Treisel dodged first one, then another punch. Noticing that the crowd of
Luirienians was growing, he grabbed Tao by the arm (causing her to spill her
half-full flagon of wine), and motioning for Waj to follow, he forced his 
way through the crowd towards the back door of the pub. Quickly, he yanked open 
the back door and climbed in the cart. as Tao and Waj jumped in the back and
concealed themselves (at least as well as a demon in complete pitchfork 
retinue and a girl whose aura just awakened an entire city's inborn powers 
could), and Triesel flicked the reins.
        And Simon the donkey, remaining true to his species, stood still.

                                      *****
                                To Hell and Back
                                     Part 4:
                                   By Mandoric
                              mandoric@phreaker.net
                         This part edited by pressing F7.
                                      *****

        Treisel winced. Blazemore and Empyron Summon had together created about
as much fire under the recalcitrant donkey as, say, banging a couple rocks
together, Firaga had failed completely, and the only effect of a Fireball was
to create one very annoyed mage-formerly-in-training sans eyebrows.
        As he continued throwing effort into lighting the small pile of mail
under Simon, he noticed something very odd. The air around him seemed heavier
than usual, and his spells were having less and less effect. In fact, the noises
on the other side of the now-barricaded back door of the pub were much quieter
as well... And Waj... "He's shrinking?!?"
        The now chibified (for lack of a better word) demon squeaked
disgustedly. "You see what happens to you when some [humans] use up all the
magical energy within miles."
        Treisel, confused, scratched his head. "Err... huh?"
        Tao took that opportunity to inject herself into the conversation.
"Remember? From Thaumatometry 102? There's only a limited amount of magical
force in any one place. And these people have been burning it up. So unless
you'd like another pocket demon, we need to find a source of magical energy 
or get out of here quickly."
        Treisel blithely ignored the word "another", and continued scratching
his head, with the occasional mumble.
        Tao blushed. How obvious was she going to have to get?

***

        Feyluck Hatstring, Chancellor of the Great Zinnonthian University, set
foot outside his office for the first time in almost 5 years. Amazedly, his
secretary ducked under her desk and started banging a small gong. Sounds of
hurried flight echosed from the administrative offices beyond.
        The Illylyawamalian groaned. *Apparently, they still remember the
'Alpaca Incident'*, he thought to himself. *All the things I've done for this
place, the donations I've secured, the Elder Gods I've worked out exclusive
summoning agreements, and they remember what happened after one little
mispronounced Wind spell on a hot day.*
        Crossing the campus, he of the unpronouncable name whistled a tune.
        *Hmm... the designs on the back of these coins date almost back to the
'Heaven War'... But I wonder what this writing means? It's not runic, but it
looks like it...*

***

        Back in Lurien, Tao and Treisel were taking advantage of the pause in
the action caused by a stubborn donkey to go through the mail that still needed
to be delivered. Suddenly, Tao had an idea.
        Picking up a bundle of mail with the words "Lurien - Priority Mail"
printed on it, she jumped on the cart, then climbed up into the second story of
the pub. Making her way through the upstairs, she opened a front window and
stepped out onto the roof.
        "People of Lurien, one false move and the mail gets it!"

***

        Feyluck looked at the coin, then the book, then the coin again. Although
the coins came from Heaven, the odd script on the back wasn't listed in
"Mordenkainen's Pocket Guide to Mystical Tongues Volume 542".
        He felt a tapping on his shoulder. Turning around, he saw a long, curved
blade...
        "Watch it! You almost put my... eye... oh... crap..." Feyluck said as he
looked up the handle of the sickle to the cloaked form of Death.
        In a dark and echoing voice, the avatar of doom said "Feyluck... I [am]
your [father]... Er... I mean... The writing on the back of those coins dates
from the War in Heaven. During that war, first one, then the other faction
called in demons from Hell. Near the end, the Boss Himself realized that the
gold they were paid with was horribly tainted and would probably cause any angel
to melt like a snowball in... well... you know where. So He had the demons
inscribe a warning on the back, in exchange for a 10% bonus."
        "So you... you're telling me that this incredibly elaborate text on the
back of coins from heaven that I hoped was some kind of powerful spell of gold
copying or something is a 'Do Not Touch' warning?!?"
        "Yeah. If that's a problem...", and Death flipped the hood of his cloak
around, "... talk to the scythe."
        With that, Death disappeared, leaving behind a very confused Feyluck.

***

        When an expelled student mage, a girl whose aura happens to unleash
hideously powerful spells from one's friends and family, and a demon thrown out
of Hell appear in one's hometown and begin causing general destruction, one is
quite justified in assuming that one is having a bad day. Or at least Priapus
XXVII, Governor of Lurien, thought so. Although generally considered to be
'stuck up' by the population, he still felt he could symphasize with the 
people.

And how dare the girl threaten the mail? He had a very important shipment of
spears for the local militia coming in.

***

Author's notes:
        Ye gods, that sucked. Er... I really apologize. Although I got all the
plotpoints in, it really sucked connectively. =p
        I know it came out more isolated-sceney
        Wai. Second chapter in a row written by someone new.
        Hmm... I wrote this during finals, which is still no bloody excuse for
doing the majority of the work Wednesday night...
        Anyway, uh... what was tough about this is not going totally anime-style
with it. I can point to at least 5 places in the first few paragraphs where 
I was tempted to have someone sweatdrop or facefault or scratch the back of 
their head. ^^
        Thanks to Kristen Smirnov, the last author, for a lot of ideas used in
here. If you liked things like the War in Hell, thank her. And if you didn't
like them, it was probably my writing.
        That "pocket demon" bit was shamelessly stolen from ADV's Kotetsu dub.
See? That's what you get for making deceptive boxes! ^_^ (Although IMHO the
movie was better than the box described. Heheh.)

--Mandoric (mandoric@phreaker.net)
Main site: redrival.com/mandoric | RoleGame Parodius: 
redrival.com/mandoric/fics
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