Adelfried
Jim and Adelfried left the Harper’s house making sure to close and lock the door behind them. Not that a simple mechanical lock would matter, but it probably made Jim feel better. They had only just gotten home and yet, already they were leaving. It was all so surreal.
A line of white SUVs waited under harsh bluish streetlights parked on the front curb. Each featured formidable square windows, heavy treaded tires and a thick reinforced front grill. The back door of the SUV directly in front of the house was open. Jim and Adelfried climbed in and found Minna in the front passenger seat. The backseat consisted of a row of four buckets seats. Ying sat limp in the one behind the driver, still unconscious. Jim climbed into the seat next her and instinctively stowed his assault rifle in a bracket on the floor. As soon as Adelfried climbed in and shut the door behind him the Wreckie driver pulled away. “We should be there in ten minutes.”
Jim started to buckle Ying’s seatbelt. The jostling startled her, and she woke. She shuddered and threw her hands down to the side as if startled.
Jim clicked her seatbelt. “Sorry about the wifely duties thing. But you need something to protect your head.”
Minna turned to face them from the front seat. “Do you remember why the Warlock is going to NASA? What is he after?”
Ying rubbed the back of her neck still giving Jim a serious helping of evil side eye. “Yes...that last catnap actually triggered something. Things are coming back to me now. He wants the last samples from the Apollo mission that were previously sealed. We just opened one and we found a high concentration of diamonds, way more than any other sample.”
“Wait.” Jim buckled his own seatbelt. “Weren’t the Apollo missions like decades ago?”
Ying narrowed her eyes further. “I told you all about this, remember? You don’t listen to anything I say about work, do you?”
Jim shifted back in his seat uncomfortably. “I mean, I do... I just can’t keep track of all the missions, Apollo, Gemini, I... there are so many.”
Ying held her hand up in front of Jim. “Anyway, yes, the last Apollo mission was in 1972. They brought back a ton of moon rocks and regolith. But they left some samples sealed so we could study them with modern day instrumentation.” Ying paused and put her hand down. “You seriously don’t remember any of this?”
Jim snapped his fingers. “Yes, you were looking at moon rocks. I remember, I just didn’t know it was Apollo.”
Concern crossed Minna’s face, and she turned back to face forward. Something wasn’t right.
Ying nodded slowly. “Uh huh. Okay and what is Orion?”
Jim pursed his lips. A small hint of moisture covered his brow even as the air-conditioned air poured into the backseat. “Uh it’s a... another mission...no, program to go to space? I mean yeah that’s what it is...they’re going to the moon again...right?”
“Mm-hmmm,” Ying said as if she didn’t believe him. “Lucky guess.”
“Minna.” Adelfried held a finger up hoping Jim and Ying would settle their marital disputes another time. “Minna. What is troubling you?”
Minna swung a display positioned between her and the driver towards her. She started tapping on it. “We removed all the ESH diamonds from the Apollo missions decades ago. I don’t understand how we could we have missed any?”
Ying huffed. “Never underestimate the inefficiency of a bureaucracy.”
Minna continued to tap feverishly on the screen. “No, we are no ordinary bureaucracy”
Jim snorted. “Uh huh. Sure. So how much diamond are talking about?”
Ying looked out the window as the blur of streetlights and cars zoomed by outside. “Surprisingly a lot. The last sample was taken from the center of a very large crater. A few carats as I recall. All powder and small diamonds, but still quite a bit.”
Minna spun around in her seat and focused on Ying. Her voice was heated. “A few carats? That’s not possible...there’s no way.”
Ying pinched her chin. “And now that I think about it. Those did register a faint radioactive signal. Which now that I think about it had to be ESH, right?”
Minna nodded. “ESH will register an extremely faint signal on a Geiger counter. So little that most people pay no attention to it. But this...this is not good. This could be a huge swing in the balance of ESH.”
This didn’t make sense. Adelfried twisted his head. “Hold on. But we have the Root. Surely there is nothing that can compare to that.”
“You don’t understand.” Minna’s voice was emphatic. “It’s not just about who has the most ESH. Before you arrived with the Root, I have always had a clear advantage and I, we, the Wrecht Order, kept him in check. But with this drastic increase in his ESH it will be harder to contain him. His Sovereign Sect spreads like a virus, and with this large of an increase they might be able to triple their numbers. It's about the proliferation of ESH. I don't doubt that by the time we get there they will have already increased their numbers.”
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
Ying’s voice tightened. “What do you mean? Will he turn the people working there?” Her voice faded. “Oh no... of course he will...he...”
There was a long moment of silence in the car before Jim finally spoke up. “So, can someone quickly take me though the settings of this gun? I can’t read the ESH writing on it.”
Minna’s voice grew loud. “You spent months with the single largest source of ESH ever known and you don’t have a lick of ability or competence.”
Jim continued to fidget with controls of the weapon not bothering to look up. “Spare me the lecture. I’m not the one who needs us normal people to defeat the big bad evil wizard. Remember, I don't want to be here. I don’t want magic abilities or a fancy ESH blaster. I just wanted to stay at home, read the paper, and watch a little baseball. I know this shit’s dangerous. But if I am going in, someone damn well better tell me what all these controls do.”
“You are all a part of this now.” Minna raised her hand. “And the sooner you stop being obstinate, the sooner you will be able to deal with it.” Green sparks danced on the end of her fingertips forming a marble of light. It flew into the back, slamming into Jim’s chest.
“Ow!” he yelped. “What the hell was that?”
“You’ll be able to read ESH writing soon enough.” Minna started to tap the armrest loudly. “When we get there, everyone stays behind me. Especially you, Papa. He will not hesitate to kill on sight or worse, incapacitate and turn you. And I can’t let that happen.” Her voice darkened. “No matter what. Remember the ESH you have absorbed and maintain in your body is formidable. You are a massive ESH source.”
Did she take her own father for such a beginner in the ways of magic? Adelfried stiffened. “I will be able to handle myself. I may not know all your spells, but I know how to protect myself.”
Minna’s voice softened. “Be that as it may. He will be able to cut through your standard barrier spell and I don’t have time to teach you more before we confront him. Your barrier will slow him down, but do not think for a second, you are safe. You will have more ESH stored within you than him, even without the Root in your hand. But he is still more skilled.”
The vehicle approached a long chain link fence broken up by a lit guard booth. Across the road a heavy metal bar blocked their path.
They stopped in front of the bar, but no one came out. Ying leaned forward, badge in hand. “Officer Colus should be working tonight.”
Uneasiness welled up in Adelfried. The Sovs were definitely here.
Ying stowed her badge back in her pocket. Her voice was faint. “This isn’t right.”
“Like I said.” Minna faced forward in her chair. “The Warlock is no doubt increasing his numbers as we speak. With the increased ESH he will be able to control more people.” She waved her hand and the crossarm rose and the vehicle continued.
“Which way?” the driver asked.
Ying said, “Take a right on Second. Building 47. That’s where the Lunar vault is.” Concern crossed Ying’s face. She tapped Minna’s shoulder. “Those people in there, they are innocents. Remember that.”
Minna started to glow a brilliant mint green. “I will do what must be done, as I always have. But no matter what, the Warlock’s reign ends today.”
Jim twisted the rifle over in his hands. “Finally. I can read this damn ESH writing. Should I use stun or piercing or any suggestions?”
Ying’s voice raised. “I’m serious, you don’t need to—”
“Use the heavy setting,” Minna said. “It will reduce the rate of fire, but it is your best chance of penetrating a shield or hurting him or any Sov.”
The car lurched to a stop in front of a nondescript off white building three stories tall. Ying flew out of the car blocking Minna’s path. “We can confront him without killing everyone in there.”
“Can we?” Minna flicked her wrist. Ying floated to the side.
Minna marched forward. The air crackled. A jade aura surrounded her. The heavy metal doors on the front of the building peeled back like a paring knife slicing skin from an apple.
Adelfried caught up with Minna. Her raw power made the very air around her burn. “Minna, Ying is right. We must be careful.”
Minna continued forward through the doorway, her voice projecting into Adelfried’s mind. “This ends right now, one way or another.”
Inside, a police officer sat behind a long desk with the glow of monitors on his face. Behind him were a bank of elevators and a long corridor.
Ying called out, “Office Colus, why aren’t you working the booth?”
Colus lifted his head revealing eyes radiating a somber grey. He held a hand up. “Please. Harold does not want conflict. He only wants to speak with his brother. He needs—”
Sharp green knives of energy cut through his throat with a snap. The Colus’ head fell from the body, his lips still moving. The body dropped without losing a spot of blood.
“Minna!” Adelfried roared. “What are you doing?”
“He was a Sov. He was dead already.” Minna turned to Ying. “Which way?”
Ying’s mouth was wide. Her eyebrows creased. “He...I knew him. You just—”
“Saved him from a life of torment. One that you know well. Now, where is he?”
Ying, still panting from the shock pointed to the elevators. “The vault is on level three. We could have saved him. Evan saved—”
Green magic lacerated the elevator doors with a loud pop. They peeled open. The elevator car within folded in on itself like a giant invisible hand had squashed into a massive ball of foil. The ball flew out of the opening and clunked onto the ground. Together, wrapped in a mint green hue, they floated into and up the shaft, ascending in silence.
Jim gripped his weapon tightly scanning above them.
The look of horror still covered Ying’s face. Her eyes blinked rapidly as this new reality set in.
Adelfried couldn’t understand how he had come to this insane reality either. He was helping his daughter hunt down and kill his brother. In the future. So far from home. So far from his life. But this was his life now. And there was no Leyna in it anymore.
At least she would be avenged.
When they hit level three, the elevators doors split open as before. Minna’s energy burned even hotter than before, as if Adelfried stood next to a bonfire.
Only the faint glow of red exit lights lit the dark space in front of them. Bright pearls of light shot forth from Minna’s hands quickly chasing the darkness away. They spread out, flooding the corridors in front and to the sides with brilliant light. On both sides of the corridor in front of them were laboratories encased in glass walls. Each lab had been forcibly entered and piles of black rock dust covered metal tables within the labs.
The room was deadly silent. No one moved until Minna raised her hand as if feeling for Harold’s presence. “He is close, I can sense his magic.”
Jim’s cell phone rang.