Chapter 193: Cause for Celebration

Chapter 193: Cause for Celebration

I followed Tony into the small room off to the side of the hallway, though I couldn't help but wonder what he wanted. This dark closet was a bit ominous. If I didn't know better, I might've been afraid.

Shutting the door, he stopped and turned around to face me with a slight bow. "So Lord Void... You know how Bee is always saying she's 'almost fourteen'?"

Yeah, I did recall that coming up a few times; in fact, it had been going on for long enough that I wasn't sure if she was even telling the truth. I told Tony as much. He grinned and continued his explanation. "Well, 'almost' is almost here. Next week is her birthday!"

Huh? I wasn't sure if I could believe it.

"Yeah, I know right? They grow up so fast." For some reason, Tony pretended to wipe a tear from the corner of his eye. Why was he sad? Or pretending to be sad? From my observations, birthdays were normally a cause for celebration.

Did this have something to do with humor? I was pretty sure it did, but it didn't make sense. It seemed kinda mean spirited if he was pretending to be sad about her celebration. Or was it because he was sad that she was one year closer to death? Maybe that was the custom here.

Tony ceased his antics and looked back at me. "I was thinking that maybe we should throw her a party. Everyone is settling in right now, and in a week it would be good to have a celebration to lighten the mood and bring everyone together more. Besides, I think everyone here owes her a lot, so it's the least we could do. I want to make it a banger."

I wasn't sure what a banger was, but I agreed that Beatrice deserved a party. So how did he want me to help? At my acceptance, Tony grinned and rubbed his hands together. "I'm so glad you asked...."

***

Sitting on top of the stone lab table, I couldn't help but admire how clean Maranda had kept her workstation all this time. Watching her work, it made sense, though. With the precision required as she weighed and measured each ingredient, any small amount of grime could throw off the results by an unacceptable amount.

"So this should be a good test for the red one," Maranda said, indicating the vial that she had placed at the end of the row of clear liquids. I ran through each of them, ensuring I knew what each would do. On the right, there were five different sizes for testing the concoctions' strength, and then after, there were several smaller vials that would test the colors.

This was relatively minor and could have taken a lot longer, but it still ate up time, even if I went quickly. Though I didn't mind at all. In my opinion, giving these children something to do was the best part about this whole castle. Besides keeping it clean, obviously.

I managed to dodge Bee and Tony's spar that, at this point, had been going on for over a day. That left me to zip up and over the wall without anyone else stopping me. I felt a little bad leaving them to their own devices, but I helped as I could. Besides, I had scheduled to keep, especially if I wanted to figure out how to make so many prizes.

Taking to the air. I started the long trek over to the mountain. The distance was a bit deceiving as I struggled to conceptualize this mountain's size. I knew I'd already flown around it once, but it was still impressive, especially the way the angles managed to be so steep. I had no idea how snow managed to cling to such an angled rock. Maybe I would find that out soon enough.

Aiming for one of the passes, I kept low, skimming over the smooth snow. In the past, I couldn't help but marvel at the vast horizon stretching out before me. Far into the distance, heaped white mounds of snow and nothing else. Looking back to where I had come, everything further south of me was only sporadically dusted in snow. There were patches here and there, but for the most part, it was a green forest mixed in with brownfields. Rocky outcroppings, like the mountains, appeared to act as a barrier to the weather.

As I made it over to the other side of the mountain, I figured I was far enough away that people wouldn't be disturbed by my experimenting. Not wanting to wait much longer. I zipped up the mountain a little bit so I could have a better vantage point of what would happen and pulled out the largest vial. I planned to go through the sequence that Miranda had shown me in order, ejecting each from my dustbin.

I immediately tossed the first vial into the side of the mountain, about three-quarters of the way up. As I watched it arc into the massive amount of snow, I wondered why I saw bluish-purple sparks flitting all over it. Those hadn't been there when Miranda had given it to me. Could something have changed?

The vial landed just below the large cave entrance that I had noted on my last trip. Oh, that reminded me. I had meant to explore that before this whole party business. Perhaps I could do that after-

I was cut off mid-thought by a deep wumph sound. The vial shattered, erupting into a gout of snow at least 50 feet tall, spraying high into the air.

With a rumble, I noticed that the ice was beginning to shift. It started at the top, bits slowly tumbling down the mountain, but each piece that was knocked loose rolled down the hill a little bit further and knocked more loose. This continued in a chain reaction.

I was filled with nothing but relief that I had decided to stay up so high. I watched the mountainside slowly lose all the snow sticking to it. The mass of the snow was difficult to estimate as it rushed down the mountain, an ever-growing tide of destruction as it slammed into the base.

It continued on relentlessly, rolling out over the vast plains of snow for what must have been miles. Well, that was one test down. That vial might be a little bit too powerful for decoration. Also, there wasn't much color to it. I supposed that Maranda may have just made these emit white light, though. It wasn't one of the colored vials, after all.

I considered whether to make my way down the size scale or try the smallest next. But before I could take out the next one and test it, a massive column of smoke billowed out of the cave entrance. I heard a deep rumbling completely separate from the mass of roiling snow down below.

/// first Void only chapter in a long time. Single POV too!