“Are you sure this is the right room? There’s so many on each floor, who knew there were so many mentally unstable humans with dangerous abilities. This planet is so unpredictable.”
“This is it,” an odd man said, gazing through the window on one of the doors in the hallway. “He’s sitting up in bed, I think he’s reading.”
“Oh good,” the other man said and he stared down at the screen of a tablet computer. “You’re right, this must be him, I’m accessing the device.”
“Will this work?” an odd man asked. “I’d hate to try this and agitate him somehow. We don’t want this one mad with us.”
“We got this,” the other man said, “thanks to the successful mission on Druont. They managed to get Falstraq’s notes despite heavy losses and I’ve been reviewing the data on the manipulator. I can hack it and insert a control command so this human and his extraordinary ability will serve us against that glorified party magician and his weird friends. I can’t believe they took Tolot, we have to be careful. It is difficult to defend ourselves in this human form, we need muscle to match our enemy. And that should do it.”
The other man finished tapping on the tablet screen and then the two entered the room. The young man inside the room looked up from his book. The pupils of his eyes had rolled up into his sockets and only the whites showed.
“Kevin? I am Cic, this is Geleg. We will be your new masters. Follow us.”
“He did it again,” Wazad said.
“I saw it,” Gregory Samin said. He was putting on a thick rubber vest and gloves to match the knee high rubber boots on his feet. The grounds of the Museum of Aphro-Arcana are pristinely maintained and Gregory often frequents the garden behind the museum to sit with Wazad when the Master of Universal Arcana is away fulfilling his duties. Since his last return to the Museum, Gregory has been looking after the razew known as Tolot who was masquerading as an employee of COHH Inc. Tolot was enchanted by the Master so that looking after him was like caring for a pet, and he spent most of his time camouflaged in a tree in the garden. Gregory often finds razew excrement around the garden that doesn’t smell bad, but the piles of it are larger than most land animals and Gregory has to shovel it into special bags because it is corrosive to most everything that touches it.
“For what it’s worth,” Wazad says, “you’re really good with that thing. It is very content, even though that is mostly Issac’s incantation. Issac is very pleased that you’re doing the work without complaint, even though it is very much beneath the skills of the Samin Seer.”
Gregory had opened the special bag and was shoveling the large pile of excrement into it.
“I deserve worse than shoveling razew shit,” he said, breathing heavily as he worked. “This whole thing is my fault. If I’d been studying my inheritance, I would have been watching that cave. The world is a dangerous place and people like us have the privilege of awesome power for one reason. I lost sight of that, if I ever really understood it at all before.”
“The Master is getting to you,” Wazad chuckled. “You sound just like him, but he’s right, and so are you. This world, all worlds of this universe, are plagued by a darkness that will consume all sentience if left unchecked.”
Wazad noticed Gregory’s cell phone ringing on the table top and he asked her to answer it. She fumbled with it for a second, she wasn’t quite comfortable with Earth technology because she had been off planet for a while before Issac summoned her to tame the Lightning God. She managed to put the phone on speaker so Gregory could listen.
“Paul, this is Wazad, Gregory is here but his hands are busy. How are things with the boys? Are they behaving themselves?”
“These boys are a Godsend, they are excellent trackers. All of the training at the museum is definitely paying off.”
“No trouble at all? Ivan and Clay haven’t lost control at all?”
“Not at all, I even keep an eye on them while they sleep like you said. I’ve only seen their lightning powers when they want to use them, and there’s no sign of mergerging like you described.”
“That’s a relief to hear,” Wazad said. “I guess the Master was right again. I’m glad that I didn’t murder the Lightning God.”
“Me too,” Paul chuckled. “Any news from the razew Issac caught?”
“No, he has very powerful psychic defenses, I can’t probe his mind for anything, even when I lift the Master’s incantation. These beasts are very savvy. My Kazi associates warn us to tread very carefully with these things. There is a little known story of the razew infiltration of the Bludonian homeworld. A ship of less than ten arrived on the planet and within a rount, the entire society worshiped the razews and sacrificed their children as food for them. The Bludonian population is almost extinct now, and that’s only because the razews that settled there left when they thought the population was extinct. So few civilizations of the universe are aware of the razews because they do not leave the wilds of their homeworld, Druont, often, but when they do, they wreak havoc.”
“I know how serious they are,” Paul said and his voice went stern. “I think we got a lead on some of these things. The boys tracked some of their magic to this new town in North Carolina. It looks like they just built all the houses yesterday, and there’s a COHH headquarters in walking distance. The razew signature is weak, but the boys say there’s something dark here. I think we could use some back up.”
“What is it exactly?”
“The witches are here,” Clay said over the phone.
“We feel their magic growing,” Ivan said. “And one of them knows the razews, I can feel it. She talks to them, they are worried about Tolot and they are looking for friends to fight us.”
“They know about us, Wazad,” Gregory said. “We should call Issac.”
“The witches,” Wazad said and shook her head. “The deities are careless with their moon magic, how else would the witches have enough power for the boys to sense? We’ll be there right away, Paul, after we’ve spoken with Issac.”
“Good to hear,” Paul said and he ended the call.
“Where is the Master?” Gregory asked as he sealed the bag of excrement and took off his rubber protective gear.
“He’s too far away to aid us, I fear,” Wazad said. “But we can speak to him. We can handle the witches without him, if the boys are as stable as they seem. I’d feel more comfortable if you had your magic, maybe Issac can do something about that before we travel to meet Paul.”
“Are the witches that big a threat?” Gregory asked.
“They can be. A smart one definitely is, and if there is a large group, then we will definitely need to be on our toes.”
PRL Serials 