Now, Threnosh World
“Abnormal change to Designation: Human Female 1’s biometric signals,” S.R.T.C. Technician Woodford 1 said.
Mads. Cal focused on the young woman down on the arena floor as the group entered the simulated forest. “Huh?” Mads seemed to be okay. “What sort of change?”
“Elevated heart rate drastically dropped to below baseline.”
“Adrenaline levels?”
“Human combat chemicals at elevated levels.”
“Interesting, she’s in fight mode, but her heart’s beating like she’s relaxing on the couch.”
“Will you allow the subject to continue?”
“Yeah, Woodford, I think she’ll be alright,” Cal said. Probably a Skill, he thought.
“They are nearing the mantisor ambush site,” Shira watched the three dimensional holographic projection in the center of the control room. A thrill ran through them. The eagerness of impending battle, even if they were only observing. They were looking forward to seeing how others of Honor’s species fought. How they compared.
“Let’s see how they do,” Cal focused on his oldest niece as she steadily stepped closer to the trigger point.
Tessa couldn’t believe how real the trees looked. Leaves and branches swayed in the wind even though they were indoors. The way the dried brush and twigs crunched and snapped under her boots was uncanny. She heard small animals rustling through the bushes all around her. She could even hear the birds flapping their wings as they chirped to one another.
It was exactly like hiking through an actual forest.
What the fuck.
“This is impossible,” Tessa muttered.
Her eyes widened.
The birds had gone silent.
She held up a fist and brought the formation to a halt.
She scanned with her eyes, moving from ground level all the way up to the tree tops.
“Even the sky looks real,” Tessa whispered.
She strained her ears.
Silence.
Never a good sign in the wilderness.
That had been drilled into her head.
Meant that the animals knew dangers were about.
This was just a simulation, but it was so real that she had to assume things in here worked just as they did out in the real world.
“Do you see it?” Gene whispered.
Tessa shook her head.
“Quick Shot. Quick Aim. Quick Reload.”
“Jeez, Mads… that’s like half your actives,” Bastien said. “Is that a good idea?”
“We have no idea what we’re up against. Saving my stamina won’t matter if I get one-shotted,” Mads said.
“Hey guys, I’m picking up like electromagnetic signals… I guess… but that just might be all the machines in here. Hologram projectors and other junk,” Veronica said.
“What do you think?” Tessa said.
Gene shrugged. “This is a training exercise. So… we should keep moving,” he sighed in resignation.
Tessa grunted and resumed her forward path.
Movement in the trees, accompanied by high-pitched shrieks and powerful buzzing sounds.
Mads leveled her shotgun, inhumanly quick and squeezed both triggers so fast that it sounded like one shot, even though both barrels fired.
Mads reloaded just as quickly and fired again before Tessa had managed to get her eyes on the threat, despite her superhuman perceptions and reaction times.
Mantisors, indeed.
The monsters resembled human-sized praying mantises with mottled brown chitin that had camouflaged them against the trees. The air seemed to vibrate under the power of their buzzing wings as they leaped through the branches and swooped down.
Two of the monsters were thrown off their attack by Mads’ shots, even if the metal pellets didn’t do more than crack the surface of their chitin.
Of the other three monsters, one launched itself straight at Tessa with its two scythe-like claws extended from multi-jointed front arms.
Tessa cracked it with her kanabo. Fifty pounds of metal driven by the force of her superhuman strength crushed through chitin and sent the mantisor crashing into the trees.
Tessa spun and saw two mantisors swooping down on Mads as Gene and Bastien blocked their way.
Veronica pointed a finger gun. “Bang!”
The mantisors fuzzed for a split second, frozen in midair.
Hard light holograms.
Tessa had forgotten for a moment. They looked and smelled so real.
Veronica’s powers interfered with the technology.
Cal frowned as he watched the holographic display. “We’ll need to do some modifications. I guess, since Veronica’s power scrambles brains, then scrambling the holograms sorta works,” he shrugged.
The mantisors regained coherent form and continued their attack.
Veronica had bought time though.
“Firespray!”
Flames from Gene’s splayed fingers bathed one of the mantisors.
It wasn’t enough.
The mantisor plowed right through and descended on Gene with scything claws.
Gene threw his longsword up blindly and managed to block one claw.
The mantisor was too strong. It drove right through Gene’s block and struck him in the collar bone.
Gene screamed as the bone snapped.
The second claw did the same to his opposite shoulder.
“You have been eliminated by evisceration. Remain still,” a toneless voice spoke in Gene’s helmet.
“Damn it, Gene!” Tessa scrambled to pull a small round metal ball from the compartment at her waist.
“The fire is magic?” Shira said.
“Yeah,” Cal replied.
Shira tapped on the terminal at their side. “Readings indicate anomalous energy build up within Human Male 1. Upon release the energy transformed into flames,” Shira’s eye narrowed imperceptibly, “correction. The flames were comprised of fire and a small portion of anomalous energy.”
“Anomalous energy? Must be what we call mana. So, it starts as mana and becomes a natural phenomenon with traces of mana. Interesting. I didn’t know that. It explains how people can shot lightning that ignores physics.” Cal reached out with his telekinesis and floated Gene out of the battlefield.
“Medical personnel are ready to receive the injured,” S.R.T.C. Woodford 1 said.
“Got it,” Cal floated Gene back to the starting point. “Poor bastard, twice in two days.”
“Gene!” Bastien’s attention was focused on his friend.
“He’s fine,” Mads snapped as she spun and fired, reloaded, fired again.
The mantisor slowed enough for Veronica to slam her staff, two-handed, across the spot where its thorax met its abdomen.
The broken monster screeched and flopped to the ground before breaking up into pixels that quickly vanished.
Bastien swung his halberd in a chopping blow at a mantisor’s head.
Ineffective.
A normal human without enhanced strength, special weapons or Skills, simply couldn’t scratch the monster’s chitin.
The mantisor slashed at Bastien’s head with a scythe-like claw.
Bastien closed his eyes.
The blow would’ve broken his neck, which was obviously fatal. The hard light hologram lost coherence and the claw passed harmlessly through Bastien’s neck.
However, it didn’t leave him untouched.
The unit at the heart of the S.R.T.C. sent a signal into Bastien that temporarily disrupted his nervous system. It wasn’t a violent or harmful thing. It simply prevented the conscious control of his body by blocking the signals from his brain to the rest of his body. It, helpfully, didn’t affect the unconscious signals so that his heart didn’t stop and his bowels didn’t loosen.
The science of it was so advanced that the Threnosh had yet to decipher how exactly it functioned.
“You have been eliminated by decapitation. Remain still,” a toneless voice spoke in Gene’s helmet.
“Guys, I’m dead,” Bastien said as he stood stiff as a board. “I can’t move.”
The mantisor moved past him in search of other prey.
“Damn it!” Tessa shot the metal ball at a mantisor swooping down on Mads’ exposed back.
The monster broke apart in a shower of pixels.
“Nice one!” Veronica whooped.
“My shots aren’t doing anything!” Mads cried out in frustration. “Switching to slugs… Power Shot!” Her shotgun barked, loud and angry.
The mantisor’s human-like face recoiled back at two slugs punching through the thinner chitin of its mask. It toppled to the ground and broke into pixels.
“Boom goes the dynamite!” Veronica smiled from ear to ear.
Tessa sighed. Her sister had way too many lame people as influences.
“Three down, two to go.” Tessa scanned the area and realized that the other two had vanished.
“They’re doing pretty good,” Cal grinned proudly.
“The human females are superior to the human males?” Shira said.
“Bad match up for the guys. Plus, my nieces skew the results. Don’t forget, I’m a human male.”
“Then males and females are equally effective as a whole, while there is a wide variance in combat quality at the individual level?”
“That sounds about right,” Cal shrugged. “Why don’t we up the difficulty. Woodford, initialize the next level of monster. You haven’t fought this one in a long time, Shira. Should be nostalgic for you to see it in action.”
“I do not know this word,” Shira said.
“Examine your thoughts and feelings while you watch the mantisor boss in action.”
“But it is not a mantisor boss. It is a simulation. Your words do not make sense.” Shira’s smooth brow was marred by their frown.
Cal grinned. He was going to miss such conversations.
A high-pitched screeched suddenly filled the arena.
“Jesus!” Cal shivered. “Just like the real thing.”
“Ohmygod!” the color drained from Mads’ face. “What was that?”
“Boss monster.” Tessa and Veronica said together.
“Probably a mantisor, but stronger, faster, tougher,” Tessa said.
“Gigantic!” Veronica added.
“Well, it’s going to be up to you guys… like always,” Mads sighed, “I’m running low on stamina. Can’t maintain my Skills for much longer.”
The two remaining mantisors reappeared up in the tree tops, descending on buzzing wings once again.
Mads reacted first.
“Power shot!”
She fired two shots in quick succession. Like shooting skeet.
The slugs struck the mantisors center mass, creating a small crater in their thick chitin, cracks spider-webbing out.
The monsters were thrown out of their controlled flight.
“Bang!”
Veronica hit them with an electromagnetic pulse.
Again, the hard light holograms revealed themselves for a moment, fuzzing and freezing in place.
Tessa was ready. She shot two metal balls, one each an instant before the mantisors regained their coherent forms.
Not for long.
The sonic booms were followed by the mantisors breaking apart into pixels that disappeared as they drifted to the ground.
“Good job, guys. Get ready for the nex—”
Tessa felt something hit her in the back, hard. Something broke in her. Before she slammed into a hard light tree several hundred feet distant.
Mads spun around.
Both barrels blasting blindly.
Scythe-like claws blurred, cutting the slugs in half.
A hand on the back of Mads’ armored collar yanked her back roughly.
Veronica stepped forward, thrusting her staff like a spear.
The tip struck the new monster in the face and knocked it back several feet.
Veronica hit it with a pulse.
The hologram fuzzed and froze for several beats of Veronica’s hammering heart.
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Enough time to draw close and swing her staff in a two-handed slash, high to low, right to left.
The monster blocked the strike with its forelimb.
The vibration traveled up the solid metal staff to Veronica’s arms.
Powerful wings buzzed as Veronica desperately backpedaled while spinning her staff in front of her.
Veronica moved faster than humanly possible. Her perceptions were superior.
The new monster was slightly smaller than the other mantisors, but it was much faster and stronger.
Veronica could barely keep up with the monster’s blurring limbs as it slashed from seemingly every direction and angle.
Metal slivers flew with every impact as scythe-like claws chipped away at Veronica’s staff.
In her desperation, Veronica got sloppy with her footwork. Her haste caused her to cross her feet in an effort to keep the monster in front of her when it blurred to her right.
She stumbled and slipped on some loose foliage on the fake forest floor.
A scythe-like claw blurred for her head.
She threw up a block.
Her left hand exploded with pain.
Veronica had been lucky. She had managed to avoid serious injury throughout all the dangerous situations she had placed herself in lately.
Luck always runs out at some point.
Pain throbbed as she tried to maintain her two-handed grip.
The monster struck her staff hard.
Pain.
Veronica couldn’t hold on with her broken left hand.
A one-handed grip wasn’t strong enough to block the monster’s strikes.
The monster slashed again and sent the staff out wide to Veronica’s right, leaving her open.
Scythe-like claws hammered her in the chest and knocked her to the ground, spraying dirt and leaves into the air.
Veronica fired a desperate brain blast at the monster.
It was too fast.
It loomed over Veronica in the blink of an eye and scythed both claws down.
The entire exchange had taken seconds.
“Veronica, the mantisor boss has stabbed you in the face and heart. You are now dead, please don’t move,” her uncle’s voice echoed into the arena.
She spat a curse as she felt herself levitate up out of the fake forest.
Mads fired again at the mantisor boss, but the result was academic. She joined Veronica a second later, struggling to breathe with several broken ribs.
Tessa groaned as she came to, every breath brought a stab of pain in her back. She looked around frantically for her kanabo, but found nothing but leaves and branches.
Loud buzzing.
She had heard her uncle’s words.
The mantisor boss was fast and quick.
Tessa could barely keep it in sight as with weaved through the trees as it rapidly approached her.
She grabbed two handfuls of metal balls and sprayed them out in a wide arc.
The mantisor boss soared up above the barrage.
All Tessa managed to do was shred trees.
Tessa shot wave after wave of metal death, but the mantisor boss was too quick.
All she had left was her superhuman strength and durability.
She dashed at the mantisor boss, accepting a scything claw across the bank of her left gauntlet protecting the side of her head.
The monster hit hard, but Tessa had taken worse in sparring practice with her dad and Aunt Nila.
She punched a gauntlet covered fist into what looked like a normal human woman’s face.
The monster reeled back.
Tessa went to launch a straight left into the face when she realized that her lower left arm was dead. It flopped limply from her upper arm.
“The mantisor boss’ scythe-like claw cut straight through the armor on your gauntlet, your skin and muscle, down to the bone,” her uncle said.
The momentary distraction was costly.
Before Tessa could react the mantisor boss had slashed all over her body.
She stiffened, unable to move, her body toppled over like a felled tree.
The mantisor boss’ disturbingly human face moved almost nose to nose with Tessa before the hard light hologram vanished.
“You cheated, Uncle!” Tessa screamed out in frustration.
----------------------------------------
Tessa glared daggers at Cal.
He didn’t want to meet her eyes so he glanced around the medical chamber.
Medical personnel were busy preparing the kids— young men and women— he had to remind himself, for placement into the healing pods.
“You guys did pretty good against the normal mantisors, not so much against the boss,” Cal said.
“You cheated,” Tessa said flatly.
“Really? I was unaware that there were rules in real combat.”
“That wasn’t real.”
“Luckily for you. If it was then you’d all be dead. The spires might’ve made life game-like, but they didn’t turn it into an actual game. We don’t get extra lives, second chances or the ability to start over with minor penalties to XP and our gear.”
“Mantisors are real monsters? I mean on this world… you didn’t make them up?” Gene said.
Cal nodded. “They come from one of the spawn zones in the surrounding local area.”
“How accurate was the simulation?” Mads said through clenched teeth.
“Exacting in parts. Less so in others. Their speed and strength was accurate. The sharpness of their claws, not so much. Obviously, there are limits to what the hard light holograms can replicate. Hence the need to rely on the control unit’s amazing abilities to simulate things like severed limbs. The real mantisors can slice through the armor you wore with a few slashes. Though, as you experienced, the power of the impact can easily break human bones. Inertial dampeners would’ve provided some protection from that, but unfortunately that technology is only available in the Threnosh power armors that they can only obtain from the spires.”
“Why?” Veronica said.
“They have inertial dampeners for their vehicles, but they haven’t been able to miniaturize the tech to fit in armor.”
“I mean why can they only get power armor from the spires?”
“It’s unclear,” Cal shrugged. “They didn’t have them before the spires appeared. What they had were crude exoskeletons, though crude only in comparison to what they got from the spires. Their tech is significantly more advanced than our stuff.”
“So, while we got magic, Skills and superpowers on our world, they got power armor,” Bastien said.
“That’s the working hypothesis.”
“What was the point of that exercise?” Tessa ground out the words.
Cal could feel the anger radiating out of his niece.
“To get a baseline of your capabilities for future training and to give you a preview of the type of monster you’ll be facing for the points to get back home,” Cal said meeting Tessa’s laser-like glare. “Enough talk. Time to heal your injuries.”
Tessa brushed off the medical personnel as they loaded the others into healing pods. She winced with every move as she walked to Cal, where he stood studying the readings from the pods containing Olo and Johnny.
Tessa felt a pang as she looked at her friends’ unconscious forms fully immersed in liquid gel.
“Will they really be okay?”
“Yeah, definitely. It’ll just take time.”
Tessa nodded curtly.
Cal sighed. He didn’t need his telepathic powers to know that his niece was angry with him.
“I get all that other stuff you were saying. I’m not dumb enough to ignore the fact that I got lucky to survive in those tunnels and fighting the Deep Azure,” Tessa said.
“Saying you were lucky wasn’t entirely an indictment,” Cal shook his head, “winning in anything involves luck. Naturally, proper planning and preparation tips the odds to your side. Training does the same thing. You need to maximize your abilities. Squeeze everything you can out of them,” his eyes stared out at nothing, “and… sometimes… all the power in the world, the hours of practice… it won’t be enough. You still lose.”
“Okay. I get all that, but my problem was that you specifically distracted me. I could’ve beaten the mantisor boss… hologram… whatever.”
“That’s the point. You won’t always get fair fights. I’d say you shouldn’t even be trying to fight fair. You need to cheat. Stack the odds in your favor. Otherwise you die or—”
“—suffer a fate worse than death. I know that,” Tessa snapped.
“Do you? From what you told me of the fishmen cult, you almost did. It was only through the sacrifices of your friends and family that you didn’t end up like the cult leader.”
Tessa scowled, but she couldn’t deny the truth in Cal’s words.
“I recorded a lot of video journals over the last couple of months. I… I had a lot of things I was trying to unburden myself from. Still am. It is an unfiltered account of what I went through over the past two years,” Cal hesitated, but only for a moment “I’ll give you access so that you can understand that power isn’t enough when there are so many terrible things out there.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Well… you’re going into the healing pod for the next day or two. If your dad got my message, he might already be here and I… I’d have gone home.”
“You can stay. At least for awhile to help us train. Get better, like you said.”
“I would, but I’m afraid that I might be compromised.”
Tessa’s eyes widened.
Cal held up a hand. “Plumbing the depths of my thoughts over the past few months, suggests that I’m probably fine. It’s just that I’m not a hundred percent sure and I still haven’t figured out how to determine that. Plus, I’m burned out, like I’m just a shell of person, trying to remember who I was, am,” he shook his head ruefully. “I won, but it was a Pyrrhic victory by all metrics… anyways, if you want to know then you can check my files.”
“Sure… I don’t get it, but whatever you say, Uncle,” Tessa said.
Cal waited until Tessa was in her pod. He checked over the others, making sure all was in order.
Broken bones for everyone, but that was expected.
It seemed harsh and he felt guilty for letting it happen, indeed, planning for it, but he felt it necessary.
His reading of them, especially his nieces, had revealed that though they had experienced traumatic events they had, mostly, with a few exceptions avoided real injury.
The brush of death’s hands hadn’t touch them.
Olo had gotten close, but Megan had brought him back from the edge.
Cal wondered at that.
His sister in-law hadn’t displayed that kind of healing power from what he remembered.
A lot had changed in the years of his absence.
They were too reckless, he had seen it in them. Too trusting in their powers or on others to keep them alive.
Cal had been the same.
Then the Mother had wrapped him in her embrace and shattered the illusion of invincibility.
Could he really leave?
Even if Remy took his place there were still threats.
Unknown abominations yet hidden in the depths of the Threnosh world. The cragant armies steadily appearing all over the world.
Zalthyss.
Two of them if it could be believed.
One was Prime Custodian 3’s captive.
While another had vanished into the ocean.
Of the second there had been no hints, despite the priority the Collective placed on it being located.
Could Remy protect the kids from Zalthyss? Could his brother protect himself?
Cal was running away. He knew this.
He was just so tired of it all.
Cal had to fix his thoughts. He knew this.
He had to return home.
He had fixated on it.
He couldn’t run away forever.
So much rested on his shoulders.
The fate of everyone and everything he cared about was in his hands.
Mother Madrigal. The Deep Azure. Terrible beings, but the spires drove conflict. Their entire existence revolved around it. Future threats would only escalate.
He couldn’t just keep up. He needed to outpace it.
Cal walked out of the medical chamber. He had much to prepare before his departure.
“Any day now,” he said.
----------------------------------------
Remy stepped out of the spire into a dark night.
Clouds filled the sky.
He strained his senses, searching for signs of danger.
When he found nothing beyond the typical sounds of a forest night he relaxed slightly.
The air felt comfortable. Though his superhuman nature meant that a freezing winter night didn’t feel much different from a cool spring day.
He looked around.
Superior night vision gave him the lay of the land.
The spire stood in a grassy field. To one side a thick forest stretched out as far as he could see in the dark. Shadowy mountains rose impressively high in the distance beyond. On the other side was an open plain with tall grass that moved like ocean waves in the strong breeze.
The air smelled clean, refreshing.
Pleasant.
Remy breathed in a lungful.
He couldn’t believe it. He was breathing deeply of an alien world’s oxygen. How many other humans could say the same?
Eight, Remy thought. Being the ninth wasn’t bad.
He could feel the alien planet’s natural magnetic fields. No different from the ones back on Earth.
He was in the process of figuring out his orientation when Megan appeared out of the spire.
“Remy!” Megan’s voice was high.
Remy stifled a curse. His wife would’ve been barely able to see in this level of darkness. “I’m here, Hon. Don’t move. I’ll come to you.”
Remy gently grabbed Megan’s hand.
She grasped the lifeline in a vise-like grip.
“We need light!”
“Shhh, not so loud. We don’t know what might be out here. Which is why we can’t use light just yet.”
“I can barely see you,” Megan hissed.
“Don’t worry. I can see fine. Nothing dangerous out there. Just grass and trees.”
“What’re we waiting for? Where’s your brother?”
“I’m not sure he knows we’re here.”
“What? I thought you had this worked out.”
“Well… I sent a message before we left… but…” Remy shrugged.
“Obviously, you wouldn’t be able to view the reply,” Megan sighed. “Cal has no idea we’re here?”
“It’s fine. His message said that they had this spire under surveillance. He should already know we’re here. We just have to wait.”
“We’re supposed to just stand here in the dark. With monsters, alien creatures and who knows what else.” Megan drew closer to Remy.
“It’ll be fine I can handle anything that might attack us. Besides, I’m not picking up any threats. You can hear them, can’t you? Just birds and insects out there. I thought you were super excited about studying all the alien animals?”
“Yes, but in a safe way… not like this.”
“Fair point.”
Thus, they waited in the dark with only the sounds of nature to keep them company.
Megan jumped at nearly everything. From what sounded like birds calling to one another to what sounded like crickets.
Remy thought himself immune to it all until a loud roar caused him to flinch.
Megan’s fingers tightened around his.
“That sounded like it came from faraway,” Remy hoped, “you can tell by the way it sorta echoes,” he lied.
“You have no idea what you’re talking about.” Megan was too sharp to be fooled.
Thus the minutes seemed to stretch on for hours until Remy detected something approaching through his magnetic field.
Energy was being emitted.
A light shined in the night sky. High enough to be visible over the treetops, but low enough to be underneath the clouds.
It was a flying vehicle. It had a rounded, boxy, cylindrical shape with glowing lights along its bottom.
The vehicle looked like a giant minivan, minus the wheels, mixed with a cargo plane, minus the wings.
“What is that?” Megan looked up in alarm.
“I hope that’s our ride.”
The vehicle shined a light on the two of them as it approached.
Remy was struck by how silent it was. His ability to sense electromagnetic fields told him that the vehicle was outputting a significant amount of energy, yet all he could hear was a soft hum.
The vehicle rotated as it landed a few hundred feet. A ramp lowered and a person in advanced-looking armor came walking down.
Remy smiled as the person removed his helmet.
“It’s Cal.”
“I can’t see crap,” Megan said.
“C’mon,” Remy pulled Megan along as he hurried forward.
“Rem, Megan,” Cal grinned, dropping his helmet to throw his arms around them. “I’m glad your safe.”
“What? Why wouldn’t we be safe?” Megan said.
“Oh nothing, just some dragonbears out in the plains. I had some aerial combat drones distract them, so we’re good,” Cal said.
A smaller figure appeared next to them as if out of nowhere.
Remy nearly jumped back in alarm at the fearsome visage of the figure’s facemask. This must’ve been one of the Threnosh.
“Oh, this is Shira, they’re one of the Threnosh and currently in command of our base’s combat operations in regards to the special candidates.”
“I greet you,” Shira said.
“Nice to meet you, Shira,” Megan held out a hand, “I’m Megan.”
Shira shook the hand gingerly.
“Nice to meet you, I’m Remy.” Remy felt the strength of Shira’s grip. He felt barely restrained power as if it was always just on the edge of being unleashed. Cal hadn’t said much about the individual Threnosh. Remy was immediately wary of Shira even though their short and slight stature made them look fragile. Then again, their power armor was certainly covered in a lot of sharp blades and spikes.
Remy noticed the two large containers floating in Cal’s wake. “What are those for?”
“Oh those…” Cal chuckled, “futuristic balikbayan boxes. Presents for some people back on Earth. Two is all I can afford to bring. Ironic, that… like the spires are making fun of me.”
“Then that means—” Remy frowned.
“I wish I could stay longer to catch up, but now that your here I can go home,” Cal held up a hand stopping the question on Remy’s lips. “Sorry, man,” he sighed. “I know it’s kinda messed up to leave you without more of an intro, but I have to go. If you want to know my reasons then just ask Tessa. I gave her access to my files. It’ll be an uncomfortable watch, but my recordings will explain.”
“You can’t just leave us like this,” Megan said.
Remy saw something in his brother’s eyes. He swallowed his protest and nodded.
“I plan to come back one day,” Cal said. “Meanwhile, Shira will fill you in on anything you want to know about the situation here and the plan to get the kids enough points to get back home. Which, you two will need to be a part of.”
“I will comply with Honor’s orders to the best of my ability,” Shira intoned.
Remy nodded, perplexed.
“Watch all my journal vids if you want the full picture of my time on this world,” Cal said.
Remy sensed great sadness from his brother. Shame and relief, as well.
“Till next time,” Cal said.
“Take care of yourself,” Remy replied.
They watched Cal and the two metallic-looking boxes disappear into the spire.
A loud roar made Megan and Remy jump.
“We must depart before the dragonbears arrive,” Shira said.
“Right,” Remy nodded.
The reunion with Cal had lasted minutes and had left Remy concerned for his brother. He consoled himself with the knowledge that he was going to hold his daughters soon.