Warper: Origins

by Riley Tune

  The Emperor had died six times since then. Was it six? I thought it was six, but it could have been more. It was hard to keep up with such things. He was also the first person to ever display this power. Warpers were known. Apparently even Tongues and Changelings were know. But never had there been an immortal before.

  The Emperor waved and then motioned for us all to sit.

  There wasn’t a grand speech, as I had expected, or anything that came even close to the Emperor acknowledging us. After we sat down, the hall music started, and everything continued as normal. Food was placed before the Emperor and his wife, and, just like most of the people in the hall, they ate, drank, and spoke to those who had enough ranking to go and speak to them. Rema herself had spoken to them, with Ember by her side, for a few minutes.

  Once we were all back at the table, the large man who made introductions for the Emperor finally made his way over.

  “Rema, I hear you have a very well-known guest with you this evening. Well-known, but I have never heard of him,” the man said.

  Jolin eyed me quickly with a look on his face that said, we’ve been found out. Run!

  Rema simply smiled at the remarks. “I wouldn’t say well known, Dutch,, but when you have as much wealth as Clips, you can afford to be out of the public eye while others work for you.”

  Rema turned and smiled at Ember. “Isn’t that right, dear?”

  Ember put down his eighth glass of wine and smiled. “Indeed,” he said, and then motioned for more wine to be brought over.

  As this Dutch gentleman took us all in, Rema gave Jolin a weird eye, and Jolin casually stepped forward to Dutch.

  “Would you say the halls of the palace are pretty empty now?” Jolin said, but this time in the voice of a Tongue. The effect wasn’t as noticeable this time. Maybe because I wasn’t as close to him, or in his direct line of sight, but I could feel that hint of bliss and harmony in the air.

  I had been instructed to try to stay to the distant side of Jolin when he used his abilities, to not feel the full effect, and I’m glad I listened. I didn’t like being so out of control, and, according to Ember, if you were subject to a Tongue's voice for too long, the effects on your brain would be less than enjoyable.

  “Yes, everyone has been relocated to the hall. Even some of the palace guard,” Dutch said as he looked blankly into space. Jolin stepped back, and before Dutch could question why he had been asked such a thing, Rema stood up and offered her arm to him for a dance.

  Dutch shook his head some. He clearly wasn’t a person who was experienced in being questioned by a Tongue. He placed his arm in Rema’s and led her to the dance floor.

  “Looks like it’s now or never, you two,” Ember said as he continued to drink.

  Vida and I got up from the table and made our way near the back of the ball, and slipped out into the unattended halls. Now all we had to do was search an entire palace for secrets.

  14

  We quickly moved away from the hall where the ball was being held. In what seemed like no time, we had made enough turns that we couldn’t even hear the music playing anymore. Each hall corridor looked almost the same. Long, dimly lit with lamps, paintings on the wall, and more windows than I had ever seen in one place before.

  Without realizing it, I found myself following Vida as she navigated through the corridors.

  “Will you slow down for a second?” I hissed. “Shouldn’t we look around or something? At least figure out where we are going before we get lost and can’t find our way back?”

  “Don’t tell me the Warper is scared,” Vida said with a smirk.

  I stiffened some. “Of course I’m not scared. Any of these windows could be my way out. All I need to do is see. I’m more worried about you.”

  I paused as the words left my mouth. Maybe it didn’t sound as bad as I thought, but judging from how she was looking at me, saying I was worried about her had caught her off guard, too. “What I mean is—”

  She held her hand up to silence me. We stood in a corridor, and at the other end, coming from a joining corridor, we saw a shadow moving against the wall by a lamp's light.

  The shadow grew in size on the wall as it continued to move in our direction. Quickly, I warped back down the hall the way we had come, and hid in a dark corner. Vida followed and joined me, but, naturally she was much slower. We hid in the dark corner of a door opening and waited. The footsteps were clearer now.

  A person finally came around the corner. I got low and peeked out from where we were hidden. It was a guard. Or I thought it was a guard. The clothing was different.

  “What are you doing?” Vida whispered to me as I continued to peek my eye around the corner.

  “Trying to see what that thing is,” I said back to her.

  “What you’re trying to do is get us executed.”

  I ignored her as she hugged the wall. I stuck my head out a little more to watch it walk up the corridor towards us.

  Slowly, I rose and stood tall so as to get a better view of the guard. It was a man. A very large and solid man, dressed in all black from head to toe. I couldn’t see a single bit of skin on him. As the man continued to walk towards us, I could see that, where his face should have been, there was a mask. A masked carved like some sort of animal, and where the eyes were was merely a purple glow.

  At his side was a long sword made out of some black metal that I could only assume was steel. The man went to turn down another hall, but then stopped. His hand went to his sword handle and he quickly spun and looked in my direction. Instinct took over, and I jumped into the dark corner and pressed myself against the wall.

  At least, I intended to press myself against the wall. What I had done was press myself against the body of Vida. My knees got weak; I simply refused to move until I could hear the man walk away. Her body was warm as I pressed against her, and she looked up at me with a mixture of laughter and anger on her face.

  My heart skipped when I heard the guard's footsteps began to move in a different direction again. Vida pushed me off her.

  “Did you get a good look at whatever you think you saw?”

  I stammered as I shook my head. “Uh, yeah. I just don’t know what it was,” I said as I slowly stepped out in the corridor.

  “No need to wait for it to come back again,” Vida said as she stepped out into the corridor.

  In that brief moment between when I stepped out into the corridor and turned to her, she had changed her clothing. Instead of her dress, she was now wearing a pair of tight trousers, a shirt, and a cloak. I was jealous, because seeing this made me miss my cloak. Not to mention she looked more comfortable than I was in my formal attire.

  “I know where the Emperor’s quarters are. We should check there first,” she said as she dashed down the hall. Even though she was moving with almost full speed, she didn’t make a sound.

  I warped behind her and appeared beside her as she reached the end of the hall. “You know where the Emperor’s quarters are? Why are you just now saying something about it?” I asked her as we kept moving.

  “I couldn’t tell Rema I knew, otherwise she’d assume it would be easy and try to pay me less. If she thought I had to use my skills as a spy, and find it the hard way, I’d get paid more,” she said as she hugged the wall and caught her breath. She made a good point. “It should be close, if I’m remembering correctly. It was a few years ago, so I’m kind of going with the flow. Keeper be with me,” she said as she dashed down the hall again.

  Going with the flow didn’t sit well with me. For all I knew, we could be flowing in the wrong direction, and this ball in the palace couldn’t last forever. Eventually the corridors would be full again.

  With every turn we made around a corner, we paused and inspected it slowly, just in case that guard came back. I didn’t know what he was, but he scared me. I was ashamed to admit it, but those glowing eyes were something I couldn’t grasp and didn’t want to see again until I had had a chance to talk to Ember about i
t.

  “Okay, wait,” Vida said as she placed her hand on my chest. She was against the wall again and I stood there, confused.

  “What?” I asked.

  She leaned around the corner slightly, and then looked back at me. “The entrance is just up there.”

  I moved around her slowly and looked around the corner. I could see the entrance. It was a massive black door that stretched almost eight feet tall. Both its sides could open and move freely, and it would make a lot of noise when opened. This wouldn’t have been a problem if it wasn’t for the three guards standing in front of that very door.

  They were not guards like the one I had seen roaming the corridor earlier, but they were guards all the same. All of them carried spears. No swords. In this case, a sword would have been a bad thing in such close quarters. I could warp to the guards and try to defeat them. The spears wouldn’t be as effective up close.

  Vida, on the other hand, couldn’t warp, and those spears would take her down from this distance with no problem.

  “Wait here,” I whispered. “I’ll warp to them, and—”

  Before I could finish I felt my stomach turn. Vida’s face had begun to change.

  That smooth brown skin and round lips suddenly became replaced with a thick black beard and eyes that were wide and brown. Long black hair shot down her head as she grew several feet. Her tight trousers transformed into the same guard's uniform the three men at the door were wearing. The only thing she was missing was a weapon.

  “You need a weapon,” I said, looking at the man who had been Vida up and down.

  “I can’t make a weapon,” she said to me in a low deep voice.

  “Why not?”

  “I don’t know. We just can’t.”

  “You can make clothes, but not a weapon? What sense does that make?” I hissed.

  “I didn’t make the rules, Lox. Ask the Keeper if you ever see him,” she growled at me. “Besides, I don’t need a weapon. Just wait here.”

  She cleared her throat and stepped into the corridor, directly in view of the three waiting guards. She had the look, the walk, and even the size. I kept close to the wall and peeked around the corner.

  “Hail, Emperor Nal,” she said as she walked towards them. She was about fifteen feet away now. Still not close enough. Did guards say stuff like that? I wouldn’t think so, but maybe she had heard it before. The three guards looked at each other, and then back to Vida. From the raised brows on them all, I was willing to bet they didn’t address each other like that.

  “What are you doing here, Bren?” the middle guard said as he watched Vida get closer. She was ten feet away from them now. “It’s not time for shifts to change.” He was a short man. By far the shortest of the three. He had dark skin and eyes that seemed to pop out of his head as he spoke.

  She was two feet away now, and the middle guard touched his spear to Vida’s manly chest.

  “Move along, Bren,” he said. “Now.”

  “I can’t, my friend. I have to get inside that door.” The voice that came out was Vida’s this time, and not Bren's. It happened so fast that I had to step out from behind the wall to watch it all unfold.

  Vida raised the hand that was closest to the spear, and grabbed it just below the blade, spun around, and, using her own speed and momentum, broke the spear in half.

  “Bren?” the other guard called out, but Vida was still moving.

  Now, holding the broken spear tip in her hand, she used it—not as a blade, but as an extension of herself. The lead guard attacked with what remaining spear he had, using it like a club. Vida crouched low; at the same time she blocked the lead guard's blow with her spear in hand and followed up with a punch to the man's stomach that took his breath away.

  I could literally hear the air escape him as his eyes bulged and he leaned over. He was only there for a second, because, as soon as he leaned over, the still-crouching Vida came up with force and delivered a punch to the man’s jaw that sent him stumbling to the left. He only stumbled for a foot or so before Vida hit him yet again, this time under the chin, sending him flipping backwards.

  This Bren was massive and freakishly strong. When Vida changed into a person, she must have kept their physical attributes. She was strong in her own right, but not strong enough to send a man flying back with one punch.

  The second guard was on the move now. For some reason, the third guard, they one who knew Bren, still moved slowly towards his supposed friend. The second guard was faster than Bren and delivered a series of punches and kicks that all connected. Two in Vida’s face, one in the chest, and a kick to the side of the leg that made her drop to a knee. This guard was smart enough not to use his spear so close, but he wasn't smart enough to stay at a distance himself.

  As he came in to give Vida a finishing blow, she dodged it, and used the wooden end of her broken spear portion to hit the man in the neck with it as she caught the hand coming at her. The guard grabbed his neck for air, and before Vida could attack, the last guard finally swung his spear.

  She could see the swing coming well enough to step to the side, forcing the guard to stumble in place. She lunged forward while spinning and delivered an elbow to the back of the guard's head that made him fall and drop his spear.

  The faster guard attacked again with punches and kicks that Vida couldn’t seem to counter well. As a result, she turned and ran—up the wall.

  Once halfway up the wall, she used it for momentum, pushed herself off, and came crashing down on the guard himself with the full weight of the mighty Bren.

  Once on the ground, Vida delivered a few strong blows to the guard's face, and he was no more. She slowly stood up and looked around at the three fallen guards. All were still alive and groaning in pain, holding the parts of their bodies that hurt the most.

  I moved down the hall to join her. “Let me guess,” I asked. “Years of experience?”

  She smiled at me. This wasn’t a grin, or a nod, but a full-blown smile, and it set my insides on fire and made me hollow all at once.

  “Come on,” she said as she moved to the massive double door.

  “Bren.” The voice surprised us. It was the fallen guard, still on the ground with his hand stretched out. “How could you, Bren? We went to the academy together.”

  Vida released the door handle as she turned to face the fallen guard.

  She kicked him in the face, and his head hit the floor again. In an instant, she changed from the hulking form of Bren, into her normal appearance.

  “The door is locked,” she said as she came towards me.

  “Maybe they have a key,” I replied, looking down on the fallen guards. We searched all three men, and, aside from a few gold yolars that Vida kept, we found no keys. I tried to pull on the door, but nothing happened.

  “We may have a way in,” I said as I dropped down on my knee.

  “What are you doing?” Vida asked as she leaned over, looking with me.

  ”It’s a key hole,” I said as I looked at her. She gave me a blank expression in return. Luckily, it was large enough for me to see through, and there was a lamp burning on the other side. Perfect line of sight.

  “Wait here,” I said to her, without looking up.

  Through this keyhole doorway, I warped inside.

  15

  I reappeared on the opposite side of the door and looked around. Once, I would have been too afraid to do what I had just done. For some reason, I use to imagine getting stuck inside of places I used to warp. Cracks in a wall, for example. Now I knew any place was possible as long as I could see where I was going.

  I heard a faint knock on the other side of the door.

  “Come on, Warps,” Vida’s voiced sounded from the other side.

  I opened it slightly to allow her to walk in.

  “Warps?” I asked her.

  She walked past me and patted my stomach lightly. “You. I think that sounds better than saying Lox all the time.”

  I stood and watched her
walk away a little longer than I intended before I warped a few feet to catch up with her.

  As we left the door behind us, we realized what we had thought to be the entry into the Emperor’s room was actually the entrance to two.

  “That’s strange,” Vida said as she looked inside the room on the left, and then peered into the room on the right.

  “We’re running out of time,” I said as I looked inside the room on the right. It smelled faintly sweet, like perfume. This room must have belonged to Empress Selen. It was odd that they were sleeping in two completely different rooms.

  “I’ll check over here, and you take that one,” I said to her as I pointed her towards the emperor's quarters.

  On Selen’s side, the room was enormous. I felt like a house could fit in this room alone. The windows seemed to stretch as much as ten feet high and gave a perfect view of surrounding Thera. Her bed alone could have held five people with ease, and so could the wardrobe where her clothes were kept. Her entire room was clean, but had signs of use..

  The only area in the room that seemed out of order was a large desk in the corner, facing out of a window. I warped to it quickly. Even this desk was larger than life. Indeed, I had seen beds smaller than this desk. I sat down in the chair and began to go through all of her drawers and inspected everything I came in contact with. I was beginning to think it was pointless—until I came across a single envelope with a seal on it.

  It wasn’t the emperor's seal, but it favored it. It was the seal of the High Lady, Empress Selen Nal’s mother.

  “Well, this could be useful,” I said under my breath as I opened the letter. In my mind I doubted any use would come from it at all, but our time was running out, and we had accomplished nothing so far. At the same time I heard footsteps coming from the other side.

  “He keeps an oddly clean room for a man, Emperor or not.,” Vida said as she entered. “Almost as if he doesn’t even use the room.”