Location: Wonderstruck Synthesis and Earth Matryoshka
Date: Before The Rikiral War
Participants filed listlessly into a basic council chamber for a routine matter. Awaiting them was a long oval table of dark blue, and stout chairs carved of the same stone core. In the heart of Wonderstruck Synthesis, they were safe from prying eyes. Among the cohort were the designated ministers of the Voices of Reason and their leader Telenon. How the most purposeful of them became head was a twist of fate. An astute yet ill-tempered man, he sat at the front of the table. The others bowed to him, knowing with full awareness the scope of his abilities. Its transformations flawless, its essence precious. Below the gates of Wonderstruck the outer space of various matryoshka rumbled with potent, newborn stars. A crisp energy hovered about him, ready for the day’s work. “Are we ready to decide on the trials?” he questioned. The others nodded in agreement. For the majority of them it was a pleasant start. Yet all of a sudden, a sullied renegade trod in. He was voiceless as he stood and took a stance at the other end of the table. Telenon grit his teeth. He should be in a dungeon. A dungeon with a million dragons. “Do we have the honor of hearing from Dramatic?” he offered delicately. The old gray beard stepped closer. A breeze ruffled his robe, “Indeed we do … brothers and sisters. Just recently I have returned from an interesting survey of the earth matryoshka. The world turns and the people are in good spirits. I walked the cities. I felt the air on my face. But as I did the future fell into my sight. They are coming my friends, the citizens of another Elementum. The Rikiral. Fast through space in their tireless ships. Soldiers of a planet one hundred times the scale of earth. And they will find our people. Astounded by each other, the meeting will be harmonious. Due to this,
human and rikiral will interbreed and their imagination will become more powerful. A salience beyond anything. Free, pure thought. The focal element in its true realization”. “Enough Dramatic!” Telenon barked, “The masses know I am the greatest warrior of imagination. My fist is the hardest. It turns everything to embers”. Dramatic did not flinch. He scanned the audience and cleared his throat for rhetoric, “Voices of Reason, hear me, even as we speak an ordinary human born today has an innate ability greater than all of us, and as time passes our children will surpass us”. A buoyant laughter circled around the room. Ministers looked to their neighbors in mirth. “Clever sport old man. Did you come here to challenge me?” Telenon dared, rising from his seat. He scowled, thinking the others' speech was null and void. From there they all arose and went to the adjacent room, where an arena jutted from the ground. There, Voices clash by manifesting a display of imagination in turn, each stronger than the other, until one is of greatest energy. Ministers spread out, greedy for the sparring to begin. They had their favorite, and in thoughtless passion they had already guessed the winner. Telenon gracefully lifted his arms and sailed his hands through the air. Along his fingertips trailed a fine delicate powder of pulverized magic. Effortlessly he brought into the foreground a vision of fire and of blazing monsters firing cannonballs from their backs. Raptured, the crowd patted each other on the back. But Dramatic was not impressed. He had seen his friend’s work before. He had seen him fashion the Spheres of Zest. He had seen him cause the Machiavellian Eagle to burrow into the sands of Loyasa. He had seen him halt the Vessel of a Thousand Leagues from its transit through Multi Proxima, although its thrusters were the size of mountains and the turrets were plasma cannons. This was a meager display and he wouldn’t recoil in the way a lesser man would. Dramatic took a deep breath. Now it was his turn. Rhetoric had failed so he would need to deliver something else.
Something that would open their eyes. Telenon crossed his arms in contempt. What an ill-mannered brat. So, the old man channeled all his enigmatic force into a single hand. A glint in his eye alighted. The robes upon his person danced with ripples. And he reached into the future, where there was the first man to find love with a rikiral woman, and reached into his spirit.
Mahandran Echo gasped. “This is it '' Dramatic knew. The ministers waited for the display, and they were not expecting such a push all the way back to the wall from light itself. Mahandran felt his hope for the future fly into the air, departing his body. The quickness of time arrowed through the room. Atop the platform a world appeared, the future as the couple sought. It was earth, lit with bright cities of human and rikiral alike. “THIS IS THE FUTURE !!!” Dramatic burst, his voice deep like the ancient voids of space. Energy left the minister’s clothes in shreds.
The brightness of the hope-earth paralyzed Telenon for the first time ever. He had never felt this way. The trembling fear. In seconds the thing dispersed and they were alone. For the room, what had been witnessed could never be unwitnessed. A defiance against those that had whispered into the cosmic trees. And him who was their chieftain. Not a single domain had ventured to oppose them and lived. Telenon regained his senses once the image was gone, “You were once my best warrior, my best friend” he cried, “You want to help the humans … then become one!!!”. The chieftain rushed to Dramatic and grabbed him by the robe on his chest, thrusting him forward. Crashing through stone, they plummeted onwards through Wonderstruck back to the land of stars. Dramatic peered behind him. Like a downed spaceship, they were headed for a crash landing on some lush forgotten world. Telenon roared as fierce rage shriveled his countenance. As that happened the mighty wizard bashed the other through the world like a wall, and onto the second world in the solar system, and the third. The triplets exploded in kind. They had been barriers. Meaningless. Dramatics’ eyes flared like newly minted silver coins. He punched his aggressor back. The chieftain craned his neck. The old man had grown to fifty times
his size, his robe billowing with the chill of space. He stared down with silver that had become flame, its tail flicking into the unknown. Yet Telenon knew he dwarfed the other. He stood still, waiting for instinct to dawn and make him a warrior … then silence. Dramatic was surprised. He kept his eyes on the man to see what it was. Magnificent continents whirled past into the depths of space, their tips glowing like toy infernos. Planes of gravity shifted out of their regular order.
Its effect swept through neighboring systems, sending strange orbs to new quarters. Without fellowship, the star became a relic. Then it happened. Swiftly, unexpectedly. Wet tears made a mad descent down the man’s face. It was a quirk the old man did not anticipate. Telenon pointed with his right, outstretched arm, “I will give you one mercy, go to the humans, never return”. The sorrow pounded deep in his chest. Rich like drum beats. As Dramatic saw the chieftain his eyes returned to normal. His size decreased, “I will go, but I will find a champion, and they will reclaim the stars”. In gusto he turned, his robe flapping in kind. In moments he would escape in faultless acceleration through the aether. His feet would be on earth. His bare soles on mild grass. No … he stopped. That was not enough. With eyes no longer engulfed in metallic flame he looked back at the man who was his friend, who was his comrade, who was his leader, “I enjoyed that day in the park”. And they would part ways. Days later everything was set in motion.
Location: Planet of the Voices of Reason
Date: Present Time
It was an awful memory and Telenon descended his throne. Like his compatriot, he had feet with bare soles. It was a long flat, featureless place. In that manner he approached the chamber of the Maelstrom Allegiance. It crackled with energy. A tornado of enterprising wind, its funnel swirling up into ecstasy. At intervals along its length were rings with ghosts of the ministers chanting their endless assertions, giving it strength. His toes pardoned from walking.
His soles relieved of painful labors. Letting go he let the draft uplift him. Passage through the heights filled the man’s body with beautiful calm. Alleviation in the realest sense. A kindness wrought in the focus of his being. He scaled upwards. Unceasing, as the rings of ministers chanted. Their hibernations would continue for many cycles, beyond the current strife. Priya Echo. Why did she have to be such a know it all? That long jet-black hair … When the man found the right distance he activated the spell, and the cyclone reacted, forging a space blueprinted of imagination. Telenon found himself on warm meadows. A fine planet. Strong, effeminate trees. Clouds that would make a geisha blush. Telenon continued on his way. There were trees at intervals. Their hapless leaves discarded at the rush of a northern breeze. Fickle animals reclined on grass to doze away the endless days. Telenon stopped and admired a charming horizon that stretched for miles. From the fountainhead of one cloud a rainbow poured.
It drifted to the ground, making a full arc. Telenon closed his eyes, picturing the adversary and her tactics. The way she shattered that mirror and forged the mirror sword. The swing of the blade. Its glimmering action. “Priya Echo, do you think you’re the only one with mirror powers”
he called. With the wave of his hand the ground split and from it a gigantic mirror rose, climbing to the sky. Now the portion of the landscape was doubled, including the rainbow. Like a narcissist studying his looks, his eyes considered the handsome bridge. “Let me envisage my very own Priya Echo and put her in shackles!” he laughed. Telenon tried as hard as he could.
Sweat from the endeavor lapped down his resilient body. Drawing substance from the world, an eddy of a portal formed ahead of him. Expectations rose. Beyond it, the complexion of the forest shifted. Adorning the portal, a shameless blue of rippling force twirled. Then the model stepped
through to greet him. Its foot with high heels snapping the first blades of grass. “Bonjour. Would you prefer a gelato” offered a woman. A beret tilted on her head. Any hooligan with a decent globe knew that France was several nautical miles from India, “Is that like Priya?” he thought.
Telenon was dumbfounded and just stood there for a moment, wondering why he couldn’t get it right. To add to his disdain, the model started swinging around in some kind of skirt. It got in close and looked him up and down, smirking with a dry smile. Telenon dispatched the first one and tried again. He tried a few more times but with no luck sent them back from whence they came. It was all useless. “I can envisage anything, why can’t I envisage her completely” he lamented.
So, he fled the scene, pivoting up to a corridor fraught with chaos. Dashing, his flight followed a coiled path. Along walls whose motion was a blur. And stealthy, predatory winds that cycled about him. “All hail the maelstrom allegiance” rising from the depths. From his head adrenaline kicked in and a new world presented itself. Its skies angry. Its clouds brimming with lightning. All at once from every angle the world was destroyed by strikes on its surface, turning to rubble. Telenon soared through the disarray to find a temple the proportions of a space station.
It had very long columns. But the chase was on, as the clouds that had assailed the planet pursued him, lasering their lightning strikes at his heels. The chieftain swerved and missed them every time, their bolts crashing into pillars, snapping them. “Persistent are we” he confessed, gritting his teeth. Although they could not get him, their maneuverability was unimpeachable, trailing him through various rooms. Blue stings of their lightning crashing into anything that moved. The words “Not good enough!”, like a true emotion expelled from Telenon’s throat. He escaped the threshold, skyward to a new earth, and seeing a chasm on its surface become a key to unlock it. Telenon turned, unlocking geological locking mechanisms that drifted away, higher than the mountains. In the vault a light emerged so painful as to warrant both hands outstretched for shelter. Rays like spears with a vendetta. Then it was subsided and incorporated into three objects – a tiny sun, earth and moon. His body shuddered from the sight of it. A moment lingered as he waited for its answer. After the rampage of the clouds … this vault and its treasures. The three bounced carelessly, until the selfish earth absorbed the sun and moon. Fire truck red ignited on its continents, along with white lunar seas. Alarming fires sprouted from its geometry. “So, this is it,” thought Telenon. The solar system earth turned to meet its aggressor. It fired a column of flame right at him. Telenon knew he could not give. He made his chest stiff for the blow. At once the column came, its four corners lapping around him like so much insubstantial crimson.
Defiance welled in him, “I WILL HAVE YOU!!!”. He stood resolute and the planet took its chance. The column of flame became a waterfall. The orb expanded in all directions, embellished itself with grandiose size. Now the climb became more punishing, enfolding him in abstract flame. The heat intensified, fresh with landforms hotter than the sun. Even so, the man was already thinking one step ahead. “I must become ice to combat the solar earth, '' he whispered. Still, the column extended. The waterfall dropped more of its lifeblood onto him. Yet the arc of his passage was unconsumed, shining through the veil. It was the only move. There would be no negotiation with the inferno. As he reached the limits of the continent his body turned to sculpture. Solid Ice. A flash voyaged from his eyes, blinding everything it came across, extinguishing what was red. He closed his eyes. The insult of the spell was agonizing pain. His chest heaved, invalidating the pressure as it softened. Telenon looked out onto the terrain. An aura thick like tar rose up from the earth. Smoke meandered ceremoniously to the sky. Through his fingers. Around him armies of the inferno with their key swords fell to the ground. They had been ready to fight till the ends of time. Now they would find the ground and sleep in beds of
ash. Still his eyes shined, and his body of ice glistened. Mechanisms of many locks unlatched in strange motions inside his spirit body. Tingling and twisting. Adorable rhapsodies. He eagerly smiled.
CHAPTER 59 - COMPANIONS - PRIYA AND VALCO - NEO-INKTOPIA
Location: Earth
Date: Present Time
Minutes of cycles ensued, until they were mercifully dropped to the ground. When they opened their eyes, the surroundings were marginally damaged by the tornado, where most had taken flight. Priya turned to Valco, “What do you think, big guy?”. He pointed to the hills, “Do you see black towers in the distance? The turbulence will continue to spread like cancer. We will have to focus on one malignancy at a time. I think we should search for a source” Valco suggested, and she agreed to the cunning plan. The black towers of Neo-Inktopia inched higher as they walked its woeful streets. Every so often a printer cartridge would float creepily from the window of one skyscraper to another. “They must be hiding inside the buildings,” Valco conjectured. Cupping her hands around her mouth, Priya called “Can anyone hear us!”, a force against deadly silence that perched all around. Replying to her summons, a group of ten people emerged from the shadows of an alleyway. “It’s not safe to be out in the open. We ride in here whenever we have to go outside” they whispered pitifully. In the shadows was a stealthy moped.
“Why can’t you just leave and go back to Panorama Precinct?” Valco asked. To answer him a siren sounded out from the silence, and swiftly they were pulled into the alleyway. “It’s useless, they’re cracking down on everyone” one of them pleaded. Far beyond the towers, a siren was ringing. Ditching them to the wolves, the locals retreated into their moped and rode off down the alleyway.
“Let’s check everything out” the scientist said, and lifted off the ground, gliding across the ruthlessly somber cityscape. Valco followed behind her. People started to appear in meager bunches. Those that couldn’t hide dashed in headlong urgency through the streets. True to form, a troupe of seemingly decent cop-cars approached on their heels. The leader had more signal beacons blaring red than a nerdy teenager with pimples, and fired them off one by one. Priya grabbed Valco close and evaded a beacon missile that detonated on the side of a building. More formed a blockade ahead. Down below, a police department had a sign splayed across its entrance, “Anti-Priya Police”. “The people deserve a break. I think we should keep them busy”
she stated diligently, and maneuvered so they had to chase. As they turned right, the homing missiles swerved around the bend. Priya turned a hard left and saw them careen away, exploding on the side of a tower. “This isn’t your average everyday ink” she observed. “Can you give me a hint before we get there?” Valco demanded, with the heavy knowledge that she had failed to do so before, and it had led to many surprises. “The towers are all made of ink, but it’s not man made. It’s a natural ink. I think an octopus is hiding in here somewhere” the scientist inferred.
“Haha … you must be kidding me. A whole city made of it?” Valco bellowed. Priya hurried as the cars gave no quarter in their hunt. She turned to her companion, who was brisk and full of unrelenting vigor, “The pure chaos of the maelstrom allegiance is all around us. You can see it for yourself”. At last they came to the boundary of Neo-Inktopia, where the woods surrounded the clandestine emblem of madness. The purity of nature beckoned to them. Letting their forms
drop to earth, they came upon a harmless stream, coursing with unforgettable splendor. A big granite rock trembled as the waters encircled its foundation. Priya put her hand to Valco’s chest to still his approach, and looked up at his face. She was beaming with the most handsome smile.
“Come, we know you’re here” Valco bellowed. He could see the tip of a tentacle stuck to the side. From underneath the octopus emerged and wiggled over to them. “If you knew how hard it was to hide, you wouldn’t be so brash about it … it’s really been strange today” it whined. “In case it does turn out that way for good, I promise I will personally find the best hiding spot for you” Priya promised, gaining its trust. “Oh, I get it. You’re sweet and he’s salty”
it joked, slapping a tentacle across his head. “You could say that. I think you’ll like it better once we clean up this mess” she added. Shimming over to them, it put a tentacle on each of their shoulders, “New friends, since I feel so comfortable now, will you help me get out of this wrapper?”. “Anything for a new friend” Valco replied, “see … I can be sweet too”, and elbowed Priya. Turning around, they saw a zipper and underneath the top of its neck the slider. Priya grabbed it and began unzipping him, as her compatriot grabbed the tips of two tentacles. “Let me help you with that, '' she said, grabbing the tips of two others as soon as the zipper had gone as far as it could go. In the opening, she could see underneath a sparkle. Methodically they removed the wrapping, until the octopus was free enough that it wriggled out of the rest. “Goodness!”
Priya bellowed, seeing an octopus of pure crystal sparkling in front of them. It lifted off of the ground and hovered before them. “I feel something inside of me … almost like it wants to come out, '' he related, and expelled a cloud of indescribable crystal ink that enveloped the surrounding area. “Fall back, Valco!” Echo ordered, and they did to evade the shimmer. When it dissipated, they looked down at their feet. “Githin?” Valco uttered, seeing the naked man crouched down by their feet, his neck covered by a crystal band of the Wailtu Cult. “My child, you must be so frightened. Do not be. I am here for you” Visioness said, stepping out of her host’s body, and leaning over him. “Do you think this is a good idea?” she asked Visioness. “Please ... give him a second chance” she begged, turning around to both Priya and Valco. “Empress, this is not a good course of action ...” he advised. “Enough” she said, holding up a hand, and stared straight into her counterpart’s eyes. “Him? I’m giving you a test … of your loyalty”. Holding Githin’s hand, she led him back, stepping into her host’s body and disappearing from sight. “You have a habit of trusting anyone who will betray you” Valco spat, furious at her decision. “Do not worry. This will be good to know if she is truly a part of me” she artfully replied. Her attention pivoted back to their new acquaintance, “Then that means you’re the ninth iteration”. Around her finger she wove a ring from mirror light, and held it up. The octopus retracted, and was sucked onto the band, becoming the jewel of an engagement ring. “Stand back” she said, lifting her arm up with the ring. Spell symbols and cryptograms danced about, “Delicate Infinity!”. A light burst from the ring, casting them away. And in the world of a prism, an audience of skulls were formed, and with the arrows of light they crumbled away and the reality of that mathematical void-space melted away, and they found themselves among the green hills where the city had once stood.
As the buildings melted into black puddles of ink, the sky around them became clear.
“Hmm, Is that what it looks like?” Valco mouthed cautiously. The realm was but a façade for the ghost city ahead of them, the stagnant architectural wonderland of Neo-Panorama. “They must have frittered away all their money” Priya considered, as they graced the streets with their evanescent crystal aura. Indeed they had. Its proponents did not gather enough steam. As a result, the construction did not extend very far past the hills. Its hollow rectangular skeletons were like gateways to the four horizons of the world. “Did you think you could get this far without facing
me?” Telenon pried, a frail clone of him hanging overhead. “I thought we were doing kangaroos, Telenon. I knew you were a sucker but … an octopus? Really?” Priya teased, knowing that his antipathy could never stand between her and justice. The man’s cheek was red with anger. From his elevation, he drifted closer, enough to meet her gaze, “It’s only the first strike, so get your gloves on”. Atop his fingers she could see the fine threads of a subtle orange energy. At the twist of a wrist, he could will them in any direction he pleased. It was a clever strategy. Priya narrowed her eyes just as the sight of it materialized. But by that time, it was too late. “Sister, I can’t feel my chest,” Valco groaned. Looking to the side, the patron saw that her companion had been seized. “A minor battle to test your strength” Telenon answered, stretching the threads to move his new puppet. The realization dawned on her that indeed she would have to face her brother. The big lug himself. After a second of pulling the puppet about like a drunkard, Telenon finally got his bearings. Priya fell back, witnessing in full detail the rippling muscles of his bodybuilder physique. Valco’s bald head beamed with newfound reflective light. “Oh shit, this is really going down” Priya thought, biting her lip. The first punch tore a crater into the ground, which she abruptly dodged. With impeccable speed, the beast lunged and was already at her chest. The patron used some fast reflexes, and walked her way back, moving away from each thrust. Around them, the metal framework of the construction site was turned to silverlike powder. “Enough of this, let me use an inter-trans-manifestation on him” the woman thought, and when he was in an open area, charged him. She altered to echoes and went straight through.
Priya spun around to see the result. An explosion rushed out of his body, detonating with pristine glory. The flames lapped his greek body, shrouded in smoke. Then … nothing. “Uh, he’s too heavy,” she complained. Below the clouds, Telenon’s laugh could be heard with singular clarity.
In the moment after, Valco punched her in the gut, sending her skyward. Priya winced. The man’s fist felt like a blunt instrument. Due to the nature of the situation, the patron let her instincts come forth. She parried with her own physical strikes, and the ensuing fight led them on an all-around tour of the once promising city. Now the veins were starting to bulge from his hide, strengthening him, and it was hard to do a lot of damage. “Why so much endurance” Priya thought, sending him to a grave of earth below. Valco did not even budge a second before he tore out of the hole. The girl alighted on the periphery, but then the brute struck fast and sent her careening into a thick, half-finished wall. “I’m glad he’s on my side” Priya groaned as she brushed off some brick from her lab coat covered arms. The progress of their struggle sent them from sky to ground, and then back again. As she watched him dance, there was something Priya tried to remember. Something on the tip of her tongue. “Ah yes” she recalled. Unfortunately, the thing about Valco is … he can transform into a spinning ax. The realization came just in time and she moved her head to the left as the weapon rammed into the wall beside her. Priya unsheathed her mirror sword from a summoned mirror and went to work. The two blades met in swift motions, and the woman had to deal with the successive pattern of human and ax. They alighted on a rooftop where her shifting, seraph-like blade met his. The patron brought him to all four corners, then decided to return to the rubble below where there was more surface area.
Telenon was incensed. He flung his arm out, causing the behemoth to strike her location with the ax, and induced a growth spurt to the article. Priya was like an ice skater on the ground. It was practically impossible to catch her, even as the giant ax threw up a prodigious circle of damage.
They returned to the sky where the patron reformed her mirror sword into that of a battle mace and got a clear shot, sending him pummeling through a trio of buildings. Never a subtle man, Valco returned a second time with the same attack, yet she metamorphosed into echoes to evade its fury. “If you can’t kick ass, how are you going to take names?” Telenon shouted behind her.
Priya frowned at his unending tenacity. The beast was getting faster despite the blows that she had inflicted. He barreled close and came but an inch to her face with his fist. “Not so fast,” she declared. As the larger foe was maneuvering, he had failed to see the two cottony clouds trailing behind him. Each of them shot out a sizzling bolt of mirror lighting, taking hold of each arm. “If the first attack won’t do the trick, then lightning probably won’t either, but I can use it for this”
she reflected. A series of fast punches. She departed inches from the ground and cocked her knee into a vice-like position. Releasing it, a forceful kick sent him backwards. Lawlessly, the beast was sent faster than a blink of an eye to a distant hill at the boundary. The ground formed a cave on his arrival. She stood there for a minute while the boulders atop the pile shifted in their position. A roar freed itself from his lungs as the behemoth shot forward, out of the fragmented ground. Priya could see what she had wrought as a reddish bruise spread across his chest. Priya watched as his barefoot feet touched the grass. The endurance of her brother would continue.
Muscles pulsed like their combat had been a workout, and the blemish faded. Thick veins glowed red in his bicep. Sweating like a lion. “Your long-range attacks are not operational yet, what are you going to do?” Telenon bantered laughingly. “Will you shut up!” she countered.
Valco heaved into the air and spun around with that slick bald head of his. He transformed into a miniature volcano and shot a burst of lava that sculpted itself into that of an arm with a fist, and it careened into the ground, creating a fiery impact crater. More of them were to come. Priya was starting to get tired of the fireworks. It wasn’t new years and she wasn’t celebrating. Boiling hot lava splattered off the side of the impact crater and almost touched her lab coat as she circled around it. “Get her!” Telenon shouted with abandon. Priya sent a vertical burst of mirror lightning up to shatter the volcano, and it liberated the occupant. At that, the encounter continued with the prior arrangement of sword and ax, until the beast at last mustered a spell of his own.
Priya craned her neck as four portals appeared in the sky. Then there were giant hammers that spun in the delicate air. Priya assumed that it would be an easy endeavor to miss them as they fell to the ground. But she was wrong. At the ends of each of the hammers, the technology within began to activate. Inside the hollow tubes, thin tendrils of electricity flickered. Hot red flames erupted from the ends, and rocket engines awoke. The spinning became seamless, and they were flowing like a single geometric form. Priya was forced to become a string of mirror lightning to evade the attack, and it cracked half the landform along with the city. “Hahaha. Right on the …
what!” Telenon grunted as he realized what happened. The pale, cheerful orange of the puppet threads appeared in her vision. They dangled from the puppet, who could not move a muscle without permission. Priya retreated a yard as her feet slid across the grass. A few resonant breaths from deep below quieted her mind. The lab coat upon her back waved as the carefree air uplifted it. She felt a glint in her eye as the zeal returned. The rules of the game were becoming clear. “I need to take care of those strings,” she murmured to herself. Ahead, Valco was preparing for his final attack. He wiped bloody sweat from his face with one arm. The magnitude of his strength was becoming clear. “Sister, don’t let him win” he pleaded, telepathically as the spell weakened. In one daring jump, he altered again to the giant ax, but set himself alight, becoming a wheel of blade and flame. Priya knew Telenon was dreading a mighty spell in kind.
But she gave him what he wanted, and merely lifted her sword before her face. The whole universe seemed to teem with crimson as the weight of it touched down. Through endless revolutions, the wheel sharpened her instrument. Feet pressed into the ground. Like a true grinding, sparks flew off in their myriad directions. With one eye the patron looked past the flawless diagonal shaft of her sword. A red flame diabolical wheel. “This is it. I’ll just adjust the angle a little” she thought. As it happened, the orientation of the ax went from vertical to
horizontal, and in one motion the threads were cut clean through. Valco, a helpless brother, fell into her waiting arms. “That was not nice, Telenon!” she exclaimed, the bald head resting against her bosom. Priya transferred some energy and healing to Telenon, and in time he came around.
“Do you like having your head up in the clouds, my friend?” Priya taunted as soon as she reached his level. “Far better than your thoughtlessness” he answered, “That’s too bad. If we weren’t fighting over destiny, we really could have had a good talk” she stated smirking, and pointed to the cloud behind him. It rang out with thunder and lightning, then dropped away from its peers, and shrunk, forming into something like a white casket. Valco looked up and saw it open its door, and inside it was lined with white spikes. “A cloud iron maiden” he gasped.
Stealthily it slid up to the clone from behind, slamming its door to a scream of gruesome pain.
Priya sighed with relief, watching rivulets of blood drain from the cracks in the cloud iron maiden, then returned back down to the ground where her friend stood.