The Fallen Ascending 01 -- Rebirth
Making Plans

I was still lost on trying to figure out just how the hell we were going to stop the rise of the evil, when Crystal began to stretch and wake beside me. “Morning,” I muttered to her, distracted by my thoughts.

“Morning, My Lord.” She stretched, yawned, and then leaned up and hugged me gently. “Is something the matter? You seem bothered already this morning.”

How is it that a woman can seem to read a man like a book, and yet we find them impossible to fathom? Smiling lightly, I leaned and gently kissed her back. “I suppose I am a little. Mongo’s given up on trying to lead us anywhere, so I’m going to have to take responsibility to see us to the end. And, worst of all, at this point we can’t even focus on simply leaving; we have to go deeper into the tombs and stop an ancient evil from waking up.”

“Go deeper!?” Dino blurted, showing that he was awake and eavesdropping. “That’s crazy! We should just get the hell out of here while we have a chance and report the problem to the school. Tell the guards! The knights! Whoever – I don’t care! We should get out of here and leave it for someone else to clean up.”

Since his yelling made certain that Tiffany and Jess was awake, I figured it was as good a time as any to tell them all about what I’d learned in my dream. “Dino – HUSH!” I’ve already learned that Dino tends to get loud when he gets excited, so the first order of business was to simply get him to be quiet. Glaring and pointing a finger at him was sufficient to get the job done, and he settled down and pouted sulkily.

“Guys, gather on around,” I told them all with a sarcastic half-chuckle. “I’ve got a lot of wonderful things to fill you in over.”

“Like what?” Jess asked, sounding scared as she slid over closer and Dino joined her.

“I know this hasn’t been the best rescue mission ever, Jess,” I told her with a sad smile, “and I’m afraid things aren’t going to get any better. Megan’s been possessed by the ancient evil in this place and her soul is now beyond any chance of us saving it. So is David’s.”

“How do you know?” Dino asked, looking at me suspiciously.

“Because I just spent the night being questioned by a God about our actions in this place.” Locking gazes, I was daring him to argue with me. I’d spent a few weeks with Dino, and I thought we were almost-friends. To have him treating me like I was some sort of demon out to devour his soul bothered and irritated me.

When he finally looked down and didn’t say anything else, I continued on. “We don’t have the talent to save the two of them; all we can do is either seal them in this place for an eternity, or else destroy them. That’s one thing we have to do now,” I said, ticking off a finger.

“Another is we have to rescue Ghost before the full moon.” I ticked off a second finger to illustrate my point. “It’s hard to track time down here, so I don’t have a clue how long we have. Not a lot of time, I don’t think. “

“Third,” I ticked off another finger to keep count, “there’s some sort of mystical orb down here which can seal the evil. We have to find and recover it. Luckily, I don’t have a damn clue where it’s at.”

“What’s so lucky about that?” Dino muttered.

“Bad luck is still luck, and in this case I don’t think our luck could get any worse.” I half-chuckled at my own lame joke to try and lighten the mood, but no one was buying it. As everyone just stared and looked at me forlornly, my chuckle choked and died, and I had to sigh gloomily along with them.

“Anyway…” Coughing a few times to try and clear the air, I trudged on with our plans. “Dino, you’re on ‘Dead Clean-up’. Use your magic to blast and burn any of the dead which you can from those bars which block access to the side rooms now.” He started to object, but I raised my hand and stopped him. “You’ll agree, no matter what, we’ve got to get past those dead. Your ranged attack is the best for that, and attacking through the bars lets you destroy the enemy at no risk to yourself. It simply makes sense for you to clear as many for us as possible, don’t you agree?”

“Yeah. I guess.” He didn’t sound happy about it, but I didn’t need him happy at the moment. Anyone who was happy trapped where we were and in the condition we were in, would’ve worried me to death. I just needed him to agree to the task, and now that was done I could move on.

“Mongo,” I pointed a finger at him to make certain that I had his attention. “You’re on door duty. It’s going to be up to you to keep that door shut for us, no matter what happens next. Die if you need to, but don’t let the dead in here with us. You may not want to be a leader anymore, and I can respect that; but you still have to be our guardian. Without you, we’ll never do what we need to do and your friend’s deaths will be meaningless.”

“I’ll keep the door,” Mongo answered grimly. “Till my dying breath if need be, I’ll hold it.”

“That’s all I can ask,” I reassured him with a smile and a thumbs up. “As for you ladies, you’re all mine for a while! MuHaHaHaHa!” I did my best fake-evil laugh, and once again everyone just stared at me blankly.

“Dammit guys! Cheer up!” Trying to imitate The Fool, I pulled in my magic and released it in a sudden burst of sound and fireworks. The yelps and screams from everyone as they all hopped up and backed away made me laugh for real. I was hoping to brighten their moods, but scaring the piss out of them wasn’t bad either!

“He’s a Child of Chaos,” Crystal said, calm and collected while still sitting in my lap, acting like nothing at all unusual had happened.

“I am not!”

“Well that explains a lot,” Dino muttered, completely ignoring my denial.

“Uh-Huh! It means we can trust him!” Tiffany squealed, ran over, and squeezed me tightly. “The Gods don’t choose bad people!” She rubbed her nose up against mine, giving me an Eskimo-kiss, and then half-laughed and ran back over to snuggle back up to Mongo.

Sorry, Fool. If it makes my team feel better to believe I’m one of your children, then you’re just out of luck. I know I’m not. You know I’m not. But it makes them feel better to think I am. Piss off, Amen!

“So what are we going to be doing?” Tiffany asked. She was acting completely like a different person now; all bubbly and excited, and not the least bit dark and broody. If I’d known pretending to be something I wasn’t would’ve boosted her up like this, I would’ve did it earlier. Morale is a powerful thing – especially lack of it. I wasn’t going to do anything to ruin it now that the mood seemed to be lightening some.

With another burst of fireworks, I pointed a finger over at Tiffany and laughed. “You’ve won a limited edition, once in a lifetime, chance to work your magics upon me and Crystal while I weave and warp magics in ways that not even The Fool imagined! You’ll get to keep me numb and pain-free as much as possible, without putting me to sleep, and Jess gets to do the same with Crystal! Isn’t it amazing!”

“It is! It is!” She half bounced and laughed. “Do it now? Now?!” With a wave of her hands, my whole body went numb.

“I’b nob quib reeby yet.” I tried to let her know that I wasn’t quite ready, but she’d already blasted me and now I couldn’t feel my own face. Laughing slightly, Crystal leaned up and kissed me on my nose, before pushing me to lean back against the wall. Settling down beside me, she smiled over at Jess. “I’m ready. Let’s get this done and get My Lord’s spirit healed.”

“Wabbit mibbit,” I protested, but it was already too late. Like it or not, the stage had been set for my second attempt at spirit manipulation – this time upon myself and Crystal.

May the Gods have mercy on us all.

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