Rising Shards

A new room slowly came to around us. It looked like another basement, but a cozier one. There was a TV with a bunch of game systems hooked up to it in front of us, and bean bag chairs Oka and I could actually touch. I could see snow falling through a window behind us.

“It’s my basement,” Kalei said. “Probably feel safe here or some crap. Was your void thing this bad, Zeta?”

“Yeah,” I said.

“Zeta’s was all theater-y,” Oka said. “If this is too personal you don’t have to say, but did any of that stick stuff or Order of Terina stuff really happen?”

"I think...it's weird," Kalei said. “When my fangs came in…I saw all that stuff with BirchSceptre and the Endora people. After Risa lied about everything.”

“So who is Risa?” I asked.

“She was my best friend ever since we were kids,” Kalei said. 

"Was it her actual dream to do that sex-ed thing?" Oka asked. "Or was that just made up for the vision the Order gave you?"

"That one was her, she actually really wanted to start a business selling sex-ed pamphlets," Kalei said. She said it so wistfully that Oka and I didn't want to say anything more about it. “I thought I knew everything about her, but it was all a lie. She said she didn’t know who her dad was, and then…”

“Who was her dad?”

“Roland Taramin, the guy that owns Redgre Cola.” Kalei said. “She was trying to live a ‘normal’ live or whatever. Then her rich dad wanted her back from the crappy suburbs. I told her that night I wanted her to stay...stay with me, ugh...but she kicked me out. And she just left in a limo, not even saying goodbye.”

“Ouch,” I said.

“And I know you aren’t like that, Oka,” Kalei said, stopping Oka before she could speak. “I know your rich family thing isn’t the same as her family. I guess I gravitate to people connected to rich people, though. It freaked me out a little when I found out who your dad is.”

Kalei stretched back on her bean bag chair, wiping her tears.

“So I guess in the franticness of the moment of losing my best friend, my fangs came in and I passed out right outside her house, where somehow, some rookie cultists got a hold of me in the void.” Kalei said. “Luckily my mom and dad found me when I was coming to back here, and they got me to a hospital. And after that I was out for a bit, I guess.”

“I remember being so scared something like that was going to happen when my fangs came in,” I said. I had read all about that kind of thing in 3WMB. How your fangs come in and you zap straight into like a half coma, void vision thing. Apparently there were groups that could manipulate that moment as well.

“You’re very brave for facing this again,” Oka said. “Did anyone talk to you about what you saw in your vision, then? Because the Order of Terina is pretty famous, even if it was a wannabe group.”

“Yeah,” Kalei said. “Right after I woke up…”

The TV in front of us turned on, showing us Kalei in a hospital bed.

“Yeah then, this happened.”

Kalei on the television stirred in her bed. A man sat beside her.

“Uh…hi,” Kalei said. “Are you like the doctor?”

“I’m agent Cavalier of special investigations.” The man said, holding up a badge. “I do security, detective stuff, waiting, shopkeeping, if you got a dog I’ll walk it any day.”

“What the heck, that’s that dog walking guy,” I said.

“Zak Cavalier!” Oka said.

“You know him?” Kalei asked.

“He served us drinks in Iho Vinai!” I said.

We watched as Zak handed Kalei a gate rosin.

“Care to do the honors?” Zak asked. “It’s perfectly safe in your condition, don’t worry. I would like to have a quick chat with you somewhere more private, if you don’t mind.”

The vision sped up, as if it was being fast forwarded.

“Yeah, we can skip this bit,” Kalei said, as doctors and Kalei’s parents showed up in the room. “I thought he was gonna like take me there to murder me, or that he was secretly in the cult right after that vision, and it took a while for the doctors and everyone to convince me he was legit.”

The video went back to normal speed, as Kalei scraped her fang on the gate rosin and plunked it into a bowl Zak Cavalier was holding.

The spot in the void they went to was a quiet, still beach. There was a house half sunk into the sand that Cavalier led Kalei to.

“I’d like to speak to you about what you saw,” Zak said. “As you know, Cani awakening visions like this get pulled for analysis in our eternity weaver machines, you know the drill.”

“I mean, kinda,” Kalei said. “Why would you even bother talking to me? I'm normal."

“There’s nothing wrong with normalcy. And you’re definitely not normal, you just grew fangs.”

“So why are you here, then?” Kalei asked. “You don’t have fangs.”

“Don’t worry about what I am,” Zak said. He lit a cigarette and started smoking it.

“You shouldn’t smoke around me,” Kalei said. “I don’t want that crap gunking up my lungs, I can’t lose beam chasers too.”

“Well luckily, it’s not a cigarette. It’s a special concoction that helps sustain the special conditions that allow me to be here in the void.”

“Really? It sure smells like a cigarette.”

“That’s because I lied,” Zak said.

“You have to know I’m waiting for you to snap your fingers and turn into that Suju Terina guy any second right?”

“Right,” Zak said. “And that’s why I’m here.

Cavalier wrote “ENDORA JUDGES” in the sand with a stick.

“The Order of Terina, the infamous cult, has been seeking an otherworldly being called ‘Endora’. She apparently is in the void somewhere."

“Yeah that sounds pretty otherworldly,” Kalei said.

"Chapters of the cult around the world take the faces of their famous members to avoid detection. It must give the rookies like the one you faced quite the power rush to pretend to be such an imposing figure as Suju Terina. I'm very impressed that you rejected them."

"Like, accidentally," Kalei said. "I mean, they were shouting at me to give blood and stuff."

"You still didn't give in." 

"Yeah, not giving into the crap recruits of the evil cult, how big of me."

"Many do give in, though," Zak said. "Many cases of Cani vanishing completely right after their fangs come in, only to pop up months later as members of the Order. You avoided that fate, and that's very admirable. And valuable to my investigation."

"Really?" Kalei asked. "But...I don't know..."

"If you had given your blood, and joined them, they would have found ways to keep the information you gained from them hidden. And now, I have a lead on a new chapter of the Order's movements in this area."

"Like what?" Kalei asked.

"Classified." Zak said. "As I'm sure you'd like to keep the information about your friendship with Risa classified as well, right?"

“You don’t have to be so blunt about everything.” Kalei said. “How do you know that about me, anyways?”

“A good detective always learns as much as possible,” Zak said.

“I hate to tell you this, but I don’t think a good detective would waste their time on some Cani getting abducted in a dream or the void or whatever for a minute because she got rejected.”

“You had the only documented interaction with this state's growing chapter of the Order, when most still haven't even considered them being active in this country. I hadn’t gathered the information of their existence until very recently, and that took weeks of time in an underground bunker analyzing code.”

Kalei didn’t have an answer for that.

“Well, we should be getting back,” Zak said. A return pylon appeared before them.

“That’s it?” Kalei asked. “You didn’t even really ask me anything.”

“I’m sure we’ll meet again,” Cavalier said. “I’ll be nearby.”

“Nearby where?”

Zak handed Kalei a card.

“Here’s my contact at Rising Shards. I’d go through the official channels there to register.”

Kalei read over the card.

“And you expect me to just go to this charter school with my broke family’s none money?”

“Yes, with a scholarship it shouldn’t be a problem,” Zak said. “Even without your fangs, I hear you’re an exceptional beam chasers player. Plus, you could work at the real BirchSceptre in Sky Clay for your work study.”

“I freaking hope not.” Kalei said.

“Don’t rule it out, I believe your future could be tied to that place. The real version, not the one the Order conjured, obviously.”

“Again. Freaking hope not.”

The TV shut off. Kalei sighed.

“And then, I went back home, got signed up at Rising Shards, and have been trying to outrun thinking about Risa for the last few months.”

“I’m so sorry,” I said. “I don’t know if I get that stick stuff or the Endora stuff and especially not the Zak Cavalier stuff…but I get what happened with Risa. The real stuff, not the vision stuff that was all mushed together.”

“Thanks,” Kalei said.

“I’m sorry too,” Oka said. “I promise we won’t keep any more secrets from you.”

“It’s fine,” Kalei said. “You don’t have to tell me everything.”

“I owe you some things at least,” I said. “Like, I’m definitely not in that Terina cult.”

“I know…” Kalei said. “I was just being paranoid. I heard they keep ashes under their bed…”

“Those are from something else,” I said. “They’re from when Jeans…”

I paused.

“Jeans was my Risa.” I said.

“Say no more,” Kalei said. “Or...say more if you want.”

“Later, I’ll tell you everything,” I said. “After we’re done with all this today.”

Kalei rose to her feet. “Then is this over? How do we be done here?”

The door back to the temple appeared before us.

“Oh, that’s easy.” Kalei said. “I thought there’d be some annoying thing like I’d have to relive one more embarrassing memory before we could go back home.”

“Well, we can’t go home yet,” Oka said as we returned to the lobby. “We still have mine today.”

We took a breather in the temple lobby. I sat down with Kalei while Oka called Diast to let her know we were fine.

“That’s still wild,” I said. “That Zak guy’s a real secret agent or something? And you figured out some big clue about a cult?”

“I have no idea what any part of what they did to me would be a big clue,” Kalei said.

“Still.” I said.

“Alright, Diast says we can get to mine now,” Oka said, sounding like me when I was about to go to the dentist.

“No matter what, we’re here for you,” I said.

“Right,” Kalei said.

Kalei suddenly pulled Oka and I both into a bearhug. “I’m sorry I got so mad.” She said.

“You don’t have to keep apologizing.” I said. “I was the one who wrecked your thing, and got all snappy with Oka."

“If I have to stop apologizing you have to, too,” Kalei said. “That’s the rules.”

“Fine,” I said. “Can you ease up? You’re almost as strong as Laenie when she was all Exa Cani’d out.”

“Almost?” Kalei asked, hugging us tighter. When we could all breathe again, our laughs echoed all around the temple.