Deathwish, Part 15: Post Mortem

Part 1: Cinderfell
Part 2: Deal With a Vorpal
Part 3: Calmsquare Cantina
Part 4: The Wailing Chamber
Part 5: Grector Smash
Part 6: Rebmauk
Part 7: Chantim
Part 8: Homesick
Part 9: Traitorous Humans
Part 10: Journalistic Integrity
Part 11: Crime and Punishment
Part 12: Breakdown
Part 13: Redeye
Part 14: Pure Evil

Alicia stumbled back into reality. It wasn’t Cinderfell. Feeling a sense of deja vu, Alicia realized she was back in Colossus. A short brown haired man with a lab coat walked up to Alicia, immediately shaking her hand vigorously. “I know you. Alicia. Right? Of course right. Boom, half done. I’m Queue. Good to meet you. Now completely done. Introductions, that is. Now, follow me.”

Alicia head spun. “Wait, what? Who are you? Where are we going?”

Queue was already walking, and Alicia unconsciously began to follow at the same hasty pace. “Already answered who. Where is a better question. Shock wanted to speak with you. Spies caught wind of some peculiar behavior. You were at the center. Strange. Unconfirmed. But suspicious. Bang. Here we are, see ya.”

Queue walked away, muttering things to himself in his disjointed manner of speaking. Alicia looked around, and the only thing nearby was an open air doorway labeled Electrostatic Labs. She walked in, seeing all kinds of strange lab equipment with arcs of lightning and moving parts that Alicia couldn’t understand the purpose of. Someone walked up to her, grabbing her hand and pulling her into a side room before quickly closing the door.

She sat down with the one she had met previously when in Colossus. Shock, the female electro caster with steel eyes and a metal headpiece. She looked at Alicia judgmentally, not saying anything. Alicia couldn’t take it anymore and broke the silence.

“...What? Am I here for you to lecture me again? After all these years, you won’t even say a word to me, face to face?”

Shock continued not saying anything, so Alicia continued responding to the accusatory silence. “Are you going to tell me you were right? Even after all my best efforts, Dapper is gone and many more people have died? I don’t feel guilty. Dapper may have almost killed several innocent people, but while I was with him he only killed bad people.”

Shock was still silent. “I saw even more of the Inverse, you know. I saw a completely peaceful city, I obtained some new Vorpal artifacts that I will treasure forever… I even met a new type of Vorpal, maybe two.”

Shock’s eyebrow raised as Alicia continued, unprompted. “There are things called Cagemasters. They are more powerful than Vorpals, and I think more humanlike. They can do… things, I can’t really explain it because I only met one briefly. But he didn’t kill me. Not like the second one tried to.”

“There is something they call Redeye… he, it, I don’t know… it killed them all. Without any hesitation, and barely any effort. And then he came after me! I don’t really know how I managed to survive.”

Shock stirred. “It was probably… no, never mind. At this point, it doesn’t matter.”

Alicia was stunned. Shock knew what it was, she was sure of it. “...what? What was that… thing?”

Shock spoke evasively. “I can’t be sure since I wasn’t there, but I have an inkling. You aren’t cleared for such knowledge, though, so let it go because I certainly won’t be telling you. Besides, you have more pressing matters. We received an anonymous coded message telling of your arrival, presumably from some of our operatives. We don’t have a full account yet, but we do have a basic time line of events.”

Alicia was irritated. She was older now and fully capable of understanding these matters, and yet she was still being treated like a child undeserving of the full story. “The Enlightened kidnapped me, I ran for my life from something worse than Vorpals, and you still can’t tell me what’s going on? For that matter, why didn’t you send help?”

“We have things under control, and besides… that battle turned out exactly the way we would have wanted. Enlightened, dead. Vorpals, dead, at least for the moment. The only survivor was someone who wasn’t one of our duly self proclaimed enemies. I won’t question our fortune.”

Alicia was outraged. “Wrong! Dapper wasn’t your enemy, neither was Chantim or any of the Vorpals! They were HELPING ME!”

“Alicia, they-”

“ALICIA NOTHING! The Vorpals have been nothing but kind to me, and you Gatekeepers are-”

Shock stood up and shouted, overcome with extreme rage. “Vorpals killed twenty Gatekeepers this past month, and over a hundred civilians in that same period! THEY AREN’T INNOCENT!”

Alicia was left speechless, as the fury left Shock as suddenly as it had arrived. She again spoke with an almost inhuman calm. “Alicia. We fight Vorpals every day. We usually win, but not always. You are still practically a child, so you don’t understand the full scope of this battle. You know your home town, Cinderfell?”

“What about it?”

Shock leaned back, speaking with caution. “We noticed increased Vorpal activity. Activity considerably higher than normal. We didn’t know why the activity had increased at first, but we found out what you did shortly after the Enlightened. You brought a Vorpal into our world, and helped him hide from humans. Do you know what that did?”

“What harm could that possibly cause? It’s not like the Vorpals came after him, or-”

“It caused tears from the Inverse to our world to open more frequently. They are normally rare, but they are always unpredictable. Our forces, as well as the Enlightened, needed to divert our forces towards fighting the threat even more because of this. Do you understand? This was so serious of threat, it caused both sides of an active conflict to reduce their military activities against each other out of necessity.”

Alicia was silent as Shock continued. “I’ve spoken with several other top Gatekeepers today, and we are split on what to do with you. Some think you are an existential threat and should be executed or imprisoned indefinitely. Thankfully, me and some others brought them to their senses. But we all agreed you need supervision. You can’t be going into the Inverse again. You are playing with forces beyond your control that mankind has been trying to keep a lid on for centuries. So, we will be assigning a Gatekeeper to keep track of your activities. You will be required to check in with this person at least once per day, and-”

Alicia stood up. “No! I will not agree to that!”

“You don’t have a choice, Alicia. This was the only option other than execution or imprisonment. You have become a serious problem, Alicia.”

Alicia grew more enraged. “If you think I will stand for this, just you wait until I find Dapper again! I’ll… I’ll!”

Shock’s expression grew grim. “Alicia… I would watch what you say a bit more closely. I’ve done a lot of advocating on your behalf to prevent your entire family from being thrown in a dungeon for your actions. But threatening the Gatekeepers? Tell me, Alicia… do you really think Redeye is the most dangerous thing in the world? Do you really think we don’t have at least a hundred casters within shouting distance right now that could easily overpower your current Vorpal allies?”

Alicia was silent, realizing her situation. She was on the edge of being an enemy of the largest military power in the world, while her own alliances were tenuous at best. “Uh… I’m sorry, I…”

Shock did her best to dispel the intimidation that resulted from answering threats with threats. “It’s fine, Alicia. You are still young. But, I will tell you this. There is a need for researchers willing to study the Inverse, since not many are willing. When you are old enough, the Gatekeepers would be willing to fund your research. You have already produced substantial results, so there is no question that you would be well worth the cost.”

Alicia’s eyes lit up. “Let me do that NOW! Forget school, I can get started with-”

“Finish school, Alicia. You need a well rounded education.”

Alicia sat down, mind now spinning with possibilities. With actual funding, she could get a studio. Or maybe laboratory would be a more appropriate term? She could pay casters to help her make custom equipment, she could buy more existing research beyond an overpriced kids book… the possibilities were endless. “I’m going to finish school, than! I’ll pass all my classes ahead of schedule, and finish as quickly as I can! Nothing is going to stop me now!”

“Alicia, please calm down. Just promise me that, until we have all the details sorted out, you don’t do anything rash. No more running into the Inverse, and no more bringing Vorpals back through. Keep your Gatekeeper handler informed, and don’t cause trouble. Deal?”

Shock extended a hand to shake, that Alicia shook vigorously. “Deal! You will all see, soon… someday, Vorpals and humans are going to live peacefully together! The entire Inverse will be safe for exploration, and everyone will get to meet all my other Vorpal friends!”

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Thanks for reading! If you are enjoying the story, you might also enjoy my novel! It’s set in the same fictional universe, but follows different characters.

Same post on Minds

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