The Enchantments: Book 4 - The Key of Mulastef

Chapter 13: Cloak and Dagger

The drifting silence throughout the square where Marlanda, Shawn and Professor Tweedle walked down the cobblestone road was unsettling in the least. The usual sounds of the crickets and the cicadae that filled the night air with life were unceremoniously gone. The sounds of their footfalls on the slick surface of the road echoed in the cavernous area between buildings.

"This is the creepiest most nervous walk I have ever had," Marlanda said her eyes darting from one building to the other. "Where are we going?"

The professor his body language as nervous as hers was between the two of them trying not to show how creeped out he was feeling as well.

"We're heading for the Physical Education Department; we can organize ourselves there." He said.

"...And what are we going to do again?" Shawn asked his eyes looking into the darkness between the rows of bricked walls.

"I'm tired of being one step behind these creatures. We all know what happens when destroyed..." The doctor reiterated.

Shawn finished. "...They turn to ash."

"Well, I want to change all that. " The professor said his voice is rising ever so slightly. "It's time we turned the tables in our favor if we can capture one of them we can find a defense against them."

"What about the shadow creatures, these elite shadows?" Marlanda asked.

"One step at a time, everything these creatures are can be related back to the original minions. If we can find out how they live and how they communicate we can start to work on a plan that will work." He sighed heavily.

"But isn't that dangerous?" Shawn reacted.

"Of course, it's dangerous." The melodic tone of the professor's voice had gone icy. "But I'm tired of playing the victim in all this, it's time we took a page out of Simeneon's book and fight back, and the only way I can do that is to find something out about these creatures that we can take back to the others."

With the professor bringing up Simeneon's name gave Marlanda a cold shiver up and down her spine. She wanted to like her, but the constant attention she accrued from the other member of the crew gave her a sour taste in her mouth. Was it jealousy she was feeling? She didn't know, but the feeling of distrust had festered over the years. Even though she had Shawn back, she still felt she was dwelling on the fact that she would never have lost him in the first place if it wasn't for her. But realistically could she still feel those feelings since it was like Shawn's death hadn't happened. In fact, it was her and her alone who had pushed Simeneon from the others. If this all turned out badly would they blame her for Simenon's demise? She didn't think so, but that niggling feeling still echoed in her mind.

"What do we have to do?" She asked the professor.

"Let's get to the building first and then I might have to send the two of you out for supplies. I don't know how this will turn out but we have to try or what these creatures are planning will turn this whole world into a war zone. I want to have a plan that can tip this in our favor."

Shawn walked along side and stared into the distance his thoughts thinking more and more about what the Heldom was planning for the human race. Whatever it was would not be good. As they walked on together saying nothing their moods began to lighten unaware that all around them the soft sounds of the night were starting to return to normal. Still, there was a rigidness in the air that stressed of more danger to come in the sleepy little village of Aspen Ridge where it would take more than mortar or bricks to fix what was happening in its small confines.

The Aspen Ridge University Athletic Centre was a state of the art building housed within a structure created before the outbreak of the Great War. Built through the generous outpouring of money from a great many supporters of the university it stood two stories tall housed in red-brown brick running across its facade. Two great glass doors with the name of its benefactor labeled in bright white lettering across its glass partition. Narrow rows of trees running parallel to the cobbled stone sidewalk waved gently in the late evening breezes coming thankfully from the west and the mountains then the discarded rubble of the campus to the east.