I waited for the world to stop spinning before I attempted to get up, planting my armored palms on the rooftop that emanated heat like we were inside an oven. Everything hurt. Bits of my armour fell away as I stood and dared to test my neck. Good, nothing broken.
The Goblin watched me patiently with his strange version of restlessness, where he didn’t move from where he was standing and yet I could see the muscles shifting under his skin constantly.
Nell pulsed her concern and I tried to send reassurance back as I sorted through my feelings.
“Your Witch is dead,” I said slowly.
“Yes. He was ambushed by our enemies while I was preoccupied. This was…” the Goblin trailed off, lost in thought, “a long time ago. Time doesn’t move the same anymore. I feel it passing without me, like I’m stuck at the bottom of a river.”
My sympathy surprised me, my heart squeezed despite him just throwing me through a roof. “I’m sorry.”
“Your condolences mean nothing to me. You may as well have not spoken. I’m sure you’re curious what it’s like?”
I was preparing myself for the next time the Goblin snapped and lunged for me, but perhaps playing along would delay that. I couldn’t deny that I was curious. What would it be like without Nell? Still, I had to stay on my guard.
“Silence,” was the one word he uttered. The rumbling filled the space left after.
“What was he like?” I asked.
“Why don’t you ask him yourself?” the Goblin asked, staring at something past my shoulder. I said nothing, waiting for him to smile and say he was just trying to distract me so he could grab me again. Instead, he looked lost in a different world.
He blinked and then he was looking at me again. “I’m ready for your next blow.”
“Can’t we just talk? I don’t get to speak to another Wolf very often.”
“I hold tenuously to these social structures that no longer have meaning beyond giving people the hope that I will release them.”
My heart sank. “Why are you doing this?”
“I’m done waiting,” the Goblin said, muscles bunching around his neck like a cobra ready to strike.
I gritted my teeth. Bones slid against each other as I brought them forward, wrapping them around my arm. Vibrant colours stood out amidst the pale white. I realized they were the plants that Nell had tucked into my armour. They were changing. One of the flowers had morphed into a sac with fluid inside.
I ignored it for now. The Goblin wanted violence. The bones spiralled into a single sharp point.
The Goblin eyed the weapon hungrily. Locust Legs tensed and released, shooting me forward, gravel sent skittering along the rooftop. The lance plunged into the Goblin’s stomach, burying itself deep. The sensation shocked me. For a moment I saw Alison in her dying moments. My breathing shuddered and I couldn’t seem to calm down.
The Goblin reached out. I braced, but he grabbed the lance and pulled me closer.
“You feel it, don’t you? The battelust.”
I pulled away, feeling sick and he released me. The lance pulled out of him with a sickening squelch. His blood spattered and I felt how hot my limb was, coated in it. The fire underneath my skin must have been hungry.
But this feels different. In a moment of disbelief, I raised my arm and saw that actual fire burned along my limb. The bones were turning black and I yelped as the heat reached my skin. I slammed the lance against the ground, desperate to free myself. Bones snapped away and I felt hot flecks of blood on my face like burning oil. I dropped to the ground, rolling.
It’s not going out. I’m going to burn to death.
Searing pain. The rumbling had become a roar of flame. I couldn’t breathe. The fire was burning the air away.
“Absorb the blood,” the Goblin said loudly over the roar of the fire.
I listened, consuming the blood that remained on my skin. The tongues of flame subsided and I was left gasping for breath, the smell of burned hair lingering in my nose.
“My blood ignites on contact to air,” the Goblin explained. “It is my instinctual Shape.”
“You don’t say,” I panted, feeling my burns radiating pain.
The Goblin touched the wound in his stomach, spreading the fire to his fingertips. The tissues were coiling around the burning hole. He would recover. He hadn’t even flinched.
I hate this, I thought. I couldn’t be like them. Like Chase or Aaron. I tried. I tried so hard just to stay alive.
The Goblin spoke, “When a Witch is killed, their Wolves are detached from their source of stability. The brain begins to produce emotions to compensate for the loss of the Witch’s.”
The Goblin looked at his hand, miniature ripples moving across his palm. “It’s getting worse over time. Emotions spill over, interfering with my Shape. You’ve no doubt discovered that emotions are the engine of Shaping. But without any solid ground, my Shape cannot settle. Changes come faster and it is difficult to maintain any one form. At some point, I will lose all ability to reason, becoming a mindless beast.”
While the Goblin talked, I could feel Nell at work. The fluid sloshed further down my arm and the bones grew heavier. I searched for the colourful sac but it had disappeared. Was the fluid inside of the antlers? They were hollow. My insides churned. If I was reading Nell’s intentions, she was creating a needle. She wanted me to inject him.
“He haunts me,” the Goblin said, his eyes focusing on thin air. “I wonder if I’ll always recognize his face, or if one day he will become a strange watcher, observing my slow descent into unbeing.”
I straightened up. “What do you need from me, Goblin?”
“I… need entertainment!” he bellowed, a bonfire crackling beneath his words. “What else is left for me other than meagre distractions of blood and fury?”
A leafy branch rose up from the edge of the building behind the Goblin. It continued to grow and Nell appeared, hanging tightly to the thickest part of the tree. She jumped off and shouted back at the Goblin, “Fuck off! If you’re going to just be a pain for everyone else here, why don’t you just go die already?”
The Goblin wheeled on her and she faced him down, eyes reflecting the flames. She said, “Do you really think that your Witch would want this?”
His face grew livid, his face muscles writhing into a living oni mask. “Come then, Witch! Try and stop me!”
I had used the distraction to creep close. I sank the needle of bone into his back. The fluid drained into him. He snarled and batted me away, breaking the bone off inside of him.
The treetop began to snake its branches past Nell, moving in waves towards the Goblin, bearing flowers and thorns that seemed to promise dangerous gifts should they reach him.
A knot of muscle swelled on his arm and then a black horn erupted forth, spraying fiery droplets in every direction. The horn was curled like a ram’s. He roared and swung the arm, burning away the encroaching branches before they could reach him.
Nell’s eyes flashed and the horn split. Seeds spilled out of it, landing on his skin where they stuck and sprouted into a rapidly growing moss. I sprinted around him, reaching Nell while the Goblin was trying to strip the moss off of himself with his nails.
“What was it?” I asked.
“Datura. You injected him with Datura,” Nell said under her breath. “A powerful hallucinogen.”
“He’s going to hallucinate?!” I hissed. “He’s already doing that without any help.”
Nell nodded. “Reality and dreams will mix together. He should start to have bouts of amnesia. We can’t keep fighting fire with fire. So this is the plan. We trick him. Convince him that something else is going on, make him want to leave.”
More black ram horns were sprouting at odd angles from the Goblin’s body. His skin colour was shifting to different shades, rippling in waves across his body. His form became distorted as the flames danced around him. It looked like we had summoned the Devil.
“What should I say?” I asked nervously.
“I didn’t figure that part out.”
“Fuck! Stand back,” I said. “Hey!” I called out. “It’s your turn to hit me. I’m waiting.”
The Goblin looked up at me. His eyes were unfocused, but he could see me.
“You remember me, right?”
Recognition spread across the Goblin’s face. “ALEK.” He roared, standing up.
“Wait- no.” I stammered.
The Goblin flexed his arms and knees. Horns that curled inwards jabbed into his own body. He straightened, tearing small wounds across his body. Fire erupted in gouts, traveling like lava in rivulets down his limbs.
He leapt at me, a fiery demon with arms outstretched. I dropped and rolled to the side. Spots of heat erupted where his blood splashed on me. I ignored the instinctual urge to swat at the flames, instead I assimilated at the spots. I needed to get him off the roof or this whole palace was going to burn.
I dashed a few meters to the edge of the roof. A stupid idea had already formed in my head. Bones moved into place.
Nell backed away from the spots of fire. Her eyes widened as she read my emotions. “Nick, what are you-”
The demon was already charging me. It took everything in me to not try and dodge. I was seized in a hellish hug. Heat seared across my back, making me spasm. I embraced him, grabbing hold of horns near his waist. The pain ate at my sanity as I assimilated as hard as I could. Heal. Faster. Outpace the damage. The heat was unbearable. Flesh sloughed into my palms. The Goblin bellowed in pain. Finally, I bent backwards and released the tension in my legs.
Both the Goblin and I flew off the side of the roof. I think I may be getting used to being airborne, I thought as I formed the Locust Legs again. The Goblin’s grip loosened as we tumbled head first towards the pavement below. I wriggled free and released the Shape, launching myself out of the Goblin’s grasp, moments before landing. I rolled and caught myself. He slammed into the pavement, sending out cracks, limbs forced into a spread eagle position by the force of the impact.
The dust settled. I absorbed the rest of the blood on me and patted myself down. “Okay,” I breathed. “Didn’t burn to death.”
The Goblin shakily picked himself off the ground. You’ve got to be kidding me, not even a moment’s rest?
One of his arms was hanging limply at his side. He met my eyes and I could see how dilated his pupils were from the poison.
“Who are you?” He asked, lips slurring the words.
“Not Alek,” I responded.
He attempted to move his limp arm, but it appeared to be dislocated. He stared at it in confusion. “I used to have two of these.” His eyes narrowed and he swayed unsteadily. “Did you do this?”
An idea formed at my lips. “Nope, that was Alek. You should go find him.”
“Which? There are so many.” The Goblin asked, his eyes again becoming unfocused.
I blinked. “What? Alek the Wolf. I hear he wants to fight you.”
His eyes brightened, like remembering an old friend. “He does? I will go then.”
“Sounds good,” I said, sitting down heavily on the concrete.
He stomped away with patches of his skin still burning. I watched him go and even after he vanished from sight, I listened until the rumbling grew barely audible in the distance. Only then did I breathe a sigh of relief.
“Nick!”
I turned to see Graham running towards me. He had been freed from the spear that had impaled his leg. He looked haggard, his clothes were torn up and he had injuries all over, yet he seemed to be moving fine. The Gambler’s were gathered behind him, licking their wounds from the conflict.
“You’re injured,” he said, looking concerned.
I just snorted out a laugh.
Graham furrowed his brow. “The Red Ring scattered when the Goblin showed up. Unfortunately it took a while before Rami stopped throwing his spears.”
“Your student?”
“Yes, although he’s not always the one in control. I can’t believe it, Nick. The Goblin is a terror in the Old Town. How did you do it?”
I stared in the direction the Goblin had left. “Just a lie. He isn’t thinking straight, Graham. I don’t feel good about tricking him.”
Graham set his hand on my shoulder. I winced as it sent a wave of pain through my aching body.
“We have to live with the mistakes of our past. Sometimes there is no way to heal. But on that note, I’ve already heard from Spike. The Outcasts are grateful for your help.”
I looked up, seeing Nell use the same tree to descend off of the roof.
“I’d like to meet them,” I said.