Chương 61: Chapter 59 – Night of unfortunate choices

BANG! Alric snapped awake. He was sure he had just heard a loud noise. He was blinking in the gloom when he heard it again. BANG! This one carried an added sound, wood snapping under strain. Thinking something must be happening in the street, Alric began pulling on a tunic when he heard footsteps running past his room, fast and uneven on the stone. Eh? He got up and moved toward the doorway when another figure rushed past, brushing the wall. Alric peered into the passage before stepping out.

The corridor smelled faintly of damp wood and cold ash. He heard a loud roar from the warehouse proper. A human roar. It sounded like Henry. Realising something serious was happening, Alric began running. What he saw when he reached the corner stopped him short. The warehouse's main door stood open, wide and wrong, forced inward. One hinge sagged under its own weight. Cloaked figures were moving fast, shadows crossing light as they ran through the opening and out into the street. The banging had been his own doors.

Alric gave chase. He cleared the threshold and found the first real problem. He was barefoot. The cobblestones bit immediately, rough and sharp, cold pressing into skin as pain flared with every step. Wincing he glanced up. One figure stood out. Something like a laser point burned against his cloak, a small red glow growing brighter with movement. The man cursed, tore the cloak free, and flung it aside into a window as he ran. Alric pushed on. Ahead, he recognised Hal, Stephen and Henry.

Beyond them was Seren's partner, Brannick. He was shouting something, but the sound scattered in the open street. Brannick stopped at the crossroads. He stood there in his small clothes, breath fogging faintly, a wooden mace resting on his shoulder. He raised a hand in a gesture to stop to the others while keeping his gaze on the direction the men had fled.

"Can't chase further. There might be more of them, and none of us have boots," he said. Henry and Hal bent over, dragging in great gulps of air. Their breath rasped loud in the cold.

"Anyone see faces?" Brannick asked. Henry and Hal shook their heads. Alric did the same.

"Anyone hurt?" Again, no.

"How do four people chase off what, eleven? Twelve?" Brannick muttered, peering into the gloom between buildings. Small lights like candlelight were coming on in nearby windows, one by one, the city waking in stages and none of them good ones. The moment stretched, unreal. It had all happened too fast. Henry and Hal straightened. Brannick remained upright, alert, shifting his weight slightly. Without speaking, they turned back toward the warehouse, walking carefully over the cold cobbles, bare feet slapping softly.

A flicker caught Alric's peripheral vision.

"Fire!" Hal shouted, pointing at a nearby building. Alric looked. His thoughts snapped into motion. Fire. Cloth. Oil. Flour. Wind. A warehouse could hold any or all of it, often in unhelpful combinations. The glow was already growing brighter, reflecting off stone. Buckets won't do anything. Guards won't arrive in time. Water. Alric's gaze swung wildly before fixing on the nearby well, its dark mouth steaming faintly, as if it already suspected it was about to be blamed.

Alric glanced over to the brewery, the fire would spread quickly. There was a brief moment where he envisioned the flames. His jaw tightened, watching the brewery burn down was low on his to-do list. He reached for the only leaver he could think of that might work. Water. Now! He turned his senses down, as he had learned to do with the charging station, and drove his mana downward into the ground. He felt immense resistance but pushed through, he felt something give as his mana continued to force itself downward.

He was aware of it somehow, he could feel… things with it. His mana continued to move down through the earth, when it hit water he felt the resistance leave. Pushing his mana through the water, he tried to move it to the well, he was vaguely aware of the sounds of splashing coming through the well but just moving it around it was not enough. Wait no. I need negative pressure. Negative pressure to the well!

Alric felt his mana pushing the air out of the well, creating negative pressure in the well, water rushed to fill it. He didn't know how he knew this. He split his mana, using most of it to push the air out of the well, the rest to hold as much of the water back as he could. Gritting his teeth, it was like pulling a syringe with a blocked entrance. The earth began to shudder. Fine grit rattled across the stones. Hal scrabbled for balance. Brannick widened his stance.

Henry dropped his hands to his knees, bracing himself. Stephen slipped, he just held to the cobbles. Alric took two steps toward the well. Air began to billow as it tried to fill the space in the well. Stolen novel; please report. Finally, he released his mana holding the water back. Splashing noises deep within the well quickly became a gurgle, followed by a roar as the earth shook violently.

A column of water erupted upward, flinging the well's roof aside like a coin flicked by a god with a very specific disdain for infrastructure. Stones burst outward from the well's rim, clattering across the street. The sudden force hurled Brannick and Henry backward, but Alric staggered forward toward the sound. The column rose far higher than the surrounding buildings as the pressure continued to grow, its roar drowned out everything else. Alric raised his hand.

By sheer force of will, he bent the column toward the burning warehouse. He could feel his mana within the water somehow. The roof lasted less than a heartbeat. It ruptured inward as the water struck. Steam burst from the windows, followed by a violent flood that poured through doors and openings, sweeping the contents of the building out into the street. A man in his nightclothes was hurled through a window, clawing at empty air before vanishing from sight. As suddenly as it began, it ended. The roar vanished.

The silence that followed felt heavier than the noise. Water rushed from the building like a river finding its course, carrying splinters and debris with it. Alric took a single step toward it and collapsed.

"Alric!" Hal's voice cracked as he scrambled upright. Henry reached him first, feet skidding on wet stone.

"He's alive, right?" Hal asked. Henry pressed a hand to Alric's chest and nodded.

"We need to get him to his bed before this gets ugly," Brannick said, scanning the street as more lights appeared.

"You mean it's not already?" Hal shot back as he took hold of Alric's legs. Henry slid his arms beneath Alric's shoulders, all of them were soaked.

"He just saved the city, but it took everything he had," Brannick said quietly.

"Get him inside." They nodded and moved together, awkward and as fast as they could, carrying him back toward their warehouse. Their footsteps echoed hollowly inside the flooded space.

"I'll stay with you." Stephen said pointing to Brannick who nodded. Inside, Mara and Seren were still staring at the shattered doors when they noticed Hal and Henry carrying Alric. Water dripped steadily from the trio onto the stone floor.

"What happened?" Mara asked, already moving. She stepped in to help, cradling his head as they brought him through.

"I don't really know," Hal said, breathless.

"We chased them. The ones who came in."

"Lost them at the crossroads," Henry cut in.

"No boots." Hal nodded.

"Yeah. We were coming back and we saw the fire. Then Alric went all, his eyes shone, he did something magic""They threw something," Henry said quickly.

"It was glowing. That's where it started." Trying to correct Hal.

"Yes. That," Hal said.

"Something glowing. Then it was on fire." He adjusted his grip as they walked, water squelching underfoot.

"And then Alric did… something. Mage stuff. I don't know." Henry shoved the door to Alric's room open with his hip. The hinge complained, briefly and without hope.

"He blew up the well. Just made it throw water everywhere."

"Don't know about threw," Hal added.

"It was more like the water went straight up. Like a wall or something. Just this huge, sploosh" Henry winced as they laid Alric down. The bed creaked under the weight.

"Did something to the well. Like he picked up the water like a rope. It's wrecked, but the fire went out."

"Smashed the roof too," Hal said, easing Alric's shoulders onto the bed.

"Then he just… fell." Mara and Seren gazed upward in alarm "No, the other roof, other warehouse, where the fire…"

"It was strange," Henry said, interrupting.

"We all got thrown back. He just stepped forward."

"And fell over," Hal finished. Each of them checked that Alric was still breathing before they shuffled out and closed the door.

"We need to go outside. Help Brannick," Hal said. The words earned him a frown in the gloom.

"That water thing?" Henry added.

"Half the district's going to be there." He sighed and headed for the entrance, the door still bent unnaturally inward. The others exchanged a look, then followed. Outside, a small crowd had gathered around the destroyed well. Brannick was speaking to them, his voice steady, still in his small clothes, surrounded by people in nightwear who were listening with the rapt attention of citizens who had no better plan.

One man stood apart, in his small clothes trying to wring out his nightwear while staring at the warehouse. The four picked their way over the cobbles, wincing as they went, toes numb and slick with mud. Seren couldn't help but notice people were standing in various stages of nightwear, staring at her boyfriend in his underwear with the expectant attention usually reserved for preachers, prophets, or men about to start a cult without quite meaning to.

"Then he pushed the water down onto the roof," Brannick was saying, gesturing with his club.

"Stopped the fire dead." Nearby, stones from the well lay scattered. Water pooled at street level, occasionally spilling further into the road, drawing a slow current toward the drains. A group of guards arrived. Armour clinked softly as they took position, boots splashing.

"No one leaves till a captain gets here," one said. He rested a poleaxe on his shoulder, both hands still gripping it. The crowd nodded uneasily and stared back at the wreckage, murmurs low and constant. Some moved to look through the warehouse's an opening where the shutters were now missing. They didn't wait long. A man in brighter armour pushed forward, cloak heavy with moisture.

"Right," he said.

"Nobody moves till I hear what happened." The accounts varied, but the shape of them did not. Two loud bangs. Cloaked men running. One of them glowing. Something thrown. Fire. A mage blew up a well. No, a pillar. No, some kind of water beast. It was turned on the building. The fire died. As the stories grew wilder, Seren stepped forward.

"That group attacked us," she said, pointing at the warehouse. The captain let out a slow breath, steam rising faintly in the cold.

"Alright. Who would do this?" Seren shrugged.

"We make beer. The only people who don't like that are the innkeepers' guild and the tavern keepers' guild." The crowd barely stirred as the words landed, attention fixed. Henry stepped forward.

"The mage who broke the well and the roof, that was our boss. He passed out after. He stopped the fire." The captain nodded once.

"Then he may have saved the city. Show me where they attacked." Seren and Henry led the way. Hal, Mara, and Brannick followed. Two guards came with the captain as the rest began pushing the crowd back, boots scraping stone. The captain examined the door, the splintered braces, the dented copper boilers. One steamer lay wrecked, a stone shattered and dark.

"This was deliberate," the captain said turning to his men.

"You two, clear the crowd. I don't have high hopes, but someone tried to starve the city to hide this." The guards nodded and moved off. One muttered near the dispersing crowd, "Tried to starve the city to stop people making beer. Captain wants them found." That was enough. The crowd began to break apart, voices carrying into the surrounding streets. The captain turned back to the staff.

"Anyone who speaks to the mage before I do gets to see the inside of the dungeon," he said.

"Got it?" They nodded. Seren gestured for him to follow.

"I'll get you a chair." He inclined his head and followed her into the room, boots thudding softly on the wet floor. In another warehouse, not long after, a few people sat around a candle, half awake. The flame guttered as damp air seeped in through the walls. A door opened, letting in a blade of cold air and the sound of distant voices.

"What happened?" someone asked, yawning.

"That steamy place," another said.

"They make beer there. The foreign stuff everyone's talking about. Innkeepers and tavernkeepers attacked them. Tried to start a fire to cover it up. The man who runs the place is a mage. Blew up a well to stop it."

"The guilds tried to start a fire?" someone said.

"To stop beer? Start a famine?"

"That's what we thought too." It was only months later that Alric understood what he thought was a laser pointer, was a shard of the heating stone and that the fire had been an accident.