by Elon Vidal
Heroki Sintila smiled, but Ella wasn’t seeing anything else. The Underworlder realm was flooding away, demons bouncing off the walls as they prepared for domination. The banyan dimension was jerked through the vision panes, the prism fractal shattering as she saw and heard Gishan tearing her mother’s flesh apart. She was unable to save her. But it was okay, because it wasn’t real. The haptic feedback was alerting in an extreme frenzy, unable to understand the way her body seemed to be banging off walls and trees and creatures, tumbling through fragments.
Tears flooded down her face.
QT’s words shivered through her entire body, as if she had spoken them herself. Since she had heard them through his eyes, it was almost like she had.
Ella pulled the Eye and the VR goggles off her head. The gloves felt heavy and clumsy. She pulled them off, barely seeing them through tear-blurred eyes. She hadn’t realized she had fallen to her knees until she noticed that Athos had dropped down to kneel beside her.
“What happened? What did you see?”
Ella choked on the tears as she tried to speak. “I saw QT. I heard the poison in his voice, meant for me. I saw Heroki Sintila.” She noticed that both Luna and Juro tensed up as she mentioned the leader of Sintila Labs. Ella brushed the tears on her cheeks aside, sending little sparks through her body as the moisture triggered the wrong signals through her haptic feedback suit. She struggled to stand up.
“We have to find him. We have to get QT back.” She walked up to Juro, thrusting the VR goggles into his chest. “You’re up, hotshot. You say you can help us find QT and a way to the Underworld. Well, that’s what we need to do.” Ella held her fingers firm against his chest, forcing him to take the uncomfortable step back before the ferocity in her eyes.
“All right, all right. I understand. I can help get us there. I just need to know if any of you know any werewolves.”
The team looked at each other blankly.
Juro continued, “Like I was telling you with Hamit, we will need to have access to someone who can open a portal to the Underworlder dimension. That means someone like werewolves. We have to first get to their realm, which is one problem, and then we have to convince them to deal with us. Which is what I wanted the Dark Elf bone dust for. So, I need to know if anyone knows any werewolves.”:
Everyone’s gazes came to rest on Athos as he sighed.
“Athos, please…” Ella said.
He waved his red, fennec paw. “Yes, all right. I might know one. But, the problem is, you don’t get to talk to just one werewolf, you have to talk to the pack. And, that… that’s more of a problem.”
Ella stepped into the center of the room, her heart still thudding harshly in her chest, hearing the echo of QT’s words and his pledge to hurt her.
Athos sighed again. “Fine. But, the only way you can get to them is by talking to Saion, who you’re not on the best terms with.”
Ella waved away Athos’s concerns. “I’ll handle the Entity. He hasn’t killed me yet.”
“All right, but the werewolves I know, Ella, they live on Alpha.”
A sucking sensation rushed over Ella. It was a feeling of being cut off from the ability to breathe, to move. She was surrounded by red glowing eyes and the reaching grasp of dead banyan limbs pulling her in, urging her to succumb. She let it sweep over her, pummel her heart, and still, it wasn’t as bad as the fear she felt at seeing QT’s vacuous, Underworlder possessed eyes.
She took a deep breath and started unzipping the sleeves of the haptic suit, ignoring her shaking hands. She didn’t look at anyone, just made her voice steady: “I’m not afraid. I’m ready.”
Athos nodded and moved forward to help her take off the rest of the gear. She would need another type of weaponry where she was going.
At least she would have her team.
CHAPTER NINE - GYMNASTICS
“We have to get him back,” Ella said again as Athos started to walk away with the sweaty haptic feedback suit. She slipped the Eye into her shoulder bag with a grimace. She was done with it for a while.
“What makes you think he will come with you?” Teffa asked.
Ella was certain her venomous glare would have been able to injure anyone other than a minicorn. Teffa didn’t even flinch.
“What do you mean?”
Teffa flitted up in the air and did a little twirl, but the whimsical spin didn’t make the quaking in Ella’s heart stop. “You say he was saying things that didn’t make sense? Was he possessed?”
“Nerka and I saw it before in a herd of seriports in the Equatorial Forest. Their eyes spin bright green when the Underworlders have them under an enchantment or something. They behave like they never would otherwise. That’s what QT…” Ella swallowed the pricking of tears in her throat but didn’t drop the minicorn’s piercing gaze. “That’s what QT’s eyes looked like. Since I was seeing things from inside his vision with the Eye, I could sense that he had no other purpose. He was being programmed for a mission to get the Space Crystal and, if need be, take care of me.”
Ella’s voice seemed small now that the words were outside her body. QT’s words had been swollen within her, hard to fathom, but now, facing the compassionate faces of all her trusted confidantes, they didn’t seem so insurmountably grim.
“I think what Teffa means to point out is that we don’t yet know fully how to cleanse the Underworlder possession. If the plan is to go to the werewolves and get access to the Underworld in order to rescue QT, we’ll need to know how to rid him of the enchantment while we are there.”
Ella understood all of Athos’s gentle words as he spoke, as well as the unspoken or else…
Juro said them anyway: “Or else we will just have to knock him over the head and take him by force.”
Fighting the urge to send a biting remark toward Juro, Ella slid onto the bench beside Nerka. Didn’t he realize he was talking about her friend? How easily would this Higrite use violence? QT wasn’t himself. There had to be a way to get him back safely without risking his life. She knew he’d do the same for her.
“Maybe you should head out to see the Maven before attempting to visit Saion. Entities are zealous of intervening in mortal affairs.” Ella realized how lucky she had been in her previous encounters with the shifter. “Per-Ah was going to research the binds of the Underworlder magic on the seriports. You should find out what he has discovered to avoid arriving in their realm blindly.” Athos gave it as a suggestion, but it seemed like he was giving an order as he nodded his head at all the young warriors.
Ella had to admit to herself, even against the urgency racing through her to find QT, that it was a good idea. Per-Ah, leader of the fearsome Maven and a trusted friend of her father’s, might have some good information for them. They had staked their entire heritage to protect Methula’s life source, and it was with their help that she found the banyan tree which later helped rid her father of Underworlder possession. If anyone would make strides in healing dark magic, it would be them.
Athos and Teffa headed toward the fennec’s office, speaking in conspiratorial tones. Ella looked toward the blank screen that the others had been watching as she went through the VR simulation. They would have been able to see what Athos programmed, but that would have ended at the banyan dimension. Only Ella knew where the Eye had taken her.
“Any helpful notes?” Ella tapped Nerka’s notebook and then jerked her hand back as her fingers trembled. The older girl was nice enough not to comment on Ella’s shakiness. Or, perhaps, she thought it was beneath her to call out her friend’s weakness. Ella took a deep breath as she clenched the bench beneath her, trying to let the smooth wood’s cool texture rub a bit of its solid calm into her body.
Balance… Access the Durgic balance… That’s what Athos kept telling her. Not only to calm those racing vitals but to determine the right path. QT… Cleo… Balite Mines… Sintila Labs… Ella reached up and rubbed her face, hardly hearing Nerka’s response as she flipped through the notebook. The worry of
a pebble dropped in a quickly moving stream… It was something her mom used to say. That was what focusing on balance so much felt like to Ella: fruitless. The pebble was always going to drop to the sands below, no matter how much the water’s worry raced to keep it afloat. There were some things that were inevitable.
Ella grit her teeth. Maybe my inability to govern the Eye well is inevitable. Her fingers stopped trembling as she fought back the thought.
“...every time.”
Ella blinked and looked at Nerka. “Sorry… Every time what?”
Nerka sighed and flipped back a few pages. She tapped her pen against the paper. “The suit was monitoring your vitals and every time the sim directed you toward the banyans, there was a noticeable drop in your heartrate.”
Ella puzzled through that a moment. Her vitals calmed when she felt in danger but rose to the challenge. Why would the peace of the life everlasting banyans resemble danger? She shrugged. “Maybe the banyans make me think of the loss of my mom? Some type of helplessness that calms me as I try to figure out how to overcome it?”
“Could be… could be. Definitely something there we should explore, though.”
“Hmm…” Ella heaved another deep breath and leaned her head back against the wall. She flexed her fingers out in front of her. They had started to hurt with her heavy grip on the bench.
The other members of the team seemed content to sit in silence with her. It made Ella a bit nervous. What were they waiting for? Luna was done braiding her hair, but was lounging back on the bench, the little ferret Cielle nuzzled into her cupped hands. Juro twisted his back against the wall, as if trying to get comfortable, but Ella sensed it was not the seat that was making him restless.
What were his intentions? She didn’t know much about this stranger that recently appeared into their lives. Was he keen on giving Underworlders a deserved taste of their own medicine or was he simply one to wait to be given orders to launch into attack? It seemed to her like he had his own internal guidance and she’d have to get a better sense of what he knew.
Teffa floated out from Athos’s office with the slight curl to his minicorn lips that Ella had started to recognize as his lively look of smugness. He twirled through the air, his orange and white mane flurrying out behind him. Athos stepped out of his little office and gestured toward Luna. “Come on, Ms. Turum. It is time for your demonstration. Mr. Carp, are you ready?”
“Yes, sir!” Juro sprang up in one easy motion that was faster than Ella had ever seen a person move. He had whipped up from a lounging position as quickly as she could flick her fingers. He caught her look of surprise and winked. “Wait till you see me kick it up a gear.”
“Lightning moves fast, too,” Nerka sounded sour as Juro looked at her. She returned his gaze evenly. “It often lights perfectly good things on fire.”
Ella stifled a laugh, but Juro’s smile was mischievous. She stood up to follow Juro and Luna toward the training ring where Athos was leading them.
“I would be lying if I said I haven’t lit things on fire a time or two.” Juro waited for them.
Nerka grunted. “Doesn’t surprise me. Too much power with too little purpose usually just causes devastation.”
Juro’s smile faded into a thoughtful look, one brow lifted, and he looked from Nerka to Ella. “Maybe you can give me a little purpose and I can give you a little power.”
Nerka looked like she might protest at needing anything from him, but Ella laid a hand on her arm. “I am pretty sure we are sharing purpose and power right now. Let’s just…” Ella pointed toward the training ring, “focus right now, okay? What’s going on, anyway?”
Athos stood in the middle of one of the larger training courses. There were benches around the fifteen-by-fifteen yards square. The training ring had soft blue padding as its ground, which was roped off by long lines. In the center was a pair of uneven bars about ten feet apart from each other. Athos had a wooden staff in one hand, which he tossed to Juro. Luna was already standing beside the fennec fox, managing to feign a bored, slouching look even while her eyes were active. Ella noted the slight twitch of excitement to her jittering fingertips as she pulled at the strings on a slender velvet pouch. Nerka, Teffa, and Ella slid onto one of the benches beside the court.
The chill that had gripped Ella’s heart from the vacant look in QT’s eyes had left and her body was back under her control. She was eager to get to QT, but steps were starting to be defined on that path toward that end. Those steps might test her patience, but that was all part of the balance she was supposed to be seeking as a Keeper.
Luna slipped something shiny from the velvet pouch, then threw the sleeve to the side. Cielle streaked off her shoulder toward the fabric, picked it up in her little mouth and kept running toward the edge of the ring where she clambered up on another bench, tucking down into the soft folds of the velvet.
As Ella watched, Luna stepped sideways from Juro and splayed out the set of seven gleaming throwing knives she had pulled from the sleeve. They were thin slivers with five-inch blades and thumb loops at the end. She looked surprisingly adept at holding them. She held six in her left hand and just one in her right hand by the blade, then flipped it over so she was holding the handle, then flipped it again. She cocked her head and looked at Juro, as if assessing him.
Ella was impressed. She doesn’t look intimidated at all…
“This should be interesting,” Nerka said.
Ella leaned forward as Juro twirled the staff before him. Athos slipped from the training ring, coming to stand not far from the other seated three.
Juro was at least ten inches taller than Luna and the grubby coveralls he was wearing suddenly didn’t conceal the muscles that rose and fell along his biceps and shoulders as he twirled the staff. It was like giving him a weapon had made the warrior figure inside him transform out of the otherwise unassuming lanky figure.
He grinned toward Luna then nodded toward the uneven bars. “You want a head start?”
Luna flicked her knife toward Juro and it lasered through the air. He swept the staff through its path and Ella anticipated it would thud into the wood.
Something pulled on Ella’s skin, as if she was being yanked in the ring toward Juro and Luna. It felt like her body was swelling outward, ballooning. She instinctively reached out to her sides to keep herself in one place. Her vision blurred. Juro and Luna were just wisps of brushstrokes before her eyes. As soon as her hands touched the cool benches of the training ring, her sight unmuddied. The swelling and sense of pulling released her.
Ella heaved a deep breath as the pressure in her chest disappeared. She was still sitting upright. The knife was sticking straight out of Juro’s staff, his grin taunting Luna. Teffa and Nerka were gasping right beside her, blinking as if they, too, had been pulled toward Juro. Athos was two full steps into the ring.
“His Crystal,” Nerka said, her fists clenched at her side.
Luna eyed him more cautiously now. She slipped the blouse she was wearing off and underneath was a tight vest that had sheath loops in it. She tucked the six remaining knives into their places all across her chest and waist where she could reach them easily. Then she marched to the uneven bars and launched herself up into the air to grab onto the parallel of the shortest one.
“Oh yeah…” Ella remembered from Luna’s Livestreams that she was a gymnast. QT had watched some of her competitions. Ella wasn’t sure how that figured into the knife-throwing, but that the social media princess was capable of throwing knives with such brilliant precision was just another one of Luna’s pleasant surprises. Ella prepared herself for yet another.
Luna whipped herself around the short beam, a pendulum swinging by her arms and pumping with her legs. Ella watched with bated breath, counting the pumps and circles until Luna flashed again and thrust herself upward, throwing herself through the air toward the taller one. Mid-flight, she grabbed another knife and flung it toward Juro.
Ella leapt to her feet, a smile burst
ing to her lips. “No way!”
Juro dodged to the side, flinging up the staff and then, again, just as the knife was racing toward him, he used his Attraction Crystal and pulled the knife straight into the wood.
Ella staggered a bit to the side as the pull, too, sucked her toward the ring. The crystal’s energy seemed to flow into her body, grab at her organs, flood over them like a wave, squeeze for a moment, then ebb away again.
When her vision refocused, she was a bit nauseous. Luna was swinging around on the high beam, having caught herself and continued her gymnastic twirl on the high frames. Nerka was leaning forward and Teffa was smiling, his hooves patting the bench underneath him in glee at the knives and acrobatics show.
Luna’s prowess on the bars was impressive. She seemed unperturbed by Juro’s cocky grin and frequent twirling of the staff. It seemed like the goal of the demonstration was just target practice for Luna and Attraction practice for Juro. If either one of them slipped up…
Luna spun upside down on the high beam, keeping herself straight up, pulling another knife as she supported herself with one hand, and she rocketed it toward Juro. This one went a little wild and Ella tucked down low beside Nerka in anticipation of Juro’s Attraction call.
Instead, Nerka swept her hands up and repelled the Attraction. A shimmering space hovered between the two combatants and the three observers. Ella didn’t feel the pull and squeeze. Instead she felt the safety of a harbor over her, as if she were shielded by the warmth of the Space Crystal that Nerka was commanding.
The third knife thudded into Juro’s staff and Luna dropped her hand down to the bar again and amped up the pace of her spin around the high beam.
“Thanks,” Ella said. Nerka just kept watching the other two. Is she learning from Juro’s exhibition or perturbed by it?
Luna’s body twirled in a whirl of color. Ella’s heart rose in awe as the girl released from the high beam, ejecting herself forward, doing a 360 through the air, pulling two knives, then flashing them toward Juro while in midair so he had to spring into action and call them to the staff.