The Assassin's Tale; Star Haven

Credits; Krell, Rea,

Krell had managed to regain control of himself by the time they reached Star Haven.  It was nowhere near as grand as Stormguard, but it was still a fairly impressive city-station.  Like Stormguard it had been established to house refugees during the war, but Star Haven had been built underground and deep within the blizzard. Arcania had rent the planet to try and get at it, but it had been protected.  Star Haven was named for the star that had been forged at its heart as its defense.  The Earl of Star Haven, with the aid of her husband, had converted the core of its birthworld into the plasmas and gasses of the star that now hovered at the heart of the city.  It wasn't much, but it lit and powered the whole station with enough left over to be sold.  The star itself was a very effective detterant to attack, emitting electromagnetic fields and targeted heat blasts at attackers. 
Tomastein's documents had shown that one of his warlock bretheren had been living here in peace and relative luxury for several centuries now.  Rea had decided to pay him a visit first, even though it wasn't actualy the closest of the targets.  Perhaps Rea knew something they didn't.  Or at least, something relevant to the situation at hand that they didn't. 
They disembarked on a small landing platform.  Rea had changed the appearance of the ship to that of a small, almost semi-circular wheeled vehicle.  It was sort of a beetle-y shape, only more colorful and with tinted windows. 
"How do we all get back in?  I assume the ship hasn't actually changed, just the appearance."  Krell had to agree with Nao, a ship with one gantry was confusing as a car with two doors. 
"The ship has zero gantries.  For all intensive purposes it is a subspace capable bug right now.  But no one in their right of mind would try to break into a bug that was sitting on a lauch pad with only a narrow entrance.  It's the sort of thing people know can't be normal, and people don't naturally like abnormal things."
"But how do we get in?"
Rea opened the door and pointed inside.  The interior of the car looked exactly like the interior of the ship had.  It was almost like no change had taken place at all.  Satisfied that their transportation was still able to carry them all, Nao started in towards the city proper.  Rea followed him and Krell fell in after her, leaving the strange craft behind.  Rea drew a set of keys and clicked the remote.  The headlights flashed and he heard the locks clicking. 
"That's the real reason I make it into a car, I love that sound!"

All the way into the town Rea was cheerful and smiling.  They walked right up to the front door of the man they were looking for, an enchanter named Krushev.  Rea knocked and Nao waited on the other side of the street, keeping an eye out for guards.  Krell and Rea waited for Krushev to answer the door.  Several minutes passed and Rea knocked again.  There was still no response. 
"Must be out to lunch."  Rea started back across the street.  Krell reached out and grabbed her arm. 
"Enchanters don't go out to eat, they can conjure it.  He knows why we're here."
He kicked the door, a firm foot to just above the deadbolt.  The wood around the locks splintered as the door caved in.  The first sign that something was wrong had been that he hadn't answered the door, but the vast quantities of blood, broken furniture, and shattered golems were also very good evidence.  Krell snapped and the broken lights were replaced by small flickering flames.  He stepped inside, trying to be as quiet as he could despite the pooled blood.  Rea stepped in and tapped his shoulder.  "Padded feet and Feather's weight, That should help relax your gait." 
"What was that for?"
"You were raised a solider; I was raised a witch.  You think of magic as a science, precise and exacting, with ends and means and always with a purpose.  For me, it was always singsong and potions, ritualistic mumblings by shadesworn hags trying to stave off eternity.  But it still has a nice feel to it, don't you think?"
"Never tried it.  What is it for though?"
"So you stop walking funny, your feet will be quiet and the blood won't splash.  Seriously, it was funny watching you tiptoe through this mess like that." 
Krell was preparing a rebuttal to her accusations of his walk being amusing, but then he saw Krushev crumpled in a chair on the other side of the room. 
"He's over here."
Rea rushed over to join him in front of Krushev's body.  From the looks of it he'd been stabbed several times with something conical.  The blood flowed freely from the wounds, there was nothing blocking it.  No weapon nearby, and a forensic spell revealed no trace of anything in the wound.  Rea heard that last fact and looked over at Krell, then unsheathed her blades. 
"Legion."
"What?"
"I should have known.  Petra being called before the council, Courtney removed, A bounty on me, and then there's that one haunting fact; shade activity is down.  It all points to one thing, Legion is consolidating his power.  He's preparing for the showdown."
"Who?"
Rea turned to Krell and did her best to look him in the eye.  There was two thirds of a foot height difference, so it really didn't feel like being looked in the eye so much as it felt like looking down at a slightly perturbed, somewhat hungry kitten. 
"You don't know about him yet.  I keep forgetting to tell you important stuff like that."
"You're getting better at it though, keep going." 
"Petra told me this theory once.  Well, she actually told it to a whole group of us.  Anyways, the idea is that all the shades are actually just one demon.  She provided evidence that one demon could be many different seperate beings in different places, or at least that it could be one being with many...itselfs.  Its complicated and I was just there for the cookies and free gear, so I wasn't really paying attention.  But she called it Legion, and referred to it as being the Devil's Lieutenant.  You've seen her fight shades right?"
Krell nodded, it had been a rather impressive display of swordsmanship.  Seeing Petra fight was literally watching the finest swordswoman in the universe, and she'd made even a powerful adversary like a shade seem like a mere foot soldier. 
"And she called it Old friend, didn't she?" 
She had, or at least he remembered it that way.
"And then when it died it didn't scream; it just sort of died.  That's because Legion and Petra have faced each other more times than any other warriors in all of history.  They're rivals really.  And I think that right now Legion is claiming the souls of all the warlocks who have summoned him up over the years in order to bolster his strength.  The other demons are keeping Arcania and I busy, Courtney's preoccupied trying to figure this all out, and while I'm sure Petra knows exactly what's going on she's got too much of a hero complex to ask for help."
"So what are we going to do about it?"
"We're going to tell Courtney.  She can deploy the ranger corp and the Night Watch to cover Arcania and I while we come up with a plan to help Petra."
"What, you think she can't handle herself?"
"No.  She's planning on fighting the demon who slaughtered most of the universe practically on his own.  And that was like eight thousand years ago, he'll be a gajillion times more powerful now!"  She waved her arms around wildly in order to try and emphasize her point.  Mostly it just made her look silly.  Krell managed to restrained himself from laughing, considering the magnitude of the facts presented. 
"Krell, Rea, run!"  Nao called from outside.  They heard him start firing and a few civilians began screaming and panicing.  Rea rushed outside and started straight for the landing platform.  Nao quickly followed, but Krell found himself cut off by an armored woman and a younger man in a leather jacket. 
"You.  Are you Krell Casat?"
"Yes, how did you.."
"In the name of the Empire, and by the authority of the Knights of the Radiant Skull, kneel and meet your maker with honor."
"What."
"You killed the Empress you Traitor!"
It was a fair enough accusation, he more or less had killed her.  But then again one could say that Rea had killed her, and considering the fact that she'd been a Lich you could even consider it suicide. 
"She had it coming, but how in the umpty-dozen moons of Tara would you know that?  Chasia and her son were fighting on our side and none of the guards would go behind their backs."
"My sister is a maid in the palace and she told me about it."
"Are you going to make this difficult or are you going to give up?"
"Back away from the Priest you mercenary tart!"  Rea must have realized he'd gotten trapped.  The woman reacted quickly and managed to dodge just enough to keep herself from being severely wounded, but he could see a bit of blood along the edge of Rea's blade.  She backed off and a series of lights flashed along her arm; perfectly coordinated with the display came a stone palisade that sepperated the two of them from Rea and Krell.  Rea grabbed him by the hand and pulled him along after her.  Nao joined up as they reached the landing pad, where he was trying to open the door. 
"It won't open!  You made it into a car and now we can't get in!"
Rea sheathed her blades and pulled the keys out of her pocket.  The doors clicked open and the car beeped. 
"Its called a lock.  Now get in the ship."