Chapter 602: Calm before the Storm

"That's pretty good, right? It looks good to me..." Morti sunned himself near the large pond behind the Turtle house. Nix leaned back against him, dozing off and on while Ducky and Soup played games in the water. The small jade figure with a round face had both hands extended as she stood motionless on the surface of the water. Three columns of spinning water rotated around her, causing the pond to drop by several inches. She smiled at Ducky while the beginning of a fourth and fifth column formed.

Duck clapped excitedly; as a water elemental, she knew how Soup was doing it, but water manipulation wasn't the Water Witch's strong point. "Soupy!"

Suddenly, all the columns collapsed with a huge splash that drenched Nix and Morti. Soup's green quills drooped slightly when Nix frowned at her; with her head held low, she approached the pair.

Morti huffed loudly, not wanting to get up since he found the optimal spot for sunning himself. "I like the water things. Maybe I'll become an elemental when I'm older."

Nix shook his head slightly. "More like a natural disaster." He turned his yellowed-eyed gaze on the culprit; her round face and wide smile made it impossible to be cross with her. "Going to eat you, Soup."

"Nom, nom?"

"Yes. Nix eat Soup."

Soup pointed to the napping Titan cub. "Moti..."

The sleeping bear opened one eye, she pronounced it without an 'R, but it was a good effort. "You learned my name?"

"Morti is too fat to eat." Nix patted her green-quilled head when she sat next to him. To his knowledge, Soup's impressive vocabulary consisted of Nix, Soup, Ducky, and now Moti. Unless, of course, you counted 'nom, nom.'

"No, I'm not..." Morti turned his head slightly so that he could see Nix.

Nix scratched the Titan cub's ears. "I'll prove it." He accessed his inventory and pulled out a round object.

Soup lay a small jade-colored hand on his shoulder as she leaned closer to view the object. She then fixed Nix with a curious stare.

"You ask it questions, and it answers. Its name is Enigma." Neither Morti nor Soup seemed to understand, so Nix rubbed it with one hand. "Who is the biggest Titan cub in Everspire?"

[Mortimer, the Bone Emperor.]

Both of Morti's ears pricked forward in interest. "Let me ask something, Nix."

Nix nodded and rubbed the smooth surface again. "Go ahead."

"Momma said she has a special treat for me. What is it?"

[Honey]

Morti moved until he was sitting up. "My helmet disappeared for several days. Where did it go?"

[Snow Lilly hid it]

Morti leaned forward until his nose was touching the ball. "Did she really?"

[Of course, she thinks it's too small for your enormous head.]

Nix laughed loudly and decided to let Morti fire questions at Enigma. Ducky joined the group as they continued to listen to the Titan cub's ridiculous questions.

"If a spider and an ant were both my size, which one would win in a fight?"

[The Ant. Unless it wandered into the spider's webbing.]

"What tastes better, frozen honey or warm honey?"

[Frozen honey when it's hot outside and warm honey when it's chilly.]

"Who is the best sword fighter among the Dhassi?"

[At present, it would be Raine Xai's Master, Delyn Xai.]

"Why did you say, 'at present'? Is someone going to pass him up?"

[Before the accident in Ever Flame, Del Tali was the best blade among the Dhassi.]

Nix raised an eyebrow, suddenly curious if Enigma was just making shit up.

Morti was about to ask another but stopped when the ball flashed slightly.

[You have exceeded the daily limit of questions an individual is permitted to ask.]

"No, I didn't."

[Yes, you did.]

"No... I didn't."

[Yes, you did.]

"Nope. That was only a couple." Morti glanced at his family, who was using him as a backrest. All three nodded in agreement with the cub.

[...]

[...]

[Fine. I will make an exception to the daily limit if you can answer one of my questions.]

Morti nodded his big head. "Ask away. Bears are very smart."

[Do bears shit in the woods?]

"You used a bad word..." Morti considered the question for a moment. "Yep, we do."

[Incorrect. Bears do not.]

"Yes, we do."

[Sorry. Incorrect answer]

Morti stood up suddenly, upending the three people leaning against him. Without speaking further, he started waddling toward a stand of trees.

[That's a small stand of trees, it isn't considered woods.]

Morti stopped and turned. "What about by Pon and Semmi's house? That's woods."

[No. The only suitable woods in Haven is north of Deidra's Flame Temple.]

Morti stared for a long moment before turning to face the general direction of the temple. "I'll be back."

Nix watched as Morti morphed into a small bird and flew away; Soup immediately changed into her bird form and chased after him. Ducky stared longingly at the pair before glancing at Nix.

"Go ahead, Ducky. Make sure they don't get into trouble."

Ducky nodded and activated her Archon form. Within a few seconds, Nix was sitting alone on the bank of the pond.

"Did you tell him that so he'd prove you wrong?"

[Yes.]

Nix chuckled and stretched lazily before getting to his feet. "He's going to come back. What are you going to say then?"

[I'll demand to see proof.]

Nix laughed loudly and stored Enigma in his inventory. Unlike normal days, the sanctuary known as the Turtle House was actually quite crowded.

Shae, Hyai, and Fajii all looked up when Nix entered through the backdoor a few minutes later. Whatever conversation they were having when he walked in stopped abruptly.

"Am I interrupting?" Nix inhaled deeply; the smell of freshly baked bread lingered in the air. "Lunch time?"

Shae shook her head and helped Hyai to her feet. "Hyai promised to teach me one of her recipes today; unfortunately, we need the ranch oven for it."

Hyai nodded in agreement, and the two left arm in arm without saying anything else.

Nix smiled pleasantly, they were up to something, but they committed a fatal error. Fajii was the last person you'd want to help you with any sort of subterfuge. "Those two are hiding something?"

Fajii nodded and cut Nix a thick slice of bread. "Since we have three days of rest, and there are three of us..."

Nix frowned slightly while watching her butter the bread. "I'm to be passed around?"

Fajii pushed a plate in front of him. "Yes."

"Hmmm... I refuse." Nix took a large bite and closed his eyes while savoring the taste. "What if I decided to lock the doors and keep you here for the next three days?"

Fajii wrinkled her nose slightly, Nix liked to tease her, but it was always difficult to figure out. "They would be disappointed, but I would not."

Nix's hud buzzed, and a moment later, Nansu's image smiled at him. "What's up?"

"I want to join the fight in three days. Please lend me a suitable puppet."

"No way. Stick with Alchemy." Nix closed his hud and picked up his plate. "Going to finish this and take a shower. You can join me if y...," Nix was interrupted when his hud buzzed again. He was tempted to ignore it, but he decided he could spare a few more seconds. "What now?"

Nansu frowned at him thru the hud. "Need I remind you that it was me who paved the way at Khalam'Zur? And... I know your secret."

"Shit... you've been corrupted! Stooping to extortion?" Nix grimaced and nodded. "I have an Emperor-level Ashobel that will work. It's immune to Ice Damage, and it uses basic melee attacks."

"Thank you, Nix. I just want to be there when we kick her ass." Nansu waved and closed her hud.

"What secret?" Fajii followed Nix up the stairs, her natural curiosity getting the better of her.

Nix shrugged slightly. "Not saying."

************

2330 hours, Tembai Academy

The Rat King yawned from his chair in the council chambers. The room was dimly lit and completely empty, unlike the last time he visited.

[Rat Vanish]

Nix's form faded from view, and he hopped onto the cool marble floor. Thanks to the Academy campus map provided by his Adjunct Council interface, he was able to find the freshmen dorms rather quickly. As dorms go, it was much nicer than anything he'd ever seen. From his vantage point, he could see that each room came with a spacious balcony. While enjoying some alone time with Fajii, a notification for the Adjunct Council member had popped up on his screen. The Rat King gnashed his teeth quietly while recalling the message.

[Adjunct Council member, Nicholas the Destroyer]

We are calling an emergency session to figure out the best way to ensure Fey the Silver is brought to Tembai Academy. We need all members on hand for tomorrow's vote.

Having figured out which dorm belonged to his acquaintance Maric, he targeted the other three. "I did give you a friendly warning."

The Rat King entered the first floor of the dormitory. A patrolling guard was walking the hallway; apparently, the students had a mandatory "lights out" policy. He waited until the guard walked past his position before springing into action.

Nix morphed into his human form for a moment before switching again. The baleful eyes of the desert basilisk focused on its prey. [Petrify]

The basilisk left the guard in place and slithered up the stairway to the next floor. Each floor had a roving guard that worked from 2300 to 0600. At that time, the curfew for students was lifted so they could prepare for the school day. Nix had discovered there was quite a bit of information available to council members.

It took less than an hour to deal with the roving guards on all six floors. Nix walked downstairs to the basement level, the only floor without any guards. He removed several large cans from his inventory and starting splashing the floors and walls with the substance.

Over the next three hours, Nix incapacitated the guards in the other two dorms and treated their lower levels with the mixture he had concocted. Finally, when he was done, he turned back into the Rat King and reentered each basement.

Since the Rat King had a small inventory, Nix had placed three liquid-filled containers, that looked suspiciously like water balloons, in the small space. He placed the containers on the treated floors of each dorm and then quickly retreated toward the council chambers.

"That should give me ten minutes." The homemade naptha he had poured onto the floors would take that long to eat through the walls of the three accelerant containers he had placed. When that happened and the two liquids combined... things would warm up quickly.

The Rat King scurried to the nearest garden and started digging into the soft dirt. Since he didn't know the control room location, he opted to try and find one of the supply lines. Having been inside the supply lines of the dragon cities, he knew that there would be dozens of conduits somewhere below Tembai Academy.

The powerful claws of the Rat-King dug straight down; he was about ten feet below the surface when the Tembai klaxons started wailing. "Now it's a party." He cleared out a larger space and then returned to his human form.

[Aura Ignition: Emerald Dread Flame]

Safely out of view, Nix began to search in earnest for a supply line. The dread flames enabled him to move much faster; the fires above would likely be contained within a few hours. He didn't want to be lingering once the dragons began looking for the culprit.

Several minutes later, his efforts were rewarded. "Fucking jackpot!" Nix failed to find one of the supply lines; instead, he found something much nicer, one of the reservoirs. It was larger than anything the Sky Cities had, easily the size of a soccer field. "Now I'm curious as to what energy source they are using."

He pushed emerald flames into his bone hilts and, with a quick "X" strike, slashed through the wall of the tank only to find himself sprayed with a thick gold substance. "Shit... It's dragon marrow."

Working quickly, he moved along the length of the reservoir, his blades slashing through the tank lining, causing the tunnel he made to rapidly fill with the leaking substance. By the time he finished, the thick gold liquid was up to his chest. Wading any further became impossible, so he opted for going down. With his aura blazing and the flowing marrow following him, he created his own exit.

Nearly ten minutes later, Nix exited through the academy's bottom and immediately started a free fall. Having expected this, he changed into his Phoenix form and banked under the city to examine his work.

His dread flame created a tunnel that was about three meters across; the dragon marrow flowed freely out of it into the darkness below.

A few minutes later, Nix slid under the covers of his bed and snuggled up to Fajii's warm back. Within seconds, he was sleeping peacefully.