In Vorpiax castle: Banksi, Ilma and Mr. Crispa were searching with eagerness and worry all places known to the little ones. When they went to call them for the morning snacks they could not find them. Now, more than four hours had passed without news of the kids.
“Where, where can they be?” Ilma said opening every room in every cabin of the villa of the little masters. They had already searched the entire Villa of Mr. Crispa, the Human and Vampire Villa, and even the stables.
Banksi had gone to check the villas of the other young masters, the older brothers of Shimu and Mushi. While Mister Crispa had made his way to the castle doctors' villa, although the servants wanted to hide the situation longer as the little ones could simply be playing, Mr. Crispa decided that they could not wait any longer.
Inside one of the cabins of doctors Kolia and Anya he was having tea with them. They were discussing possible places where the children could be, the strangest thing being the difficulty of hiding Lutza, since it was very hard for a gorilla of almost two meters of high to go unnoticed.
It was in the midst of this cordial talk that Latispora and Rivularis, two of Helvella's sons, arrived, accompanied by several guards and servants.
" They just called us from my sister's expedition camp, they say they saw Lutza run off into the woods, " said Latispora in a dry tone.
At 17, she was not a very emotional lepiot but cold and calculating. At first she didn’t believe the endurs that called saying that they saw Lutza outside the castle. But she sent a servant to Mr. Crispa’s villa to check. When he informed her that he did not find either of the kids nor Mr. Crispa; she decided to call her brother and verify the situation for herself. If her brothers were involved, the situation was now more serious.
Rivularis, the youngest after Shimu and Mushi, was 10 years old and despite his carefree attitude in all situations, including training, he was currently trembling with anguish. This emotional component was his greatest weakness. Although he was more talented than Brevi, who was only a year older than him, the fact that Rivularis emotionally crumbled each time an ally suffered a mishap made him perform regularly on missions his father assigned him.
“Haaaa!” Mr. Crispa sighed.
“I hope that the master does not dispose of this one’s poor life” he said placing his tea cup aside while standing up.
“If what I think is correct. The children found a way to escape from the castle and sneaked into Miss Albella's expedition.”
The room would have been death quiet while everyone processed those words if it had not been for the sudden explosion of Kolia.
“If something happens to my little princess I will kill you!” Shouted the purple gorilla of thirty centimeters, heading to where they kept the robots for when they left the castle on dangerous missions.
“Honey! watch your words” Anya said disgusted with the effusiveness of her husband.
“How should we proceed?” She unable to hide the anguish on her face.
Latispora was now in charge of Vorpiax while her sister was out. Although she wanted to act on her own she knew that the right thing to do at the moment was to contact her sister.
Several kilometers away, Albella walked with her group through a rocky area with little vegetation. They followed one of its members, an ubax with the features of a pink lotus flower. This experienced ranger was following the geographical formations to find some natural cave that would allow them to get closer to their objective.
All the groups, at one point of time, thought about digging a tunnel to where the energy was emanating. The voidmaws dug further than anyone but soon they identified a white barrier that slowed their progress. As all the groups began to find this barrier their leaders began to think that the object was protected by an unnatural structure.
After walking for an hour the lotus ubax found a fairly large fissure in one of the mountains through which they were passing. By sending a bit of his energy he confirmed that through the narrow tunnel of the fissure they could pass through the strange structure that protected the object they were looking for.
When the signal seeking to connect to Albella's Mwave, the technomagical device used for long distance communications, came in, it was repelled by the strange structure they had just entered.
Back at the castle, everyone present was nervous since Albella did not answer Latispora's call. The situation was strange because the expensive Mwave did not require the large antennas that other means of communication such as cell phones did. Unlike conventional means of communication, the Mwaves used the same natural energy in the environment that was used for some types of magic.
“Brevi, you're in command. Summon Hegani and Veigar to one of the meeting rooms to help you with anything that happens from now on. You are forbidden to make any decision without consulting with them beforehand” Latispora gave her first order without hesitation.
“I’m going to take care of contacting Albella and rescuing our brothers. As leaving Vorpiax when we have lost communication with Albella would be stupid, I will take the study as a command center. If there is nothing critical you are forbidden to interrupt me.”
“Understood” Rivularis answered with difficulty, he was raising his jaw to avoid shedding tears. This event with his little brothers really worried him, he was imagining the worst scenarios that could happen.
“Well, what are you waiting for?” Latispora hurried.
“Fyllo, Stellecos call Hegani and Veigar. Tell them to meet me in the meeting room to the right of dad's office” Rivularis said to his two servants before rushing out of the room to fulfill his mission.
“Yes sir!” They both answered going out to run.
“Now that I have dealt with the general situation of Vorpiax, I need the three of you to accompany me to the study,” said Latispora.
“As you say.”
“Yes ma'am.”
“With pleasure.”
Anya, Kolia and Crispa replied.
As the three rose from their seats. Throughout the castle, the engines of a huge magitech ship could be heard.
These were large vehicles used to travel between islands, powered by different types of energy depending on the model, these large vessels crossed the skies as if they were floating.
“Dad’s vessel” Latispora immediately recognized the sound.
“What is happening? the master has never done anything so reckless” asked Anya surprised that the first person to break the rule of no vehicles or flying creatures in the perimeters of the castle, was the same person who had broken it.
“Look!” One of the servants accompanying Latispora yelled when he saw through the windows of the corridor, on the outskirts of the medical village, the boat approaching.
Everyone turned to see and those who were inside the cabin came out to look. The baron's private ship was about to crash into the castle. And before any of them could react.
“Boom!” The ship crashed in front of where they were.
In any other situation, Guahaioque, the huge carnivorous plant that surrounded the castle to protect it, would have stopped the ship, but just in this unexpected situation, Helvella himself had prohibited it from stopping the ship.
Pieces of wood, all kinds of decorations and furniture exploded everywhere and a great cloud of dust flooded the corridors and villas near the point of impact. A fire of natural flames began to spread around the impact point.
When everyone present opened their eyes, a figure appeared from the dust, the shadow was growing larger as it approached with heavy steps to the medical village. Different black flames surrounded the figure and as it walked his image became clearer.
Helvella carried Fusca in his arms, preventing any of the flames that surrounded him from touching his son. Fusca had his head dropped back, his eyes open showing no sign of life other than the slight movement of his chest. When they could recognize their master, the first ones to react were Anya and Kolia, their experience as doctors shone in this type of situation.
“Save my son” Helvella spat those words with difficulty before falling to his knees.
His face was dirty; they could tell that he had gone several days without resting. He had an open cut, still bleeding, that crossed his face. It started from his right eyebrow and went down between his eye and his lips until it reached his jaw.
“Right away” the two answered running towards the cabin to get into their respective medical robots. Due to the size difference it was impossible for them to carry Fusca immediately. So they had to act quickly to be able to examine their lord's firstborn.
“What happened?” asked Latispora as soon as she got out of the shock the ship crashing into the castle caused her.
“Where are Darthañan and Frigglene? I have to speak with them immediately.”
Her father completely ignored her. The way he spoke showed that the subject was a top priority.
Latispora doubted for a moment if answering him was the most appropriate thing to do while he was in that state, but in the end she decided to answer her father.
