Interlude XII

Kelvin Mackie

Kelvin didn’t quite know what to expect when he entered the other end of the portal. Truth be told, he had half expected yet another ambush, or to somehow be taken prisoner by the humans. He knew for a fact that his mother and other elves had been terrible to the humans, even as a half elf, he saw the scorn and ridicule that seemed to permeate every fiber of the true born, or true elves’ beings. It was also clear that Alexa, Kelvin’s savior, had not one, but multiple chances to break free of the cycles and warn her comrades about the harsh treatment of elves towards any race really, but humans in particular.

Yet, when he arrived seemingly in the middle of a dungeon surrounded by close to two dozen awakened warriors, many of which seemed to have the dormant traces of Lykanthropy within them, Kelvin felt his heart stutter, as he realized this might be something far worse than just his capture and subsequent slaying, for as his mother pointed out to him so many times prior, there were far worse things than a quick death. Now that he was here, and surrounded, he found that even though he was a higher level than those assembled, his weakened state made it so he would be an easy kill.

“Hi there. You must be Kelvin, it is a pleasure to meet you.” A small pixyish human came up and introduced herself in fluent elven.

Sigh of relief.

At least one of them could speak elven, though that also brought about other questions as well. For the moment Kelvin dared not scan her nor anyone else around, lest that be considered a sign of provocation. He knew Alexa scanned people constantly, but she all but dared people to challenge her. Kelvin was not so bloodthirsty as Alexa, nor was he confident enough in his own abilities to be able to stand up to offending one of her soldiers.

“Yeah, likewise?” Kelvin said, stumbling up to his feet, where he could stand properly without fear of being thrown over by wild bouts of vertigo and fatigue. Whatever that chain was, it was clearly powerful, almost too powerful.

“Oh, apologies, I am Gina. You might have heard of me, I am Alexa’s…”

“Soulmate.” Kelvin said, a somewhat defeated sigh coming to his words and face as he admitted the truth that the old crone had spoken.

Yet, the pixyish girl just paused, as if she had never heard the term before. Then looking at her, Kelvin realized it might be a form of vernacular she might not be aware of. “Uh, sorry. Soulmates, they are people who are just meant for each other.”

At that Gina just shook her head, but then all but began trembling. Her body began to shake slightly, beginning first in her toes, then slowly working its way up her shapely legs, then to her torso, then after that there was an explosion, as she jumped into the air and lunged her fists out to the side in some form of aggressive gesture, seeing this, Kelvin backed up and wondered if he was about to be attacked for stating something he shouldn’t have. She did know about this right?

The pixy girl jumped up and down, spinning herself about with each enthusiastic jump, until she began speaking in a foreign tongue to those that were gathered. Kelvin tried to listen in, but the language they now spoke was complete gibberish to him. He assumed they were speaking in his father’s tongue, but if they were, Kelvin never heard it as his mother and the other elves refused to learn it. Everyone who was there when his father came through insisted that he only spoke the elven tongue as it was the only way people would dare greet his mother, who was and still is royalty. While he couldn’t verify that claim, he could tell by the higher excited pitch that the girl was not actually angry with him, but excited?

Finally, the energetic girl spun around, and asked something that caused Kelvin to pause.

“Tell me, what is it that you see, when you scan me?”

“You are giving me permission to scan you?” Kelvin asked, wanting to make sure he was given the right to, and making sure it was clear that he had not done so intentionally.

“Yeah, yeah. I give you permission and all that jazz.”

“Jazz?”

“It’s a form of music, very good, but in this case, it is just an idiom…” The girl said excitedly, her words coming out in rapid fire succession. Kelvin was about to ask what an idiom was, but then Gina saw his face, and apparently determined that he was about to ask something off target. “An idiom is a figure of expression, but regardless go on and scan me already, and tell me what you see.”

At that Kelvin still felt awkward by this, was this some form of power play? Was this meant to be a way to cow him into submission, he wanted to say that such a thing was unnecessary, he was here in enemy lands, no, not enemy lands. Neutral allies, and it was in his best interest to follow along.

Focusing on the girl who was all bouncing in place from one foot to the next he, could almost see the attraction that Alexa must have to this girl. If she were single, Kelvin knew he would at least try to start up a conversation with her. As he had that thought, the energetic bouncing stopped, and that was when Kelvin realized that she might be able to read his mind in some way, that or read his emotions. Either way, he decided to stop that train of thought that was clearly unwanted and do as he was asked.

Small Energetic Teenage Female: Gina Rojas: Level 32 Predictive Oracle, Status: Healthy, Disposition: Supportive. Other: One of the Chosen.

Seeing the status of the small human before him, he realized his mistake and why she was so adamant that he was to scan her. As soon as he realized his mistake, he immediately kneeled down on the ground, planted his fists into the ground and showed his neck, in supplication. “I am so sorry; I did not realize that you were one of the chosen. If I have insulted you in any way, then I apologize…”

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As he spoke, he then realized the other part of that statement, the fact that if this woman, this Oracle was a chosen one, and she was bound to Alexa, then it would mean that Alexa was always out of his league.

***

Gina Rojas

Shatter.

There was a feeling like something broke within her, but unlike the normal breaking where you immediately need to go to the doctors to have something fixed, or immediately have a valve in your heart replaced, this was a good kind of break. The type of break where you go and begin to feel better, like when Alexa finally fixes your heart correctly so that it doesn’t go all Wonka-doodle, except for when it is supposed to, like when Alexa is nearby, or when she is covered in gore, and still looks like an Amazonian goddess made flesh. Or when she touches you and you feel that zing, that electric pulse, that flood of emotions that makes life so worth living. That is what this sudden sensation felt like.

Then almost immediately afterwards, the dungeon started acting funny.

Congratulations, to help you with your mission, please take the following as a means to improve quickly, and a sign of good faith from us.

No clue who the us was, nor what this weird mission that she was given was exactly, but she looked and to her surprise right there in front of her were two crystals in what had to be a gift basket.

“Um, is that an actual basket?” Kylie asked, coming closer to inspect the basket. As she spoke she reached up her hand towards the basket, not even touching it, when the basket and dungeon both began to glow with a bright yellow hue, as the unmistakable sound of an electrical thrum built up.

Zzzap.

Hearing and feeling the discharge Kylie stopped in her tracks and just stared at the basket.

“I guess that is just for you. Okay, sorry dungeon.” Kylie said, holding up both her hands in a non-threatening gesture as she began backing away slowly from the basket.

Once she was gone, the yellow lights of the dungeon and basket faded, leaving behind nothing.

Gina herself waited for a moment, but then tentatively reached her hand forward, nothing. Then the closer she got, the slower she moved, only to see that the basket still didn’t glow. At the point that she was able to touch said basket without feeling an electrical discharge, she let out a long breath.

Phew.

Then taking the crystals, she realized these were odd crystals of a shape she had never seen before.

Pushing a bit of her own mana into the crystals, she felt a surge of power flood her mind and nearly cause her body to collapse.

Pain.

There was a lot of pain, as her mind felt like it was forcefully coming to life, as neural pathways were being burnt directly into her brain.

Language Learned: Precursor Tongue.

That was the first message she received, and it seemed to be an important one, as she realized that this was the language that Alexa claimed to speak to the dungeons with constantly.

Seeing that message, she reached and got the next crystal, once again flooding this new crystal with more of her own energy.

This time, there was another surge of energy as her mind was flooded with more information but it wasn’t as bad as the first one.

Language Learned: Elven Tongue.

With that, she paused as she wondered why she would now be granted such a gift from the dungeon, especially seeing as she had been here, in this very dungeon, multiple times.

Then the next second, her questions were all but answered as a special gate opened before her and everyone. And yes, everyone had gathered around Gina as she consumed the two crystals that were apparently for her and her alone, if the dungeon’s actions were any indication.

Whoosh!

The dungeon portal opened, spitting out a half dead, no wait, just an exhausted, but completely healed half-elf, half-human male. Seeing him, instantly Gina felt a pit of jealousy rise up within her, for she knew this man instantly as the competition. Yet, she had been raised with far better manners to let her insecurities guide her actions. That was when she decided to be the bigger person and introduce herself to the clearly scared boy.

“Hi there. You must be Kelvin, it is a pleasure to meet you.” Gina said, her mind instantly able to shift to the newly implanted language almost immediately.

Gina couldn’t help but see the boy relax slightly at her comments, this was good, as it meant at the very least she could be friends with the competition. At least, until she could find a nice way to say LEAVE ALEXA ALONE.

“Yeah, likewise?” The boy asked. Hearing his tone, Gina instantly knew he was asking a question due to the rising of his voice. This was odd as the boy clearly wanted to know who she was, even though he didn’t introduce himself, which sort of made sense as she referred to him by name. Realizing all of that was going on in her mind all at once, she decided to answer.

“Oh, apologies, I am Gina. You might have heard of me, I am Alexa’s…”

“Soulmate.” Kelvin said, with a defeated tone in his voice.

Badump.

Hearing that, Gina’s jaw dropped, as she had been expecting a lot of possible answers, but that was not the response she had even come close to predicting. Stupid Predictive Oracle class, only giving percentages of what she thinks will be asked, not actually telling her the correct answers to anything. Though that likely had more to do with the fact that the future was never certain, only once it is in fact certain does it then become the past, and therefore not the future.

“Uh, sorry. Soulmates, they are people who are just meant for each other.”

Gina just stared at him, realizing that she had taken too long to respond and had caused the boy to speak. But then once he did, all he said were things that made her even more excited about what was to happen.

“YES!” Gina said, jumping for joy, fists punching into the air with triumphant success.

“What is it Gina?” ‘Licia asked, from the crowd that had gathered around her, no doubt to watch her interaction with Mr. Mackie’s son.

“I am soulmates with Alexa.” Gina said, doing a dance, as her feet shuffled from side to side.

“Oh, is that why you are called a One of the Chosen? I was wondering about that.” Kylie said.

“Right, me too. I mean I figured it was something Alexa did, as you were not doing anything when it happened.”

“What? When did it change?”

“A few seconds ago, right before your electric basked appeared.” Kylie answered.

“Oh, one second.” Gina said, then turning around to face the confused boy she asked, “tell me, what is it that you see, when you scan me?”

***

Judy Thyme

It had been a long week. Seeing the way Luke and Alexa’s friends all rallied together for the two of them made Judy feel a lot more confident that they would be safe without her. Who was she kidding, Alexa almost never needed her, nor anyone, she had always been so strong. Then there was Luke, he too was strong, but in a different way. Now she was alone, although she didn’t have to be alone, at least not according to the voices that were reaching out to her, the voices that seemed to get increasingly more and more aggressive with their sales pitches.

Knock, knock.

Just as Judy felt the need for something else, she heard a knock on her door. Going to it, she answered, for a moment she thought about not going, she was a complete mess. She was wearing her hoodie and sweatpants that she had gone to sleep in, her hair was a mess, and she couldn’t recall the last time she actually brushed her teeth. Yet, she answered the door anyways.

“Hello?”

“Hey girlie, I figured you could use some company.” The energetic voice of Rayne Johnston came through, and made her feel just that much more appreciated.

***

Magdala

The giant dragon sat staring off into the distance, a light blue energy coating her eyes as she peered off into the different parts of the universe, looking for signs of the future.

“It looks like she passed the test, and became a chosen. She and her soul mate.” Magdala spoke to the dungeon around her.

Flicker flash.

“What do you mean who. You know who, that girl that we tested.”

Angry flash.

“Oh get off it. She was trying to kill me to protect you. Can’t you see the irony for getting mad at her for doing that?”

Subdued flash.

“Right, see. Now we can prepare for the next stage.”

Flash.

“What do you mean, what next stage? Surely you haven’t forgotten already?”

Double flash.

“Yes, she still has one more stage to go, but she has already been approved of by the old crone, her passing the last stage now is just a mere formality.”

Long flash.

“What? Of course, I don’t know what the future entails for her. That is what it means to be a chosen.”

Flash.

“Don’t worry, we have been through this before, and we will be able to go through it all again in the future as well.”