Some had long and swirling horns protruding from the tops of their heads. Others were covered in large, shell-like scales in shades of metallic red or green. A few had two sets of arms, and a couple had extremely long tails with stony clusters at the end which clicked like rattlesnakes. Next to us, the six Hermessi children were mostly fae, from what I could tell. Their diaphanous appearance set them apart, but they didn’t seem to be from the four known fae kingdoms of the Fire Star, the Emerald, Akvo, or Zephyr. We’d always known there would be more planets that were homes to their species across the In-Between and the Supernatural Dimension, but we’d yet to reach out to them.
Of these six, four were male and two were female. There was a silent tension between them, with stolen glances and the occasional eye roll. They didn’t seem to like each other very much—or maybe this situation had simply caused unnecessary friction. Either way, they were clearly uncomfortable together, but they probably didn’t have a better choice.
“How much longer do you think she’ll keep us in here?” one of the female fae asked, staring at the small fire she’d just set on the floor, using dried-up weeds to fuel it.
A male fae shrugged. “Does it matter? We’re screwed regardless.”
“Maybe we should just take Brendel up on her offer,” another male replied.
The second female scowled at him. “And this is why no one likes you, Whisper. You’re so quick to give up. Is that what they celebrate on your home planet? Cowardice?”
Whisper narrowed his eyes. “I’m one of the greatest fighters of Mundi,” he said, his toned chest swelling with pride. “I’m no coward. But I am trying to be practical, here.”
“If we give in to her demands, we’ll betray our own worlds,” the first female replied. “Our families, our friends, our people… they’ll all die!”
“They’ll all die, either way, Basti,” Whisper said. “Can’t you see that? We’re stuck here, unable to leave or do anything to help our planets. We don’t have a better option. Maybe, if we tell Brendel we’ll join her, like the others, she’ll give us some freedom to go on whatever missions she might have for us… and we can flee then.”
Basti shook her head. “That’s not what she needs us for. We’re not to be sent out in the field. We’re to replace our Hermessi parents if she decides to kill them, and to populate barren worlds that don’t have elementals of their own. You heard her talk about that third dimension where her core enemy resides. She wants us to go out there, after the ritual, and take over. She thinks we’ll have enough power to ascend and use pink water sources in that world.”
Ice thickened my veins, making it hard for me to keep it together. She was talking about the Earth and our Shade. Our Earthly Dimension. We’d already been aware that Brendel was eyeing it, post-ritual. The ritual itself was likely to affect the In-Between and most of the Supernatural Dimension, at best, in terms of instant annihilation of entire ecosystems. But the ritual itself also served to give the Hermessi more energy—enough, in fact, to allow them to spill into the Earthly Dimension and populate it with elementals loyal to Brendel.
Sofia and I exchanged worried looks, until she spotted something behind me. I turned around and followed her gaze, my breath stopping for a couple of seconds. Slouched in a dark corner, unconscious but still glowing amber beneath a couple of furs, was Sherus. It tore me apart on the inside to see him like this. It was as if he’d been thrown there, useless and worthless.
I moved to get to him, but Sofia caught my arm, giving me a sharp stare. She closed her eyes for a moment, and I heard her voice inside my head, thanks to our Telluris connection.
“Semper Telluris… Corrine, Ibrahim, check the southwest corner,” she said telepathically. I’d forgotten that we didn’t need to say it out loud to engage in conversation with someone in this modified spell version. “Sherus is there.”
“We’ll handle it. I think we should get him out first before we engage the other Hermessi children,” Corrine replied.
I kept my gaze on the group next to us. “You do that. Sherus is a priority in this case, given Taeral’s mission,” I said.
“What are you getting from the children, so far?” Sofia asked, watching through her red garnet lens as Corrine and Ibrahim made their way toward Sherus. “Over here, we have a group who’ve yet to join Brendel, but they’re on the fence about it.”
“We found a few on this side, as well,” Mona interjected, joining the mental communication line. It still felt so odd to hear more than one voice in my head with Telluris. I hadn’t gotten used to it yet. “But most of them, though reluctant, have pledged their allegiance to her. It’s the only way this will end, in their minds.”
“I’ve got about twenty good kids here,” Claudia said. “The rest of ’em are schmucks. Arrogant schmucks. They can’t wait to be Hermessi kings over their new worlds. It’s disgusting.”
“Power is seductive,” Kafei replied. “The majority of Hermessi children in this place are siding with Brendel because they don’t see a better choice. A few are willingly with her because, like I said, power is seductive. Hermessi children are still people… some good, some terrible. There is no moral code here, unfortunately, not while Brendel is actively trying to brainwash them into the ritual. We’ll have to use force.”
“Okay, let’s get Sherus out first,” I said. “Once he’s out, we’ll signal the group outside. Can you hear me, Samira?” I asked telepathically. Semper Telluris activated the entire hundred-crew communication. Everything we said in here could be heard by the others in our team, too.
“Roger that,” Samira’s voice came through.
“Almost there,” Ibrahim muttered.
He and Corrine were twenty feet away from Sherus, tiptoeing slowly between groups of Hermessi children. I noticed there were more of them around Sherus than anywhere else. Whether that was just a coincidence or done on purpose, I wasn’t sure. I didn’t like it.
Looking around the hall again, I noticed one Hermessi child looking in Sherus’s direction. He was tall, even in his sitting position. His hair was dark brown and shaggy, his eyes almost sparkling green. His ethereal appearance pointed out his origin—fae. But where from, I wondered? It didn’t matter, as his brow furrowed. He was watching something, and my throat closed up as I noticed the red garnet lens on his right eye. I hadn’t seen it right away.
“Corrine, Ibrahim, we have a problem,” I said through Telluris.
They both stilled to first look at me. Following my terrified gaze, they, too, saw the young Hermessi child scowling at them. He could see them. He turned his head slowly, surveying the room, and I instinctively gripped Sofia’s wrist, cursing under my breath. I didn’t even realize I’d muttered until I saw that one of the Hermessi children close to us had been startled, staring in our general direction.
“He can see us.” Corrine’s voice trembled.
I made eye contact with the Hermessi child. He slowly got up, his hands lighting up green. It wasn’t hard to identify his elemental origin. An Earth Hermessi child. Judging by the garb, which I could see clearly now, he came from the Emerald. He was the patron elemental’s son.
Please don’t say anything. Please…
“Everybody, pay attention!” the young fae hybrid said, raising his voice. “There are GASP people here, with us, as we speak.”
“Oh, this can’t be good,” Claudia said through Telluris.
“I recognize him,” Kiev replied. “I’ve seen him before.”
“He’s from the Emerald,” I said.
“Not that. He’s a GASP agent,” Kiev replied.
“Holy… No…” Mona murmured. “You’re right. We’ve met him, haven’t we?”
The other children stared at the Emerald fae for a few moments, just enough for me to understand the sudden increased complexity and difficulty of what we were about to do.
“What are you talking about, Gennen?” Whisper asked the Emerald fae.
“Gennen Feinn,” Kiev said through Telluri
s. “Yep. Former GASP agent. Went missing a week ago from the Emerald, along with a few other people suspected of being cult members.”
“GASP is here,” Gennen said. “And we can’t let them get away.”
That was why he had a red garnet lens. Why his hands were glowing that hostile green. He was about to attack us, and he was coaxing the others into assisting him. Quickly moving past this “holy crap” moment, I realized we still had an advantage.
Gennen was the only one who could see us, for the moment. We had to move extremely fast now. If the guardian Fire Hermessi had learned a thing or two from Brendel’s encounter with Taeral on Cerix, then they were bound to have the knowledge and magic needed to cancel out our invisibility spell. We were seconds away from a potential disaster, and Gennen needed to be silenced ASAP.
Taeral
For about ten minutes, we tried to come up with an idea for Riza’s safety. She’d stepped on what was probably one of many pressure plates in this room. There were traps in place, set up by the Soul Crusher as part of his challenge for Zetos. We’d barely gotten out of the first room, and we were facing yet another hurdle ahead.
“Having trouble there, kiddos?” The Soul Crusher’s voice echoed through the hall-sized room.
Looking around, there wasn’t anything to indicate a door. The walls were neatly built from perfectly polished stone bricks, which we’d already tried to break. They didn’t even budge, and we’d agreed that there was some type of kinetic energy at play.
“So, what’s this about?” Riza asked, remarkably calm despite her uncertain predicament. “Huh? Some sick game you’re playing while pretending it’s all meant to prove we’re worthy of claiming Zetos? Is that it?”
“Honey, don’t pout. It’s not a good look on you. You don’t want to die pouting,” the Soul Crusher replied dryly. “I simply did what I’m best at in order to make sure you deserve Zetos. Pardon me if it’s an uncomfortable experience. It’s not supposed to be nice and easy, like a walk in the sunshine.”
Eva chuckled bitterly. “Yeah, not a good reference for some of us.”
“Ah, right. You’re a vampire, among other things. No more sunlight for you,” the Soul Crusher said. “Nevertheless, I stand by my words. Get through, and Zetos is yours.”
“You said that in the previous room,” I shot back. “How many more are there?”
The Soul Crushed laughed. “As many as needed to fully assess what you’re made of.”
Herakles raised a hand, politely demanding our attention, while his gaze was still worriedly fixed on Riza. “I think I know what to do,” he said. We literally forgot about the Soul Crusher, turning our heads to focus on Herakles, instead. Riza’s wellbeing was top priority. “This part of the room where we are… it’s safe. Remember, we fell down here. Had there been traps, we would’ve triggered them.”
Glancing down, I did a quick count. There were twenty tiles, in total length and width, on this side of the room. Riza was literally one tile away from the safe zone, if we were to follow Herakles’s judgment.
“We don’t know what will happen when Riza moves off that pressure plate, but we do know that these twenty plates are safe,” Herakles added.
“So, if we pull her back, at least none of us stumble upon other booby traps, right?” Raphael replied, looking down.
“Exactly,” Herakles said.
“What happens once I step back, though?” Riza asked. “My legs are a tiny bit numb, and I can’t exactly shift to a misty lower body without triggering the damn thing.”
“I don’t think it matters, if we all duck,” Eira suggested. “We get you back, and we all hit the ground hard before anything gets fired at us. Pressure plates are universally used to shoot something at people. This has to be the case here, as well.”
“You guys are taking forever…” the Soul Crusher moaned.
“How about you shut your trap for once?” Herakles snapped, pointing an angry finger at the light-beam ceiling. The Soul Crusher giggled but obliged, much to my surprise. Content with this result, Herakles reached out to Riza. “Come on, Riza. On the count of three, okay?”
She gave him a nervous nod.
“One… two… three!” Herakles continued, and Riza jumped back. The pressure plate clicked back up. A split second later, we were all on the floor, reunited with Riza. Small, square holes opened along both long walls, as if the bricks had been made of nano-sized pebbles posing as bricks. Darts were shot at different heights.
Most of them missed, hitting the opposite walls and falling to the floor. Goosebumps raided my skin as I listened to the metallic clinks they made as they dropped. Silence settled over the room. Raphael groaned.
Instinctively, I raised my head to check him out. A dart protruded from his right shoulder.
“Too slow,” Raphael sighed.
One by one, we got up and gathered around him. He didn’t move an inch, and I had a feeling it wasn’t his intention. “Are you okay?” I asked him.
Amelia touched the feathery end of the dart, prompting Raphael to hiss from the pain. She pulled her hand back.
“No. It’s bad. It’s really bad…” he managed.
“Before I touch you with Eirexis, I need you to tell me what’s wrong,” I said. “We have to understand what kind of warfare he’s using against us.”
“Oh, screw you!” Raphael blurted. “I’m friggin’ paralyzed. It’s some kind of neurotoxin. I can’t move, but I can definitely feel pain. It’s burning through my shoulder.”
“I’m so sorry,” Amelia whispered.
“How were you too slow?” Herakles asked. “You’re one of the fastest creatures I know.”
I pressed one end of Eirexis against the back of Raphael’s neck. The symbols lit up white for a moment, as it healed him. As the seconds passed, Raphael regained his ability to move. He pulled the dart out himself, flinching. Tossing it aside, he gave Amelia a soft, gentle squeeze and served me with a smile.
“Thanks, buddy. Loving that nifty stick more and more,” he said. “As for your question, Herakles, I don’t know. I’m feeling a little sluggish, and it might have something to do with the agony we endured earlier in the previous room. Physically, we may be healed. Mentally, however… I’m honestly tired. It might be playing a role.”
“It’s not like you to admit such vulnerabilities,” Herakles replied.
“Gah, enough with the psychoanalysis, please!” Raphael retorted, rolling his eyes.
Lumi cleared her throat. “It’s not exhaustion of any kind,” she said, her gaze darting around us. “Can you not see them?”
“See what?” I asked.
Lumi’s eyes were slightly more sensitive, but once we all focused and looked around, we were able to notice them. And once we spotted them, we paid attention. There were tiny particles that hovered in the room, sparkling discreetly whenever the light caught them at the right angle. No wonder we’d not seen them straight away, given how they moved.
“What the hell are these?” Amelia wondered, watching as some of them gathered in clusters and stuck to her upper legs. They vanished as soon as they touched the leather suit. But I had a feeling they weren’t really gone.
“Nothing in this place is harmless or mere coincidence. Or natural, for that matter,” I said.
“So what are we looking at?” Varga replied, still confused.
Lumi moved her arms slowly. “I think they’re some kind of freezing particles,” she explained. “I can feel myself slowing down, much like what Raphael described just now.”
“And I don’t see it stopping anytime soon,” Nethissis added, looking around the room.
There had to be trillions of these particles in the air, and they were all drawn to us as soon as we reached their vicinity. Whenever I raised my hand, it inadvertently gathered more clusters, making my wrist feel old and crunchy. The effects were real and getting worse as time went by.
Dread rammed into me in cold waves as I realized what this meant. “The longer we�
��re in here, the slower we’ll get.”
We all got up, staring down at the rest of the floor ahead. There were hundreds of tiles, and at least half of them had likely been fitted with pressure plates, if not more. The logic of such a dangerous puzzle had already dictated that we’d be looking at a combination of trap and safe tiles. We had to get past them in order to reach the other side, where… a door was forming.
“Check that out,” I said, tapping Varga’s shoulder.
As if drawn with a laser, the rectangular shape of an exit became visible, glowing blue.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Herakles replied, breathing heavily.
“The only way out is through there, that much is clear,” Riza added, crossing her arms.
I exhaled sharply, knowing there was only one method of approaching this scenario. I was immortal, along with Lumi and Eira. I was also the de facto team leader. Naturally, I couldn’t let anyone else take chances with forging a path toward the newly made door.
“I’ll go ahead first,” I said. “The rest of you follow along the same plates. Should something get triggered, we duck. If needed, we move back to the last safe tile.”
Eva nodded, showing us a piece of chalk in her hand. “I’ll mark the safe ones. So I’ll be right behind you.”
“Got it,” Varga replied.
The rest of the crew offered me confident half-smiles as I turned to face the glowing door-line. The first tile was a trap, unwittingly discovered by Riza. I hopped on the next one after it. Nothing happened.
“Safe,” I said, and moved on to the next. A click made my instincts catch fire. “Duck!”
A Shade of Vampire 75: A Blade of Thieron Page 17
