Kate awoke face-down on a stretcher in the corridor. “What…?”

  “Ah, finally.” That was Apollyon who punctuated her relief by pulling another splinter from Kate’s back.

  “OW! What happened?”

  “The FBC made their move. The briefcase their agent left behind was a bomb. If you hadn’t shoved Clementine into the hallway, she would be dead.”

  A new voice interjected. Kate didn’t recognize her, but she spoke demonic. “The bst would have been enough to colpse the building, if not for your shield wards. They were certainly a good idea and I will suggest implementing them in more of our critical infrastructure.”

  Kate forced a smile. “Well thank you, whoever you are.”

  “Sekhmet, former explosives expert for the armed forces. I now do home renovations.”

  “Quite the career path, going from blowing things up to fixing them. OW!” That was another rge splinter removed.

  “Apollyon called me in the moment she found out what happened. Speaking of… you should see the disaster for yourself.”

  “I should, shouldn’t I? Polly, can I get up?”

  Apollyon plucked another splinter from Kate’s back, prompting another pained sound. “I need to remove three more splinters, the rest are small enough to be expelled by applying mild healing magic. One moment.”

  “Okay, I see- OW! Fuck, Polly! OW! Why does this hurt so much?”

  “I already applied a pain damping spell, these are fragments of the wooden wall panels and the furniture, they are quite rge. You are also bleeding on the carpet.”

  “Can you make me not do that? FUCK!”

  “That was the st one, please sit up now and hold still.”

  Kate followed the orders of her best friend and most helpful healer, who applied a quick healing spell causing the rest of the wooden shrapnel to be expelled and the bleeding to stop.

  “You may now take a look at what remains of our office.”

  “I dread it…” Kate got up and stepped toward the doorway to the office. She was quite thankful she couldn’t see inside yet, she just knew that it would break her heart. And it did. The office was nothing but shrapnel bsted to the edges of the room and embedded in the walls. “Your desk…”

  “My desk does not matter.”

  “I liked the desk…” Kate was starting to shake. She had never taken loss or damage of what she held dear well. Lizzy had to always calm her down when she so much as chipped a toy.

  “If not for your shields, the desk would be the least of your worries.” Sekhmet interjected.

  “That was Polly’s desk…”

  “A beautiful desk.”

  “FIX IT!” Kate snapped at Sekhmet. “Just… can you fix it?”

  “I cannot, but I know some who might be able to.” The outburst didn’t seem the faze the old cat-like demon.

  “Bring them here. It has priority over the rest of the room. No cleanup until the desk is done.” Kate turned to Apollyon. “Where is Clementine and did you get the FBC guy?”

  Apollyon nodded reassuringly. “He and his accomplice were caught trying to leave the parking lot at the bottom of the hill. They are being held in the isotion chamber under the ruins, separated by a magical barrier so they cannot communicate. Superintendent Clementine is safe and sound in the restaurant, Nirrti and Adelina are with her. We also evacuated the library temporarily until we were sure that no further explosives had been pnted. We reopened minutes before you woke up. The justiciars and the inquisitorium have been alerted, but there is no sign of further attacks elsewhere.”

  “Good… good. I need to talk to the FBC goons.” Kate magically swapped her torn clothes for her combat gear. “By tomorrow morning, the FBC is history.”

  Apollyon took a moment to answer. “Do you want me to involve the inquisitors?”

  “No, I will do this myself. They attacked our library. This is our vengeance and my heart thirsts for blood.”

  “I will help you.”

  “Polly, don’t.”

  “I insist. You can strike them down, but I will help you hunt them. You may be head librarian, but an attack on this pce is an attack on me as much as it is on you.”

  “What about the others then?”

  “Nirrti and Adelina want justice but declined the offer to help me hunt down the FBC members.”

  “Wait, that sounds like…”

  “Like I already pnned to remove the FBC from this world, yes. Even if you didn’t want vengeance, I do and I would have acted on it on my own.”

  Kate stepped towards Apollyon and hugged her. “Polly…”

  “Kate.”

  “What about Eisheth and Ama?”

  “Ama wants to rebuild, Eisheth is more concerned about our friends and protecting them. Both have left to help the justiciars.”

  “They are far better people than I am…”

  “Than we both are. Sekhmet, coordinate the desk reconstruction and your report about the explosion and potential repairs of the office. We will be at the isotion chamber for a bit before leaving to hunt.”

  Sekhmet nodded. “Understood. I might need a few more hours here before I can finish my assessment, but I can get someone here to deal with the desk before that.”

  “Please do.”

  “Make sure it is just as it used to be, all the little scratches, the dents, everything. I want the desk just as it was this morning.” Kate dug her fingers into Apollyon’s back.

  Sekhmet understood. “Of course, just like it used to be. Wouldn’t be the same desk otherwise.”

  “Yes…”

  Kate teleported into the isotion cell, a gss cube suspended over a seemingly bottomless abyss. She was in the half where Kayden Sheppard was being held. His accomplice was in the other, separated by a magical barrier stopping all light and sound from travelling between the halves.

  “Did no one inform you that we are immortal? We cannot be killed.”

  Kayden stepped backwards against the gss wall. “No, I thought you would…”

  “Die? No. Even our dear superintendent is unharmed. We have protections against your attacks. We warned you not to attack us, to leave well enough alone. But no, you had to make this a human world as God intended. God is dead. Look at me!” Kate grabbed Kayden’s face. “God. Is. Dead. I fucked his killer.”

  He clutched the cross around his neck. “No, that’s not true. God will save me. God will save us all.”

  “Let’s put that to the test.” Kate let got of his face and pressed a finger on his cross, pushing it against his chest. A pained scream accompanied the burning trails following the shape of the cross over his body. The moment Kate let go, he fell to the ground. Dead.

  A quick gesture dispelled the magical barrier. The other young man caught a glimpse of his dead friend and stumbled backwards onto the floor. “Oh god…”

  “He won’t help you, I already did this spiel with your friend. What’s your name?”

  “E-Evan.”

  “Evan, do you realize what you have become a part of? What you and your friend did?”

  “We… we were meant to kill you.”

  “And?”

  “Destroy your library…”

  “That is an offense that I cannot take lightly. It is the gravest of insults, an action of immeasurable malevolence. To destroy knowledge, to even attempt such a thing is unforgivable and must be repaid in blood. Yours and that of everyone else in the FBC. A warning to all who know of us in this world to never again dare to try to destroy what we offer freely.”

  Evan didn’t respond. He merely nodded in resignation. He knew what he was part of and what that meant. Kate decided to be merciful and do something that should be painless.

  The human just gasped and slumped onto the floor. Kate took a moment to look at him before teleporting out of the cell.

  “You took his soul.” Apollyon stepped towards Kate who was a bit more apprehensive about being near her friend.

  “Yes, I did.”

  “I didn’t think you would know how to do that.”

  “It felt natural. So easy and… I understand why humans were wanted for their souls. Was that wrong for me to do?”

  “No.”

  “I just never thought I ever would. It’s a line I can’t uncross. A step away from humanity.”

  “You are not human. You don’t need to feel bad for doing what comes natural to someone who wronged us, wronged you.”

  “I suppose so. It’s something to dwell on ter.”

  “Yes. We should act quickly now, the FBC agents were likely required to report back soon enough. The others will know that they failed and expect our revenge.”

  “Even if we had time, I don’t think I could rest until we are done. But one thing before we leave… the desk, wasn’t it protected by our usual enchantments?”

  Apollyon shook her head. “It was but you would need something stronger to protect from a bst like that. It was protected from wear and tear after I used it. This was more than just a little dent.”

  “I see… looks like I need to learn some heavy-duty enchantments in the future.”

  “Potentially, but let’s take it easy once we are done with the seven still on our list.”

  Kate simply nodded.

  AnnouncementThe Storm Part 2 is up right now on my Patreon! Links are below as usual. Thank you all for reading!