Legacy: Volume I

The Ministry of Fire: Part 2

By Andrew Joseph Michael

WRITER’S NOTES:

Psionic Ability Types and the nicknames of their users

Spiritual Type:

Teleportation-Jumpers

Phasing-Phasers

Invisibility-Hiders

Medical Type:

Healing-Healers

Enhanced Senses-Tracers

Shapeshifting-Shifters

Mental Types:

Telepathy-Thinkers

Foresight-Seers

Telekinesis-Shielders

Physical Type:

Strength-Beaters

Speed-Runners

Invulnerability-Defenders

Chapter 1: The Old Man and the Dream

Psionic energy could be used for just about anything. To power homes, vehicles, and even weapons. We even discovered a method to use it to grow crops in abundance. Psionic energy was even being used to advance medicine - lengthening the average lifespan to unimaginable levels. I myself was in my forties, but I looked more like I was in my twenties.

Even still, I wondered what all these comforts were costing us, because people were already going out of their minds trying to get their hands on the stuff. However, I didn’t really have much time to care because I had my own problems to deal with; namely, taking care of my family. I already had children, another on the way, my wife now going through her third pregnancy.

The Ministry of Fire, a bastion of the beauty of nature amidst the backdrop of the urban jungle that made up most of the planet of Tarrus. The main headquarters for the Fire Ministry comprised a gigantic forest around fifty square miles that was surrounded by a transparent glass-like shield. The trees were as tall as mountains and possessed brightly colored leaves that differed depending on the section of the dome they comprised. The sections ranged from forests filled with leaves of green, red, pink, purple, orange, or yellow. At the center of the gargantuan forest was a huge volcano, about a mile in height, that towered above the trees. Black smoke puffed from the top of the volcano, going through the shield to disperse into the atmosphere. Squirts of lava could occasionally be seen spurting from the top, but this posed little danger to the Fire Elementals who could effortlessly control the flow of the magma. At the base of the volcano were two giant stone statues of a Lion and a Dragon who stood guard over gates covered in runes made of fire. This majestic venue was the place that Ryan Uruks now called home.

Ryan Uruks was a fifteen-year-old up-and-coming Elemental. After living off the streets as an urchin for five years, Ryan awakened his Elemental powers and was taken in by the Fire Ministry. That was the day Ryan vowed to learn as much as he could of the secret arts of Elemency to one day avenge the death of his family and destroy the Dark Creature that devastated his homeworld. Ryan was a half-breed. He was mostly human, but he had alien blood in his family line. Some of Ryan’s ancestry was comprised of Saurians, a reptilian race related to the Dragons. Because of this, Ryan had certain inhuman traits. Though still humanoid and boyish, Ryan’s body was covered in smooth, skin-like scales shaded in gold. The scales gave off an orange hue in a certain light, and could’ve been mistaken as a tan from a distance. Ryan possessed bright red eyes and short, messy scarlet hair as crimson as blood. Adding to his almost bestial appearance were his fingernails which were slightly longer than the norm, making them nearly claw-like, as well as his large canines that somewhat looked like fangs. He was slightly short for his age, and had started off his training looking a bit scrawny due to years of starving on the streets. However, because months of constant training and improved diet, Ryan was steadily growing taller and more muscular, though he had yet to notice these changes. Though Ryan is the hero of this story, he wasn’t feeling particularly heroic at the moment as he just bore witness to a violent assassination that reminded him of his traumatic past.

Ryan had almost recovered from his ordeal, but his hands were still shaking slightly. He sat in the Minister’s office while everyone buzzed around in a panic. Leon and the rest of Squad 99 had been assembled. Kavic, wearing a black nobleman’s business suit, stood in the corner appearing both wary and interested, as if watching a suspenseful holomovie. With his neatly combed blond hair, deep blue eyes, and dashing good looks, he could’ve been a movie star.

The Minister of Fire, Saria, was in deep conference with Eramar. She wore the flowing red and gold robes of a Minister, and Eramar wore the dress uniform of a high-ranking Wielder, a golden cape draped about his shoulders. Though Saria was thousands of years old, she looked like a beautiful woman in her mid-thirties, with a feline face, long, curly brown hair, brown eyes, and a tall, voluptuous figure. Eramar was probably hundreds of years old himself, but he, like most Elementals, wasn’t half as old as the Minister. Indeed, he looked quite grizzled with his scarred face, graying hair, hair, and orange glowing mechanical eye. Most would’ve thought Eramar twice as old as Saria at first glance, and wouldn’t even have guessed that the man had once been her student instead of the other way around.

Both Eramar and the Minister looked intensely worried, as well they should. War was coming to the Ministry, and so far the only thing Ryan had managed to do was show his complete incompetence as an Elemental. He still remembered the way he shut down after witnessing the horrible sight of Senator Randals’ headless corpse. Ryan had actually started to believe that he had what it took to become a top-of-the-line Elemental.

If this is what all Elementals have to deal with in the field, maybe I’m not ready for it … maybe I’m too weak after all.

The dark voice creeped its way into Ryan’s head again, scolding him as if he were its child. If you’re going to be mortified every time you see something grotesque, then you best quit now. Forget about vengeance while you remain as helpless as a toddler. This is the real world, boy. Did you think it would be pleasant?

Ryan tensed at hearing the dark voice again. Even though he knew that the dark voice was just a figment of his imagination caused by post-traumatic stress, it seemed so real and charismatic … almost as if it had a mind of its own, or at least a mind other than Ryan’s.

You really are an incompetent little cretin. I’m astounded that a lackadaisical dilettante like you has managed to survive for so long.

Okay, now I’m starting to get freaked out. Never a good sign when the evil voice in your head has a better vocabulary than you!

Saria turned her attention to Ryan, causing him to forget his inner monologue. “If I had time to deal with you, I’d make you rue the day you stole your first cookie out of your mother’s kitchen. But right now, I have bigger things to worry about than dealing with your … your …. whatever ludicrous catastrophe you might cook up next.”

Ryan hung his head low. Normally, he might respond to people’s criticism with humor, but he got the feeling that now wouldn't be a good time for jokes.

“Leon, I want you and the rest of Squad 99 to escort our guest to his chambers,” Saria said, gesturing to Kavic. Saria addressed Kavic apologetically, but resolutely. “I’m afraid that I must ask you to refrain from contacting the Emperor until we have resolved this matter.”

“I understand. I can only hope that this storm can be weathered with the least amount of bloodshed as possible.” Kavic remained polite and courteous, and even slightly sympathetic.

Either this guy is the kindest man who ever lived, or the best liar that ever lived.

Saria nodded and turned back to Leon. “Do not let him out of your sight. Also, try to keep Uruks from doing anything stupid.”

“Hey,” said Ryan stupidly.

Ha! I’ve already thwarted your efforts.

“Shut up, Grunt,” said Leon in irritation.

Man, that guy really ticks me off, thought Ryan with a huff.

“My lady, please,” said Leon with a desperate and pleading expression. “Don’t waste our abilities babysitting Kavic and the idiot.”

“Oh, idiot me. That’s just mean,” grumbled Ryan, still trying not to look quite as terrified and worthless as he felt.

Leon ignored him, as usual. “I have more than proven my worth to this Ministry, and so has Grafael. You will need all the help you can get. Please let us fight. Éclair and the others can guard Kavic.”

“I concur with the four-eyed one,” said Grafael, brandishing his giant hammer, as if imagining pounding a few Water Elemental heads with it.

“Well, I don’t concur, not unless you take me too,” said Éclair, fierce enough in her own right.

Leon turned on Éclair in exasperation and said, “This is too dangerous for-”

“For a First … or for a helpless little damsel like me. You may have a couple years on me, but I am just as much an asset to this Ministry as you, Lurranna. And if you think that I’m just going to let you go off and get yourself killed when I can help, then you don’t know me at all.”

It was the first time that Ryan had seen Éclair stand up to Leon. For just a moment, she seemed so powerful, almost like royalty. Ryan had a slight twinge of jealousy as Éclair's words meant she still regarded Leon with a great deal of passion. Rachel mirrored Ryan’s feelings as she groaned slightly and rolled her eyes in disgust.

I guess it would be too much to hope for Éclair to look that passionate while thinking about me. Ryan swallowed down his bitter feelings of envy and inadequacy. Now hardly seemed a good time to feel sorry for himself.

Saria put a hand to her forehead and sighed. “None of you are going anywhere but to the guest chambers, where you will be safe. You are all still untested rookies. Even with this team's impressive accomplishments, none of you have experienced war. It’s an adult’s world. I can’t defend this Ministry while worrying about any of you. Starbeard put this team under my protection when he left, and as much as I may despise him, I still owe him enough to see to it that all of you survive to adulthood.”

“But,” started Leon in protest.

“That’s an order, Lurranna. Do not test the Minister of Fire!” Saria’s voice became cold and menacing. The air seemed to crackle and spark from her presence. This was not a woman to be trifled with.

Leon wrung his hands, but finally nodded his head in defeat.

---

Moments later, every member of Squad 99 escorted the Viceroy to his room. Although, from the way the Minister had been talking about him, Ryan felt like they were escorting him as well. Pity since this was the first time he could remember them all being together for the longest time.

Grafael wore his standard red and silver armor, his large, blue-scaled biceps proudly displayed as always, and his long tail thumping the floor as he walked. Tork, as usual, barely wore a thing besides his pants and his weapons, his burly, golden-scaled chest appearing as powerful as ever. Tork’s large, leathery wings and long tail seemed quite cumbersome, but he still managed to walk effortlessly through the corridors without bumping into anything or anyone. Both could be considered Dragons, though Tork had wings and Grafael did not. Tork also had horns, long, spiky ears, and black fur on his head that went down his long neck in a way that resembled a horse’s mane. In contrast, Grafael had spikes on the top of his head and small, slightly pointed ears almost like an Elf’s. They were nearly the same height, though Grafael was bulkier and taller at around eight feet whereas Tork was closer to seven and a half feet. Despite being shorter and not as muscled as Grafael, Tork might’ve appeared bigger because of his large wings hanging behind his shoulders.

Leon and Rachel both wore the red armor of the Fire Ministry with markings of Seconds, though Leon’s armor was more maroon than red, and he wore a black cloak over his armor. Ryan’s own training armor, though similar in design, was much less adorned than theirs, and lacked the two notches of Seconds. Rachel, though not as beautiful as Éclair, was still quite pretty, with an angular face like Saria’s. She was a little taller than Éclair, and looked just as toned, but her breasts weren’t nearly as impressive. Her shoulder-length, curly brown hair was the same shade as her grandmother’s, the Minister of Fire, but much shorter. Leon had short cropped black hair neatly trimmed as always. The only thing darker than his hair were his eyes behind his elegant glasses which sat on a pale, well-chiseled face. He was also quite fit and lean, as were most Elementals in general. Not overtly muscular like Grafael, but obviously still quite athletic. Worst of all, he was tall. Way taller than Ryan, a fact increasingly nettling.

And Éclair … Éclair was as gorgeous as ever in her white training armor and blue coat which showed a single notch on her shoulder, indicating her rank as a First. He always found it interesting how the Fire Ministry allowed Éclair to wear her own colors instead of the traditional red and gold. But since the insignia of the Lion and the Dragon was displayed prominently on her breastplate, he supposed that it didn’t matter. She was just a little bit shorter than Rachel, but still quite tall for a girl. Even more impressive, her figure was somehow just as sensuous as the Fire Minister’s. Though she wasn’t quite as mature as the Fire Minister given her youthful appearance, her feminine grace may have surpassed Saria’s with her long, silver-gray hair, regal cheekbones, and violet eyes. Her fair skin could’ve almost been called pale, but still held a creamy quality that appeared quite alluring. Even with her thin form, Éclair was by no means dainty. Indeed, Ryan knew how athletic she was all too well. Those arms and long legs, though slim, were well-muscled due to years of harsh Elemental training. Ryan could probably just stare at her for hours and feel completely content.

As they walked down the hallway with Kavic in between Leon and Grafael, Ryan figured he might as well try to talk with Éclair a little. Maybe she could make him feel less depressed. She had always managed to do so in the past.

“So, an Elemental war, huh? They can’t be that bad, right? I mean if they’ve happened before and all twelve Ministries are still standing?”

Éclair’s face remained unreadable, which didn’t help with the overall feeling of dread that hung in the air. In a quiet voice, she said, “The last time that the Fire and the Water fought, it nearly decimated both Ministries. What you don’t understand is that the war is not just confined to here, on this planet. There are millions of Elementals across thousands of stars, and now, most of them will be fighting in a bloody conflict without end. The Elementals try to keep the code as best they can, but even so, the amount of destruction will be enormous. Entire planets have been rendered uninhabitable by battling Elementals in the past, and they didn’t even need any advanced weaponry to do so. Their powers alone were devastating enough. I imagine that even if we do survive this war, we won’t survive the aftermath, not if Chissler has anything to say about it.”

“Hmm. Well, aren’t you the optimistic one,” said Ryan, trying in vain to lighten the mood as much for his sake as for Éclair’s.

“This isn’t a game, Ryan!” cried out Éclair with a sudden burst of outrage.

In a moment of clarity, Ryan realized something tremendous about Éclair. She felt just as scared and alone as he did, maybe even more so since she knew more about wars. She tried to appear strong for all their sakes, but Éclair was in just as much mental agony as anyone else. Ryan now felt ashamed that he had allowed himself to succumb to his self-pity. If only he could just find the courage deep within himself … if only he could just be strong for Éclair’s sake.

Ryan then remembered something his father had told him once. Everything you will ever need to survive is within you. You just have to dig deep enough to find it.

Trust me, dad. I’ve been looking, but there really isn’t anything there. The only reason I’ve made it this far is because of luck or because someone, like that Leon-jerk, always saves me at the last second. I’m not a hero like you were, dad. I’m not anything at all but a burden.

The moment you admit defeat is the moment that defeat shackles you.

Wait a minute, dad never said that.

Drawing him out of his daydreaming, Éclair’s beautiful, violet eyes melted into his own. “Ryan, aren’t you listening to me? This could be the end of the Fire Ministry and you’re treating it like a joke.”

Ryan wanted to soothe Éclair’s worries, but then, he wasn’t much of a sensitive type, so he had no idea how to make girls feel better. “I get it. I really do. From now on, you’re looking at a new Ryan. A serious Ryan.”

As he spoke to Éclair, Ryan didn’t notice that they were walking into Kavic’s chamber, and so he embarrassingly mistook the wall for the door. Startled from running headfirst into the wall, he staggered back, suddenly tripping on a mop bucket behind him. Ryan fell head over heels, the back of his skull slamming against the hard metal floor. Stars floated briefly across his vision, and then everything went dark.

---

After Ryan had blacked out, that feeling came of being in a lucid dream, giving him slight control over the dream. Ryan entertained himself by flying around the dream world of Tarrus. All the buildings and concrete roads floated in midair like a strange twilight zone. The light was dim and failing, like the light of the setting sun.

Ghostly apparitions of his past haunted the floating streets of Tarrus. Their forms were transparent, and their skin deathly white. Many of them were people he knew from his village. Old Alexander, Elven children, the old human lady that would always shoo him away with a broom like he had the plague. They just floated in the clouds watching him expectantly with their ghostly expressions. Ryan got the feeling that they were waiting on him somehow, or perhaps waiting for him to do something.

Ryan then heard a strange musical noise whistling softly through the air. Grateful for a distraction from the ghosts, Ryan followed the sound to its source. He didn’t have to search for very long. Sitting in a floating rocking chair, playing an enchanting tune from a stick-shaped instrument, was Zand, the mysterious old man that Ryan met at the market.

Zand wore his customary ragged gray robes that covered him from the neck down. Somehow, those robes didn’t suit him. It seemed to Ryan that Zand was a man who should be draped in finery. Given the way he carried himself and spoke, he seemed far too dignified to be wearing something unfit even for a beggar. Zand had bright green eyes behind silver spectacles, long white hair tied in a ponytail, and a well-trimmed short beard, but no mustache. He was tall, taller than Leon, in fact, and seemed well-built for such an old man. There had always been a timeless quality to Zand that made his age difficult to place. With his face and his beard, he could’ve been in his sixties or seventies, but his lean build seemed to indicate a much younger man.

“Zand,” called Ryan as he floated closer to the old hobo. “What are you doing in my dream, and what’s that thing you’re holding?”

Zand stopped playing the tune, which made Ryan a little sad. “This is called a flute, an ancient musical instrument from Earth. I’m rather taken to it myself.”

Zand put the flute to his lips and played the tune again. The sound soothed away Ryan’s sorrow and fears with a single note.

“What is that song you’re playing?”

Zand stopped again. If he felt annoyed by Ryan’s interruptions, he didn’t show it. Zand just laughed pleasantly, much the same way that a grandfather would for his grandson.

“It’s called Amazing Grace. An appropriate melody considering the situation that we now face.”

The Dream-Zand acted as mysterious and aloof to Ryan as the real Zand. “What do you mean?”

Zand’s smile deepened as if he had been waiting for Ryan to ask that question. “Well, think about it. Everyone is rushing off to war up there. So set in their ways, so determined to do what is right that none of them are stopping to think whether or not it is right. If someone would just settle down and think things through rationally, they might recognize that they are rushing to their deaths needlessly.

“You see, the song Amazing Grace was written by a slaver on Ancient Earth who finally became sick of the evil acts he was taking part in and committed his life to repentance. It is a song that begs for forgiveness - a melody of sorrow and joy, acknowledging the fact that we are far from perfect beings; but even then, there is still room for reconciliation … there is still the possibility of redemption. You remember what I told you when we first met, don’t you, Ryan? What is it that we lack?”

Ryan had to think about that for a few seconds. “Uh … compassion,” he said hesitantly.

Zand’s eyes twinkled in delight at the response. For some reason, Ryan got the urge to jump in his lap and hug him. There was just something so warm about the old guy that made him seem like the granddad that Ryan always wanted.

“Exactly, Ryan! Simple childlike compassion is what we lack. I’m afraid that in this day and age, people are losing their ability to empathize with one another. They are too wrapped up in their own troubles and biases that they lose sight of the fact that those on the other side feel much the same way.

“The dehumanization of our enemies has led to more catastrophes in human history than I care to remember. It is what constantly separates different ethnic groups and cultures that thrive in this universe. It is what keeps us biting at each other’s throats like a pack of wild hyenas.

“And yes, it is what leads to the persecution of the innocent … like you and your friends, Tork and Grafael. Good choice of brothers by the way. You can usually tell a lot about a man’s character by how he chooses his friends. In this case, I would say that you have chosen wisely.”

Zand looked down at the flute again sadly, like he was thinking of possibilities that Ryan couldn’t possibly fathom. “You see, the reason I believe that Amazing Grace is applicable to this situation is that if just one person would stop and think more like the humble slaver in the song, with a spirit of understanding, love, and forgiveness … then we might have a chance to stay this madness before it has a chance to wreak its most dire consequences.”

If he is really from my own brain, then I never thought I could sound so wise and mystical. However, why would my subconscious be defending the Ministry of Water after everything they’ve done?

“Hold on for a moment. Back up strange and mystical projection of my subconscious mind that resembles Zand. You can’t seriously be defending the Ministry of Water. I mean, sure … war sucks, but in this case, it’s kind of unavoidable, right?

“First of all, the Ministry of Water tried to have me and a whole bunch of future Elementals ousted with the whole Preserver and mercenary thing. And then, they send this psychotic Mystic who almost tricks me into killing Tork. Eramar even said that they might have been behind the assassination in the first place, killing one of their own ambassadors just as an excuse to start a war. If you want my opinion, they got it coming.”

Zand’s smile turned to a frown, like he had decided that Ryan wasn’t that smart anymore. “It’s true that there are those who have fallen so far that they can never be saved. Those who have spent so long in the shadows that they can no longer see the light.”

Zand turned away for a moment to stare off into the distance. His voice sounded so depressed, like he remembered something hurtful from his past. Ryan wondered what could’ve happened to make this old man seem so sad sometimes.

“However, I do not believe that to be the case here, not with the Ministry of Water,” said Zand, some of his old energy returning. “I once told you that things are not always as they seem. Sometimes the truth is hidden behind a shrouded veil that can only be penetrated by a pure and courageous heart. I can tell you that there is an enemy here, Ryan. But it is not who you think it to be.”

Ryan discarded all sanity and regarded this apparition of Zand as a real person. “Alright, I can read between the lines. You’re saying that someone else set this up. Someone’s pulling the strings from the sidelines to make both Ministries go to war. Who is it?”

Zand’s eyes watered with emotion. His face suddenly became so pained and sorrowful that Ryan almost started crying himself. “They … It’s …” Zand’s mouth opened, but nothing came out, almost like he desperately wanted to say something, but was physically unable to do so.

“I’m sorry, Ryan. I truly am, but I cannot reveal any more than I have already. To do so would risk upsetting the scales, a transgression against the ancient law that cannot be done, at least not by me. You and your friends must find out the rest on your own. It pains me to say this, but that is how it must be. Our destinies are not meant to collide, not yet anyway. Not until you are ready.”

Despite the sincerity in his voice, Ryan couldn’t help but get angry at the figment of his imagination, whom he had now decided might be more than a figment. Clenching his fist with one hand, Ryan pointed an accusing finger in the old man’s face with his other hand.

“What the hell does that even mean? First you pop into my head and tell me that the bad guys are not the real bad guys, and that the real bad guys are pulling the strings from the outside, eating popcorn and laughing while we kill each other!

“Then you won’t even tell me who the real bad guys are! Enough of this mystical and mysterious crap! Tell me who’s behind this so that I can protect my friends! Tell me what I need to know so that I can actually do something useful for once, and maybe not have to see my family get massacred all over again!”

Until that moment, Ryan didn’t know just how emotional he felt about the whole thing. He didn’t know how angry and scared he’d become until he felt the tears sliding down his face.

Zand shook his head sadly, his own eyes filled with tears. Zand’s bearing was one of such empathy, such complete understanding, that Ryan found it very difficult to remain angry at the old sage. “Again, all I can say is that I’m sorry, Ryan. You have suffered so much already. The last thing that I wanted to do was add to your burdens.”

Then Zand’s face brightened a little and the dream seemed a bit less dim.

“But I have faith in you. I believe that you and your friends have what it takes to save us all from this fate. Remember what your father taught you all those years ago. Everything that you will ever need to survive is within you. You just have to dig deep enough to find it. Richard was a wise man. Much wiser than I am in many ways.”

The flute floated into the air and started playing a musical note all on its own, a note more upbeat and urgent than the one from before, almost like an alarm.

“My time is up. I must go now. Remember that as strong as you are, you are nothing without your friends. There was a reason I wanted you in Squad 99. It was so that you could learn the value of teamwork as well as self-worth.

“Unless you can trust in your friends as much as you trust in yourself, this mission is doomed to fail. Also, remember this phrase and hopefully it will guide you. ‘To find the ending, you must start at the beginning.’ That is all I can tell you for now, but I promise that someday, there will be no secrets between us. The rest is up to you. Goodbye, Ryan.”

Light filled up the dreamscape, hazing out Zand and everything else. All the floating buildings and streets became blanked out by a white canvas of light. Ryan realized that he was waking up.

“Wait, you still haven’t told me who the real bad guy is. Is it Chissler, or maybe even Kavic?”

Zand only repeated, “Goodbye.” His voice moved farther away, the light obscuring his face.

There was one last question nagging at Ryan’s mind, but he dreaded to ask it. “Is the one behind this the same one who murdered my family five years ago?”

But Zand had already faded into a beam of light. Ryan opened his eyes.

---

Ryan woke up in the middle of a room full of candles. Rachel stood over him sneering as usual. “See! What did I tell you? The twerp’s fine. His head’s harder than Chrome Steel. It’ll take a lot more than that before we’re rid of him.”

Kavic sat on a gray blanketed bed, with Grafael and Tork standing on either side of him. Éclair stood by Rachel looking worried, which pleased Ryan. Leon leaned against the wall looking as cool and nonchalant as ever, which didn’t please Ryan.

“Oh, joy. You’re not dead. Now I can move on with my life,” said Leon dryly.

Jerk thinks he’s so cool. That’s it! I’m gonna… Wait a minute, I have bigger things to worry about than Leon. Either I just had a mystical encounter that will change the course of the war, or I am losing my mind! Either way, life sucks right now!

“The Ministry of Water didn’t send the Mystic!” spouted out Ryan.

“What?” asked Leon walking forward almost threateningly.

Ryan decided that Leon would be the most important one to convince. Leon was the leader, as much as Ryan hated to admit. Wherever he went, the others were bound to follow.

“The Mystic wasn’t working for the Ministry of Water,” said Ryan, turning all his attention to Leon. “This entire war has been a setup.”

Leon stared at Ryan for a few seconds, as if he were trying to read his mind to understand where this madness came from.

Rachel started laughing. “Okay. Maybe the idiot hit his head harder than I thought.”

“I’m not crazy! I just know it’s the truth.”

“And you just expect us to take your word for it, based on what exactly?” asked Leon, as if Ryan was a fly he wanted to swat.

“I … I had a dream.”

Rachel laughed again, and Grafael scratched his head in confusion. Tork bit his claws nervously, like he didn’t know whose side to take. Leon just kept watching Ryan like a hawk. As for Éclair, her face appeared unreadable.

“In case you don’t know this about Elementals, we are still human. Which means that dreams are most likely what they appear to be … just dreams,” said Rachel. “You can’t expect us to gasp in awe every time you have a psychotic episode.”

“Who was in the dream?” asked Éclair suddenly. She looked to be at a crossroads between panic and hope. “Who told you these things?”

“An old guy in a gray cloak. I met him a few months back in the marketplace outside the Ministry. He was playing something called a flute, and then he told me that ‘our enemy is not who we think it to be’.”

Éclair’s eyes popped.

Okay, if that is not suspicious, I don’t know what is!

Ryan wanted to ask her if she knew anything, but he didn’t want to confront her in front of everyone like this. He got the feeling that whatever Éclair’s secret might be, it didn’t pertain to the crises at hand.

Rachel sniffed, unconvinced as ever. “Oh! Okay! That makes it more believable. An old man playing an instrument that nobody has seen in a thousand years just waltzes into your dreams and tells you that the Ministry of Water isn’t really our enemy when they’re marshaling their armies to kill us all as we speak. Well, in that case, why don’t we just go out there and introduce them to the magical old man who lives in your head? I’m sure that’ll work!”

Ryan felt a lump rise in his throat. This was going even worse than he thought it would. In desperation, Ryan turned to Tork and Grafael. “Tork! Grafy! You guys believe me, right!”

Tork twiddled his fingers. “Well, Ryan old boy, you know I’m with you, yes? It’s just that … well … in this case, I’d have to agree with Rachel. I hesitate to say it, but you have gone bonkers, my dear chap.” Tork grimaced as if he had just said something completely inappropriate.

Grafael continued scratching his head, obviously still befuddled. “All this talk of dreams and magical old men playing flutes is out of my comfort zone. It’s giving me a headache! I am not much adept at philosophy. I am a warrior. I defeat my opponents. I try not to complicate things any further than that. If I cannot physically crush it with my strength, then it is not a problem I am suited to deal with.” Grafael seemed uncomfortable, like just saying that much was too much philosophizing for him.

In one final act of desperation, Ryan turned to one person who seemed to be listening to him. “Éclair, please! I’m not crazy and I’m not making this up! This could be our only chance to stop a war! Even if I’m wrong, what’s the harm in looking into it? Are we supposed to just sit idly by in this room while our comrades are fighting a battle that they may not have to fight?

“My dad taught me that in order to know the answers to our questions, we have to be willing to find them for ourselves. Come on, Éclair. Isn’t that why you became an Elemental in the first place instead of just doing what your family told you to do?”

Éclair’s discomfort appeared to intensify exponentially. Ryan’s words seemed to upset her deeply, but he didn’t know why. Éclair backed away slowly from Ryan as her head swiveled to the left and right, as if wishing for a place to hide.

“I … I … I don’t-”

“I think he’s telling the truth,” said Leon suddenly.

“WHAT?!” burst out Rachel very loudly.

Rachel had been smirking smugly since no one took Ryan seriously. Now she looked at Leon like her whole world had been shattered - like the boy of her dreams wasn’t as cool as she had fantasized him to be. Then Rachel chuckled as if she thought Leon meant something else.

“Oh, Leon. You had me worried there. Sure, he believes what he says is true. I wasn’t accusing him of lying, just of being slightly crazy … and stupid … which he is.”

“And I wasn’t saying that I believe the whole dream thing,” responded Leon. “I simply said that I think he’s telling the truth. I’ve felt that something was amiss ever since this whole trouble with the Ministry of Water happened. It occurred too close to the current skirmish between the Ministries of Earth and Air. I don’t put much stock in coincidences, and neither should you.”

For once, Rachel became speechless. “Wha … I … he-”

Leon turned back to Ryan. “I’ve never been able to put my finger on what led me to these suspicions, and even now the answer eludes me, but you have reminded me that I mustn’t take things for granted. That I should seek out my own answers, see the truth for my own eyes. I believe that this is worth looking into, and it certainly has more appeal than just sitting here watching a sketchy politician.” Leon turned to Kavic apologetically. “No offense.”

Kavic spread his hands out in front of him. “None taken, Master Lurranna. I’m used to it by now. At any rate, I’d have to concur with the Uruks child. If my opinion counts for anything, which I doubt it does … a sleuth’s deduction for clues to an unseen riddle certainly seems more interesting than waiting idly all day.”

Ryan could hardly believe his ears. “Wait, wait, wait! You actually want to come along with us?”

Ryan had suspected that Kavic was somehow involved and that he’d try to prevent any investigation, but once again, Kavic surprised him.

“Of course,” replied Kavic. “You are still my escorts, are you not? Your job is to look after me while I am a guest of the Ministry of Fire. I see no reason why you can’t do that while searching for clues that pertain to our current conundrum.”

“Hmm, nice wordplay, old chap,” said Tork admiringly. “I think I’ll write that down.”

Then the Dragon pulled out an old-fashioned paper notepad from his pants and started scribbling something with a black-feathered quill.

Does he just keep a notepad with him all the time? Better question, where was he keeping it? I don’t see in pockets on that loincloth thing.

Rachel waved her hands dramatically. “Hello! First of all, no one is going anywhere, because even if Ryan’s mental breakdown has any relevance, we don’t even know where to go to look for clues in the first place!”

Rachel spoke like a despot trying to quell a mutiny. Fortunately, Ryan thought that he might’ve already deciphered the first clue that Zand had left for him.

“Before I woke up, I heard that ‘to find the ending, one must first start at the beginning.’ I think I finally know what he meant by that. We have to investigate the man who started all of this. Hamma Steel. Hopefully, no one will notice if we just take a quick peek into his room.”

Chapter 2: Claustrophobia

As humanity dealt with the joys and troubles that came from our newfound use of the sleeping Dragon, we were unexpectedly contacted by some of our nonhuman neighbors. It had been so many years since we had even heard from them that we almost forgot about their existence. But they were still around, and they were not happy.

Éclair followed in the back while Ryan and Leon walked in front, and the rest of the team surrounded Kavic. Although, Éclair had a difficult time seeing the man harming a fly. He just seemed so gentle and genuine, like he was the kindest and most courteous man that ever lived.

Still, even with his docile demeanor, Éclair couldn’t shake the feeling that the man was hiding something. Even the seemingly benign hid venom somewhere, especially in the case of bureaucrats. Whatever secrets he kept, Éclair imagined that she had best be wary of the politician until she found out.

However, Éclair was mostly concerned about the old man in Ryan’s dream who sounded just like … like … No, she couldn’t even bring herself to say the name in her head, not with so much on the line. All she knew was that no one should know about Starbeard at this point.

He had made that absolutely clear to Éclair all those years ago when he vanished shortly after saving her life. He was by far the oldest, wisest, and most powerful Elemental Éclair had ever met, possibly the most powerful Elemental that had ever lived. If he said to do something, it would take unequaled foolishness not to.

Éclair suspected that he might’ve used Elemency to infiltrate Ryan’s mind and send him the message, but even that might prove dangerous, especially in a place where even dreams were monitored by the Mental Division on occasion. Right now, Éclair’s old mentor was a fugitive from all of the Tarrus Empire, including the Ministry of Fire. As powerful as he was, he could still be captured and executed since even his powers had their limits. If that happened, the last chance for peace and freedom in the universe would die. More than that, Éclair would be heartbroken.

No, I can’t think of that right now! If Ryan is right, then there is a chance of stopping this war before it has a chance to start. Right now, both Leon and Ryan need me! I can’t afford to let them down!

As they approached Hamma’s quarters, Éclair saw a guard blocking their way. Éclair cursed silently. She knew that no one would ever believe them, more than that, no one would have time to believe them since they now faced the possibility of invasion.

The Elemental looked to be somewhere in his late twenties, had thinning blond hair, and was decidedly rotund, a rarity among Elementals. Éclair recognized the portly man as the strange but sweet Second named Smith Michael. It was always difficult saying his whole name since he had two first names. Most people called him Skippy since he had once worked aboard a privately owned trading freighter before he joined the Ministry. Being a captain, most people expected him to be pretty eccentric, which he was, but he was also fairly polite and kind of awkward around women; Éclair knew this from experience.

He loved telling stories about some of the things he saw on his voyages as a freighter crewman. Éclair often wondered if half the things he spoke of were real. It was a little difficult to picture gigantic worms that floated in space and occasionally swallowed asteroids and ships in their path. But despite the incredible nature of his tales, Éclair always enjoyed listening to his stories; it reminded her of the time with Starbeard in a way. Still, he wouldn’t be easy to get past being a stickler for rules and discipline … an unfortunate habit that came from being raised on a ship.

Skippy waved them down and said, “Ahoy there, mates. What brings ye to these whereabouts?”

His nickname also came from the pirate gig he liked to do, but Éclair could’ve sworn she heard him speaking normally while he talked with his mother on the holophone.

Leon smiled nonchalantly and said, “Hello, Second Smith Michael.”

“Oh, please. Call me Skippy. Easier than saying two first names, eh?”

“Right, Skippy. We’re here to-”

“An old dude in a floating rocking chair playing a flute sent us here. We need to investigate the Mystic, Hamma Steel, and possibly stop a war,” blurted out Ryan, interrupting an irritated-looking Leon.

Éclair sighed. Sometimes I wonder if that kid is going to make it all the way through puberty.

Skippy stared at Ryan for a moment as if he were a strange lifeform that he’d encountered on his journeys into deep space. Then he threw his head back and started laughing in a high-pitched chortle that turned into a squeal from time to time.

Éclair had seen Skippy laughing like this before, and it usually lasted a full minute depending on the joke. He must’ve found Ryan’s explanation exceptionally funny, because he went a went a good two minutes of constant laughter. Everyone kind of shuffled their feet awkwardly, but Ryan looked more angry than uncomfortable.

Skippy finally got ahold of himself, his face returning to normal so fast that it seemed unnerving. “You’re serious, aren’t you, matey?”

“Serious as the plague,” grunted Ryan, still glaring up at the old sailor.

Skippy turned to Rachel. “Have you had him looked at?”

Rachel groaned. “We tried. Trust me. He’s incurable.”

“Hey, I am not incurable. I’m incorrigible. There’s a difference.”

Not that he knew what either words meant, probably, thought Éclair with wry satisfaction.

Rachel slapped her head in defeat.

Ryan turned back to Skippy and said, “Can you let us in?”

Skippy chuckled, almost starting another fit of laughter. “Look here, matey. The place has already been stripped clean by the investigation squad. Anything worth looking into is already in the forensics labs.”

“Then why are you here?” asked Ryan.

Skippy huffed indignantly. “I’m here to keep snotnosed snots like you from meddling where they’re not supposed to be. A Mystic lived in there, you know?! Even if the place was already scanned, who knows what kind of dark Elemency that snake might’ve hidden in there for anyone prying around. As of now, the cleansing squads have had their hands full preparing for the war, so no one has had time to get in there and check to see if there are still any unfriendly spells in the work. Until they get here, I have orders to keep this room off-limits to all nonessentials. That includes you.”

Ryan gave his best puppy dog face and said, “Oh, come on buddy, old chum. Do a guy a solid.”

“No.”

“Please.”

“No.”

“Pretty please.”

“No.”

“Pretty please with a cherry on top.”

“No.”

“Pretty please with sugar on top.”

“No!”

“Pretty please with sugar and cherries on top!”

“NO!!”

“Pretty please with sugar and cherries and a bikini magazine on top!”

“NO, NO, NO! For the last blipping time! NO! Now get out of here before I haul you all off for mutiny,” said Skippy, his old sailor charisma coming back.

Ryan hung his head. “Well, I got nothing. I ran out of deserts. And the bikini magazine was a bit of a long shot. But hey, you never know until you try.”

Éclair suddenly heard Leon’s voice in her head. “Éclair, if you distract him, I can get behind him and knock him out with a small telepathic technique. Don’t worry, it won’t hurt him. It’ll just put him to sleep for perhaps an hour, but I need you to keep him busy until I’m in position. For this to work, I need to touch him in a certain spot. It’s the only way to align our brainwaves properly since I’m not that skilled with telepathy yet.”

Éclair nodded mentally and strode up to Skippy, doing her best to draw attention to herself. As much as it made her feel uncomfortable, she just knew that whatever they were looking for was behind that door, so she had to play the flirtatious schoolgirl for now.

“Oh, Skippy,” Éclair said seductively, or at least her best impression of a seductive voice. “Do you think you can tell me one of your stories before we go? I just love listening to them, especially when you talk about how brave you were.”

Seriously! That’s the best you can do, Éclair, she said to herself.

Boys must have been dumber than Éclair thought they were, because Skippy’s cheeks turned bright red as he glanced from side to side, looking both pleased and uncomfortable. “Well, I suppose one story won’t hurt if it’s for you, lass. So, there I was, in the grips of death once again while I looked down the maw of the gigantic space worm.”

“You mean a wormhole?” asked Ryan in confusion.

“No, an actual worm; bigger than most capital ships, and with an appetite to match. Its glowing red eyes looked up and down the hull of our ship with hungry ambition. It opened its massive maw with thousands of teeth that rotated around its circular jaws like a giant buzz-saw.

“As I looked down that monster’s gullet, there seemed to be no end. Even if the ship survived the teeth, I’d be stuck in that sucker’s belly for the rest of eternity. It looked like this would be the end of the voyage of the Little Mermaid.”

Ryan looked at Skippy in disgust. “Your ship was called the Little Mermaid?”

Skippy was too wrapped up in his storytelling to pay Ryan any heed. “As I was writing my own will and testament, an epiphany came to old Skippy. Me grandfather was the one who told me stories of the Giant Space Worms, and he said that the legends spoke of a weakness of the beasts. So just as the creature was about to swallow me ship and me crew, I conferred with the cap’n, giving him the most daring and mad plan ever conceived by man. We-”

Leon crept up behind the former freighter crewman and placed two fingers at the back of his neck. Skippy went out like a light and rather unceremoniously fell right on top of a surprised Ryan. Skippy was far from a small man and had a rather stout physique, so Ryan’s short body became crushed under 250 pounds of pure Skippy.

“Puffffer grewbuba! Gee hmmm uuufff meeeee!” cried Ryan, his voice muffled by Skippy’s unconscious body.

Éclair stifled a giggle, but Rachel didn’t seem so pleased.

“Have you all lost it?! We could get expelled for this!”

Leon seemed unfazed by Rachel’s fury. “If it means saving the Ministry, then so be it. What’s done is done, so no use griping about it now.”

Ryan managed to wriggle from under Skippy’s body, gulping for air like he almost drowned. “As long as I don’t have to carry Skippy anymore, then it works for me!”

“Great,” cried Rachel. “We can add assault to our temporary lapse into insanity! Fine with me! What do I care?”

As soon as they walked into the room, Éclair knew that something was definitely wrong. She didn’t how she knew, she just sensed it. The room looked much the same as many other military-styled quarters in the Ministry of Fire, except with less homely decorations. The walls were gray, the bed sheets were gray; pretty much everything was gray.

After reaching First Level, Elementals were allowed to liven up their quarters with a little interior decoration, but apparently, Hamma liked the gray atmosphere. Maybe it just went with his personality, being an evil psychopath and all. Or maybe the room just looked barren and hollow after the investigation squads picked it clean. Either way, something in the air put Éclair on edge … something sinister.

“Something’s wrong, we shouldn’t be here,” warned Éclair in an ominous voice.

“Oh, you gettin’ a weird vibe too,” said Ryan. “Yeah, I’m thinking that investigation squad must’ve missed something, because I definitely feel like something is here.”

Rachel sniffed. “Well, my ‘psycho senses’ aren’t tingling. But what do I know? I’m just the only sane person in the group.”

“I’d like to think I’m sane,” said Tork. “Somewhat.”

“I appreciate the encouragement, Tork! You’re a jewel,” said Rachel rather sarcastically.

“Quiet! All of you,” hushed Leon, raising his hand. “There is something wrong here. Something dark at work within these walls, and it knows we’re here.”

“Well, I’d think it would know since this place is kind of cramped. Not much room for error. Heh! Get it! Room for error, ‘cause we’re in a bedroom,” joked Ryan, trying to lighten the mood, but as usual only succeeded in annoying everyone.

Before Éclair could shush Ryan, she heard a groan rumble through the walls and the floor. Éclair may have yelped a little in surprise, but not nearly as loud as Ryan did, and not nearly as high-pitched as he did either.

“Did you hear that?” gasped Grafael.

“Yeah, the walls yawned, and Éclair screamed,” said Ryan a little too quickly. “I didn’t scream because I obviously don’t scream like a girl!”

The walls groaned again, violently enough that Éclair almost fell.

“You have angered the room, Uruks! Repent and maybe it will spare us,” whispered Grafael urgently, clearly not his usual warrior self. Éclair knew Grafael to be one of the bravest fighters on the planet, but when he faced anything with even a hint of the supernatural, he became as timid as a kitten.

“Uh,” said Ryan in a patronizing voice, trying to pat the walls reassuringly. “Sorry, your roomship. I didn’t mean to insult your size and crampiness. Personally, I like enclosed spaces.”

If Éclair wasn’t so terrified, she might have thought the whole ordeal rather funny. Grafael and Ryan, the two knuckleheads of the group united in an act of stupidity. However, the atmosphere in the room made Éclair’s skin tingle. It was more than the fact that something evil hid in the walls; it felt like something had been waiting for them specifically. Almost as if their very presence had awakened the darkness in this room, and that’s why the investigation squads didn’t find anything.

“I swear,” said Leon, getting angry. “If you don’t shut up, Uruks, I’m going to-”

“Might I suggest we try the holocomputer at the desk,” said Kavic meekly, speaking up for the first time. It seemed strange to Éclair that a suspected outsider became the voice of reason within the group.

Éclair almost gasped in fright when she saw Leon’s face as he glared at Kavic before finally nodding and heading over to the computer. Sure, Ryan could be annoying, but for Leon to get that angry was unlike him. Éclair sensed that whatever lurked inside this room affected Leon as well, bringing his powerful Lurranna blood to a boil.

Leon seemed to get his anger under control as he sat down at the computer desk and started searching on the holographic keys. Without the holographic images, it would’ve looked like Leon was playing an imaginary piano. Éclair never thought much of it, but if someone from the older periods of time could see this, they would gasp in awe. The images looked so real and lifelike, it seemed like one could reach out and touch them.

Across the screen danced thousands of files and journals all with pictures of people, animals and, aliens all across the universe. They seemed to pertain to some of the places that Hamma had visited. Obviously, there was nothing secret about any of the locations since they weren’t encrypted, but just seeing all the places that Hamma Steel had been in his life made Éclair want to get out more.

She saw images of gigantic elephants with three trunks, six tusks, and six eyes pounding through a massive jungle. Hamma posed in front of the elephants, and Éclair felt astounded when she realized that they were the size of small space cruisers. The setting changed to an ocean of lava that stretched as far as the eye could see.

Then the images changed into a grueling battle with humans and nonhumans in a bloody conflict. The sky was blood-red, explosions of every color racked the frame in orange, green, and blue. Elementals jumped through the fray, dashing across the battlefield with super-human speed and agility, their bright armor and caps blazing with color.

A gigantic tank cruised through the screen, blasting and crushing any living creature, human or alien unlucky enough to stand in its path. In the red skies, capital ships and fighters blasted each other in a torrent of flames and light. Some of the vessels even seemed to be using Elemency, dragging behind oceans of water or mountains of earth, and using them as both shields and weapons.

Éclair had heard of such innovations, but she had never seen them in action. Leon seemed to be mesmerized by the violent images for a few moments, as if something from his past came back to haunt him. Éclair had a strong urge to change the image for a number of reasons.

Nudging Leon gently, Éclair whispered, “Leon, please change the view.”

Leon shook his head as if coming out of a daze, and then continued typing on the holographic keys for a few minutes. “I found something!”

Ryan, who’d been dozing off at the other end of the desk, woke up with a comical expression of confusion on his drool-covered face. “I’m up! I’m up! I wasn’t sleeping!”

Leon ignored Ryan and gestured to a file that shaped itself into a strange symbol. It looked like an upside-down image of a pair of scissors, but more curved and wicked than ordinary scissors. Leon pointed to the image with a trembling finger, as if he was afraid to touch it.

“This image just appeared as I was searching the data banks, almost as if it was waiting for me, and it made itself visible once it could fully sense my presence.”

“Okay, that’s it! I don’t want to be here anymore. I think we should leave,” whispered Éclair.

“I second that,” agreed Grafael.

“I concur,” added Tork, almost as nervous as Grafael

“Finally, someone who listens to reason,” said Rachel.

“No!” cried out Ryan. “We came this far! I’m not leaving this room emptyhanded!”

“But-” pleaded Éclair, not sure of how to put her fear into words.

“We’ll be alright, Éclair. Trust me.”

Even if he acted annoying most of the time, other times Ryan just seemed so confident and powerful, like he carried the fate of the world on his shoulders. Éclair’s fear lessened just from hearing him, and she found herself nodding “yes”.

Éclair silently gave Leon the signal to proceed. Leon slowly touched the foreboding image. As his finger made contact with the symbol, all hell broke loose.

First, Éclair heard a roar ten times louder than the groan they had heard when they first entered the room. Then the door rematerialized, blocking their exit, only it didn’t appear in a torrent of flames as it usually did, but reconstructed from an inky black substance. Then water started pouring in.

Éclair couldn’t tell where the gunk came from specifically as it seeped out of the walls, the floor, and the ceiling. The water had a black and sinewy texture, almost like living flesh. It thrashed and writhed in a way that made her want to vomit. The black liquid inked towards Éclair as it wrapped its way around her feet and slithered up her leg like a snake.

Éclair screamed as she blasted the black blob with ice. The dark goo regrew itself and made its way up Éclair’s leg again. The room slowly filled with the black substance, creating a veritable bog of dark liquid. The black ooze made groaning and screaming noises, almost as if there were actual people trapped inside it.

Éclair’s mind reeled, but she just couldn’t think of anything to get out of this situation. She was supposed to be a competent Elemental, but the demonic water seemed to sap her strength and her will to live. Éclair couldn’t remember being this scared since … since…

---

Éclair stood back at her mansion. The castle-sized house had been burned to a crisp a long time ago, but it still smoked, with a few fires raging. Éclair heard the screams of her loved ones inside as the monsters feasted on any surviving servants. The fires roared, and the windows shattered.

All across the courtyard, frightful creatures with pale-white skin and heads full of spikes, laughed and roared, obviously satisfied with their bounty. The creatures were tall and lanky, seven to eight feet at least, and some even close to nine feet. They had long arms that went almost to their knees, and boned spikes grew out of their arms and backs. The creatures wore black metal armor that concealed most of their bodies, but not their clawed hands and feet.

They wore black helmets similar to Roman Legionaries, with face plates that concealed their eyes, but not their pale mouths full of sharp fangs. Long, black tongues shot out of the monster’s mouths as they cursed and jeered with one another, licking their bloodied claws clean with obvious delight.

One of the creatures, with long dark hair around his horns and iron studs jutting out from all over his face, walked up to Éclair, grinning wickedly. He had no helmet like the others, revealing a long, angular face almost ape-like in shape. He had overly large eyes with yellow sclera and pale, blue irises. Thin, red lines went down the length of his face and his neck. Éclair realized they were old cuts, probably self-inflicted.

He wore black armor with red, human skulls forged into the design. Around his shoulders was a gray fur coat that Éclair recognized as a Werewolf’s skin. The creature had his hair tied in a ponytail, and the spikes on his head looked long enough to go through a grown man. As if to confirm this image, some of his spikes were stained bloody red.

In his hands was a double-bladed sword staff that he swung leisurely from side to side as if imagining cutting down more helpless victims with it. Éclair could only assume that he was the leader since he was dressed differently than the others and seemed to be more menacing.

The monster’s leader knelt down to Éclair’s level and grinned evilly, showing off his shark-like teeth. “Well, well. A fine catch we have here, boys. She’ll make for a good kill when she ripens a little.”

“Why wait?” said one of the other monsters, licking his entire face with a long black tongue. “I’m hungry now! It was hard work slaying all those servants, and I didn’t get to eat any of them. We should get some reward for our troubles.”

The monster leader just glanced at his cohort as if he were an annoying gnat. With unparalleled speed and grace, the monster leader swung his massive, double-bladed sword around behind him without turning from Éclair and decapitated his subordinate without batting an eye. The other monsters stared down at the headless corpse of their comrade warily, but not really shocked, as if this was a common occurrence among their ranks.

“He knows our ways, the same as the rest of you. The other humans are free game, but this girl is too young to be bled. As per the Dark Dragon Lord’s decree, she’ll be taken to the mines with the other younglings. We Morlocks are nothing without orders. Order is life.”

“Life for death!” shouted the other Morlocks in unison.

The leader faced Éclair with something almost equivalent to pity. “It’s a shame, really. Had I not stayed his hand, your death would have been relatively quick and painless. Now you will suffer slowly as you slave the rest of your life away for the glory of the Morlock Regime and our masters who command us.”

Éclair screamed as the nightmarish creature brought a pale hand with yellow fingernails as long and sharp as claws down on her mouth. Absolute terror gripped Éclair’s mind as surely as the monster holding her face. She just wanted to get away. She wanted her mother back. She wanted Zand to protect her as he always did. She wanted to feel safe again.

---

In the darkness, Éclair screamed so loud that she almost didn’t hear Ryan and Leon’s pleading voices. “Look down at your feet, Éclair! You’re beating it back somehow!”

Ryan!

“He’s right, Éclair! You’re stronger than it is! Keep fighting! Don’t give up!”

Leon!

They were right! For some reason, black ooze surrounded Éclair, but couldn’t touch her, as if it was being blocked by an invisible wall. Sadly, however, the others didn’t seem to be doing as well. The black ooze was up to Ryan and Leon’s knees as they stood on top of the desk, blasting it with fire and wind, but it only seemed to slow the ooze down at best. Tork tried to fly away, but his tail and left foot were caught in the ooze that slowly dragged him back down.

“JOLLY NOT GOOD! JOLLY NOT GOOD!” repeated Tork over and over

Grafael tried to beat down the walls with his hammer, but he didn’t seem as strong as he usually was, otherwise he would have reduced that wall to rubble. Plus, every time he raised his weapon, a membrane of black, skin-like sinew blocked his hammer, like the walls were alive.

Grafael shouted, “IN THE NAME OF SAURIA, I COMMAND THEE WALL TO YEILD!”

Rachel and Kavic stood on top of the bed, but they seemed to be doing worse than Ryan and Leon as the ooze now covered their waists.

Rachel kept cursing in between screaming. “I KNEW THIS WAS A BAD IDEA! BUT DID ANYONE LISTEN TO THE SANE ONE IN THE GROUP? NOPE! WE HAD TO GO SOLVE THE MYSTERY OF THE PSYCHOTIC MYSTIC WHO BOOBYTRAPPED HIS ROOM TO KILL US ALL! AND I’M STILL A FREAKIN’ VIRGIN!”

“Not helping, Rachel!” cried out Éclair as she closed her eyes and concentrated.

Éclair needed time to think. Her shield, or whatever it was keeping the ooze at bay, seemed to be weakening as the ooze began little by little to seep through the cracks in Éclair’s defenses and latch onto her. Of all the people in the room, Leon, and Ryan seemed to have the most luck against the black ooze. Maybe it was because they used energy-based elements instead of more solid forms like water or earth.

The black ooze now came almost completely over her head. “Ryan! Leon!” shouted Éclair. “You seem to be having the best luck! Do you think you can combine attacks on the door?!”

“Probably!” shouted Leon, apparently already coming to the same conclusion as Éclair. “But in order for it to be effective, we will have to be very close to the door!”

“I can blow stuff up!” was Ryan’s only input.

“However,” said Leon. “I can sense that the barrier around this room is very strong! Even if we can effectively combine our attacks, which will take very precise psionic control that Ryan simply doesn’t possess-”

“Hey!” interrupted Ryan soberly.

“It would probably only weaken the foundation for a short period only to reform seconds later!” Leon finished despite Ryan’s protest.

“Not if Grafael comes in with that big hammer!” shouted Ryan.

Leon looked at Ryan in astonishment, amazed that he had actually said something useful. Quickly surmising the situation, Leon addressed everyone in the room. “Okay, here’s what we’re going to do! Éclair, you help me and Ryan get to the door with … whatever it is you’re doing to protect yourself from the Dark Water! Grafael, make your way to the door as well! When I give the signal, gather all your strength, and bash it with your hammer!”

“I’m good at bashing!” replied Grafael.

“Tork,” continued Leon. “Try to stay calm!

“JOLLY NOT GOOD! JOLLY NOT GOOD!” repeated Tork, still flapping his wings in a panicked fury.

“Rachel, use your lightning and try to keep Kavic safe! We don’t need the Emperor bearing down on the Ministry if he dies!” cried Leon as he turned to Rachel.

“WHATEVER!” acknowledged Rachel angrily.

“I APPRECIATE THE SENTIMENT!” called out Kavic, the first-time Éclair had seen him alarmed and frightened.

Éclair moved towards Ryan and Leon, but the Dark Water seemed to get stronger as it accumulated. As she made her way to the desk, she perceived faces moving in the water … familiar faces.

Mr. Mason … Doctor Kal, Chief Vince, and Nana Pierce! All the servants of my mansion who died trying to save my life!

The faces whispered to Éclair, begging her to let it all go, pleading with her to just forget about her ties to life and jump in. Éclair’s shield weakened even more, and cold, slithering fingers of Dark Water slowly wrapped themselves around her legs and started inching their way up her thigh.

Their voices were so sad, so miserable. Éclair was reminded of the guilt and shame of knowing that they had all died trying to protect her, but to no avail. Tears welled up in her eyes. She wanted to reach out to them, to comfort them, to be like them. Incorporeal, with no ties to life; no pain, no fear, and no hope.

Then a warm blazing flame brought Éclair to her senses. For a moment, the flames reminded Éclair of her burning mansion, and she feared them. But instead of burning her, the flames went over her skin, dissolving the Dark Water as it crawled up her waist, and Éclair couldn’t hear the voices anymore.

Suddenly, Ryan’s face came to be inches from Éclair’s own, his eyes both fierce and strangely empathetic. “I can hear them too, Éclair. In my dreams in the dark of night, I can still hear them. That’s why we both have to move on. It’s what they would’ve wanted for us. We can’t just stop living. To do so would be an insult to their memories.” His voice was quiet, but no less intense.

“Ryan’s right, Éclair. You can do this,” added Leon soothingly.

Listening to the two of them encourage her made Éclair feel safe somehow, despite the circumstances. Leon then took Éclair’s hand, and she felt like she got an energy boost. She felt him syphoning off his energy and passing it to her with Elemency. Plus, just holding his hand filled her with ecstasy.

“Okay, stay close to me, both of you!”

Slowly, Éclair, Leon and Ryan made their way to the door, where Grafael waited for them. However, their predicament seemed even more dire as the ooze had now completely engulfed Tork and was on the verge of doing the same to Rachel and Kavic despite the electrical discharges shooting from Rachel’s fingertips. Even Grafael, as tall as he stood, could barely raise his war hammer above the Dark Water.

Éclair heard a popping sound and she looked up as the black water poured in all around her much faster than before. Éclair’s shield vanished … she had failed. They were going to drown in a lake of shadows.

“Ryan! Leon! Do it now! Do it-” Éclair’s voice became muffled as dark water went into her mouth and down her throat. The Dark Water felt cold and suffocating as it inched down Éclair’s throat like a swarm of wriggling worms. Éclair felt herself losing her grip on reality.

All things must succumb to darkness. Even you, my dear, spoke a dark voice into Éclair’s mind, a voice that she didn’t recognize, and yet it felt familiar at the same time.

As Éclair’s eyelids closed, images that resembled her friends danced before her; Ryan, Leon, and Grafael. It was unlike seeing them with her eyes, but rather, seeing them as light.

Grafael glowed green with a strong, harmonic energy. He was the rock that they stood on. Leon glowed purple with a calculating and powerful aura. He was the voice of knowledge and reason, and something else below the surface of his being that Éclair couldn’t decipher.

As for Ryan, he glowed brighter than all of them, with a red aura much like the flames he could summon. He was passion and intensity … a force for change in everything he touched. Ryan and Leon joined hands. She could tell from their auras that they were polar opposites. Everything about them seemed geared so that they just grated on the other.

Yet somehow, as they charged up their psions, and wind and fire started to war against each other, they reached perfect cohesion. The two elements combined into one to become stronger than they could ever be if they were alone. In the gap between life and death, Éclair had a moment of clarity, like she could feel the essence of who Ryan and Leon were, and not what people’s perceptions of them might be.

They were united in a common goal, to protect the people that they loved. For once, it wasn’t about ego or pride, or proving which side had more value; it was about something far more important than competition. It was about life!

Maybe there’s a chance that those two can become friends after all.

For some reason, that thought sent a warm feeling of mirth into Éclair’s body just as she heard the loud thud! Simultaneously, the two Elementals thrust their fists forward. The door shuddered but didn’t break, not immediately anyway.

Éclair knew that they were all submerged under the Dark Water as its inky black essence tried to seep into their bodies, yet somehow, they kept it at bay with sheer strength of will. They were amazing, both of them were much stronger than Éclair would ever be, and yet they still believed in her. Was she really worthy of such friends?

Sensing the crash, Grafael raised his hammer and somehow managed to swing it through the murky Dark Water. Grafael’s aura glowed brighter for a moment. His green-glowing psions spiked, becoming even stronger than both Ryan’s and Leon’s. With the last of his strength and will, Grafael slammed his war hammer into the door with a mighty cry.

Chapter 3: Taken

The aliens sent us a holovid, demanding to speak with our leaders. The government would have probably preferred to keep such a thing under wraps, the trouble was that the aliens sent the message to every corner of the colony. Their enraged faces appeared in every home and business.

Though I had heard of the aliens, as we had encountered their vessels many times, I had never actually seen one up close. They were a sight to behold. Gray skin, big, bald heads, and strange white glowing symbols covering their faces and arms. Seeming to possess no nose or ears that I could see, and large, black eyes with no pupils. Although the aliens did have mouths and teeth similar to our own, they seemed to speak without moving their lips.

Our scientists said that they could communicate telepathically. In fact, it was believed that their entire message was one big telepathic communication to all of humanity. They were strange, but they were not as grotesque as I had imagined. I couldn’t have guessed what we had done to anger them so, but I had a feeling that it had something to do with the Dragon.

A rush of power reverberated through Ryan as Grafael brought his hammer down on the door, and not a moment too soon. Ryan felt his lifeforce draining into the black liquid that Leon and Hamma had referred to as Dark Water. It felt like he was being squeezed from the inside out. He could’ve sworn he lost at least twenty pounds while under that evil water.

The door busted wide open and the water went rushing out into the hallway, along with all seven of them. Ryan fell right on top of Leon, and Grafael came right on top of both of them. In a word, a most painful experience. It probably would’ve been less painful if Grafael was just a big fat guy like Skippy, but since his body comprised 99.9 percent muscle, and with muscle weighing more than fat, it felt like being crushed in between two brick walls.

Leon squirted black liquid from his mouth, and in a very undignified manner said, “Get off of me, you morons!”

If Ryan hadn’t just gone through a very dramatic near-death experience, he might’ve thought it funny to be sitting on ‘Mr. Popularity’s’ head. However, circumstances being as they were. Ryan simply burped out some Dark Water, and, as gracefully as possible, he managed to extract himself from underneath the dinosaur man. Unfortunately, Ryan sat fairly close to Grafael’s posterior section, and just to make his interesting day even more interesting, Grafael farted in his face. Ryan could just taste the beef as it filled his nostrils with its stinky glory.

“Uh, my mouth was open, Graf! If I started a fire now, we’d probably blow up half the Ministry!”

Did he just eat the cow whole without bothering to cook it or something? Ryan decided that he didn’t want to know the answer to that question.

As Ryan gasped for breath, and not just from nearly drowning to death, he quickly took stock of his friends. Everyone seemed to be okay. Coughing and sputtering out black liquid, but okay. Then his mind immediately went to …

Éclair was lying face down with her eyes closed. She wasn’t moving. Ryan slipped and fell several times as he struggled to go to her side, but Leon beat him to it. Leon gave Éclair a gentle shove. She slowly opened her violet eyes and sat up groggily, but still managed her dazzling smile at seeing Leon.

Ryan blew a sigh of relief, though still felt a pang of jealousy at Éclair’s apparent affection for Leon. Then he heard another sputtering sound and noticed Skippy stirring on the hallway floor, covered in the Dark Water that had spilled into the passageway.

Skippy slowly got up on his elbows in a daze. He spat and coughed out the Dark Water, wiped off his face, and looked around confused. Then his eyes locked with Ryan’s and his bushy eyebrows dropped in anger.

“You did it, didn’t you!? You went into the bloody chamber and unleashed the bloody Mystic’s curse over the entire bloody Ministry! It’s not enough that we are about to go to war, is it? You have to bring the devil upon us all with ghosts and ghouls.” Skippy attempted to rise several times, but he kept slipping on the Dark Water, making it difficult for Ryan to take the guy seriously.

“That’s it!” Skippy sputtered as he tripped again and again. “I’m going to keelhaul the lot of you! I’m going to boil you in oil! I’ll make you walk the plank! No wait, we don’t have those anymore. I know! I’ll shove you all up the nearest airlock and shoot you into the sea of stars! Whatever I’m going to do, you can bet your bluebonnets that it’s not going to be-”

Leon snuck up behind the man and jabbed him again with a sleep-inducing telepathic strike. Ryan hoped the damage wasn’t permanent, he was beginning to like the guy with all his colorful threats.

“Sorry, Skippy,” said Leon as he looked around the rooms for his glasses.

Leon’s glasses had somehow managed to plant themselves on Tork’s nose whose head swiveled back and forth in confusion. “I say! Everything’s dark now! By Jove, the water has blinded me! I’ll be a cripple, a beggar, a blind Dragon living on the streets! How will I ever finish my poem? I guess I could sing it, but my voice leaves much to be desired.”

“Don’t worry, Tork,” said Leon as he extracted his glasses from the Dragon’s large snout. “I don’t think it will come to that.”

Tork blinked several times as if testing his sight. “Great Scott! How do you ever get anything done with such contraptions?”

Ryan started laughing. He didn’t know how or why, but when he laughed, Grafael joined him, then Éclair, then Tork, and eventually Rachel and even Kavic. Even Leon seemed to be cracking a smile, though Ryan doubted he would ever hear so much as a giggle from that guy.

As if coming out of a trance, Rachel spun around in dismay. “Wait a minute! What the heck are we laughing for? More importantly, what am I laughing for? I nearly get killed because of you guys, and for what? To find some clue about the Mystic that may lead us to finding the so-called true conspirators besides the Water Elementals! Last time I checked, we still got nothing, and we still assaulted a fellow Elemental! Twice actually!”

Looking down at the snoring form of Skippy, Ryan couldn’t help but think that Rachel might have had a point this time. Fortunately, Leon saved the day. “Actually, Rachel, we did not come out emptyhanded.”

Leon opened his hand to reveal a round, black microchip.

“Where did you get that?” asked Ryan, pointing at the strange object.

“It appeared in my hand after I touched that strange symbol and activated the booby trap. Hamma went to a lot of trouble to make sure that nobody found this. I have a feeling that if the Dark Water had killed us, this chip would’ve dissolved inside the liquid, erasing all evidence.”

“Leon, you’re amazing,” said Éclair, beaming at him.

Leon grinned wolfishly.

This time, Rachel and Ryan sighed in disgust simultaneously, and briefly shared a look of understanding between each other. They were both side dishes that had been pushed aside to make way for the main love story. Although, the feeling was a much-needed distraction from their recent horrors.

Whilst Ryan had swam in the Dark Water, he saw things that he never wanted to see again, things that still haunted him. The faces of his mother and father. The Elven children. Old man Alexander. The groundskeepers who lived next door. His best friend, Henry. Pretty much everyone in his life that had been taken from him appeared in those strange waters.

Ryan had wanted to give into the despair that threatened to take him, until he noticed the petrified expression on Éclair’s face, and he realized that she had gone through something similar. Ryan had then put his own feelings aside in order to help her. All this time that he’d been feeling sorry for himself, he never stopped to consider that maybe some of his friends had gone through something equally tragic.

Ryan didn’t know the details of Éclair’s past, but he knew that expression all too well. That face that people made when they survived something that gives them nightmares, something so horrible that it fills their waking hours with dread. That face of hopelessness and depression that Ryan had seen all too many times in his own reflection.

Since his vow to Hannah Lioness, Ryan promised himself that he would never give in to that despair again. Although he wasn’t thinking about it at the time, he had hoped that Éclair might start warming up to him; but apparently, she was still head-over-hills for jerk-face Leon.

Ryan cleared his throat, if for no other reason than to stop the little goo-goo eyes exchange between the two lovebirds. “So, we just need to get that to a terminal and see what’s on it, right?”

Leon shook his head. “Actually, we don’t have to. This isn’t that kind of chip. It’s not based on technology. It was made from pure Elemency.”

“What is it then?” asked Kavic.

Ryan wondered when this guy officially became part of the group. It took Ryan forever before anyone in Squad 99 would even listen to him. Suddenly this guy walks in who isn’t even a member of the Ministry, let alone the team, and already his voice seemed to carry more weight than Ryan’s. Though Ryan felt a twinge of jealousy, it was difficult to stay mad at a guy like Kavic, who had such a kind face.

Leon rolled the chip through his fingers as if trying to determine how to best answer Kavic’s questions. “I’m not sure, but I know that this thing won’t work on any computer. Look!”

Leon held it up closer to the light and the disk began to slowly disintegrate, melting into black ooze in Leon’s palm. “The Dark Water is dissolving it like I said. Pretty soon, there won’t be anything left.”

Rachel spread her arms in frustration. “Then I was right! We put ourselves through hell for nothing!”

“Actually, no,” said Leon, his eyes brightened with excitement for a second. “While I held it under the Dark Water, I was able to sense something from it. Images, feelings!”

“It must have something to do with your telepathy,” put in Éclair.

“Whoa, wait a minute,” said Ryan, becoming alarmed. “Leon has telepathy! Does that mean you can read my mind and stuff?”

Leon smiled somewhat creepily. “Don’t worry, Ryan. There’s nothing in your mind that I could possibly read.”

“Oh,” said Ryan in relief, but then frowned when he realized that it might’ve been an insult.

“As I was saying, when I was under the Dark Water with the chip, I was able to sense something from it. I think that this was how Hamma communicated with his employers without drawing attention to himself. It’s like a Dark Water transmitter. It communicates orders telepathically. It must have been geared to Hamma’s specific DNA, that’s why the trap went off when I touched that symbol.”

“So, did you get anything from the evil, chip thingy?” asked Ryan impatiently. “A location, or possibly the name of some nefarious bad guy who really doesn’t like us? Anything specific?”

“The disk was already dissolving, so I wasn’t able to determine any concrete information. But I can tell you that Hamma spent a lot of time at the east wing of the volcano.”

Suddenly, Ryan had an idea, which was great because it didn’t happen very often. “Ooh! Ooh! Ooh! Ooh! I know what Hamma was up to! Follow me, to the east wing!” Ryan giggled to himself when everybody actually started following him. I’ve always wanted to do that!

“If I remember correctly, the east wing is under heavy security at the moment,” exclaimed Tork, who had taken flight above Ryan’s head.

“Don’t worry,” called Leon. “As long as you guys keep Ryan in check, I’ll be able to handle the negotiations without much incident this time.”

---

“And that is why we really need to get into the council chambers,” said Leon in his best appealing voice.

However, the two blond-headed Elf men guarding the entrance seemed particularly uncooperative, mostly because they didn’t seem to understand a word of basic - or at least pretended not to. Although most Demihumans simply learned basic, wrist communicators did come equipped with universal translators to avoid language barriers, though that proved little use to the young Lurranna at the moment. Leon had already tried using the universal translator on their wrist communicators to translate their conversation, but the Elves kept pointing at their own wrist communicators, as if there was a malfunction with the signal. Ryan suspected that the Elves were just playing a trick on him, messing with the signals so that he couldn’t understand them, but Ryan was pretty sure they could understand him. Elves did sometimes have impish senses of humor as Henry had often demonstrated. Each of the Elven guards had long blond hair, smooth fair skin, and were very slender as Elves tended to be. They were both High Elves, so they were taller than the Wood Elves Ryan had grown up with, and their ears were longer. Each wore the Red Armor of the Fire Ministry and had three notches, indicating their ranks as Thirds. Most Elves at the Ministry were half-Elves with human ancestry, so it surprised Ryan to see a couple of full-bloods.

“Sharama su vanala. Com grav te no.”

“‘Get in’, as in ‘entrance’,” stammered Leon as he pointed to the door repeatedly with both fingers. “We really need to get inside the council chambers. It’s very urgent.” Leon spoke respectfully, but Ryan could tell that he was slowly losing his patience.

The right Elf jabbed a finger at Leon’s chest and said, “Vanala sun bal sharama! Com grav te no!”

Ryan knew what they were saying because of his time spent with Elves in Toramirese, but he enjoyed watching Leon squirm.

Leon groaned, rubbing his forehead in frustration. “I speak Latin, ancient Greece, Chinese, German, as well most surviving languages from Ancient Earth. I speak every Draconian dialect, every Dwarven variety, even Saurian. Please tell me that you know at least one of those languages?”

The Elves looked at each other in confusion, then simultaneously, they pointed at Leon and a halo of white and yellow flowers appeared on his head. The Elves smiled and said, “Cutse shill nek vul de la mo. Tila shon yuce moosey!”

Then the Elves started laughing together. Ryan couldn’t help a slight chortle.

Leon ripped the crown of flowers from his head and spun on Ryan, his eyes bulging with rage. “And I suppose that you know what they’re saying, Uruks?”

“Well,” said Ryan, cracking his knuckles. “I did grow up on an Elven colony. Step aside, pretty boy, and let me show you how it’s done.”

Ryan walked up to the Elves and spoke in Elvish. He was a little rusty, but he still knew the basics. “Hey, guys! How’s it hanging?”

The Elves stopped laughing in surprise. “You speak High Elven. Not many of your kind do.”

“Well, I’m a bit of a special case. So, you think you guys can let us pass?”

“Our answer is the same as it was for your four-eyed friend with the pale, unhealthy complexion. This is a crime scene. None shall pass except the investigation squad.”

“You’re in luck, ‘cause we’re the investigation squad.”

“Really?! I’m not sure the Minister would approve of such a young squad being put in charge of such a delicate task.”

Ryan smiled, a plan already brewing in his mind. After years of playing pranks on the Elven adults, Ryan had gotten to know Elves pretty well. Elves were naturally more honest and trusting than humans, but they weren’t stupid. However, they were also health fanatics. Ryan had experienced no end of mirth in convincing Elves that they looked paler than usual, or skinnier than was healthy, but the greatest clincher was when he said something about their weight.

Ryan once made the Elven librarian of Toramirese colony take two weeks off of work just so that she could commit herself to getting her figure under control. She didn’t even look bad, Ryan just said that she looked like she would make a good mother, and she assumed that he meant that she looked like she was pregnant. And thus, Ryan came up with the perfect distraction.

“Well, with all this chaos going on around here, all the squads are working overtime. So, we just got promoted. Good thing, too, because I hear that there have been some pretty shady things going on with the cafeteria.”

Both Elves blinked in surprise. They looked so much alike that they might’ve been twins. “What kind of things?”

“Oh, just some rumors that they are using whole milk now instead of two and one percent.” The Elves gasped visibly, and Ryan knew he had them. “And that they’re replacing the wheat bread with white bread, or that they’re putting more salt in the food. Oh, and get this, none of the drinks are diet anymore.

“Slowly, they’re replacing all the foods in the cafeteria with cheap, fatty replicas, but they’re not even bothering to tell anyone in the Ministry. I only know this stuff because I’m on the investigation squad now. If you ask me, they were counting on this war to keep everyone so busy that they won’t ask any questions about the suspicious menu.”

The Elves looked queasy now, much the same way that Ryan had when he kissed Nanny Eliza. One Elf put a hand to his mouth as if on the verge of barfing.

“That’s why I’m so glad our team got promoted to the investigation squads. All our food is privately bought and under our control. No fatty substitutes for this guy. Why, I doubt that anybody eating from that cafeteria would be in any shape to fight at all.”

Suddenly, the two Elves dropped to the floor and started doing push-ups.

“So, is it okay if we go in and have a look around?” asked Ryan innocently.

“Oh, go right ahead! We’ll just be out here doing our exercises that we … uh … do every day … at this exact time! Put more effort into it, Shifar, or we’ll never get our perfect figures back!”

“BURN FAT! BURN FAT! BURN FAT! BURN FAT!” repeated the other Elf companion. Ryan thought that they probably could use a little exercise anyway since they were already panting.

Ryan went through the door before looking back at the bewildered expressions of his companions. “Well, you guys coming or not?”

As Squad 99 and Kavic made their way into the council chambers, Leon couldn’t contain himself any longer. “Okay, I’ll bite! How did you get those Elves to start doing push-ups?”

Ryan grinned with satisfaction. “I just told them they could stand to lose a few pounds. Elves are extreme health fanatics, you know.” It felt good knowing something that Leon didn’t.

As they made their way into the council chamber, the scent of blood still permeated the air. The bodies had already been removed, but their stench remained.

“Alright, this is the council chamber of the east wing. I’m guessing this is where Hamma was hanging out most of the time,” explained Ryan.

“Oh, yeah. To do what, numbskull?” said Rachel, still keen on playing the cynic.

“To set things up for the assassination,” said Ryan matter-of-factly, feeling very proud of himself for how quickly he figured it all out. “Obviously, it was all part of his plan to start a war between the two Ministries.”

Rachel grumbled something incoherently, but otherwise didn’t respond.

“That makes sense,” said Leon, rubbing his chin. “However, the fact remains that it was Christopher Palms who committed the deed, and he had reasonable cause to hate Senator Randals.”

“That may be, but how did he get in and how did he know about the secret meeting in the first place?” said Éclair, bringing to light a very valid point that Ryan hadn’t even thought of.

Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!

Éclair continued, “I mean, none of us knew about it, and Palms was a Second. I have my doubts that he could’ve managed to pull this off all by himself, and right under Minister Kaves’ nose no less.”

“Hmm. Valid point, Éclair,” conceded Leon.

Éclair blushed. Ryan sighed. Rachel snorted. Kavic looked alarmed. Tork started tickling Grafael under his chin for some reason. Without turning, Grafael punched Tork in the face, who only giggled in response. Everyone had their own unique reactions as they stood at the entrance to the council chambers.

“Alright everyone, spread out and search for clues,” ordered Leon.

“Scooby-doo,” howled Ryan with a bit of a chuckle.

“What?” asked Leon.

“Heh! Nothing. Just the way you said the thing. It was just too good to pass up.” Everyone started glaring at Ryan. Feeling awkward, Ryan spoke very hesitantly. “Okay. I’m going to go look over this way.”

Ryan went his own way, and everyone just kind of spread out and started searching for anything out of the ordinary.

Mental note: no more pop culture references from Ancient Earth. Darn it, dad. Why’d you have to raise me on dead media that no one else thinks is cool?

The pyramid was still there, but none of the Wielders. Ryan was starting to think that maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all. They were just a bunch of kids, plus two dinosaurs and an overly friendly politician. They didn’t know anything about finding clues or searching for evidence. If none of the other experienced Elementals were able to find anything, how could he expect anyone from Squad 99 to succeed where they had all failed?

“Hey, Ryan,” said a voice behind Ryan.

Ryan yelped in a high-pitched voice, tripped over his own feet, and almost gave himself another concussion as the back of his head slammed into the floor.

Classic Uruks!

As Ryan rubbed his aching head, Éclair hunched over him in concern. “Sheesh! Give a guy an ulcer, why don’t ya?!”

Éclair helped Ryan up. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“Scare me! Ha, my dear girl! Ha, I say! I was just practicing my self-defensive ninja technique. Purposefully fall on the floor in case of a surprise attack in order to confuse your enemies.”

Éclair’s mouth twitched up ever so slightly in a small grin. Ryan had hoped for a laugh, but at this point, he’d take whatever he could get. “I wanted to say thank you for what you said back in Hamma’s room. If it hadn’t been for you …” Éclair paused, as if remembering something unpleasant. “Well, I shudder to think of what might have happened.”

Ryan tried not to let his embarrassment and unbridled joy show. “Ahh! No biggie! It was you who saved the day after all, with that magic force field thingy. By the way, I know we didn’t have time to really talk about it before, and I know Leon is probably dying to ask you about it, but what the heck happened back there? It was like you were in some kind of bubble. It protected us from the Dark Water.”

“I-I don’t know,” stuttered Éclair, rubbing her arm uncomfortably. “I swear I don’t know. All I can tell you is that it felt like something inside me freaked when I saw that Dark Water. I mean really freaked! It was like a defense mechanism inside my own body to protect me specifically from Dark Water. That’s all I can tell you. You’ve got to believe me.”

She sounded like someone on trial, which was kind of cute in a way, but Ryan decided not to voice this opinion. “I believe you.”

“Really?”

Funny, I remember you saying something similar to me.

“Yeah! I mean, when you lie, you’re nose gets all scrunched up and you look at your feet.”

“I do not,” denied Éclair as she did the very thing that Ryan just described. Éclair’s defensiveness reminded Ryan of the little girl he met in the woods.

As Ryan turned to leave, Éclair placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. “Ryan, there’s something I wanted to ask you. You said you heard them too. Do you mean to tell me that you heard my servants crying out for help as well?”

“What?”

“My servants. The people who I lost when …” Éclair abruptly stopped, and then continued after a brief pause. “Just what did you hear exactly?”

Ryan looked down in dismay, slightly upset with the direction this conversation had taken. “I heard my family, and everyone I left behind at Toramirese Colony.”

Éclair gasped slightly in surprise, seeming to regret her line of questioning.

“All the Elves, all the people, even the children that I used to play with. I could hear them all in my head,” explained Ryan with his head lowered.

“Ryan, I … I …”

“We’ve all lost people, Éclair,” chipped in Ryan. “I could tell the moment I saw you in there. The look on your face was the same look I saw in my reflection for years after it happened. I still catch glimpses of that look every now and then.”

Éclair remained quiet, prompting Ryan to speak further, if for nothing else than to steer the conversation away from the sad turn it had taken.

Ryan added, “I don’t know who it was you heard in the Dark Water, but I could tell they meant a lot to you. If you ever want to talk … well, let’s just say that I’m no stranger to heartache.”

That was a preview of Volume I of Legacy: The Ministry of Fire, Part 2. To read the rest purchase the book.

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