Ch 76 - A Glimpse Behind the Curtain

"Enter," Queen Marisara ordered.

The enormous, bronze doors at the end of her spacious throne room opened noiselessly and Thalorian, head of her security forces, marched inside with his implacable, powerful stride. The winged warrior, which the human captives always seemed to call an angel, had served her faithfully for many years.

When he neared her throne, he dropped into a low bow, fist over his heart, before beginning his report.

"We ran into a complication."

"You failed to take a hostage?”

He had never failed her in all the years he’d served her, so she could not believe that might be the case. He couldn’t conceal the slight tightening of his mouth and eyes, clear indications that he felt affronted that she would even consider it possible.

If he didn’t want her to call him out for failure, he shouldn’t suggest he’d failed. Usually he communicated better, despite using few words.

"We have two, just not the one we originally targeted."

"Why not?"

She did not care which human they captured from the stage-1 destruction. Everyone left in that area would be assumed dead by the other humans. They would not be missed, and no one would suspect what her people were doing.

"You ordered us to notify you of any outliers. The human we first targeted appears to be one such."

Marisara leaned slightly forward, her interest immediately piqued. Their untenable position was like getting caught between the tide and the cliffs. Simply slaughtering the humans, as satisfying as that might be, would not win the prize she needed.

"Explain."

Thalorian slipped into a parade rest stance, standing tall, shoulders straight, hands clasped behind his back. "The first candidate we selected showed some promise, so we sent a death whale to collect him."

"And?"

"The death whale got teleported a mile away."

"How?"

He shrugged. "Unknown. We sent a giant eel to collect him to find out."

Marisara grimaced. "Never trust an eel."

Thalorian grunted. "It did try to eat him."

She hated hearing about wasted promising captives. "So what other captive did you get?"

It was unlike him to spin tales without a purpose, but she found herself wishing he had shared more details.

"I'll get to that in a minute. The first subject escaped the eel and mortally wounded it."

"How?" She repeated, more interested than ever.

Giant eels were devious and bloodthirsty, but very effective. She couldn't imagine how a human too weak to escape to the second stage could best one.

"Unknown. That subject fought through to the second stage after all. The little we saw of his journey was quite remarkable. No human, even those who advanced in the vanguard to stage 2, should have survived that swarm."

Marisara sat back in her throne, fingering the haft of her silver trident. An intriguing story indeed.

"We eventually captured a pair of other humans as their group was overwhelmed. That capture went uneventfully."

"Good.”

“Interrogation of the captives is just beginning, but they seem more than willing to talk. We already learned the name of the first human who escaped.”

“They knew him?” That was a lucky twist of the currents.

He nodded. “The man’s name is Lucas.”

Marisara rolled the name around her mouth a few times. An interesting name. Potentially a powerful one, and maybe even the name of the human who would open the door for her success.

“Send out scouts to locate the man Lucas. I want to know everything about him.”