Lancer

          The cigar fell to the ground with a muffled thump unnoticed by an uncaring world. The sunken eyes of Lord Zenith Crux kept their gaze on the scattering of ashes that lay at his feet. His fingers remained outstretched holding silent air instead of the cigar. Crux rubbed his fingers together, unsurprised at the complete lack of feeling between his calluses. He didn't mind the sightlessness of the dead nerves, but dropping cigars was quite bothersome to clean up and this time the ashes had smeared the pristine white carpet of his bedroom. The head butler would give him yet another lecture on the importance of giving up his smoking habit if only for the sake of sparing the servants the clean up.

          Crux grunted, leaning down to pick up the cigar. Yet his fingers fumbled the cigar only to smear more ash on the carpet without retrieving it. His left shoulder instinctually shifted in an attempt to reach out an arm that he no longer had. Crux tapped the cigar with his right hand, sending a pulse of energy that sparked from his fingertips and shimmered across the cigar. He assigned a negative pole to the object while simultaneously assigning a positive pole to the ring on his middle finger. He increased the intensity of both polarities as he raised his hand back to his mouth. The cigar snapped up from the ground and latched itself to his ring, placing it firmly back in his hand. Lord Crux was a Polancer, one of many in the world who could manipulate reality with positive and negative poles. Polancy was easy to understand, but mastering his abilities had taken a lifetime. Crux was old now; older than he ever imagined himself becoming.

          His once vibrant hair had faded to a dull grey and was shaved in military fashion leaving only a tuft of hair on top like a stripe of silver on the rather shiney flag of his bald head. His skin wrinkled like a coat well worn in need of a good wash, but at least the smoke covered his permanent old man stench. He inhaled deeply searching for a remnant of feeling, but instead found his heart as callous as his hand. 

          He waited three minutes before rising to his feet and approaching the cabinet that held his porcelain arm. Through the glass display he could see the interlocking plates of the procstetic. It was made for nobles as it was clearly more fashionable than functional, even still Crux found ways to make it useful. He kicked the cabinet. The wave of distortion ran up the leg of the cabinet and lingered on the glass doors. He matched the poles of each side of the doors causing them to repulse each other and the case opened up before him. Crux mismatched poles so that the arm flew to the stump of his left shoulder and latched on. Crux grimaced at the shocks of electricity as the porcstetic linked itself to the remnants of his nervous system. He found relief in the anguish, relishing in the thought that he could still feel something even if it was only pain. In his efforts to become the most lethal Polancer in all of the Empire, he had obtained nerve callouses that outnumbered his remaining nerves.

          His porcstetic hummed to life and Crux let out a grunt. It was strange to see the world more through the cold touch of a false arm than through weakened eyesight and callused flesh. He tested his arm, flexing and relaxing the porcstetic. It was functional if ever a fraction of a second behind his will. He sent out a pulse of energy rippling across his room polarizing the uniform that hung on a hanger on his door. He matched poles and sent the uniform drifting towards him. With routine movements, Crux dressed himself as the clothes floated over to him. 

As he reached for the door to leave, he felt a tug on his heart as if his soul and death bore opposite poles. But he knew no matter how intense the negative pole was within his heart, he would not reach the other half; for she slept beneath 6 feet of earth.

***

Axi stood on the edge of a roof looking down at the 7 story drop. He could feel his heart leap in fear at the sight. This was insane! Axi inhaled deeply and backed up. He had trained for this; he knew what to do, yet somehow he still felt underprepared and completely terrified. Breathe, he told himself, you have magic on your side. He flicked his hands to rid them of shaky anxiety and he shifted his weight from foot to foot. His jacket rippled in the salty breeze almost as if to say ‘it was time to fly.’ 

Axi shook his head, clearing them of the anxiety riddled doubts and irrational circumstances. He stepped back three steps before taking off into a run. He polarized his left foot with a positive pole, quickly remembering not to polarize both feet else his feet repulse each other. 

He ran towards the edge of the roof. Axi could see the edge getting closer and closer while his heart thumped harder and harder. His breath was shallow; that wasn’t good. He inhaled sharply twice and exhaled twice sending extra bursts of oxygen through his body. He approached the edge and as his left foot bore his weight, Axi polarized under his feet with a positive pole and increased the intensity. In a burst of energy, Axi soared into the air leaving a crackling wake of electricity.

A rush of emotions flooded through Axi as his arm went numb from the magic. Moments slowed in his mind as he was flung through the air with gleeful abandon Axi opened his eyes as he felt his trajectory changing as he reached the apex of his jump. The ledge of the building he needed to be on was three stories above him. His rush turned to sheer thoughtless terror. 

Axi held back a scream only because he had no breath. He began to plummet towards the wall of the building and in that very moment Axi regained his senses. He slammed his foot into the wall and sent out 2 pulses of energy. He mismatched poles on select portions of the wall that met his right hand and left foot, thus sticking him firmly to the wall. As Axi let out an exhale, he felt his right leg go numb. In his panic, he hadn’t controlled when the numbness would take place and he would now have to wait for his leg to wake up again.

After a brief respite Axi continued his climb up the building, one story at a time. Once at the top, Axi looked down at the vast party on the terrace overlooking the ocean. Below him, nobles were dressed in elaborate colors, pristine suits, exorbitant dresses and the like. Tables were covered in drinks and a plethora of fruits, meats, and cheeses. Axi pulled a spy glass out of his jacket pocket and scanned the crowd looking for a man he was sent to kill. Axi caught sight of someone he recognized immediately. Axi blinked and rubbed his eyes before looking through his spyglass again. The face he stared at was unmistakable and the spyglass hummed confirming his target. Axi had been sent to kill Lord Zenith Crux

***

The party was rather boring for Crux. Despite his elaborate efforts to be off putting and rude, all the nobles seemed to want to mingle with him if only to brag about it mere moments later to others that they seemed so desperate to impress. All this gibberish and unmeaningful talk gave him even more reasons to resent old age. Crux could at least do his job one last time. 

The plates of his porcstetic clicked and shifted in tandem with the nobles meandering about. His weak eyes couldn’t see the ever faint lines of polancy that connected each noble to a plate on his arm, but with his years with the magic he knew the exact distance and location of each noble with the simple tension of each plate subtly being pulled beneath his sleeve. He didn’t question if he needed to keep up his old habits, nor did he question the accuracy of how he shifted the intensity of each pole by reflex to keep the trick unnoticed by all. 

Crux picked up an apple from a nearby table and took a bite. The tastelessness of the fruit was matched in terribleness by the lack of effort he had to give to turn it into mush. Not even his taste had survived the calluses of his practice. He tossed the rest of the fruit away and took a step back towards a corner of the terrace. 

The world screamed as a gunshot sounded behind him. Crux turned slowly to see who had been shot. Nobles began whispering and gasping, no one had fallen so the shot hadn’t been lethal. A prick of feeling pulsed in his spine as he realized the nobles were looking at him. He looked down at himself and that was when he noticed there was a hole through the middle of his right hand. The white glove was turning a deep red.

Unfazed, Crux simply waved a hand as a gesture for the nobles to continue the nonsense of their ridiculous party.

***

Axi cursed as he tossed aside the now empty flintlock. He couldn’t believe he had missed his shot! He dashed across the roof and sent a pulse of energy to send him soaring through the air again. He landed on the far end of the terrace to the surprise of many nobles who dropped plates and glasses in a clatter. Three guards pushed the crowd back and away from Axi. One of the guards stepped forward, the nasty looking one with the scar across his cheek. The man pulled a pistol from his holster and pointed it at Axi. However, Axi was already one step ahead. A pulse of energy rippled across the ground and up the guard’s uniform. As the man pulled the trigger, the gun was pulled to the side as Axi mismatched poles. The gun ripped free of the guard’s grip and Axi leaped forward drawing a dagger from his belt. With a swipe past the throat, the guard collapsed to the ground. Axi matched poles and caught the gun he had sent to the ground.

Axi smiled at his success and dashed towards the other two guards who were just now turning towards him. Axi polarized the dagger and the gun, letting the other poles fade away. He tossed the dagger at the guard on the right and shot the left one in the thigh. Axi had timed it just right for the numbness caught up to him. His right arm went completely limp and his left arm was numb and prickly. 

The guards screamed in pain as the blade and bullet hit their marks. Axi intensified the matching poles of the objects forcing the bullet to rip through the side of the thigh and forcing the blade to tear across the man’s gut. Both guards crumpled to the ground in cries of agony. Axi stood over the men as the crowd began to echo a cacophony of shrieks. They began to scatter and run like wild animals distracting the remaining guards. 

Axi smiled and looked down at the guards. He stomped the ground sending a pulse and mismatching poles. A pistol flew to his hands and Axi looked up to find Lord Crux. The Lord was at the opposite end of the terrace with both gloves removed. Crux took a plate and ran it down his arm. Axi’s vision picked up on the plate glimmering with polancy just as Lord Crux tossed it in Axi’s direction. The plate shattered into pieces and Axi watched a pulse of energy ripple across the ground. Quickly he matched poles, sending himself into the air in a repulsed leap. Axi kept his eyes on the electric pulse until it faded. He looked up just in time to see Lord Crux in the air before him. Axi twisted in the air to aim his limp arm at Crux and fired his gun by matching poles.

Crux was prepared for this of course. A poor noble flew into the air and into Crux’s porcstetic as the gun fired. Crux felt the body go limp before matching poles and sending the late Duke Gib Valou at the assassin. Axi was unprepared for this and the two collided and spiraled towards the terrace. Crux threw polarized grapes at the roof to his right. The grapes splattered releasing the polancy to the roof, while Crux intensified the mismatched pole of the roof and the opposing pole on the terrace where the plate had landed. He matched the intensity so that the tension between the two buildings were palpable. Crux landed gently on the invisible tension and stood unmoving in the vacant space. 

Axi matched poles with the corpse, leaping off of it horizontally and sending it crashing into a guard who slipped off the edge of the terrace in a muffled scream. Axi caught himself on the edge of the terrace and looked up at the immoblie yet hovering figure of Lord Crux. The man’s coat rippled in the wind and his gaze was fixed on Axi. Axi breathed heavily, both arms now limp. For a moment they simply stared at each other in silent analysis of skill. 

Nobles were running to and fro, but Axi only watched the shifting plates of Crux’s porcstetic. Axi waited until a gaggle of nobles passed between him and Crux before matching poles in a leap towards the Lord. Crux twisted his hand and Axi slammed into empty air. Or rather a line of tension that wasn’t there before. He caught only a brief glimmer of polancy before the line disappeared as the intensity faded. Axi slammed into the ground and rolled back to his feet. 

The numbness had reached his shoulders, he had no idea the damage that would be done to his arms if he kept going. But what other choice did he have? The legendary polancer assassin, Lord Zenith Crux stared him down. Axi stared up at Crux and clenched his jaw in defiance. Crux simply clenched his hand and nobles began rising; dragged into the air like marionette puppets. The nobles squirmed and shrieked, but their master was unmoved by them. 

Axi noticed shadowy figures climbing behind Lord Crux. Axi was not the only one sent to assassinate Lord Crux. Unfortunately for them, Crux already knew they were there. Nobles shot into the air as human shields for crux, but shots rang out. Crux would not be safe by holding hostages. The tension under Crux faded and as he fell the nobles were pulled and pushed away from him. Crux landed on an unfortunate soul who cushioned his fall. Crux formed lines of tension tripping two assassins. The shattered pieces of the plate Crux had thrown rose into the air and impaled themselves into one of the assassins. An apple with a bite mark flew past his head and smashed into the face of another forcing the man to drop a knife. 

More assassins approached and Crux was soon surrounded. He let out a pulse of energy with a primitive growl. Everything from bodies to dishes and stray food repulsed into the air crashing into roofs and assassins. Lines of tension caught bullets and tripped assassins. Assassins when hit were pulled to the ground, pulled to each other and one was even pulled off the terrace dragged polanticly by a corpse. 

Axi’s stomach rumbled with displeasure and he leaned over the terrace to let loose vomit. Axi kept his eyes on the rolling waves below him as the screams faded into grunts and groans. He turned to see a terrace full of bodies. All were disfigured, bloody, mangled and overall dead.

***

Crux was disgusted by the blood; He hadn’t felt that in years. He sent a pulse of polancy matching poles so that blood and filth flew off his uniform in a scattering array from him. Crux bowed his head in his shame. Old habits die hard, he thought. His wife would have been ashamed of him, but twisted comfort filled his heart that somehow was not as callous as he had convinced himself it was. He could feel nothing physically and even now he could feel the calluses forming on the nerves of his legs. But an idea formed in his head and he had to see it through before his legs would refuse to work. 

Crux picked up a rather large knife that one of the assassins had and held it in his procstetic arm. He mismatched poles forcing the knife from his hand to the ground, severing his flesh hand. Crux polarized his lifeless hand and it leapt into his procstetic. Crux walked over to the boy who scooted back in terror until he had no where to go. The boy shut his eyes, but Crux simply squatted down.The boy cringed at the words. Crux mismatched poles so that his severed hand was attached to the boy’s belt. The boy jumped and looked down startled.

“Take the kill.” Crux said. “Let me die in peace.”

The boy was too shocked to respond.

“Can you swim?” The boy nodded slowly. Crux grunted approvingly. Crux forced the boy to stand up. Crux matched poles, sending Axi soaring over the railing and into the ocean. He turned away and felt the tug upon his heart again.

“Soon love,” He muttered as he sat down to watch the waves before his world turned black.