Part 10

Lucas approached the side door that led up to Gnarus' home on the second floor of the building where Gnarus taught his martial arts lessons. He was taking a risk coming here, but he had to talk to Gnarus, too many things were going on for it to wait. Taking one last look up and down the alley to make sure no one was following him; Lucas quietly entered the doorway and made his way up the stairs.

Knocking on the door with a pre-arranged pattern, Lucas waited and listened as he heard Gnarus coming toward the door on the other side. A second later the door flew open and Gnarus, looking both surprised and relieved, wordlessly ushered Lucas quickly inside. Turning on the light, Gnarus motioned for Lucas to sit down on the couch. "What happened?" He asked quickly.

"I'm sorry, Gnarus," Lucas said quietly. Even here he was nervous. "Things have been a lot harder then we thought they'd be. I told a couple of the people in my group that I was going to tell you that I was quitting my martial arts lessons soon, so hopefully that's what they'll think I'm doing now."

Gnarus' eyes suddenly sparked with fear and recognition. "Group? What do you mean? Is there a set structure that they have?"

"Yeah," Lucas answered, "We're all split up into groups of five with one being the leader. None of us know each other's real names. We all just have nicknames based on either our performance or our personalities or both. On the other hand, all of the new people have the same nickname. Getting a personal nickname is almost like some sort of initiation in to the group. Since I'm still new, for now my nickname is –"

"Novus." Gnarus stated grimly. As Lucas had gone on Gnarus' eyes filled more and more with fear and confusion. "No, no, this can't be." He said softly.

"Yeah, Novus. How did you know?" Lucas asked.

"It doesn't matter now." Gnarus answered quickly, "What does matter is that you need to get out now. It doesn't matter what you're in the middle of, you need to leave town as fast as you can. Things are much bigger than I had imagined. Things are much less safe for you then I thought before. You are leaving town, no questions, no arguments." Lucas could hear the cold, hard fear and conviction in Gnarus' voice. He figured that anything that had gotten Gnarus so spooked had to be huge, so he nodded his head.

"Alright, fine." No sooner were the words out of Lucas' mouth then Tamryn came through the door. He smiled at seeing Lucas, but it quickly disappeared when he saw the look on Gnarus' face.

"Well, I take it the bank's not important right now." Tamryn said.

"No, it's not." Gnarus confirmed grimly. "Lucas, leave now. Don't worry about going home, just get out of town as covertly and quickly as you possibly can. I'm sorry I have to be cryptic, but trust me, it's for the best. Just do it now." Lucas, now almost afraid, nodded his head and quickly walked out the door. Once the sound of his footsteps died away Gnarus turned to Tamryn and said, "I want you to leave town as well, but first there's something you must see, and what you'll see is a secret that you must carry to the grave. Do you understand?" There was almost a quiet fury in Gnarus' eyes that Tamryn had never seen before. Clearly the severity of the situation was far more than Tamryn could comprehend at the moment, so he agreed.

Satisfied, Gnarus rushed downstairs into the main training room, with Tamryn close behind. As he went, Gnarus looked back at Tamryn, "Do you remember where the small storage room is?"

"The one you told everyone never to go near, let alone in it?"

"Yes, that one. Go inside it and you'll see green staff about my height. Grab it and bring it to me." Without hesitating, Tamryn did as he was told and made his way to where the storage closet was. Once he opened it, finding it strangely unlocked, he found the staff quickly not only because it was one of the very few things in it, but also because of its strange metallic yet liquid appearance. Tamryn was baffled and had no idea what kind of metal it was, but just by holding it Tamryn felt like there was a cold power almost resonating from it.

Bringing it to the main training room, Tamryn took note that Gnarus was standing in the middle of the room where there was nothing but a circle with a small dot in the middle of it on the floor design. Once Gnarus received the staff from Tamryn, he held it up over the dot, which Tamryn just realized happened to have about the same diameter as the staff; he looked at Tamryn and said, "Stand back."

He barely gave Tamryn enough time to back away before he pushed a hidden button on the side of the staff and the dot on the floor suddenly flipped open, revealing a shaft that the staff could fit in. Gnarus drove it down into the shaft until only about a foot of the staff was showing, and then he gave it a great twist which was followed by the sound of a giant lock being opened. The floor around Gnarus began to drop into sections to form a winding stairway. Leading to where, Tamryn didn't know. It took a full minute for it all to stop, and when it did Gnarus looked up at Tamryn with a fearsome gaze that made Tamryn want to shrink away into a corner. "At the end of these stairs, is something that has never existed on this planet, and you will NEVER say a word of what you are about to see. If you do, it could start a whole chain of events that will lead to the end of this entire universe." Gnarus began to talk in a steady way so that he enunciated every word with a conviction and quiet anger that continued to intimidate Tamryn. He had never seen Gnarus like this before. "Do not underestimate my words; this is beyond anything you have ever known, so I do not expect you to fully understand. Just know that there is not another soul on this planet that should ever know this. So I ask again, do you understand how serious I am being about this?" Tamryn nodded, the words being unable to come out of his mouth. Gnarus, satisfied with Tamryn's answer, began down the stairs and motioned for Tamryn to follow.