Rising Shards

”Left, Roux Jr., left!” Roux said as they pinched my arm. It didn’t really hurt, but it was annoying.

We were definitely in the void, because the building layout went from stupidly designed in a Rising Shards way to something designed in a nightmare. A maze of hallways that didn’t seem to follow their own internal logic; you could turn a corner and be right back where you were a second earlier without realizing.

Roux plucked some of the fur on my arm out, and I decided that was enough carrying time for everyone. I would’ve carried Marms a bit longer, she felt nice sitting against my arm, but I didn’t want to look like I was playing favorites or something.

”Gonna analyze this in the lab later,” Roux said.

It was really hard being stuck in this Downside form not being able to talk back to Roux. They weren’t even panicked by how freaky I looked. But maybe I wasn’t as monstrous this time, I hadn’t seen a mirror.

”You have a lab?” Marmalade said.

At least Marms was on the same wavelength as me.

”As if I’d give details on my secret laboratories,” Roux said.

I tilted my nose up instinctively, sniffing at the air.

”What’s up, do you smell something?” Marmalade asked.

I was glad I hadn’t figured out talking in this form yet in that brief moment, because the first thing I smelled was something amazing on Marmalade. Like a billion flowers mushed into one. Did she have perfume on or something? For some reason, I felt like it was on her forearm. Was my sense of smell that good in this form? I shook my head, because there was something else I could sense. A scent of musty old books, even older than the ones in the library.

I followed the trail of worn pages and dust mites, until we reached a room that looked like an ancient study, a space that looked thousands of years old. Reed was there, looking even stupider in person than he looked like on the feeds as he turned pages on a book.

”Crap...” Marmalade said.

Behind Reed, Aira and Syval were floating, completely still.

Elisa gasped. ”Tokickaman!”

Syval still had his mask on at least, but at this point I just wanted to finish this and escape, I’d explain the secret identity thing later if he got found out.

”Tum tee tum, reading is fun!” Reed said.

I let out a growl, but really it was an agonized groan from how much this dude sucked ass.

”Here it is...Atrian crystals, eh?” Reed said.

Wanting to get this over with, I charged, punching with the same force I took Shelv out with. But a hazy shield of energy blocked my attack.

”That’s not going to work,” Reed said, his eyes buzzing around like googly eyes were glued onto him as he looked up. ”My pacts are protecting me, see?”

He reached his spindly arms back and twanged two cords of energy like they were guitar strings.

”I hath made two whole ding dang pacts at this school!” Reed said. ”And pacts, if you were wondering, basically power me up and make it so you can’t hurt me with your big ol’ arms. Normally I’d try to figure out what the hecking hell you are, but these two have captured my interest. Wanna join me for reading time?”

”We really don’t,” Marmalade said.

Chumbler let out a gasp more dramatic than Elisa’s. ”Dad?”

We all turned to her.

”Wait, is he...?” Marms said.

”No way,” Z.O.K. said.

It’d explain something if this thing was somehow Chumbler’s dad. I don’t know what it’d explain, but it’d explain something.

”No, I just...” Chumbler looked embarrassed, something I didn’t know she was capable of feeling. ”Figured it’d distract him for a second, then you could...” She pouted, kicking at the ground. ”I dunno. Hit him or something.”

”Nice try, but I keep track of all my offspring spawns,” Reed said. ”And you ain’t one of them. And I already said you can’t hit me, remember? Now stop interrupting your storyteller.”

We didn’t have much of a choice, but I still tried punching a few more times and letting out some huge ice attacks. Once that did nothing outside of looking badass, I sat down cross legged.

”Oh my god, she’s so cute when she does that,” Marmalade said. ”I mean! Uh!”

”Roux Jr. is oddly adorable,” Roux said.

I didn’t really want to be ’cute,’ especially like this, but I took the compliment. Marms sat down beside me while the others did as well. I listened to Reed, but I was really looking for an opening.

”One fun thing about doing these killing games is you meet all kinds of people,” Reed said. ”At the start, I thought this would be a great school. Lot of energy, lots of marketable boys.”

”What do you mean, marketable boys?” Marmalade asked.

”Because the boys are where the money’s at!” Reed said.

”That’s what I’ve been saying!” Chumbler said.

”Are you...making money off of all this, somehow?” Marmalade asked.

”I go from place to place, finding a good, marketable hook, setting up a killing game, stopping anyone from interfering, make a pact or two, drain their life force, et cetera, but I admit this was one of my sloppier efforts,” Reed said. ”I got some good ad revenue on the stream, but that only gets you so far. Made even worse because you all wouldn’t even play along, so maybe I was right to not try so much on a complete dud! None of you would freaking kill each other! Did one person even touch my incredible Tension Betrayal System? No! Would you make my day and kill each other now, please?”

”We’re not doing that,” Marmalade said.

”I bet big beastie here would want to rip you all to shreds,” Reed said.

”She doesn’t,” Marmalade said.

”Well, poo,” Reed said. ”See! No fun! I thought this would suck outside of luring in an idiot principal and a gullible boy. Then these two flew in, and used my powers to put them in nap time. Don’t worry, they’re just sleep-floating!”

At least they were alive, that was something. It was good to hear nobody actually tried the killing part of the killing game thing, too.

”I gave em the ol’ once or twice over with my super duper speed reading scanning prowess and powers, and I realized that they did something veeerry stupid. You wanna know?” Reed said.

”I feel like you’re going to tell us either way,” Z.O.K. said.

”These two ate Atrian crystals,” Reed said.

I growled. Back in the Taramin Labs, where I drank the devil serum, Aira and Syval each found weird looking crystals that they decided to eat for whatever reason. I knew it was stupid then, but I was currently a giant freaky-ass monster because I drank some gunk in the lab, so I couldn’t really judge.

”Possibly one of the stupidest things anyone could do, ever!” Reed said. ”Isn’t that fascinating? Do you even know what an Atrian crystal is?”

I tried to think of where I heard that, and remembered it came up in one of Tik’s vision flashback dealies. I couldn’t say it out loud, but I remembered Tik got hurt really bad, and her girlfriend put her in one to save her.

”It’s an ancient and incredibly rare crystal, named super boringly for how spectacular it is,” Reed said. ”If you get a mortal blow, these things can suck you into a pocket dimension housed inside itself to heal any wound. I dunno where they got em, but these idiots found Atrian crystals each with a person inside of them. So two people got hurt, got all Atrian crystal’d, then they got eaten! You know what happens then?”

Nobody answered. Reed held up the book he was reading, an ancient medical book with diagrams of bodies drawn with dotted lines, overlapping each other. ”You’re actually looking at four people right now. The ones inside are dormant, but I can tell they wanna get out. Unluckily for you, I know how to awaken those dormant bodies, and I really heckling want to know who the heck they are. You wanna see who’s inside them?”

”Not really,” Marmalade said.

I really wanted to punch him for his weird word use like ’heckling’ instead of hecking, but that would probably make me a hypocrite as a fan of using words in wrong ways for the specific purpose of annoying others. And the shield was still around them.

Reed shut the book, then rubbed his weird little hands together. Aira and Syval started trembling. Just like back at that city in the void when we fought the devils, a hazy, ghostlike figure reached out from within each of them. This time it was much clearer who each was. Both had their eyes shut, wailing as the clawed forward. The boy climbing out of Syval I couldn’t quite place, he looked so familiar, I knew I’d seen him somewhere.

The girl trying to climb out of Aira’s body I recognized immediately. There was no question about it.

I’d never forget Jeans.