#crimson gate

@thehortatorrrr

(Disclaimer for violent content. A past Jenny blog from her point of view can be found here.)

Golden energy hung in the air, mixing with embers and ash from the burning house and orchards. Bodies of Dominion soldiers littered the scorched earth of the former hideaway, and amidst the shouts and explosions of fighting rose the panicked cries of soldiers trapped inside a burning hovercraft.

Electricity ripped through the air as Cora exploded out of the Void. Two dead Spellslingers tumbled out after her and before a row of soldiers could fire she gated away, dragging the closest victim with her.

Balsarud

A blood-chilling screech tore through Void, as well as the courtyard littered with wounded spellslingers. Acolytes of the Crimson Gate locked down the compound that technically did not exist, and the few elites who were planet side scrambled to find an underling - anyone that might banish the rampaging beast so they wouldn’t have to face it.

Running down the hallway, Cora emerged from the Void as if she had stepped from the sea, golden light and energy dripping off and pooling in her wake.

The Void creature screamed again.

It had been a group training exercise. Five of them were to summon creatures together. It had all been going well, and Cora was sure to make her date after work on time. Then the acolyte across from her, Zaryn, had summoned that... thing.

The other enslaved creatures panicked, and as the monster tore into the onlookers Cora took the opportunity to chase down and safely return the others to their realm. She could feel them, the glyphs carved into the skin beneath her gloves, and the energy that still trickled through them. After all this time she could not tell if it was from the Void, or her inability to be fully parted from it.

“Cora! Cora!” came the panicked cry of the offending acolyte scrambling to meet her. “It’s coming this way! Please!”

Slowing as Zaryn fell, she snatched him up by his collar, an otherworldly light in her eyes. “You fool! Do you want this thing loose in the city?! Dispel it!”

The terrified man sobbed and shook his head as he clung to her arms. “I can’t. I can’t—“

“What do you mean you can’t?!” she snarled in his face.

“I tri-tried! I can’t! Let me go! It’ll find me!” Zaryn begged as the grating of nails shredding the stone walls sounded from the next hall.

“I should kill you for this.” Growling, Cora cast the man aside.

Her breath caught. Within her something fluttered. It was the first time she had felt the new life growing inside of her move, and instead of anger she now fought back tears. What was she doing to it? What was all of the testing and rituals they forced upon her doing to the little surprise she couldn’t risk hiding for much longer?

The breathy taps of Jenny’s fingers typing furiously over the holoscreen before her echoed in the wide hall. Sunlight streamed through the windows overhead, warming her hair. The young woman frowned at the screen, and cast a nervous glance to the open doorway leading into the upstairs bathroom. One minute.

It had worked. The first spell. She hadn’t wanted to test it like that. But it had worked. And if she had had a better hold of the Void they could have stayed longer. Maybe she could have pulled the others over as well. Scrubbing a hand over her face Jenny tapped out brief notes on the completed spell. One down, Stars knew how many to go. She glanced back to the bathroom. Two minutes.

Seeker had agreed to try and track down the second half of the stolen data. He had found it… Well, what they had hoped to have been it, but not long after the package left the Raceway it vanished. Half of the stolen cult experiments her mom had died for just -- gone. There was so much she didn’t know. Like the invisible void-creature that had attacked her and Jeremy back in Galeras. Like how Lady’s boy toy did… Shit, how did he do any of that? Like how her and Jeremy had gotten so tangled up in each other after the primal life had spilled…. Jenny could feel heat creep into her cheeks even as she smiled. She licked her lips and looked to the bathroom again. Three minutes.

Scrolling through the meticulously organized files of incomplete information, Jenny sighed. She could poke at trying to figure one out at a time. She would pick the easiest ones first. With the studying for the University exam, work, racing, and everything going on with everyone like usual she didn't have time to dive into figuring all this out at once. But she couldn’t let the information sit idle in her vault, either. Jenny rubbed at the back of her neck before finally selecting a file, and minimized the screen. Four minutes.

Az’a

Cora’s lips silently formed the word around the end cap of her pen.

“You have heard of it before, yes?”

The young woman’s verdant gaze drifted up from the open file in her hands to her superior officer, unwavering as the elevator softly bounced at the bottom of the lift. “Only that it was forbidden,” she replied, her tone a perfectly crafted mix of ignorance and wary curiosity.

Commander Craxus led the way forward as the gilded doors slid open. “Do you know why some things are forbidden, Agent Clodius?”

“Because they are dangerous, Dna?”

“Because they are dangerous to progress,” came her convicted reply. “Because some refuse to make the sacrifices necessary for growth. Because they cannot control what they do not understand.” The Commander led the way down the long concrete hall lined with observation windows with brisk, echoing steps.

“But we understand it?”

“To some extent.”

Their progression slowed at the door of a testing room where blindfolded prisoners were being escorted to stand on marks scattered about the large floor.

Cora surveyed the scene like a fisherman might a stream, her facade never once faltering. “And this is where I come in.”

“And this is where you come in,” the Commander echoed in reply. An ambitious hope filled her usually harsh gaze. “It has been a hundred years in development and testing, Clodius. I need you. The Crimson Gate needs you, and your gift. Can you imagine what ten — twenty — Scions, a hundred Dominion Slingers could do with so much power at their beck and call? Take this glyph, Clodius, and show me its true potential.” Reaching to unlock the door as the last of the prisoners halted in their designated place, Commander Craxus snapped a salute.