Twisted Wonderland: The Seven Treasures

Twisted Wonderland & The Eternal Flame-Part 2

  Idia ran (yes, ran) out of his room in a blur of blue.
  Ortho had been at Film Club with Vil, right? That's why Vil had sent the text about Ortho being unwell so quickly.
  Idia's brain flashed a mile a minute. What had happened? Was Ortho okay? King of the Underworld, Idia'd never forgive himself if he'd been unable to prevent Ortho from getting hurt again.
  Also, why hadn't the codes worked? All of the shut-down codes had barely slowed the weird update which was impossible because they were all top-of-the-line codes. No one had been able to hack them, ever. Idia had made them himself!
  "ORTHO!" Idia cried, hurrying over to the inner courtyard of the school, panting.
  Ortho's body lay on the grass, dents visible from what, falling? Idia ignored every club member there, even Vil, and picked Ortho up.
  "Aw man...look at the damage on you. Dents everywhere," Idia said, almost as if Ortho was awake and could talk back to him. "Don't worry. Big Bro's gonna fix you and figure this out."
  "Idia."
  Idia ignored Vil, standing. "Thanks for the message, Vil. Come on Ortho. We gotta get you back to the dorm and take a look at you."
  "Idia!" Vil snapped. "Will you listen to me?" He sighed as Idia walked away then turned to the rest of the club. "The rest of you are dismissed."
  As the students murmured and picked up their things, Vil turned to a nearby tree and crossed his arms. "Well?"
  "You know, Harveston apples really are the best," Overblot Vil repiled, leaning on said tree and crunching an apple. "I can see why Epel thinks so highly of them."
  "I am aware. But what about the Shrouds?"
  Flicking the core into nothing, Overblot Vil straightened. "Too early. The Flame was always hesitant to move too fast."
  Vil rubbed his eyes.
  "Though...that whole thing with the kid...that might've been The Flame," Overblot Vil said. "It was rather eerie."
  "If by eerie, you mean bizarre, yes." Vil said. "For now, let's head back to Pomefiore. Epel challenged me again and we have the Treasure practice later as well with the other Housewarden's and Jamil."
~~~~~
  Idia gently laid Ortho (not his body. He wasn't dead again!) on the bed then gently turned his head over, opening a small panel back there. In went a cord that was then connected to the monitor on the desk.
  A window popped up, putting Ortho's code up. "Alright," Idia said, cracking his knuckles. "Time to clean out the code."
  The code was dense (it had to be to make Ortho run as smoothly and as Ortho-like as possible) and it had gotten even denser once Idia had installed the "Ortho" chip Grim had choked up at Tartarus.
  Leaning back, Idia watched the code scroll up, eyes looking for anything out of the ordinary. Yes, he had a system going in the back to check for any mistakes but he trusted his own eyes more.
  A notification popped up, making Idia look over. "Looks like you were running a scan before this happened, hey Ortho?" He asked, opening the results. "Let's see what you were looking at..."
  Idia let the sentence trail off as he read the results, frowning then leaning back. "Weird. The scan Ortho did says that update came from my computer...from STYX..."
  He bit his lip, careful to keep from breaking the skin (which yes, he'd done before and yes it was painful)
  Why had an update from STYX come to Ortho? And why hadn't Idia been able to shut it down? STYX was his stomping grounds!
  "Idia?"
  Idia looked over, pulling his hood quickly over his head. "O-oh...hey Azul..."
  The slippery Octavinelle Housewarden stepped into the room. "You missed our club meeting."
  "Oh...was that today?" Idia asked softly. "Srry bout that Azul..."
Azul sighed. "Honestly, if you put in as much effort into your school work as you do your gaming—what happened to Ortho?"
  Normally, Idia would have brushed it off but he was trying (for Ortho) to get closer as friends with his club mates, which included Azul so...
  "He had a malfunction during his club," Idia said, closing Ortho's scan results. "Probably just his stabilizers overheating. They do every couple of months."
  Closing the scan results was out of habit (with a high fear dose). Idia knew no one had forgotten about STYX and his part in it. He just really didn't want Azul thinking he had installed something into Ortho.
  "Really?" Azul asked, looking over Ortho. "I would have thought once it started happening you would have altered them to stop overheating."
  "..." Idia wasn't sure what to respond with. Azul was right. Everytime something needed upgrades on Ortho, he made them his first priority, hardly resting till he was satisfied with the new update.
  Speaking of new updates...
  "When'd you get a new bonus item, Azul?" Idia asked, noticing a faint golden glow coming from Azul's neck.
  Azul paused, reaching up slightly to his neck. "Gift from Floyd," he said. "One of the replicas of the Sea Witch's shell from home with a light spell woven in. Hardly a bonus item."
  If only Idia believed him. He was well acquainted with Blot and that shell was practically radiating Blot-level magic. There was no way it was a cheap replica with a simple light spell woven in.
  "I can take care of Ortho..." Idia said. "Thanks for checking in on me. Srry bout the club again."
  Azul straightened. "Its no trouble. I just missed our weekly game. I need to leave anyway. Monstro requires my attention."
  Idia turned back to his computer as the door closed behind Azul. Alright, so that hadn't gone the best but Ortho wasn't exactly able to critique him on his manners or whatever else he'd done wrong so Idia turned his attention back to his screen, pulling up a new window.
  Azul might have thought he pulled Idia's attention away from that shell but Idia was going to figure it out.
~~~~~
  Azul paused in the Ignihyde lounge, looking at the Eternal Flame. "Why did you act up?" Azul asked.
  "It wasn't my idea," Overblot Azul said, standing back-to-back with Azul. "You took me directly into the room. Treasurers react to one another, especially when Hosts are nearby."
  "So one of the Shrouds has been chosen?" Azul asked. "Which one?"
  "We'll look into it tonight. It doesn't feel like the Flame's taken form yet, which could be a problem."
  "Oh? How so?"
  Overblot Azul frowned. "If the Treasure doesn't take form, they could be out of power."
  "You were broken."
  "That's different. Magic still resided in the pieces, they were just weaker. The Flame isn't out so it's still got power. Maybe he's just biding his time."
  Azul nodded, turning away and heading out of Ignihyde, missing the sudden flicker and diminishing of the Eternal Flame.