The Infernal Aether (First Draft)

Chapter 36 - A Bolt from the Blue

The creatures fanned out so that they seemed to fill the entire room, their fingers luring us, calling us toward them. As they approached I fancied I could hear some form of music, a ghostly lilt playing us to our doom. A rhythmic banging accompanied this bizarre, hypnotic symphony.

Our makeshift barricade over the door exploded inwards and a dark figure stepped into and through the dust. The wraiths turned, slowly, to see what it was that had disturbed their hunt.

"Hello," said N'yotsu. "Did you miss me?"

The nearest wraith swung round its arm and advanced on him. N'yotsu neatly stepped aside and then thrust his arm into the creature's body. He muttered something and the creature dissolved with a fading scream.

The other two wraiths turned with a snarl, flinging themselves at this new threat. Their fingers connected with N'yotsu's chest before he had a chance to react and he tensed up as his soul was sucked from his body. I recognised the torment in his face and eyes; it was a torture I revisited in my worst nightmares, when my conscious mind was unable to block out the memories. His mouth stretched in a soundless "O" and his eyes disappeared in their sockets.

"We should run," said Kate. "While they're distracted."

"But N'yotsu..." I began.

There was a desolate, heart-wrenching scream, a cry which forced us to our knees. When it finally died down we looked up through tear-filled eyes to see N'yotsu brushing down his jacket sleeves. There was no sign of the wraths.

He grinned. "They tried to steal a Demon's soul. Never a good idea, whichever circle of Hell you might hail from."

***

We sat round a makeshift fire in the kitchen, warming our hands and feet while we tried to make sense of what had happened. The old man appeared to have settled into the idea of tolerating our presence, mainly due to N'yotsu's rescue, although he clearly had no intention of trusting us and settled for sitting and glaring at us from across the room.

For his part, N'yotsu was unrecognisable from the wretch we had left in Scotland just a few days beforehand. He was once again clean shaven and impeccably dressed in top hat and tails.

"How do you do that?" I asked him.

"Do what, exactly?"

"Get yourself looking so polished, given the state you were in back in Scotland. I do not recall seeing a wardrobe of neatly pressed clothes in the shack we found you in. Nor have we passed a Barber shop on our way here."

Kate rolled her eyes. "He turns up out of nowhere, after refusing to so much as talk to us, vanishes a couple of ghosts, and that is your question? How he got to look so neat and tidy?"

N'yotsu smiled. "Let us just say that I am learning that there are one or two benefits to my being...what I am." A flash of sorrow crossed his face before he continued, his smile reappearing like an electric illumination, not to mention about half as natural. "There are many things which I had assumed were immutable but in fact are pliable to me. Like my appearance and the ability to hunt down my friends."

"Interesting turn of phrase," I said. "'Hunt down'."

N'yotsu stared at me. "You know what I meant."

"I am not entirely sure I do. When we left you a few days ago you barely said a word to us aside from 'Go away'. Yet here you are running around and playing the hero once more. Why the change of heart?"

We all looked at him. He cleared his throat and looked to the floor. "Seeing you all, hearing you speak, it made me realise how pathetic I was being. Once I considered the fact that you had travelled all that way to find me...I knew that I could not abandon you."

"An interesting point that," said Kate. "That we had to come all this way to get you. Quite convenient that we've had to be away from London, where Andras has been up to his tricks."

"Your point being?"

"How do we know you ain't really Andras, come to trick us or kill us?"

"If I meant to kill you, would it not have made more sense to leave you to the mercy of those creatures? In any case, I have come to help you. To stop Andras."

"Andras has manipulated us before," noted Maxwell quietly. "Making us believe we were acting of our own free will when in fact we were following the Demon's master plan."

N'yotsu shrugged. "I can only assure you that I am who I say I am, and that I speak the truth. But know this; with or without you, I will be going to London to stop Andras."

"But," I said. "Given that you are effectively a part of Andras, would it not suit your purposes to keep the portal in the Aether, to go home?" The others stared at me and I shrugged. "Let us just say I am playing Devil's Advocate."

"I have grown rather fond of this world," said N'yotsu. "And in my present state I would not be welcome amongst my kind. In any case, I have come to a realisation; if we do not act soon, it will be too late."

Kate frowned. "What, because of all these Demon things coming through?"

"Worse than that. If the portal is left for too long, it will become permanent."

"How so?" asked Maxwell.

"Think of the fabric of this world, the barrier between here and the Aether, like your skin. Now imagine a knife wound in that skin. If the knife is removed and the skin is not further distressed, then it would heal. However, if the knife is left in or allowed to keep the wound open, the wound would never heal."

"And the patient would die," said Maxwell.

"Indeed. Although in this case it would be somewhat worse. The barrier between this world and the Aether would dissolve. You would, quite literally, have Hell on Earth."

"How long do we have, then?" asked Kate. "Before that happens?"

"I have done some calculations," said N'yotsu. "I estimate that it would take about twenty days, maybe a little longer, for the rupture to make a permanent impact on the fabric of this world. How long has it been since the rupture was created?"

"About twenty days," I said slowly.

"Then we need to move. Now," said Kate, jumping to her feet.

"So what is your plan?" I asked N'yotsu.

"I will kill Andras."

Maxwell leaned forwards. "Have you managed to identify a vulnerability in the Demon?"

"I have. We are, after all, essentially the same creature. What harms me would also harm Andras. I simply need access to some of your equipment."

After so long I could finally see a glimmer of hope. "So...The plan is that we get back to London, make a weapon to kill Andras and then?"

"We break in to where Andras is creating the portal. I distract and kill Andras and Maxwell disables the portal. You can then all go back to your lives."

Kate was frowning. "One question. If you and Andras are the same person, what happens to you if you do kill Andras?"

N'yotsu looked at her. "I die too."

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