do anything an as her frustration and anger rose something snapped inside her. A part of her mind opened that she had always previously suppressed. Her mind became suddenly serene and calm as she greeted the spectre of death without feeling.

"A fitting end for both of them," said Gravlok respectfully. Then he produced the vial containing the elixir of life from inside his robes with his free hand. "Your time has now come to an end too little one. A pity that your fate will be a little less dignified, but I do need to eat."

Gravlok raised her above his head then opened his mouth wide ready to drink down the blood and innards that he was about to squeeze out of her. Neen wanted to close her eyes, but she could not even do that. His clawed hand started to close tighter and she felt as though her rib cage was about to implode. She was ready the pass out when she saw Heliodor appear at the end of the street. He quickly pointed his staff at Gravlok and a small fire ball raced forth and struck him in the back with a boom. The magical blast knocked him out, flung him forwards and caused him to let go of both Neen and the elixir at the same time.

Neen landed first and landed hard, but so did the elixir. The vial landed less than a foot from her and when it did it smashed to pieces on the hard tar of the car yard. The elixir itself sprayed everywhere, including all over her. She was free of Gravlok's spell, but the landing knocked the wind out of her. She was dazed and struggling to stay conscious.

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Gravlok slowly got back to his feet, he stared over at the elixir that was now somehow soaking into the impervious tar surface of the car yard. When he saw it he began to laugh maniacally. The remaining fairy looked as though she was about to pass out so he ignored her. It was time to settle another old score anyway.

"No matter what happens to me you cannot stop it now!" he yelled as he turned to face Heliodor.

Heliodor slammed the base of his staff hard onto the road and another fireball formed around the flaming crystal at its top. He then swung the staff in a wide arc and sent the ball of flame hurtling towards Gravlok again. This one was bigger than the first one and intended to kill rather than stun. This time however Gravlok was well prepared and stood his ground.

"Extinguish!" he commanded raising his claws and pointing them palms first towards the oncoming fireball. A moment later it vanished with nothing more than a small puff of smoke.

"After all this time I expected so much more from you," he said mockingly.

"I promise you will not be disappointed for long!" growled Heliodor as he smashed his staff upon the ground once more. This time a shockwave blasted through the air in all directions. When it hit Gravlok he was thrown back several metres and hard up against a car. The collision seemed to hurt the car more than Gravlok however because he quickly stood up again and waved a disapproving finger towards Heliodor.

"You will pay dearly for that apprentice. Immobilise!" he commanded, but Heliodor was unaffected and simply smashed his staff onto the ground again and created another shockwave that was more violent than the first.

Again Gravlok was thrown backwards into the car, driving it back several feet with him. This time it knocked the wind out of him and he fell forwards onto his hands and knees after he bounced off the car.

"Are you so arrogant that you think I would face you without knowing how to protect myself against that little trick?"

Gravlok did not respond. Instead he placed the palm of his hand onto the ground as though he was going to stand again.

"Tremor!" he commanded in the ancient tongue. A giant crack suddenly appeared in the road surface that quickly raced towards Heliodor who had to dive frantically to one side to avoid being swallowed by it. The resulting earth tremor also threw everything in close proximity several feet into the air, cars included.

Gravlok stood again and was well satisfied with the result. The sight of his undead brethren starting to slowly appear from the deep crevasse made it all the more sweet. All there was left to do now was to finish his revenge on Heliodor then sit back and watch the undead destroy everything.

He pointed a claw towards Heliodor before he had a chance to recover and spoke the words of a final spell. He was going to make Heliodor suffer a long and painful death.

"Electrify!" he commanded and electricity arced from his fingertips and hit Heliodor in the chest. He thrashed around crying out in pain until the burst stopped then fell to the ground dropping his staff. As he tried to reach for it again Gravlok repeated the torturous spell and this time Heliodor roared in agony.

Gravlok approached Heliodor as he tried once again to get to his feet. All around him undead orcs were crawling from the deep split in the road. Gravlok smiled widely as he prepared to cast the spell again.

"I am going to make this very long and very painful. Soon you will be begging me to kill you and when you do I am just going to hurt you more!"

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Neen struggled to focus, she felt dizzy and everything around her appeared blurry. Her skin burned momentarily where the droplets of elixir had landed on her bare skin. For a few moments she felt as though her blood was on fire. She tried to shake off the sensation and stand, she had to stop Gravlok, although she did not know why. Her mind started to drift again. She started thinking of Sliver, but that made her sad for some reason so she stopped. Then she noticed her hands and how far away they looked. She tried to touch them together, but found they were too elusive.

Heliodor's voice caught her attention for a moment and the next thing she knew she was flying through the air again, end over end like a tumble weed. She hit something hard that stopped her mid flight and she blacked out.

When she regained consciousness again the strange sensation had gone and was replaced by a rather nasty headache as well as various other painful sensations all over her body. She sat up slowly, then it all came back to her and the anguish was almost too much to bear. There was no time for self pity however, because Gravlok was now standing over Heliodor firing bolt after bolt of lightning into him. Heliodor howled in agony as his body thrashed about violently.

With Sliver gone it was up to her to kill Gravlok, but how? Her guns had been flung away from her frozen hands with the first fireball. She had no time to waste recovering them if she was going to save Heliodor.

She tried to think of a spell that would do the trick, but she had nothing that was likely to harm the orc. At best she was going to be able to distract him. Another round of lighting arced from Gravlok's hands and into Heliodor's chest. To make matters worse there were now undead orcs crawling out of a deep fissure in the middle of the street.

Neen smashed her fists onto the cold tar surface of the car yard in despair. She had failed in stopping Gravlok, she had let Sliver die and now she was about to watch Heliodor die too. Her shoulders slumped and for the first time in a very long time she started to cry. What was the use of fighting on when there was nothing left to fight for anyway? Why struggle to survive when there was now no way to stop the dark magic plague?

She wished she had her guns still because right at that moment she wanted to put a bullet between her own eyes and end it all. Then suddenly a gentle hand rested upon her shoulder. She spun around quickly expecting an undead orc, but instead found Vassal looking back at her.

"It's ok Neen just relax," he said in a sagely tone as he let the magical blue energy within him flow into her.

A wave of calm suddenly washed over her and the words of a spell started to form in her mind. It was a powerful spell and one that she had never known before. She spoke the words of the intricate spell in the most ancient of tongues, long forgotten. She spoke it as though she had known it all her life. When she finished she placed her palm onto the ground and the tar surface began to melt and move and morph until finally a mighty black Griffin rose up, formed from the molten asphalt.

It screeched loudly and Gravlok turned towards it his eyes wide in surprise. He spun around quickly and cast his lightning bolts into the asphalt Griffin, but it had no effect and the beast launched into the air and raced towards him at incredible speed. It smashed aside everything in its path, vehicles and undead orcs alike.

In desperation Gravlok grabbed Heliodor's staff and launched fireballs at the oncoming Griffin. They also had no effect and the beast was quickly upon the orc. It snatched him into the air with its sharp front talons then tore apart his chest ferociously with its beak. Gravlok started to scream, but it was cut short as the Griffin tore him apart and feasted vigorously on his remains.

Vassal removed his hand and Neen turned back to look at him again as though she had just woken up from a very real dream

"How did you do that?"

"That is not important right now. You need to focus. Go help Heliodor."

"What is the use? We failed and we cannot stop it now."

"While you have the will to survive there is still hope Neen, but we will need him."

"Fine, you stay here while I go get my guns," she ordered.

"No," he replied resolutely and she looked back at him with genuine surprise. He reached out and grabbed her hand, allowing the magic to flow into her again. Her eyes glazed over and her mind and body relaxed. "This part of the journey you must travel alone Neen, but rest assured we will meet again soon."

A few moments later she snapped out of the magically induced daze and Vassal was gone. Meanwhile the street between her and Heliodor was rapidly filling with undead orcs who had arisen from their mass graves deep under the ground. The Griffin ignored the orcs and continued to devour Gravlok.

"Fat lot of good you are," she mumbled to herself.

She needed her guns so she leapt into the air and flew above the reach of the orcs so she could search in relative safety. She quickly spotted one and then the other. She swooped down quickly to grab the first in an acrobatic manoeuvre that would have left the red baron proud. However her enchanted pistol was too close to a smashed car to pick it up on a fly by so she was forced to land and quickly grab it.

She felt vulnerable on the ground and was alert as soon as she touched down. That was when she realised that none of the undead orcs were paying her any attention at all. They were all ambling off in various directions, with some now moving specifically towards Heliodor.

She fired several rounds from her dark elixir pistol into the air to get their attention and hopefully draw them away from Heliodor. The Griffin stopped eating for a second and looked at her then returned immediately to its grizzly work. All of the undead orcs in the street also stopped and turned towards her.

"Come and get me!" she shouted, but to her disbelief they ignored her and continued moving off as though she were not there at all. She fired her gun again, but the undead were undeterred.

She had to act fast or the orcs nearest would be on top of Heliodor so she flew towards him at top speed, firing her enchanted pistol as she went. She disintegrated several of the orcs that were closest to Heliodor. He has still not moved since the Griffin had killed Gravlok.

She landed next to him and felt for a pulse with one hand and fired her pistol with the other. He was still alive, but his pulse was weak and he was unconscious. How she was supposed to move someone of his size was beyond her. She slapped his face as hard as she could with one tiny hand as she squeezed off another round. He did not even stir. In frustration she picked off another few undead. Then she looked over at the huge Griffin who was now sitting idly by preening its wings.

"Hey you!" she shouted. "Why don't you get off that lions ass of yours and help!"

The Griffin suddenly stood on all fours and raced towards her, knocking more undead orcs out of its way as it went. Fearful that the beast wanted a fairy as dessert after a main course of orc she drew her black elixir pistol as well, but she did not fire. The Griffin skidded to a halt in front of her and screeched loudly, but made no move to attack her. She slowly holstered her guns and when she did the Griffin seemed to relax and slowly bowed its head towards her. She reached out tentatively and patted its beak.

"I don't know how much you understand, but I need your help to save my friend."

The Griffin seemed to understand her clearly and it gently picked up Heliodor in its Talon's and leapt into the air where it hovered expectantly. She launched into the air and flew up next to it.

"Stay here," she ordered and she spiralled back down to where Sliver still lay impaled on the Minotaur's horn. She landed next to him and crouched down under his hanging form so she could see his face. His eyes looked somehow less cold in death than they had in life. She cupped his face gently in her hands and kissed his cold lips. Tears rolled freely down her cheeks.

"You tried to teach me not to love anyone and then you made me fall in love with you. Losing you was the cruellest thing you have ever done to me Sliver. I promise you this, I will never love anyone or anything ever again..."

She wiped away her tears and vowed to herself that she would never cry again. She flew back to the awaiting Griffin feeling dead inside just like the orcs below. When she reached the beast she landed gently on its back and patted its neck.

"Take me to someone who can save Heliodor," she ordered.

There was nothing left to do now except survive.

END

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About the Author

Shane Griffin lives in Australia near the Blue Mountains west of Sydney. He is a part time author and full time scientist. He has been writing science fiction and fantasy since age 19. He has published over 20 short stories in magazines and ezines such as Potato Monkey, Antipodean Science Fiction, Ripples, Eclecticism and Masque Noir.

With stories like Accident Man, Border Patrol and the Necrofairies proving popular with readers Shane is now focusing on e-publishing under his own label - Poupichou Press.

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Other Titles by This Author

Science Fiction Short Stories

Accident Man

Antipodean Collection

Antipodean Collection2

Barkley's Body Swap and Pawn Shop

Border Patrol

Blue Pelagic

Cancer Stick Addiction

Cure Overdose

Deathday

Drifter

Generation Next The Real Thing

Heir Neekay

Long Odds

Manjac and the Nosebleed Section

Necrofairies

Shady Hazy and the Subliminal Criminal

World War H

Fantasy Short Stories

The Duel

The Mercenary

Visions of Magic - The Kidnap of Gabrielle Ulan

Novels

Apocalyptica - Rogue Memories
