London with the lawyers went well, and the trip to Birmingham was uneventful, which was nice. Now there’s just dealing with the things demanded from the Panel meeting, and things will be almost back to normal. Which will be nice :) Oh, and for whatever unknowable reason, there’s a Tim Horton’s here in Birmingham, right in the middle of the main shopping street. Which is puzzling.
Safe passage The yellowish haze that made up the King in Yellow’s form drifted over to a fallen mage and swirled around over the body for a few seconds. Then it poured downwards, flooding into the corpse through the nostrils and open mouth. The body swelled as the haze vanished, its stomach bulging outwards like some miracle instant pregnancy, then its chest flexed and stretched, and then the arms and legs started to vibrate, drumming against the floor like the corpse was having a Grand Mal seizure. The skin turned the yellow of buttercups, deeply unnatural in humans, and slowly the corpse deflated. It sat up several minutes later and opened bulging eyelids. Beneath their toxic yellow cover were yellowed eyeballs that moved constantly in their sockets. A closer look would have revealed that the whites of the eyes were lumpy and the lumps moved around as though there were burrowing insects in the white of the eye itself. But there was no-one alive to take a closer look; the defending mages had either died or retreated. The corpse turned its head from side to side and rocked it back and forth, seemingly determining the range of motion in all available directions. Then it bent its head back, and further back, until there was a nasty cracking sound from the back of the neck and the head hung backwards from a snapped neck. Moments passed, and then the hands fumbled together and climbed their way up the corpse’s torso, seeking a goal like blind larvae hunting by smell. When they reached the head they pulled it back forwards, and it lolled loosely, hanging so that the chin bounced lightly off the chest. For a moment there was a smell of burning, and then the skin at the neck glowed goldenly, concentrating the yellow haze, and the head raised and steadied itself. As the corpse pulled itself to its feet, hands pushing upwards from the floor and the corpse swaying back and forth as it found a balance, there was the noise of people arriving in the outside chamber. The corpse lurched around, one foot staying put while the other dragged the whole body about to turn and face the Gate. It lifted its arms, swaying further and further from the vertical as it struggled to balance itself, and yellow haze misted the face of the Gate. It coalesced into a golden mirror, then stretched out into a long golden tunnel with no far end visible. The corpse stepped into it, and vanished. Almost immediately two heavily warded and armoured mages came into the room, wands held before them like policemen’s batons. They saw the golden tunnel, and the lead one sighed. “A Safe Passage,” he said. “Get the forensic team. We need to find out where that goes and fast.”
2 comments:
London with the lawyers went well, and the trip to Birmingham was uneventful, which was nice. Now there’s just dealing with the things demanded from the Panel meeting, and things will be almost back to normal. Which will be nice :) Oh, and for whatever unknowable reason, there’s a Tim Horton’s here in Birmingham, right in the middle of the main shopping street. Which is puzzling.
Safe passage
The yellowish haze that made up the King in Yellow’s form drifted over to a fallen mage and swirled around over the body for a few seconds. Then it poured downwards, flooding into the corpse through the nostrils and open mouth. The body swelled as the haze vanished, its stomach bulging outwards like some miracle instant pregnancy, then its chest flexed and stretched, and then the arms and legs started to vibrate, drumming against the floor like the corpse was having a Grand Mal seizure. The skin turned the yellow of buttercups, deeply unnatural in humans, and slowly the corpse deflated.
It sat up several minutes later and opened bulging eyelids. Beneath their toxic yellow cover were yellowed eyeballs that moved constantly in their sockets. A closer look would have revealed that the whites of the eyes were lumpy and the lumps moved around as though there were burrowing insects in the white of the eye itself. But there was no-one alive to take a closer look; the defending mages had either died or retreated. The corpse turned its head from side to side and rocked it back and forth, seemingly determining the range of motion in all available directions. Then it bent its head back, and further back, until there was a nasty cracking sound from the back of the neck and the head hung backwards from a snapped neck. Moments passed, and then the hands fumbled together and climbed their way up the corpse’s torso, seeking a goal like blind larvae hunting by smell. When they reached the head they pulled it back forwards, and it lolled loosely, hanging so that the chin bounced lightly off the chest. For a moment there was a smell of burning, and then the skin at the neck glowed goldenly, concentrating the yellow haze, and the head raised and steadied itself.
As the corpse pulled itself to its feet, hands pushing upwards from the floor and the corpse swaying back and forth as it found a balance, there was the noise of people arriving in the outside chamber. The corpse lurched around, one foot staying put while the other dragged the whole body about to turn and face the Gate. It lifted its arms, swaying further and further from the vertical as it struggled to balance itself, and yellow haze misted the face of the Gate. It coalesced into a golden mirror, then stretched out into a long golden tunnel with no far end visible. The corpse stepped into it, and vanished.
Almost immediately two heavily warded and armoured mages came into the room, wands held before them like policemen’s batons. They saw the golden tunnel, and the lead one sighed.
“A Safe Passage,” he said. “Get the forensic team. We need to find out where that goes and fast.”
Greg - a Tim Horton's? Really? There has got to be a story there.
Holy jeeze, I loved your description of the corpse re-animating. The neck bit was definitely the best, but the whole thing is great.
And where, oh where does this safe passage lead indeed...
Post a Comment