Entrancing Beat

Estelle made sure to stick close to Anita as the crowd moved. She was sure the dryad was perfectly capable of protecting herself, but she was rather naive and trusting and she didn’t want anyone messing with her.

‘Am I being a bit overprotective?’ she pondered as they waited for Soundwave to start the show. 'Technically, Verida has just about the same amount of lived experience and most of the others weren’t that well versed in Abyssal living. I guess Verida shouldn’t count since she’s got all that ‘daughter of another god’ thing and has some of her mother’s experiences, plus being a god herself kind of makes things different. And the others aren’t as happy-go lucky as she is.’

She wasn’t too happy to think like this. Life was about taking risks. To be too protective was to end up like Beth’s sister before they had met: smothering to the point of preventing any growth. And that was about as far from why she became a practitioner in the first place.

“Estelle?” Anita’s voice cut through. The witch looked down at her mushroomy companion. “You okay?”

“I’m fine, dear,” Estelle assured her. “Just thinking about the show.”

“It’s going to be fun!” Anita confidently proclaimed. “I have no idea what her music sounds like, but Goe likes it, and the whole illusion story thing sounds really interesting.”

Estelle smiled fondly at Anita as she vibrated in place. “I’m sure it’ll be an experience.”

“It will be,” Goe interjected. “If it wasn’t worth the hype, there wouldn’t be this many folks showing up with only a few hours notice.”

“Let’s just hope that means the numbers won’t get too big,” Tamia interjected. “That’s the one thing I’m nervous about: a crowd getting a bit too energetic.”

“I doubt the club wants a stampede on their hands,” Tok said. “I’m sure those bouncers aren’t just for show.”

Estelle peered over the crowd and towards the edges, where a number of men and women stood. It was clear from their similar, functional clothing that they weren’t there to party. Most of them looked like they could easily take on several people, and that was before magic was taken into account. If they had any skill in fighting, they could at the very least subdue most of the people in the room if it came to it.

“Kind of wish John was here,” Anita said. “He could get their levels.”

“And also violate the rules,” Verida interjected. “He’d have to cast Observe on them.”

“Oh, yeah,” Anita muttered. “Guess that would get us in trouble.”

Estelle patted Anita’s shoulder. “Magic may give us a lot of options, but knowing when and where to use them is important.”

“Right,” Anita nodded.

There was a subtle shift in the air and Estelle looked to the raised stage.

“You guys feel that?” she asked, hand slipping into her pocket to pull out her magic scanning glasses. With them perched on her nose, she could see the faint waves of magic wafting off of everyone, mixing into a chaotic soup of energies. With a tap of the rims, Estelle filtered out the background magic, leaving only active spells. There were a number of enchantments running through the room, mostly ones relating to the barrier’s construction, but there was one that wasn’t meshing with the others.

Estelle focused on that. It had an orderly arrangement, showing it was a well put together bit of magic, one likely cast often and many times over. And it was building in the air right above the stage.

“Looks like the show's about to start,” Estelle said. The words had scarcely passed her lips when the lights cut out. The crowd let out a quick gasp that soon shifted into rapturous cheers as a ring of pink light flashed into existence over the stage, small streams of golden fog spilling out of it and down onto the stage.

“Who’s ready for some fun!?” a woman’s voice bellowed, loud enough to drown out the crowd’s cheering before it swelled to new heights.

“That’s what I like to hear!” Soundwave’s voice, for who else could it be, shouted to more cheers. “Let’s get tonight going!”

Music began to play, an energetic techno style beat that everyone began to bounce and cheer to. Strobing lights began to flash as a platform began to descend from the ring. Estelle watched as the whole DJ setup floated down on some repulsive magic. She craned her head up to try and see what was through that ring, but a layer of gold smoke hid what lay beyond it.

With that investigative avenue closed, Estelle brought her focus onto Soundwave herself. And she was a bit surprised when she laid eyes on her. Soundwave was short, a gnome based on prior experiences with that particular brand of small folk. While painting a whole species with a wide brush wasn’t generally a smart thing, Estelle knew most gnomes preferred to stay among their own people.

A loud cheer shook Estelle from her thoughts as Soundwave’s platform hit the stage and golden streamers flew out over the crowd. A wave of excitement shot through Estelle, the emotion artfully infused into Soundwave’s magic. It was different from how Teri’s magic stoked or damped emotions, more like the concentrated feeling was injected directly into her head. It was a little disorienting.

“Are we feeling good tonight, Siren’s Cove?” Soundwave called out to the crowd, a microphone appearing in her hand, falling through a smaller pink ring. She strode out from behind her table with a swaggering confidence, a short grey skirt swishing about dangerously. Her black thigh high boots helped to make her look taller than she was, and the matching corset style top accentuated her already sizable breasts.

The crowd shouted various ways to say yes and Soundwave gave a showy twirl, her short half pink, half blue hair flying in her face, before dragging the fingers of her free hand up the grey elbow glove she wore on her microphone holding arm. Golden light bloomed in the wake of her fingers, spinning around her before shooting up into the air. She took a step back through a sudden portal and was back behind her setup. The streams of light detonated like fireworks as Soundwave flipped some switches and spun one of her disks.

“That’s what I’m talking about!” she shouted over her music. “Now, who's ready for the trip?”

Cheers were her answer and she went to work. The beat of her music grew frenetic, and an aurora of light began to weave out from the stage. Images began to form in the lights, showing a distant landscape. Sensations of wonder and excitement welled up in Estelle as Soundwave’s magic began to work on her, but something kept her from falling under her spell.

‘I know this magic,’ was the thought running through her head. Even without the enchantment on her glasses letting her see the weave of magic, the feel of it kept tickling her brain. But every time she tried to place where she could have met Soundwave, her mind went blank.

But not blank enough for her to lose the thread she was pulling. Instead, she focused her efforts on the spell affecting her mind.

‘It’s not forgetfulness, it's a full memory suppression keyed to anything that links to Soundwave's identity. But, it can't be that broad or it would trigger on anyone with a passing thought that could vaguely be connected to any aspect of her. Her hair, size, species, countless other things. So something more complex. Ranged mental scanning, automatic and reactive to cumulative thoughts towards her identity. Likely tied to something on her person.’

With that in mind, Estelle began to work out a counter spell. She likely couldn't just negate the magic, not without a lot more study of it, but blocking its initial effect, the mind scanning, could be something she could pull off. The thumping music and loud crowd wasn't helpful, but she could work though that…

‘That's it! Use that to block the scan.’

She focused on the noise, on each beat, scream, yell until they formed a mental wall of sound in the front of her mind. Then, she began to weave her spell. Off the cuff spell craft wasn't her specialty but she only needed this to last a minute so she could think freely and it being wholly mental helped.

She took the sounds, sights and sensations and molded them into a recurring loop, putting a fair amount of mana into the spell to support it. Shield in place, Estelle looked up at the stage.

Soundwave bounced up and down as she mixed the numerous music samples she had on tap into her art. Golden wisps of light played around her, images flashing within them. If her mind hadn’t been so focused on the spell, Estelle figured that some feeling of wonder would have swept her away.

Instead, her mental shield took root, an odd sensation of detachment falling over the witch. It was like that time she whipped up an experimental cold medicine and it left her more than a little out of it, just more manageable. It was a sort of floating feeling, like she was a second away from lifting off the ground.

Estelle shook her head to get her thoughts focused. She could already feel the shield beginning to wear down just from existing so she turned her attention to Soundwave. And immediately knew who Soundwave was.

‘Wendy?’ she thought with a start. It was impossible to deny the gnome on stage was her and Nephele’s erstwhile colleague. Then a sense of understanding fell upon her. 'Somehow, this makes sense for her. Wait, were those acoustic crystals we made for her for this? She said they were to help scan ruins! It’s not like we wouldn’t have helped her if this is what they were for.’

With the suppression spell blocked, Estelle could tell even the glasses Wendy wore were of her design. They weren’t all that different from the ones she still wore, enchanted with various spells to detect magical energies. It also occurred to her that the glasses had enough metaphysical space left on it for an awareness suppressor to be anchored to it.

“Estelle, you okay?” Anita shouted to her. Despite being right next to the witch, Estelle could barely hear the dryad.

“Yeah, I’m good,” she shouted back, shooting Anita a soft smile. “Just thought that Soundwave looks like someone I know.”

Anita’s eyes widened in excitement. “Really!? Do you think they’re the same person? It’d be cool if they were. The music’s sooo cool! And the lights and, and…”

Estelle put her hand on Anita’s shoulder to quiet her. “I’m not sure if it is who I’m thinking of. And in the middle of a rave isn’t exactly the time or place to talk about it.”

It felt bad lying to Anita like that, but Estelle didn’t want to get her hopes up about knowing Soundwave. There was no guarantee that Wendy would give up the ghost when confronted.

‘I don’t even know if I want to confront her about this,’ Estelle thought. ‘Unless she tries to swindle us on the price, then I can use this as leverage.’

It was bad business to dig into a client’s hobbies, unless you had reason to think they were using your products for nefarious ends. Instead, Estelle let herself relax. They were here to have fun and Wendy’s show was pretty good.

The scent of incense filled the air, a cloying, heavy scent that spoke of a duty to be carried out.

“The time has come,” a rough voice of a man echoed through the dimly lit chamber, harsh shadows cast from low burning braziers cloaking the assembled in darkness. “Our path has been ordained, and we take our first steps against the rot that has seeped into the world! The Amber Radiance will lead us to a new dawn, refreshed with the offal of the unworthy, their unclean flesh and blood will nourish the renewed growth of the purified wilds! Their sin will be washed away by our arms and effort! Sister Jela and Brother Armot stand ready to reap their sin and allow true, blessed growth to bloom in their wake!”

“Praise be to Lord Alatrvo!” the congregation chanted in unison. And far from the preacher and his flock, a stern woman opened her eyes after a moment of prayer. She looked down at the amber tipped spear lying in front of her. She took it into her hands and rose to her feet.

“By my oath, let this reaping begin.”