Page 12 of Langiappe & Lost Legends

One of the rats stood up on its hind legs and adjusted its monocle. "Je trouve cette remarque plutôt offensante, mademoiselle."

"Oh, for fuck's sake," I muttered as I charged up a containment spell. "Really? French-speaking rats? What's next? Shakespeare-quoting cockroaches?"

"Don't give the universe ideas," Phi warned as the rats scattered. Their laughter echoed around us.

"Did that one just flip us off?" Kota asked. I followed her gaze to a particularly large specimen sporting a nineteen-twenties gangster outfit. It was complete with a tiny fedora. "Because I'm pretty sure it gave us the bird."

"Focus," Dre barked. "We've got bigger problems than rodents with attitude problems. And in case the universe really is listening, clear your minds. Don't pull a Ghostbusters and accidentally manifest a hundred-foot Stay Puft Marshmallow Man in the French Quarter. The tourists are confused enough as it is."

We pressed deeper into the building. We were following the increasingly intense ticking sound. Our flashlight beams caught glimpses of temporal distortions. "The energy's getting stronger," Phi said as she consulted some readings on her phone. "Whatever they're using to power these temporal effects is messing with my phone. These readings are off the charts."

"Define 'off the charts'," I asked, even though I didn’t really want to know the answer.

"Remember when we thought the magical storm Baron Samedi conjured was bad? This is worse. In very different ways." Phi’s brow furrowed more, and she shook her head. “There is enough power to wipe out the entire city if things go sideways.”

"Fantastic," Dani muttered. "Because that's exactly what I wanted to hear."

We emerged onto what had to be the main generator floor. And holy mother of all things, it was massive. The ceiling vanished somewhere up in the darkness. It was probably hiding all sorts of nasty surprises. Ancient machinery towered aroundme like some demented artist's view of the Industrial Revolution gone wrong. Everything was coated in enough rust to make a tetanus shot cry.

My flashlight beam caught on warped metal and broken gauges. The shadows created by the light danced and shifted like they had minds of their own. The hairs on the back of my neck prickled. You know that feeling when you just know something's watching you? Yeah, this was about a hundred times worse.

"Does anyone else feel like we're being sized up for dinner?" I asked. I tried to keep my voice steady despite the way my heart was hammering against my ribs.

"I thought it was just me," Kota muttered. Her eyes scanned the darkness. "Something's definitely off about this place. We're walking through someone else's territory, but I don’t feel any powerful relic nearby. Do you?"

Phi shifted closer to us. Her usual confidence wavered just slightly. "No. I’m not giving up yet, though. We need to check everywhere. Lia’s right. This place feels wrong. Maybe time itself is watching us."

I heard a sound like something being torn apart as she spoke. Something massive shifted in the shadows. It turned my blood turned to ice. The creature that emerged looked like it had been pieced together from a thousand different nightmares across time.

A bear's head topped a body that rippled and twisted like oil on water. One moment, I saw the sleek muscles of a mountain lion. The next, it was the hulking form of a dire wolf. But the wings. Sweet baby Jesus, the wings. They stretched out like broken mirror shards caught in twilight. Each movement sent rainbow fractals dancing across the walls. Its tail snapped through the air like a leather whip wrapped in lightning. So much for our simple artifact hunt. Somewhere, the universe was laughing its ass off at my plans.

"What the actual fuck?" Dani breathed.

"That’s one helluva history guardian if you ask me," Phi said, already backing up. "The question is if this is here to protect the crystal.”

“Maybe those wings are made of the same material as the Larmes du Bayou," Dea suggested.

"Because regular guardian monsters weren't enough of a challenge," I said. "They had to make one that is all nightmares at once."

The creature's roar hit us like a physical force. It vibrated through multiple octaves that shouldn't exist in nature. The blast knocked us all back several steps. My magic flickered and sputtered like a candle fighting against a hurricane.

"Form a circle!" I shouted, falling back on our experiences. My sisters moved instantly, creating a defensive ring. "What do you think, Phi?"

"It's got to be drawing power from the crystal," she reported as her fingers flew over her phone. "The energy readings are off the charts. Traditional magic is useless. Our hits just pass through it like it's made of smoke and shadows. I wish we could find the relic and shatter it."

"Wonderful," Kota muttered. "Any other good news?"

The guardian charged with impossible speed. Its form shifted between solid and ethereal, like mist in the moonlight. Our first volley of spells passed harmlessly through it as though they were nothing but mirages. "New plan!" Dre called out as I dove away from a swipe of those crystalline wings. "We need to bind it to a single form before we can hurt it!"

Dea was already moving. Her hands glowed with power as she began drawing Fae symbols in the air. "Working on it! Keep it busy! I need about two minutes to complete a binding spell!"

"Two minutes?" Dani shouted as she rolled away from the guardian's tail. "Might as well ask for two years! That thing isn't exactly going to sit still and wait!"

Kota and Dani split off to the left while Dre and I went right. Phi stayed back and coordinated our efforts while searching for weaknesses. The guardian tracked us all. Its head spun completely around like some possessed owl.

"Duck!" Dre yelled as one of those wings swept overhead. It left trails of rainbow fractures in its wake. Where the energy touched metal, it crumbled to rust and dust.

I rolled under a low-hanging pipe and came up firing. My spells caught the creature in its ever-changing flank. The damage vanished instantly as its form rippled and reformed. I understood what Dea was trying to do now. I was several steps behind so it wouldn’t do any good to try and help her now.

---