by M.C. O'Neill
***
Throughout the evening, the screen began to replay the same reports over and over and Kaedish had become bored with the lack of developments. From time to time, a local eyewitness would be interviewed lamenting over a destroyed orchard or a fallen glade. One fact all of the interviewees had in common was the sudden appearance of the hulks. As Dalian had reported, all had claimed the pyramids just materialized before their very eyes without any warning.
The dusk of evening melted into night and the young elves began to worry over their parents’ whereabouts. It was usual for them to drive home from work together and neither of the children had heard from them yet as they were becoming rather late.
“Do you think we should call Mother and Father?” Quen’die looked over to her brother whose eyes were harvesting concern as well.
“I think their phones are in the shop getting re-cured, though,” the young elf reminded her. His voice was beginning to shake with a sense of helplessness over this situation. “They won’t have them back until tomorrow.”
“Well, let’s just wait for a while, and if they don’t get back soon, we should call our neighbors.” It was the best advice she could muster save going out into the city and looking for them on foot.
After a short time of worry, the walls of the house sang in sudden chorus, “Welcome home, Lord and Lady Reyliss.”
The two were a bit startled when the door opened as Mother and Father had arrived home from the laboratory. Both were rather frantic as they scanned the front room for their children. Mother was setting down some bags and Father was already taking off his overcloak.
Their mother and father both worked at the Circle of Climate and Environment. Although the name of the bureau sounded somewhat mundane, it was responsible for much more than the simple duties of testing water and soil samples. The Circle was spearheading the exploration, and ultimately, the colonization of the only known habitable planet other than Earth in the solar system. Father, himself was scheduled to make a landing up there in a year’s time and this fact made Quen’die and Kaedish something like minor celebrities at school.
“Hey Kids!” their father called from the house’s foyer. “Is everyone all right?”
“Yeah, we’re right here,” Quen’die answered for the both of them.
“Thank the gods! I was so worried about you,” Mother cut in while hanging up her light hoodcloak. “The roads were a nightmare, and we couldn’t get the coach running until the power resurged at the manastation. I think we were caught in at least three gridlocks on the way home. We didn’t know if you got hurt in the quake or what else could have happened.” She turned to her daughter, “Quen’die, you really should have called us once your phone was flowing again.”
“But aren’t your phones in the shop? That’s what Kaedish said. Look, I’m sorry, “she began to stammer to her parents. “After the power came back, we had to watch the news to see what was going on and then Rylla called…”
“It’s all right,” her father assured. “But we really wish you would have called at least while we were still at the lab. They have phones there too, you know. It would have made that drive home a lot easier for the both of us. You know how my nerves get when it comes to you guys. So... What’s the damage here?”
Quen’die hadn’t even thought about such stuff during the time they were still at work. Once the quake was over and the power was back in the flow, she was too preoccupied with what was happening on the news reports. After all, the quake knocked her off her feet, so it was reasonable that some of her parents’ valuables could have been smashed. Nor did the elfmaid consider her father. He too had been deeply affected by her little brother’s death and had proven to be a bit overprotective ever since Kellyn passed on. Every small sniffle or bruise was a national crisis when it involved her or her brother. Considering they were now undergoing an actual national crisis, Quen’die half-expected he would attempt to lock her in the house until further notice. Mother, on the other hand, was better able to move on and cope with all the daily problems, expected or otherwise. She was strong and Quen’die felt very grateful that she took after her in many ways.
“Father!” Kaedish jumped up and hollered in excitement. “Did you see one? Did you get to see a pyramid?”
“No, we didn’t,” his father laughed with a hint of nervousness. “Now, there is supposedly one in our area, but getting even within viewing distance is virtually impossible. In one direction you have military, reporters, and emergency coaches rushing toward it, and in the other direction, you have everyone else trying to scramble home to safety. The streets are an utter madhouse! A golem nearly stepped on the bonnet of our coach!
“Seriously?” Kaedish jumped again. “Did an ADF golem almost smash our coach? That’s fantastic! I gotta tell Noopy at school!” Kaedish had never been so excited as his eyes were locked into the size of wonderstruck green coconuts. Quen’die thought he looked like a small puppy. It took very little to rile him sometimes, especially if it had to do with destruction.
“No,” Mother said in disappointment to the young elf while giving her husband the evil eye; an expression the svelte lady had mastered throughout her years of marriage to him. “Your father is just letting his incredible imagination run wild - as always.”
Lord Reyliss scanned the living room for any damage. A cold wave of fear hit him as he remembered the wine collection in the basement. A quake such as that night’s could have very well shaken some valuable vintages onto the floor. Without another word, he rushed down the stairs to assess any losses. It was an assured mess, just as he had dreaded. He arrived there to find puddles of red, blue, and green liquid swirled together amidst broken glass pooling underneath the diamond-shaped racks.
“Glynna!” Father hollered up from the basement in a childlike frenzy. “My wines are smashed! Well, most of them.”
Mother met him downstairs to see him cradling a half-broken green bottle. He looked like a young elfling who had just destroyed his favorite toy, which she still found a bit endearing despite his obvious anguish. His curly wisps were falling over one of his eyes and she thought they looked much like her son’s, however, they were of a chestnut-brown and thinning a bit. This was going to be quite a night and she fretted about it causing yet another argument with her husband. Such a display of personal loss triggered her sense of her own inventory and, in that moment, she began to worry about her ancient pottery collection which she had been accruing ever since the days of her Master’s levels.
“Oh, Ferd’inn, be careful with that,” Mother advised with a mixture of annoyance and weak affection. “You’ll seriously cut yourself and it’ll take forever for a health warden to get over here tonight.”
“Yeah, but this vintage is over nine hundred years old!” he moaned as he dropped the shards in defeat. “Well, at least none of the wines bottled in bone or wood were destroyed. I suppose I’ll have to talk to the insurance warden tomorrow. Eh, maybe my accountant as well.”
“Best of luck with that one,” Mother responded in a practical tone she would assume whenever Father was flustered. “Tomorrow, all of Atlantis will be on the phone with their insurance wardens. The call volume will probably cause another outage! Look on the bright side, few of the really expensive vintages were broken.”
“I suppose you’re right, but I really wanted to save this Xochian bottle for Summersfest. It’s infused with chocolate! I’ve never tasted chocolate!” he whined.
“I’ll tell you what,” Mother tended to feel a bit burdened by her husband’s concerns sometimes, and all the more if they were frivolous, like chocolate. “Maybe we can just save up and spend Summersfest in Xo’chi this season while the children are on break, and then you can try all the chocolate you can get your hands on.”
“Just as long as they don’t have any earthquakes,” Father chuckled.
“Very well. It’s a deal,” Mother reassured as Father looked up at her like a wounded puppy and smiled. “No earthquakes.�
�
“All right,” Glynna met her husband’s smirk. “I’ll round up the kids and we’ll have to get everything straightened out here. If you think you’re heartbroken over the wines, wait till you hear me scream when I find out my Kumarian vase is in a million shards. The thing is ancient!”
The young elves’ parents gathered everyone for an ad hoc damage control meeting and, with some mild protest from Kaedish, who was satisfied enough that none of the screens were busted, everybody set off on their allotted assignments. After noting that the quake had been rather forgiving to their property, Mother went to check the second floor. Within a few short moments, Lady Reyliss’ children and husband heard a terror-stricken shriek from above.
Lord Reyliss and his two children rushed upstairs to find Mother in the master bedroom standing amidst shards upon shards of shattered vases, amphorae, vessels, and other assorted crockery. Ancient relics from all over the world lay at her feet. From Thuless’in to Xo’chi and Avalon, from Gonduanna to Tel’lemuria, these articles of history and culture were all but destroyed. She held with ginger care in each of her well-manicured hands the jagged remnants of a two-thousand-year-old Kumarian vase; just as she had predicted. Every single piece in her collection had fallen off the shelves into a multicolored horde of junk. A spiraling shock of her blood-red hair swayed across her angular, pouting face as one of her eyebrows arched to a painful height while the other almost touched the bridge of her nose. This was Mother’s evil eye, but the ultimate version, which she saved for only the direst of travesties. She was one broken relic away from the verge of tears. Despite her tragic circumstances, Father thought she looked more beautiful than ever.
“Ferd’inn…,” Mother managed to blurt in a calm moan while trying to stifle a raging fit and cursing the gods. “About those insurance wardens…”
Aftershock
Although the news reporter was correct, there was very little damage and many people were spared from serious harm upon the appearance of the mysterious monoliths, some citizens throughout the kingdoms of Atlantis were not so lucky. Whenever a momentous occurrence such as that happens, accidents ensue and things can go awry. Some calamitous and strange events of note transpired as follows:
Consolidated Power and Light provided energy to Atlantis’s capital city and its surrounding area. It was the power wardens’ jobs to regulate and monitor the manaflow from all of Corosa’s manasprings which were the primary source of power to each individual household in the city. On’dinn Bor’lann and Zev Mark’ann were two such wardens.
The two elves had worked together on the second shift for close to five years. On’dinn was quite a bit older than Zev and carried more experience when it came to the job of regulating the flow to almost one million manafountains across the huge power district. Zev, on the other hand, had graduated not long before from his Master’s levels and this was his first job of any sort, in truth.
Unlike old On’dinn, the young elf came from a long line of power wardens and he felt a sense of entitlement as a third-generation technician at the facility. Even his father worked in the upper offices. On’dinn resented his younger contemporary because it took almost ten years for him to promote to the same position Zev had managed to obtain after one quick interview. The old elf had tried to come to terms that elven society was not always fair and nepotism was wont to win out in the end.
The pyramids appeared at precisely 4:42 p.m. that fateful evening. At that moment, Zev was flirting with a new quality assurance manager who was also not very interested in her position. At times like that, On’dinn’s chagrin with the young elf reached its peak. He wasn’t jealous of the male’s youth or the attentions from the maiden, those kinds of concerns were a thing of the past at his age; he was more annoyed that his partner was taking advantage of his father’s clout to lillypad about when there was so much to be done. Regulation of the giant turbines which tumbled mana from the central springs and directed it to thousands of homes and businesses was not an easy task and it required much vigilance and responsibility. These were two attributes Zev lacked.
As Zev was attempting to impress the QA manager with some kind of foolish card trick, the quake’s kinetic force struck the outer perimeter of the facility. Warning klaxons powered with dumb mana to assure operation even when cut from the flow screamed in a loud panic as the main lights of the station began to flicker on and off. The quality assurance manager, who was not very assuring in her quality at that time, threw the hot tea she was drinking in Zev’s face due to the concussive bumps of the tremor. Not only was the lad’s card trick ruined, his skin was scalded. Fifty-two playing cards of the finest craftsmanship flew hither and yon all over the catwalks of the turbine room as Zev recoiled in pain.
On’dinn was furious. He was at the controls of the central turbine nearby trying in desperation to keep the power flowing to the main conduit and into the entirety of the energy grid. He couldn’t do it alone as he needed his partner to helm the control gate in order to meter the flow of the chaotic, surging mana into a steady and ordered stream. The old elf’s cries to his younger partner were unheard over the din of the sirens and the commotion on the floor. Zev was bellowing in pain at that instant as well while he nursed the angry red burn on his face. By the time the young warden was no longer concerned with his poor, blemished mug, it was too late.
The control panel was becoming much too hot to touch, but On’dinn knew he had to keep clutching to his station to forefend disaster. His hollers to his partner turned to screams as the power level was approaching a critical mass. His head was swimming and he knew he was already suffering manaburns which would, without a doubt, render him crippled for the rest of his life. To the dismay of his loved ones and family, that life ended in the next minute as his body became part of the manaflow. The elder power warden ordered the flow for an emergency, and deadly, reroute. “Gatin’inn boru Ui mana!” he screeched to the turbine through gritted teeth.
Excess mana hopped through On’dinn’s console and circuited itself though his arms, his body, and back into the grid. On’dinn sacrificed himself to avert a meltdown which could have blown one half of Corosa into the sky and the other half into the bowels of the earth. The station’s foreman employed emergency measures to shut the whole power plant down with a killswitch just in time as the stalwart old elf performed his final duty which was well above his job description.
After some “official” reprimands and string-pulling, Zev was not fired from the station due to his irresponsibility and continued to work at Consolidated Power and Light in the upper offices where his father could keep a better eye on him. With a handsome pay raise.
