As Evren finished off the last of them, he called out, “Karina, can you make a ‘djinn’ to replace mine and hold them off for as long as you can? Ellis, you stay with Karina and switch out with her when she needs a break.” The two nodded and turned down the hallway towards the summoning chamber. The ‘djinn’ already there faded into a small whirlwind. Karina chanted ‘djinn’ and held off the puppets who were trying to come down the hallway.
“Fletcher.” Evren said, but Fletcher didn’t respond. “Fletcher!”
Fletcher turned to him, and Evren said, “Cover those two. Aim for the legs, if possible, to slow them down.” Fletcher nodded and turned around to cover Karina and Ellis.
Evren stood next to the door to the depository, and it looked like he was listening, but he was instead using his sensory field to check the other side of the door. He heard someone throw up behind him but didn’t check to see who it was. “I think the puppets killed the monks.”
Walter asked, “How many are in there?”
“Three, I believe.” Evren replied. He turned to Isobel. “Straight ahead to the right is a room. The guys say that’s the assignment room. There’s supposed to be a book in there, grab it and find the page that shows everyone assigned to Grandia.” Isobel nodded, and Evren turned to Harley, “Harley, are you okay?”
Harley replied, “Yes Mr. Evren, sorry.”
“Don’t apologize, Harley. Straight ahead is a counter, on the other side is a puppet. Hit him with ‘phantasm’ I’ll get the other two.” Evren said.
Harley nodded, a fierce determination on her face.
Evren opened the door and stepped to the left side of the hallway, Isobel a step behind on his right. A puppet came from around the corner and Evren chanted ‘phantasm’ so it would stop next to the other dazed one. Evren hopped over the counter as the third puppet came around the corner. It swung its sword at the unarmed Evren, who stepped forward into the body of the puppet, throwing it over his shoulder and to the floor behind him. He threw a quick punch into the puppet’s face knocking it out.
Isobel came around the corner as Evren was making his way to the back. “I’ve got it Evren,” she called out.
Evren called out, “Good, let’s go.” Evren walked to a second set of doors and entered a room with a ladder in the back. The normally locked trap door on the ceiling was opened. To the right was another door that led to a mantrap. Evren walked through the door to the next door and said, “It’s bolted and there’s a monk on the other side.”
He put his hand on the door and said, “That won’t work with me, buddy.” Using telekinesis, Evren unbolted and unlocked the door, opening it for himself.
On the other side of the door was a monk holding a dagger who swung it at Evren as soon as he saw him. Evren leaned back slightly, just enough for the dagger to avoid him, and followed up with a punch to the man’s temple, knocking him out.
“Alright Isobel, read me some num… holy shit what a mess this place is.” Arranged all around the room were shelves. Each shelf had crystals on it, with a series of numbers next to the crystals. They seemed to be in ascending order starting at the far end of the room, but there were areas in which the numbers jumped by several digits before the sequence continued.
“Ok, Walter and Harley, help me out here. Isobel, give me a number then Harley and Walter. We go get a crystal of that number and give the command ‘stand down,’ then bring the crystal and the number back to here. Put the crystal on the number and get the next number from Isobel.” Evren said. “Questions?”
They both shook their heads and Evren looked to Isobel who began calling out the numbers for the puppets located in Grandia. After fifteen minutes of collecting crystals, Ellis, Karina and Fletcher came to the depository and said that the puppets had started to just stand there. Evren briefed them on what they were doing and invited them to join him. After another thirty minutes, they had found all the crystals and had them laying out.
Evren looked to everyone and said, “Who’s magic is good currently? No headaches.”
Ellis raised his hand and said, “I didn’t get a chance to summon a ‘djinn’ so I’m still good.”
“I’m ok too Mr. Evren.” Harley said.
Evren nodded. “Ok, Walter you start picking up the crystals and calling the puppets to the depository. When they get here, shatter the crystal. Harley, it’s your job to cast ‘cure curse’ on them.”
They both nodded and Evren walked out to the hallway, “What are you going to do Mr. Evren?” Harley asked.
“Clean up my mess.” He said.
Evren went out into the hall and threw some bedding down on the floor. He put the corpses of the puppets on top of the bedding eventually collecting up all of them. One at a time, he dragged the corpse filled bedding down the hallway towards the summoning chamber. Once he had all the corpses there, he used ‘jet’ to burn them. There was a vent in the chamber that allowed the smoke to escape the room. Evren was surprised with this fact and so he used ‘dust devil’ to speed up the process, causing more smoke to rise.
As time went on, he had to use ‘jet’ again to keep the corpses burning, eventually getting them down to the skeleton. He collected up the bones and put them all in a large sack that he took out of the summoning chamber and set by the stairway door. As Evren made his way to the depository, Fletcher said, “Oh thank goodness you’re here.”
Evren asked, “What’s wrong.”
Fletcher didn’t say anything and just led Evren to the assignment room. There thirty-eight former puppets were in various states of depression, anxiety and denial. Evren nodded that he understood.
“Attention everyone. May I have your attention please?” Evren started, “My name is Evren Bozdag, I know this is difficult for you, but from now on, your lives are your own. I don’t know if you are aware of what happened when you were enslaved, but I assure you that us here will try to help you get on with your lives.
“I killed so many people.” One man said.
Evren turned to him and said, “You don’t have to do that anymore.”
“They raped me repeatedly.” Another woman said, with a few others nodding along with her.
Evren looked at them with pity and sighed deeply, “I’ll… We’ll take care of them, together. Right now… ah shit, we’ve got to catch them.” Evren turned to look at his friends, then back to the former puppets. “How many are there?”
Walter said, “Thirty-eight”
At that point, they heard a commotion coming from the hallway outside of the depository. Evren used his sensory field to determine there were several people coming down the stairs and headed this way. He sighed and headed to the door.
When he opened the door, he was met with Commander General Le Saux. The advancing soldiers stopped as Evren stepped out in the hallway to meet them.
“Who are you?” Commander Le Saux asked.
“What was it again? 548,590. At least that’s the number you guys gave me. As for my name, it’s Evren.
Commander Le Saux frowned and said, “The missing puppet.” With a sneer.
Evren shook his head. “No, never was one of your puppets.” He gestured with his head behind him and said, “And they’re not your puppets anymore either.
“What have you done?!” the commander yelled and drew his sword.
Evren drew his own sword, but didn’t get into a stance, he just held it down at his side. Calmly, he said, “I’ve freed them.”
With unbridled fury, Commander Le Saux raised his sword and swung it down on Evren. Or at least he tried to. While the sword was still raised up over his head, it was held in place. Evren only stared up at the sword. He turned around and faced the puppets still in the depository outside of the assignment room. “Did this guy rape any of you?”
The various women in the room looked into the hallway and one raised her hand.
“What should be done with him?” Evren asked.
The woman timidly stepped forward and looked at Commander Le Saux, then to the soldiers behind him. A few of them laughed and called out to her. “They all did.” She said quietly.
Evren stepped in front of her, blocking her view. “Look at me. Look at me. That’s never going to happen again.”
Commander Le Saux said, “Yes it will, that little whore is going to take turns with all of us again, just as soon as we kill you.”
Evren’s eyes flickered with anger, and he slowly turned around to look at Commander Le Saux. He stared the commander in the eyes but said nothing. Using telekinesis, he threw him back to the wall above the door to the stairwell. Just as Commander Le Saux was about to hit the wall, Evren chanted ‘explosion’ and Commander Le Saux turned into a red mist on the wall. Evren’s eyes then focused on the guards who were with the commander, and the ones who were standing back up after being knocked back as the commander flew into and past them.
He turned his head to the left and looked over his shoulder to the woman standing behind him. “What do you want me to do with them?”
A voice fierce with conviction but timid with fear said, “Kill them.”
Scared, the men turned around and ran to the stairs, but the door slammed shut in front of them. Evren cast ‘permafrost’ in the middle of the group. A misty fog followed the freezing of the soldiers as first their feet were frozen to the floor, then the rest of them as the spell worked its way up from the floor to their heads.
Evren said, “Sorry everyone, that might have been a little bit too much.” As he turned around.
As he faced the others, the woman ran up to him and hugged him, crying into his chest. He didn’t say anything, and just stood there, letting her cry. When she finished crying, she backed off embarrassed. “Sorry.” She said.
Evren shook his head and said, “Don’t be.” He looked at the others, some were in shock, but some had a look of determination.
“Now,” Evren said, “let’s go look for the others.” Evren turned around and cast ‘blaze’ to melt all the ice along the floor and at their feet so they could move them. “Don’t break them, it’ll be a mess to clean up.”
Before they left, Evren re-locked the mantrap doors and the entrance to the depository with telekinesis. Since there was nobody inside and the doors were deadbolted shut, nobody would be able to get in without Evren’s help.
Fletcher said, “Evren, what about the summoning chamber?”
“Only those two know how to use it and if they even think to summon another group here, they’ll be joining the commander.” Evren replied.
