Louis opened her eyes and looked up at the dimly glowing purple crystal of ichor in the ceiling.
Purple.
Purple.
Wasn't it red before? Louise thought as she pulled herself off of the bet of netting and looked around. The room was exactly as she had left it, including the deep half-light coming in from the window and the blinking bulge on the. . . . Wait, what!
Louise walked over to the long table on the wall where a section of the table itself was bulging up and had a small blinking light upon its top. Cautiously poking the bulge pushed it back into the table and a hologram of Scrin characters appeared above the table.
"So it's a message then," Louise said as she looked it over. "Meet, main hall, trailing. Trailing? . . . Oh, training. I wonder in what." Louise mused as she slid the door open and walked into the central tower's halls.
Two hours later Louise finally opened the huge double doors leading into the massive domed room she had awoken in before and let out an exasperated scream. "This place has too many empty halls!"
"You'll get used to it," Shil'ka said without turning around. She seemed preoccupied swinging around what looked like an overly large axe.
Louise walked in, closed the door, and walked over to Shil'ka. "So I'm assuming there's a reason why I'm here? "
Shil'ka stopped and turned to Louise. "I'm surprised you didn't ask about this!" She exclaimed as she threw the axe over her shoulder. "Yes, your mind should have parsed all the information you have so it's time we began training you in combat."
"Combat tactics right?"
"That comes later. I'm talking about personal combat tactics."
"Why? I though Sectlord's command their forces from afar?"
"We do. But knowing how to fight and defend yourself is always a good thing to know, as is how to adapt to any situation."
Louise felt a trickle of sweat slide down the back of her neck. "I'm not going to like this, am I?"
"That depends, how much training did you have in combat from your world?"
"Very basic swordplay and I wasn't very good at it either." Louise admitted.
"Then let's find out what you are good at!"
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"Sectlord Kevris, sir?" asked a mastermind from the doorway of a pitch-black room.
"What!" replied a booming loud and angry voice from the darkness.
"I- um. I have retrieved the data you asked for on the potential Sectlord named Lu'eez."
"Then let us see how she fairs in training with that Bug Shil'ka!"
"Y-yes sir." The mastermind replied as it slid a small thin crystal into the wall beside it. Within a second a large screen appeared in the darkness, barely illuminating a massive form before it.
"She seems. . . . . . Small."
"Yes sir. The, um, smallest Sectlord in history."
"Potential Sectlord. Do not forget she must prove herself!"
"O- of course sir."
"Hmm. Her weapon skills seem useless. This is the first time I've seen someone actually cut themselves with their own weapon!"
"Sir?"
"She can't even wield a pole based weapon either. Is this current?"
"Err, yes sir, it's a direct connection to the training dome. We're seeing the vibration images in real time, Sir."
Kevris looked at the screen from the dark of the room and almost growled in displeasure. "If this is what a potential Sectlord is like then I fear for our future. She barely is able to dodge, let alone strike at Shil'ka!"
"Perhaps she just needs time, sir?"
"No. Time is meaningless. The problem is with Shil'ka. She is training her too calmly. She is not giving her the challenge she needs to let the ichor flow through her system efficiently. She's trying to not hurt her. She's going too easy on her!"
"She's newly inducted sir, and her Hypercondences have yet to alter her body, you can't expect her to-"
"What is expected is that she learn, not that she play! Regardless of her physical form she needs the challenge that only the possibility of death can bring." Kevris roared as the sound of him moving permeated the room causing the mastermind to reel in terror. "And I'll give it to her!"
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"Rested up?" Shil'ka asked as she stood up and grabbed a new weapon from the wall.
Louise nodded and got up as well. "This is tough."
"Well yes, but endurance is a very important aspect to fighting. If you tire before your opponent then you likely will die, which is less than desired."
"Yeah I don't want to-."
Crash!
Louise and Shil'ka turned to the dome's door to see a massive creature walk into the dome. While Shil'ka was slightly taller than an average human, this creature was gigantic, easily as large as the largest golems, almost four stories tall. The creature stepped forward on five large pointed legs that supported massive body with two equally large fingerless arms.
"What the hell do you want, Kevris!" Shil'ka yelled at him.
Kevris' body pulsed with blue light as he spoke. "I am here to do what you obviously cannot."
"And what is that?"
"Training a potential Sectlord. You are not giving her enough of a challenge. It weakens her potential and only is useful for making yourself feel important."
"I could say the same of you, breaking in here and saying such things. I was asked to teach her, not you."
"Do I care?" Kevris questioned as he turned his body to Louise. "I am Reaper-17's Sectlord, Kevris. Unlike Shil'ka here, I do not care for your continued existence should you fail your training. I suggest you ready yourself!"
Before Louise could speak one of Kevris' massive feet struck the ground before her, sending her flying backwards into the nearby wall.
"Enough, Kevris! " Shil'ka screamed as she stood her ground.
Kevris merely glanced at her. "You know you cannot defeat me, Shil'ka. Get in my way and I shall not hesitate to kill you!"
"You kill me and Traveler will fall to disarray. You know what would happen then! We're already low on Sectlord's as it is! Why must you attempt to kill another!"
"Because they are unworthy. If a Sectlord cannot even stand up to my might for a moment of time then they will never be able to serve our people effectively." Kevris said as his body turned to the wall were Louise was getting up from the ground. "Not bad, potential Sectlord. Let us see how long you can last!"
Louise looked to see Kevris' massive body lurching forward toward her. He had already made his intentions quite clear, and she had little hope of defeating him in the state she was in. But if she could just find a way to-.
"Prepare to die!"
Louise rolled forward on instinct and heard a large crash from where she had just been standing. Looking up, she found herself directly under Kevris, his massive legs on all sides of her. A bad place to be.
Louise ran out from under him and almost instantly he turned his massive body and followed her, each single step of his equal to almost twenty of hers.
"Lu'eez! Use his size to your advantage or you will die!"
Louise shook her head as Shil'ka's voice filled her head as she ran. "Easier said than done!"
"I can only speak to you, if I engage him I will die, you must find a way to prove you are capable. Think of something!"
EASIER SAID THAN DONE! Louise thought angrily as she changed the direction she was running causing Kevris to slow down to change his direction.
Kevris stopped suddenly and turned away from Louise and Shil'ka and walked to the door. "You pass, for now," and with that Kevris was gone.
Louise dropped to her knees with a sigh of relief. "What the hell was that about!"
"It's just how he is. Why don't you head back to your quarters and rest? You've earned it." Shil'ka said calmly.
Louise didn't say a word but did exactly that and left the domed arena. Leaving Shil'ka alone.
"I wish you would not do this, Kevris!"
"I do what I want!" came Kevris' booming voice as he thundered back into the arena and stood before Shil'ka.
"And what would you have done if you had actually killed her, huh? How many potential Sectlord's must you kill before you are satisfied?"
"As many as it takes to prove they can deal with the requirements. She seems good though. She understood the danger I presented to her in all possibilities. She just may be able to become one of us!"
"That is not for you to decide, Kevris!"
Kevris raised his massive arms and crossed them across his headless torso. "No, it is the overlords. But while you may have been asked to watch her, others have also. And to decline another Sectlord's help in such a situation would look. . . . unacceptable to others."
"What are you getting at!?"
"The two of you WILL accompany me to the tenth planetoid of Sector 31 in 3 of her planet's days."
"Why?"
"Because I told you to, that's why!" Kevris roared as he turned and left the arena once more, leaving Shil'ka all alone in the dome's weak purple light.
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Tristania, southern forest, midnight.
"Make sure to write down the characters and markings as precisely as possible! We don't want to have them messed up! "Lady Montmorency called to the people in the pit of ruined buildings below her.
"What do you think of this ruin anyway, Milady?" A servant asked as she came up beside Lady Montmorency and handed her a new quill.
"Don't quote me, but I think that these ruins may predate the entire Brimiric faith, and just may be elven made!"
"Pardon my caution milady, but if anyone from the church heard you say such a thing in such a happy voice they might declare you a heretic."
"True. But the simple truth of these ruins may be just that. If it can be proved, it would explain much!"
"It would also be considered heretical as it would question the founder."
"Yes. But in truth the ruin is only my second focus."
"The first being?"
"The ruins talk about something it calls a Nightscreamer."
"Nightscreamer?"
"Yes. The glyphs on the ruins tell of a prophecy about a creature called this."
"How does it go, if I may ask, milady?"
"From what I have decrypted it tells of a time where the Nightscreamer descended from the deep black and rained terror upon the world. It spat black masses of death that tore the sky's asunder and broke the land into pieces. For three nights it came, each time returning to the deep black as the dawn broke. And for these three nights it ravaged the land, before dying above and crashing into the earth below."
"It just died?"
"That's what the legend seems to say. I'm still having difficulty figuring what it means by the deep black, but I'm assuming it is talking about the ocean."
"If the creature just died why isn't anything known about it if it was as big as stated?"
"That's what I'm wondering. The signs and glyphs on the unencrypted sections of the ruins almost look like a map. If I can discern its true meaning then I may be able to find out if the creature's corpse still exists! And if it does, I'll find it!"
"And what then, milady?"
"If such a creature existed and caused the elves so much trouble, even a corpse could provide us with clues to defeat them once and for all. It's corpse could provide us with so much knowledge. Knowledge that could be used to advance Tristania. We could become a powerful nation again, instead of one that has to appease other just to stay alive!"
"Of course, milady!"
