Maly’s elation at Destiny’s arrival was cut short when two ratfolk jumped atop Sergeant Mewa, one upon a shoulder with a shard of glass and another at his waist with a crude stake. As Mewa grunted, they plunged their weapons into him again and again in the span of a heartbeat, chittering madly as they did so. The City Watchman gurgled and slumped to the floor of the landing as their companions swarmed up the stairs, flowing around Maly and into the breach of wall made my Kami earlier in the battle.

She glanced at the staircase, hearing the roar of the panther as it pounced upon the fleeing ratfolk.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Maly panted, spinning a dagger in each hand. She extended her tattooed arms to either side as mangy rat-people ran past her like a stinking river of furry bodies. One of her blades sliced across a creature’s neck and another cut across ribs. Both ratfolk squealed, and suddenly a pair of them flashed claws in the dim light. Maly danced to avoid one strike and ducked another. Despite the madness of the situation—fighting primal, inhuman creatures she would have thought a children’s story, with an enormous black cat as her companion who spoke in her mind, while a woman with impossible strength fought a glowing-eyed man in a full suit of bronze armor—Maly grinned. Her endless training was serving her well.

Stay focused! the cat roared in her mind. Destiny had reached the top of the staircase. It shook a lifeless rat in its jaws while raking claws across another’s back, and Maly once again marveled at the creature. It resembled a house cat, its coat sleek and black, but was the size of a large hunting dog, its shoulders to Maly’s waist. The great cat called itself a “panther,” which Maly thought described it as well as anything – a new word for a new kind of beast. Intelligent yellow eyes stared back at her. Continue ripping the small toys, the panther growled in her mind. I’ve got the big one.

As it loped past her into the room with Emah and Kami, she heard a thunderous CLANG! followed by a grunt of satisfaction from Kami. “Come on!” the woman yelled, seemingly taunting the figure in the armor. At least, Maly thought, it sounded like that part of the fight was going well. Her eyes glanced to Sergeant Mewa, laying lifeless near her feet, and the other two Watch members, their forms still and bloody. Better than this part, at least.

Then she spun the daggers again in her grip, leaping after the swarm of rats.

The ratfolk weren’t interested in staying to fight her, it seemed. She slashed with her knife, eliciting a screech from one of them as she nicked its long, ropy tail. But then the tide of furry bodies had disappeared into the jagged hole left by Kami’s flight through the air. She still couldn’t believe that the armored guy had punched her through a wall, or that she had stood up and continued fighting. Whatever Kami was, it was something extraordinary. As extraordinary, she supposed, as every other weird happening from today.

Maly hesitated for a moment, wondering what to do. Should she pursue the rats into that other room or help Emah and Destiny? Then she shook her head. Despite the panther’s instruction, that was no choice at all. She ran into the room with her friends.

The warrior in the full suit of bronze armor was now battered, with one shoulder malformed as if it had been hit by a battering ram. The person’s eyes in the helm still glowed an eerie blue in the fading light, however, and as soon as she entered the room an apprehension clenched at her gut. The armored figure turned between Emah, who looked as if she could barely stand and was clutching at her side, and Kami, trying to defend himself against both attackers.

Maly stopped for a moment, stunned at her recent employer. The Kaizukan woman’s torso and arms had elongated, like pulling gooey sap from a tree, and her fists had grown to twice their original size. Even as she watched, the armored warrior threw a gauntleted punch at Kami and her misshapen body moved to avoid it easily. It was like the man was battling mist, or perhaps trying to strike a dangling rope in the wind. Kami flowed and moved her body in impossible ways, looming with those large hands. Indeed, Maly realized now that the enormous dent in the armor’s shoulder was from one of Kami’s oversized fists. The woman was clearly not a trained fighter, but she was displaying the same freakish strength that had bent iron bars in the jail this morning. If she could land a hit, she could do tremendous damage.

Destiny broke Maly from her thoughts as he roared at the three combatants before him. Kami and Emah looked wide-eyed at the great, black cat, its mouth open to reveal white teeth like daggers. Yet it was the armored warrior’s response that was most shocking; the blue light in the eye sockets flared in response to the roar and it reeled back, as if struck in the helmet. The warrior tipped and fell back from the unseen strike, and when it landed to the floor, the armor burst apart. Grieves, gauntlets, pauldrons… Maly didn’t know all the names of the parts of armored suits, but they all crashed and clattered in different directions, empty. It was as if the man wearing the armor had vanished with Destiny’s roar, leaving only the bronze armor behind. A helmet rolled Maly’s way, almost lazily, amidst the cacophony. It stopped a stride from her feet, eye sockets empty and dark.

“What did you do?!” Maly gasped at the great cat. In her mind, she heard a huff of satisfaction. “Where did you send him?”

The panther’s yellow eyes regarded her evenly. There was no “him.” The enchantment on the armor is gone. He sighed, and Maly could hear it like someone sitting on her shoulder with lips against her ear. It’s too bad. Nothing soft to tear and rip like the little dirty toys.

“The rats!” Maly yelled, and without thinking dashed back into the landing, daggers ready. She looked around wildly in the fading light, but there were only the three dead City Watch members and a scattering of small, furred bodies. Blood spattered everywhere, and Maly’s stomach lurched.

You’re too late, child. The toys have fled.

“Wh—what?” she panted, holding her bile at bay. She stumbled back into the room, where Kami remained distorted, her large fists raised, as she stared at Destiny.

“Maly!” she barked. “What is this?”

“Oh!” Maly said and sheathed her daggers. “It’s okay! This is Destiny. My friend.”

We are not friends, the panther rumbled. I am your instrument of vengeance.

“I’m not saying that,” Maly mumbled sidelong.

“Your… friend?” Emah wheezed, and then swayed. The woman’s sword clattered to the floor as she collapsed.

“Emah!” Maly cried.

---

Emah groaned and cracked open her eyes, then winced and raised a hand to shield her face from a beam of sunlight.

“There she is!” Maly smiled brightly. “Welcome back to the world.”

Emah blinked and looked around woozily. “Where are we?” she croaked, her voice a dry whisper. Maly passed her a waterskin and Emah took it, sipping gratefully. As she swallowed, she visibly winced.

“Easy,” Maly cautioned. “You may have some broken ribs. It’s tough to tell because of all the intense bruising across half your side.”

“Where?” Emah persisted, and Maly glanced around. Her friend lay in a large poster bed set against a wall, its drapes drawn shut but illuminated by sunlight beyond. A fireplace filled with ancient ashes and charred wood was across room against the far wall. A wardrobe, towering like an escarpment, stood against another wall. The place smelled of dust and old linens.

“Ah, yeah. We’re still in the house. It’s morning. We moved you to the bedroom on the second floor. It’s musty and old, but otherwise pretty nice I guess,” Maly shrugged a bare shoulder. She had been up most of the night and stifled a yawn. “Inspector Calenta and her people cleared out most of the bodies. A couple of them are guarding the downstairs with Kami. Except Calenta left because Kami kept insulting her.”

Emah sighed and closed her eyes. “I remember the man in the armor, and then… a huge cat? What happened.”

Heat rushed to Maly’s cheeks. “His name is Destiny. He’s my… I don’t know. We met a few days ago. I’ve been trying to tell you, but we never really had any time to talk.”

The woman’s eyes opened. She grinned. “You met a giant cat and named it Destiny?”

“I didn’t name him!” Maly threw up her hands in exasperation. “That’s just what he calls himself.”

“Calls himself,” Emah frowned. “Is that who you’ve been talking to? The giant cat? Oh honey…”

“I’m not crazy,” Maly snapped. “Here, Destiny,” she turned and Emah’s eyes followed to see the panther sitting outstretched against a wall, light dappling its black fur from the window. Its yellow eyes looked back at them. Maly saw Emah stiffen. “I know you only talk to me, but, uh… I don’t know. Do something to show I’m not crazy. Come lay a paw on Emah’s leg or something.”

You do not command me, child, the great cat said in her mind, and within the room he grumbled with a low growl.

“Fine, fine!” Maly snapped. “He’s moody. But,” she held up a warning finger to Emah. “I’m not crazy. He does talk to me.”

Emah’s eyes never left the great cat. She licked her lips. “Okay…” she breathed cautiously. “Maly, what’s happening? The way Kami’s body moves. Her strength. The armored warrior with the glowing eyes. All these… ratfolk. And you’re talking to a giant cat. Maybe I’m the one losing my wits.”

“If you are, we all are. Inspector Calenta says that wild things are happening all across Oakton. The City Watch can’t keep up, and the stuff you described is just part of it. She seems really stressed. Oh! But she did bring our contracts. I signed for you.” Maly smiled. “So at least we’re getting paid in this child’s tale of a city.”

“Thanks,” Emah grunted. “But what does it all mean? Why are these things happening? It all sounds like the Age of Immortals again.”

“Heh, like I know? I don’t think the gods are back, Emah. But you’re the scholar, not me. I’m just glad you’re alive. Now that I know you’re okay, Destiny, Kami, and I are going after the rats. Kami said there was some sort of bejeweled box in that room she crashed into. It must have been what the rats were after from the beginning because it’s gone now. We think the dead ones on the stairs were trying to get past the armor to the other room, but when we started fighting it they used the distraction to go into the hole in the wall Kami made and take the box away. They were gone before we realized it.”

“But…” Emah frowned. “Why? What was in the box? And where did they go?”

“Destiny says their scent goes down to the basement,” Maly sighed. “So I guess we’re going down there to find out the answers to all of those questions. You rest and heal. We’ll be back once we’ve taken a look.”

Emah threw off her blanket. Beneath it she was shirtless, with bandages wrapped around her midsection. “Like hell,” she said. The Kaleen woman winced again and grunted with pain. “I’m coming with you.”

“What?” Maly blurted. “You can’t be serious.”

“By the gods, Maly. Shut up and just help me with my shirt and breastplate, will you? We’ve already let them get too large a head start.”

Oh, I like this one. Destiny rumbled.

Next: Into the darkness!