Shè

Shè squinted against the light. There was something off about the way Reuben was communicating with her. He'd never been able to use language before this trip, always using images or sounds to explain. However, right now the words were blurred with an emotion, one she'd never associated with a Whirbeast or Reuben. Panic, fear, but there was an undertone of soothing that jumbled everything up.

"Merran," she warned, but then had nothing to add, because she didn't really understand. Maybe Reuben was just as confused by what was happening to him as she was. This after all was the first time, he was using their language.

"What is it?" Merran was shielding her eyes against the light, trying to use her hand to block it so she could see the shapes beyond.

It wasn't necessary. "Merran of Temis, you come back."

She felt Merran stiffen beside her. "Misa," exhaled from her lips, part fear part determination not to show it.

The short woman came into view, her silk robes reflecting red in the light —

She gasped. "Reuben!"

She reached for the light, only for it to dart towards Misa and hover over her shoulder.

"Ah Captain," Misa's dark-eyes locked onto hers, "how wonderful to meet you. I have heard rumours. Of course, I had. But you are remarkable. Your hold over this little Whirbeast must be most strong considering his state."

Merran hardly heard her, she tried to communicate with him —

She moaned in agony; the connection was gone. She could no longer feel him. The loss was unimaginable. It opened her up like an orange exposing her vulnerability. "What have you done to him?"

"Nothing," the Sulphite replied casually, "I'm in your mind deary, blocking him off from you."

"What do you mean you're in her mind?"

Misa focused on Merran, those slitted eyes sizing her up as if testing her. "You have no idea what these stones can do, even fragments like the ones left behind."

"I do," Merran argued, but Shè could hear it in her voice that she didn't.

So, could Misa. "You know of the basics. Healing, foresight. But there are more. Ones that provide the correct bearers the ability to delve into minds, alter memories or steal them, others that gift strength, speed, intelligence and the ability to create and craft magic in an area that makes the user completely in control."

Shè knew Misa spoke of where they were now, it was the only reason it had never been found. The Sulphite had used the fragments to hide it, only Merran and her strange affinity with enchantments had managed to locate it, or Reuben and his connection...

She trailed off. "I have orders to take you to the king and —

"Oh please," Misa chuckled, "I can read your thoughts, ah you've a quick mind girl."

She had cursed herself for not realising it before she said it, and Misa had sensed or heard it.

"People know where we are," Merran chimed in, "they know about the caves. They'll come for —

"You're a different one Merran of Temis," Misa cut in, her distorted grasp of the language gone, as if she were using her mind to get a better hold of their speech. Most Sulphites still struggled with their vocabulary, "I can't hear or see anything in your mind, but I still know you're lying."

Before she could even ask Reuben's light brightened, and the entire tunnel was revealed. Three massively built Tarkian's stood behind Misa, just out of range, and each one held a familiar person.

Kaijan, Tia and Khumo were struggling against their captives, but even Khumo, who was wider and taller than the red-skinned man holding him couldn't escape. "It's pointless trying," Misa said, "these men have been imprinted with a stone, they are stronger, smarter, faster, and better than all of you, you'll see soon enough."

"The tournament," She and Merran said at exactly the same time.

"Clever girls," Misa bowed sarcastically, her silky black hair covering her face.

Merran glanced at her with genuine concern in her eyes.

"Yes, the king has provided the perfect opportunity for me to extend my influence. I'll enter members of my army and watch them destroy his leaders in combat. Erya is no fool, he cannot undo his word, it would look weak. So, one of mine will win the throne and then..." she trailed off, well never mind that now."

"It'll never work," Merran spat, "someone will find us. You can't expect four leaders to vanish and nothing to be done."

"Oh, Merran darling, I have no plans to hold you here. You're free to go."

Silly, Shè thought, as soon as she walked out of this hole, she would get her army and march into these forsaken caves and power or none, her men and the king's enchantments would scry —

"I'm afraid I'll have to stop you there Captain, you see if any of you breathe a word of this to the king or anyone for that matter, I'll know," she tapped her head and then pointed in her direction, "and I'll be forced to do something pretty horrible to your Whirbeast, say... let him turn into the monsters that they're known for."

Shè didn't even think she stepped forward, but it was Merran's voice that stopped her.

"You know why they turned?"

"I know how they turned," Misa smiled as if knowing cost them.

It did, Shè couldn't hide it.

"How?"

Misa only laughed.

"Why did you let them?"

"You are strange Merran of Temis, you ask odd questions, ones that shouldn't be necessary, but I think the answers could reveal more to you than most."

Shè cursed. She was sure the Sulphite was stealing her own musings. She knew when Misa winked at her.

"But I'll answer nonetheless, you see in the beginning most Aradian's had a Whirbeast, they were imprinted, like young Reuben and Shè, devoted and loyal bound to each other. Bonded in a way that was impossible to break, even with a thought. It made them powerful. However, all I had to do was wait for the signs, wait for what I knew would happen and then I could sever the bond and take them for myself. Bond them to me and my army."

Shè had always wondered what had happened to the monsters, there were very few that could be killed by humans, Erya's magic helped, but the king didn't like killing. So... had they all been taken by this woman, did she really have access to and understand how to influence them?

Misa was about to answer her when Merran interrupted.

"And what is your purpose, what do you want out of this?"

"Ah, Merran you shall see, but its time you five left. The king is about to begin to the tournament, and I feel if his leaders are not there, he will cancel it. My men will show you out and remember one word spoken to anyone will end your friend's sanity."

Shè was surprised to see Merran nod along with her. "Can I at least say goodbye?"

Misa grinned at her. Thin lips savouring the moment. "By all means."

Shè stepped towards her companion, her best friend, the presence who had always been there, every day, in her mind. The emptiness constricted her throat, the place where he'd been seemed cold and distant, as if the loss had scarred her very heart.

She reached out, tears in her eyes and Reuben, white lit in the shape of cat snarled and spat at her. But in his eyes, she could see the pain echoed there, the confusion.

She gulped and then stood up straight and tall. She would not show any weakness. Not in front of this monster.

"Oh girl, you've seen nothing yet," Misa read her thoughts, "but you will, the real monsters will be revealed soon. Goodluck." She said before the floor opened beneath her feet and her, and Reuben disappeared...

Merran's mind was abuzz as the three hulking Tarks led them out of the caves. She had tried to reason with them, promising them freedom or help to anything. They'd ignored her.

She hadn't stopped until Kaijan had finally found his voice, or his captive had released his windpipe. "They're not under her control," he explained breathless, "there is no stone in their skin, this is free-will."

"It can't be," Khumo sounded revolted, "my brothers, why?"

They only shoved him forward, silent. Uncaring.

"How did you guys find us?" Merran asked.

"We knew you'd seen something in these caves Merran, and when you and the captain weren't at the ceremony, we figured you'd taken Shè to investigate."

Merran nodded at Tia, who didn't look at all phased by being manhandled by a mountain of a man. She just let him lead her on, knowing it was pointless to fight.

Pointless to fight, it echoed in her mind, how would they compete with men like this, with gifted competitors, they didn't stand a chance.

Shè sniffed at her side and Merran immediately cursed herself. How could she think about the tournament when her friend had lost so much?

"We will get him back," she promised without a clue to how she would honour it, but knowing she would.

The captain nodded, but didn't speak, she simply dragged her feet along the rocky floor as if all the fight had been punched out of her.

"Stop," one of their captives said.

"So, it does speak," Kaijan said. He was hit so fast and so hard that he was on the floor and unconscious before any of them could react.

Khumo reacted first, but the man had him around the neck before he'd fully lifted his arm. "Lift your friend and carry him," he ordered and then released his brethren as if the contact repulsed him, "if you try anything else I'll have these little girls carry you out." That idea appeared to provide satisfaction as his lips lifted in a smile that reached his brown eyes. There was something very off about these men, it wasn't control or servitude as Merran would've thought, but an inherent wrongness that seemed to emanate off them.

Khumo picked Kaijan up and put him over his shoulder, Merran could see the act caused him pain. The fact that he couldn't fight back frustrated him. But she saw the way he had looked at her, Tia, and the captain; the concern for them alone here and having to carry him and Kaijan out. He had thought of them, put them over his dented ego. It showed true character. A leader made choices like that. She could only hope that he found the strength to challenge these strange beings, because she doubted the rest of them could. The leaders would have to be warned, but in a way that didn't endanger Reuben, she needed to talk to all of them, to declare a peace between them, because they were no longer competing against each other, there was a superior force, and if they weren't prepared, they'd be destroyed. She could sense it, these beings, for they lacked humanity, or empathy, would not play to win, they fought to kill. Her thoughts were interrupted when the ceiling above their heads opened, and they were lifted by an invisible force into the corridor above.

Reuben had communicate that the caves weren't normal. She felt a pang of hurt with a sparking of rage. How could they find a way out of this? to rescue Reuben, when Misa had the tools to turn him into Shè's worst nightmare. And how did she know how to do such a thing?

What was her end game, and how given their competition would they win?

These thoughts consumed her as she was led through the caves, often floating up and down through doors that opened in the roof or floor, she was only distracted once when they were met by a wide-open space filled with hundreds of Whirbeasts, and thousands of men. The inner chamber was oddly disconcerting, it was an indoor forest; green moss-covered rocks, huge trees with strong roots churned stone, rives cut into the dark ground, but she could see the rock below, the dark black stone glinting with fragments of gems all the way to the high ceiling where man and Whirbeast flew. It appeared as if the beings were practicing for what Merran was sure was the tournament.

Merran could feel the wrongness here even more so, it cascaded over her in waves making her feel sick. She heaved against it, but it was foul and dark and the floor above her gave way, and it was gone, well at least the potency of it. The first rays of light reached them as if it were trying to pull them too safely. The men nodded towards it and then disappeared into the shadows from whence they'd come, no more than ghosts of a horrible nightmare...

It was raining in Aradia. The torrential downpour had them soaked as soon as they'd set foot into the Deathrow. Nothing was open now, and they made their way out of Festiva in silence. The cobblestones were slick beneath Merran's feet, and already a little bit of water was falling from the terrace above. It never rained in Aradia, the central city was designed the way it was because of this, if heavier downpour occurred it would flood every Level. But as soon as the worry set in, the deluge turned into a drizzle as if by some magic.

Something nagged at her...

"I need to go," Shè interrupted the idea from fully forming, and although she tried to reconnect to it, it was gone, lost to a void like so many strange inklings before it.

"Go where?" She asked suspiciously.

"I need to warn the king about this —

She held up her hand already knowing why she was going to object. "I will be the last person to put Reuben in anymore danger than he is, but the king has to be warned that there are gifted people entering this tournament."

"How are you going to tell him that without explaining everything?" Tia asked.

"There have been reports of Stones circulating Festiva," Merran interjected.

"Being sold," Shè added cottoning on, "I will say that these men are going to enter the tournament."

"But what if that lady — "

"Misa," Merran provided.

"Misa," Khumo continued still holding Kaijan's limp form across his shoulders, "is using this tournament as a distraction?"

Merran had already thought this angle through, with so much power, why hadn't she taken on the king already. "She's not," she went on quickly, "despite all the power there was down there, no one would be foolish enough to take on the king, he is gifted with the strongest of the abilities, more powerful than any of the stones."

Khumo nodded, however, Tia wasn't so easily convinced. "And what if the king calls off the tournament because of this, or he bans the stones. Surely Misa will retaliate, and..." she trailed off, but Merran knew what she was going to say, Reuben would suffer. It was a strangely honourable thing that not one of the leaders had thought to betray their captain and the last sane Whirbeast, right from the get-go they hadn't even considered selling them out, it was about how to prevent anything to from happening to him. These were true leaders, those ready to fight to do what was right.

"Erya won't say anything about Ability-stones being sold in the open," Shè said already walking away from them, "it will inform all the people that they can get their hands on them, or it will make them panic because others have them in possession and even worse the Sulphites would believe that Aradian's were behind it."

She was on a Disc and zooming towards the top tier before anyone could even respond.

Merran watched her until she was gone, the rain had stopped now, and far above her, she could see the rain running off the shield. For the first time in her life, she wandered if the real monsters were really beyond it or actually living inside the sphere designed to protect them...