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‘A Pointed Visit’

23:33 Thu 22 Mar 2007. Updated: 00:36 23 Mar 2007
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The viscous remains oozed between my fingers. Already, it was beginning to disappear, passably similar to rapid evaporation.

Korvin hadn’t learned much, it seemed. This ghost-amalgam had certainly been large, at least eight unfortunates bound together. But it was very predictable, and mass didn’t make their substance any harder to destabilize. That trick I’d made sure to learn before I returned.

It might have been a feint, but I didn’t think so. More likely he’d gotten complacent and smug since the last time, refining his ideas a little and calling it brilliance.

It wasn’t. It was a waste of energy that he needed to survive the night.

I walked up the hill. His eidolon was clearly visible at the Mark Hopkins.

I walked into the lobby without any trouble. He was on the eighth floor, not alone. I went by the stairs. I wasn’t trying to hide, and even if he wasn’t looking, he must have sensed my presence by that point.

I was sweating lightly after the eight-floor climb. Once up there I stepped over the armed guard, who had been asleep since about the third floor. Before opening the door into the hallway, I sent a flash of energy down it.

Four more guards, their bodies still smoking slightly as I walked by. He was gathering energy to himself now, taking some of it from the eight or so people in his suite. The brief read I got suggested they were all puppets. Time to cut it short.

I stepped through the wall, and sure enough he was surrounded by young women, all swaying as he channeled their energies. Thick blue lines swirled around his hands as he started an incantation.

I extended a hand, and he stopped as his throat closed. He tried to gasp, then reeled from a bright flash of light I placed over his nose. I followed that with percussive bursts by his ears. Then, releasing what I’d been preparing since coming through the wall, I usurped his control over the puppets. Now the energy they were passing to him was malevolent, raw. He fell to his knees and screamed, having managed to dispel the block on his throat. I wouldn’t let him do the same to the waves coming from the women.

His resistance was gone in moments. His eyes despairing, he said, “Seeker… why? Why come back? I… we didn’t need to be enemies.”

“I came back to kill you, Eric. No other reason.” The deaths of the puppets brought the final barrage, most of which I transformed to heat.

His brain still audibly sizzling behind me, I left the room the conventional way. I felt better, and decided on Thai food.

(450 words)

6 Responses to “‘A Pointed Visit’”

  1. NiallM Says:

    Heh.

    A somewhat Amber feel to this.

  2. Tadhg Says:

    Interesting, I hadn’t made that connection. This milieu and character are straight out of stuff I was writing back in the ELS days, about ten years before I read the ten Amber books. I can see a certain resemblance, especially in the personal aspect of revenge, now that you’ve pointed it out.

  3. Lev Says:

    If Rick Deckard met Egon Spengler in San Francisco, this is what they would do for fun and profit.

  4. Tadhg Says:

    Ha ha! That may have pegged it rather well! (I’m taking it as a compliment, of course.)

  5. Paul English Says:

    Hey Tadhg
    That style and form of that piece takes me back to those Wednesday evenings in UCD at those fondly remembered English Literary Society meetings.

    Good to see you’re still writing and stuff.

    Regards
    Paul

  6. Tadhg Says:

    Paul: Sorry for the delay in responding to this comment, it’s been a hectic couple of months! Yup, the piece has as definite throwback feel—it also made me think of the ELS days. Thanks for dropping by!

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