Flash Fiction – 12 Hours Part 1

This micro-fic is part of an ongoing web serial, which will be updated every hour today from noon till midnight, when the next #fridayflash gets posted.  If you are new to Nox and Grimm, you can Click Here to read from the beginning.

This episode picks up where the story left off two weeks ago in Borrowed Time.

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Grimm sat next to cemetery gate, watching the guards bustle about as they set up camp.  Nothing had changed in the months since he had left.  The grass still covered the meandering paths, and the air held the same damp smells of earth and moldering leaves.  There was no reason for him to stay outside, but even so, he felt a strange reluctance to take that first step.

Nox and Loki walked right through the creaking, rusted gate without hesitation.  “Can I use your old mausoleum, furball?” Nox asked. “I’ll need a sheltered space to work.”

“Not to mention something reasonably blast proof,” Loki said.

Nox stuck her tongue out at him. “Oh, c’mon, I haven’t blown anything up in at least a month.”

“That is only because you have been away most of the past month.”

She waved her hands airily at him. “Details, details.  Technomancy is perfectly safe if you know what you’re doing.”

Grimm chuckled at their clowning. He knew it was all an act to put the guards at ease, but it helped him as well.  He shook himself from nose to tail and paced inside. Nothing happened.  “You are getting superstitious in your old age,” he said to himself.

“What did you say?” Nox asked.

“Nothing.” He moved past them, and led the way through the maze of ancient gravestones, nose twitching and his ears slightly back.  The mausoleum had been built on a small rise, overlooking the rest of the cemetery and with a clear view of the mansion.  “Here, let me get the door.” He put a shoulder to the heavy granite slab, but it would not move.

“Is it stuck?” Loki said.  He shoved on it, and it swung right open. “I guess not.”

Grimm sat down next to the door, puzzled.  “You know, I have never used the door before. I always dematerialized to go inside.”

The room was lit by a shaft of sunlight streaming down through an oculus in the center of the domed roof.  A marble tomb took up most of the floor, and a single, crude shelf had been clawed out of the stone on the back wall.  A few oddments still rested on the shelf, things Grimm had left behind the day Nox set him free.

Loki let out a low whistle. “You lived there for 2000 years?  You are one seriously tough old bastard, Grimm.”

The hound shrugged, looking decidedly uncomfortable.  “I don’t remember much of it. I was only really aware when I was summoned, or when someone entered the graveyard.”

Nox put a sympathetic hand on his furry shoulder. “I’m sorry. If there were anywhere else nearby that I could use, we’d go there.”

“It’s all right,” he said. “Let’s focus on getting the job done, so I can get back to my nice, comfy couch.” He started to walk in, but found himself sitting back outside the door. “What in the world?” He tried again, with the same result.

Nox stood on tiptoe to study some markings on the lintel.  “A spirit ward?  It’s in good shape for its age.  Why would it start keeping you out now, though?”

Grimm tried to walk through the wall, but ended up right back where he started. “That does not work either.” His ears drooped a bit. “Can you tell if the Shadowkin spirits are making a move again?”

Nox lit up his aura, but it was more gold than black. “Nope, you are still firmly in control.”

“Perhaps it is because they are no longer held in check by the binding spell. I guess our soul-bond is not enough to convince the ward spell that I am safe.”

“Damn. Well, I was going to send you right back out again anyway. I want you to go interview the ghosts, see if you can’t find out the exact time they were set on patrol. Ask about any instructions they were given too.”

Grimm nodded, and a feeling of relief swept through him the minute he moved away from the mausoleum.

“It begs the question, just what else is in here that Galen didn’t want the Shadowkin to get at?” Nox said.

“One problem at a time, luv,” Loki said.  “We need to deal with the firethorn first.”

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