Equilibrium

Prologue - Part 2

"You've disturbed a relic that belongs to the Dark Empire," the elf in black said. A terrifying mace was strapped to his back, blunt-faced and spiked at the end. He stood like a viper ready to strike.

"It's on our land, dumbass," Skye said. "And you all probably put it there as some kind of last resort against us. Am I right?"

Anger flashed in his eyes through the fringe of his bone-white hair. "We put it there, or the last Emperor did, to keep it from being disturbed. The war against the humans may be over, but who's to say it will never happen again? The relic has been preserved in anticipation of this inevitability."

"Without telling us," Skye put in. "Yeah, that really convinces me that it's for our benefit."

"Your Father surely would not have allowed it if he knew."

"Surely," Skye mocked.

"Where is it?" the Dark Elf said.

Skye and Riptide said nothing.

Kevyn recalled how they'd chucked the remnants of the box into the sea, and Riptide used his power over the tide to make sure none of the pieces would come back ashore. The Fire Elf stepped forward, but Jake caught his shoulder.

"He won't be happy when he realizes it's destroyed," Kevyn said low near Jake's ear. Jake nodded in a resigned sort of way. The two came out of the treeline.

"Who's there?" the Dark Elf demanded. Skye and Riptide were startled to see them. Obviously, they bet on them fleeing. "I hope it's someone more forthcoming."

"Let them go," Kevyn said.

"What a motley group this is. Is it a conspiracy against the Empire?"

"No. More like disposal of unexploded ordnance," Kevyn said.

"Disposal?" he barked. He did let them go then, and focused all of his energy with his eyes closed. The Dark Elf started walking to the very spot where Kevyn broke the box with his dragon tooth knife.

"And you are?" Jake asked.

"That's Cyanide. Lieutenant to General Sion Nox," Skye said. "Aren't you Cy?" Cyanide gave her a dirty look.

Well, shit. Kevyn tried not to look phased as he and Jake walked over to their allies. This could go badly.

"You know him, then?" Jake asked.

"There are peace talks every ten years or so, and my Dad would take me along," Skye replied.

"We're with the Peace Corps," Kevyn said to Cyanide.

Cyanide glanced his way, then crouched down in the sand and combed his fingers through the grains where the box had been. Then he looked to the sea. He stood and approached the waves. When he bent down again, he picked up a small piece of the box, which he pocketed.

Kevyn grimaced.

Cyanide stood before the four of them and said, "By not alerting the Empire to this 'endeavor' of yours, you have - knowingly or unknowingly - destroyed an important relic that by rights belongs to us. This can be seen as a breach of trust and an act of aggression on the part of the other Tribes, and Kreta itself." He said the last looking at Jake, the only human among them. He weighed something in his mind, then reached a hand over his shoulder and freed his mace. "An example must be made of you," he said.

This confrontation might be four-to-one, but Kevyn did not like the odds. As he unsheathed his own sword - his focus sharpening - he activated the distress call with a brush of his thumb along the rune on the hilt. A brief whoosh of magic rippled through him.

Lightning fast, Cyanide was beside Kevyn and he swung his mace at his head as he passed. Kevyn only just managed to block the assault with his sword. Never stopping, Cyanide continued to Jake and bludgeoned him hard on the back. Jake fell to the ground. A blinding light from Skye made Cyanide stumble and Kevyn took the opening to scorch his hands and heat the pole of his mace. The Dark Elf dropped his weapon, and Kevyn moved forward. Or tried to. He was stuck to the spot. When he looked around he saw the same was true for Skye and Riptide.

"Pretentious of you to fight all of us at once," Jake called out to Cyanide from the ground.

"Hardly," Cyanide said. "A human, a weak-ass elf, and two civilians are no trouble at all."

A tremendous wave came crashing over Cyanide. It roared and churned, raining water down on the party, and when it receded, Cyanide was no longer standing there.

"Wanna bet?" Riptide said.

So, Jake was distracting him with his goading. Now that he thought about it, it was uncharacteristically chatty of him. "Where is he?" Kevyn asked Riptide.

"On a riptide straight to a friend of mine," he replied.

A tremendous whale surfaced some distance away and water gushed from its blowhole. No, not a whale. It had a single long horn protruding from its head. It was a narwhal the size of a blue whale. Its circular mouth opened and then it dove below the surface again. Kevyn laughed in delight.

"He didn't eat him, did he?" Skye asked.

"No. He's just - escorting him to the local authorities," Riptide said.

Kevyn knelt next to Jake and started healing his wounds and taking stock of them. "Is he like a police narwhal or something?" he asked.

Riptide laughed. "I guess we can call it a citizen's arrest. I have no authority. Connections, yes, but no authority. And he's my friend."

"He seems like a good friend to have," Kevyn replied.

"He's taking him into the Deep?" Skye asked. When Riptide nodded, she said, "I'd better tell my father. I think he'll insist on joint custody."

"I'd better go, too. Or else the actual authorities will be very confused by the present Nori's leaving for them."

The six punctures on Jake's back knit neatly, but his back was still going to be one big bruise soon enough. At least until he could see a healer.

There was a pulse of light near Kevyn, and a portal opened. Nexus stepped through.

"Nex, give me a hand," Kevyn said.

~

"So did we cause an international incident?" Kevyn asked his boss in his office later that day. Jake was in the infirmary and Kevyn was more restless than usual as a result.

"Not if your friends keep their silence as they say they will," Monroe said.

"They don't want trouble," Kevyn said.

"I got the same impression from the authorities - both local and national," Monroe said.

"So, what? Cyanide will just - go missing?"

"He has a dangerous job." Monroe shrugged. "And no trace of our involvement has been left behind. I made sure of that personally. Now I wonder what else has been hiding under our noses."

"They're shady, that's nothing new."

"I suppose not. But what is new is this," Monroe said as he took a water-logged business card out of his pocket. "This was in Cyanide's pocket."

The smudged insignia of a purple bundle of sage leaves was in the upper left corner. It read 'Yu- Dok--ku, Ch- -ess Officer, Dokuyaku -oup.'

"Chess Officer?" Kevyn asked.

Monroe smiled. "I do believe it says, 'Chief Business Officer'. As for the name -"