Phoenix Phire

Wind licked his lips nervously. Beta had invited him to her room at the River Tavern. When he arrived she told him to make himself comfortable while she took a shower. The Gemini thief had taken his shoes off and was reclining on the bed.

Finally, the door leading to the bathroom opened and Beta stepped out. She wore a red silk negligee that Wind immediately recognized as Nix's handiwork. It was cut low in the front exposing pale cleavage and stopped several inches above the knee to show off her slim legs.

Beta smiled sexily, her normal shyness seeming to be absent. "Do you like it?"

Wind nodded and thanked Nix in his head for making such a masterpiece of art. "Beautiful."

Beta slipped a thin strap off of one shoulder and placed a knee on the bed. "You're very sweet."

She crawled forward until she straddled his thighs. "I'm going to show you something even bet..."

Her words were interrupted by a movement from the Nightstand, a small blur of green announced the arrival of the little gecko. It stared at her with black eyes, its small head tilting to one side as it chittered softly.

"Shoo, little thing." Beta waved it away with one hand while slowly pulling the other shoulder strap down.

[Fear the King]

Beta's eyes widened in fear, her hysterical screams causing Wind to fall out of bed in a panic. A moment later the door slammed open as Chiba burst through with her sword drawn. She took one step toward the bed before Beta knocked her down in an effort to escape.

An Instant later both women seemed to freeze in place. A Breach opened near the door and a woman stepped through. She closed the door quickly before turning around.

"The fuck is going on here?" Wind finally made it to his feet, his breath coming in great gasps.

Deidra smiled slightly before examining his girlfriend, it only took a moment before she clucked her tongue in disappointment. "This is not Beta."

"Not Beta?" Wind continued to stare at the two women who remained frozen in place.

"No, they are both imposters. Get dressed please." Deidra watched him for a moment to make sure he was obeying, her eyes were drawn to a movement on the bed. "Oh... What have we here?"

The King walked across the bed to her and stepped onto the hand that she offered. He patted her arm gently while chittering in Beta's direction.

"That's the King." Wind was buttoning his shirt while trying to process the events of the last two minutes.

Deidra's amused laugh filled the room. "Of course." She used a finger to gently stroke his head. "That Mass Fear spell lingering on the air is yours? It's very nice."

Wind finished getting his clothes on and held out his hand. The King leaped nimbly to his palm before scampering up his shoulder and disappearing. "You can smell the spell?"

"Of course. It's a dragon spell after all." Deidra smiled and made a gesture that sent the fake Chiba and Beta through the opened Breach. "Can I have him?"

Wind shook his head. "No."

***********

"Then there's Morti, he's really strong but he's only a cub." Ducky had an arm around Leva's shoulders while she talked about the Sea-World and all the fun she had there.

Leva listened carefully, her face expressionless. "And Fey is a Fire Mage?"

Ducky nodded. "She really strong too, although she's just a teenager. I'm probably the eldest. How old are you Leva?"

"I should be about twenty or so." Leva inhaled slightly. "Why do you smell so nice?"

"Scent was a big part of my abilities when I was a Water Nymph, it lingered a bit I guess." Ducky looked up when Nix finally opened the door. "All done Nix?"

"Yep. Come in please." Nix waited until they entered and then shut the door behind them. "I going to have to focus for a long time, it's important that I not be disturbed."

"I've already completely locked the city down and put our defenses on alert. No one will enter my residence unless I order them to."

He walked over to one of the cushioned chairs and sat comfortably. From his inventory, he removed three Rat King's from his Inventory and placed them on the floor.

Rat King: Revenant

1) Self Destruct

2) Dominate (Up to 100 rats)

3) Stealth

"Three Rat Kings Nix? Why do you have so many?" Ducky knelt and touched their fur. Nix's rats weren't disgusting like normal ones, they were soft and clean.

"I have eight of them actually. That's how many it takes to combine them into an Emperor, however, my Taxidermy skill needs to be 400 in order to do that. Even then the success rate is only 30 percent."

Ducky nodded. "Next time pick something cuter Nix. Maybe fishies or frogs."

"Not turtles?" Nix tied two of the rats together and then leaned back in the chair.

"YES! Turtles!" Ducky moved to the nearby couch to watch.

Nix brought up his Breach Commander Hud and keyed in the coordinates that Mtui had sent him.

[Create Breach: Lake of Blood]

Leva watched the Breach open before taking a seat behind her desk. "Lake of Blood is Overseer Belchi's territory."

Nix nodded. "Makes sense. He's the one that Zeta team tried to catch during the Nether Incursion at Isla'Fairbal. Kedric was his minion."

Leva already understood what had happened. Belchi had taken advantage of the incursions in order to search for Kedric's heart. He hadn't expected that his arrival would be noted by Inferno and that they would cause him to retreat before he furthered his own agenda. To make matters worse, Nix returned to the sight and took the heart for his own minion. The Dark Chancellor placed a hand on her chest where the vampire's heart had been placed. "Be careful Nix."

Nix closed his eyes and let his body relax. "You can speak normally to me if something comes up. Limit this to important things only, I need to concentrate. Animate."

One of the Rat Kings put his head up and looked around the room, its yellow eyes were glowing fiercely. It picked up the string that bound the other two rats and dragged them through the opened Breach.

Nix stood on his hind legs and took in his surroundings. He was standing on the rocky bank of large red lake. There were quite a bit of trees bordering the shoreline, but they were blackened and devoid of any life. A large stonewall surrounded a black castle that was barely visible from Nix's ground-level viewpoint.

Nix gripped the string in his mouth and ran toward the castle walls, the two dolls were nearly weightless as they bounced against him with each step.

He headed north after touching the wall and ran along its length for several minutes until he spied a Nether rat. Unlike previous versions of the Rat King that were always attacked by real Nether Rats, the Revenant Rat instilled fear in other rats. The rat in question took one look at Nix and scampered away.

The fleeing rat was unaware that he had shown the Rat King how to enter the Castle Grounds, it only knew that it was continuing to follow him and that he must flee from it.

Several times during the next hour Nix would have to stop and force the two Rat-King dolls into very small openings. It was one thing to squeeze through but dragging two dolls in and out of rat holes proved a challenging task.

*************

"Why are you still worrying about that Beta? Look at it this way. If the imposter shows him a good time, you can just claim it was you."

Beta frowned at her friend. "You're missing the point. Get some rest, Chiba."

"What for?" Chiba yanked hard against the chains that bound her. It's not like I'm going anywh..."

Chiba caught the smallest glimps of movement near the door before a rat poked its head through the bars. Its yellow eyes stared at the old woman shackled to the wall. "Rats don't have yellow eyes... Nix?"