Bludon never felt the same after the confrontation on Top. Fumarole continued to feel like Fumarole because there weren’t any Minyak infected blues there and life mostly continued as it had before. But even Two Rivers was different. It was designated an infection free zone, but blues moved about cautiously. There were no more raucous Flow Records parties or Smites tournaments. It was as though the blues of Two Rivers were too frightened to have a good time, and the streets of the city were usually empty.
Without the consciousness of the Needy inside of him, Zacchaeus spent considerable time discovering the full extent of his abilities with the Guardians and the aboatia Pultine. She had come to Bludon to help Maxx battle any remnants of the hostile Daemon, Minyak, but there were no more battles to fight. Zacchaeus, Maxx and Pultine spent a lot of their time training and trading battle stories.
And years passed on Bludon. The Queen Rowen and her team of healers led the monitoring efforts to keep a tally of Minyak-infected blues, and the Guardians who weren’t interested in learning healing sciences were sidelined. Zacchaeus thought long and hard about leaving Bludon, Issac had been in the Fonlands since the confrontation on Top and Maria had yet to return from Outer Spacetime, but he stayed because Maxx and Pultine had become like family and neither Maxx nor Pultine fully trusted the period of seeming peace that settled over Bludon.
“Maybe it is my warrior urges, but I feel something sinister brewing,” Pultine said often when they tried to relax together.
Zacchaeus always agreed, “Minyak ain’t make a disease for nothing.”
Maxx was conflicted. Zacchaeus knew that he had battled for many years to bring peace to Bludon and it had finally arrived. Maxx wanted to believe it, but he had the same warriors’ instinct that convinced him something was off.
Zacchaeus had plenty to distract him as his time on Bludon continued. He developed inky weapons that he could produce from his body, and he even learned to expel an inky blob that allowed him to absorb things, just as the Needy was able to.
Then, word came of the apparent death of the Queen Rowen. Maxx was livid because he didn’t find out until the Queen’s body had been sent back to Oin. There were no more Ointites on Bludon after the Queen died.
Shortly after the apparent death of the Queen, Zacchaeus, Maxx, and Pultine relaxed at Maxx’s secluded home that was balanced on long sticks over water.
“I remember when I first brought Rowen here,” Maxx said. He stared out at the water moving gently around them. “I never imagined that she would die here.”
“Did she?” Pultine asked. She stood on the wooden porch where Zacchaeus sat in a chair with his feet up and Maxx sat on the porch with his feet dangling in the water.
“She saved that young blue,” Maxx said, nodding his head. “When she touched him, she absorbed his cancer and the Minyak disease. She instantly fell into a coma, they say.”
“The Queen Rowen was maybe the best healer of this realm, and if I know anything about healers, they are not so easy to kill. Minyak wouldn’t have killed her, and she could easily cure cancers. I doubt that a blood cancer was enough to take her out permanently.”
“I never thought about it that way,” Maxx said.
“Plus,” Zacchaeus added, “the Ointies never said she was dead. You still ain’t heard from them, right?”
Maxx nodded.
“They probably just want us to believe she died…”
Zacchaeus trailed off as a strong wind suddenly bombarded Maxx’s home. Maxx flew in the direction the wind came from without a word and Zacchaeus and Pultine were not far behind him. They flew against another strong wind before they arrived at Fumarole. The clouds of steam that normally hung over it had been blown away and it seemed that every Guardian loyal to Maxx was out on the sand, looking up at the dark clouds that had formed and churned like someone was mixing them with a large hand. The commotion of the dark clouds sent random wind currents zipping quickly away from Fumarole.
Zacchaeus followed Maxx to hover just in front of the black clouds and they were both surprised when Pultine told them what was happening.
“Death has come to Bludon,” she yelled over the commotion of the winds, and then Zacchaeus recognized Owuo, who had brought him to Bludon in the first place. Owuo seemed to ride the black clouds, but he descended to speak with Maxx, Pultine, and Zacchaeus.
“Indeed I have,” Owuo said as the commotion of the winds died down around them. “Good to see you Zacchaeus. The Needy sends his regards. I am trying to coax him out of the caves and onto Lêgba’s Disc, but he loves those dank caverns. And Pultine, how long has it been, Excisor?”
“Long enough that no one calls me that anymore,” Pultine said gruffly. “Why are you here?”
Owuo smiled with his mouth, but it was a rare occasion that his delight was apparent in his eyes as well.
“I have come in my official capacity to save Bludon from itself,” Owuo said.
“What does that mean?” Zacchaeus asked.
Owuo looked so pleased with himself as he lifted his right hand that the three warriors were uncomfortable. Owuo snapped his long fingers and there was a spark of energy, then what felt like a shockwave emanated from the point of the snap and out in all directions. The force pushed Zacchaeus and his friends back and when they regained themselves, Owuo was disappearing with the dark clouds.
“I made the hard choice for you, Superguardian!” Owuo yelled as he disappeared completely.
“The fuck was that?” Zacchaeus asked as they flew to the Guardians’ Dormitory and landed in the sand.
Maxx shook his head before a Guardian emerged from the dormitory, running frantically.
“They are all dead! Every Minyak-infected blu on Bludon is dead, bodies immolated in black flames. That’s almost half the Bludonians on the planet!”
Zacchaeus looked wide eyed at his companions.
“This is bad, right?” Zacchaeus asked, looking from Pultine to Maxx.
Neither of them knew how to answer.
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