The Spy
Chapter 2
Garra awoke to the sound of fire burning in the distance. She opened her eyes before she sat up and gasped. The nightmare she thought she had wasn't a nightmare. She looked around and observed blank gray walls and a cold matching floor. She wondered where she was until she heard Null Guardians screeching from outside. She recalled the man and his yellow eyes. The Null King.
"D'Void," she muttered.
She stood up until she became dizzy. The air was thick with the smell of Kormite fumes. Garra's body ached from the previous encounter with Null Guardians. She walked forward until she used the wall for balance.
"Now what's going to happen to me?" she wondered aloud. "Where am I?"
"You are in my laboratory," said D'Void's voice from behind her.
Garra turned around to witness him again in a doorway. He held a bowl in his hand until he walked forward and placed it down.
"Here. You should eat something so I can observe your strength at full potential." He pointed to the bowl.
Garra stared at the bowl. She couldn't remember the last time she'd eaten. She had no idea how hungry she was until the smell of the food came to her nose. Her stomach growled. "Why would you feed me? What do you mean, observe my strength at full potential?" she asked. "What do you want with me?"
"So many questions," said D'Void before walking away. "They can be answered later."
"How do I know this isn't poison?" Garra yelled before the door slid shut.
"I suppose you don't," D'Void said through the door until he disappeared somewhere.
Garra stared at the bowl. She was infuriated more than ever. What did he mean? What was he doing? Did he in fact poison the food so he could see how she reacted to it? Was that what he meant by the previous remark? She sat down on the floor after feeling too dizzy to stand. She wasn't sure if it was from the hunger or the horrible stench of the Kormite burning. The smell was thicker inside the building than it was outside.
"If I don't have anything to lose, I should just eat it," Garra said until she took the bowl. She stuck a finger in it and lifted some stew. She licked it off her finger. It tasted bland but edible. She sipped from the bowl. She waited some time before eating any more. She didn't feel the effects of poison. She eventually finished the entire bowl. She felt less sick after eating the food. "I could use a drink," she said after feeling a great thirst replacing her satiated hunger. She looked at the door when it opened suddenly after several minutes. A young woman wearing a black cloak carried another bowl and offered it to her.
"Who are you?" Garra questioned. The woman didn't speak. "Are you mute, or are you not allowed to speak?"
The woman shook her head. She motioned with her hand to her throat, implying something had caused her to lose the ability to speak. She was wearing a thin silver collar. Garra wondered if it was to hide some scar.
"Did D'Void do that?" Garra asked nervously.
The woman shook her head. Garra wasn't exactly relieved. D'Void had done many other unpleasant things in his past.
"Do you work for D'Void?"
The woman nodded.
"A servant," Garra thought. "Maybe he wants me to be a personal servant instead of a laborer. Some difference. They're still slaves!"
Garra remembered her thirst and drank the water quickly until she emptied the bowl. "Great, now I'm going to have to go to the bathroom," she muttered. She handed the bowl back to the servant woman. "Thank you. It's nice to talk to someone around here who will answer my questions, even if they can't talk to me."
The woman was going to depart before Garra called out to her.
"Wait! Do you have a name?"
The woman looked around. She pointed to her chest. She shrugged. She reached inside her cloak and pulled out a flower on a chain and held it. She smiled and pointed to the flower.
"Is your name the same as the flower?" Garra questioned until the woman nodded. The flower was the only flower known to grow in the Null Void. It was called a Phantom Lilly. It only grew in caves lit by a certain luminescent moss. "Is your name Lilly?"
The woman nodded. More Null Guardians screeched before Lilly hurried out of the room.
Garra went to the door but found it didn't open from her location. Only on the outside. She kicked the door in frustration.
"What am I doing in here?" she asked no one before she sat down again.
She decided to sleep. Whatever else happened, so be it. She no longer cared. She curled up in a fetal position and yawned until she focused on better times of her life. She dreamed of green fields full of multiple colorful flowers and a blue sky. She remembered such a place before the endless storms of the Null Void. Somehow she had got thrown into the Null Void with her parents. She couldn't remember how. They weren't criminals.
Garra woke up with tightness in her chest. She looked around until she saw D'Void in the doorway again.
"You have quite the angelic face when you're asleep," he remarked whiles smirking.
Garra frowned. She bared her claws and pounced at him. "Don't underestimate me due to my appearance!"
He reached out a hand and blocked her attack easily. He grabbed her wrist and held her with the strength of twenty men. She gasped. Is this what everyone meant when they said it was useless to go up against the Null King? She struggled in his grip.
"Perhaps I've overestimated you," said D'Void. "I assumed you'd be more cunning than to attack me. But I do so enjoy your enthusiasm for violence." He dangled her while laughing until he walked out of the room while carrying her in his grasp.
"Let me go! Where are you taking me?" Garra yelled. She attempted to kick him but it was as if his body was made of stone. He felt nothing from her kicks.
"Useless, my dear. You're little more than a newborn kitten in comparison to me. If you want to fight, I can give you someone else to battle."
"Why should I do anything for you? You enjoy enslaving people to do your bidding? Who do you think you are, anyway? What is going on?"
"I'll show you," said D'Void until he brought Garra to a corridor.
They walked down the corridor and into another room that had a large window outside. It looked over the large structure and the area below where the workers were toiling away. Many Null Guardians flew past the window as they circled on patrol. Their roars and shrieks could be heard through the walls.
"There aren't many ways out of the Null Void, so I'm building one," D'Void explained. "I am constructing a drill to burrow through this dimensional wall and back to my own world. There, I shall conquer that miserable planet and everything on it. But first, I'm going to conquer this dimension. And you will help me."
Garra felt like laughing at such a ludicrous assumption. "How can you drill through a dimension? And conquer an entire planet? You're insane! And you think I'll help you? Why should I?"
"It's in your best interest," D'Void said simply. He lowered her to the ground.
"It's in my best interest to help a madman with a tyrant fantasy conquer two innocent worlds?" Garra snorted while rubbing her pinched wrist. "You're positively crazy. The only thing that's in my best interest is to escape from here." She immediately ran away from D'Void.
"I'm only suggesting because I saw great potential in you," D'Void called before Garra ran away. He shrugged. "Oh well then. You can be another insignificant creature of the Null Void. Not even fit to work in my mines, or serve me. That means fending for yourself out there in the wild. Possibly to starve or be killed. None of my concern once you leave. Contemplate that before you make your exit."
Garra stopped running. She turned to stare at D'Void in anger. "So what? You're saying that if I agree to help you conquer the Null Void, I'll be treated better than those slaves out there?"
"Indeed," said D'Void.
"Prove it," said Garra.
"Haven't I already?" said D'Void. "You've been fed, given water, shelter, and you've slept. Far more than I allow my standard laborers."
"You call these meager basics of life an incentive? Laughable!" Garra retorted. She turned away.
"For now they are. It will take time and more resources. You'll receive much better than this, I assure you," said D'Void. "I can make you stronger than your wildest dreams. Even if you decide to stop working for me, you'd be able to do whatever you wish in the Null Void and no one could stop you. Providing you do as I wish, of course. How's that for an incentive?"
Garra clenched her fists. This man annoyed her. He was a liar. Someone not to be trusted. She didn't want to be cast out into the cold, cruel Null Void, however. The Null Void felt like a fate even worse than being enslaved in a mine. Who knew if D'Void was telling the truth? He did feed her and allow her to sleep. She'd gained her strength back. Could he truly make her stronger beyond her wildest dreams? It couldn't hurt to play along. Perhaps she could find a way to defeat him and escape. Perhaps she'd come to like working for him. She couldn't say for certain. She frowned and pondered until she came to the final decision.
"Fine," she said. "I don't have much other choice, do I? I'll accept your proposition. What do you want me to do?"
"First, I want you to defeat seven Null Guardians," said D'Void.
"Seven?" Garra thought nervously until she gained confidence. "Of course I can defeat seven. I could defeat twenty! I'm stronger than I look."
"Fine."
A door opened and light appeared outside. D'Void pointed. "Go through that door."
Garra obeyed until she was outside. The door closed behind her. She realized she was in a closed off area with high walls and an open ceiling. It was large enough to look like a pen for animals or an arena. Many screeches came to her ears before she looked up. As D'Void had ordered, seven Null Guardians flew down at her. They were attacking at all once, much to her concern. She bared her claws since no weapons were given to her. She hissed as the Null Guardians came at her. She screamed with a primal emotion as she jumped onto the first Null Guardian and began to scratch at it until it flew into the wall.
She jumped off the Null Guardian and onto the second before its mouth beam contacted her body. She pulled on its wings until it crashed into another Null Guardian. The Null Guardian's tentacles reached for her but instead grabbed its fellow beast. That Null Guardian bit the other's head in the confusion. Garra dodged red mouth beams until she jumped in front of an incoming Null Guardian. The mouth beams struck that Null Guardian and knocked it down. Garra was able to defeat several of the Guardians by using their own stupidity against them.
Two others were very aggressive and not as dumb as the rest. They worked in a pair to attack Garra at the same time until she had trouble dodging their attacks. She was struck by one's tail as the other shot her with its mouth beam. She screamed in pain before the first Null Guardian roared at her and grabbed her arm in its gaping jaws. It bit down. Garra thought she would pass out right then and there. She scratched at the Null Guardian's hide until it slammed her into a wall. She fell down and cried out until she realized she was bleeding from her mouth and nose.
"I can't win! I underestimated myself," she thought in absolute terror. I'm going to die like this now. Being devoured by Null Guardians. What a fate!" She felt like laughing for some sick reason.
She crawled into the corner before the Null Guardian grabbed her with its tail and threw her into another wall. She groaned in pain. Her vision had become blurry. She wondered what her life would have been like if her parents hadn't died. She wondered if she would have celebrated her 16th birthday. She wondered what the Null Void would have been like if D'Void hadn't taken it over and turned the Null Guardians into his personal attack dogs. The thoughts faded with her dwindling consciousness. She reached her hand up to her face and felt blood dripping from her mouth. She coughed and sputtered.
"Enough," shouted D'Void's voice.
The Null Guardians which were seconds from biting down on her instantly moved away and flew into the air. Garra stared at the ground until a pair of boots came into her line of vision. She couldn't move. She laid limply and waited for death.
"You knew I couldn't win this fight," Garra said weakly before more blood dripped from the corner of her mouth.
"But you didn't," said D'Void. He lowered himself until he crouched beside her. "I can greatly appreciate such an enthusiasm in my potential specimens. Your strength is already impressive for a mere child."
"Specimen? I knew it. You're a terrible man," Garra said as she clung to her last bit of consciousness.
"Lucky for you, I'm also a doctor," said D'Void before he lifted her and carried her back to his laboratory.