- Chapter 26: Call of Destiny -
I have no idea why I expected things to be simple. Life is never simple, not ever. You think you know what it will throw next, but then you learn that you were never as ready as you hoped. What I had assumed to be the end of the storm had been the eye, and now the wall was tearing into us once more.
A part of me dared to disbelieve. There couldn't be anything that dangerous. We just came from there, and Yurk's already gone. The army should have already gone through that area on its way to help out Rocky Springs.
That part of me hung from the eaves of my mind, chirping quietly, incessantly, coaxing me to come back from reality, come back to the delusion of safety. I was tempted. I was so, so tempted to brush off the politoed on the ground, the finger pointing at the tunnel, the sense of danger quavering in every fiber of my being. An overreaction would be the simple answer.
Ray and Nila's voices carried up to me as Ray explained all that we knew about Trevor. While pokémon rushed out from the side entrance to lift the politoed onto a stretcher, Nila ordered for a guard to be stationed at the tunnel's entrance. Only two ventured up the slope to the tiny, gaping maw; another two positioned themselves on the wall. Such small numbers.
Before I could earn any dark looks, I hopped off the wall.
"Mona, where are you going?" Eris called to me as I brushed past her and Ray.
"To Trevor," I replied. I could set aside my own thoughts for a spell. The politoed had been in rough shape, and I knew I should pay him a visit. From my distance, I had discerned no physical wounds; hopefully, exhaustion was the worst of his condition.
I arrived inside the basement chamber just in time to spot Trevor and his retinue entering a side room. Their harried air gave me pause, and I reconsidered my initial decision. Eventually, I decided that it would be best to drop in on him later.
Heavy, clunking footsteps sounded on the stairs behind me. I turned around just as Eris reached the bottom step. She glanced around the room, then asked me, "Where d-d-did they go?"
"Over there, behind that door," I answered, pointing with a forepaw. "They looked really busy, though, so I thought that it would be good to just leave them alone for now."
"Yeah, y-you're right," Eris concurred.
We both stared at the door for several moments longer until Ray descended right next to us. "What are you looking at?" he inquired.
"That door. It's where they took Trevor," I stated once more. Ray skimmed over the door, nodded abstractly, and moved toward a bench near the stairs. He stretched his whole body across it and folded his arms under his head.
"Is the bench really that comfy?" I posed doubtfully. He merely grunted in reply.
The doors at the top of the stairs swung open again. Nila emerged from them along with Dagheer and Sculle. The three beelined for Trevor's room, and Sculle rapped his knuckles on it to request entry. A pokémon in a white coat opened the door, and the four exchanged quick words. Nila and the others were permitted inside—Nila's bulk barely made it through the frame. I had always understood that doors needed to be made wide and tall for the larger-sized pokémon, but I had never fully appreciated that fact until now.
"S-So, how long d-do you think they'll, uh, take?" Eris asked.
"No idea. Hopefully not long," I mused. Another bench lay next to Ray's, so Eris and I planted ourselves on it. I watched the other Vanguard members murmured among each other as they continued to port supplies down to the White City. If I did not know better, I would almost say that they—no, we—were preparing for an apocalypse. It was a "we" now since Nila had accepted us into their ranks.
"Mona, d-do you have any i-i-idea what…will happen?" Eris wondered.
I huffed out through my nose. After a few moments of scattered thought, I said, "I have no clue. I never saw this coming."
"Yeah, me either."
"I mean, we literally just faced down Shroud, and now we're getting cryptic messages from a guy we barely know about something we don't know. It's just…a bit much."
"…Yeah, true."
I closed my eyes. Never ready. Was this more than we bargained for?
We discussed little else. After what felt like an hour, the whole of Team Crescent emerged from the room. The others must have gone in while I was not paying attention. I glanced over at Ray and found that he had stopped laying on the bench; Icarus was right next to him. The two must have had quite a talk as they sat as far from each other as they could, refusing to make eye contact. My mind recalled how the two had first met: with a lot of tension. While I had no place to pry into their private matters, my curiosity nevertheless piqued.
"Everyone, if I could have your attention," Nila proclaimed. The room quieted. She continued, "I'm sure word has gone around already, but earlier this morning, a politoed was found outside the walls. He was a resident of the village on the other side of the mountain. 'Was' because the village no longer exists."
Eris gasped and covered her mouth with a hand. My own breath hitched. Arbor Town, destroyed?
Nila breathed in and out deeply, as if to prepare for something even heavier than the words that she just uttered. "Apparently, the village was destroyed by halflings."
At this, outrage broke out among the assembled. Dagheer quickly lifted his sash-like arms to restore the quiet. When conversation had died out, Nila resumed, "This has unfortunate implications. The politoed described the attack as coming from the west; this means that halflings had already infiltrated further into the mountains than we had initially assumed."
At this, one person cried out, "I thought the halflings were all dead!"
"Apparently not," Ace interjected, glaring at the interrupter. Nila nodded gratefully at Ace. Then, she said, "The politoed escaped as soon as the attack began. He somehow knew of the tunnel to this place, but that's a matter for another time. What's important is that this horde of halflings will most likely find the tunnel and make their way here. We must prepare for their arrival. All transport duties will be prioritized. Sculle will organize our defense, and Dagheer will begin preparing an evacuation plan if necessary."
Nila stretched her body up higher. "Is that understood?"
"Yes, ma'am!" the crowd recited in heterophonic chorus.
"Then get to it," she ordered. Everyone immediately dispersed with the majority streaming out the exit door to the shortcut tunnels, boxes and bags in tow. Sculle stopped a few on their way and pulled them aside. Dagheer levitated past us and up the stairs, mumbling under his breath. Icarus rose to his feet once Dagheer had passed by him,
"I'm going to help them move stuff down. You all should pitch in, too," Icarus stated without looking at any of us. He strode away toward a group on the far side of the room.
"Uh, he had a good point. Eris, we should go help out," I said. She nodded at me with a smile. We both glanced at Ray, who was gazing into empty space. When he realized that we were pointedly looking at him, his head snapped toward us with a light growl.
"What?" he spoke.
"We're j-just going to help out," I replied, turned off by his icy demeanor. Ray shrugged, sharply stood, and marched over to stacks of files nearby. He grabbed a pile that nearly crested his eyes, then trod along with the rest to the outdoors.
"Okay, then. Guess we can get some files, too," I suggested. Eris and I walked over to the nearest stack, and Eris picked a decent amount from the top. She glanced from my paws to the files, her expression drawing a blank. She caught my eye and pointed from me to the stacks with a questioning gaze. I cocked my head in thought; then, an idea sparked in my mind.
"Dump it," I stated, flipping open my treasure bag. Eris's eyes widened. She started to shake her head, but I nodded mine vigorously. "Come on, it'll work," I urged. "This thing's gotta have a pretty high limit, no?"
Grimacing, Eris reluctantly set the files in the bag. When nothing happened, she placed another, then another. We got through nearly the entire stack before the bag finally filled. My eyebrows rose appreciatively at the sight.
"They really don't spare any expense with these, do they? Enchanting this much depth must have cost a fortune, not to mention a lot of skill," I remarked.
"I-It's cool, for sure," Eris said.
I raised my head to meet her eyes. She had been rather short in conversation today. I knew she normally fell on the quieter side, but this was getting ridiculous.
"Hey, are you feeling alright?" I asked. She reeled back slightly and bit her lip.
"Y-Yeah, I'm fine," she said, not making eye contact. My lips pursed: clearly not fine. She was usually so open with me, but if she did not want to talk about it, I was not going to press her. Not right now, anyway.
"Okay. Grab a stack, and let's head out."
As Eris shifted the files in her grip, a rumbling softly vibrated the walls and floor. The top of her stack tumbled to the ground, but we cared little for that. All activity froze as the shaking turned to tremors and shouts faintly carried through the staircase doors. Suddenly, they flung open with Dagheer bearing down on us.
"They're here! All personnel need to take the interior tunnels to the White City!" Dagheer proclaimed. He bore his species' shield in one of his arms, and while his kind bore no breath to demonstrate exhaustion, he hovered lower to the ground than he normally did.
The tunnels he had mentioned were part of the ones that had been discovered when the White City was captured. The ends on the Vanguard's side had been sealed, so a quick hour's work had opened new avenues that circumvented the Mystery Dungeon. However, they did not reach the White City as quickly as the "exterior" system, so they were not heavily used. A boon for us now, I supposed.
As Dagheer flew down the stairs, I quickly stopped him. "Dagheer, how bad is it out there?"
He paused only for a moment. "There are more than we had expected, even with our most dismal estimates," he replied curtly. Leaving me to ponder his words, he sailed over the heads of everyone and disappeared down the connector to the subterranean hall. Eris and I followed suit; the tremors were now irregular with the throes of conflict. The further down we went, the less and less we felt them until they disappeared.
"We need to find Ray as soon as we dump our stuff off," I said.
Eris sighed. "I…hope he's okay."
"Me too."
Eris lifted the last stack out from my treasure bag and set it next the hundreds of others in a side room of the palace. Armor, weapons, food, and a few rune tablets filled the room to bursting. Preparation. Readiness. Could it all be for naught?
Stepping out of the room, I rolled my shoulders. At least the burden of all those files was off my back. The treasure bag may be magical in storage, but the weight dislocation was not as professionally done. Thank goodness only a fraction of the weight inside transferred as the apparent weight.
"I didn't see Ray at all around here. I have no idea where he could be," I stated, thinking aloud. Eris grit her teeth and cast her gaze around the hall. With her height, she was afforded a better vantage point, but she soon shook her head.
"C-Could we ask around for him?" she suggested.
"What? Well, maybe, but I don't know," I countered.
"Uhh…," she mumbled, rubbing her hands together. Sighing to myself, I approached the nearest Vanguard member, a seismitoad, and asked him if he had seen a riolu. The seismitoad told me no, gave me an odd, familiar frown, and went on his way. I fumed silently; he had only seen me as a lost little kid. Again. I hated that look with a passion.
I wheeled on Eris and said, "Look, we'll just be better off searching on our own." She grimaced, cowed at my harshness, and walked slightly behind me as I led the way down the hall. After going halfway down, I stopped and said, "I'm sorry for snapping at you. I'm just…"
Eris smiled reassuringly. "Yeah, this is n-n-not a g-good situation."
"Not just that. I thought we were really done with the halflings when Shroud died. I mean, weren't they his creation? I guess there was the possibility that the Vanguard didn't deal with all of them, but it all smells rotten to me," I ranted. Surprisingly, I felt better once the words had escaped my lips.
Someone passed by Eris and tapped her on the shoulder. "Hey, sorry for interrupting," the maractus apologized, "but I overheard you asking about a riolu. I saw him sitting in the palace courtyard."
Eris shied away from her touch, and her lips parted in an awkward smile. The maractus, not expecting such a reaction, merely nodded jerkily and quickly walked away. Turning to me, Eris twitched her eyebrows upward once. I rolled my eyes and her and continued striding down the hall, my partially unsheathed claws clacking against the white tile floor. I tried sheathing them, but they kept coming out soon after I retracted them. Too preoccupied to combat my anxiety, I left them as they were.
True to the maractus's word, Ray was sitting down on a bench underneath a statue. His head hung over the paws in his lap. He appeared dejected, an attitude unlike any I had seen before on him. Unsure of how to proceed, I came within hearing distance and called out Ray's name. He took a moment to respond. His head lifted toward me, and he blinked slowly in acknowledgement. I took his reaction as an invitation to sit down next to him.
"Are you feeling okay?" I began.
"Enough," he said.
Silence. "You heard about the halfling attack?"
"They came early."
"We were told to come down here. I have no idea what's going on, but there's a lot of them up there."
"Just great."
I inhaled deeply. "I wish that we could do something to help them out."
Ray's back straightened. "What's stopping us?"
"Huh?"
"I mean, who's going to tell us to come back down here? Ace? They're all probably fighting up there," Ray explained, his expression visibly brightening with renewed conviction.
"W-Wait, wait," Eris interjected. "Will th-they e-e-even need our help?"
"If it's as bad as Mona says it is, then yeah, they might. Better than doing nothing," Ray said. He rose from the bench and stretched his arms into the air.
I glanced over at the path leading into the city. The walls on the upper level were not tall enough to obscure it over such a far distance. Movement caught my eye: someone was sprinting from the hole Shroud had blasted in the rock. No, soaring: the person was a staraptor. His wings beat with frantic fury, climbing higher and higher in the still air.
"Halflings! Halflings coming from the Mystery Dungeon!" he caterwauled.
All three of us exchanged horrified looks. "From the Mystery Dungeon? The heck?" Ray exclaimed in disbelief.
"Why would they…?" I started to say. Then, a horrible realization dawned on me. Halflings were once pokémon. Dungeon pokémon sometimes had no aura. That dungeon had those pokémon. Losing aura was the first stage of conversion.
"Oh Arceus," I breathed.
"Wh-What's wrong, Mona?" Eris asked me.
"I think I know why there are so many halflings outside! Some are coming from the Mystery Dungeon on Mt. Horn! That dungeon had auraless ferals!" I answered rapidly.
"And halflings don't have aura when they convert," Ray finished, then swore.
"And the one here has auraless ones as well. How did we not put it together earlier?" I said, mostly chastising myself rather than us as a whole.
"Because…h-how do you convert f-f-ferals in a dungeon?" Eris shakily offered.
"Not important. Here they come!" Ray said, pointing at the tunnel. True to his word, masses of halflings streamed out of the dark opening. Some launched into the sky, and the air thrummed with the beats of their wings. The oncoming horde likened itself to a tsunami of oblivion that could sweep away the buildings, the walls, and the palace in its unstoppable surge.
A wave of blackness, sweeping over the land.
That first nightmare, back in Ironfist. My first exposure to the Fallen growing inside of me. I could almost laugh at the irony.
But this cannot be the end.
From the palace, Dagheer soared until he levitated high above. Defiantly, he faced the oncoming storm, his shield squarely positioned in front of him. A gardevoir tread below him. When she had situated herself right under the aegislash, they exchanged nods, and she closed her eyes. After a few moments, she raised her right hand in a thumbs up.
Dagheer lifted his shield aloft, then twisted it ninety degrees. Avians and other flying species formed up around him, whirling in circles as if to combat the tide with their own maelstrom.
"All others are to evacuate! We cannot hold the city with the gates to the city's levels demolished and a lack of supplies to withstand a siege. Take the deepest tunnels; their bridges across the cavern pit are the lowest!" Dagheer ordered. "We will hold off aerial attack as long as possible, then join you! Now go, go!"
I should have seen this coming. The Mystery Dungeon at our gates had doomed our chances from the moment Shroud had died. I wondered if this was his idea of a failsafe: if he died, at least his enemies would, too.
"Mona, what the frick are you doing, standing there? Run!" Ray shouted at me. Eris had already gained several yards. Her nerves had finally broken.
"Sorry!" I apologized, running after her. Ray matched my stride.
"Save it for when we're topside!" Ray said. With a grunt, he added, "I always hated being underground."
My brow creased. "Wait, then why did you have that little hole-in-the-ground place back at Treasure Town?"
He growled. "Just…shut up and hurry! Not everybody has deep pockets!"
We melded into the rush of people moving toward the palace. The access to the deep tunnels lied in the palace's substructure. Ray and Eris had told me about them last night to catch me up on the days that I had missed while in a coma. Having never traversed them, I slipped alongside everyone else in a blind trust that I absolutely despised.
When I made to turn with the majority, Ray grabbed my scruff and lightly pulled me away. "This way is faster. Hey, Eris!" Eris heard his shout, switched back, and joined up with us. We tailed after a smaller, but still substantial, crowd. Eventually, further down the hall, we reached a squat door. Someone in the front swung it open so forcefully that it banged against the wall. As we rushed down the steps, the claustrophobic stairwell and thick tension belabored my breath. I honestly started thinking that we were all going to die.
I heard the sound of a door opening. Another two or three flights, and we exited the stairwell immediately to the outside. Far above, screeches and howling winds reverberated off the distant cavern walls. About a quarter mile away, a tunnel extended into the rock and toward freedom.
"Eris, Mona, come on!" Ray screamed over the noise. Eris shook her head over and over at the sight of the rock bridge. Only about ten feet across, it could barely accommodate three abreast. Ray threw his arms in the air, then pointed at the tunnel and shouted something that was lost over the sound of shattering rock. Seemingly fed up, he took her hand and physically encouraged her out onto the bridge.
I slunk after them as quickly as I could. The rock under my paws vibrated with each crash; whatever elemental attacks they were using had to be devastating. Out of insatiable curiosity, I glanced upward. Black bodies, nearly indiscernible against the dark backdrop of the cavern, ducked and wove among the soldiers of the Vanguard.
Suddenly, a batch of three broke off from the main battle and swooped down toward us. One gave a victorious screech; they had seen us and how vulnerable we were. A raw yell tore from my lungs, a warning to all who could hear. Some of the Vanguard must have heard me because several dove after the rogue halflings.
I screamed at Ray and Eris to run, but we had only covered half the distance. My best sprint would not bring me to the tunnel in time, and I knew that the halflings were heading straight for me, the smallest, weakest target.
The lead halfling screeched once more, extending its talons. Fearing for my life, I broke my gaze away and pushed my body to its limits. Just a little more…!
Air whooshed by me. I instinctively floored myself. My head throbbed once, twice, painfully. A cry of frustration echoed on my left; I spared a quick check. A Vanguard had successfully intercepted my would-be assailant, and the two scuffled as they fell. I tepidly rose to my feet and continued after Eris and Ray, reaching the tunnel without further danger. The other halflings had been dealt with like the first.
"This way!" Ray called to me. I shakily nodded and fell in right next to him. For some reason, he was exuding this crazy aura of confidence; it bolstered me enough to keep me going.
Up and up we spiraled. Those rune-based torches illuminated the way, already lit from the ones ahead of us. As the upward climb wore on, each new turn brought a fresh wave of despair.
"How long is this, Ray?" I asked him.
"Not as long as the other tunnel. We're over halfway there," he said. He glanced down at me, then gave me a reassuring smile. He had never smiled like that at me before. I could not help but reply in kind.
True to Ray's word, we emerged from the tunnel soon after. The midday sun bore down harshly on my sensitive eyes. I squinted reflexively and ducked my head. My jog slowed to a staggering walk as my body adjusted to the brighter environment. Once I could see without being blinded, I skimmed over my surroundings. We had emerged close to the pass behind the fortress. Others filled the area, waiting for everyone to surface.
"Ray!" a relieved voice said. From the crowd, Icarus emerged, holding a blanket-wrapped bundle in his arms. He bent down and spared an arm to hug Ray, who returned the gesture just as emphatically.
"I shouldn't have said those things back there," Icarus immediately apologized. "I know that you made your own choice, and I support you no matter what our father says or does."
Ray nodded in his chest, appearing very much like a kid. His bravado had melted away to expose a pure vulnerability. Those two cared for each other more than I had thought. I almost felt ashamed that I had not realized it sooner.
But their father…what kind of a pokémon is he?
A dull rumble came from the depths of the mountain. I jolted out of my fur; what could that have been? A second's thought led to the conclusion: a collapsing of the tunnels. Either a stray attack had triggered it, or the act was intentional. I hoped for the latter.
Thankfully, flying pokémon of the non-corrupted variety shot from the tunnel near us and from one higher up the slope to the fortress. Dagheer arrived last, his shield charred and his sword-like body spattered with blood. Black blood.
The blood of the cursed.
Unfortunately, the appearance of so many flying creatures did not go unnoticed. Halflings assaulting the side of the fortress rounded on us, roaring belligerently. They swarmed down toward the evacuees in a black wave. Dagheer soared to the front and leveled his shield once more. Ray and Icarus disengaged from each other. Icarus grasped the bundle tightly against his chest.
"We have to fight!" Dagheer ordered. Our numbers trumped theirs, and we had assistance in the sky that they lacked. We could take them.
Then, I spotted figures larger than the others at the back. Their muscles rippled with each thunderous stride, their bodies completely black and morphed nearly beyond recognition. Smoke trailed from their paws, sides, and mouths.
Fallen.
Dagheer must have just noticed them because he quickly corrected, "No, retreat! Retreat! There's too many!"
The pass lay at least a hundred yards away, the halflings less so. There was no way we would make it, not with their momentum. Still, some fled. Some turned to fight. My head switched back and forth, back and forth. Help or run. Stay and die or run and maybe not die.
Icarus stood and backed away from Ray. Tensing, he commanded, "You three, go!"
Ray instantly protested, "No! I'm not!"
The Lucario wheeled on Ray with the most scared, resolved look I had ever seen someone wear. His mouth was set in a hard line. His eyes had glazed with sorrowful determination. "Please don't make this any harder than it is."
Ray gazed into those broken eyes for a long, hard moment. Then, he broke contact and ran with his head held low. I remained frozen with Eris in quiet stun. Icarus must have assumed we had left with Ray because he turned his back on us. Lowering the blanketed bundle, he methodically unwrapped it, exposing gold metal, ancient writing, and a brilliant diamond: the ancient weapon.
Before I could process why he had it, Icarus lifted the weapon high into the air. The action sparked an understanding in me like a lightning bolt had come down from the sky and struck me.
"Icarus, no!" I cried. My paws moved on their own. I channeled every last speck of normal-type energy in my legs for a blistering Quick Attack. My vision blurred; I could barely make out the faint, yet growing glow of the diamond.
Only mere feet lay between us, but the distance stretched into miles. As my body crashed into his, my thoughts kept spiraling in repeat: I didn't save him. I didn't save him. I let another one die. I let another one die again.
We tumbled head over paws, our limbs banging into each other. A metallic object banged against my head. Dazed, I could not move when we eventually rolled to a stop. Something cold, yet warming, lay beneath me. It took me a moment to realize that I had fallen on top of the weapon, and it was activating.
My eyes were closed; I could see nothing. As the weapon became hot, I felt a tugging in my entire being. My muscles spasmed; I struggled to control them and roll off the disc. My head had been throbbing with the approach of the halflings and Fallen, but now, the pain was subsiding. My whole body was being drained.
This was it. This was how it going to be. Not by the Fallen. Not by Shroud. Not even by myself. It was something I could not really control.
If I could, I would cry.
Somehow, my ears still worked. I could hear the sounds of fighting, of clashing elements, of furious roars, of pained moans, of death. Whose death, I did not know.
I just wanted this fighting to stop. I did not want anyone to die, to be ripped from this world before their time, or to become one of those blasted monsters.
The convulsions degraded to twitching. My hearing dropped off. I thought I felt someone tugging at me, pushing me, but it was too late. The price was paid, and it was not enough. The faint light coming through my eyes died, and blackness filled the vacancy.
Did Shroud feel like this when the weapon killed him? A fading sense of awareness and consciousness. An almost gentle passing from this life.
…But I was not in pain.
I was not burning or screaming.
I was not ash. How could ash think?
Somehow, I was alive. I was breathing.
And I was growing stronger.
A single white line streaked across the emptiness. It remained still for but a moment, then exploded outward in a radiance of light. My eyes snapped open. My muscles stilled entirely; then, they moved almost of their own accord. Now, I was standing, and I could see everything. All seemed brighter than I remembered.
One of my paws touched the weapon, still on the ground. Simultaneously, the Plates inset in the outer ring began to pulsate in a regular rhythm, the beat of my heart. The diamond soon began to pulse in sync; then, the flashes accelerated. I did not move. I could not. My body had become separate from my self; I was a host in a foreign entity, barred from all control.
With a high-pitched whine, a bolt of charcoal light arced from the diamond, reaching high into the air. My gaze followed the line of power as it peaked, then came bearing down on the halflings and Fallen that had not yet reached us. They only had a moment to glance at it before the beam struck in their midst. Then, just like the white in my vision, the beam burst outward from the ground in a dome of raw energy. They did not even have the time to scream.
When the light faded, a perfectly circular area of scorched earth remained. Piles of ash dotted its interior. All fighting ceased at that moment. The halflings wailed in terror, and at once, they fled from the Vanguard back up the hill. All the Fallen had been killed. The weapon had killed them.
I had killed them.
The stares of the Vanguard landed on me. All of a sudden, I could move, like my spirit had landed back in my body. I staggered once, twice, then fell on my side. Someone moved over me: Eris. She said something that I did not hear. I squinted up at her, blinked once, then fainted.
As she observed the fighting from her perch near the fortress, she knew that she had succeeded. Her creation, so long cultivated over the past several months, had finally come to fruition. There had been failures—after all, Shroud was testing them for her as a part of the master plan—but to see at last the fruits of her labor crushing the final opposition instilled in her a crazed elation. An impulse to throw off her black, full-body cloak overcame her, but at she fumbled with the fastening, she realized that it would do her no good to expose herself. Her celebration would have to wait until later.
On the battlements of the fortress, the pesky Vanguard vermin struggled to repel the assault. But how could they tear victory from the hands of perfection? Their impurities, their weakness, would be their downfall.
When a faction attacking the right wall separated from the main body, she assumed they had found a force that was attacking from the flank. That, or they had found ones that were fleeing. Oh, should they be fleeing, that would be all the better! She could not resist a squeal of excitement.
Her elation soon soured as she felt a pulse of power unlike any she had ever known. No, she did know it, had known it from long ago, a dredging of the past, a memory so bitter and resented that she tore at her hair at the mere recollection of it. To confirm her suspicions, an arch of deep gray light appeared from down the hill and blasted her creation with its ensuing explosion. It was a pure bolt of energy, weak compared to the source from which it drew, but powerful in and of itself.
Only one being on this planet could access such power. Her hands fell from her hair as her mind raced for answer in the face of this absurdity. One hand reached into a pocket in her cloak and withdrew a rectangular box. Five spheres of glass were inlaid in its surface; four sparkled with crystal clarity while a black murkiness clouded the fifth.
She depressed her thumb in a divot near the bottom, then pumped her affinity energy into the device. A light shone from the back of the device, emitting from a supremely complex rune network of her own design.
After a few moments of impatient waiting, the clear spheres illuminated with color one by one. The one that glowed last rippled, and a voice emanated from it, deep and ruminating: "What do you want?"
Before she could answer, another chimed in, his words smooth as silk. "Did you finish your little experiment?"
"You, shut up," she said, referring to the second voice. Both remained quiet. Then, she continued, "Yes, I did finish it. It's working absolutely perfectly." She could not keep the self-admiration from her tone.
"Then when did you bother us?" This was a third voice, effeminate and sensual.
"Because something new has developed, that's what! Why else would I be wasting your time?" she spat.
"What have you seen?" the first voice questioned. His baritone timbre did not waver in its calm.
She licked her lips once. How should she phrase this? "As we suspected, the Vanguard obtained the weapon."
Immediately, the third voice cut her off, annoyed. "We already know that; Shroud failed."
At last, the fourth voice, rough and bass, spoke. "Never mind that. It should be useless to them."
She sucked in a deep breath. "That's the thing," she said at last. All four remained deadly silent. She exhaled once, then said the words she knew would change everything.
"The Last Heir has finally come."
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