Getting out of the flooded burial chamber wasn’t the hard part. All that took was crushing the recall bead that Nathaniel had given her before sending her there. The hard part was coming to grips with what she was recalled to.

Flames were pouring out of the windows of the Underground and dark smoke billowed into the sky. Pedestrians stopped to watch the store burn, but none seemed to be doing anything - other than the guy on his phone recording it. Asshole.

Ashe’s attempts to contact Nate had failed spectacularly, leaving her nerves frayed near beyond repair. Waiting for the fire department to show up and put out the fire would mean it was entirely too late to save Nate from whatever he was tangled up in. There was really no choice but to do what had to be done.

She pushed her way through the crowd watching the fire and pointed at the nearest fire hydrant. With a push of magical energy and a simple spell of concussive force, the hydrant was blown off its moorings. Water burst forth from the now-open pipe, a violent geyser that would serve her purposes. The crowd screamed and retreated back to a safer distance.

Through another application of magic, she bent the flow of water, weaving it into the building like a serpent to lash out at the flames. More cell phone cameras were out now, filming her.

‘Great. I’ll put out the fire and get locked up for exposing magic. Fuck my life!’

She forced the water to bombard the burning building until the worst of the flames had died down, then promptly surrendered her grasp on the flow and let the hydrant gush to its heart's content as she plunged into the building in search of Nathaniel.

The interior was blackened, scorched by the flames. Most of the contents of the shop were a total loss. Only the magically reinforced portal door and the door to the magical side of the Underground were untouched.

She blasted her way through, reducing fallen rafters to splinters as she cleared a path to the door to the back hallway.

‘Hold on, Nate, I’m coming!’ she thought as she flung the door open, expecting the worst.

 

The worst couldn’t have begun to explain the sights she was now forced to endure. The formerly pristine halls were now stained with viscous bile. The walls ran with rivulets of moisture, and algae was already starting to form on them as a result. Scorch marks and impact craters made walking down the hallway precarious.

‘No,’ Ashe lamented. ‘This can’t be happening…’

Cruel laughter echoed from the open door to Nathaniel’s office. Familiar, burbling, wet laughter. 

Ashe shook herself from her thoughts and bolted for the door, avoiding the battle-damaged hallway hazards as best she could. The door to the office had been blown clean off its hinges, laying in splintered fragments around the office. 

“Not so tough now, are ya, Nate?” Boucher’s voice taunted. 

“You!” Ashe shouted as she crossed the threshold. 

Nathaniel’s body was limp, sprawled across his desk. Cailyn and Aiden lay sprawled out not far away.

“Well well well, look who it is,” Boucher taunted, chuckling. “How’d you like my little surprise at the last seal?”

“What did you do to them?!” she demanded, ignoring his jab. 

“Isn’t that obvious? Same thing I did to you… only a whole lot more than little bits and pieces. They’re mine now. Tasty morsels, every one. Especially old Nathaniel. Been chasing his soul for centuries.” 

Dead? They were dead? He’d ripped out their souls? No.

‘No!’

Her eyes stung as she tried to fight back tears. She wouldn’t let him see her cry. He wouldn’t get that satisfaction from her.

“Just one more to add to the banquet, and she so kindly delivered herself right to me. Now then… what say we handle this like proper gentlefolk?” 

“Go fuck yourself, you slimy toad-faced piece of shit!” Ashe spat, reaching into her magical reserves. 

Boucher wouldn’t give her a chance to build her strength. He was upon her in a moment, his movements frighteningly quick and fluid. He struck her with a backhand, throwing her from her feet as if she were a styrofoam cutout. 

The wall that caught her was certainly solid enough, though. Her body cried out in pain as she felt several things pop painfully - perhaps cracking or breaking bones.

“Ah, Chrissy, you always were a favorite. So dense, so unaware of who you were all that time, little egg. Now that the shell has been broken and peeled away, it’s time to enjoy the meal inside.”

Ashe felt the strong, sharp tug on something at her core. She recognized it almost instantly. Her soul was being pulled from her body. Again.

“Come to me, my little delicacy,” Boucher taunted.

‘No.’ The thought resonated through her being, and she pushed back against his influence. “I’m not your delicacy, your flower, or any other fucked up thing, Boucher. The only thing I’ll be is your end!” 

Boucher cackled. “Oh, oh that’s good, so fiery, did you rehearse that?” He let his laughter splash around the room for a moment longer before he collected himself. “Alright, girl… let’s see you live up to the talk then.”

Boucher’s body swelled as his mortal guise failed, revealing a massive frog-like being with gaping jaws filled with rows of alligator-esque teeth. Thick muscle filled out his frame, offset by a rotund gut that distended his midsection grotesquely. He filled the space in a way that seemed almost impossible, as if he was too large for the room, but still managed to fit within it with room to spare. 

Fear gripped at Ashe’s senses as she tried to comprehend his true form. He didn’t make sense. He was impossible, but here he was.

“Startin’ to realize your mistake, darlin’?” Boucher drawled, the sickening dampness of his voice amplified to eleven.

‘Come on, Ashe. Get a hold of yourself. Nate, Aiden, and Cailyn are all counting on you… not to mention everyone that depends on the Underground. He’s still the same freak that needs taking down a peg. He’s just bigger now. You can do this!’ she tried to psych herself up, steadying her nerves. 

“That’s enough, Bou-” she began, only to find her voice cut off as a sphere of brackish water struck her and encased her in a bubble. Her movements slowed as if the water were tar, and she didn’t dare let go of the scant breath she still had. 

‘This is familiar,’ she thought. ‘Why does everyone want to drown me?’

The tugging sensation on her soul resumed.

“I’m a devourer of souls, little lady… you don’t stand a chance,” he cackled.

‘A devourer of souls?’ She tried to focus. To feel them.

She did.

Thousands of them.

Churning within him.

She smiled.

 

Boucher reached out for her, strengthening his grasp on her soul. One sharp pull and she’d be done. She’d be his.

Pain lanced through his gut. Something was wrong.

“Bit of indigestion,” he joked. “Guess ol’ Nate was spicier than he looked.”

Another stabbing pain.

His concentration on the sphere faded, allowing it to splash to the floor and release Ashe.

“Heh, heh…” Ashe gasped out a sharp laugh. 

“What’re you laughin’ about, girl?”

“You told me… you’re a devourer of souls. You never bothered to learn what my specialty is, did you?”

“What’s it matter?” he barked, holding his now angrily aching gut. 

“I… control souls, and you’re full of so many of them.” She grinned menacingly at him.

Boucher’s eyes widened slightly. He felt something he hadn’t in a very, very long time.

Fear.

 

Ashe grasped the souls within Boucher, one by one, gathering them up. Borrowing their energy to help rescue more and more of them. With each she pulled free, she saw the massive frame of the demon known as Boucher begin to shrink. 

“Is that all you’ve got, Boucher? All your malice, all that menace, all the plotting? You ruined generations of my family’s life, and this is all that’s left at the end? This pathetic overblown frog?”

She laughed and continued ripping more souls away from him.

Boucher moaned in pain, grasping at the air, trying to reclaim his bounty. His body was failing him, growing weaker with each moment. So many souls devoured over millennia.

“How?” he growled. “How can one pathetic girl stand against me and the souls of a small army!?”

Ashe ripped away another dozen souls. “Quality over quantity, Boucher.”

“You… you heinous bitch! I’ll rip your soul to pieces!” Boucher launched himself forward at Ashe, jaws open wide.

A wall of force slammed into him, arresting his forward momentum. 

His body was thrown backwards across the room, but he felt himself lingering in front of her. 

“Not so big and bad now, are you, Boucher?” she asked, mirroring his taunt to Nathaniel.

“What is this?” he asked, dumbfounded.

“I’m so much stronger than I was without all those pieces of my soul you’d siphoned away. Strong enough to rip out a demon’s soul… and send it back where it came from. Or make sure it can never come back.”

“You’re bluffin’!” Boucher shouted, panic evident in his tone. 

“Am I?” she asked.

Boucher felt his soul begin fraying, pulling apart at the seams. “NO! STOP! STOP!” he begged.

“Why should I?” she continued her work.

“I’ll give ya anything! Any bargain, no strings attached, whatever you want, it’s yours!” His pleas grew more desperate. 

“The only thing I want is you, gone for good.” She tore at the threads of his soul, sundering the last of the connections.

Boucher screamed out a wet, unearthly cry of agony as he was ripped apart and ceased to exist.

Ashe struggled to keep her feet. Spending that much energy had left her body sore and aching.

Of all the souls that she had torn free, three lingered. She recognized them immediately.

Nathaniel, Aiden, and Cailyn.

She looked at their bodies.

Dead.

There was no way she could put them back into such mangled vessels.

There was only one solution.

She gathered up the souls, forced herself out into the hall, and started making her way towards the directory. 

She needed some Knot Things.