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Chapter Five: Mealtime Discussions
"What IS this?" snapped Rasha irritably. The Wiggan sat far from her, giggling quietly to herself, while the magician attempted to stomach the other's creation.
"It's soup," muttered Ihrie over a spoonful of her own. "Not terribly bad soup, either." Miguel slurped agreement.
"It looks ready to glow any second!" complained Rasha, pushing it away, her own face reflecting a sickly green.
Ihrie just shook her head, stifling a chuckle, "I guess I get the rest."
"I do," frowned Miguel.
"Just split it," said Lyle quietly, but with the tone of a king's command. It was the first time any of them had heard a command from him; the Sargus change had definitely impacted him when it came down to it.
But over a meal?
Ihrie shrugged; she would have suggested a fight for it, and contrary to the expression on Rasha's face, Lyle didn't seem too impatient for infighting.
"The Rabarans get you down?" she asked gently.
Lyle shook his head, sitting down; being a king, he must have already eaten. Or so Ihrie assumed. "It's not that. It's just that..." he paused, eyes going boyishly wide and reverting just as quickly back to Sargus-induced kingliness. "... just that Rugudorull isn't the greatest enemy after all."
"Maybe not, but we can handle 'im. The great Miguel bested a roomful of Muppets alone!" This coming from a goateed warrior in the middle of a meal.
"That was alone?" asked Galuff, walking in with a plate of what appeared to be ... dog food? It didn't seem to be for Gill, either, strangely enough.
Muttering something low and unpleasant, the warrior flicked a dark gaze at Galuff, eerily close to a Rasha frown.
"She rubbing off on you?" asked Ihrie pleasantly.
The Rasha glare flicked over to Ihrie, Rasha herself pausing from her meal to raise her eyebrows. "I must be."
Just as quickly as the frown ensued, it vanished - Miguel went back to his meal, muttering something else equally unpleasant.
Rasha shoved her meal away, a fleeting look of disgust glancing at it. "What's wrong, Miguel? You're usually much more placid than that." Placid? Definitely not a word Ihrie had in reserve...
"Nothing," came the in-munch reply.
"Something's the matter," the mage purred. "You know you can tell me." That look implied that she needed to know, whether he would or...
"Nothing."
Her glance moved over to the soup for a second - be easier to stomach than Miguel today - but went back, face the same shade of green as before. "Nothing doesn't explain your..."
"Nothing." Glaring at Rasha, Miguel stared at her.
Fam let loose a nervous squeak, clutching at Ihrie. "He's..."
"He's always like this." Fam had seen him like this before. Why would this be any differ -
"He's not Miguel," said Lyle quietly.
***
Chapter Six: An Unpleasant Invention
Miguel's visage was slowly reverting away from the being staring at Rasha. Bloodless, fleshless, the skin was nevertheless opening up, fading into a gray mist that slowly coalesced into small silver bubbles, floating beyond the being and into the ceiling.
"Spirits of the Air," said Fam quietly, watching the bubbles.
"Can you do anything about them?" asked Rasha, quivering but staring the creature down. "You were - "
"I tried already," replied the Wiggan sheepishly. "They won't listen to me - or even realise I'm here."
"...they are Spirits, though..."
Fam nodded, eyes wide in near-disbelief.
The last silver bubbles floated away, a dark golden thing of flesh and not metal sitting in its place. A blob, the thing was shaped in the general outline of Miguel, but for one blatant difference.
A golden orb sat on its head, not unlike the one in Ihrie's room, a sunken-in silver eyeball taking up what was once its face.
Rasha just ...stared... now, not moving but for a small quiver.
Even Gill let out a small yip.
"Was that Miguel, or a ... thing?" Ihrie asked, surprised her voice could bring out the question.
"The completion of the one called Miguel de Cerranlas is near its end," said a monotone, toneless voice from within the gold figure. "I have been activated by a..." the golem moved to Rasha and left itself there. "...friend and am awaiting further instructions."
For a full minute nothing happened, the sounds of breathing itself hardly noticeable. Abruptly, the golem's eye swiveling, watching all in the room. "Awaiting instructions," said the nonvoice, a trace of impatience in its tone.
From the lack of responses, it realised something, the eye turning to Rasha in a literal blink and nodding. "Following secondary orders immediately."
"Secondary orders?" Rasha and Ihrie were muttering spells even before they noticed the golem lumbering down the corridor.
When they did, all chaos broke loose.
"It's the orb!"
"It's going after the orb!"
"We're all gonna die!"
"You say that again, Galuff, you will."
One voice, a sharpened boyish voice, broke through all the noise, even the squealing maids from the corridor. "I'm going, with or without any of you."
Even Gill went along in the end, if only to snicker the entire way.
***
Chapter Seven: Orbal Warfare
"From fizzle to fire... "
"Not yet, Fam. Not quite yet." The golden golem was a full corridor away; so far, it had diverted into about three or four doors already, one even including a woman's shrill scream. Lyle had winced, as though it were his own ... in a sense, perhaps.
"But that's your quarter..."
"Right. We want to see what it does."
Ihrie was certainly ready to use her flashline of ice - but the consequences were enough to tide her over. Being a mouse wasn't a particularly pleasant occurence, even with Rasha there to freak out.
Slowly Lyle crept forward, and the troupe followed - Ihrie had to nearly strangle Gill to keep him quiet - until they were immediately before Ihrie's room.
Inside, the golem had removed its head - indeed, it was the same orb Ihrie had once owned - and sat before it, waiting for instructions of whatever sort.
This, of course, was the perfect -
"...from sizzles of fate..."
Fam was still trying to remember the incantation, tapping her forehead as though it would help.
"Wait until we get IN!" snapped Rasha.
The golem heard, and its removed head turned, a blink sending a flashline of lightning at them - the most they could do, clustered in the door, was to crash into each other.
Lyle's eyes bulged, trying to hold the Sword steady, while a flashline of ice flew at the golem and Ihrie reverted into a small, speaking mouse. "There goes Rasha," it muttered, watching the mage collapse into a near-death faint.
The Reybart prince-king tossed a gray pill into Ihrie's mouth with practiced aim, but even that didn't help. Another flashline, this one of ground-searing flame, slid along after them.
Lyle blocked this one with the Sword, but shook his head. The only other time it had blocked anything, it occured to Ihrie, was with the enhancement of the Spirits. The Spirits ...
Any implication left her mind as she flicked a panicked gaze back at Fam in the corridor rear. The golem's flashline would hit her straight on.
"Fam!" The Wiggan looked up, and smiled a smile only Fam could bring.
"...bid the two powers, and make the other ones late!"
It brought just the right intensity, with her high-pitched squeak. Ihrie still hadn't figured out how Wiggans - at least brighter ones - could fit so well with their spells.
They did, though; that was the important thing.
As the horizontal flame flashed out toward the golem, Ihrie jumped into Lyle, knocking him out of the way. She made it a point to get beyond its path; she knew the power of the Wiggan fizzle.
Intense it was. Yellow, red, blue - it slid through the full color spectrum, even pulling a purple on its way past. Fam's grin was sheepish but big, both for good reason. It annihilated over half of Ihrie's possessions - later, everyone in the palace swore they heard her groan that day - and even went through the wall.
Lyle's own groan was never heard, for a fearful silence slid over the group, waiting for the smoke to clear. It took a good five minutes, in which nearly no one moved, even Gill, the end of which involved Rasha walking up tentatively.
The head-orb was where it had been, but the golem was vanished, as though never there.
Rasha knew better than that. She grabbed the head - now cooled of the fizzle - and shook it in a blind fury.
"Where's Miguel?" she screamed.
***
Chapter Eight: Mysteries of the Orb
"The one called Miguel is no longer with us," said that nonvoice from the orb. Fam's eye went wide, and Ihrie walked back to hug her.
"He's not gone," she said quietly, holding a finger to hush Fam's inevitable question.
Instead, Rasha asked it.
"Where IS he?"
The orb stayed silent.
Lyle coughed gently, walking up with a smile bordering on naivety. "Ask it politely," he said. "And change the question."
"Change it?"
"Think for a moment."
She did, taking most the time to calm, and nodded.
"He is no longer with us ... "
"Correct."
" ... so who is he with?"
"He is now with Aeril."
"Who is Aeril?"
The nonvoice paused. "You should know."
"I do not."
The nonvoice quieted. "Then I must le - "
"No!" The nonvoice made a quiet vexed noise. "No," said Rasha more gently. "Where is Aeril?"
"He is immediately south of Reybart castle."
"Why?"
The nonvoice hissed. "You are not in your right mind, Rashana. Only Aeril knows."
"Rashana?" This time, it was Galuff, with more than a little suspicion.
Rasha hissed, now. "Only Aeril knows," she complained, imitating the nonvoice.
"Meet Aeril if you want to find out. You're not learning anything else from ME!"
The nonvoice grew quieter and quieter, muttering in an imitation of Rasha's own tone, until it was hushed completely.
Once it was fully gone, Rasha whirled on Galuff in a flutter of white cape. "Who is this Rashana?" rivaling a cobra's venom.
"Just a person I've heard - "
"You've heard nothing of Rashana." Galuff's eyes went wide, he gulped, and skittered away.
"Now," said Rasha smoothly, "Let's find Aeril."
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