Arc One: Awakening

Chapter 25: The Determined Soldier

For a night that had been marked by the fiercest glass storm Eternity had had in some years, the morning came on nimble feet, white sun smothering the city and insects chirruping in the flower boxes. Patches of puddles and damp dust were the only remnants left as the warmth slowly erased any evidence of the elemental chaos.

"Bet the cleanup crews will have a mighty job on their hands," Cas commented, sipping the last of her tea and rinsing the mug in the sink. "Don't think there's been a storm that powerful in a fair while."

"Must've missed it," Rhena shrugged. She shovelled another spoonful of cereal into her mouth and blinked at Cas's lifted eyebrow. "What?"

"How you didn't hear two hundred tons of glass smashing down on the barrier in the space of a few hours and a thunderstorm to boot, I will never know."

"Slept through worse."

At the faint pad of bare feet joining them, Cas retrieved a set of cutlery from the drawer. "Good morning, Alek. Did you sleep well?"

"Once the storm died down," he responded. "Are they usually like that?"

"We haven't had one that bad in years and hopefully won't again for some time," Cas said. "Oh, here." She handed him an empty bowl and encouraged him to take a seat at the table, trays arranged neatly in the centre and overflowing with pastries and bread rolls of varying varieties. "Grab whatever you want."

"Your phone thing rung a few times," Rhena told him, motioning to the countertop where Alek's tablet lay beside the chopping boards. As though it heard her, it vibrated and trilled against the scratched worktop. "And there it goes again."

"Sorry," Alek said as he scooped it up off the side. "I'll take this in the other room."

Juggling a bowl of seeded slices and pastry rolls in one hand and his tablet in the other, he hurried into the sitting room, nudging the door closed with his hip and answering the call with a jabbed swipe.

"Where have you been?" Professor Spark demanded. The signal peaked and dropped and his usually level voice crackled within the struggling transmission until it established a clear connection.

"Sleeping," the student replied, sinking into the heap of cushions on the armchair. "Not all of us have the luxury of a three hundred year nap."

"This is not time for jokes. There has been a breakthrough with our research which may bring us closer to waking The Core."

Alek carefully balanced the tablet on his legs and savoured the aroma of the buttery pastry as he tugged at the gooey, cheese-covered morsel and popped it into his mouth. An assortment of garlic and spices accompanied the bite, mingling on his tastebuds in a delectable waltz.

"Alek?"

"I'm still here." He set the distracting bowl aside and wiped his fingers clean of the flaky specks. "What do you need me to do, professor?"

"I require a vial of untainted temporal essence from metal bugs known as laycrawlers. They sleep beneath the sands of Eternity, but I can provide you the locations of a few hives close by."

"Is it easy to get, or does it need something specific?"

"Use a tearing spell to extract the essence, but please be precise. A complex enchantment holds those frightful creatures in a deep slumber. If they wake, the stars above only know what havoc they could unleash."

"Frightful creatures?" Alek blurted. "I thought you said they were bugs."

"Oh, they are, but they... well, let us just say they more than make up for their size."