In the Defence

Series Two

Far from the Gates

Characters: Mortimer Lindquist
Timeline: AR, Set around four months after the death of Harry Dresden
Summary: Adventure Tragedy. Something is stirring up the dead. Ghosts in every shape and form have been giving a wide birth to a once considered peaceful area of the Nevernever.
Author's notes: Just as a reminder, Mortimer Lindquist is an ectomancer from the books "Grave peril", "Death Masks" and "Dead beat". He communicates with the dead.

Mortimer's POV

I cannot believe I was doing this.

When I woke up this morning, my body was under the false impression I would just have a day off from the dead. You know, just lie around in bed all day, eating a constant stream of bacon sandwiches and catching up with some programs I had recorded over the past couple of weeks.

What I did not think I would be doing is trekking through some of the back streets of the Nevernever, trying hard to avoid some of the more violent apparitions of the supernatural world while simultaneously looking for some kind of creature that had enough power to make a ghost wet his ectoplasm.

I, ladies and gentlemen, am Mortimer Lindquist, ECTOMANCER! Nobody knows what it is and I only learned off of a random internet page. In the most general of forms, I'm a ghost whisperer. Communicator to the spirits. Messenger of the dead and so on and so forth.

Sadly, this means that my main source of information (as well as income) rely on the magical impressions left by the dead when they depart from this world. So when several hundred of them turn up in my bedroom at four o'clock in the morning, which by the way is a hell of a wake up call, asking for my assistance in a matter of a grave emergency, there was no way I was going to argue with them. It was part gratitude and part blood curdling fear that got me to put on my game face and have a listen to their gentle but firm plea.

I have no clue how long they had surrounded my bed, but it had been enough time for them to represent a...well...representative to speak on their behalf. From the crowd of transparent presences, a tall blonde man dressed in Victorian clothes popped out of the crowd and sat on the edge of my bed to meet eye level with me. I could tell he was trying to put on a calming smile, but the dead had a sick sense of humour, as he was missing half of his jaw and he didn't actually have any eyes for me to feel compassion from. I resorted to staring at his nose and holding the bed-sheet between us as sort of an improvised barricade.

"Good morning Honourable Lindquist." The words didn't come from his mouth but echoed around in my head. If a house mate (yeah right) chose that precise moment to walk in, they wouldn't be able to see or hear anything, but they would feel a slight chill in the air. I guess those reality ghost shows got at least one thing right. They were still a bunch of amateurs though.

The ghosts eyebrows furrowed in concern. "Honourable Lindquist, can you hear me?" I had drifted off the current subject just then, so I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and focused back on his nose.

"Yes, yes, I can hear you." The ghost nodded his head in acknowledgement.

Centuries ticked by.

I shuffled uncomfortably and glanced at the dead legion around me. "So not to sound aggressive or anything, because you know I always love it when you guys show up and just seeing all your faces..." I spotted a headless man in a suit. "...here...always brings a smile to mine, but I would just like to ask, if its not too much bother, why are you all in my bedroom?"

I distinctly noticed a breeze of fear wash over the room, and for once it wasn't coming from me. It took a lot to frighten the dead, but I failed to follow onto that train of thought, so I settled for being very confused and turning back the the ghost in front of me. At some point he had stopped looking at me, well, not looking looking, but no longer facing his head in my general direction and aiming his face at his lap. "Honourable Lindquist, we would like to hire you."

That's how I found myself skulking through the Nevernever without any weapons at all, just my fists and a special frequency in my voice. I suppose if all else failed, I could scream a very high pitched note at the dead and hope they decide to leave me alone out of sheer annoyance.

Ghosts a merely fragments of who they once were when alive, including mentally. It had taken me another hour of persuasive arguments and question prodding before I could finally build a picture of what they wanted me to do. Since the first time a person had ever died, ghosts had never been frightened of anything. The strong ones knew that they were already dead and not meant for this world and the weak ones were too focused on haunting poor widows or just sitting on a grassy hill and watching the world go by. For some reason now though, they were afraid. At some point in the previous twenty four hours, fellow spirits had suddenly been sucked from where they stood and drawn back into a specific point in the Nevernever like sand in a sink-hole. I was informed by the Victorian man that there was now a ghost free area the size of a human city in the spirit world and they wanted me to find out what was going on.

I jumped behind a dumpster slash car (objects in the Nevernever were very metaphorical at the best of times) to hide from a troop of Griffins that had strolled down the street towards me. They were squawking to each other loudly like drunken teenagers as they passed me and continued forward, oblivious to my presence. That was the seventh time I had almost been caught and I cursed myself for accepting this case. I was not a private investigator and had never wanted to be. The last PI I had known had killed himself and took an entire warehouse with him a few months ago and though I'm not a religious man myself, I bet you all my crystal balls that that was a sign from fate herself.

I had already been to the Nevernever a couple of times, but that was just in short bursts when one of my ghosts lost its concentration and was sent hurtling around random parts of the spirit world. I was used to the desecrated outlines of once great feats of architectural engineering surrounding me on all sides and the quiet hum that came from my ears trying to adjust to the change in pressure. The pressure in the Nevernever isn't higher or lower, but merely something else. Dammit, I'm an ectomancer, not a scientist.

I took on some sombre thoughts. I couldn't let the dead down though. Even though other people, myself included, considered me a frightened fool, I wouldn't stand idly by and watch my ghost friends suffer. Until times changed, most people considered ghosts as a lower class, an ugly stain on society that should be extinguished as soon as magically possible. Only people like me stood up for them and I would gladly give my life to help, what I believed were, the lives of the dead.

Thanks to the little pep talk I had given myself, a glow on confidence was cast around me. Literally. Emotions affected most of the Nevernever, so here, I was a sparkling figure of pride, as I stood up from behind the dumpster-car and jumped from door-front to door-front as I approached the position I had been directed to go to. Hey, even with confidence, I wasn't a stupid fool who was just going to walk down the middle of the street, out in the open. This place is messed up.

Even with troops of Griffins strolling around, I would normally expect hundreds of dead figures to be walking around, with a foothold in both the physical and the spirit world. I've only just noticed though that I hadn't seen a ghost for about half an hour now. Shit, maybe the dead were right.

I finally came to the right place and crouched behind a glowing Jeep that looked as if it had been hit by a car bomb and then had its sharp edges sanded down. The area I had come to was completely deserted. It a simple crossroad from a city built in blocks like New York or something and was surrounded on all corners around by five storey buildings that must have been made in the fifties. Like the dead, this place was an echo of its former glory. Every surface shined, but on closer inspection, potholes covered the uneven roads and masonry had crumbled from all sides of the buildings.

Even for the land of the dead, this place was way too creepy.

I pressed my hand onto the bare concrete and opened my senses. In the mortal realm, I could feel and see the dead. In here (or out here?), my powers would be strong enough for me to sense anything close by, whether it be alive or dead.

I tuned my ears and focused on the area around me. I could just pick up some rumbling vibrations coming from from a building directly in front of me. I eventually noticed that it wasn't a steady hum of energy, but was instead picking up violence and strength as what ever was in that building. The ground and walls around me began to shake from agitation, spilling clouds of dust into the air that had settled for aeons. There was no Sun here, but shafts of light permeated over the rooftops to reflect of the dust, showing me violent breezes that rushed through the area.

There was an abrupt stillness in the area, during which time I lowered my mental barriers to try and get a better understanding of what just happened. A large explosion suddenly emitted from the centre of the building and forced my hand back into my chest as disturbed thoughts tried to stab at my mind. Orange flames shot through every window and overshadowed what seemed to be a cry of pain, before the front wall of the house blew up from its corners and two figures were sent hurtling out of it. At the same time, my wonderful survival instincts kicked in and I leapt behind the Jeep next to me and prayed that no-one had seen me and I could just crawl away, while also keeping an eye on the new characters so I could have a head-start if they began to move towards my position.

I first thought that they were hugging each other, but as they span through the air and into the street, I noticed that both had death grips on their shoulders and were also trying to beat the living crap out of each others faces. When they hit the ground though, they rolled across the spirit concrete (does concrete die?) before the shorter one kicked the other man in the stomach and sent him sliding across the ground and into a lamppost.

In order of "currently the most threatening", I stared dumbfounded at the creature who had knocked the other man away. The thing stood at about five-and-a-half-feet tall and while it had a human-like posture, its skin was blood red and I could see contorted bones trying to break out of its skin. It had a long, beak-like nose and dark, black eyes, as well as talons trying to spring themselves from its fingers and toes. I was a lucky enough ectomancer to not have seen a demon yet and now I understood why others were so desperate to be that lucky. Everything about the demon screamed that it was a killing machine and with my minds walls still slightly open, I could feel its impending presence spreading itself across me.

I was mostly sure I knew where the ghosts had gone and I knew for certain that I didn't literally have a hope in hell of helping them. Little is known about demons, but one universal trait shared by all is that they trade in souls. Whenever in the mortal realms, they will always make bargains with humanity in exchange for a persons soul. When ghosts came into the matter however, they didn't make any kind of bargain. Being just out-of-body souls, demons would just scoop up the ghosts like dust into a pot and drag them kicking and screaming back to a particularly dark portion of the Nevernever. Most people called it Hell.

Though they come from it, it was unusual for demons to be sighted in the Nevernever. When travelling to the mortal realm, they build physical vessels for themselves so that if they are destroyed there, they can be reborn again here. In the Nevernever however, the demon you see here is 100% real. They don't like the fact they can be killed here.

I looked to the other man, while keeping a very tuned awareness on the demon. He had evidently recovered from his body being used as a football and carefully stood up to face the demon again. A long, white cloak whipped around his legs and he pushed it aside a little to avoid tripping over it. Under the cloak, was a dark black and purple, three-piece tunic that sharply contrasted to the the rest of the outfit. It wasn't the most threatening design and was hardly appropriate for battle, but you only needed to look at his face to see his strength. Along the top of his head was stark white hair that had been trimmed into a short, cut. He looked like he was once a handsome man, but there were deep wrinkles under his eyes and across his forehead that looked to be more from stress than age. Sticking out from behind his head was the endings of a long, wooden pole that must have easily reached six feet. Glowing wards dotted the pole that must have flared up when he slammed into the lamppost.

Fantastic! A Demon and a Wizard! I thought to myself, willing my body to flee but being held down by my curiosity. Demons were a dangerous breed, but Wizards were sneaky bastards. A least Demons were honest about their intentions. I don't know which one I fear more.

"Demon Chaunzaggoroth," the man bellowed at his opponent. It had a strong British accent to go with it, which only worried me further. The difference between American and European wizards are majority seen in their style of magic. When I prepare for a summoning, I have to drew in power from the environment around me, which I have spent years arranging to be as energy efficient as possible. As America doesn't have as much magic history in its lands, the power given is usually done in large quantities of simple energy. In Europe however, those guys have been allied practitioners for centuries and as such, ancient magic is buried deep into its bedrock. This gives the Europeans more skill to their spells and allows for very complicated rituals. If America was an army with sticks, Europe would be a single man with a minigun. We've got power but they've got skill.

"Warlock," Chaunzogg...Chanze...The demon nodded his head to the other man. "I was under the false impression you'd never be able to come here," he looked the man up and down and licked his lips, "That doesn't mean though that I'm not ecstatic about your sudden appearance. I have many friends who would like I look at you."

Totally unfazed by the hungry demon, the wizard stared right at it, "For your crimes against me and my kin, I am sentencing you to death. Do you accept the decision," he smiled, "or are you going to make this complicated?"

Chaunzaggoroth grinned back at him and I noticed a sudden tension in the air as it put pressure onto its legs and angled his body towards the wizard. With a sick battle-cry involving intestines and asphyxiation, he leapt straight forwards, no longer touching the ground and flying through the air at the man. To his credit, the wizard didn't even flinch as he lifted his hand up and lightning shot straight into the demon. It screamed in pain at first, but continued to head straight for him and slam its armoured head into his stomach. The wizard was forced to bellow out as all the air in his lungs was pushed out.

For a moment, all was still as physics tried to figure out what was meant to be happening, but sure enough, the demon fell forwards into the dirt as bright orange wards were illuminated around the wizards cloak and he shot backwards down the street. He waved his arms to try and slow himself down and I felt wind moving around me as he used the air to right himself and land back on his feet. The demon had already gotten up again and was sprinting towards the wizard once more. In preparation, he aimed his fist at the ground where the demon was about to step and the concrete exploded, sending fragments of rock into the demons face and sending him flying backwards.

Was was going through my mind at the time was wondering why demons don't bleed. What I should have been thinking about is whether the demon is going to land a meter away from me or on me. Either way, his body was heading straight for my hiding spot and only quick thinking on my part allowed me to roll out of the way as it hit and obliterated the remains of the Jeep. There was now a powerful wizard down the street from me, an pissed off demon only a short distance away and somehow I had rolled right into the open road, in full view of all the attacking parties.

The wizard looked shocked at my sudden appearance and began sprinting towards me, drawing out his pole at the same time and igniting his wards upon it. The demon only looked me up and down for a few seconds before literal, blood-red flames poured from its eyes. I stood up, but was promptly knocked down again by the sound of its voice.

"YOU DARE TO BRING A DEAD-MOUTH HERE!" It had directed the question at the wizard, but its flaming eyes never left the sight of mine. Full blown gales were coming from his mouth a whipping up centuries old dust and dirt. I glanced at the wizard and noticed that though he was still heading for me, his steps had slowed down and he shot a confused look at me before turning towards towards the demon, who was still lying in the wreckage.

From a bird's eye view, all three of us made the corners of a perfect triangle, aside from the one corner that was uncontrollably shaking from fear. The demon knew perfectly well who the immediate threat to it was, but it continued to study every inch of my being, up until that irrefutable moment where it licked its lips and decided to ignore the wizard.

Shit.

With all the grace of a monster truck, and roughly the same power, the demon bounded off the wreckage and sprinted for me, this time with his long red claws extended out before him in a throttling position. I began to crawl backwards as fast as my arms would carry me but only made a few inches by the time the demon was upon me.

I didn't even see the wizard move. He might be super fast or I was too terrified to focus on anything else, but that didn't change the fact that the demon's head slammed right into an oncoming pole and was knocked into a back-flip that left him lying on the ground right next to the edge of my feet. The wizard used the momentum of the reverberating pole to send it high in the air and strike down towards the demon's stomach. Dazed as it was, it still managed to catch the blow just before it hit his skin and use its strength to lift the man over its body and head first into the ground next to him. As the wizard fell, the end of the pole the demon had grabbed onto lifted up into the air and dragged the demon with it. Just before it descended onto the wizard, he slammed his hand above him and sent roaring air above him. With nothing to grip onto, the demon was sent straight up into the air, reaching maybe twice the height of the buildings around us.

The wizard used this time to hurl himself back into a standing position and direct his orders to my still quivering form. "Lindquist, get the hell out of here now! This is no place for you!" He tracked the demon's flight path and sent a column of fire into to him. I heard a surprised cry.

"But what..."

"GET AWAY NOW!" He pressed his foot against the edge of my knee and I felt magic simmer as he pressed against me and I slid about fifty meters away down the street, the dust making for a surprisingly frictionless material. I stopped with just enough time to see the demon land in the centre of the crossroad with a loud crash. I felt a rumble in the ground around me and a swirling mass of disintegrated concrete twirled in the air, completely coating the sight of the demon's landing point. The wizard stood just at the edge of the cloud, hands gripping tightly around the pole which was now dripping magic from its wards.

With a careful speed, I pressed my hands against the ground below me and sent my conscience into the world. I felt the massive crater that the demon had created, but left no sign of the offender. I felt in every direction around it and found no trace of anything other than me, the wizard and the Nevernever. Then I felt downwards.

My eyes widened and I almost lost my voice, but I managed to hold myself together and warn my saviour. "WIZARD! Beneath you!"

Similar to my own reaction, the wizard's look grew surprised and he frantically tried to jump backwards, but was not fast enough, as a red blur burst from the ground he had been standing on. With practised skill, it pulled the wizards leg upwards and sent his head slamming into the ground and his pole clattered away. Before he could put up a fight, it pulled the grabbed leg and span him around in a single motion and sent him straight into a wall. The wizard cried out as his back impacted against the wall and I saw spider web cracks above his head as he slumped into the ground and didn't move.

Satisfied the immediate problem was taking care of, the demon extended its fangs and carefully strolled towards me. I picked myself up and tried to run, but it grabbed onto the edge of my shirt and threw me into the crater were it had landed, luckily not into the hand-dug hole that lay in the centre. I groaned as the dirt scratched away the skin on my arms and bruises began to from across my back. I looked towards the wizard, but he still hadn't moved so I looked back up again and it had already walked over to my position and stood at the foot of my body.

It's stupid, but at the time, I thought that not making any movement at all might help my predicament somehow.

Sharp teeth gave a wide, unfriendly grin at my eyes and without warning, the demon drew out his longest, sharp finger before stabbing me with it straight through my right calf. I shouted out in pain as the demonic fingers wiggled around inside me and I began to sob. I've been in plenty of fights when I was a kid and I've had my share of mental battled with the dead, but I've never been tortured like this. Never with a tool as wrong and evil as a demon. I grunted through tears as he pulled his finger out, only to feel the burn once more as he sent it straight into my left calf. I cried out and the air shook.

I mean it literally shook. Sounds were still coming from my throat, but the air shuddered at the impact of my voice. The demon pulled out of my calf and stumbled backwards, lessening the pain, but I still kept yelling. A primal instinct was telling me that I should keep doing whatever the hell I was doing and at this current moment in time, instinct was all I had. The demon clutched his sharpened ears and fell to his knees. Loose slabs of masonry was dislodged from the buildings around me and shattered on the ground below. Even the wizard was awoken from unconsciousness and he wildly glanced around at the chaos around us.

Even after the air was gone from my lungs, I somehow continued to yell this supernatural sound and only stopped when I heard the faint whisperings of a similar cry from somewhere far off the distance. I lay back in the dirt and the dust settled, but was immediately sent up again as multiple cries of outrage came from all around us. The demon was frantically backing away from me and shooting looks down all of the roads and even into the deserted buildings windows. it actually looked a little worried, which is as close as your going to get to a frightened demon. The wizard retrieved his pole and edged towards me, never taking his eyes off the demon but I could tell he was trying to sense what the hell was going on.

"What on earth did you do?" he asked me.

I turned to look up at him, "I...I think it doesn't like to be yelled at."

The wizard gave me an amused smirk and leaned down to offer me a hand. I eagerly took it and he pulled me up into a standing position. I was expecting a warm hand from the strain of battle, but his touch felt cold and lifeless. Who was I to talk though. I just single handedly upset a demon and I can barely walk a short distance without resting for a bit.

We both focused all of our attention on the demon, with me standing ever so slightly behind the wizard. The roars were still emanating from around us, but it had stood up and removed its hands from its ears in preparation for a sudden attack, though its ears still twitched now and then. We all stood completely still for maybe half a minute, before the sounds abruptly stopped and everyone was left in confusion.

Out of nowhere, an long, silver arrow whistled through the air and embedded itself in the demon's arm. From the sheer surprise of the attack rather than any pain it might be feeling, the demon darted backwards and away from the direction of the bolt. At the same time, the wizard pressed his hand against the ground and an orange-tinted barrier rose up to encase both of us. More arrows and even a few javelins flew from seemingly random direction and directed themselves at the demon. A few were knocked away by its armoured skin and bounced harmlessly off the wizard's shield, but the majority managed to work its way past the chitinous armour and tear into the demon. It began to panic and pull out the silver arrows and trails of black smoke began to leak from the wounds, sealing them only a few seconds later.

The wall behind the demon seemed to shift slightly out of sync with the rest of the building and the demon sensed the sudden change and span round. Not fast enough apparently, as what looked like the ghost of a Viking shot out of the wall and rushed the demon. He must have easily been eight feet tall and was surrounded by layers of yak fur and muscle with a large, two-handed mallet in his grip. Without hesitation, the astral figure drew back his weapon in a large radius and span it directly into the demon chest. It tried to block the blow, but the hammer shattered both its arms and sent it careening away.

The ground began to rumble from the pressure of marching feet and in a final sigh against the forces that had been aggravating it, the building behind me lost structural support and fell in on itself. I squinted down the four roads and tried to pierce through the natural fog of the area. I saw nothing and only felt the distance rumble. Once again, I pressed my hand to the ground, copying the movements of the wizard and spread out my senses. In my mind, the white fog suddenly cleared away and the view I was left with didn't let me know whether I should be joyful or worried. The wizard must have felt my hesitation, as he turned towards the fog. "What? What can you see? It's bad isn't it?"

I shook my head towards him and glanced around the area we were in. On all sides, we had been surrounded and we were being inevitably boxed in. With a unanimous battle cry, hundred upon hundreds of ghosts burst from the veil, transparent bodies working their way across the concrete and directly at the demon. I don't think they all meant to run directly into the wizards shield but they are hardly used to meeting an object they can't go through. The wizard had to grit his teeth as multiple representations of the dead bounced off the shield several times before realising they could walk around it.

The demon tried to stand up again, but promptly fell to his knees as a tall ghost crept behind him and stabbed two gold hilted daggers into his back. I studied the ghost's Victorian clothes and then quickly recognized him as the blonde man I had met in my bedroom earlier. He noticed my gaze and his eye socket winked at me (I think), and he seamlessly disappeared before the demon's curled fist could smash into him.

Seeing no immediate threat to us, the wizard relaxed his shield and straightened up to watch the repeated hit and run tactics on the demon. Ghost after ghost flew by it and through it every time its back was turned, injuring it with a manner of implements from bone carved swords to wooden mallets. On all sides, it was surrounded. Wound after wound opened and resealed itself, leaking small puffs of smoke into the air around it. The demon was clearly tired as its movements had become sluggish, but only sluggish for a demon. It was still a top notch killing machine that could get in a few shots of its own. I watched helplessly as a pale, skinny man darted forwards and I immediately recognized he had been to slow. Sensing his movement, the demon turned to meet his attack and lashed out at the man's head, severing it from the body. He didn't even have time to cry out as both head and body disappeared from view, leaving only a hazy cloud of where he had once been. Another one, dressed in SWAT armour with the vague impression of bullet wounds in his chest, was hit by a long gash across his belly, sending chunks of dead flesh into the air.

I cringed at the sight of this slaughter and even the wizard next to me must have realised what the dead were putting on the line to help us as he began to step forwards. "I need to get to Chaunzaggoroth." (There we go, THAT'S his name) "How can I get past them?" he asked me, his tone neutral but trying to hide an anger. The ghosts had completely surrounded Chaunzaggoroth, but they also cut us off from it, leaving the wizard out of the loop.

I turned my attention to the section that he needed to get through and the mere thought of them moving sent them stumbling backwards out the way. I hadn't forced them out of the way, in fact their faces were almost apologetic from being in our way in the first place. The gap left a clear run to Chaunzaggoroth. The wizard looked at me and gave me an inquisitive look as I shrugged my shoulders. He grinned at me again and then darted forwards with pole in hand and jacket sailing.

Just before they hit each other, I felt the wind rush around me a direct themselves to Chaunzaggoroth. I had just enough time to mentally ask the ghosts behind Chaunzaggoroth to move as the wizard focused his attention on its chest and sent a violent gale straight at it. Not expecting the attack, it was forced backwards into a wall and held there. Without breaking a step, lightning shot from the wizards pole and into Chaunzaggoroth, blue and white light coursing its way around the demon's body and paralysing its muscles.

With no more energy left, the demon's wounds failed to close and its shoulders slumped down. Even as weak as it was, it still managed to deeply glare at the wizard, pure anger burning in its eyes. It didn't even twitch from the pain and the wizard angled his pole and stabbed it into the demon's chest. A pulse of white light shot through the weapon and into Chaunzaggoroth's body. White gas poured from its wounds and dripped from its eyes, but it still never turned its glare from the wizard. Not once did its muscles shake as its skin began to pucker and fall apart. As silent as it had continually been, its body exploded into a shower of red and white dust that faded from sight as soon as it hit the ground.

Tens-by-tens, the ghosts turned to leave, some just fading from sight and other just walking down the street like they were human. With memories being the only thing they had now, maybe they were.

After they departed, it was just me, the wizard and the Victorian man left at the crossroad. They wizard somehow managed to strap his pole to his back and he bent down to retrieve two, gold-hilted daggers from the ground. Straightening up, the wizard handed the daggers to the ghost and he accepted them gratefully. "Why thank you good ser. And an extra compliments for helping our man Lindquist." I must have been grinning ear to ear. He said 'helping' rather than 'protecting' or 'guarding' or 'making sure he doesn't do anything stupid'. The wizard didn't seem dismayed by the comment at all but tried to voice his objections as the ghost lashed out and grasped his arm in a handshake. The ghost went abruptly still and I could see the wizard fingers readying themselves to grab onto his pole.

Centuries ticked by.

The ghost looked down at his feet. "Well then, that was surprising." The wizards eyes grew larger. Tension took from in the Nevernever and I narrowly dodged a stone box that had materialised from nowhere.

Shocked, the ghost shook his head and smiled at the wizard. Tension broke and the stone box turned into a pillow. "But thankfully, none of my business." He nodded to the wizard and received a nod back. The handshake was released. "Well anyway, as a gift, I shall give you a lift back to the mortal realm," the ghost turned to my direction, "and thank you honourable Lindquist. We are all very grateful for your service and you can expect a reward in the near future."

I grinned back to the ghost, "Well thank you. I suppose I'll be seeing you again back on the other side?" I think I put to much up into the comment as I certainly didn't want another repeat of today.

He laughed, "Have no fear Lindquist. We would not like another repeat of today either."

Had he read my mind? Just as I tried to voice my objections to that very sick thought, he grasped onto the wizards shoulder and they both disappeared from view. So I stood there, alone, just to see if anything else was about to try and kill me. It all hit me at once. I just helped to kill a demon, I thought to myself. Waves of self gratification washed over me.

I turned towards the crater that the demon had left behind and poured will into the area around me. Without so much as a groan, the concrete folded back into its original shape and erased any signs of destruction from the area. I smiled inwardly and outwardly and once again, I began to glow with pride. With a flick of my wrist, a wooden door with a glass window appeared in front of me. Looking through the glass, I could see my bedroom through it and noticed that something had changed my bedsheets, switched the TV on and left a plate of still warm bacon sandwiches on my night stand. Opening the door, I walked into my bedroom and allowed the portal to fade from view as if it had never been there.

Next Chapter: The Royal Kingdom

Recommended Song: Pain by Jimmy Eat World

A Note from the Author

Sadly, I have given up on this story and will not be writing any more chapters. It's been about eight-and-a-half months since I updated a new chapter and I have not found any inspiration to continue In the Defence. I give my apologies to all those who have put this on their story alerts and I want to thank all the people who wrote reviews, without which I would not have gotten this far.

If anyone is interested in continuing the story themselves, they are more than welcome too. You don't have to tell me, but if you send me a message, I can send you back notes on where I was possibly going to take this story as well as write the title and author of your story here so people can continue reading.