Chapter 1984

Chapter 1984

Beatrice told her knees not to tremble as she sat in the transport and floated up toward the location of the challenge. She felt unmoored from her body, moving up through the cloud layer along with the bus. Her knees acknowledged Beatrice’s feelings but told her very directly that they would continue to tremble regardless, thank you very much.

Beatrice pressed her eyes closed so she at least didn’t need to watch her insubordinate body. The seats were faux-leather and reminded her of a school bus. She... hadn’t been very popular in grade school. Middle school had been worse. The creep of those memories just added to the unreality of the moment, as she floated up in a bus filled with some of the greatest heroes of the age.

And worst of all-

Beatrice told her eyes not to give in to temptation. But the needy ocular grapes whizzed around to fixate on Illdan, two seats in front of her. For one seconds, two seconds, three seconds, she simply stared at the angular structure of his face, becoming more panicked that he would notice because she had been staring for so long. Finally, she was able to tear her gaze away. She released a shuddering breath.

It was almost worse that he wouldn’t acknowledge her. Like she was a drifting ghost, fixating onto the living and sucking away their life with her presence. The strained silence between the two of them only added to her nerves regarding the fight against the Ghosthound; combined, her anxiety had become crippling.

“Young Miss,”

Beatrice jumped as Hong Li leaned over and put his hand on her forearm. His smile was warm and aimed directly at her. She felt some of her tension ease. “We shall be working together in the fight, so let’s do our best to support each other. Only together can we succeed.”

She offered him a quick smile and nodded. Truth be told, she was quite relieved that she and Hong Li were going to be acting in concert to try and limit the Ghosthound’s physical movements in the challenge. With some of the others, Beatrice would have been too intimidated by their storied accomplishments to focus. And with Illdan, she would have been constantly wondering if, despite how bad an idea it would be, he would twist around and pull her into a slow kiss, right before the fight began-

“There it is,” Paolo said in a booming voice. The bus had burst out past the clouds. He jabbed his finger at the window. The rest of the bus, a blushing Beatrice included, leaned forward to get their own look out the slightly smudged windows.

The Little Moon that would host them felt like the secret dwelling of some ominous space demon. It was shaped like a god’s hands had simply dug into the surface of a planet and levitated a cupped handful of stone, rounded at the bottom and mostly flat across the top. Beatrice squinted and activated her Incisive Gaze to get a better look. Right now the Little Moon was only the size of a fist, but as the bus carried them closer it continued to expand. Even from the distance, she could make out strange, pillar-shaped rock formations.

The Little Moon seemed to be covered in a forest of stripped stone trees. Beatrice couldn’t help but wonder why.

As they moved closer and the platform expanded from a fist to a small town and then further to an entire city, Beatrice also began to notice the autonomous camera drones hovering around the area. Their lenses caught the light in the thinning atmosphere of Expira, small sparkles of the attention the whole of the Alpha Cosmos heaped upon them.

“Grim place,” Alana observed.

“I almost think the Ghosthound made it that way on purpose, so it would be more fun to obliterate,” Paolo cracked his knuckles.

Kimpap clicked her tongue. “I am still freshly introduced to Nether as an abundant energy; we could not access it before being formally included in the Alpha Cosmos. However... the way those pillars are arranged causes slight dizziness if I look too closely. Somehow, I believe they are arranged in a pattern that damages the flower of Nether.”

With renewed interest, the group looked at the island. There were dense sections of those somehow uneven pillars in several places, but the ring around the edge of the Little Moon was complete.

“Now why would he arrange it like that?” Hong Li wondered. No one else could think of an answer.

“What?!” Illdan fell to his knees. Then he hopped up and rounded on Hank with a glare. For the first time since Beatrice had gone on that date with him, he had fire in his eyes. “What are you doing? We are a team-”

“Which is why I think ya should take tha chance to apologize to B.” To Beatrice’s horror, Hank nodded at her. “Ya’ve been ignorin’ her. Will be good for morale to settle things.”

“I- t-that’s none of your business.” Illdan flushed. “We just- things are complicated.”

“Is ignoring a girl complicated?” Alana observed, picking a minuscule bit of dirt off her spear.

“This isn’t the time to talk about that,” Illdan managed to spit out. But he for the first time in a week gave Beatrice a genuine glance and held her gaze. Her heart began to pound. “We’ve only a few minutes. Can’t this wait until after the challenge?”

Strangely, everyone paused to survey Kimpap and get her reaction. The older woman from Tellus seemed profoundly uninterested in the exchange. Illdan’s cheeks grew more flushed. “Besides, the drones- the entire Alpha Cosmos is watching. Issues like this should be resolved privately.”

“If ya wanted to do that,” Hank crouched down and pinched the ground. He rubbed the sandy dirt of the Little Moon between two fingers. He squinted at Illdan. “Ya had plenty of chances. Ya didn’ take em, right? So don’t go blamin’ us.”

“This... is just distracting,” Beatrice whispered. Her heart spun in place, unable to decide what to feel.

Hong Li laughed. “That’s the point, young-ins. The two of you are too tense to do anything but think about each other. Do you think we can win with this extra tension? Unburden yourself and commune; only then will you truly understand the other’s emotions.”

“C-c-commune?!” Beatrice felt like her face was on fire. “Here? In front of so many cameras?”

Paolo barked out a laugh. Drake shook his head in disbelief and slid his bastard sword out of its sheath. Alana sighed. “Y’all make this too easy. But don’t let your guard down. Only one more minute.”

The air began to darken rapidly. A weight ground down against Beatrice’s body, making it almost impossible to move. Without having to be told, everyone knew that the Ghosthound would come at them with the intent to subdue them immediately. Beatrice tried not to count the seconds, but she couldn’t help herself. She kept shooting glances at Illdan during that time, wondering if he would actually apologize.

He simply looked down at his feet.

Suddenly, Alana’s expression shifted. “Shit-”

Right as the promised five minutes expired, the Ghosthound’s Nether was there, where it had been flowing this entire time at an impossibly slow speed. Yet when they became his enemy, that power whipped itself into a fever pitch and smashed into their bodies.

Most staggered sideways, unable to withstand the force. Only Paolo endured it, his eyes bright with stubbornness.

But then the Nether shifted. It became an open hand, reaching for them.

Beatrice paled; they were about to be Seized.