HLP - Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Hamma ran out of the Black Pyramid’s library and into the hallway, slamming the door behind her. “Empty,” she called. “Ruwen hasn’t been in there.”

Lylan met her a moment later, out of breath. “Sift hasn’t been in his rooms, either.”

“No syrup smears anywhere?” asked Hamma.

Lylan arched an eyebrow.

“Sorry,” said Hamma.

Lylan laughed. “Not a one.” She winked at Hamma, then placed her wrist on the wall. “Let’s go meet Ky and she if she found anything yet.”

“Wait,” said Hamma. “Let me try this one more time.” She placed her own wrist on the wall. “Ruwen Starfield,” she said. It hadn’t worked before and it didn’t work now. No portal opened. She sighed and said, “Ky.”

A portal opened in the stone wall and they stepped through it to see Ky pacing the length of the kitchen. Two massive rectangular tables dominated the center of the room, the buffet of pies and salads upon them looking much the worse for wear.

“Nothing,” said Lylan, striding over to Ky. “No sign of them in their rooms.”

Hamma, who had stopped to examine the mess, ran to catch up. “What happened here?”

Ky lifted a piece of lettuce with tiny bite marks taken out of it, then let it flop limply back onto the table. “Sparring practice is the prevailing theory,” said Ky, clenching her jaw. “The Addas met privately with the boys in here. The Master Trial has been called.”

“Oh, thank Uru,” said Hamma, feeling the pressure lift from her chest. The Master Trial had been the most likely explanation for their absence, but something about the whole situation hadn’t felt right to Hamma. Stupid abandonment issues. Her father had disappeared when she was little and been absent most of her life, but no need to get all paranoid about it. She needed to get over that. “Where is Rami, then?”

“Xavier is with his parents,” said Ky. “And after updating her codex, Rami went after him. She’d been told that Ruwen left for the trial.”

Hamma had leaned across the table to snag a handful of walnuts, but straightened up to look at Ky. Why had she said it like that?

“That’s what everyone assumed happened, anyway,” said Ky. “The Founders don’t appreciate being kept waiting, you see, so the Addas and Sift hurried through the rune portal, thinking Ruwen was right behind them.”

“Please tell me you’re joking,” said Hamma, not liking where this was going.

“Time passes differently over there, but Madda managed to send word a few minutes ago.” Ky’s mouth was a thin line. “Ruwen never came through.”

“Then he’s still here,” said Hamma.

“My people have been posted inside the Blood Gate the whole time and they’ve been turning this place upside-down. Nothing.”

Hamma frowned. “Is there another way out?”

“There’s half a way,” said Ky, producing a small earthen jar seemingly from thin air. She held it out for Hamma to see.

“What’s that?”

“Have a look,” said Ky.

“Is he in there?”

Ky was not amused.

Hamma stepped over and looked inside the jar. Within lay a small black rock. She focused on it.

Item: Touchstone of Crossing

Description: Soul stones combine projection and translocation to move the holder to the stone’s source, powered via the holder’s soul.

“What is that?”

“Half a way out.” Ky vanished the jar again, placing it who knows where. “It’s what Ruwen used to go to his Soul Binding in the bamboo forest, and I thought he might have misunderstood and tried it this time. He didn’t.”

“How do you know?”

“The touchstone leaves the body behind. Neither his body nor soul are at the Master’s Trial, Hamma.”

“What does this mean?”

“It means that Ruwen is gone,” said Ky, simply. She was a master of not showing emotion, and she showed none now. “I don’t know how or where, but he’s gone.”

“Wait, no. He can’t be gone.” Hamma took a steadying breath. That feeling of dread was back, but still… They hadn’t yet ruled out all the innocent explanations. “Maybe—What if he’s fortifying for some reason and his bracer is making him invisible? We could have looked directly at him during our search.”

Lylan shook her head. “The wall portals would have taken us to him. And he wouldn’t have ignored us if we came into the room.”

“Right.” Hamma cast around for more possibilities. “What if he went back to Fractal to find us and we missed him? Or, or maybe he jumped over to check in with Big D?”

“And miss his trial?” said Lylan, looking doubtful.

Ky shook her head. “No one passes through the Blood Gate without my men knowing about it. Ruwen didn’t portal out.”

“Well then, he’s here,” snapped Hamma, a little more forcefully than she’d intended. She didn’t want to argue with Ky, but the pit in her stomach was getting larger and it made her rash, apparently. “I’m sorry. It’s not your fault. I just don’t understand. How can he be gone if he never left?”

Lylan snapped her fingers. “Blapy.” She grinned at Hamma. “Blapy will have seen how he left, even if he didn’t use the Blood Gate.”

Lylan was a genius. They ought to have called Blapy the moment they stepped through, or even back at Fractal. “Blapy?” said Hamma tentatively to the ceiling. “Uh, Miranda? Can we speak with you, please?”

Nothing happened.

Ky shrugged. “Miranda doesn’t obey a summons unless she feels like it. Which is never.”

“Okay…” Hamma began to pace, but forced herself to stop. No reason to panic yet. She recalled she had a coin in her bag that would summon Blapy if she flipped it, but that seemed a little extreme. She mentally went over the details of when Ruwen had given it to her.

Ruwen stepped back from Hamma, lifted her hand, and placed a coin in her palm. One side had an infinity ring shaped from a centipede biting its tail. The other side held a dragon, coiled on itself, and its wings formed the sides of a pyramid, all capped by a Divine Circle.

From memory, Ruwen repeated the description. “Flipping this coin (must reach a height of five feet) summons an ancient wyrm and, if caught by the wyrm before striking the ground, entitles the owner to a single reasonable request (reasonableness decided by the wyrm). If the flipped coin strikes the ground, the wyrm is obligated to fulfill three requests, without ill intent or misconstrued meaning.”

Hamma looked up at him, confused. “The coin I gave you was silver, not black.”

Ruwen nodded. “That’s your present. I flipped the coin and Blapy never came. She didn’t catch this coin.”

“That means…” Hamma said, her voice trailing off.

Ruwen smiled. “It means you possess three unreasonable wishes from the most powerful deity in the Universe.”

Yeah, that was definitely the extreme option. There was no way she could justify using such a powerful gift now, when she didn’t even know if it was necessary.

Everything was probably fine. No reason to panic, she repeated to herself. “Is there anywhere else we can go look for her?” Hamma asked the others. “Does she have an office? A door we can knock on?”

“She has whatever she wants,” said Ky. “She’s a god. But to answer your question, no. If Miranda wants to avoid you, she will. Besides, one assumes she’s fairly busy running the dungeons and monitoring her people and—”

“Her people!” said Hamma, interrupting Ky in her excitement. “I officiated a wedding ceremony down in the monster city a couple of years ago. I can get there with my Custodian mark.” She held up her wrist. “The creatures said that she sometimes visits them there!”

Lylan looked skeptical, Ky politely impassive.

And they probably weren’t wrong. Hamma was rational enough to see how desperate her plan sounded. “Can you guys think of anywhere better to look?”

“You’re right.” Lylan nodded. “Out of all our ideas, the monster city is probably the best.”

“What ideas?” said Ky.

“Exactly,” said Lylan. “Lead the way, Hamma.”

Ky rolled her eyes and stepped back. “You two go check it out. I’m going to go light a hotter fire under my people, just to be sure. I’ll get word to you if I hear anything.”

“Are you leaving?” asked Lylan.

“I have business elsewhere.” She twisted her hands in a gesture that looked nervous, but Hamma knew better. It was the sneaky sign language the Shades used.

“Be safe,” said Lylan, absently fiddling with her belt.

“Nice try,” said Hamma. “I see what you’re doing, but I don’t speak secret agent. Can’t I know, too?”

“Well spotted,” said Ky, smiling. “And it’s not that I don’t trust you, but…”

“But I’m not part of your Shade organization,” said Hamma. Lylan was a member and knew all sorts of things about Ky’s business that she couldn’t speak about. It was weird to be back and have that wall come between them again. But just because Hamma understood the need for secrecy didn’t mean she couldn’t try… She looked at Lylan. “It’s about the coming civil war, isn’t it?”

Lylan’s face remained neutral.

“Let’s just say my project is delicate.” Ky shrugged. “And I’ve told Lylan almost less than you, if that makes you feel better.”

“Hey!” said Lylan.

“Watch each other’s backs and focus on your task,” said Ky, smiling. “I’ll come read you in if I need help.”