^^ Marbled Fox Familiar ^^

--- Lillian Cordova ---

I flinched when the castle quaked, and sighed at my impotence. I was on guard, I couldn't just run off after everything.

Dara paused. "Do you smell mint again?"

I sniffed, and then darted towards the smell. I came down an isle, and snarled when I saw the shattered window, again silently done, and the foxes that were streaming around, grabbing books.

"Block the exit, I'll block them here." I said swiftly.

She threw a barrier over the window, and then darted off.

Immediately after the barrier was made, the foxes slowly turned to me in unison.

"Fffffuck that's fucking creepy." I shivered, and drew my sword.

The first one dropped the book in its jaws, and lunged for me. My sword cleanly took its head off, and it dissolved into a mint-scented mist. The others ran away as one.

"I've got them, you get the caster! He has to be nearby, to control this many familiars!" Dara called out.

I nodded and dove through the window, surprising myself and the thief/mage, as I body-slammed him down to the rocks, cracking his skull open.

I groaned in pain, sitting up, and paused again. "Fuck." I sighed, looking at the six other mages around me.

I jumped to my feet, drawing my sword, and a weak blast of magic struck my chest, making me stumble.

"Aha! I was right. Wiccan's!" I smirked, and pommel-bashed the nearest one, knocking him out cold. The other five began chanting, and I smirked, kicking one off the rock and onto the other rocks, then two more. The last two finished their spells, unfortunately, and lashed out at me with the force of a Low-Tier Warlock-Level Lightning Spell.

I grunted as my Armor absorbed most of the magic, but the force still knocked me on my ass.

They turned to run, and I threw my sword at one of them as the tried to run, impaling his calf, pinning it into the stones.

My fist collided with his cheekbone as I sprinted past him, after his last Partner.

The man jumped into a small canoe, and suddenly disappeared.

Before I could reached out in the direction of the boat, Dara grabbed my hand. "That was teleportation magic, not camouflage." She explained at my perplexed look.

"Well, we got six of them, I suppose. And now we know for sure it's Wiccan's." I shrugged.

She nodded. "Better than nothing." She started healing the wounded, and discovered three were dead, so she wrapped them in white silk, and moved on.

My sword was a bit dinged, from embedding into the boulders, but I would sharpen it later. I sighed and looked up at the twelve foot ledge.

"I'll help. Go search for any other parties of intruders." Dara said simply, and I was levitated up to the ledge slowly.

My feet landed squarely on the windowsill, and I nodded. "Thanks! You sure you want me to leave you here?"

"I've got this handled." She nodded, re-breaking the bone of my last captive's ankle, to allow it to heal from my sword slamming through it.

I shivered, and sent my ferret Familiar, (the only one I could reliably manage,) to check the rest of the windows and entrances.

The aides began putting the books back on the shelves, and I stopped one. "Make sure you get a list of everything they tried to take, and add it to the list of what's gone, then send that to the Watch-Captain." I said sternly.

The kid, all of maybe twelve, nodded, and then began yelling my orders at the others. I grinned and shook my head, then knelt and picked up the ferret. "Any luck, buddy?" I asked.

He shook his head, and showed me images of every window, and then every isle, and finally a scent-diagram of the tower. Green mint was strong around the window, and some other smells I didn't really want to identify were strongest in the darker corners, but a single smell struck me.

"Is that blood on the roof?" I asked.

He blinked slowly, then nodded.

I looked out the window. "Dara!"

"Yes?"

"There's blood on the roof, I'm checking it." I explained myself.

"Good luck, call if you need me, I'll be up in a jiffy!" She grinned.

I chuckled and walked up the stairs, carefully avoiding the creaky stones, and held my sword ready.

A body on the floor drew my gaze, but I looked around, forcing myself to ignore it, as I recognized this type of trap. Someone would draw my gaze away from themselves, and then-

My sword slashed upwards, and a young girl skipped alway, her forearm savagely cut. She threw a purple powder on the floor, and I cast a lightning bolt at her.

The lightning hit the cloud of dust, and ignited thunderously, throwing me back over the side of the tower.

---

My consciousness returned slowly, and I became aware of a slow rocking sensation.

'Fuck me I'm on a ship.' I sighed mentally.

"When you think she'll wake up?" I heard someone speak in Portuguese, but the translator spell hidden in my throat was still active.

"Few hours, maybe? Boss used a lot of that mage-killer... whassit called again?" A second voice grumbled.

"How should I know? Whatever... so when she wakes up, then what? I don't want to be in the middle of the ocean with an angry Witch-Bitch, you know?"

"Truer words, bro... truer words... best knock her head again, just to be sure."

I counted their footsteps, and then as soon as they came close enough, I torched my chains, melting them off with insulting ease, and then dodged their panicked flailing with the two thick clubs they'd intended to concuss me with.

My sword was gone, no surprise, as was my Amulet, so I caught one of the clubs, and torched it with pure mana, then ripped his throat out, and turned to the second man.

"You want some of this?" I asked in Portuguese, and raised my burning hands.

I saw the woman from before toss some of that purple powder, and I stopped the magic, instead physically incapacitating him. I'd need him to row the little ship, after all.

The woman hummed. "Smart... but either way, you're outmatched." She smirked, and the sea around us shivered as her words started a charm.

I snatched up some of the dust she'd thrown, and gripped her throat, shoving my fingers into her mouth. "Try some magic now, bitch." I smirked.

She looked shocked, and then enraged, swinging at me with outstretched claws.

My forearm blocked her wrist, and then I stepped into her, my fist pushing back her gut with the entirety of my rage, a dangerous prospect.

She flew off the boat, into the water, and I grabbed her ankle, dragging her back in. When she came to, I punched her jaw, and stripped her as she groaned in a daze.

I made sure she had no more tricks in her clothes, tossing them to the other end of the boat, then searched her orifices, to make sure she didn't have another fun little trinket of murder on her person.

Next, I found my own clothes and weapons, checking them for damage and cleanliness, then sat on her stomach, and punched her once to wake her up.

"Allo, luv! This didn't go according to plan, I'm supposing, so I gave you a moment to adjust. Now you're going to tell me what that purple stuff is, and where we are, and why you thought kidnapping me was the slightest bit intelligent." I said simply.

She spat at me, or tried, and I chuckled. "That only works in books, luv. Now talk, or I start removing fingernails." I clicked the little pliers I'd always kept in my jacket for the wires on my sword's hilt under her nose twice.

She growled unintelligibly, and I nodded, gripping her right hand, and unceremoniously ripped out one of her nails, at the root and cuticle, all at once.

Her scream echoed, which made me pause, and look around. "What did that echo off of?" I demanded to know.

She looked away.

"Speak, or I take another one." I growled.

"It will never work. I won't talk. You're not nearly as scary as any of my previous employers." She snapped.

"Well that just won't do, hmm?" I flipped her over, and then pressed my knife against her womanhood.

She froze, her breath stilling in her lungs as the terror of what she knew I was ready to do to her washed away her professional loyalty.

"Yep. I'm serious, bitch. Now let's you and I have a nice... long... chat."

---

"Row with your backs!" I snapped, moving the tiller to guide the little boat into the docks of French side of the English Channel.

The two people, both the woman and last remaining man, growled at me and tried to row faster.

I stopped us at the docks, and then paralyzed their hamstrings with a little lightning, so they couldn't run away, and began dragging them by their hair to the nearest official.

Finally I stood before the dock master. "I have two fugitives from Her Majesty the Queen of England, wanted for murder, arson, kidnapping, larceny, banditry, and theft, and I'd like a direct line to the Count of Fallon Academy."

He blinked at my speech, and nodded, bringing me a mirror. I sat on the two people, and placed a drop of blood on the mirror, activating it.

Count Fallon woke with a start, shaking his husband as the entire bed shuddered. "Wha- Cordova? Where have you been? It's been almost a full day... gimme a mo..." he stood up, and I looked away politely as he dressed in at least some pants, and sat at his desk with some coffee. "Alright. Shoot." He nodded.

"I was taken by the leader of the thieves, who turned out to be a Wiccan mercenary, (first time for everything, I guess,) who used some sort of purple powder to make my magic explode?" I answered as best I could.

"Ah, Fungus Malificarus, Evil-Shroom. It's a mushroom that grows in magical forests, and when exposed to human war-magic, it explodes quite violently. Extremely rare, in Europe, but an American Wiccan would have access to large amounts of it, as America is covered in magic forests." He explained, and sipped his coffee.

"Alright, well I've captured them, and I'm in France." I nodded.

"Oh... alright. I'll send a Familiar for you right away." He closed his eyes, and a dragon made of ink rolled off his desk, and scuttled out his window in a flicker of movement.

I nodded. "I'll see you in a few hours for a full report."

"Good. Be safe." He ended the contact.

I handed the mirror back to the Harbormaster. "Thank you for your assistance."

He nodded. "Always happy to help in the capture of a murderer." He bowed, then walked away, continuing his duties.

I checked on my two captives, and then settled in to wait.

---

Before I could even begin my report to the Count, Jacob tackled me in a hug, and simply held on for a few minutes.

I smiled and patted his back. "I'm totally alright, luv. I missed you, though. I'm making my report now."

He nodded, still holding me tightly.

"Okay, luv. Well, sir, it was very cut and dry, I woke up, broke free, interrogated the survivors, and then got back to land, just on the wrong side of the channel." I said simply.

"And your interrogation? What did it turn up?" He asked.

"A list of the mercenary's previous clients, and the name of her current one, a Wiccan-Coven in Brazil. Her contract was to steal a long list of books..." I set the list on the desk. "And also to make it look like the American Wiccan's did it... but when I took out her ragtag crew of Wiccan's, she decided to improvise, and we ended up in a boat together where she could tell me all this useful information." I nodded.

He blinked slowly. "How'd you make her crack?"

"I threatened to carve out her uterus." I said simply.

He shivered. "Right... that'd do it, I suppose... well, you're dismissed, thank you, get a long bath and some sleep."

I saluted, then dragged my husband out for some much-needed R&R.