Polar Opposites

Guv had the intention to follow the twins into the wilderness to find the source of the undead penguins.  He truly did.  Wanted to be a hero like Ajiin and see for himself a necromancer.  Maybe even get a cut in the bounty, although the twins didn’t feel like telling him that there was no chance in hell that they were sharing.  They’d buy his drinks to convince him to talk, sure enough, but the money was going to be theirs for the keeping.

Even if they had agreed, it was a moot point.  Guv’s hangover was such that they were forced to leave him behind.  Ajiin, on the other hand, was a different story.

“Get up,” Langley said, nudging him with her foot.  They’d returned to the ship late the previous night after the tavern had closed down and everyone had staggered home.

“Begging your pardon Captain,” he moaned, “but bugger off.”

“You wanted to come with us, no?  We’re not waiting another day.  Guv gave us directions and you’re coming along.”

“Head hurts, can’t shoot straight.”

“I really have no sympathy.  You drank that alcohol by your own free will.”

“A pox on my free will.”

Langley took a deep breath and counted to ten.  Then she fished into her void-pouch, pulled out a string, and dangled it above Ajiin’s face.  He rolled over on his bunk so that he was facing the wall.

“You saw what I was holding, right?  A piece of string.  Do you know what ‘mancers use these for?”

No reply.

“Ajiin, either you get over your hangover or I’m getting you over it forcibly.  String is used for teleportation.  So get your ass out of bed, get your gun together, or I’m sending you for a morning swim.  I’m sure the temperature of the water is quite nice around here and the undead penguins might enjoy the company.”

More cursing.  Langley stepped back as Ajiin rolled from the bed, tangled in his bed sheets.  The cursing grew louder.

“You have half an hour to be on deck.”

She turned and left.  Sabreur was waiting outside.

“See,” she said to him, “my way was just as efficient as yours.”

“Bah.  Nothing is as efficient as fire.”



Sabreur carried a sub-class 1 void backpack filled with supplies.  Langley carried her usual gear, as well as a crudely drawn map of the route they should take.  By Guv’s approximation it would take three days to reach where the undead penguins were congregated.  And Ajiin carried his rifle and a hangover.  It was getting better though, or so he claimed.

It was only once the hangover was gone that Ajiin started to really regret volunteering to tag along, however.  By then, he was coherent enough to be able to listen to the twin’s conversation.  For someone that avoided ‘mancy, it was pure torture.

“So, I really think the results from a disrupted void could be useful.”  Apparently, Sabreur was bouncing some ideas off of Langley.  She didn’t appear to like what she was hearing, which meant that neither should Ajiin, or anyone else for that matter.

“Bro, your firebombs are dangerous enough.  Do you really want to add ‘suicidal’ to your list of personal adjectives?”

“Look, I just want to make a prototype.  How bad can that be?”

She considered.

“Describe your prototype.”

“Alright, a glass sphere-“

“Hold it!  Glass is far too fragile.”

“But that’s the point!”

And so on.  By the time the first of the penguins came into sight Ajiin was ready to throw himself to the mercies of the necromancer responsible just to end the torment of twin-babble.

Instead, he found himself lying at the top of the ice ridge and staring down at the horde through his scope with Langley and her telescope beside him.

“See any sign of humans?” she asked.

“Zilch.”

“’Mancy currents look normal too, which means it has to be a necromancer creating these.  So where is he?”

“How about I go down there and catch a few on fire?”

The two turned to look at Sabreur.  

“What?” he asked.

“Actually, I like that idea.  Go for it.”

“Langley!”  Ajiin realized after the fact how loud that was and about crawled into the snow to hide.  But apparently the idea of stealth was a moot point now, as Sabreur was sliding down the ridge.  A couple of the penguins looked up in his direction.

“No, no, really,“ Langley assured her first mate, “It’s worked for us in the past.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of.”

He groaned and switched the safety off his rifle.  It might come in handy here pretty shortly.  At the base of the hill, Sabreur was lighting a match.  A moment, and then a fireball exploded into the midst of the penguins.  The air was quickly filled with the crackling of fire, the sweet, sweet squawks of fiery panic, and the smell of burning rotting flesh.  The latter wasn’t so agreeable to the pyromancer.

A few moments passed.  Sabreur started to grow edgy waiting and Langley started to slide down to join him.  Ajiin put the scope to his eye and watched.

The flaming penguins had all jumped into the water at this point and most of the horde had joined them.  Aside from the water lapping against the ice, it was fairly quiet.  So, when a loud shriek of anguish ripped through the air, it was quite easy to pinpoint the source.

“That… can’t be the necromancer.”

“No.  I think it is.”

“I’m confused.”

“As am I.”

The twins simply stared as a small figure came running at them, collapsing in the middle of the blast radius of melted snow and singed feathers.  

“What did they ever do to you!?” the girl shrieked, and then curled into a sobbing heap.

She was dressed in a sky blue dress with a multicolored shawl tied around her waist.  Bangles covered her forearms and ankles and the remains of a flower wreath were stuck in her lime-green hair.  The twins just stood there and stared as she cried.  After a moment, Sabreur shuffled his feet and cleared his throat.

“Um,” he said, “Sorry?”  Nudged Langley with his elbow.

“Look, they’re not, er, deader,” Langley consoled, walking closer, “They jumped into the water.  They’re fine.  Really.”

The girl appeared to be about sixteen.  She sat up and wiped her tears away with one oversized sleeve.  Turned to look up at the twins.

“You sure?”

“Positive.”

“You won’t blow up anymore of my penguins?”

“Uh, no, we promise.”  Langley elbowed her twin at that statement.

“Alright then!”

She leapt to her feet and stuck out a hand.  Langley tentatively shook it.

“I’m Crystal.  A pleasure to meet you.”

“Langley and this is my brother, Sabreur.  Crystal, are you, by chance, a necromancer?”

The girl shrugged.

“That’s what they called my grandma and she’s the one who taught me.”

“Uh, right.  And why, may I ask, did you make all these penguins into zombies?”

Crystal only looked confused at that question.  So Langley asked again, and after thinking long and hard for a moment, the necromancer answered.

“Oh!  Because the killer whale killed one and I was sad.  So I brought it back, cause I don’t like losing any of my friends, and then it didn’t seem to mind so I made the rest zombies too!  Just in case the whale came back.”

“You turn your friends into zombies.”

“Sure!  Of course, maybe others don’t like that, cause they did run me out of town with torches and stuff after Stacy…” Crystal grew thoughtful and her eyes seemed to glaze over.  “But penguins are nice friends.”

One had waddled up to her by that point and she turned, flinging herself around its stubby body in a big hug.  The right eyeball fell out as she did and bounced past Sabreur’s foot.

“The Cadre is going to have a fit when they hear about this,” Sabreur muttered.

Langley didn’t answer.  She was watching Crystal, who appeared to have forgotten about them entirely and was bouncing about among the penguins, referring to them by name.  Apparently they were all named after some kind of flower and she kept cycling through the same five.

“So are you two going to live in the poles too?” Crystal asked, turning her attention back to the twins.

“Err, no, actually, we’re just visiting.”

“Oh, okay.  Cause there’s this town that the penguins bring me food and stuff from.  And I thought you would live there.  But if not, then why are you here?”

Langley took a deep breath.

“Crystal, we actually came for you.  Yep.  We have a ship – a nice skimmer called Langley’s Ark – and we wanted to know if you’d like to come with us.”

Her eyes lit up and Langley shifted from foot to foot uncomfortably.

“A ship!  Really.  I’d love to go on a skimmer.  I’ve never been on one before.”

That launched Langley into a detailed description on how great the Ark was and how much Crystal would like it, provided she released her penguin horde to… decompose naturally or something.  Ajiin, by then, had realized that it must be safe and had come down to stand beside them.  One of the penguins was eyeing the shiny bit of his rifle and he kicked it when Crystal wasn’t looking.

“Alright, if you’ve never been on a ship before, than how did you get here?” Sabreur finally asked.  He’d put two and two together.

Crystal tilted her head at them quizzically.

“Why, I asked Mihos to fly me here, of course.”

The twin’s faces both slid to ‘the hell!?’ mode.  Ajiin backed away, knowing the look, and knowing that it rarely meant something good – or normal – was about to occur.

“Langley,” Sabreur said in a strangled voice, “the penguins I can handle.  Insane ‘mancers I can handle.  But please, please tell me she didn’t just say the name of one of the seven rulers of the underworld.”

“Eyup, she did.”

“Hey, hey,” Crystal protested, “I am not insane, I’ll have you know.”

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