7.
Paige's home was still missing a chunk, the sheer weight failing. But the structure had changed, the marble exterior had aged fifty years, broken sheets, parted long ago from their cement fell first, slapping to the ground with a clatter, splattering rock, exposing criss-crossing sheets of rusted iron. Paige clapped, folding her arms and bowing. Aramas rose out of her back expanding, catching the building in mid fall.
The massive gorilla roared, muscle and sinew bulged and he dropped to a knee. Waves of marble fell with brick, leaving more and more of the metal mesh, but with a push, the skeletal frame held, straightening until the rock too held and was toppled away. Aramas dropped to a knee, each pant a gargling roar.
Aramas lifted Paige and carefully placed her on his back.
On the fifteenth story of the opposite building was a giant spider. A black widow with a glowing red hourglass on its back. The arachnid was larger, its body filling the width of the building while managing to stick. On the top of its black head stood a beautiful dark coffee skinned woman with long straight hair; in a black tank top with baggy track suit pants. She smiled as Aramas trembled, shaking like a wet dog creating a fog of dust.
"So, you're The Soul Eater?" She shouted.
Paige dusted her school uniform off with little success before giving up and pulling hair off her face to show a manic grin, green eyes gleaming.
"Eyup!"
It was so unlikely that two people so far apart could hear each other even yelling, but they weren't in the land of the living. There were no people, animals, birds, cars, or life. No time or space either, physics were a pale imitation of the real world, struggling to catch up, taking breaks from itself whenever it wanted. The soft wind that caressed her skin, could have been a hurricane on the other side, or, more likely, a sneeze.
"Why bring me to the Outer Plains in sunlight? Why play with the veil? It's shitty enough as it is…"
The dark-skinned beauty pulled her head back and let out a high-pitched cackle loud enough for Paige to hear from space.
An… Actual… legitimate… high-pitched cackle. All she needed was a moustache to twirl, only it would have looked good on her.
"You don't know? You? The nightmare doesn't know? I'm amazed!"
Ah, the world made a little more sense.
It wasn't just a crazy person cackle. It was a "I've been dealt two aces with another two aces on the table and I can't bluff to save my life" cackle… from a crazy person.
Which was more normal than it should have been. 'veil slippers' aka'Radiants' and their side effects 101: Sudden, explosive power did that to people.
"Spit it the fuck out! But in English! Your accent's awful!"
It was one thing to indulge, another to be subjected to the hate crime spilling out the model's mouth.
"[The veil's already torn.]" The dark-skinned woman yelled. "[The wish is almost completely shredded.]"
Paige's grin faltered for a second.
"[And what's that gotta do with summoning me?]" She froze stunned, before laughing. "[Are YOU challenging ME? What?]" She laughed until she had to stop for air. And hers was a laugh, not a cackle, it mattered. "[This a suicide? Ya know, like death by cop?]"
The woman's face turned gravely serious and she shouted back.
"[No Paige Stevens or Whitelaw or whatever you're going by! I have no intention of dying here! I'm here to avenge the death of my brother and every one of the Eagles you killed]"
Crap… one of those…
The self-righteous crazy.
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