Chapter 11.
The fire leapt and danced from his hands, and it was glorious. Jets of fire arced and span through the air towards their targets, each arrow of flame hitting its mark. The enemy, cloaked in hoods, daggers in hands, seemed to go on endlessly, but none could get near him. He was conducting like his life depended on it, and it did. The screams echoed around the streets and alleyways, the grotesque shadows of the victims bouncing around the place with each new fireball slung. It seemed to go on forever, and there were so many of them. Elijah was sweating profusely, nerves tingling, eyes looking everywhere at once, watching, planning within seconds, and executing every action perfectly. Molly crouched behind the corner of the house, safe from harm. He wasn't going to let a single one reach either of them. They were gradually gaining ground though, getting closer and closer. He could see the pallid, purple skin bulging under their hoods now, see the dead look in their eyes...
And then it was over. The last of them collapsed to the ground, beaten to the ground by the sheer heat and intensity of Elijah's attack. He stood there panting, and Molly came out from behind the corner to stand beside him. She squeezed his arm reassuringly and smiled. He looked at her and smiled back.
"There were so many. They...they must have been inside the house as well. I...I'm exhausted!" He laughed weakly, and they started to walk towards the house. These things, whatever they might now be, were not even a shadow of their former selves, whoever they had been before. It was as if they had lost literally all sense of identity, as if they were linked together, almost like a hive mind. Once one of them latched onto something, they all did. It was horrifying, and Molly wondered who these people might have been before whatever had happened to them had changed them. It made no sense to dwell on it now though. And at least these were no longer people they were having to kill, only monsters.
They stumbled through the smoke and flames that were left, still licking around the bodies on the ground. The scholars, now monsters that had been guarding the house had mostly just disintegrated into dust, but their cloaks still lay around all over the street, quietly smoldering. They arrived at the door to the house and went inside. It had been smashed off its hinges, and was laying on the ground surrounded by splinters. The house itself looked like it had been thoroughly ransacked. Ornaments were lying on the ground here and there, smashed to pieces. Furniture overturned, broken, destroyed everywhere. Molly didn't seem too concerned by any of this though, and led them through to the kitchen. It had only been a day since they had been sitting here, but things seemed so much worse now than either of them would have thought possible.
Elijah lifted a stool off of the ground. One of the legs had a large crack in it but it still seemed sturdy enough to support him. He pulled it up to the island in the middle of the room and took a seat, glancing around. The herbs and spices had all been pulled and ripped off of the wall, and were now scattered and trodden into the floor everywhere. Pots and pans and various other cooking utensils had been hanging here and there on little hooks, but again, they were now dented and destroyed and strewn around. Molly pottered around, somehow finding enough things still left intact to make them each a drink.
"None of this matters, you know." She said as she saw Elijah looking around, practically grimacing every time he noticed something else wrong. "It's just things, and things are very replaceable. Me and you though? Noah? This whole city? Not so much. And besides...they didn't get to the good things." And with that she gave him a little wink, passed him his broken glass of water, and very nearly skipped across to the far side of the room, to the fireplace Elijah had lit before. It was cold now, nothing but a little bit of ash in the bottom. Molly stood in front of it, and then crouched down and stuck her arm up the chimney.
"Molly, what the hell are you doing?"
Sticking her tongue out in concentration, Molly answered. "There's...a tiny lever, just far enough to...Aha!" There was a loud clicking sound, and Molly stood back, pulling a blackened arm out of the chimney and putting her tongue away. The wall behind the fireplace swung backwards, revealing a small dark tunnel leading backwards and downwards. Elijah almost choked on his drink in surprise.
"We never really got around to talking about what exactly it was I'd been working on before, you know, the last time you were here. I mean, yeah, I've got my potions and formulas, but oh boy...the really cool stuff? It's all down there."
"That's...amazing. How did you even build an entire room down there? How did you manage to do all that?" Elijah was already seriously impressed, and was getting up now and wandering over.
"It's the ether! In this part of the city it's always seemed particularly active, hence the extra rooms showing up all the time. This place just gained a lot of rooms over the years, and one of them happened to be a basement. Scared the hell out of me the first time I discovered it. Walking across my kitchen and then BAM! I fall through the floor into a new room. Had to get the floor replaced, strengthened and stuff. Totally worth it though." Molly realized she was talking incredibly fast and stopped herself for a moment.
"Anyway, come on, let's go and check out the fun stuff!" She said, and led the way through the fireplace, and onto the thin staircase behind it. Elijah initially thought it was completely pitch black, but as he ducked in he saw that there was the faintest glimmer of light coming from the bottom of the staircase. They waited for a moment for their eyes to adjust, and then began to descend.