Not What It Seems: The Outer Sanctum
Title: Not What It Seems, 22
Author:
chilibreath
X-posted to: Tumblr / FF.net / AO3
Rating: T
Summary: Where someone's complicity is revealed.
The Outer Sanctum
“Fiend!” Gelvin growled, his amiable face contorted into a scowl and his staff held stiffly. “Is there no limit to your quest for power?!”
“Power?” Duroc repeated, shaking his head. “My good Maester, I did not do all this for power! I am doing this to save our people.”
“By kidnapping Mages and draining them of their essence in order to find the Sigils?!” Maegella spat out. Ford looked at her in surprise; he had never seen Maegella look this pissed off before.
“Keep quiet, you silly woman! You know nothing of…”
“You shut up, you knucklehead!” Ford snapped, scowling and raising his fists in Duroc’s direction.
The Deceiver’s nostrils flared. He pointed a brown staff towards Ford and snarled, “Who are you to insult me?!”
“My brother, the nerd who can kick your ugly heiney,” Stan growled, raising his fists as well. “Give us back our nephew and we won’t break your face too much!”
“You think it is that simple?” Duroc sneered. “It is too late, there is no stopping this NOW. The Pendulum-bearer is in the Inner Sanctum with the other Sigils, waiting for a volunteer!”
“Then why don’t YOU volunteer, if you want to save your people?” Wendy growled.
“I-I am an elected leader,” said Duroc, puffing up his skinny chest.
“You are a coward, Duroc,” Veron muttered, shaking his grizzled head. “You love your position more and now you dare to take more power for yourself!”
“How dare you, Veron,” Duroc hissed, raising a brown staff and pointing it at Veron.
Veron just gave a derisive laugh. “I dare because it is the truth. I have known you since we were young lads at the Red Guild; the moment you encounter a situation that requires some kind of sacrifice that does not benefit you in any way, you balk and leave. You have made many mistakes, but pretending that a danger that warrants the search for the Sigils? That is too much, you fool!”
One of the black-robed Mages standing behind Gardo bristled and aimed his staff through the door. “How dare you insult our Leader-AIEEEEE!”
The man started screaming in a high pitch when the ground shook and he started sinking into the solid floor. The group inside the room gasped; the four hostages and the other black-robed Mages started moving away from the unfortunate Mage, who was already chest-deep into the floor when a piping voice inside the room spoke up.
“DIPPER YOU HAVE TO STOP!” Mabel shrieked. “I think he’s going to behave now!”
The ground stopped shaking just as the Mage’s chin was touching the floor. The black-robed Mages started edging away from the spot where their comrade was whimpering.
“Thank you, little Miss,” he squeaked from the floor.
“Seems like Dipper still listens to ya, Pumpkin,” murmured Stan, putting a hand on Mabel’s shoulder.
“Dipper can sense us from within the Inner Sanctum,” Gelvin murmured. “But we cannot aggravate him too much; the more he uses magic, the more danger he is in!”
“That is why he is inside the Inner Sanctum,” muttered Duroc, looking around him nervously. “The rock used to entomb the Founders is from the caves of Beleger, the same material that makes up the Containing Stones of the Sigils. Something in the material is helping the Sigil-holder, but just barely. I cannot explain it! There is something in the rock!”
At that, Ford perked up.
“Wait-are you serious?” he asked Duroc.
“Of course I am serious,” said Duroc, sounding offended. “Who are you to question my--?”
“Gelvin, can we use the material in the Inner Sanctum to get the Sigil off Dipper?” Ford asked the Maester, paying no attention to Duroc.
“That-that could work,” said Gelvin slowly. “I need to be close to Dipper to make the transfer-and we’ll need someone to cut the rock from…”
“No you will not!” Duroc screeched. “We need a volunteer to take the Sigil from the boy and activate the Guardian!”
“I want no part in this!” cried Dorinda at the back, turning around to sit on the couch. “I only joined Lord Duroc out of peer pressure!”
“This is not up for debate, you power-hungry idiot!” Ford shouted, pointing his finger at Duroc. “We’re getting that thing off my nephew without anyone giving up their life! And before we get back to our dimension, I’m going to knock that stupid beard off your face with my fist!”
“And I’ll help you break his face!” yelled Stan, taking a boxer’s stance.
“You are still outnumbered,” Duroc snarled, raising his staff in an offensive position. His Mages did the same behind him. “And you are cornered in this room! We have the upper-”
“Tula sinome!”
Duroc’s five standing hench-Mages were knocked off their feet as Gerda, Erwan, Gardo and Minda were zipped away by an invisible force into the Outer Sanctum.
Someone shouted, “FOR ROTHEZAR!”
The Outer Sanctum was suddenly filled with the sounds of zapping; lights of different colors went off around the pillars. Duroc screamed and jumped out of the way before a red light hit the doorway. Gelvin, Veron, Maegella and Sandri yelled and charged out the door, leaving behind the non-Mages and Dorinda in the room.
Stan turned to Mabel. “You stay here, kiddo! We’re going in to rescue your brother!”
“You’re not leaving me here! I want to help!” Mabel cried, lifting the grappling hook from inside her sweater. “Dipper needs me!”
“You can stick with me, Mabel!” said Wendy. “Girl-power!”
“Fine! You two stay here,” Ford growled. “It’s too dangerous out there; you could get hit by spells! This is not up for debate,” he added, giving his niece such a stern look, Mabel could only pout and cross her arms.
“Fine. But if the fighting gets in here, I’m kicking butt,” she said ominously, raising her grappling hook.
“Fair enough,” said Ford. He bent over to hug his niece. Stan glared at his brother before he gave his niece a hug too. The two brothers squared their shoulders and let out a war cry, running out the door into the melee and avoiding the unfortunate man still sunk into the floor of the Outer Sanctum.
“WE’RE COMING FOR YOU, DIPPER!” Soos yelled, running out of the door with his gloved hands raised over his head.
They entered a hazy warzone. The air was thick with clouds of different colors from the glass-ball smoke bombs and the sounds of zapping and yelling.
“We need to get to the Inner Sanctum!” Ford yelled, coughing as he inhaled a mouthful of the smoke.
“Sure thing, Pointdexter,” Stan coughed beside him. “Which way to the-AAAAAAAAARGH!”
Ford whipped around just in time to see his twin being yanked out of sight into the smoky gloom, his yells getting faint as he was taken away.
“STAN!”
XXXXX
Stan yelled as an invisible force pulled him to the other side of the Outer Sanctum. He whizzed past bewildered Mages and had close calls with several pillars, turning sharply before he collided with them. After several moments, the force yanked him upwards by his feet; he dangled upside-down behind a large pillar, far from the fighting in the middle of the Sanctum. Once Stan was sure that he wasn’t going anywhere, he started wiggling around.
“You came back,” said a harsh voice.
“Came back? Buddy, I don’t know what you’re talkin’ about; this is my first time here and I’m sure I haven’t been banned from this place before,” Stan muttered, trying to move his head in order to see the perp who tried to kidnap him. He stopped doing that when he started feeling the blood rushing to his brain.
“Do not pretend ignorance!” hissed the voice. Stan grunted as he felt a sharp prod between his shoulder blades. “I thought I made it clear that you were not wanted here in Rothezar, and yet you came back!”
“Ow! Seriously pal, you got the wrong guy!” Stan growled. Through the light-headedness that he was now experiencing, he started getting angry. Something that Ford shared back in the Stan O’ War II started to come back to him. “Why don’t you take a good look at me and see for yourself?”
“Your lies will not fly with me, Stanford Pines,” the voice snarled. “After today, you will never-”
The next thing Stan knew, he was lying down on the ground, his head feeling less fuzzy. He was only aware that a fight was happening close by when he heard a grunt of pain and a familiar voice shouting, “If you harmed my brother in any way, I’m going to take your staff and shove it up where the sun doesn’t…”
“Grunkle Ford!” yelped another familiar voice to Stan’s left.
“Ford, don’t threaten him yet until I get a chance to let him have it,” Stan grumbled. He felt a set of hands wrap around each of his upper arms and assisted him in carefully standing up; he looked around and spotted Wendy and Mabel by his side.
“I dunno if we should let you near this guy; between the two of you, there might not be anything left for the justice system here to deal with,” said Wendy, looking to one side. Stan turned to where Wendy was looking and spotted Ford, Gelvin and Erwan looking down on the man sprawled on the ground next to a moss-green staff. He wore black robes; where the robes were hitched up, dark green pants were visible. The stranger’s hood was down, exposing the back of a black-haired head on top of wide shoulders. Stan stalked over to where his brother and the Mages stood to get a good look at the perp who kidnapped him.
The man rubbed his jaw where Ford had punched him, looking balefully up at them with light blue eyes on a tanned, handsome face. Gelvin looked at this man and shook his head.
“So the truth comes out,” he said grimly. “Darreon’s sins has come to light after threatening the wrong Pines brother.”
“Twins!” Darreon spat, looking between Ford and Stan with a mixture of rage and horror. “I am truly cursed if I am to look upon that hated face twice!”
“I tried to tell you, you idiot,” Stan growled, taking a step forward, his fists raised. “I oughta…”
“Wait!” cried Mabel, running in front of her Grunkles. “Who is he and what did he do?”
“I too would like answers,” said Erwan, looking confused and uncomfortable at the scene before him. “If I had not seen for myself the threat you held upon Stanley Pines…” He stopped and shook his head, unable to continue that thought.
“His name is Darreon, a Mentor from the Green Guild,” said Gelvin, answering Mabel’s questions. “He met your Great-Uncle Stanford after being introduced by Maegella twenty years ago. His kidnapping of your Great-Uncle Stanley today proves that he is complicit in Stanford’s forced eviction from Rothezar, but let me make certain…”
“No!” Darreon cried, but he didn’t move fast enough to avoid the Maester, who reached down to touch his shoulder and closed his eyes. Darreon tried to shake off Gelvin’s hold, but he held still when he spotted Stan and Ford raising their Teaga gloves threateningly and Erwan pointing his staff at him. After a few moments, Gelvin opened his eyes and let go of Darreon, looking at the latter with a disappointed expression.
“So, it was you who froze Stanford and forced him into the gateway all those years ago,” Gelvin said, staring hard at Darreon. “And you caused a lot of trouble to make it happen, too. You went and scared that lobros into stampeding through the Market, causing so much grief and injury; it kept all the Blue Mages at work in the Healing Springs for over a week. You then went to grounds and hit young Andreas with a concoction that made him susceptible to your whims, ordering him to give Stanford that fake scroll from Thrum and leading him away from the Guild.” He shook his head and looked sadly at the sullen man in front of him. “You were so resolute in keeping this a secret, you made sure never to see me or any Gray Mage. You even had Andreas captured by the Deceiver’s men after Maegella went after Worgel!”
“Why did you do it?” Ford asked, looking at Darreon in confusion. “Was it because you thought I was an agent of Bill Cipher?”
“To keep you away from her,” Darreon hissed.
Ford did not expect that response. “What?”
Darreon gave Ford a derisive look. “Do not play the fool with me, Stanford Pines! Maegella was fond of you, I saw it on her face that day she introduced you to me! How she defended your innocence when I suggested that you were in the demon’s thrall! Who are you to steal her affections from me, when I have loved her since we were children growing up in the orphanage?!”
Ford’s jaw dropped.
“Yikes,” Stan muttered.
Gelvin gave Darreon a pained look. “Darreon, how many times do I have to tell you? She loves you, but as a sister loves her brother!”
“Oof…brother-zoned,” murmured Wendy.
“Yikes,” agreed Mabel, rubbing her arm.
“LIES!” yelled Darreon, jumping up to his feet. Before he could do anything else, Stan moved forward and socked him in the face. Darreon was out cold before he hit the floor.
“That was for me and my brother!” Stan grouched, shaking his hand. He turned around and looked at Ford. “You okay there, Ford?”
Ford was staring in space, his jaw still dropped open. “She was fond-she liked me?” he murmured.
“Oy,” Stan grumbled, shaking his head. “World’s dumbest genius…of course she likes you! Everyone back on Earth saw that she likes you!”
“And I saw that you like her!” Mabel piped up, giving Ford a playful punch on the part of the arm that she could reach.
“Soos knows that you two like each other!” Stan said, wrapping his arm around Ford to give him an affectionate noogie. Ford gave a nervous laugh.
“Am I going to have a Grauntie?!” asked Mabel in excitement.
CRASH!
The sound jolted everyone back to reality. They turned around and spotted the source of the sound: one of the pillars near the Inner Sanctum dome had collapsed. The two sets of fighting Mages have moved the battle closer to the dome. From this side of the complex, they could see an opening into the Inner Sanctum.
Gelvin paled. “We need to get to the Inner Sanctum at once!” he yelled and sprinted off at once. The rest of them followed the Maester. As they approached, Ford’s eyes were drawn to a familiar flash of red hair. Maegella moved quickly, deflecting and avoiding spells that were aimed at her and immediately shooting blue-colored bolts from her staff.
Ford thought she was amazing.
Ford also thought that she was standing too close to the doorway…
“We have to get her away from there!” cried Gelvin, as though he could read Ford’s thoughts. Ford looked at the Maester; the older man looked terrified. Gelvin continued running towards the dome, clearing a path to the doorway with a wave of his staff that made Mages in the way lose their balance.
“Why? What happens if she enters the Inner Sanctum?!” Ford asked loudly, jumping over the legs of the fallen Mages, but Gelvin did not seem to hear him; he was too hell-bent on reaching the doorway as fast as humanly possible. Whatever was scaring the old man was making Ford nervous. He focused his sights on Maegella, who was now sparring with a black-robed Mage. She dodged the spell that was aimed for her head and retaliated with a spell that knocked out her opponent. Just as the body crumpled to the ground, another body went hurtling in her direction.
It seemed like everything slowed down. The large, blue-robed body collided with Maegella, the force sending the two of them tumbling inside the Inner Sanctum. Just as they disappeared, the large stone doors began to swing shut on their own.
“NO!” Gelvin screamed, swinging his staff once more. The action sent people flying down on their backsides, but even with the path clear, Ford knew that they were not going to make it. By the time they reached the dome, the doors swung shut with a crash.
Author:
chilibreath
X-posted to: Tumblr / FF.net / AO3
Rating: T
Summary: Where someone's complicity is revealed.
The Outer Sanctum
“Fiend!” Gelvin growled, his amiable face contorted into a scowl and his staff held stiffly. “Is there no limit to your quest for power?!”
“Power?” Duroc repeated, shaking his head. “My good Maester, I did not do all this for power! I am doing this to save our people.”
“By kidnapping Mages and draining them of their essence in order to find the Sigils?!” Maegella spat out. Ford looked at her in surprise; he had never seen Maegella look this pissed off before.
“Keep quiet, you silly woman! You know nothing of…”
“You shut up, you knucklehead!” Ford snapped, scowling and raising his fists in Duroc’s direction.
The Deceiver’s nostrils flared. He pointed a brown staff towards Ford and snarled, “Who are you to insult me?!”
“My brother, the nerd who can kick your ugly heiney,” Stan growled, raising his fists as well. “Give us back our nephew and we won’t break your face too much!”
“You think it is that simple?” Duroc sneered. “It is too late, there is no stopping this NOW. The Pendulum-bearer is in the Inner Sanctum with the other Sigils, waiting for a volunteer!”
“Then why don’t YOU volunteer, if you want to save your people?” Wendy growled.
“I-I am an elected leader,” said Duroc, puffing up his skinny chest.
“You are a coward, Duroc,” Veron muttered, shaking his grizzled head. “You love your position more and now you dare to take more power for yourself!”
“How dare you, Veron,” Duroc hissed, raising a brown staff and pointing it at Veron.
Veron just gave a derisive laugh. “I dare because it is the truth. I have known you since we were young lads at the Red Guild; the moment you encounter a situation that requires some kind of sacrifice that does not benefit you in any way, you balk and leave. You have made many mistakes, but pretending that a danger that warrants the search for the Sigils? That is too much, you fool!”
One of the black-robed Mages standing behind Gardo bristled and aimed his staff through the door. “How dare you insult our Leader-AIEEEEE!”
The man started screaming in a high pitch when the ground shook and he started sinking into the solid floor. The group inside the room gasped; the four hostages and the other black-robed Mages started moving away from the unfortunate Mage, who was already chest-deep into the floor when a piping voice inside the room spoke up.
“DIPPER YOU HAVE TO STOP!” Mabel shrieked. “I think he’s going to behave now!”
The ground stopped shaking just as the Mage’s chin was touching the floor. The black-robed Mages started edging away from the spot where their comrade was whimpering.
“Thank you, little Miss,” he squeaked from the floor.
“Seems like Dipper still listens to ya, Pumpkin,” murmured Stan, putting a hand on Mabel’s shoulder.
“Dipper can sense us from within the Inner Sanctum,” Gelvin murmured. “But we cannot aggravate him too much; the more he uses magic, the more danger he is in!”
“That is why he is inside the Inner Sanctum,” muttered Duroc, looking around him nervously. “The rock used to entomb the Founders is from the caves of Beleger, the same material that makes up the Containing Stones of the Sigils. Something in the material is helping the Sigil-holder, but just barely. I cannot explain it! There is something in the rock!”
At that, Ford perked up.
“Wait-are you serious?” he asked Duroc.
“Of course I am serious,” said Duroc, sounding offended. “Who are you to question my--?”
“Gelvin, can we use the material in the Inner Sanctum to get the Sigil off Dipper?” Ford asked the Maester, paying no attention to Duroc.
“That-that could work,” said Gelvin slowly. “I need to be close to Dipper to make the transfer-and we’ll need someone to cut the rock from…”
“No you will not!” Duroc screeched. “We need a volunteer to take the Sigil from the boy and activate the Guardian!”
“I want no part in this!” cried Dorinda at the back, turning around to sit on the couch. “I only joined Lord Duroc out of peer pressure!”
“This is not up for debate, you power-hungry idiot!” Ford shouted, pointing his finger at Duroc. “We’re getting that thing off my nephew without anyone giving up their life! And before we get back to our dimension, I’m going to knock that stupid beard off your face with my fist!”
“And I’ll help you break his face!” yelled Stan, taking a boxer’s stance.
“You are still outnumbered,” Duroc snarled, raising his staff in an offensive position. His Mages did the same behind him. “And you are cornered in this room! We have the upper-”
“Tula sinome!”
Duroc’s five standing hench-Mages were knocked off their feet as Gerda, Erwan, Gardo and Minda were zipped away by an invisible force into the Outer Sanctum.
Someone shouted, “FOR ROTHEZAR!”
The Outer Sanctum was suddenly filled with the sounds of zapping; lights of different colors went off around the pillars. Duroc screamed and jumped out of the way before a red light hit the doorway. Gelvin, Veron, Maegella and Sandri yelled and charged out the door, leaving behind the non-Mages and Dorinda in the room.
Stan turned to Mabel. “You stay here, kiddo! We’re going in to rescue your brother!”
“You’re not leaving me here! I want to help!” Mabel cried, lifting the grappling hook from inside her sweater. “Dipper needs me!”
“You can stick with me, Mabel!” said Wendy. “Girl-power!”
“Fine! You two stay here,” Ford growled. “It’s too dangerous out there; you could get hit by spells! This is not up for debate,” he added, giving his niece such a stern look, Mabel could only pout and cross her arms.
“Fine. But if the fighting gets in here, I’m kicking butt,” she said ominously, raising her grappling hook.
“Fair enough,” said Ford. He bent over to hug his niece. Stan glared at his brother before he gave his niece a hug too. The two brothers squared their shoulders and let out a war cry, running out the door into the melee and avoiding the unfortunate man still sunk into the floor of the Outer Sanctum.
“WE’RE COMING FOR YOU, DIPPER!” Soos yelled, running out of the door with his gloved hands raised over his head.
They entered a hazy warzone. The air was thick with clouds of different colors from the glass-ball smoke bombs and the sounds of zapping and yelling.
“We need to get to the Inner Sanctum!” Ford yelled, coughing as he inhaled a mouthful of the smoke.
“Sure thing, Pointdexter,” Stan coughed beside him. “Which way to the-AAAAAAAAARGH!”
Ford whipped around just in time to see his twin being yanked out of sight into the smoky gloom, his yells getting faint as he was taken away.
“STAN!”
XXXXX
Stan yelled as an invisible force pulled him to the other side of the Outer Sanctum. He whizzed past bewildered Mages and had close calls with several pillars, turning sharply before he collided with them. After several moments, the force yanked him upwards by his feet; he dangled upside-down behind a large pillar, far from the fighting in the middle of the Sanctum. Once Stan was sure that he wasn’t going anywhere, he started wiggling around.
“You came back,” said a harsh voice.
“Came back? Buddy, I don’t know what you’re talkin’ about; this is my first time here and I’m sure I haven’t been banned from this place before,” Stan muttered, trying to move his head in order to see the perp who tried to kidnap him. He stopped doing that when he started feeling the blood rushing to his brain.
“Do not pretend ignorance!” hissed the voice. Stan grunted as he felt a sharp prod between his shoulder blades. “I thought I made it clear that you were not wanted here in Rothezar, and yet you came back!”
“Ow! Seriously pal, you got the wrong guy!” Stan growled. Through the light-headedness that he was now experiencing, he started getting angry. Something that Ford shared back in the Stan O’ War II started to come back to him. “Why don’t you take a good look at me and see for yourself?”
“Your lies will not fly with me, Stanford Pines,” the voice snarled. “After today, you will never-”
The next thing Stan knew, he was lying down on the ground, his head feeling less fuzzy. He was only aware that a fight was happening close by when he heard a grunt of pain and a familiar voice shouting, “If you harmed my brother in any way, I’m going to take your staff and shove it up where the sun doesn’t…”
“Grunkle Ford!” yelped another familiar voice to Stan’s left.
“Ford, don’t threaten him yet until I get a chance to let him have it,” Stan grumbled. He felt a set of hands wrap around each of his upper arms and assisted him in carefully standing up; he looked around and spotted Wendy and Mabel by his side.
“I dunno if we should let you near this guy; between the two of you, there might not be anything left for the justice system here to deal with,” said Wendy, looking to one side. Stan turned to where Wendy was looking and spotted Ford, Gelvin and Erwan looking down on the man sprawled on the ground next to a moss-green staff. He wore black robes; where the robes were hitched up, dark green pants were visible. The stranger’s hood was down, exposing the back of a black-haired head on top of wide shoulders. Stan stalked over to where his brother and the Mages stood to get a good look at the perp who kidnapped him.
The man rubbed his jaw where Ford had punched him, looking balefully up at them with light blue eyes on a tanned, handsome face. Gelvin looked at this man and shook his head.
“So the truth comes out,” he said grimly. “Darreon’s sins has come to light after threatening the wrong Pines brother.”
“Twins!” Darreon spat, looking between Ford and Stan with a mixture of rage and horror. “I am truly cursed if I am to look upon that hated face twice!”
“I tried to tell you, you idiot,” Stan growled, taking a step forward, his fists raised. “I oughta…”
“Wait!” cried Mabel, running in front of her Grunkles. “Who is he and what did he do?”
“I too would like answers,” said Erwan, looking confused and uncomfortable at the scene before him. “If I had not seen for myself the threat you held upon Stanley Pines…” He stopped and shook his head, unable to continue that thought.
“His name is Darreon, a Mentor from the Green Guild,” said Gelvin, answering Mabel’s questions. “He met your Great-Uncle Stanford after being introduced by Maegella twenty years ago. His kidnapping of your Great-Uncle Stanley today proves that he is complicit in Stanford’s forced eviction from Rothezar, but let me make certain…”
“No!” Darreon cried, but he didn’t move fast enough to avoid the Maester, who reached down to touch his shoulder and closed his eyes. Darreon tried to shake off Gelvin’s hold, but he held still when he spotted Stan and Ford raising their Teaga gloves threateningly and Erwan pointing his staff at him. After a few moments, Gelvin opened his eyes and let go of Darreon, looking at the latter with a disappointed expression.
“So, it was you who froze Stanford and forced him into the gateway all those years ago,” Gelvin said, staring hard at Darreon. “And you caused a lot of trouble to make it happen, too. You went and scared that lobros into stampeding through the Market, causing so much grief and injury; it kept all the Blue Mages at work in the Healing Springs for over a week. You then went to grounds and hit young Andreas with a concoction that made him susceptible to your whims, ordering him to give Stanford that fake scroll from Thrum and leading him away from the Guild.” He shook his head and looked sadly at the sullen man in front of him. “You were so resolute in keeping this a secret, you made sure never to see me or any Gray Mage. You even had Andreas captured by the Deceiver’s men after Maegella went after Worgel!”
“Why did you do it?” Ford asked, looking at Darreon in confusion. “Was it because you thought I was an agent of Bill Cipher?”
“To keep you away from her,” Darreon hissed.
Ford did not expect that response. “What?”
Darreon gave Ford a derisive look. “Do not play the fool with me, Stanford Pines! Maegella was fond of you, I saw it on her face that day she introduced you to me! How she defended your innocence when I suggested that you were in the demon’s thrall! Who are you to steal her affections from me, when I have loved her since we were children growing up in the orphanage?!”
Ford’s jaw dropped.
“Yikes,” Stan muttered.
Gelvin gave Darreon a pained look. “Darreon, how many times do I have to tell you? She loves you, but as a sister loves her brother!”
“Oof…brother-zoned,” murmured Wendy.
“Yikes,” agreed Mabel, rubbing her arm.
“LIES!” yelled Darreon, jumping up to his feet. Before he could do anything else, Stan moved forward and socked him in the face. Darreon was out cold before he hit the floor.
“That was for me and my brother!” Stan grouched, shaking his hand. He turned around and looked at Ford. “You okay there, Ford?”
Ford was staring in space, his jaw still dropped open. “She was fond-she liked me?” he murmured.
“Oy,” Stan grumbled, shaking his head. “World’s dumbest genius…of course she likes you! Everyone back on Earth saw that she likes you!”
“And I saw that you like her!” Mabel piped up, giving Ford a playful punch on the part of the arm that she could reach.
“Soos knows that you two like each other!” Stan said, wrapping his arm around Ford to give him an affectionate noogie. Ford gave a nervous laugh.
“Am I going to have a Grauntie?!” asked Mabel in excitement.
CRASH!
The sound jolted everyone back to reality. They turned around and spotted the source of the sound: one of the pillars near the Inner Sanctum dome had collapsed. The two sets of fighting Mages have moved the battle closer to the dome. From this side of the complex, they could see an opening into the Inner Sanctum.
Gelvin paled. “We need to get to the Inner Sanctum at once!” he yelled and sprinted off at once. The rest of them followed the Maester. As they approached, Ford’s eyes were drawn to a familiar flash of red hair. Maegella moved quickly, deflecting and avoiding spells that were aimed at her and immediately shooting blue-colored bolts from her staff.
Ford thought she was amazing.
Ford also thought that she was standing too close to the doorway…
“We have to get her away from there!” cried Gelvin, as though he could read Ford’s thoughts. Ford looked at the Maester; the older man looked terrified. Gelvin continued running towards the dome, clearing a path to the doorway with a wave of his staff that made Mages in the way lose their balance.
“Why? What happens if she enters the Inner Sanctum?!” Ford asked loudly, jumping over the legs of the fallen Mages, but Gelvin did not seem to hear him; he was too hell-bent on reaching the doorway as fast as humanly possible. Whatever was scaring the old man was making Ford nervous. He focused his sights on Maegella, who was now sparring with a black-robed Mage. She dodged the spell that was aimed for her head and retaliated with a spell that knocked out her opponent. Just as the body crumpled to the ground, another body went hurtling in her direction.
It seemed like everything slowed down. The large, blue-robed body collided with Maegella, the force sending the two of them tumbling inside the Inner Sanctum. Just as they disappeared, the large stone doors began to swing shut on their own.
“NO!” Gelvin screamed, swinging his staff once more. The action sent people flying down on their backsides, but even with the path clear, Ford knew that they were not going to make it. By the time they reached the dome, the doors swung shut with a crash.