"—on my way."

The phone loses the signal. Then it rings again.

"If there's no plan, I'm dead. The Lord has probably wanted to come after me for a year now, and doesn't have a reason not to. I could just run. You can tell him I acted alone, and it's true even if I thought I wasn't..."

"Let's meet in the workshop, we'll talk then, just run."

"I'm there. The teleportation worked once I was out of his place. I just wish it could take me somewhere less predictable."

"I'll be there in just a bit."

She goes as fast as she can.

Diana explains while she's on the way.

The combination of wanting to go against Conquest while not being able to discuss details and the fact that Sam asked about something hard-hitting for an unspecified monster fight left her thinking Sam was attacking Conquest. She rescued Doug's ghost by stealing the trophy that used to be his implement, hoping the spirit would follow it. Used as little magic as possible to do it, since Sam had the big guns. She refers to Conquest only as the Lord of the city, saying it's Doug's advice. Saying his name might not alert him, but he probably is paying attention.

And, if this enemy wasn't the target, what was? Is Sam okay?

...she'll tell Diana what the enemy was later and, er, not over the phone. She's mostly okay, has a few scrapes and shallow cuts and a swollen eye, and the thing was a success.

Ominous. But one catastrophe at a time is the right sequence to have catastrophes in.

The abandoned factory was out toward the edge of town, and so is the workshop, and luckily it's the same edge. Getting there won't take long.

Then she's there soon. Where's Diana?

Inside. She's not calculating magic, instead worriedly packing items in case she needs to flee in a hurry.  A man is in there with her. He's thin, with a short beard and a hairline receding despite his lack of advanced age. His wide glasses have one broken lens, and he is only almost solid. Light flickers through him occasionally. Diana sees Sadde before Doug does.

"Sam! You made it. I don't know how much of a hurry we're in; the Lord might have people on their way right now."

"Did they actually notice you? We should probably just run right now anyway—"

"His security people did. I don't know if there's anything we can do, but if so it's probably from here."

"Why is just running away extremely fast not the better idea?"

The ghost responds to that one. "He doesn't give up his quarry. And you're here, Di. Had to take a side and fight or deal."

"Doug has some issues with forming new memories," Diana adds. "The...transparent...part of him can't realize some of what happened.
Running might be the better idea, but if we do we can't come back. We'll be on the run and underequipped and that's not a good position to be in. And injured! Let me look at your eye, make sure it's as okay as you thought."

"Not necessarily on the run, we can hide." She obligingly lets Diana take a look at her eye, though.

"What did you fight!"

She doesn't get much of a chance to look. As soon as she touches the swollen area, a dark shape bulges out from Sadde's face and into her reflection where light glints off a computer screen. Everywhere it moves leaves a trail of smoke.

"—shit shit shit I need light, very bright—" She turns her phone's flashlight on and flashes her eye—

Light isn't in short supply here. Diana points an LED at Sadde's face, then adds more to it. The eye gets obscured by smoke.

"What is it?"

"—a darkness demon—just—brightest light you can find—"

"A demon?"

She rushes around the room flipping switches. Most of the screens are destroyed and smoking. And the room's familiar mess works against them here, making it hard to follow the fragment and its duplicate.

Doug points somewhere. "Getting away, slipping the trap–" Diana follows his gesture and sees a hole. "It's in the walls!"

"—oh fuck—I'm so sorry—" Is the shadow still there?

Her eye is clear now after the dazzling light. And working; it was never really injured in the first place.

The workshop isn't. Computers are smoking and sparking, and the shadow is lurking in corners all over the place. It's well lit enough that nothing's getting at them, but the place was already a mess. Hard to ferret it out of everywhere at once.

"—we might have to set fire to this place."

"No! This place is– everything is here! If we get more lights..."

Diana rushes between nooks and crannies, one at a time. She manages to get close enough to sent up some smoke. Then the part in the walls hits its target and the lights go out. A cable swings outward, sparking.

"Di needs it," says the ghost's voice. "  – have to do it."

"Don't look at anything," she says, closing her eyes and rushing towards where she remember Diana is to pull her out.