Chapter 5 #2
“Okayyy,” I said, still smiling and nodding. “Is it like, the power of love? The power of heart? The power to make a delicious scallop linguine?”
“It means you can move between any of the realms without having to beg or borrow a Key. Your blood grants you access to all Worlds. Not only that, but you can also move the atoms in any realm. And that is where your destiny lies. You must—”
Donovan slammed his hand down on the counter, and I jumped. “Cress,” he growled. “We are wasting time. The scribe stone is in this city, and he is hunting it now. We must find it before Connor does.”
“We need her, my liege.” The blond one finally piped up. “Now that he knows their power, nothing is safe until the stones are closed. The prophecy—”
“Damn the prophecy!” Donovan roared.
I jumped to my feet and clapped my hands twice. “Inside voices, please!” My hallucinations were getting a little testy; it was time to take control of them.
It was probably the best way to handle this episode, anyway.
This bunch of colorful characters weren’t much different from the team I managed at Base Budget Insurance.
I had twelve staff underneath me, and they all had unique personalities and required careful handling.
In fact, Cress’s whole goth-warrior-badass aesthetic was quite similar to what Cora, one of the girls in my team, would gush over on Pinterest.
Silver sparkles erupted from nowhere, forming a circle, and Nate reappeared, straightening his enormous, muscled shoulders. “I’m sorry, my Prince. My aunt would not see me.”
“Thank you for trying, Nate.” Donovan let out a gruff sigh.
My curiosity pricked me. Nate’s story must be a fun subplot; hopefully, I’d get to it. Follow the story to the conclusion, and they’d go away. And if they didn’t, I’d ask Dr. Byron for the strongest antipsychotics he could prescribe.
“Okay, team.” I clapped my hands again. “Let’s focus.
First, I’ll open with an apology. I regret that I don’t have the skillset that you were expecting, but it can be easily remedied.
I am a very fast learner, and I promise you I will do my best to get up to speed.
” I turned my head, deliberately holding eye contact with each one of my hallucinations in the same way I’d do with the twelve lunatics I managed during our team meetings.
Build rapport. Get them on your side. “But I need your full cooperation. In order to get up to speed, I need to know the details. We have a problem that needs to be solved, but I prefer to think positively. Problems are just goals to achieve. So. What is our goal?”
They all stared at me in silence. Finally, Cress blinked her big eyes. “To stop Connor from devouring the spark stones, absorbing the intrinsic power of every creature in every realm, and becoming an all-powerful tyrant?”
“Fantastic.” I gave her a big smile. “Thanks, Cress! That’s very helpful information.
” Positive reinforcement did wonders for every individual on the team.
I just had to get the rest on board. Donovan would be the most unwilling; he reminded me of Thomas, the grumpy old bastard operator who’d worked in the call center for two decades.
Thomas’s tenure extended through five company name changes and at least two dozen team leaders, and he’d been a thorn in the side of every single one.
Yvette, my department manager, had warned me about him when I started managing the team.
I had him eating out of my hand after a week.
The trick was to knock his confidence first, then make him feel special.
Right now, Donovan was disengaged—slumped over my kitchenette counter with his palm over his eyes—so I’d have to ignore him until he tried to get my attention, then ignore him some more to bring him down a peg or two.
I moved further into my kitchenette, pulled a whiteboard marker from a drawer, and popped the lid.
“So, our goal is to stop Connor.” In big letters, I wrote on my refrigerator Goal = Stop Connor.
“Now, forgive me, you’ll have to fill me in a bit more.
” Turning, I pointed with my marker at Nate, the dark muscly one. “Who is Connor?”
“He is Prince Donovan’s younger brother,” he answered immediately. “He is second-in-line to the throne of the Kingdom of the Crystal Gardens.”
“Fantastic, thank you, Nate! Now…” I pointed at the blond one. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t catch your name.”
He stiffened. “I am Eryk.” He bowed.
I gave him a warm smile. “It’s lovely to meet you, Eryk.”
Eryk’s eyes widened very slightly.
Turning, I tapped the fridge. “Okay, so Eryk, please tell me if I’ve got this wrong, but I feel like I need to stop and summarize our goal. This Connor person is hunting these spark stones, correct? And these stones hold special powers?”
“Yes, my lady.”
Ooh. That was a new one. Usually my team called me “boss” when I used my managerial rapport skills. “Fantastic,” I said, writing down spark stones on my refrigerator. “Can you please elaborate on the spark stones a little bit? Tell me how they function.”
“Uh, yes, my lady. The spark stones are primordial material from when the realms were brought into being. They are crystals that contain the essence of each realm. Each one is usually located at the center of their realm and is packed with the raw power and magic of that world.”
“They are the first building block of every part of our universe,” Cress butted in. “They—”
“Sorry, Cress.” I held up a finger. “I understand you have something to share, but please wait until Eryk is finished.”
Her eyes narrowed dangerously. I didn’t flinch; instead, I gave her my “down, bitch” stare—a look I’d perfected during my stockbroker days. I am in control here. Back off.
After a long moment, I turned and wrote spark stone = raw power magic crystal on the refrigerator. “Eryk, please go on. Can you give me an example of a spark stone, and what it might do?”
He shifted on his feet uncomfortably for a second, watching Cress from the corner of his eye. “Yes, my lady. Every realm has their own stone, and that stone vibrates with magic. That magic seeps out to the rest of the realm, giving life to the world and the creatures in it.”
“So, all those creatures you mentioned before,” I said, tapping the marker against my chin. “The vampires, the shifters, the elves… they all have their own spark stones in their own realms?”
“Yes, my lady.”
“And this Connor character—the Prince’s little brother—wants to ‘devour’ these stones.”
“Yes, my lady.”
“Why?”
Nate tentatively put his hand up. Donovan, still slumped over the counter, let out a groan.
I ignored him. “Yes, Nate?”
“The stones are living things,” he said. “They contain the essence of a realm’s magic. You must understand, my lady—Connor may be brother to my liege, but they are opposites. My liege sacrifices everything for the safety and wellbeing of his people. Connor only serves himself.”
I nodded. Nate, the kiss-ass, was trying to get me to like Donovan, the popular guy in the group. This was what happened when the team hierarchy was unsettled; the members tried to reestablish the status quo.
Donovan might be the popular one, but I was a boss. I turned my back on Donovan completely, subtly indicating with my body that he was not important to me at all. “So, Connor is trying to find all these spark stones, so he can eat them and take their magic.”
Nate and Eryk both nodded.
“Where are the spark stones usually kept?” I pointed with my marker. “Cress?”
“Most are usually located deep under the earth, in the center of each realm,” she replied automatically. “But as Connor began his evil quest, each realm began to take steps to hide them. In most cases, Elders have been entrusted with the stones.”
“Okay. So, each realm has a stone, and most of them are hidden. Connor is trying to find them and eat them.” I clicked the cap on my marker. “So… where do I come in?”
“As the Chosen, the One of Every Blood, only you have the power to close the stones. To stop them vibrating and emanating magic,” Cress explained patiently.
“If you close them, their magic will condense and retreat to the center of the stone. The realm’s magic will protect itself and hibernate beneath an impenetrable crystal crust.”
“And what’s the point of that?”
“If they are closed, they are worthless to the Devourer. Their magic cannot be absorbed. If he tries, the stone will pass right through without consequence.”
I held back a snigger. My hallucinations wanted me to work some magic and get my imaginary villain to poop out a whole rock.
“If they are devoured while they are active,” Cress went on. “The magic is drained from the stone and absorbed by the Devourer. He will take some of their unique power. And in time, all magic will fade from that realm. Forever.”
“Right. That sounds serious. And Connor has done this before?”
“Yes.” Cress nodded. “It started a long time ago, in our own Upper World. Connor entered another fae realm adjacent to ours—the Kingdom of the Creatives—with the view to court one of the princesses. In a bid to impress him, the princess showed him their spark stone. Connor was entranced, and for some reason, he was compelled to devour it.”
“He saw something pretty, and he thought he should… eat it?” That was something a toddler would do.
“The stones vibrate with power.” Donovan’s low, rumbling voice echoed through the room. Damn, his voice really was something. “My brother has always craved power. He would have held the stone, and his instincts would have screamed at him to consume—”
“Right.” I cut him off. “Tell me, Nate.” I pointed at him with my marker. “What happened to Connor when he devoured the Creative’s spark stone?”
“He absorbed a core element of their magic.”
“The magic of expression?”
“It is a great and powerful magic,” Donovan’s voice rumbled through the room again. “Do not underestimate—”