Totentanz

Book 1 Chapter IX: Allein

ALLEIN
German, "alone"

Till we can become divine, we must be content to be human, lest in our hurry for change we sink to something lower. -- Anthony Trollope, Barchester Towers

It was unfortunate that Diarnlan had never thought to check what the date was. She was taken as much by surprise as everyone else when a very dusty woman barged into the grocery store and screamed, "Monster!"

At first Diarnlan thought she meant the human variety of monster. So did several other people, judging by the chorus of voices asking, "Who?", "What happened?", and "Call the police!".

The woman staggered over to lean against the shop's counter. She nearly knocked over a sweet jar in the process. Diarnlan noted that clumsiness with disdain. Everyone else was too preoccupied to care -- including Teivain-ríkhon-hrair. She dropped the chocolate bars she'd been debating whether or not to buy and didn't even notice they had landed in someone else's basket.

"It crawled out of the sea," the woman said when she got her breath back. Diarnlan felt a sinking sensation in her stomach. "A horrible thing like a huge frog." The sinking sensation got worse. "It attacked a village. They tried to kill it but they just injured it. It's gone on the rampage all along the coast. Soon it'll be right in the midst of us. I near killed my horse trying to get here to warn you."

In a split second Teivain-ríkhon-hrair went from standing in front of Diarnlan to hovering next to the woman. "Where is it now?"

"Somewhere in the countryside. I don't know where. But it landed right on top of my house and squashed it flat! Lucky we were all at work or it'd have killed us!"

The mage didn't wait to hear any more. She was out the door before the woman had even finished talking.

Diarnlan looked at the bag full of toys that she'd been handed and asked to carry. She eyed the basket full of sweets that her teacher had thrown down so abruptly. She heaved a sigh. I suppose I'll have to pay for that.

Luckily she could conjure money. She would have been in difficulty otherwise since she hadn't brought any with her. (Technically it was illegal to conjure money because of the difficulty in deciding whether it was genuine or not. In practice everyone was willing to look the other way as long as you did it discreetly and in moderation.)

She paid for the sweets, put them in a paper bag, and left the shop much more sedately than her teacher had. Now she faced a problem. Should she intervene or stand by and let Teivain-ríkhon-hrair handle the situation?

Obviously she should do nothing. Getting involved with these fiascos was how she got dragged into the spotlight. If she wanted to stay alive she had to avoid fame at all costs.

She got the distinct feeling Saungrafn was unhappy with her decision. It tried to telepathically nudge her in the general direction of the monster. Diarnlan steadfastly refused to oblige it. Instead she followed at the tail end of the herd of people running for safety.

You should do something or your teacher will be angry with you, that pesky little voice whispered.

Diarnlan rolled her eyes. She stopped to cast a ward across the street behind the fleeing crowd. It wouldn't stop a skrýszel, but she could point to it as proof she had indeed done something.

Eventually all of the people took shelter in temples or shrines. Perhaps they thought the gods would protect them. Perhaps they just thought those stone buildings had already lasted for centuries, so surely they'd survive a monster attack. Diarnlan neither knew nor cared. She did know that she didn't intend to go into a crowded building just so she could be elbowed in the ribs, have her feet trodden on, and generally be pushed around by panicked idiots. Instead of going anywhere near those buildings she calmly continued on her way out of the city.