The Heroes' Guild

“All these centuries,” Tessa said, “And we still have no idea how it chooses a wielder.”

The trident didn’t look very special in its case, not even the family crest of the Elanoreis to mark it from other weapons of the same kind. Skylar couldn’t believe this was the only weapon made with the intent to kill a dark mage. As a Forge, the idea of wielding it for herself felt like a chance to return it to its origins.

She watched Singe, whose expression seemed intimidated, but not compelled.

“You should try it first,” he said.

She moved closer, feeling like a magnet forced against something of the same kind. She grabbed the handle, lifting it with both hands, which quickly fell asleep, the tingling feeling reaching up her arms.

“It’s definitely not for me,” she said, handing it to Singe.

He didn’t react initially, but after a moment, it was clear he was gritting his teeth. He set it clumsily back in its case, shaking out his hands afterward.

“It’s subtler than I expected,” he noted, “I thought it would try to kill us like Excalibur’s supposed to.”

“It wasn’t designed with any intent for legitimacy. It was designed to defend Mineria. Even if it doesn’t have a wielder, it can be used in case of emergency.”

“When it makes your hands fall asleep that fast?” Skylar asked, “No one would be able to move it for long.”

“Even if neither of you are spellcasters, you’re both among the most powerful mages of your kind. The effect may set in faster for both of you. Queen Marina has been able to hold it for nearly an hour before it hurts her.”

“So it attacks Magek?” Singe asked.

“Makes sense,” Skylar said, “Could you have a mortal wield it without any harm?”

Tessa shook her head.

“Her majesty took great risk letting you both try it, but handing it to a mortal would be too much.”

Skylar almost asked if anyone could even stop her, but held her tongue. No one needed to be reminded whose granddaughter she was.

“We could ask,” Singe said.

“No,” Skylar insisted, probably too fast, “Like your mother said, she already took a risk for us, and we don’t need a queen mad at us.”

“Why does she make you so uncomfortable?” he asked.

That was information she didn’t need to share in front of the queen’s wizard.

“Can you help us return to Earth?” she asked.

“I will make sure the queen has no pressing concerns with you.”

Tessa bowed, and left them alone.

“Are you going to answer me?” Singe asked.

Skylar looked around. Mineria wasn’t as fond of runes as the Forge, but that didn’t mean they had no means of listening in on people left alone.

“Let’s just say part of why I abdicated was so I didn’t have to practice diplomacy with her Majesty, and I’m sure she’s as grateful for that as I am.”

“She can’t hate you, she—”

“I didn’t say she hated me, but nothing keeps her from disliking me.”

“Why would you think—”

“I don’t want to talk about it, Singe. Why don’t we discuss how we’ll explain to everyone else this was a waste of a trip?”

Singe seemed to look around.

“Maybe not.”

“We’re not stealing the trident.”

“I wasn’t going to propose that.”

Skylar stayed silent, but gave a nod for him to continue.

“We haven’t asked about the Magek side of things. If we can’t convince Queen Marina to give us any information on where any portals are in Mineria, we can at least go to kingdoms we have a better relationship with and ask for that information from them. There’d be reports where any magek sapping areas would be located.”

“And at least convince them to ward creatures away from the portals.”

Singe nodded. Skylar excitedly grabbed his hands.

“I would be lost without you.”

The oracle watched the tree line as Evil guided the boat onward, her male companion keeping a hand on her shoulder so she didn’t lean too far off the side of the boat. The female companion watched the water with an expression Evil couldn’t discern through her sunglasses. The child was exploring the boat, taking care to inspect each item.

The man suddenly pointed behind himself, causing the oracle to turn around.

“Stop the boat!”

Evil listened to her. No matter the Admonis’ history, an oracle of their line couldn’t just be ignored.

“Wisteria!” she yelled to figures in the trees that Evil couldn’t see, “It’s been awhile.”

“Professor Hunter?” A woman stepped out, “What are you doing on a narrow boat?”

“Hunter?” Evil asked. He must have misheard.

“I took his name,” the oracle admitted, pointing to the man who was presumably her husband. The child must have been hers as well given the matching hair.

“Why are you here?” the probable sister-in-law asked.

“Geocaching,” the woman answered, Evil was trying to discern why her voice sounded so familiar, “It’s like a little treasure hunt in the great outdoors.”

“I see,” the oracle said, “And where do you think the portal is?”

The woman took a step back.

“What portal?”

“The thing you’re actually tracking,” the child explained, “It’s a portal.”

“You and your cousin aren’t going to solve this problem on your own,” the Oracle insisted, “I can help you if you’ll let me.”

“What do you want us to do?”

“Just bring yourselves and your little darkness detector onto the boat, so we can find the portal and deal with it.”

The woman turned around, making gestures until a man came out, hiding a large shadow behind him.

A shadow that looked a bit like a woman.

The harlequin and the cloaked figure.

“I’ve owed you both thanks for saving my life,” Evil said, “Welcome aboard.”

He formed a bridge of water from their location to the boat, which was admittedly getting a bit cramped.

They looked hesitant.

“It’s solid enough to walk on, I assure you, I am a Master in these things.”

The child giggled.

They joined the other passengers, with the shadow woman floating to the side. He supposed if she weren’t corporeal, she wouldn’t care much about being wet.

“I fear my role here is in little more than transportation,” he muttered.

“Oh, I very much doubt it,” the sister-in-law said, “I think you’re a very important piece of this puzzle.”

Harold waited, checking the forums for any further information until a notification for a private message appeared.

This was good. Harold had established himself as something of a xenology expert in the forums specifically so they’d come to him with anything confusing before it went public.

Harold started loading the video in another tab. This probably wouldn’t be helpful.

Okay.

Harold played the video, which didn’t have any sound. It showed three women surrounding a bright cylinder. One flies above it and enters. A few moments later the bright cylinder disappears as the other two lower their hands, and a dragon is revealed to be inside. The camera starts shaking then cuts off.

Wise sent photos of a creature covered in dark magek, near the same venue as the video.

Harold looked around the lab. It had successfully confined a dark mage so he had no way out but up the stairs.

He moved his focus to the Abnormals’ warehouse. Tetra and Xer had just arrived, finishing the group, except for Berserker.

“Is this everyone?” Tesla Coil asked.

“Berserker said, ‘There’s too many characters in this crossover already’,” Nightingale revealed.

“I don’t think he’s going to show up,” Blaster said, “Dark magek probably leaves a sour taste in his mouth.”

Tetra looked up at the camera Harold observed from.

“Please enlighten us, little conscience.”

Harold smiled. He knew the team mostly indulged his presence because they couldn’t stop him, but it felt nice to be trusted with so much information.

“First,” he presented a map of all the portals, “These are the places where the Elementals know portals are located, with additional labeling as the Ember Phoenix and Black Dragon are apparently working to check where in Magek each portal leads to.”

He waited for comment before barreling on, presenting a criminal profile.

“Our most likely suspect is named Everett Leone, a former extra-exotic pet smuggler who disappeared a few months ago. It seems he’s using similar tricks with a bonus of Dark Magek infection, which records previously showed shouldn’t be able to transfer to animals.”

“So the curse can evolve like a virus,” Tesla Coil noted, “And Leone was the necessary carrier to bypass it.”

“Unless the curse’s origin is learning new things, but the difference is semantics rather than threat.”

“And what would that threat be?” Nightingale asked.

“If a virus isn’t stopped quickly,” Tesla Coil explained, “It can evolve to be resistant to curative measures like antibiotics or preventative ones like vaccines. The Ember Phoenix already explained that her purification only works before a certain point. The virus could also jump to different hosts, like a swine flu evolving to infect humans.”

“So what’s the next step for Dark Magek?” Xer asked.

“It’s not prolific enough to say,” Tesla Coil said, “Not to mention this isn’t even my area of expertise, but the most dangerous branches are that it evolves a resistance to the weapons that can currently kill it, or it evolves to infect new hosts, such as empowereds, for example.”

Harold tried not to think about his own curse. Even if he wasn’t actually infected, the way the curse reacted meant there was some dark magek around him keeping it active.

He had a better subject.

“Speaking of empowereds and weapons to fight this, why don’t you check out this footage?”

He sent the same video Wise sent him, adding earlier photos, video from slightly different angles, and Wise’s post, which they must have already drafted before messaging Harold.

“The Radioos?” Xer asked.

“Radi8s,” Blaster corrected, “They’ve had a few hits, are opening for the Blah Guards. I guess this proves the speculation that the lead singer is superhuman, as well as the other members.”

“And they disinfected a fire dragon?” Tetra asked, “How?”

Tesla Coil gasped suddenly.

“What?” Everyone asked.

“I know them,” she said, “They went to the Institute.”

If they went to the Quartz Institute, that probably confirmed they were empowered.

“Why aren’t you explaining anything else?” Rex asked, “You love explaining xenology.”

“We weren’t lawyers or medical professionals, so we can’t exactly be convicted, but there’s a certain amount of confidentiality expected.”

“But you know how they did it?” Tetra assumed.

“I have an educated guess.”

“Educate us,” Blaster said.

“All three of them are radioactive empowereds.”

“What?”

“Some empowereds absorb radiation as part of their powers. Their powers tend to be less consistent, but the absorption alone is incredibly valuable, which is why they don’t usually tell people. Valuable empowereds are targeted empowereds.”

“Yeah,” Xer confirmed.

“Britney, the black-haired one, develops different powers based on the radiation she’s absorbed. Based on flight and bioluminescence, that would mean she’s absorbed gamma radiation and microwaves if I recall correctly. The reason people clock her as superhuman is probably that we never figured out how to help with the increased volume of her voice from the strength UV radiation gives her.”

“She absorbed dark magek?”

“No, I think the other two are to credit for that.”

The others gestured for her to continue.

“Isabela, the blonde, has forcefield abilities similar to Blaster, but if she focuses hard enough, she can turn them into lenses for different radiation. Aubrey, the brunette, can spontaneously create different types of radiation. We probably kept her for training the longest.”

“So they blasted it with radiation?” Nightingale asked, “And that undid the dark magek.”

“I suspect so.”

“Impressive.”

“This means Mages aren’t the only ones with methods to disrupt dark magek,” Harold said.

Tesla Coil made a small spark come out of her gloves.

“I have an experiment to try.”

“Oh yeah,” Harold moved on to a screen of seven illustrated weapons, “These are the seven weapons that can kill a dark mage, and we know at least one can disrupt these portals if it hits the correct spot.”

Tetra moved a hand to present Excalibur, which looked like a Roman gladius with runes down its hilt.

“This time,” Nightingale pointed somewhere on the screen. Harold thought it was close to the sword duo, “I may know someone.”

Bryce Warren would admit to not being much of an art man, but he wasn’t at this gallery show just to improve his portfolio. In fact, they weren’t selling any pieces yet.

This was a collaborative show between Ignotus Hathaway and Victoria Loch, two mage artists known for a little bit of danger in their work, and who didn’t want a little danger in their lives?

He watched a piece that spewed lava out of what seemed to be a giant, but otherwise anatomically correct, heart. He wondered whose work was whose, as all the pieces were supposed to be collaborative.

“Bryce,” a voice yelled, much to the clear chagrin of its companion, “Been awhile.”

“Vivian, Pike!” he yelled, recognizing old schoolmates.

“Piec,” Catherine Piec corrected, dressed in yet another formal suit.

“Arden,” the man he’d called Vivian corrected. Bryce always forgot he’d changed his name.

“Where’s your clone?” Bryce asked Catherine.

“Home, hopefully sleeping. I didn’t bring a date.”

“Why don’t you two explore together,” Arden offered, “My date’s one of the artists, so I’ve seen this all before.”

Bryce could guess that Piec’s expression wasn’t a happy one. He’d gotten over most of his reasons for disliking her, but she was more stubborn than he was.

“I take it your presence here is because of your xenology interests,” Piec said as Arden left them alone.

“Which artist is his date?” he asked instead of answering.

“He lives across from Victoria Loch. She usually takes him as her date.

“Are they dating?”

Piec laughed.

“Definitely not. She’s got a fiancée back in Magek, or so I hear.”

Not that good of a fiancée if they left their partner alone on such big events, but that wasn’t Bryce’s business.

“Surprised you know this much about other people, Pike. You’re usually more standoffish.”

She watched him with a quizzical expression.

“I keep tabs on most superhumans in the public eye,” she explained.

“Of course you do.”

“And I’m personally acquainted with Victoria because her date is my son’s godfather.”

Right. Wait.

“Arden is your clone’s godfather?”

“Yes, he was old friends with my husband, and we asked him to act as godfather before Pete disappeared.”

Huh.

“Is that why you two get along now? I thought he hated your ass.”

“Pretty much,” Piec confirmed, “He’d probably still avoid me if it weren’t for Harold.”

“I thought you said your husband was named Pete.”

“Harold is my son’s name.”

Right. Harold just seemed like an old man name to Bryce, so he couldn’t imagine a child with it.

Before he could leave the conversation and actually check out the rest of the exhibition, a black woman on the arm of a dragon man walked in to many gasps.

“Where are the rest of the Elementals?” Bryce asked.

“Probably some crisis,” Piec answered, “Surprised these two found the time to come here.”

Piec seemed to be watching the artists as the Ember Phoenix came to congratulate them. He wouldn’t pretend the princess wasn’t stunning. If she didn’t have such an intimidating escort, Bryce might try talking to her himself.

“Since you seem to know everything,” he turned to Piec, who already left him, “Damn.”

Why was he disappointed by Catherine Piec’s absence? He may not have a grudge against her anymore, but that didn’t mean he liked her company.

“Mr. Warren,” Hathaway finally came up to him, “How are you liking the show?”

“It looks impressive, though I admit I mostly came here to see how you were responding to my offer.”

“I’m still considering it. This show has been all that’s occupied my mind for the past several months. Honestly though, if you want something worth your time, Ms. Loch is far more skilled than I am.”

Bryce finally caught sight of Catherine Piec, talking with Arden and a black man Bryce didn’t recognize. The men were laughing while Piec seemed to be arguing with Arden, though after a moment she gave up and leaned against him, leading to more good humor from the men.

She and Arden were closer than they led on, and the last thing Bryce needed was word of his efforts to reach someone regularly at the same events, even if it was someone as reserved as Catherine Piec.

“Victoria Loch doesn’t usually work in sculpture,” he replied instead of stating this need for secrecy.

Hathaway pursed his lips.

“I feel uncomfortable saying no to such a lucrative offer, Mr. Warren, but I feel worse at the prospect of making something like that without the consent of the subject.”

“It’s not like I want her naked.”

“If you can convince her to offer permission, I will gladly take the commission, but Tesla Coil isn’t exactly easy to contact.”

Bryce didn’t really understand the concern about a private collection, but he didn’t really have a decent argument beyond more cash, and he didn’t need to be so obvious.

“Can we compromise on something more abstract? Same pay.”

“I will con—”

A screech halted every discussion, as some eyeless pterodactyl thing broke through the skylight.

“Get to safety!” he pushed Hathaway closer to the exit, searching for an unobserved corner.

“Finally,” Bryce muttered, grabbing his hidden cowl, “Showtime.”