Mark My Words

Chapter Twelve

The words "hop in the interdimensional portal" weren't the ones Mark had been expecting to hear first thing the next morning.

He also didn't expect to be wielding a sword whilst screaming bloody murder.

The group had spent the rest of the previous day attempting to formulate plans in Seth's living room, which didn't exactly go well. Like Mark and Seth had already figured out during their conversation, they had next to no options, and talking to everyone else about the situation hadn't changed that. Seth was the only one who had experience in this department, and even he had limited knowledge about Dark and The Author's weaknesses.

They'd all decided to sleep on it, which Mark honestly didn't expect to help anything, and come back to the topic the next morning. Seth had helped set up some places for them to rest, since it had been unanimously decided that nobody was to be left alone for extended periods of time, and they all called it a night.

And then Seth proceeded to wake all of them up by sounding an alarm he had built into the house and handing them all weapons.

Which is why the group was now standing in the back room of Seth's little house, all of them only half awake and incredibly confused. Their host was running around like a mad man, spouting stuff about "grab the weapons" and "I'm 90% sure humans can physically handle interdimensional travel."

Considering there was a 10% of uncertainty there, and that he had said the word "interdimensional," Mark and the others wanted answers.

"You know, it might help all of us out if you explained what the hell is going on right now," Kathryn said as Seth rushed up to her and handed her a dagger.

"We're heading back to my dimension," he explained, gathering what looked like grenades off of his shelf. "To speak to the High Council. I believe if we seek an audience with Them and explain what's going on, then They might agree to help us."

He shoved a sword into a drowsy Tyler's arms, then turned and tossed Amy a backpack and a rifle.

"And we're just going to hop through a portal to get there, with a small chance that our bodies will be unable to handle it and explode?" Amy said, examining the contents of the backpack that the frantic man had just handed her. Her face displayed mild concern as she pulled out what looked like a pen with a glowing small blade at the tip. Slowly she put the object back in the bag and zipped it up again, which was probably a good idea.

"Precisely. Though I don't know if explode would be the right word. Potentially ripped apart molecule by molecule is more accurate."

"Lovely," Mark muttered.

Seth paid no attention to the man's sarcastic statement and continued explaining.

"The High Council, including myself, are the only people who have fought Dark and The Author and lived to tell the tale, and we need information. I have hope that at least one of Them will have information that I do not, the piece of the puzzle that we are missing. After all, We were able to create a weapon that took them out the last time we put our heads together. I'm sure We'll be able to do it again."

He handed Ethan a small futuristic looking gun, much to the recipient's concern. "But if we're going to politely ask these... people for help, then why all the weapons? We're not blackmailing anybody, are we?"

The slight smile on his face said that Ethan had been joking about that last part, but Seth's expression and tone were dead serious.

"No, there's no need for blackmailing today. Not that we'd even be able to succeed anyways. They're a rather large group of extremely powerful beings, and all of you are mortals with no experience in fighting creatures from other realms. The weapons are just precautions."