Rising Shards

I didn’t know how to process the ruins around us being from a group called the Sharai, especially with what was sort of their ghosts roaming around nearby as well.

“I’m sure you remember them from our recent class.” Caya said.

“I…mighta slept through that one.” Ko said.

“They were an ancient group of Cani,” Lillia said. “Said to be obsessed with perfecting the beast tendency. Which may have torn their society apart and led to them ending up like this.” Lillia gestured to the emptiness around us.

“Right.” Caya said. “Aira in her reports told me that her group was investigating a Sharai resurgence…but unless it was retention sprite based, I highly doubt that was accurate. The Sharai have been gone for a very long time.”

“So what were they doing?” I asked. “Didn’t Aira say Laenie’s brother was captured by some people or something?”

“She did, but…” Caya grimaced, as though she wasn’t sure what she should be sharing. “There’s a lot about their mission I’m not sure about.”

“Can’t we ask Kitty?” I asked. “Or is it possible she’s behind this maybe?”

“I’ve been trying to reach her, but I’ve had no luck,” Caya said. “We can’t rule out the possibility, but this doesn’t seem like her style. It’s lacking in that ‘benefits Kitty’ factor that fuels most of her decision making. Either way, these Sharai sprites haven’t seen us yet, and they’re not fully ones from the beast tendency. I assume that pylon they’re hanging around created them, so if we avoid it, we should be good.”

“How much of a number on the void are we talking here?” Iris asked, using her turn with the binoculars to look away from the soldiers quickly to stare at Maia. “Like, six? A six out of, let’s say, ten? Twenty maybe?”

“Like a hundred thousand.” Diast said. “To put it in polite terms to get through it quicker, they conquered, killed,  destroyed, set countless dimensions into dark ages.”

“Oh, so these dudes are like evil­-evil, huh?” Iris asked.

“Yep,” Diast said. “If they were the real deal, I’d be giving bringing you lot along this far more pause. Memory sprites, though? We can handle them. If it comes to it.”

“Yeah!” Oka said.

“That’s not to say these guys aren’t dangerous.” Diast said. “So we’re going to try and just sneak around them. So be on your guard, and fight like Caya trained you to if it comes to that.”

“If all else fails, stand behind me,” Mahina said. “I can take out a retention sprite with just my fists.”

“Wait, how do we tell if they’re retention sprites?” I asked.

Diast tapped her wristband. “I set the group’s to put out a lil’ signal that’ll tell us. For example.” She walked over to Oka, and let her wristband ping, sending out a wave of energy. For a second, Oka had a shimmering, rainbow-like light around her, like the kind in true Atrian energy. Seeing that beautiful light on an already beautiful Oka made me feel very gay things, but this unfortunately wasn’t the time to give my girlfriend a big hug.

“If you run into any of the bad guys that match our color,” Diast said. “Like that swirling rainbowy deal, shout for me and hit the ground immediately. If they glow yellow, you can hit em just fine!”

“Yellow, huh…” Iris said, rubbing her chin. “Kill the piss guys, got it Diast!” She gave a thumbs up.

“Right, yeah.” Diast said. “I’m gonna…go work on something to make getting over all this…desert…easier...” She started to shuffle off, her head heavy like she took a 40-page test that she just failed.

“Oh, wait, I just remembered!” Oka dove into her backpack again and pulled out a bunch of packaged sunglasses. “Buckshot Leaf cares about the health of her gang’s eyes, so put these shades on.”

Oka had enough for everyone, but Lillia didn’t need any as her glasses were transition lenses. She offered some to Diast, but Diast had a sporty pair ready that had Ko snorting.

“What?” Diast asked.

“Nice dad glasses, Diast.” Ko said.

“Shut up.” Diast said.

“They have the like strap on the back and everything,” Ko said. “Are you gonna grill us some burgers before the big game, too?”

“Alright, ha ha,” Diast said. “OK, gang, gather round!”

Diast unveiled our means of traveling forward. It looked like the minivan in a can type carts we usually rode around on void missions, but it was big enough to house all of us and had treads instead of the dinky tires a normal one would have.

“Fun fact, you can click a few minivan in a cans together when they’re in can form and make a bigger deal like this!” Diast said. She winced at Mahina. “Sorry if the mood isn’t right for…minivan in a can fun factoids.”

“No, no, I found it very interesting.” Mahina said. “Now, a quick ride and hopefully a quick pickup of daughter, yeah?”

We got buckled up and we were off, following the signal of Kalei’s wristband once more.

“Gonna be honest,” Oka said. “I was really hoping we’d get horses to ride. Like they’d summon horses for us or something.”

“Now isn’t the time to worry about how we could have been getting to Kalei,” Lillia said. “But I agree.”

I leaned on the side of the van as I looked out at the vast sand around us as we rolled along.

“This changing of climates and day and time is really messing with me,” I said. “It was night there even though it was like lunch time at home, and now it’s day and all desert-y.”

“It’s definitely messing with my sinuses.” Oka said, pressing on her cheekbones.

“Me too!” I said.

“Got their trail,” Caya said. A map came up on our power blocker displays. The blinking dots didn’t tell me much, but I appreciated keeping us all in the loop. “If the signal from Kalei is accurate, they’re fairly close.”

“Why don’t they take Kalei’s wristband off if they want to lose us?” Oka asked. “This isn’t a trap, is it?”

“I assume they’re just scrambling at this point.” Diast said. She winced at her own projected display. “And heading underground. Do we need to go over the ground rules again before we maybe head into some dicey crap?”

“We shoot to kill,” Iris said.

“No.” Diast said.

“Stay behind the teachers, don’t rush into trouble,” I said. “That’s the gist of it, I think.”

We came to a stop outside what looked like a giant beast that was now dormant with its mouth wide open. Upon closer inspection, it was just a cave with intricate carvings around it that made it look like it was some huge dragon’s mouth or something. I couldn’t see any sign of Kalei or the others, and the only sound I could hear from within was howling wind.

“Remember, the three adults are leading the charge here.” Diast said, igniting her bloodsaber and using it to light the way into the dark cave. Caya and Mahina did the same. The cave’s mouth was wide enough that we all could get our own swords out and use them to light the way without anyone bumping into each other.

“What’s the plan here, exactly?” Ko asked. “We go into dragon cave and just like beat up Ovie?”

“You know, we could just like,” Iris made sound effects as she pointed above, then smashed her free hand downwards.

“So we just blast up the ceiling and bury them all here,” Ko said. “You know that would make it a lot harder getting Koridia back if we like killed her, right?”

“Sure, but we’d put the ol’ fear of Iris into the others, you know?” Iris said.

“Iris, if you do one more joke—I think they’re jokes—one more joke about murdering a bunch of students I’m sending you home.” Diast said.

“Fiiiine,” Iris said. “I’ll have to come up with new material.”

“Every time you say that, your next jokes are always way worse.” Maia said.

“Or we can maybe not focus on jokes and just the mission?” I suggested.

The cave seemed almost like an ancient hangar, with spaces every few feet that looked like parking spots. I clung very closely to Oka as we investigated, looking around for any potential clues as we headed deeper in. We didn’t get very far, as someone screamed behind us. I whipped around, but all I could see was the green of Iris’ hair far behind us before my panic blurred my vision.