Spawn of the Outworlder

Chapter 6-The Straw That Crushes My Back

Luna Rucervus knew herself to be kneeling in Paul Blackwell's room, but her mind was now elsewhere. Her own body began to fade, until only the shadows of her form were left, the rest of her now transparent. The world around her now resembled a blueish abyss, filled with the decayed remains of old, bizarre buildings jutting toward the sky and bones of rotted creatures, yellow in hue. Remnants of The Abandoned Realm. They'll disappear soon enough, she thought. Once the others recognize my signal.

Luna held a hand to her face, each fingertip lying along the edges. Then, she pulled her hand outwards as she slowly brought her fingers together.

"PERSONIS!!"

The space her fingers had passed through became occupied by the magick she'd cast, forming a mask to obscure her identity. The mask was jagged and angular like diamond, resembling the beak and feathers of a crow, as was Luna's alias among her order. The decaying remains around her began to fade from view, a sign that the others had begun to arrive.

With no noise, the shadowed form of two others appeared around her. One form belonging to the man known as Mare, bearing a crystalline mask resembling the upper jaw of a horse. The shadows cast along his body the only visible part of him. His body was oddly proportioned, with wide chest and long, lanky arms accompanied by spindly legs. His head was spherical in shape and his blackened mouth appeared to account for half of it. A fitting appearance, thought Luna, although likely a distortion of the Abandoned Realm.

The other form was shorter in stature than the others, with an appearance of an average man stretched out and flattened. His shoulders riding higher than his head, an oblong square shape. A result of a weak connection to the Abandoned Realm. Atop his head rested a crystalline mask with two spires jutting outwards. This agent was known to Luna only as Ram.

"Fourteen operations under my belt and I've never called an emergency council," whispered Mare, eager to begin digging at Luna before the Domina's arrival. "Yet your first operation with us and you go running back behind your mother's skirt."

"You've only yourself to blame," replied Luna. "It is because of the sorry state of your intelligence officers that I've any need of counsel at all."

"You would dare accuse your senior of incompetence?"

"I would accuse you of far worse than that, were we not in the presence of others."

"Enough, you two!" whispered the man known as Ram. " Just ONCE, I wish to find you two at peace."

"Come now, Ram," offered Luna. "You know I never respond unless provoked."

"Like Hell, you don't," hissed Mare.

"Well, the Domina's arriving," said Mare, gesturing to a gathering of shadows before them. The sign of the Domina herself beginning to project. "Can ya be civil long enough for us to have this council?"

"I can," offered Luna. "We shall have to see about the old man."

"Child, I--" began Mare, but cut himself off. "Very well."

"Good," said Ram and the three sat silently waiting for the Domina. "...although your officers are bloody awful."

Mare let out a frustrated sigh, muffled by his mask as Luna and Ram shared a quick laugh. It was strange to feel kinship to someone who she only knew by a code-name, but she felt Ram was one of the few Umbrans that she could trust.

A regret that we will never meet outside of these moments. Aside from the Domina, none of the agents were to know the identity of the others, although Luna had some suspicions of a few absent members' identities.