image [https://i.imgur.com/O8ZTIc4.jpeg]

The tyrant shot up from his throne. "What is this sorcery!"

Carluch stepped forward, curious about the device and its voices.

"Morse, you left and didn't even say goodbye," the young girl said through the device. The voice was crackled and faint. "I miss you. Where are you now?"

"I miss you too, Jane," Morse said. She hunched down, saddened by the realization that she'd likely never see her little sister ever again. But she had to stay strong. This might be the last time they could ever talk again. "I had to leave. You'll know soon enough why. I just want you to know that I do this not just for Lokar, but for Elovia, too."

A whimper came through the transmission. "They're coming for us now. Papa said they're coming. They're coming now. I'm scared, Morse. I'm scared. I want you here. Come back."

"Don't be scared," Morse said. "You're my little sister. You're brave. And you'll always be in my heart, no matter what happens."

Jane's whimpers turned to sobs, the little girl couldn't hold back the confusion and sadness from losing her sister. "You didn't even," and with this she choked up, barely able to say the words. "Didn't even say goodbye."

The tyrant, the guards, Jason, and Rudra, along with the elf queen, hung on every word of this back and forth. They were invested in this dialogue between two sisters, now worlds apart, one in the stars and the other down on Lokar, but they were also dumbfounded by the way this metal stick with red and black buttons could speak and hear.

Morse didn't have a chance to say goodbye. The next sounds through this metal stick, this strange Elovian device, were a crashing sound. Then a slap, a struggle, Jane's screams. Then another voice came through, gruff and harsh. "Speak up, Morris. Give us your final words."

"I did this for the future," Morse said. She was defiant, but knew deep down the gravity of what was happening. Her old life, the world she knew in the stars, was over. "I did this for truth."

"You made a mistake," the man said. "This is your satellite commander."

It was Bohr, a man that had tutored Morse when she was a girl, who taught her the basics of telecommunication, biology, physics, chemistry, and art. He was her mentor.

Bohr kept a stoic, flat tone. "Your family's name will be erased from Elovian records forever," he continued. "Not just in the future but in the past as well. You've cursed your lineage. You've done the one thing that there is no forgiveness for in Elovia, breaking tens of thousands of years of sacrifice, dedication, and science. You've broken the barrier that holds back ignorance from the stars. I'm not sad, I'm not angry, but I'm only left disappointed in you, my greatest student. You were destined for much more than this, Morse. Whatever happens to you down there on Lokar is not my concern now, nor is it the concern of your sister, or your friends here. I want this to be on the record, that I don't wish you harm, but I don't wish you luck either. Before you die down there, scared and alone, which you inevitably will, I hope you realize the grave error that you've made, not just to yourself, but to the generations of Elovians to come."

With that, there was silence. Communication was cut off.

Morse looked up and screamed her sister's name, *Jane!*, and it echoed in the tyrant's chamber. But there was no reply.

The tyrant, who had watched and listened to the conversation between Morse and the unseen people through the metal stick, stood up and paced back and forth in front of his dragon bone throne. "Such is the way of strange fates," he said. "For us to host this spectacle, this illusion, this trickery. If you are who you say you are, then your people have cursed you to die in my kingdom, and so it will be."

He pried the device from Morse's hand. She hardly resisted, as she was nothing besides defeated. The tyrant dropped it on the ground, spit on it, insulting the tech and engineering that went into its creation. He grabbed an iron staff from the corner of the chamber, stood above the metal stick, and smashed it with the butt of the staff, until it was nothing but a bent and flat shell of what it was.

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Morse was defeated. Not only was her little sister Jane and the rest of her family facing a dark fate on Elovia, but now there was no way to ever speak to them again. And as far as her fate? She didn't care. Life or death meant nothing now, unless she could complete her mission. The reason why she came down to Lokar to begin with, so that they could know the truth of what was about to be unleashed in their world. She kept the secret close to her heart for now, it wasn't the right time to speak it.

Carluch stepped forward, unmoved by the display of emotion that had just unfolded in the chamber. "My tyrant," he said. "We must make a decision about what to do. The danger in Limnosos may be here soon."

Tyrant Rayos sat back on his dragon bone throne. He stroked his ash-gray beard and looked over the prisoners, the elf and the fire-eyed girl, and his brown haired subject. His eyes moved to his guards, who held the elf queen, then back to Carluch. The tyrant feared nothing, death the least of all, except for not having a legacy. In his mind, the elf queen was here to bear him a son, who would inherit the power of Hilaboreas, which he seized by slaying that dragon so many years ago. The womb of the elf queen was the only place, in his mind, fertile and beautiful enough to rear the next tyrant. Until that happened, he'd fight to the death.

"You've not answered, my tyrant," Carluch said again. "Are you lost in thought?"

"My order is to fight," Tyrant Rayos said. "Whatever danger comes, we kill it."

Carluch shook his fat, stumpy neck. "This isn't my counsel," he barked. "The Shadurak has awakened, it's not a mortal enemy, but an eternal one."

This enraged Tyrant Rayos. "Silence, seer! I slayed the dragon, I'm the tyrant in this kingdom, I say what we will do. Guards, go to the gates, watch night and day, don't sleep, and when the black cloud comes, call and we will fight, side by side. I don't run."

"Wait, wait," Morse said. "Wait. Please." She could barely string together a full sentence, still feeling helpless from the loss of her previous life on Elovia. "Please, listen to me first. I know the threat and how to defeat it."

The tyrant stood up and smashed his iron scepter on the stone ground in front of Morse. She stumbled back from the force of the strike. "You want to play games for your freedom?" the tyrant asked. "Tell little lies to buy yourself time? Guards, silence this wench, toss her and the other two in the dungeon at once, before I violate her in other ways." He leaned forward and pressed his thumb against Morse's lips. "This hole is worth less to me than the words it speaks, but it may be a port for my pleasure."

Morse spit and the tyrant moved his thumb. "The Shadurak can be defeated," she said. "I know the way. Not with fire or steel, but with sound, a sound that can't be heard by you or me or any living thing, but only by the Shadurak."

The tyrant laughed. "Riddles, woman? Is that what you think will save you? Guards, to the dungeon, now."

"The Shadurak is an impossible beast," Morse continued. "Created 80,000 years ago, at the start of the Second Aeon. It lays in slumber, dreaming alone in its deep mountain lair, and only awakens to end an age, to bring on another Aeon. It's why I'm here, to warn you this time, and to tell you how to defeat it, so that Lokar can progress again, and join Elovia in the stars, so we can become family again."

The tyrant flew into a rage, incensed by Morse's story. He picked up the iron staff and chucked it across the chamber. It crashed into the wall, thudding to the stone floor. "I'll kill her now," he barked. "With my bare hands if she wants it."

"Radio waves control it," Morse said with defiance, unafraid of the tyrant's threat. "I know how to stop it. I know how to save your kingdom and all of Lokar."

"Gibberish again," the tyrant said with a laugh. "And, what of Lokar? Let it burn, and I will be the last standing."

"If I can get a transmitter, the threat can be neutralized," Morse said.

"I'm going to destroy your mouth with my pleasure," the tyrant said. "You'll never speak a word again after I'm finished with you."

"Hold on, hold on," Carluch said, stepping forward. "I know a way to settle this, without her violation. She brings strange omens to our chamber. That talking stick, word of Shadukar, which has been in slumber for how long? No living thing on Lokar knows the last time it awakened. The least we should do is hear her out. We can get the truth through the [[Porfuro]]. She'll only need a bit."

The tyrant nodded his head. "Right again you are, Carluch," he said. "I keep you as my seer for a reason. Apply the purple stuff to her eyes, and let's hear the truth. And you might as well do it to the other two."

Carluch didn't waste any time. He stepped forward, dipping his greedy paws into the cauldron of Porfuro, feeling the sticky dragon blood drip from his fingers. One by one he rubbed the purple onto the eyes of the three captives, Morse, Jason, and Rudra the elf.

It was a burning purple, that stung the eyes, and broke any barrier in their minds that would hold back the truth through lies. Any question they'd be asked now would be answered unfiltered. They'd be like putty in Carluch's hands.