Jane Estin felt ill. The Inquisitors’ Chime was not something she had hoped to hear the night she was being taken out to dinner by her bridesmaids. She sat, head in hand, spinning her glass of honey mead. Finally, she began to stand.

  “What’s wrong, Jane?”

  “Sorry, I’m just kind of worried.”

  “Why? The inquisitors will handle it,” the maid of honor said with a smile.

  “I mean,” Jane began, leaning back. “With the riots, the security checks, all of it. And then my brother-”

  “Bah!” the woman replied. “Your brother isn’t even an Inquisitor! He’ll be okay.”

  “I know,” Jane said, souring. She grabbed the glass and threw back the last of the mead. “This is my party anyway. I get to do what I want.” She walked from the table toward the door of the restaurant. The owner was peering with concern through the large bay window onto the main street of The Throne’s entryway. People were running and screaming from the city’s main entrance.

  “What’s happening?” Jane asked.

  “Something at the gate. Don’t know.”

  Jane moved to the restaurant’s door and opened it slowly to peer outside. She looked down toward the city gates and yelped. Some massive, hunchbacked beast was trampling the stampede of people, swinging around and kicking to send bodies flying.

  “Miss!” the shout came suddenly from right in front of Jane. A man fell toward her. “Can I come in!?” he called in a panic.

  Jane lead the man in where he collapsed to the floor. She was shocked to see his left arm, from shoulder to elbow, was stone. “What happened?”

  The man tried to answer, but began coughing deeply into his sleeve. He drew the sleeve back to reveal mucus covered stones.

  “Oh Dreamer,” Jane’s maid of honor said, appearing suddenly behind her. “He breathed it. There’s a catoblepas outside? How?”

  “I don’t know. It’s in the city. There’s men with knives too,” the man strained to explain. “There’s a lot of hurt people out there. The monster would turn their feet to stone and they’d get trampled.”

  “Is he going to be okay?” Jane asked.

  “Depends on how much he breathed. He needs water though.”

  Jane turned to look at the restaurant’s owner. “Do you mind if we let the injured people rest here?”

  “Not at all,” the owner responded.

  “Help him please, Minnie,” Jane said as she moved back to the door. She opened the door and ran out into the chaos to help.

  Just as his sister, Sam was running toward the danger. He, Shiner, and Kaitlyn emerged from the tunnel where they made a hard left against the flow of the stampede. The paladins were holding their shields high overhead, using magic to give them a golden glow that urged the sprinting escapees to yield to the three.

  As the group got closer to the gate, the stampede’s volume lessened until they got a clear view of just what was inspiring so much fear. The massive, bovine creature was immediately chasing two civilians and the paladin trying to defend them. But the beast shuddered as it exhaled a cloud of thick, grey smoke over the three. When the cloud cleared, three statues were all that remained.

  “Does your husband have a catoblepas?” Sam shouted to Kait as the three came to a stop.

  “No,” she replied, still searching the crowds nearby.

  “Well, a problem’s a problem,” Shiner said with a nod. “The Inquisition isn’t here yet, Sammy. Will you be my Confidant?”

  “Of course.”

  Kait looked at the two. “What? But we have to find Matthew!”

  “People are dying, Kaitlyn,” Sam replied. “We’re going to engage this thing. Are you sure you can not use your powers?”

  Kaitlyn did not answer him. She just looked to the floor.

  “Okay, well, just stay safe.” Sam put a hand on Shiner’s shoulder and the two bowed their heads. “Dreamer, your sanctuary is under assault today. While we understand it is not our mission to be here, it is your Will that we walk this hall today. Please, empower us to defend your name.”

  The two young men stretched out , feeling the prayer’s rejuvenating magics flood them. They nodded to one another, and charged toward the creature.

  Kaitlyn watched the two paladins run against the catoblepas. Not wanting to see them get hurt, she looked back to the escaping crowds, now relegated to the edges of the hall. Amidst the escaping crowds, she saw a man that was two-heads taller than the rest, with broad shoulders and a sad face.

  “Benji,” she said softly. As she became more confident she had spotted her former friend, she began to call his name louder. Looking over her shoulder to see Sam and Shiner begin to fight the monster, she took a deep breath and ran after Benji.

  Matthew seemed to be enjoying himself in the stampede. His right arm was held out in front of him, the skin turned a harsh red from using the Halcyon Band. Anyone unable to stay more than an arm’s length away from Matthew’s hand would hear an unnatural pop! And nothing more.

  “Matt, we need to stop,” Benji hissed.

  “Just keep moving, Benji. If we stop, we’re dead,” Matt called back.

  But Benji was already certain they had been too loud on their entry. The plan was doomed to fail.

  Shiner and Sam threw their shields, one after another. Despite Shiner’s being a larger kite shield of a Vanguard, it spun like a disc just ahead of Sam’s buckler and smashed into the side of the distracted catoblepas. The beast reeled at the twin strikes and swung his horned head in the direction of the paladins.

  The two held their shield arms high, side by side as the projectiles returned home.

  The creature eyed its newest targets when Sam noticed something strange. It was missing huge swathes of flesh. Muscle and bone were exposed all across its heaving torso. Thick, clotting blood sloughed onto the bricks beneath it with every exhale. A faint light shone through the beast’s festering wounds.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  “Dreamer,” Sam muttered.

  “Yeah, he’s an ugly one, eh?” Shiner asked, pulling Sam back to focus. “Give me a lift, Sammy.”

  “Right, ready,” Sam responded, shuffling forward toward the creature. The catoblepas lowered its horned head and snorted, stamping its front hooves threateningly. Sam turned to look at Shiner and knelt. Dreamer, use me now to support my brother in your Will to defend your Sanctuary from this monster.

  Shiner galloped, then broke into a sprint. His armor clanked loudly as the paladin’s body erupted in golden light. Shiner leapt high and Sam watched his leading foot carefully. Then came the surge of strength. Shiner’s boot landed flat on Sam’s buckler, and he pushed upward with all of his magic-empowered strength.

  Shiner whooped as he sailed skyward, three times over the height of the catoblepas. The creature paid no mind to the flying knight, and instead broke into a charge in Sam’s direction.

  Standing his ground, Sam watched as Shiner, enveloped in gold, meteored downward on the charging beast. The brickwork buckled under Shiner’s warhammer. The beast cried out and fell, but the aim was not as perfect as the pair had hoped.

  Picking himself out of the rubble, Shiner saw he had obliterated one of the creature’s back legs, but for some reason it was not enough. It continued charging, it’s balance off. But the weight and momentum were still lethal for Sam.

  “Sam! Look out!”

  Sam was ready. He adjusted the grip on his hammer and thought back to his Vanguard training. About working the weight of a hefty attacker and using the enemies rage against them. Dreamer, please let me not have gotten rusty in my lack of practice, Sam prayed on a thin line between confidence and arrogance.

  Only three arms length separated Sam from the points of the monster’s horns, and he dove, tucking into a shallow roll. The timing and angle of his dive were immaculate. He came out of the roll with his warhammer-wielding hand just off the side of the beast’s head. A split second passed and Sam tore his hammer up into the front-left shoulder of the catoblepas. Flesh ripped and bone splintered with no effort and the creature roared.

  Shiner screamed with glee as the creature tried to break its sprint despite having two shattered limbs. Its head turned down on the weight of its horns, and when they met the bricks, the snapping of the beast’s neck rang out. And still its body tumbled on toward a storefront.

  Sam saw activity just under the door. A woman was kneeling over a sitting man. Neither were paying any mind to the crashing bovine. “Move!” he called out to them, and nearly choked when his older sister turned her head to look at him.

  Jane had seen the two paladins fighting the catoblepas, but trusted them to handle it. The man at the door was a victim of the stabbing.

  “The man looked dead. He just had a bloody hole for an eye,” the wounded man muttered, his eyes looking through Jane. He was in shock.

  “I need to move you,” she said. But he kept repeating the same two sentences. Then, a crack rangout just outside the storefront.

  “Move!” the shout came suddenly. Jane, somewhere between panicked and frustrated with the bleeding man, turned her head to see the catoblepas rocketing toward her. And behind it was her brother looking exhausted and battered.

  She tried to move. She wanted to. But she could not think past the fact that her brother was standing there, thick black blood globbing off of his warhammer. This creature was coming closer and closer, and she was sickened by the open wounds all across the monster, all oozing and all glowing.

  Jane was not going anywhere.

  A flash of gold light came from the second paladin when he threw his hammer. It shot clear through the beast’s torso, sending a spatter of black blood down the street. The front half skidded to a stop just in front of Jane, and she breathed a sigh of relief.

  But the beast groaned. It’s head rolled up to look at her. Its eyes, all milky and pained, could not focus on the woman, but it was looking to kill, so it exhaled.

  Sam ran to his sister as she choked on the dusty fog. He saw the catoblepas still living, against all laws of life and nature. The bright light within it looked to be just below the surface of the ground flesh. And Sam struck what seemed to be the source of the light with all of his fury. The beast finally died.

  “Jane, are you okay!?”

  His sister had scales of stone across her face, and her coughs were gravelly. The man on the ground beside her had gone unconscious with small scales across his body.

  “Can you speak?”

  “Sam,” Jane sputtered, coughing up a small stone. “Sam, I-”

  “Sammy! Where’d Kaitlyn go?” Shiner asked.

  Sam wanted to wave him off, but remembered suddenly why he was at The Throne in the first place. There was a distant crash and he looked around for his shaman friend. She was nowhere to be seen.

  “Go find her Sam,” Shiner urged. “I’ll stay with these two. Not like that woman would listen to me anyway, you know?”

  Sam looked to his sister again. She looked terrified, and it made Sam feel ill.

  “Sam, go!” Shiner said. “Seriously! Go find her before the Inquisition does!”

  Sam still could not move. His sister was trembling.

  “Man, if the Inquisition finds her first, she’s dead!”

  Sam groaned, rose, and broke into a run. Shiner was right. He had no idea where Kaitlyn had gone but he needed to find her.

  The Throne’s gilded service elevators were for clergy use only. And while service infrastructure in other cities would be hidden away in alleys or behind facades, the service elevators of The Throne were gaudy, filigreed cylinders that went up, down, and sideways throughout all of the different districts and wings of the mountain metropolis. Rarely used and well guarded, they were usually harsh reminders of the difference between the life of the clergy and The Throne’s poorer civilians.

  But the day Matthew Carpenter arrived with a stolen relic, the elevators took on a new meaning. Just moments after the final tone of the Inquisitors’ Chime rang through the halls, between the golden wirework, the shape of the basket could be seen descending.

  When it arrived at the main floor, the wire doors slid open on their own accord to reveal the Fifth Inquisition. Led by Brother Abraham, the Fifth is the only Inquisition in the Talnor led by a priest. The operational status usually demands a more tactical mind. But Brother Abraham, tall and looming, with a crooked, beak-like nose had a mind for strategy. His focus, a golden rapier, spoke to that fact.

  The other two members stood to either side. One was a colossal Vanguard, Captain Flametongue. Named for his harsh, mountain region accent and his temper, Flametongue prided himself in his imposing custom armor. With a dragon-themed helmet and pauldrons designed like folded wings, he had the entire suit trimmed with bright orange and rubies set into the dragon’s eyes on the helmet. He held in front of him a tower shield that covered him, shin to chin, and his weapon of choice was a flail with a weight stylized with the appearance of a fireball.

  Captain Starlight was significantly smaller than her two partners, but no less imposing. Confidence came off her in waves. She left behind her helmet in favor of a circlet with a jet stone set in its center that matched her jet black hair. She carried a Confidant’s buckler and light warhammer, signalling her specialty as the Inquisitions supporting member. That is not to say, though, that she was less lethal than her brothers in arms. A cloak of black that twinkled with enchanted silver threads here and there throughout hung from her shoulders.

  As they stepped out together, the three looked down the main hall at the chaos of the stampede as it came toward them while also spilling down the alleyways.

  “The man we are looking for is poor, downtrodden, and wearing the Halcyon Band,” Brother Abraham said.

  Starlight scoffed. “Two out of three apply to this whole damned city.”

  “What is the sentence?” Flametongue asked.

  “He is a relic thief, Flametongue,” Starlight hissed.

  “Our sister is right. He has desecrated a crypt. The High Council has sentenced the man to death. Along with any criminals who may use this situation to do something regrettable.”

  “What’s the word on collateral?”

  “We do what must be done,” Brother Abraham said with a nod. Ahead, one of Zarraz’s knife wielding soldiers emerged from the crowd chasing a young couple, slowing themselves down by holding hands.

  “Can do, Brother,” Flametongue said. He took a deep breath, then roared. His body became a battering ram as some invisible force thrust the colossus at the undead attacker. But his titanic body flew without precision.

  The corpse with the knife exploded when the tower shield struck it, but so did the leg of the man who was unable to move fully out of the way. The young man and woman were thrown, unconscious to the ground, barely missing the lethal portion of the attack.

  “So many are still in the street. Almost like the Chime means nothing nowadays,” Starlight said with a pitying shake of her head as she and Brother Abraham followed Flametongue into the chaos.