Aenorin sat back in his seat in the small office space the group occupied, eyes wide and unblinking as he shifted his gaze between Truth and the others. “That’s, that’s a lot…” He said with a shake of his head. “You’re telling me that my wife was being controlled?” He looked at Slyran behind Saria’s desk.

  “That’s what my daughter said,” he said, nodding directly to Truth, who sat across from him. She was there with Cailynn.”

  Aenorin looked at Truth. “And you’re saying you have…” He trailed off and tapped his forehead slowly. “A voice in your head, a person who talks to you?”

  Truth nodded. “Some times,” she said, “He’s been quiet tely ever since I left the Cerrebellium.”

  Aenorin blinked. “Right… That other world…” He shook his head slowly.

  Isa shifted in her chair beside Truth and leaned forward, her hands held up in a warding gesture. “Aenorin, I understand it’s a lot to take in. But, we speak the truth. You saw how Cailynn was when we arrived and took her to the infirmary. Saria was in a simir state not so long ago.”

  The grizzled elf pursed his lips and fidgeted with the straps on his overalls. He finally sighed, “I–I believe you… I don’t want to, but I do.”

  “It’ll be okay Uncle Aenorin,” Varis said, trying to be cheerful. He pushed himself off the far wall he’d been leaning on and walked over to Aenorin. “Luna will bring Momma back, I know she will.”

  “I will?” Truth started.

  Varis turned to her. “Of course!” He beamed. “You saved all of us when we were taken by the bad guys, and you’re super good at magic. Momma said so!”

  Truth’s eyes widened, and she couldn’t help but see her cheeks flushing with a deep crimson. “I, uh–”

  Isa came to Truth’s rescue by dismissing Varis with a wave. “Varis, we appreciate the kind words, but please, do not pce all of this responsibility solely on your sister. We’ll handle this together.”

  Slyran folded his hands and nodded. “Exactly, we’ll do this as a family.”

  Hearing those words made Truth’s heart flutter, and she smiled. If only Luna were here now to listen to that. She thought.

  “Right,” Truth said, “More minds are better than one I’ve read.” She looked to her Uncle. “Uncle Aenorin, as strange as it sounds, the voice told me to come here,” she said, and the man arched his brow but said nothing, so Truth continued, “He said that whatever is being built here is important, that perhaps it can help the city. I need to know what’s being made, and how I can help.”

  Aenorin blinked and looked her over, and Truth noticed that the rest of her family was also doing the same. Why are they looking at us like that? She wondered.

  “Right,” Aenorin said, stroking his chin and then frowning. “I hate to be the bearer of bad news, Luna, but…” He sighed and shrugged as his arms fell to his side. “Even I don’t know what’s being made.”

  Everyone shared an awkward gnce. They then turned back to Aenorin. “But you’re married to one of the chief archineers,” Slyran said ftly.

  Aenorin started, then scoffed. “Yes, but—It’s not like she tells me anything. Saria takes her job seriously, and this project has been under wraps since the start.”

  Varis pursed his lips. “How can you build something you don’t know?” He asked innocently.

  Aenorin looked at the boy. “With blueprints and a competent foreman. Just so you guys know, I’m just a grunt, a high ranking grunt, but my job is still hammering and welding pieces together. I don’t need to know what those pieces do, I just know they need to be smacked together.”

  Varis smiled. “Sounds fun!”

  Aenorin snorted, though a small smile did form on the edge of his lips, and then he took a deep breath. “The best person to speak to would be Saria directly. Perhaps she’ll be more open about it.”

  Truth nodded slowly. “The most she said so far is that this thing is some kind of generator.”

  Aenorin cocked his head as if a memory had just sparked. “That, I have heard that word thrown about.”

  “Speaking of Saria,” Isa said, “I do not think I fully trust what’s going on with her.” The room fell silent, and Aenorin shifted uncomfortably as the concerned, unsaid thoughts rose to light. “If she was truly under the influence of this Bishop, we should keep a close eye on her.”

  Truth shifted. “But Momma said that she didn’t detect anything wrong with her still after the Bishop was…” she gulped. “Killed.” The image of Putinov’s corpse with his face blown out fshed across her mind, and she shuddered.

  Isa shrugged. “You said it yourself, Luna, or at least, the Master told you. That was a shell of the mage, another body of sorts. What you saw was merely another version of him if what is said to be true. The magic could still be in her.”

  Truth and the others paled. “Bu-but Momma didn’t sense it,” She said softly.

  Isa nodded and folded her arms. “Yes, she didn’t, but ether can be hidden. I am not saying for certain she is being controlled, I’m merely stating that we should be cautious. She states that her god, the very one the bishop worships, told her to come here and finish what is being done. Like, Cailynn, she spoke the code that you had written down. Something doesn’t seem right here.”

  The room fell silent, and Truth shifted uncomfortably in her seat. Great, now I’m starting to feel paranoid again. She huffed.

  Slyran leaned forward in the chair, his arms resting on the desk before him. “Aenorin, how far has construction come since I st worked?” He asked.

  Aenorin, who also looked immensely nervous, looked to Slyran and took a deep breath. “Aside from the attack early, pretty smoothly. I’ve been told we’re actually a week ahead of schedule. So far we’re finishing up the flue and once we do that the outer shell will be complete, and what’s left is up to the archineers to wire the damn thing. All of which could be done in about a day or two tops, on a normal schedule. With them having us doing overtime, if things go smoothly, we can probably get the thing done finally.”

  Truth’s eyes widened. They’re that close to completing it? Maybe this won’t be so bad…

  Slyran nodded as he listened. “And what it’s Saria’s position here again?”

  Aenorin gnced at him. “I told you this,” he said, and Slyran rolled his eyes.

  “I know you told me, but they don’t know,” He said, nodding towards the rest of his family.

  Aenorin blushed faintly. “Right,” he said and cleared his throat. “She’s the chief archineer, not the project manager, but their right-hand woman. She helped design much of the machine's internal working, which I know. From what she told me, she practically “programmed” the device, I believe that was the word she used.”

  Isa frowned and gnced at Truth. “Luna, didn’t you mention that this archbishop wanted to sabotage the power pnt?” She asked.

  Truth returned the gesture and met Isa’s eyes. “Yeah… I think I see what you’re getting to,” she said. Aenorin blinked, his eyes widening.

  “You don’t think Saria’s going to try and break the machine, are you?” He asked.

  Slyran took a deep breath. “Aenorin, we don’t know for sure,” He said.

  Aenorin shook his head and cut him off with a slice of his hand. “No. I refuse to believe she’d go against everything like that. She’s been working on this project for years.”

  “We’re talking about mind control, Aenorin,” Isa said calmly yet firmly. “It doesn't matter if Saria cherishes this project or not if something else is influencing her.”

  He hesitated, and Truth bit her tongue as her uncle gripped his fists and sighed. “What the hell is going on?” He asked out of frustration.

  “Too much krek,” Slyran answered dryly. “I know it’s a lot, Aenorin, but you have to trust us. Saria must be watched over, you’re her husband so…”

  Aenorin gritted his teeth. “You want me to spy on my own wife?” Slyran simply nodded, and Aenorin leaned forward and held his head in his palms. “Alright, fine,” he said, “I’ll take your word for it, but there’s one issue.”

  “And that would be?” Truth asked, and Aenorin gnced at her.

  “I’m not able to access many of the zones she can; as I stated, much of this project is secretive, and we grunts are only on a need-to-know basis,” he expined.

  Isa nodded. “That is a valid point, however, being her husband will hopefully allow you to stick closer to her than others.”

  “Can’t we just lock her up?” Varis asked bluntly.

  Everyone started and turned to the boy, who shrugged. “What? Momma and Papa ground us to our rooms when we’re bad.” He gestured to Truth. “If Aunt Saria is going to be bad, we should ground her.”

  Slyran couldn’t help but ugh. “Oh, son, if only it were that easy.” He snickered and shook his head. “No, we can’t just lock up your aunt. That’s… Not right.”

  Varis frowned. “Neither is breaking a big machine.” He crossed his arms.

  Uncle Aenorin held a hand up to the boy. “Varis, the issue is your aunt hasn’t done anything wrong, yet. We can’t just lock people up because we think they’re going to do something bad.”

  Varis puffed his cheeks. “That’s dumb. It seems obvious to me.” The adults and Truth merely sighed.

  Straightening herself in her chair, Truth looked to her father. “I have an idea, Papa, one I’ve been thinking about for a bit now,” she said.

  Slyran cocked his head. “Hit me,” he said casually.

  “Uncle Aenorin said he saw Oscar and Anne arrive with that Mr. Rosewall guy, right?” she said, and Aenorin nodded, so she continued, “Isa said this Rosewall guy is super wealthy and such, if I remember.”

  “He is the owner of this construction site,” Isa confirmed, and Truth smiled.

  “So why don’t we just snuggle up with this guy, then? " she suggested, and the adults blinked.

  “Snuggle… Up?” Slyran asked.

  Truth’s smile widened. “We show him that we’re irrepceable, get him to like us. If we can get buddy buddy with the boss then surely that’ll give access to more stuff.”

  Aenorin shook his head. “Whoa, whoa.” He waved his hands. “Luna, I don’t think it’s that simple. Lord Terry owns this pce sure, but he’s also getting paid by the government. They also have their hands in this pie too, even he doesn’t have full access to everything.”

  Truth shrugged. “Well, sure, but it’s worth a shot.”

  Slyran leaned back in his chair, hand stroking his ever-growing beard. “The idea is nice, Luna, but… I doubt it’d work. In a long-con situation, sure. But, Saria said we have hours. You’d need to do something drastic to get his attention.”

  Truth fshed them all the biggest smile she could muster as her excitement grew. She sat fully straight in her chair and scooted towards the edge. When Saria had guided them to the infirmary earlier, Truth had seen just how bad things were.

  While the invaders didn’t directly target the construction site during their attack, many employees were caught in the crossfire. Nearby citizens were also brought into the infirmary during the crisis, quickly making it a makeshift hospital. The pce was packed with the injured, and Truth knew she could help them all.

  Luna will be pleased when she hears about this, Truth smiled.

  Healing all those people with her abilities would be a breeze, and surely, it would get the attention of any top dog in this pce when they notice their entire workforce coming back like nothing happened. That’s what she was going to do.

  “The infirmary,” she said, “I’ll fix everyone there.” She snapped her finger for effect. “Mr. Rosewall won’t be able to resist looking into what happened there once I do that.”

  Isa’s mouth fell open, and she shifted and said, “Luna, your mother and father said–”

  “Deal,” Slyran said, cutting her off. He leaned forward and smiled broadly. “I like this.”

  “Slyran, you said it yourself,” Isa began, but once again, he waved her off.

  “That was before Saria said everything was going to go crap, Isa,” He said firmly. “We need to act fast. We don’t have time for subtly. Except for keeping an eye on Saria.” He added at the end.

  Isa opened her mouth to protest, but hesitated. Finally, she lowered her head and nodded. “Alright, but if we do this, we’ll attract more than just Mr. Rosewall’s attention. Aenorin said it himself: the government is involved here.”

  Slyran rubbed his neck. “I know, but we’ll cross that bridge…” he trailed off as the door to the office opened.

  Everyone’s heads turned to see Saria stepping inside, his expression pleased. She closed the door, met everyone’s gaze, and blinked. “I’m sorry. Am I intruding?” she asked innocently.

  Aenorin hesitated and stood up. “No,” He said with a shake of his head. “You arrived just in time, love.” He smiled and stepped forward, and the two exchanged a quick kiss. “We were just talking about how things were going with the project.”

  Saria hummed and leaned against him as her eyes drifted over the others before eventually nding on Truth. “Is that so? Rosewall was congratuting me and the others on how well things were coming along,” she said, continuing to hold onto Aenorin.

  Aenorin smiled. “Yeah, the Foreman’s been busting our asses non stop these past few days. I was telling them with the mandated overtime we should have this done overnight–”

  A muffled click came from above, followed by a sharp whine and whistle that caused everyone to flinch, except Aenorin and Saria, who seemed unfazed. Their attention drifted towards what looked to be a speaker device Truth hadn’t noticed above the door, and a distorted man’s voice could be heard from it.

  “By the Head Archineer’s orders. All archineers are to report to the cafeteria immediately. I repeat, all archineers are to report to the cafeteria immediately.” Immediately, the voice cut off with a click.

  The adults frowned and looked at Saria, who closed her eyes and sighed. Varis turned to Truth and asked, “What was that voice? Is there a man inside the ceiling?”

  Truth shook her head. “Aunt Saria, what’s that about?” She asked.

  Saria took a deep breath. “What I warned you all about. The disaster is drawing nearer. I came here to grab my items, love…” She looked at Aenorin and pulled away. “I’ll be in the control tower. You need to stay with Slyran and his family–”

  Aenorin shook his head. “Saria, what is going on?”

  “Bad things,” was all she said, and began to walk towards her desk where Slyran sat.

  Slyran pulled the chair back and stood up as Saria took a key out of a pocket in her dress. “All of you need to stay inside, don’t go out there until I say so,” she said as she unlocked the drawer.

  “Saria,” Slyran said as Aenorin approached the desk. “Just tell us, what is happening?”

  Saria gritted her teeth, and Truth frowned as she stood up. Varis suddenly took her by the hand, and she flinched and looked at him. “Luna,” he said with fear in his eyes. “I-I’m scared.”

  Truth smiled gently. “So am I,” she said, “but we’ll be alright.”

  “A storm is coming,” Saria finally said, though it sounded like she had to force the words. “A big one. Bigger than any Frostwind we’ve experienced.” Finally, she pulled open the drawer and reached within.

  “A frostwind?” Aenorin blinked. “It’s the end of spring, there wouldn’t–”

  “Just trust me, Aenorin,” Saria said with a grunt as she hoisted a thick metal box out of the drawer and pced it on the desk with a heavy thud.

  Truth eyed the heavy gray box, her chest tightening. She clenched her fists as a sudden session of fight-or-flight began to kick in. She didn’t know why—was it just a box, or was she anxious about what was happening? She didn’t know for sure.

  “Aunt Saria,” Truth said, “what’s in the box?” She pointed.

  Saria looked to Truth, and there, she knew what it was. Again, Saria’s expression resembled how it had been on the trip here. Her eyes looked lifeless as if she wasn’t looking at Truth but instead through her. “The tools I’ll need to help finish the generator,” she said, and grunted as she lifted the box.

  “You carry your tools in a lead container?” Isa asked with an arched brow as Saria began to walk towards the office entrance.

  “Archeo devices,” Saria said, “I’m gd I had kept them in here, or else the pulse would’ve drained them.” She stopped at the door with one hand on the handle and looked back at everyone, her eyes returning to normal. “Please, stay indoors. I do not wish for anything to happen to you all.” With that, she opened the door and left, leaving everyone alone.

  Varis gulped and looked to Truth. “I-I’m scared,” he said in a whisper.

  Truth looked at him and nodded. “So am I,” she said and took his hand. “But we’re together this time.” She smiled.

  “I’m going to follow her,” Isa said abruptly.

  Aenorin started but stopped when Slyran stood up. “Agreed.”

  “Did you see her expression,” Truth asked as Isa approached the door. She waited momentarily for Saria to get further away before peeking outside.

  “I did,” Isa said, looking back at them.

  Slyran crossed his arms. “I noticed it as well, it happened shortly after she picked up the box.”

  Truth squeezed Varis’s hand. “I felt something odd when she pulled it out,” she said. “I don’t know why but… It scared me.”

  Aenorin, who still seemed the most skeptical out of all of them, coughed. “That’s understandable, Saria has been saying some scary things–”

  “Aenorin,” Isa said bluntly. “When Luna says she feels something, it’s best to trust the girl. He instincts have proven to be accurate.”

  “Then we lock her up!” Varis hoisted both his and Truth’s hands into the air.

  Slyran shook his head. “Not yet, boy, we stick to the original pn. Isa, stick close to her, and don’t do anything rash.” Isa gave a curt nod and ducked outside. Slyran then looked to Aenorin.

  Aenorin sighed. “I can go with her,” he said. “People would start questioning things if an unknown serelli was caught walking around.” He spun, made his way to the door, and left.

  Leaving the room with only Truth, her brother, and her father. Slyran got up and looked at Truth and smiled. “Let's go put your pn into action now, eh?”

  When they arrived at the construction site earlier, Truth had only gotten a quick glimpse of the infirmary. She and the others had only waited outside while her father carried her mother inside to check her in, returning shortly after. Now, she was stepping inside for the first time and seeing it with her eyes. She noted the infirmary was nothing like the clinic and triage Truth had seen back in Trentonville. She could hardly recall the one Luna had witnessed on the front, and the girl hadn’t pushed those memories into the closet for Truth to see.

  First, the building was just that—an entire building. About three stories and made entirely of stone and wood, the interior held pristine, polished floors and sanitized white walls, with rooms lit with blue ether lights. If someone had taken a picture and shown it to her and said this was a photo from Luna’s past life at a city hospital, she’d probably believe it.

  That is, until a hulking ork and a dwarf with a long, red beard and long, red hair, dressed in white hospital scrubs, stepped out of a staff room and turned to them with confused looks.

  “Can we help you?” The ork asked with a grunt, his thick tusks giving him a slight lisp as his small green eyes focused on Slyran.

  Slyran stepped forward and looked up at the ork, who was about two heads taller than the elf. He gestured for Varis and Truth to stand behind him and smiled at the men.

  “Yes, actually,” he said, “Not too long ago, I came in with my wife, Cailynn Ashflow. A doctor by the name of Dahn took her in.” He reached around, pnted a hand on Varis’s head, and tousled his hair. “These are our children; we came to see her.”

  The ork gnced down at the dwarf, who only came up to his thighs, and crossed his arms. “There is a visitor waiting section at the front. You can go wait there while we confer with Dr. Ochs.”

  Slyran cursed under his breath. “I didn’t know, sorry, uh, how long will that take?” He asked.

  The Ork shrugged. “Dunno, I haven’t seen Dr. Ochs in over an hour.”

  “I believe he went on his lunch break,” The dwarf said, stroking his beard. “Though I could be wrong. All in all, we could just check in with the receptionist.”

  The ork then shrugged. “Point is, you shouldn’t be walking the halls unless you were given authorization.”

  Slyran frowned. “No body stopped us when we walked in here.”

  The ork’s eyes narrowed. “Then that means whoever is manning the desk isn’t doing their job. C’mon.” He twirled his index finger for them to follow, then pushed past them as he began to walk the way they’d just come.

  “By the seven…” Slyran cursed once again as the dwarf gave him a sympathetic nod and went on ahead.

  The three of them began to follow behind, except Slyran’s hand pnted on Truth’s chest and silently pushed her back away from them. Truth gasped and stumbled back, her hand resting on her chest. She looked wide-eyed at her father, who was still going ahead. He gnced over his shoulder and winked. Without a word, he nodded in the direction they were previously heading.

  Truth blinked and then smiled as she understood. She turned around and, by herself, scampered deeper into the infirmary. It was time for her to start performing miracles.

  “All signing participants agree that in times of strife and war, all weapons and or magic of a nature that causes superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering, and or goes against the natural order of Enora, is forbidden. I.E., Necromancy, Hemomancy, Dition…”

  A section of the Arcane Codes of War - Article II

  ImmortanJoJo