When you stand up for truth, you will make enemies. Stand tall anyway.

  ~ Tomas

  Dr. Maerwynn paused outside of the vault behind Mr. Fleischer. The door stood partially ajar and lights glowed from within, but they could not see inside without stepping to the entrance.

  She needed time to change to a more powerful suit, or to at least boost her current form, but most of the group surrounding her weren’t ready for such a display. Besides, Mai Luan was there to back her up, so they should be fine.

  Mai Luan whispered from close behind her, “They can’t take any souls out of the vault.”

  “That’s not my chief concern,” Dr. Maerwynn said, hoping the other woman wouldn’t say more. She didn’t dare chastise her. Mr. Fleischer was a useful puppet, but knew nothing of the truth behind their work in the vault.

  Mr. Fleischer motioned the guards ahead. At the entrance they paused. “Sir, you’ll want to see this.”

  Dr. Maerwynn followed him to the threshold, where she hesitated, just outside the door. Only rarely did she enter the vault, leaving it to Mai Luan and her arcane Cui Dashi purposes. She always felt a hint of fear crossing the threshold into Mai Luan’s domain, although she’d never allow the other woman to sense her discomfort.

  Showing fear to a predator might trigger an attack.

  # # #

  Sarah stood twenty feet inside the vault at the head of a gurney, with a long knife held to the sleeping Marilyn’s throat.

  “Stop right there or she dies,” Sarah said in a shaky voice.

  Dr. Maerwynn stepped across the threshold, focusing on her anger at Sarah rather than the thought of the runes carved into the lintels of the vault doorway. She would have to reprimand Mr. Fleischer for pressing ahead with the full corporal transfer against her better judgment. The risk to their operation was far too great for the hoped-for return.

  “You won’t kill her. You’re not the suicidal type.”

  “Better that my body die with her than let her steal it.”

  “Sarah, you’re not helping matters,” Mr. Fleischer said from close beside Dr. Maerwynn. “Put the knife down and we’ll talk.”

  Sarah shook her head and pointed the knife at him. “Talking with you is useless. You don’t listen. You won’t accept any terms but your own.” She glared at him. “I won’t sign that contract.”

  “What do you want?” Dr. Maerwynn asked, taking a step forward. Sarah was right about Mr. Fleischer being a blockhead, but the foolish woman could ruin everything.

  “I want my body back. I want out of this place.”

  “You’ll release Marilyn if we agree?”

  “Yes.”

  Dr. Maerwynn shared a glance with Mr. Fleischer. He grimaced and nodded. It would have to be done.

  “Very well, Sarah. After we complete the transfer, your employment will be terminated.”

  “Fine by me.”

  She stepped closer. “Then put down the knife and we’ll return to one of the transfer stations.”

  “No, I don’t trust you.”

  “Then how can we proceed?”

  Sarah glanced around uncertainly, and Dr. Maerwynn took another step forward. “Sarah, in order to meet your demands we need to go to a transfer station. You’ll have to trust me.”

  Sarah hesitated and then nodded.

  Dr. Maerwynn took another step forward. Good, the foolish girl would cooperate. Another few steps and she could take possession of the knife. No one had stood up to Maerwynn so effectively in decades. Usually she would appreciate the challenge, but the timing was far too inconvenient with her other fears still not resolved.

  Another few seconds and she would introduce Sarah to tortures only recently re-discovered by their archaeological teams. She would be privileged to die by Nepthys’s ancient preferred method.

  Sarah moved the knife away from Marilyn as Dr. Maerwynn took another step forward. Only five steps to go.

  That was when she noticed the face coffin lying open on the floor beside the gurney. Who had been stored there? How would Sarah even know to search the coffins?

  She glanced around, an unusual chill of fear creeping down her back. The shadowed vault suddenly seemed more sinister. This was not the time nor place to settle old scores with someone as powerful as Eirene, even with Mai Luan beside her.

  # # #

  Sarah watched Dr. Maerwynn approaching with barely-concealed panic.

  It’s working.

  Where’s Tomas?

  Now, for the dangerous part.

  Sarah held up her smartphone. “One other thing. I’ve taken dozens of photos of the vault, the face coffins, and their contents. I’ve transmitted those photos to an acquaintance. If they don’t hear from me within the hour, they’ll give it all to five major news organizations, as well as to the congressional oversight committee investigating Alterego.”

  Sarah raised her phone high and smashed it against the floor as hard as she could. Dr. Maerwynn lunged forward, one hand outstretched as if to catch it.

  It shattered into half a hundred pieces.

  “You fool!” Dr. Maerwynn shrieked. Then, oddly, she glanced to her assistant, Mai Luan. The woman gave her a brief nod, then marched off to the right, disappearing into the shadows of the vault stacks. What was that all about?

  Despite suddenly worrying she’d overlooked something, Sarah forced a confident smile. “Now you can’t trace those messages.” Fighting to look calm, Sarah dropped the knife, “Now I’m ready for the transfer.”

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Everything was in place. She had Dr. Maerwynn right where she wanted her. It was going to work!

  Dr. Maerwynn approached, clearly enraged. She scooped up the knife and stalked toward Sarah, murder in her eyes.

  Uh oh. That wasn’t part of the plan.

  Sarah back-pedaled, “Just do what I ask and the photos won’t be published.”

  “Too late for that,” Dr. Maerwynn snarled, still advancing.

  Mr. Fleischer rushed forward, followed by his goons. “Stop! Don’t hurt her. We need those photos.”

  “We’ll deal with the photos later,” Dr. Maerwynn growled. “Sarah, you should have taken the deal you were offered. You’ve meddled in things you cannot comprehend.”

  She raised the knife. “Deadly things.”

  Sarah realized she’d underestimated the woman, so she turned and ran, shouting for help. Dr. Maerwynn gave chase, trailed by the others.

  In that moment, shadowy forms, led by Eirene, rushed out from the dim stacks. Eirene was no longer burning with magical purple fire, but looked terrifying nonetheless. She bellowed a long, continuous shout that sounded like an ancient battle-cry. It sent shivers rippling down Sarah’s arms.

  Eirene finished by shouting, “Maerwynn!”

  Dr. Maerwynn gasped, dropped the knife, and fled toward the exit. Eirene sprinted after her and, despite only having transferred to a new body moments earlier, wearing Christine’s body, she far outpaced the fleeing doctor.

  Behind her, Tomas led three burly men in a charge out of the shadows. Sarah blinked in surprise. They wore the three bodies she and Jill had wheeled into the vault earlier, but she didn’t recognize the faces.

  Tomas must have pulled convicts out of the storage area. They looked angry, more than ready to fight after being incarcerated for however long in the spooky vault.

  Close to Marilyn’s gurney, Mr. Fleischer shouted to his guards, “Take them down!”

  Then he turned and ran for the exit.

  One of the guards produced a taser and shot the nearest convict in the torso. The electric shock jolted the man right off his feet. He shouted a garbled cry as he hit the floor and flopped there like a fish.

  The second convict reached the taser-wielding guard and, with a snarl, smashed a fist into his face, crumpling the guard to the ground. Lacking any other weapons, the guards and inmates closed in a flurry of punches, kicks, curses and cries of pain.

  Tomas hurtled past them, a look of cold fury on his face. In that moment he looked nothing like the pleasant medical tech Sarah knew, but as scary as Eirene in his own right. Tomas crash-tackled Mr. Fleischer, and the two fell in a heap.

  Tomas rolled to his feet first and kicked Mr. Fleischer in the head as he tried to rise. The blow slammed him back to the floor where he lay unmoving. Tomas smiled with grim satisfaction.

  Sarah swallowed a rush of new fear. She needed Tomas, needed Eirene’s help, but they were not the allies she’d thought she was gaining. They were terrifying and clearly had agendas far beyond helping her. What had she gotten mixed up in?

  If Jill and I get out of here alive with our bodies, it’ll be a miracle.

  Focusing on living for the next few seconds, Sarah scooped up the fallen knife and returned to the gurney just as Eirene caught up with Dr. Maerwynn. The doctor spun and whipped one leg around in a roundhouse kick.

  It was an amazing move, something no ordinary doctor would ever be able to do, but Eirene bulled through the hit. Her forward momentum drove her into Dr. Maerwynn, and the two crashed to the floor. They came to their feet instantly, kicking and punching even as they rose off the ground.

  Sarah stared in amazement at the two battling women. She didn’t know much about fighting, but from what she’d seen in movies, those two had to be masters.

  Purple fire erupted from Eirene’s eyes, pouring down her body again, and matching flames rimmed Dr. Maerwynn’s body too. With the flames illuminating their fight in a ghoulish glow, their movements only accelerated. Their hands and feet blurred, so fast Sarah couldn’t track the individual strikes as they punched, blocked, kicked, and jumped like over-caffeinated ninjas.

  Both women took several hits but did not slow as they fought back and forth across the vault in a spectacular display of grace and acrobatics and magic fire. Only by comparing Eirene’s movements with Dr. Maerwynn’s did Sarah recognize the small signs that Eirene had not yet fully mastered the new body.

  She fought with amazing skill for someone all but dead for who knew how long, but some of her moves were a little jerky, with odd, unexpected hesitations. Dr. Maerwynn ducked one unusually clumsy blow and clobbered Eirene with a heavy punch to the face. Eirene fell, and Dr. Maerwynn fled again for the exit.

  “Knife.” Eirene called out sharply.

  Sarah reacted instantly to the command in the terrifying woman’s voice, and tossed the knife.

  Eirene snatched it out of the air, flipped it in her palm, and threw it at the fleeing doctor.

  With a sickening thud, the knife drove deep into the center of Dr. Maerwynn’s back. She screamed and stumbled forward to the floor as a crimson stain began spreading across the back of her white lab coat.

  Sarah’s stomach lurched, and she nearly heaved its contents across the floor. White-faced, she slumped to her knees, but could not look away.

  Eirene caught up with Dr. Maerwynn, who had somehow surged back to her feet and resumed her flight toward the exit. Eirene yanked the knife out with a spray of blood and kicked the other woman’s legs out from under her.

  She dropped to her knees and rolled the wounded doctor over, then plunged the blade right through her chest, right over her heart. The brutal blow should have killed her, but Dr. Maerwynn only snarled and spat at Eirene, clawing weakly at her arms. Eirene swatted her hands away. Then, eyes and hands glowing with a fresh wave of purple fire, she grasped Dr. Maerwynn by the head.

  With blazing fingers, Eirene grasped Dr. Maerwynn’s jaw. The doctor screamed as another wave of her own purple fire blasted out of her eyes. It rebounded from Eirene and suddenly snuffed out.

  Dr. Maerwynn screamed again, this time so loud the sound reverberated back and forth through the gigantic vault. She beat at Eirene’s arms with a rush of renewed vigor.

  Eirene heaved, and yanked Dr. Maerwynn’s face free in a single fluid move. Fire splashed off of the facemask, and it crackled angrily. For a couple seconds, the long nerve clusters at the back of the eyes remained attached, as if fighting removal.

  Final vestiges of magical fire rippled across Dr. Maerwynn’s face and down that connection back to her body, and the air crackled with invisible energy that raised the hair along Sarah’s arms. Eirene heaved again, and the connection snapped with a sharp crack.

  Dr. Maerwynn’s glittering face pulled free of the body, trailing nerve clusters and rainbow mist. Her scream faded to a wail that trailed off to a helium-high whisper. Eirene threw her head back and roared an animal cry of victory that filled Sarah with a sense of overwhelming dread.

  Eirene held the doctor’s face high and stepped away from the dying body. “Bring me the face coffin.”

  Sarah staggered to her feet and stumbled around the gurney. Fear and revulsion battled through her, making her hands feel clumsy. She forced down the urge to vomit as she made herself grasp the living mask of Jill’s face.

  She was unprepared for the chill touch of the mask. It felt as if all the heat had been sucked out of it, leaving nothing but an icy shell. It was rigid, but still gave a little at her touch.

  The rainbow mist floating below the face drifted up to caress Sarah’s lower arm, and it thrummed with unexpected vibration. Sarah shrieked and tossed the face mask away. It clattered onto the steel bed of the gurney next to Marilyn’s sleeping form.

  “Careful, that’s your friend you’re throwing around,” Eirene cautioned in a casual conversational tone as she joined Sarah by the gurney. She dropped Dr. Maerwynn’s mask inside the little coffin with a satisfied smile.

  “Don’t! Don’t shut me in,” the soft whisper drifted up to them.

  How could she speak at all? She lacked vocal chords, lungs, and well, everything.

  Eirene snarled, “How dare you! After what you did to me.” She slammed the lid home and latched it closed.

  Then she straightened her hair and regarded Jill’s face where it lay on the gurney. She asked in a pleasant tone, “And who is this? She released her hold on this body I wear with remarkable ease.”

  “A friend of mine. She’s had a lot of practice.”

  Eirene raised an eyebrow. “That is not a good thing, my dear.”

  Behind them, the last guard fell to a well-placed kick from one of the convicts. He and his companions lay moaning on the floor, faces bruised or bloodied, and one with an arm twisted at an unnatural angle.

  “The risk of mental contamination is mitigated by a screening machine they use in conjunction with the transfers,” Tomas explained as he dragged the unconscious form of Mr. Fleischer to the gurney. “These two young women have been repossessed hundreds of times with extremely low mental dissipation.”

  Eirene frowned, “So many? Even with such a machine, an untrained soul subject to so much psychic trauma would dissipate their natural defenses to an alarming degree. The risk of severe soul distortion is . . . uncharted.”

  Tomas shrugged. “Understood, but the procedure has proven highly effective. The ramifications are far reaching.”

  Eirene nodded, suddenly grave. “I must examine one of these machines.”

  Sarah looked from one to the other, focusing on her growing frustration that she understood less than a tenth of what they’d just discussed instead of the lingering terror Eirene’s presence instilled. The woman was standing close enough to reach out and rip Sarah’s face off any second, if she chose to.

  “Look, all I want is Jill restored, and my body back.”

  “You’re right, my dear. The time for other intriguing discussions must wait until we have more leisure.”

  Sarah nodded toward the three burly convicts, who were prowling around the fallen guards, as if debating whether or not to beat them some more. “That was fast work.”

  “We were motivated,” Tomas said, again looking like an unremarkable medical tech, concealing his true abilities under a casual mask.

  Eirene prodded Mr. Fleischer. “What are we going to do with him?”

  Tomas smiled. “I have a plan.