The Opelux and Other Monsters || Book One

CHAPTER 1 - TRITTEON

The silent alarm prickled against my skin, into my tastebuds, the warm, metallic pulse raising the hair on the back of my neck. It took everyone a few moments to process. Precious seconds of stunned silence. The sensation wasn't out of place at the Palace. A handful of incidences occurred every week. But this was the MieVicor, the most remote, strategically hidden Rest House on the continent. Only three people total knew it's precise location.

SHIELD BREACH and INTRUDER flashed red across every guards com screen. The alarming confirmation was the slap in the face everyone needed for it to fully sink in.

Barely two minutes later, I slid to a halt in the entrance hall. Pharro Gonreem waited with team one beside the doors, his customary scowl far more disapproving than usual.

A silent ripple in the air carried his words to me alone. "Not knowing the exact day doesn't excuse such a dismal response time. You knew it would happen at some point. This level of surprise is unwarranted."

I replied in the same manner, creating that sound tunnel directed only to his ear. "His instructions were to leave her at the gate. This isn't a proximity alarm. It's a shield breach. Meaning the intruder is already on the grounds. Did he send word he was coming today? Or is this something else?"

Pharro didn't reply. He waved his hand and the huge, iron, entrance hall doors groaned open.

I gazed out at the soggy expanse of green, every muscle tensing, the poisonous rain an endless barrage. Nothing alive should be able to breach the powerful shields. Not without permission. Not without it killing them.

My com beeped. "Scanners confirm the rain will stop in two minutes. The break will last for twelve," I announced.

Twelve minutes. A thoroughly vulnerable break in the cold, endless downpour that accompanied this time of year in Northern Fairudin. The longest window we'd had all week.

I lifted my com. "Do we have a location yet, Vix?"

"A dozen orbs near the Northwest Tower are malfunctioning," the woman responded. "Each one we've sent blinks out before it reaches the tower wall."

The atmosphere around us seemed to freeze in place, those gathered exchanging alarmed glances. What could survive passing through our shields without permission, survive the rain, and blind our surveillance team?

"It's him," Pharro said, again, only to me.

"The Northwest Tower is one of the farthest points from the gate."

"That's why it can only be him."

"But his cargo doesn't have permission to come onto the grounds. Doing so would kill her."

He didn't have anything to say to that.

I scanned the skies, projecting my Poeir as far as it would go. But there was nothing. Not the sound of a ship. Not even a thought.

My com beeped.

"Cloud break!" Surveillance announced.

The dim, dreary world burst into sunlight. I hid my wince, pressing my sunglasses more firmly in place, the edges digging reassuringly into the contours of my face so not a sliver of light could get in. A shiver rippled through scales hidden just below my skin. But I held them back, kept them hidden. I couldn't risk putting anyone more on edge than they already were. "Gonreem and team one will take lead. Everyone else, hold position." I glanced over my shoulder at the gathered team, Pharro beside them, the older man's jaw set with anticipation and urgency. "Clock starts now. Move."

The steps were slick, but no one dared fall. The chill, spring breeze was painful enough, rustling the wet grass around us, carrying that thin veil of burning moisture to our noses and across any exposed skin.