The bullet made it only a foot out of the chamber before Ellyne, using flocia, deflected it into a nearby wall where it embedded itself. She lowered the gun slowly, panting with rage, and gently holstered the weapon, never taking her eyes off Nicole who remained largely motionless.
“No,” she whispered, “you can still be useful to me. You can’t stop me. Nobody can stop me.”
She stomped into her bedroom and traded her bloody torn clothes for an untarnished outfit, inspecting the myriad of holes and tears she’d accumulated. Judging by how damaged they were, she probably should’ve been dead. It was another testament to the power she commanded. If a fall that high couldn’t kill her, could anything?
“But I also can’t have you standing in my way,” she continued, emerging into the living room. “A traitor, and the friend of a traitor. I’ll take care of this myself if I must personally send every last one of those lizard things back to where they came from. Should you try and stop me, I won’t hesitate to cut you down.”
She slammed the door behind her. Normally, she escaped covertly through her window, but now she felt no reason for that. She could go wherever she pleased, whenever she liked.
“Who’s gonna stop me?” she mused. “I’d like to see someone try.”
She almost wished someone would challenge her. She needed an excuse to further explore her new abilities and stretch her legs a bit. She barely understood how these powers functioned, and there was no way to learn but through experience. If someone should happen to anger her, well, she just might let loose.
Ellyne made her way through the throng of people on the sidewalk as usual. What was unusual, however, was hearing the muted gasps and whispers from some individuals in the crowd as she passed by. Had they seen? Were they there when she defeated that monster? Did they know who she was?
She tried to ignore the scattered reactions while simultaneously keeping an eye on everyone through the corners of her vision. The Technos would absolutely position themselves against her and the Teranynes would probably try to coerce her to join them—a complete reversal from the way things used to be. She had always walked that line—potential ally to one, hated enemy to another.
The Ilserate had surely seen the spectacle. They probably saw everything—the Kithrak, too. Not only had Ellyne challenged a new enemy, but she’d inadvertently sent a message to all her old enemies. She’d done more in a few minutes than the Ilserate had done in two years.
“Good,” she growled. Several people took notice of her, hearing her voice. “Nobody before had the power to clean up Karnascus,” she whispered, “so I guess it falls on me.”
She’d never felt such confidence or such a drive to fight back. It was as if all her frustration and anger over magic bubbled up all at once because, now … now she could actually do something about it, and neither Marik nor Nicole could stop her.
And how dare Nicole try to save Marik! “Trying to save a traitor … only a traitor’s ally would do such a thing. If Nicole stands with Marik, then she doesn’t stand with me. And to think she had me believing we were friends!”
She stood alone—probably hunted by literally everyone in Karnascus. But would anyone make a move against her? Surely even the Ilserate had to feel some level of fear. Both the Technos and the Teranynes would be foolish enough to confront her, that much was certain. But the Kithrak and the Ilserate … they’d most likely bide their time and watch for weakness.
Surely, they’d have a plan eventually, though. They would either have to neutralize her or somehow coerce her to join them. Such a thing would put them in control. Where, before, they fought over Nicole they would now fight over Ellyne. The very thought made her laugh.
She eventually stopped outside a familiar storefront and stared at the hanging sign. The letters, once dormant, sprang to illuminated life on her approach.
She pushed open the door to Victor’s bar and slipped inside. “A drink is what I need right now.”
Upon entering, the screens on the walls flickered and popped, finally springing to life, but the rest of the room fell silent. Even Victor paused his conversation with someone at the bar and stared at her. He looked almost as if he were gazing at a stranger.
“Ellyne,” he stammered, “uh hi! The … uh, usual, I suppose?”
“Yes, please, and make it a triple if you don’t mind.”
She approached the bar, feeling every pair of eyes in the room follow her as no one uttered a word. Had news of what happened gotten out this quickly, or had everyone here seen what she did?
She didn’t like it. There was no danger, but there was tension in the air and frustration rose within her. Being the center of attention like this made her uncomfortable—exposed and out in the open. She made it to a stool and pulled it out.
“I would appreciate it,” she growled, turning to the crowd, “if you assholes all minded your own damned business and maybe stopped staring at me like I’m some freak exhibit at the museum.”
She heard several gasps and the stunned crowd stared blankly at her for a moment before most of them averted their gaze, trying without success to act naturally. Ellyne stared at them all, realizing her fingers toyed with the gun at her side.
A gun that suddenly seemed so clumsy and … archaic when compared to her newfound abilities. Did she even really need it anymore? Once she had control over her abilities, maybe she’d ditch it.
She finally turned from the crowd and sat on the bar stool, now immediately aware of the man sitting next to her and whose eyes appeared fixed in her direction.
She turned to him and scowled. “And what are you staring at?” Her hand rested on her gun again. The urge to draw it was strong. If she put a bullet in this man, who would stop her? The urge to find out nagged at her. She’d started many bar fights in the past. Would this be any different?
“Oh, uh, nothing!” the man stuttered, falling over his own words. “I’m just going to … go … over there now.”
“Good,” she replied as the man grabbed his drink and hustled over to an empty table where he promptly sat and kept his gaze pointed down at the drink he clutched in shaky hands.
“What the hell is wrong with everyone, Victor? It’s like I’m on fire or something. I don’t like everyone staring at me.”
Victor grunted and mumbled something she couldn’t understand as he filled a glass with squama juice. “Welcome back. I assume you enjoyed your time in prison?”
“Thank you. Wait, how did—”
“Your friends—the girl and that bald guy—filled me in some time ago, as they were making plans to break you out. I don’t know why they trusted me with any of that information, to be honest.”
“Who else knows?”
“Just me.”
He mumbled something more, but Ellyne’s attention was already elsewhere as she stared into the alluring blue liquid she swirled about in the glass.
Once again, she found herself with motivation and absolutely no plan of action. The only difference, now, was the overwhelming advantage she held. But she couldn’t just fly up to the alien spaceship and take them on, could she?
“Wait,” she mused, “can I fly? Maybe I can just zip on up there and break their stuff.”
Maybe, if she defeated enough of them, they would leave, fleeing like cowards. How many of them were there, anyway? Their ships were huge, sometimes blocking out the sun’s light entirely, so there had to be plenty of them.
And the Kithrak were obviously afraid of them, but why? Were these Golgolothings that powerful?
If she could gain control of her abilities and rely on them, then she doubted their numbers even mattered. She’d take them all one if she had to.
Ellyne felt certain something was missing from the equation, but she wasn’t sure it mattered. She would dismantle everything and everyone all the same and then she would figure out how to rid herself of flocia permanently.
“Or not. Maybe I should keep it. After all, I took it. I seized flocia when nobody else could. It’s mine. Maybe I should hang onto it. I bet I could keep humans free and peaceful. I mean, we all know the Ilserate can’t seem to do shit about that anyway. If I continued to be the Teranyne, then I could dictate who could use magic and when … assuming I learn how to control it.”
“I’m sorry,” Victor said, “were you talking to me? I was busy.”
“Just talking to myself.”
“Well, if you need anything, just … just let me know, okay?”
“Wait,” she said, looking up at the man. “What’s with everyone in here? Staring at me and whispering? People on the street were doing it too and you … you’re acting pretty weird, yourself.”
Victor leaned in, propping himself on the bar with his elbows. “Word gets around, Ellyne. You created quite a scene out there. Besides that, nobody’s ever killed a Golgolonar, let alone taken one on in plain view of everyone. Nobody’s successfully fought them since the day they arrived. All confrontations ended poorly for us. Even the Kithrak folded without a fight.”
“Yeah, but it just happened. How is it—”
Victor turned his gaze upward to the screen above him.
“This is Gabrielle Simms, reporting once again from Karnascus-15, on location of what was a brutal and deadly fight between a woman and one of the alien Golgolonar.”
“Well, shit,” Ellyne spat, downing her drink in one gulp. The blue liquid’s familiar burn as she swallowed was like seeing an old friend after many years apart. “That explains it, I guess. I often forget people watch screens.”
“Don’t you ever watch the news?” Victor laughed nervously.
Ellyne gently slid the glass toward Victor. “You know I don’t.”
“Oh, right. I don’t even know why you have a screen in your apartment.”
“It came with the place. I’d yank it off the wall but then I’d have to stare at empty holes and probably pay for the damage eventually.”
Victor poured another drink and set the bottle down next to the glass. He knew her well enough to know that bottle would be empty soon.
She grinned. But she also braced herself for the question she knew was coming.
“As you can see from this recorded footage,” the reporter continued, “this woman, now identified as Ellyne Thandaral, is bathed in radiant orange light as she plummets back to the street and collides with the pavement, only to be ejected at least thirty feet away.”
Apparently, she channeled enough flocia to allow everyone to see—not just Nicole. Nothing like being a beacon of illumination, plummeting from the sky for everyone to see.
“What happened out there, Ellyne?”
There it was.
“I’m going to kill them, Victor. I’m going to hunt down and kill every Golgolo asshole until they flee Seralune with their tails between their legs.”
“You can’t be serious,” Victor gasped. “Ellyne, they’re really powerful, and tough to kill.”
“And, yet ya girl killed one.”
“One, yes. But there are thousands more where that one came from. And I hear there are far worse monsters—additional arms, legs, tails, whatever.”
“Ilserate authorities are unsure of the golden gunslinger’s whereabouts at this time,” the lady on the screen continued, “but they urge extreme caution to the public.”
“I guess I’m not anonymous anymore,” she muttered under her breath, taking a swig of squama juice. “That’s unfortunate.”
Her thoughts were already calmer and more whimsical as the alcohol quickly got to work. Her muscles relaxed a little, but she was still focused and resolute.
“Okay, so,” Victor stammered, looking a little uneasy, “how are you going to do this? Just call each one out and work through the ranks?”
“I haven’t thought that far ahead yet. But if that’s what I must do, then I will. And I’ll kill anyone who gets in my way. We’re prisoners, Victor. First to the Ilserate, then the Kithrak and, now, these lizard things. It’s got to stop. It’s going to get bloody—alien and human alike.”
Her friend took a step back, shock written all over his face. “Ellyne, you can’t … you can’t mean that.”
“If you’re not working with me then you’re my enemy, Victor. We’ve been prisoners for too long. Nobody else has the courage or the power to free us.”
She guzzled the rest of her drink and slammed the glass down.
“But I do.”
“Are you absolutely sure of that, Ellyne? You’re talking about taking on literally everyone in Karnascus. And you can’t tell me you want to harm other people. I know you, Ellyne. You’re not a cold-blooded killer of innocents.”
“Old Ellyne wasn’t, Victor.”
She offered her tik card to the worried man.
He grinned nervously but didn’t move to take the card from her. “Since when did you start paying for your drinks?”
“… and there are many who question the golden gunslinger’s mysterious two-year absence, only to reappear suddenly.” The reporter paused for a moment. “After what transpired here—after she left this massive crater in the street, killing a Golgolonar, there are rumors that squads have been dispatched to neutralize her.”
“Since I became a celebrity, of course. I mean since I became one … again,” Ellyne grinned.
“And since this encounter,” the reporter continued, “magic itself appears to be more stable—an element which both Kithrak and Ilserate scientists are investigating, with the permission from the Golgolonar of course.”
“So, what will you do now?” he continued, waving off her attempt to pay. “I wouldn’t even know where to start. I don’t glow orange and fall from the sky though,” he chuckled.
She returned the card to her pocket and rose from the stool, cracking her knuckles. “I’m gonna find one of these neutralization squads and … neutralize them.”
“Then what?”
“Find another. Then another.”
She headed to the door.
“You can’t fight the Golgolonar alone, Ellyne,” Victor called out behind her.
“Watch me,” she muttered.