Fennel's Nightmare

Cards scattered everywhere as Spades was, quite literally, thrown out of the casino. Seeing as they were “special” cards, gathering them all wouldn’t be an issue. The issue came from gathering them all in time. She had been booted from this establishment many times before, so she was well versed with what’d happen next. There was about a 3 minute window for her to gather her things and get out of town before the guards came after her.

Things like this have always been trivial to Spades. She had never been caught, as her luck wouldn’t allow it. On top of that, she had taken precautions in order to make Cassinex a safer place, at least for her. Mirrors had been strategically hidden throughout the city for situations such as these. Hastily, she gathered the remainder of her cards and ran away from the cassino she’d just been kicked out of.

It was late. Spades hadn’t realised how late it was until she was a good distance away from the guards. But that’s impossible, she was never late! She couldn’t be late! Her luck wouldn’t allow it, unless being late caused a lucky outcome. What in Mirror Domain does this mean? A wave of excitement rushed over Spades as she finally made her way to one of the mirrors she had hidden. Something interesting was about to happen; she knew that for sure.

Klaus had told her to meet Fennel at her house by noon that day to make sure she was ready for tomorrow’s expedition. They had things to sell in other realms, and Fennel was the only one who could translate for the group. She had a history of overthinking and over preparing, which is why Spades was supposed to be there; to make sure Fennel was ready in time. Being late wasn’t an option.

It was dark out now. Well past noon, but it’s hard to gauge the time of day within the confines of a windowless casino. She had spent the entire day there and, as usual, was on quite the winning streak before the bouncers threw her out. Still, she had her winnings safely tucked away, and none of her cards had been lost. While she was kicked out, she considered that a win. Now to get to Fennel’s house.

The problem with mirror travel is that you’re often all by yourself. Wicker’s Crew were the only ones to use mirrors this often, so they found themselves alone while traveling. This isn’t usually a problem when the crew is together, but Spades was all alone. She couldn’t stand being alone.

The second she stepped through the mirror, Spades took off flying through the mirror plane. It was the fastest way to travel, and she had to be fast. Being alone terrified her, and she could already feel the terror taking over as her thoughts began to jumble. Which exit was it again? There were so many! Luck. She still had her luck, even if she was panicking. Without thinking, Spades jumped through the nearest portal. It didn’t matter where it went, as long as there were people on the other side.

Exiting the mirror plane, Spades found herself in a familiar room. Beside her was a large wooden table covered in scratches and knife marks, with a decently sized map and a golden hand mirror on top. She was at Fennel’s house, but where was Fennel?

It was late. Fennel was probably asleep by now. Still, Spades had to actually see her before her terror would go away. In a fit of instinctual anger, she shoved the table to the side and ran into Fennel’s bedroom. She couldn’t think anymore, her primal instincts had taken over to combat the fear she had. Her hand gripped one of the many dice in her pockets as she entered the room. The dice helped calm her a little, but she still needed to find someone around before her mental state deteriorated any further.

Fennel wasn’t in her room. She tore the place apart looking for her, but she wasn’t there. Fennel doesn’t just disappear like that, she had to be nearby. Hastily, she exited the room and ran outside to take a look around. There weren’t many places to go, so finding her would be easy. Spades’ heart pounded as she ran. The terror was taking over.

Immediately upon exiting the cave, Spades saw someone. Another demon. The terror she felt instantly disappeared upon seeing him, but who was he? She had never seen him before. He hadn’t seemed to notice her yet, and it sounded like he was talking to someone. Now that her sanity had returned, Spades was able to assess the situation rationally. What was this guy saying, and why was he here?

“Unfortunately, someone in your position can’t be granted a trial. You’re too much of a threat.” The demon said, as it pulled out a knife and held it out of view “Goodbye, Fennel”

Without thinking, Spades ran over. It was hard to see what was going on from where she was standing, but as she approached the situation became clear. The tall, white, reptilian looking demon had Fennel pinned to the ground with a knife at her throat. In an instant, Spades had her own knife drawn. With precision and accuracy, she threw the knife at the attacker, hitting him right in the head. He staggered backwards, tripping over Fennel in the process. Before he got a chance to react, Spades flew over and grabbed both knives away from him.

“Hey! What in the hell do ya think you’re doing?” She shouted at the demon, who was holding his hands to his injury.

He didn’t respond. Instead, he took one of his hands off his head and began chanting something under his breath. His clawed hand began to glow, as a ball of blue fire was shot from it. Of course, it missed Spades completely, giving her another opportunity to attack.

She struck him again, this time plunging the knife straight into his torso. Before she got the chance to see where she’d hit, a white flash of smoke enveloped the area. The two blue glowing eyes remained in view only briefly before vanishing. As the smoke cleared, it became apparent the attacker had fled. Only Spades and Fennel remained.

Fennel seemed to be out cold. She wasn’t bleeding as far as Spades could tell, which was a good sign. The night’s here were known to get cold. It was cold out already, and the night had only just begun. Spades couldn’t just leave her coworker unconscious outside like this. She’d freeze to death, on top of whatever that other demon did to her. Klaus needed Fennel for his operation; she couldn’t be allowed to die.

Dragging Fennel inside proved to be a difficult task. Yes, she was extremely underweight, but she was also 8 foot 4. 210 pounds was still a lot, especially when you take Spades’ height into account. Still, she pushed on, dragging Fennel by her arms until she was safely inside her cave.

Spades removed the blanket from Fennel’s bed and hoisted her onto it. As she did this, a horrible cracking sound came from Fennel’s body, and she groaned in pain.

“Salix? You ok?” Spades asked, sounding more worried than she would have liked.

Fennel didn’t respond. Was she unconscious? It was hard to say. Unfortunately, Spades didn’t know much about first aid. That was usually Fennel’s job, but Fennel was currently out of commission. There had to be something around that could help, though. This knowledge didn’t just come out of nowhere. Perhaps one of Fennels books would be able to help her out?

Well, maybe they would, if Spades could actually read them. Many of Fennel’s books were written in forign languages; languages that Spades couldn’t understand or identify. Ok, so that idea was a bust. Now what? Spades knew she wasn’t alone, but this was a weird grey area. She didn’t know how to react to the situation, and she could feel her fear slowly setting back in.

“Alright, Salix. This isn’t funny. Time to get up” She said, nudging her slightly. “I-if you’re trying to prove a point or something, consider it proven. I promise I’ll treat ya better, ok? Just get up… I can’t be alone, you know this…”

No response, again. Not knowing what else to do, Spades decided to go to bed. It was late, and her colleague was injured. Of course she wasn’t waking up, she was probably exhausted from whatever happened during the fight. Things would be better in the morning. Fennel would wake up, explain what happened, and then the two could tend to her injuries before meeting up with the rest of the crew.

Spades climbed into the bed next to Fennel and covered the both of them with the blanket she had thrown to the ground earlier. While they were inside, it was still cold. The walls and floor were made of stone, seeing as Fennel lived in a cave. Sleeping over was a rare occurrence because of this, but right now Spades didn’t really have a choice. She curled up on her side with her back facing Fennel, and used her wings for extra insulation from the cold.

“Please wake up tomorrow, Fen…” She whispered, before finally going to sleep.

Morning came, and Fennel had yet to wake up. How wonderful. Still, she was alive, which was a good thing. Spades was pretty confident she’d wake up. Her blessing brought Fennel good luck as well, nullifying her curse. If she was going to die, she probably would have by now. Either Spades luck kept her alive, or Fennel’s curse wasn’t done tormenting her yet.

Again, Spades nudged Fennel in hopes of waking her up. It didn’t work; she was still asleep. Time was beginning to run out. The two were expected to meet up with Klaus and Dewey by 11. What time was it now? Surely it was still early. There’s no way Spades could be late for something twice in a row. She’d yet to determine how being late the first time was a good thing. Fennel could have died! If she’d gotten there on time, that other demon wouldn’t have stood a chance.

 Exiting the cave, Spades could see it was around 8:00, give or take. They had about 3 hours. That’d be plenty of time. She was about to turn around and go back inside, when she saw something glittering against the sunlight. Curious, she sauntered over to investigate.

Lying broken on the ground was Fennel’s glasses. The glass had shattered, presumably from being dropped or thrown. One lens was missing completely, and the other has a large chip in it. Wonderful. Salix was blind as a bat without her glasses, and getting new ones was a pain.

“You had to get attacked while I was gone…” Spades muttered angrily, as she took the broken pair of glasses inside and placed them on Fennel’s nightstand.

Hours passed, and eventually Fennel began to stir. She moaned in pain, as her eyes began to open and look around. Spades had been watching her the entire time, and immediately addressed her upon seeing this.

“Salix! Finally! You’ve been out all day. Took ya long enough” Spades said, with an odd mix of anger and relief in her voice.

“W… What? Spades?” Fennel asked dazed, before suddenly snapping back to reality and jolting up. Briefly forgetting her injuries, she groaned in pain and laid back down. “Spades! H-how did I get here? How long have you been here?” A look of horror spread across Fennel’s face. “W-what did you see? How much did you see?” Her voice was weak, but Spades could hear her distress.

“Jesus, calm down. You’re fine. What the hell happened to you?” Spades asked

Fennel tried to respond, but a sharp wave of pain hit her, causing her to groan in agony once more. She looked awful. Her breathing was staggered, as every breath seemed to cause her more pain. It was clear she was in no condition to explain everything, so Spades changed her approach.

“Ok, forget that. What hurts?” She asked, a bit impatiently.

“Huh?” Fennel asked

“You’re hurt, duh. But we gotta get going. Wicker’s waiting for us. So, what hurts?”

“I don’t…. I don’t know?”

“For fuck’s sake, Salix, I’m trying to help you here! Work with me!”

“I-I don’t know! I’m, ah… I’m sorry. It all hurts, I don’t think you’ll be able to do anything…”

Spades sighed in defeat. “Wicker’s gonna be pissed… Oh, he’s gonna be real pissed…” She shot Fennel a glare. “This is your fault, I’m not taking the blame if we lose this client”

“What time is it?” Fennel asked weakly.

“Hah! What time is it. It’s well past noon. I stopped keeping track after that”

Fennel’s ears twitched as she also sighed in defeat. It was obvious they were both in trouble, but Fennel seemed to be far more worried than Spades. Not uncommon, taking their luck into account. Of course she was more worried, she was the cursed one. Not Spades. After a long pause, Fennel broke the silence.

“Uh… Do you think it’d be possible to find Klaus? I really need to talk to him” She said, her voice dripping with anxiety.

“Why? You gonna try sweet-talking him out of a punishment or something? Plead for mercy, maybe?”

“Please, it really can’t wait.”

“Ugh, overcomplicating things as usual. Just tell me whatever you wanna say and I’ll relay the message-”

“No!” Fennel shouted, almost cutting Spades off. “I-I mean… Uh, I can’t. I really have to talk to Klaus… Directly…”

Spades was about to pry for more information, but she quickly realised it’d be a fruitless effort. Paranoia made Fennel do strange things, and fighting it head on only made it worse. It’d be better to just play along. Plus, Spades had luck on her side. Whatever she ended up doing would be the correct choice; she was sure of that.

“Fine… Before I leave, though, are you sure you’ll be ok here by yourself?”

“I… I don’t know…” Fennel said softly. “But it doesn’t matter. If Klaus isn’t made aware of… Things, we’re all going to be in trouble…”

If Fennel was able, she’d be scratching herself nervously right now. Of course, her injuries wouldn’t allow it. Both her arms seemed pretty mangled, and trying to bend them only caused more pain.

“Alright then…” Spades said, as she turned to leave “Ya better not get yourself killed while I’m gone” She muttered, exiting the room and picking up the gold hand mirror on the counter.

With that, Spades made her exit through the mirror, returning to the mirror plane. As before, she took off flying in what she thought was the right direction. Klaus and Dewey were supposed to meet them in the realm of Idle Expanse, but she didn’t know if they’d still be there. She was hours late by this point.

Usually, the gang has about an hour window to congregate before Klaus leaves them behind. Klaus can handle the crew’s business on his own; he’d done so in the past. Sure, he wouldn’t be able to talk to anyone in this realm, but it wasn’t their only stop of the day. There was no doubt in her mind he was off doing other deals, but it wouldn’t hurt to check. Who knows? Maybe she’d get lucky.