Episode 59: Past Dreams and Current Realizations
- Crystal Crawford
- 6 days ago
- 6 min read
Updated: 5 days ago
Emery’s face lit up like she’d had a realization. “Wait. You said you freed the elementals who were down there with me. How were they when you woke them? Were they weak?”
“Not especially,” I said. “At least, it didn’t seem like they were. They all used their magic to try to help us get you out.”
Her expression turned serious. “If the orb was siphoning all their power into me, then why did they still have their magic when you woke them?”
“I have no idea. I don’t know how any of this works.”
“Something doesn’t make sense here, Aubrey,” Emery insisted. “If I’ve been trapped inside an orb for two whole years, and Vorcos has been siphoning elemental magic into me that whole time, including from the five you found there… then why weren’t those elementals weak when you woke them?”
“Maybe they weren’t the only ones Vorcos used,” I said. “Trenchcoat Man said several other elementals had gone missing in the past few years. Some of them turned up dead, left out in the open like some kind of message, but others, they never found. Maybe the elementals we found today had only been connected to the orb for a little while. Maybe they hadn’t been drained much, yet.”
Emery glanced off, considering that. “That’s possible. Time moves strangely in here, so it’s hard to say how long ago it was I first felt the elementals nearby… and the elementals I felt weren’t always the same ones—it’s possible the others were being drained, too. These last few felt different in a new way, though. There was resistance when I tried to communicate with them.”
“All I know is, the orb was definitely getting more agitated after we disconnected the elementals that were attached to it,” I said. “That’s when it started beeping faster and faster and the pulsing light became one continuous, growing surge.”
“Hmm,” Emery said. “If the beeping was the signal that I was almost full-up with power, why would it start after you detached the elementals? Maybe it was some kind of fail-safe, like a last-ditch effort to force the rest of the stored power into the conduit and see if it’s enough to detonate.”
Detonate was not a word I wanted applied to my sister, but I drew a breath. “Okay, suppose you’re right. If the orb is currently pushing the last of its stored power into you, then this thing could blow up the moment you’ve received the last of the power.” I paused. “But if so, that means you’re supercharged with a ton of elemental power, right? There’s some kind of force-field on the orb. We couldn’t break it, and when the elementals we rescued tried to help us get you out, their magic just bounced right off of it. But you’re already inside that force-field. The odds are good that if we punched it with a mega-dose of elemental energy from inside the force-field, we could break it.” I was feeling hopeful again, even a little excited. “If we can just figure out why you can’t wake up, then with all the elemental energy you must currently possess, you could probably get yourself out of that orb!”
“Possibly.” Emery nodded. “But I have no idea why I can’t wake up, or why you can’t dreamwalk me back to consciousness with you. The orb must be doing something to me.”
“I’m not sure what it’s doing, but it cracked when Trenchcoat Man mixed the elementals’ blood to combine their powers, so we know it’s vulnerable to elemental magic beneath that shield,” I said. “We just have to figure out how to wake you up, so you can break it…”
She looked at me. “Blood? What are you talking about?”
“Trenchcoat Man took a drop of blood from each of the elementals, then mixed them. The reaction broke whatever ward was keeping all of our power suppressed down there. None of us could use magic down there before that. But when he mixed it, there was this crack sound, and then this sharp pain in my head, and when the pain cleared, the orb had cracked open, just a bit. All the elementals woke up, and everyone could use their magic again. The crack was how we found you in the orb, but you were still asleep, and there was some kind of force field around the orb. We couldn’t reach you, and then the orb started making this horrid, shrill beep just faster and fast—”
Emery grabbed my hand. “Wait—the orb started beeping after it cracked—not just when you detached the elementals?”
I thought back. “Yes. It started beeping before they all disconnected themselves, now that I think about it. It was just after the crack happened and they all woke up.”
“And that’s when everyone’s magic worked again, too?” she asked.
“Yes.”
She looked at me. “You said the orb was suppressing everyone’s magic ‘down there.’ Where is this room with the orb?”
“It’s in an underground bunker thing, under the water just off shore at the gulf. It’s right under where you were last seen, the night you vanished at the beach.”
“And there were two human water elementals down there with me, right? At least recently? I felt two of them.”
“Yes. And a fire elemental, an earth, and a wind.” I stared at her. “Why?”
She turned back to me, her eyes wide. “I don’t think those elementals were there to be siphoned into me, Aubrey,” she said, growing more excited by the moment. “I had so many glimpses, little bits of visions like puzzle pieces, but until now, none of them made sense.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m pretty sure I’m already fueled up with elemental magic—maybe for quite some time, now. I saw a vision of it, of me, pulsing with power. I was dazed in the vision, like stuck halfway between awake and asleep, and the Vorcos man was transferring me from one container to another. I thought they were boxes, but in the vision I only saw the inside of the container. A lid was being opened to get me out, then bright lights, then they lowered me down into another container. But I was on my back, blinded by the lights above me. I couldn’t see what either container was…” Her face lit up. “It had to be the orb. They must’ve caught me, somehow, while I was in my dream-state at the beach trying to send you a message, then put me into something to keep me asleep while they channeled magic into me. At some point, they must have transferred me to where I am now—into another container. Another orb. The orb itself is what’s keeping me from waking up.”
The fact that there might be more than one super-creepy orb just floating around somewhere out there in the world was unsettling, but I was relieved we were finally figuring out some of the puzzle. “Okay,” I said, “but why do you think the elementals we freed weren’t being used to fuel you? If they weren’t being siphoned, why were they there?”
“These last five elementals felt different to me than the others I’ve sensed while stuck in this dream,” she said. “When I tried to communicate with the earlier ones, it was like they were drugged; their minds were foggy, disoriented—now I can see it’s because they were being drained.” She looked sad. “But these last five weren’t like that.” Her expression brightened. “There was a different kind of resistance, and they all complained about their physical bodies not responding, like they’d been sedated, but their minds were still strong.” Her eyes locked on mine. “I don’t think they were being siphoned. I think the Vorcos guy was using these last five elementals’ magic for a complex ward, channeling their magic just the slightest bit to keep me asleep and in the orb until he was ready to use me.” She shrugged. “The beeping is probably the alarm telling Vorcos that their wards are broken and I’m no longer being held stable.” Her expression turned thoughtful. “If I’m right, then there’s a good chance they’re on their way back to that bunker right now to detonate me.”
I stared at her in alarm. “What?”
***
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