Daring wondered if Terra had gotten an actual job to pay for her random but that question was answered by the next mornings newspaper. A bank wagon had been hijacked in the forest outside Trottingham. Five guards have been knocked out cleanly without injury, one father of two was in critical condition and wasn’t expected to live the week. Police didn’t have any suspects yet but were looking for a squad of unicorns with military training.
She sat around and passed time with Somnambula and Starkin and when she couldn’t stand them anymore she withdrew by herself and tried talking to Jeopardy but still couldn’t get any meaningful connection. She started another book where Daring Do learned she had a twin sister who’d been separated at birth and about going on a quest to find her other half. She wrote half a dozen different drafts but no matter what she tried Jeopardy kept coming across as an evil psychopath. Eventually, she bundled her mess of notes together and sent them off to her editor, asking him to get a ghostwriter to make a coherent draft she would go over later.
She slept… or tried to. Terra was able to counterscry which meant he could scry. He could have found her at any time in the last decade and done anything he wanted, but he didn’t. He let her keep Ahuizotl limiting his communication to a parchment. Why? Starkin seemed very adept at procuring booze from somewhere and all too soon the week was over. Her job was simple enough, all she had to do was loop the amulet around Terra’s neck and then Somnambula, Starkin, and Sombra would take care of the rest. It should be easy… it should – she nearly screamed as telekinesis grabbed hold of her and dragged her rapidly through the underbrush, accelerating at breakneck speeds and then decelerating just as fast past the halfway point as leaves and branches shattered against the shield that ran in front of her.
As quickly as it had begun she came to a skidding halt in front of Terra, and the cool dusk sky was blotted out by an opaque shield. He was almost naked save for protective spells, his parchment a large moneybag, and a lunchbox. No light, no sound from the outside world; just the two of them in a micro world lit by his horn.
“You’re safe now.”
Daring steeled herself and looked him in the eyes, alcohol, and lack of sleep crushed under pounding adrenaline. If she failed she would be dead. If Sombra won she didn’t know what would happen to Terra as he was and if this was the last time they met then she had to know. “Did you… kill my parents?” His eyes narrowed, “Answer me!”
“No.”
“Swear it!”
“I did not kill our” he stopped, unable to finish, and then started over. “I swear I did not kill YOUR parents.”
“...Did you kill your mother?”
He glared at her but she didn’t drop her gaze. His parchment fell to the ground and his horn went out leaving them in darkness for a moment and then one by one every little scar and burn he’d acquired over the years started glowing blue until almost a quarter of him was glowing. About half of them ignited all at once… the scars that had appeared in the weeks after she’d left him in Los Pegasus. A month before his mother died.
“… you’d always said you hurt yourself practicing magic.” He stomped his hoof angrily, his bottom lip trembling. The scars stopped glowing mass of blue scars extinguished, leaving them in darkness once again, and then a few more that hadn’t glowed before turned red. A very few. Six. “Did you.”
“What is this about Daring! I haven’t done this before but I’m pretty sure hostages aren't typically held drunk.
Or armed” he added, clapping his hoof against the sword strapped to her back.
He was deflecting. There were two more people she thought he’d killed, her brother and her dog, and the fact he was changing the subject meant he’d killed at least one of them. “Which one was it?” she sobbed under her breath, “Was it both?”
“Is there even a debt? Do you know what I had to do to get your randsom? Why were you even gambling tuna fish, to begin with?”
She tried answering but no words came, only sobs. Terra’s gaze softened and he put an arm on her shoulder and then pulled her into a hug. It was the perfect opportunity to extend her wing and drape Sombra around his neck but she wouldn’t, not until she knew if he’d killed her brother and dog. Jeopardy felt otherwise. By the time she heard the click of Sombra’s chain, it was already too late.
She pulled back, Terra tugged at the chain as it constricted around his neck and as he linked eyes with her he mouthed one word, ‘Why?’
The shield around them shattered into sparks. The few trees in the glade they were in had already been torn out by their roots and Somnambula was zooming around them in tight zig-zags carrying several cans of spray paint in each arm and leg as she covered the glade in glyphs for the ritual.
Terra threw off Sombra’s influence for a moment and burst into flame. Welkin summoned a ring around him that started to contract, Terra formed a shield of his own and pushed back against Welkin, but just as her ring was about to break his flames doused and were replaced with Sombra’s flickering shadows. Terra could back at either Welkin or Sombra individually, but whenever he turned to fight one the other gained the high ground. Daring was still unnerved that Terra could have easily taken either of them alone but then he was fighting for his life and both Welkin and Sombra were trying to take his body without hurting it. Slowly and surely like an incoming tide they both moved to constrict his body and his mind, exposing themselves to as little risk as was necessary while Somnambula painted glyphs for the ritual around them. They had almost -
Heavy pounding echoed in the distance. The unmistakable gait of an immense creature. Daring had forgotten to attend her birthday party. Daring spun around just in time to see Ahuizotl come crashing through the foliage towards her. Somnambula redirected and charged him, but he simply arched his back with feline grace and let her zip harmlessly under him. He pounced over Daring, tapping her playfully over the head and knocking her helmet off as he landed beside Terra and looked back and forth at the helmet, then at the amulet Daring had been playing with.
“No! No! No! Just take the hat! I’ll chase you for it!”
Ahuizotl snatched the amulet and yanked it from Terra Clave’s neck with a loud snap then turned and ran to the ridge, waving the amulet in challenge for Daring to chase him for it and suddenly froze and turned as his eyes took a familiar golden tint as Terra took control.