A few days later, Vasa was sat reading a book intently as Raziel walked into the hub room.
Without looking up, he shouted “Raz! I think I’ve got it!”
“Wait, what?” Raziel said. “You mean the dreams?”
Vasa hopped up excitedly and grinned at him. “Absolutely! I’ve been reading several books and I think I’ve figured out what we can do to stop this madness.”
“Hey, Ephra! Cassil! Get out here!”
The doors to the girls’ rooms opened simultaneously.
“Did you make lunch?” asked Cassil.
“Better.” Raziel said. “Vasa’s got a plan to defeat Antumbra.”
“Um,” Vasa interjected. “I, uh, wouldn’t go that far. But I have the workings of a plan.”
Ephra and Cassil came and seated themselves on the sofa, leaving Raziel to perch on the arm of the sofa.
“OK, I won’t bore you like usual and read everything out loud. I’ll just explain what I’ve discovered.” Vasa said. He cleared his throat.
“So, if Antumbra is powerful enough to destroy an entire universe, that must mean that the creator – i.e. the one who made the universe – should be as powerful, if not more powerful, than Antumbra, right?”
“Right.” Raziel said.
“But we don’t know where the creator is. They are impossible to discover or define. However!” Vasa announced with an uncharacteristic flourish of drama. “There is a place called the incubator, a small pocket dimension that exists beyond Zion and Void, inside the nebulous dimension known as the Reaches… and inside it, I believe, is infinite energy, the energy that makes up our universe. Something with the strength of a creator itself.”
“I see. But how do we get hold of it?” asked Ephra.
“Yeah, isn’t the incubator closed off? Forgive me, it’s been a while since I’ve read up on it.” said Cassil. Vasa nodded.
“I’m not entirely sure – the book I’m reading from is kind of confusingly written. It says, and I quote, “the Kings of Zion and Void are inextricably linked to the ultimate purpose of the incubator”. If Antumbra threatens to destroy the universe, then what other ultimate purpose can there be aside from opening up at long last?”
“So, where do the Kings come into this?” Raziel asked.
“…That’s the part of the plan I can’t quite comprehend. The next bit says “and they can, if convinced, use their power to fulfil this ultimate purpose”. I think we would have to defeat the Kings in single combat to open the incubator.”
There was a stunned silence around the room as every Zionid considered seriously the level of treason that Vasa was suggesting.
“How..?” asked Cassil faintly.
“I don’t know.” Vasa replied. “We certainly can’t.”
“Are you certain that there is infinite energy in the incubator? Like, 100%?” Raziel demanded.
“Y-yeah! There’s an excerpt from this book that explicitly says that the incubator is reinforced with infinite energy. If we can channel that kind of infinite energy, Antumbra will stand no chance.”
“You’d better be fucking right about this, Vasa. You realise what you’re asking us to do?” asked Raziel, standing up properly and facing the group. Vasa nodded with a worried look on his face. “I know. I know.”
“OK, if you are right, send an online version of that book to Mizar and Denneb-”
“Denneb?” questioned Cassil.
“I know he’s a Voidian Official, but his love of knowledge always trumps his sense of civic duty. He’ll be on board with this.” Raziel replied. “Send it to Miz and Denneb, then spend all of your free time figuring out a way of fighting the Kings. Nothing else matters now.”
“Right.” Vasa said. He disappeared off to his room. Raziel turned to the two girls.
“Eph… do whatever. Just don’t get into trouble or tell anyone what we’re doing.”
“On it.” said Ephra with a lazy salute, and she didn’t move.
“And Cassil, you’re coming with me. We’re going to talk to the Officials.”
“That… is an absolutely horrible idea.” Cassil said. “But if you say so.”
Raziel returned to his room, filled with renewed vigour. He didn’t like the idea of directly challenging the Kings, but to protect the entire universe, he knew it was the pragmatic decision. First, though, he had to notify Mizar.
He retrieved his spear and donned his armour, and with a quick glance at himself in the mirror, exited his room again. He beckoned to Cassil, who nodded and followed him without complaint. Ephra watched them leave with a pang of anger. She knew why Raziel asked Cassil instead of her, aside from the obvious fact that they were much closer friends – in the past, she’d been a Zionid Official. Her rebellious attitude had led to… an incident, and then, her unceremonious removal from the Officials.
Put simply, Raziel didn’t trust her anymore.
She sighed with irritation as the thoughts clouded her mind. This wasn’t the first time that Raziel had excluded her from partaking in some of his madcap schemes, and it was starting to bother her. She got up from the sofa, strode over to Vasa’s room and opened it. Vasa visibly jumped – he had just been in the middle of messaging Denneb and Mizar.
Hey; here’s one of the books I was reading from to get all this info. Va
De ah cool! Thanks z, I’ll give it a read ASAP.
Yeah, I’m going to make a group chat so we can discuss it properly. Va
Did that link send OK? Va
Mi yeah I got it. let me check it out when it’s morning on Void, OK?
No problem. Va
“Vasa.”
“Yes?” Vasa replied hesitantly. Framed in his doorway, a grumpy Ephra was an unnerving sight.
“Will Raziel ever trust me again?”
Vasa stayed silent for a moment before he answered.
“Would you, in his position?”
Ephra’s face fell. She knew the answer. Vasa stood up and walked over to her, putting an arm on her shoulder and giving her a gentle, patient smile. “He’s Raziel; he’ll come around eventually.”
“It’s been three years.” Ephra replied sullenly.
“I know. I think this plan of his will need to involve you at some point, especially with your ridiculous skill with the spear.”
“You want me to fight the King?” Ephra asked with an incredulous stare. Vasa shrugged. “If we can find a way to disable or cancel the King’s powers, then maybe? You might be able to overpower him.”
“…Huh.”
“Anyway, don’t worry about it!” Vasa said. “It’s not to worry about right now. We’ll see what happens after Raziel talks to the Officials; I’m going to make a group chat, too, so we can arrange a plan with the Voidians as well.”
“Alright. Is there anything I can do for the time being?” Ephra offered, desperate to be useful.
“Um, yeah… could you make me a coffee and accompany me to the library? Research is thirsty and lonely work.”
A few minutes later, Ephra and Vasa were off out to the library, chatting quietly about unimportant topics, as if purposefully avoiding the one thing weighing on their minds. The library wasn’t too much of a walk away, and it was quiet and cool inside. Very few Zionids ever used it, finding it more useful to do their research on computers or their wrist phones, but Vasa loved nothing more than a book, steeped with wisdom and smelling like ancient paper.
One such book caught his attention immediately as he walked in. Ephra watched him quietly, holding both of their coffees, as he pulled it from the shelf.
“What’s that?”
“It’s the physical copy of the text I sent to the Voidians. It’s called Seeds and Shadows, and it’s by far one of the most informative books in the library.” Vasa explained as he carried it to a reading table nearby. “I’m going to reread bits of this, because I want to cross-reference it with the book about the Kings, I forget what it’s called. Of course, it wouldn’t hurt to double check that I am 100% correct about this.”
As he put it down with a slam, due to the weight of the tome, he looked back at Ephra. “I just remembered, it’s called The Kings of Gold and Midnight. Do you think you could find it for me? Should be up… that way somewhere.”
Ephra nodded and put the drinks down. “Alright.”
She disappeared up on of the aisle, leaving Vasa reading the gigantic book that, somewhere, held the answers to the problem of how they were supposed to fight the Kings of Zion and Void.
