Interlude XIII

Thanksgiving Night

Ms. Peacock

“So, do you care to explain what happened on that awkward bus ride home?” Ms. Peacock asked, once all the students had been dismissed back to their dorms for the day. Her question of course was directed to Judge, the mother of Aru’ka the student who had apparently gone missing while simultaneously being accounted for one hundred percent of the time. If not for the sudden disappearance of L.I.R. the alleged girlfriend of Aru’ka, her absence might have gone unnoticed. Hearing the question, Judge just shook her head, not out of refusal, but more out of trying to understand what exactly happened herself.

Pausing for a moment, Judge opened her mouth, then stopped. Finally, after another second’s thought, she tried to explain. “I found the two inside a destroyed orc safehouse.” Judge began, but quickly stopped as a shiver of fear ran down her back.

“An orc safehouse?” Ms. Peacock asked, trying to understand exactly what was so bad with that. From her intelligence safehouses, for both the elves and orcs, existed all over the world, and she could name at least two dozen or so that were within the tri state area alone.

“Yeah, but that wasn’t the worst of it all.” Judge said, as she stared off into the distance, her eyes growing wide with fear of the memory.

Not wanting to press, Ms. Peacock waited for Judge to come to her own conclusion on what happened.

“When I first arrived, I felt it. The sensation of death, the one that almost killed me. It was like looking directly into Hell, and there my daughter was, barely clothed, with Gina, also barely clothed, draining what she referred to as Void Crystals.” Judge said.

At this Ms. Peacock paused, trying to understand what had happened. “What? Why were they naked?”

“They weren’t naked, they were still in their underwear, thankfully. Also, they had a healthy distance between them. Mainly I expect that Gina was freaked out by the situation, as she was on the far side of the room, but she was still there for her.” Judge said, her eyes wide as she tried to remember what happened. It was clear that whatever she saw out in that shack in the woods frightened her.

“Is the Void truly that terrible?” Ms. Peacock asked.

Hearing the question, Judge stopped staring off into the distance to turn and face Ms. Peacock. “It is that and more. It is like you can tell everything that is wrong with the world, with the universe is kind of swept away, hidden, or conveniently disposed of. Then one day you wonder where all that waste went, where did the runoff go, and you realize it all got pulled into one crystal form. One pure source of evil, and she ate it. Well not eat it specifically, but she Absorbed it. One second evil was allowed to flow freely and permeate the air, something so rotten and vile that it could be felt from a hundred or so paces away. Something that even the woods seemed to be reacting to. Then after she Absorbed it, the feeling of revulsion and rot disappeared, and it was just Alexa once more, my beautiful Alexa.” Judge said as tears began to fall from her eyes.

Hearing this, Ms. Peacock rested a comforting hand on Judge’s arm.

After a minute, Judge began to calm down for a moment, then she continued to speak her mind about the situation. “She didn’t say anything, but I could tell it hurt her. Yet, she just sat there, not saying anything, the most you could see was that her face would let out a grimace every once in a while, but that was it. Then when it was over, she didn’t comment about the pain. Thirteen. Thirteen crystals, that is how many she Absorbed, or at least how many empty shells were left after she was done. Apparently one of the orcs took a crystal and turned into a demonic slime. I saw the aftermath of this, as that slime had been well and truly burnt into the carpets.”

Ms. Peacock just nodded in understanding, not wanting to stop her from continuing to provide details. Finally, when it appeared that Judge was done with her monologue for the moment, Ms. Peacock pressed for more details.

“You said they were just wearing underwear? Any reason why?”

Hearing that Judge nodded, and a faint smile broke out on her lips at the memory.

“I wondered the same thing. Apparently, this is the reason.” Judge said, pointing to a giant silver case that when opened revealed an odd orb the size of a basketball.

“This is the case that held the Void Essence.” Judge said, as she reached in and pulled up the orb that was clearly heavier than one would assume from the size of the object. Pulling it up, it pulsed to life, and immediately struck out at a few runes that lined the walls of the room.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Whoosh!

Ms. Peacock tried to look around the room, only to see dust and ash falling all around as the orb had come to life long enough to let loose a blindingly bright light that just targeted the magical objects in the room, before going dormant.

“What was that?” Ms. Peacock asked, her heart racing as the power unleashed by the orb was extensive.

“Near as I can tell a failsafe, in case the people who were handling Void Essence messed up, this orb here would have been more than enough to destroy the Void Essence shards.”

Hearing that Ms. Peacock nodded, but then almost asked the obvious question, but then was finally able to make the deductive leap in logic on her own. “So, this burns away magic?”

Hearing the question, Judge just nodded in agreement. Fueled by this revelation, Ms. Peacock then continued. “Alexa created the uniforms for herself and the others using magic, meaning that once this orb saw those it was able to dissolve them?”

Judge just nodded in agreement. “I guess so.”

There was an awkward pause as the two thought about this development. “But Alexa is Tier X in multiple schools of magic. If this is the case, and this thing is able to dissolve the magic constructed by a Tier X practitioner, then surely the orcs didn’t create it?”

“No,” Judge began, but then paused as she too tried to understand what was happening. “No, I don’t believe so, this feels unlike anything either the elves or the orcs would come up with. Well maybe the elves, but I doubt it. Alexa thinks, and I tend to agree, that this was a Precursor item.”

“Now the Precursors, those are the ones with the words of power that Alexa learned? The ones that can go so far as to purify a body?” Ms. Peacock asked.

Judge nodded, “I believe so, yes.”

“Then I guess my only other question is, what if this wasn’t something they found. Or better still, even if it was something that they found, what if the orcs were able to replicate this? I mean to send one out here to a non-Integrated planet has to be costly, right?”

“I was thinking the same thing.” Judge said, “I get it, the orcs are desperate. They have been losing for a long time, and now this. I understand why they would target us; we are some of the most known faces of the resistance. Ready to fight with the elves.” Judge began.

Hearing that Ms. Peacock had a niggling question entered her mind as she thought about Alexa. “How do you know it was the orcs and not the elves?”

“Alexa said so.”

“What did she say exactly.”

Hearing that, Judge let out an exasperated sigh. “Oh, you know her, so by the book. She claimed hostile alien forces. But you and I both know that the elves here would never mess around with something so dangerous as Void Essence for goodness sakes.”

Hearing that Ms. Peacock could only nod her head in understanding, though she had her doubts about this. Ms. Peacock felt that the elves and the orcs both were just as capable of destruction as anyone else. Maybe more so, given the way their two cultures were established.

“So there were no other bodies?” Ms. Peacock asked.

“There was, aside from the slime, there was another one, but Alexa had taken that one out back and burned the body to ash with thermite.”

“Thermite, that is rather extreme, isn’t it?”

Judge was about to respond, but then shook her head. “I would have agreed with you, before Jim, but with everything that happened, I am just glad Alexa was finally able to express herself.”

“Expressing herself through the mutilation of an enemy corpse? In some cases that could be considered a war crime.”

Judge nodded, but then continued. “Normally you would be right, but in this particular case, I felt a level of reaction was justified.”

“So what should we do with the orb?” Ms. Peacock asked.

Hearing that, Judge who had been holding onto the heavy object for quite a while looked down at it, and then decided to put it back in the box. “I don’t know. I think we should turn it over to the elven authorities. Maybe they can help us use it better. That or we need to make sure they are aware that the orcs have such devices.”

Hearing that Ms. Peacock felt a slight shiver run down her spine, feeling the impulse, she realized this was a decision point, a point where the fate of the world would be assigned. “Would you mind if I kept it here for a few days, for observational purposes before that?”

Judge looked like she was about to protest, but then she seemed to relax. “Yeah, probably for the best with Jim’s viewing tomorrow, and his viewing on Saturday, I don’t see how we could turn it in before then. So, Monday?”

“Monday.” Ms. Peacock nodded, and while the feeling of cold dread didn’t completely go away, she felt this little crisis had been averted. With this, she was certain more so than ever, that this orb was something that should not find its way back into either elven or orcish hands. Realizing this, she decided to make plans of her own, but before that, she still had one important matter to attend to.

“You should go back, but I take it you are avoiding going back to your room for a reason?” Ms. Peacock asked.

With that Judge nodded her agreement. “I’ve been hearing The Call.”

The Call was the term used to describe when demonic forces tried to contact you.

“You have? And you resisted?”

Judge nodded, tears forming in her expressive but tired blue eyes. “Yes.”

At this Ms. Peacock’s mind raced, and then she asked. “When Jim…” she choked on the words, unable to finish her comment. Fortunately Judge knew exactly what she meant and nodded in agreement.

“When Jim, passed.” Judge said, then paused. “Honestly, I felt the call, felt their near constant connection until this afternoon. Until I…” She trailed off as she turned to look at the box, or rather she turned to look at the now dormant orb that still sat in the box.

***

Lost Soul

The Lost Soul knew only pain and anguish. For a thousand years, a day? It knew not what had happened, nor did it know how it got here to this place, but it was here hungry and in pain. It was in an egg, a cocoon. Somehow it knew these words, words to describe the complete darkness that encapsulated his body, words that could be used to describe everything around him. He could even understand the voices that spoke around him. He was not in a good place, he also knew that he was a he, masculine, but could not exactly quantify what being male meant, just that he was.

“We need to expedite this one.” A gravely voice barked out from outside the shell that cocooned the Lost Soul. Somehow the Lost Soul knew the voice outside was talking about him.

“We have already prepped it with growth hormones. What else should we do?” A subordinate responded, using the same guttural language as the first.

“Treat this one as if it were a Knight Class.” The commanding voice answered.

“A Knight class, so soon?” The subordinate asked.

“Yes, this one will have a great destiny to achieve.”

“I’ll start on it, right away. When do we need him completed by?”

“Tomorrow.” The leader said.

“Yes, master.” The groveling subordinate said.

With that the Lost Soul could feel the intense pressure of the leader walking away. “Looks like we have a lot of work to do with you. Hope you can handle pain, if not, don’t worry it will still be there for you. Hahaha.” The groveling subordinate cackled, his voice and words clearly directed at the Lost Soul. Then after that, liquid began pouring down the sides of the shell. Liquid that spoke of power and pain, then the pain took over changing and burning away pieces of the Lost Soul until only fiery vengeance and pain remained.