The Fenimeldiyaan: Origins - Chapter 7
Andreas scooted over to where Gerald lay, slumped against the wall. “Shouldn’t have done that, pilgrim. Twas brave of ye but ye risked yer life for no reason”.
Gerald let out a harsh rattling laugh, followed by a grunt of pain. “Returning the favour. Ye were trying to help us all escape and I saw an opportunity to do something after being locked up and feeling useless for the past few days. She might have killed ye if I hadn’t gotten in the way”.
Andreas shook his head. “No, ye can’t kill someone like me. Re-arrange me energy, aye, but not kill me. Tis complicated and I don’t have time to explain at the moment. But I owe ye two things — the protection of the Inner Circle Alliance and me real name”. He inclined his head and held up his right hand, using his forefinger to trace a circle in the air. “Carpathian honour. I be Lord Andreas Alano Cesario, Spy Master of the Inner Circle Alliance of the Carpathian Way and Shadow Agent of the Vyrdigaan Order. I ain’t much of a healer but I can lend ye some of me energy to help ye recover”.
He placed his hand on Gerald’s forehead and closed his eyes, murmuring some sort of incantation or prayer in his own Carpathian dialect.
The little girl danced in front of Apollo, still holding up the glowing cube. She sang in a soft gentle voice, apparently oblivious to the threat posed by the irate Ciracea.
Ciracea aimed a blast at the child, who made no attempt to move out of the way. She still had a contented smile on her face when the blast hit, vaporising her. The cube floated in the air, but nothing remained of the cheerful little girl who had held it.
Apollo reeled in shock, almost dropping his staff and making his shield waver for an instant. The prisoners in their cells gasped in horror. Time seemed to stand still for an interval which no-one could discern.
The only two people who appeared unaffected by the senseless act of violence were Andreas, who continued tending to Gerald, and Mazia, who laughed.
Apollo’s forehead creased in confusion, finding the eccentric little woman’s reaction most inappropriate.
In response, she grinned and fired off another energy blast at Ciracea. “Ye be worrying for no reason again, Lightbringer. No-one can kill the child within. Watch!”
She swirled her hand around in front of her. Multi-coloured ribbons of energy appeared, floating in the air and weaving themselves into intricate patterns which resembled those in her braided hair.
At the end of each ribbon, a small spark appeared, faint at first but growing brighter. The sparks resolved themselves into a group of children, who proceeded to dance in a circle around Ciracea. All the little girls were exact copies of the one whom Ciracea had killed. The little boys were of similar age, all alike with waist-length tails of hair and cheeky grins.
“The child within has infinite lives” Mazia pronounced. “Meself and me Grandpa, old on the outside but always the child within”.
Ciracea staggered for a moment before recovering her poise. Growling more curses, she aimed at the children, struggling to lock on to their fast-moving forms. When she did manage to blast a child, it was by sheer luck rather than any skill on her part. In a matter of seconds, another spark grew into a child to replace the one whom she had killed.
Mazia laughed again, a clear joyous sound, the trilling rippling laughter of a much younger woman. “Witness the mighty and fearsome Lady Ciracea DeGraaw being menaced by a group of children. Tis a wondrous sight, eh, Lightbringer?”
Apollo gave a vague nod before turning his attention to the little figure of Andreas, who had begun picking locks on cells again.
Ciracea continued aiming energy strikes at the dancing children, hitting some but missing most of them. Mazia, still laughing, aimed the occasional blast at Ciracea.
Seizing the opportunity, Apollo hurried over to Gerald, inspecting his injuries. “You’re lucky you’ve got such a strong constitution. It makes up for all the risks you take, I suppose”.
Gerald wheezed out a painful sounding laugh. “Couldn’t stand by and let the rest of ye have all the fun”.
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Andreas got off the bed and sat on the floor, taking up a cross-legged meditation position. “First, I need to find out the extent of the darkness within ye. I’ve got a rough idea, but I won’t know for sure until I get inside yer head”.
“Inside my head?” Morgan questioned. “You mean you’re going to take control of me like the Governess did?”
Andreas shook his head. “I won’t be taking control of ye. Tis what we call a mind merge. A joining of minds for a short time via the gift of telepathy. I’ll see some of yer thoughts and memories and ye’ll see some of mine. After that, we’ll go through some mental exercises to help ye resist the allure of the darkness”.
“What if the Governess catches you helping me?” Morgan asked. “Surely she’ll punish both of us? Drain our powers and kill us, probably”.
“She’d drain ye and cast ye aside eventually anyways” Andreas stated. “With me granddaughter’s help, I should be able to keep her out during the merge. We can’t afford to wait around. Mazia and Apollo won’t be able to distract her for much longer”.
A loud rumbling vibration reverberated all around them, causing the walls to shake and small pieces of plaster to fall from the ornate ceiling.
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“You dare to plot against me?” Ciracea raged. “I’ll destroy this whole fortress and all of you inside it. Throughout the centuries since the erroneous report of my demise, I’ve been acquiring more sources of power. Now I be stronger than all the Vyrdigaan Elders and Chronomage Elders put together. Witness this, you hopeless dabblers! Watch an expert at work!”
She closed her eyes and concentrated. From deep below the ground, she called the stagnant pools of magma, bringing them to life with a grumbling roaring sound. “Not many people know this, but Broken Hill happens to be a volcano. A small one, long dormant, but its eruption will be sufficient to end all of you. By that time, I’ll be far away, looking for a new location to build my empire. Twill be built and you’ll be dead and forgotten. Farewell, foolish mortals!”
Apollo looked up and paused in his healing of Gerald, seeing Mazia stumble as cracks began to appear in the stone floor of the dungeon. “What do we do now?”
The little woman’s wrinkled features set in harsh lines and no hint of her playful nature remained. “We need to find and destroy her sources of power. I can slow down time but she’ll be taking power from another Chronomage and she’ll be fighting me all the way”. She waved her hands in the air in a shooing motion. “Go on! Get searching! Remember the dark crystal which Grandpa made when he drained the darkness from the bars of the cells? Ye be looking for more crystals like that. If ye see one, destroy it”.
“They could be anywhere and everywhere within the fortress” one of the little girls added. “We’ll all help ye look for them”.
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Morgan was anxious about the amount of destruction around them, but he sat down across from Andreas when the man motioned to him. A little tentatively, he folded his legs in a position rather like Andreas’s, though not as gracefully or easily.
“Put yer hands on me head like this,” Andreas said, putting his hands on either side Morgan’s head, just above the ears.
Morgan swallowed nervously. “Should we be doing this when the fortress is falling down?” he asked with a touch of anxiety.
“Ye be perfectly safe,” Andreas assured Morgan.
“A-alright,” Morgan said, instinctively trusting the little man. He put his hands where directed and took in a deep yet shaky breath. “What now?”
“Open yer mind to me,” Andreas urged. “I will help ye. I will open me mind to ye in return.”
It wasn’t something Morgan was entirely comfortable with, but he had to make up his mistake to Apollo. For abandoning him in the woods, and for losing control. He closed his eyes, and opened his mind to the little man, letting his thoughts flow to Andreas, and feeling thoughts flow back.
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River woke as the ground rumbled beneath her, nearly tipping over onto the floor. Cracks seemed to be opening, and her eyes went wide. The door to her cell was opened, and she stumbled out into the hall, seeing the others there.
Apollo straightened from Gerald, who didn’t seem to have any desire to stand up. He was only half-mended, but if Apollo spent any longer on him, then he would just burn up. “Alright,” he said. He could use his magic to locate the darkness and find the crystals, but … how many were there?
“Go!” Mazia said, giving him no more time to think. The healer ran off, leaving Gerald alone.
Gerald leaned his head back in frustration. They had come so close … was he really going to die in a fiery death, whole worlds away from his wife? She would kill him — which he supposed was the least of his worries, considering that he would already be dead.
Still, Gerald felt as if he should be doing something. Not lying on the ground, broken and bruised, too weak to stand. Frustrated by his inability to do anything, Gerald groaned silently. Not only had he gotten himself injured, he’d done it for nothing. The man he’d saved hadn’t even needed it done in the first place!
River crept over to Andreas, acting something like his shadow. She didn’t make any noise or ask for his attention, but the rumbling and destruction was terrifying her. She hugged her book to her chest and stared at Andreas with wide eyes as he went about his work.
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Images flashed through Morgan’s mind. A large number of naked people, most of them with dark skins, gathered in a desert encampment, sharing food around campfires, followed by drinking and dancing. The same desert in daylight, with Andreas surrounded by a group of children, watching while he performed conjuring tricks, sang songs, played a flute and told silly stories. Beggars in grimy city streets whispering to Andreas and accepting handouts of food and money in return. Andreas drinking and smoking with several huge burly men in another city street. After that, Morgan saw the familiar image of Andreas in his priestly robes, picking locks on the doors of prison cells.
“Everything will be the right size, Morgan Shadowbinder”. Andreas’s voice spoke in a soft gentle tone within Morgan’s mind. “Wind turns green and the Goddess smiles.
One final image revealed itself to Morgan. Andreas, dressed in a shabby checked suit and brown leather sandals, kneeling in front of an altar in a small church. A statue of a reptilian female with spiky wings looked down at him from the altar. One clawed hand held out a cruel dagger, the other a book. “Iraevesh, Goddess of Justice, will help ye fight the darkness” Andreas projected.
Morgan found himself kneeling next to Andreas, staring up at the alien face of the Goddess. The thin lips curved into a smile and the threatening aspect of the statue changed into one of infinite benevolence and wisdom. Her voice sounded soothing, like an idealised version of a caring mother, full of kindness that he had never experienced. “Don’t deny the darkness within, Morgan Shadowbinder. Instead use the darkness to fight darkness. Make yours a righteous darkness”.
Andreas pulled his hands away from Morgan’s head, breaking the trance. “We be ready to go now”. He held up a dark crystal. “These be the source of Ciracea’s powers. They be hidden all over the fortress. We need to find them and destroy them”.
A larger chunk of masonry fell from the ceiling, landing too close for comfort. “I suppose now would be a bad time to point out that the place seems to be falling down around us” Morgan ventured.
“Ciracea be trying to set off the volcano” Andreas replied. “Me granddaughter be trying to stall her. Tis a battle of wills. I expect Mazia will bring Jude into the fight soon. He’s been around longer than Ciracea, so I heard”.
The names meant nothing to Morgan but he followed Andreas out of the bedchamber and into a grey stone corridor, hoping that they could both withstand whatever Ciracea threw at them next.
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Gerald stared at the crack in the floor. One moment it had almost reached him, threatening to swallow him up. In the blink of an eye it had vanished altogether, as if it had never been there.
“Whole place be in a state of temporal flux”. A different version of Andreas dressed in a checked suit and brown leather sandals heaved Gerald up as if he weighed nothing. “Let’s get outa here and go crystal hunting, eh?”
Too weak to object, Gerald allowed himself to be hauled around like a piece of baggage.
All of the cells had been unlocked by that time and the prisoners hurried out of the dungeon while Mazia and Ciracea remained in their temporal duel.
River followed the other version of Andreas out of the dungeon, up the winding staircase and along several dark corridors. At intervals, the ground shook beneath them and cracks opened up in the stonework, only to disappear again.
She stopped at an intersection and pointed upwards to the ceiling. A metal light fitting hung there, but instead of a lighting crystal or a gas lamp, one of the dark crystals had been set into the metal framework.
“Good job, me dear”. Andreas grinned and patted her on the arm. “I’d best save me powers of sorcery for when I really need ‘em”. He removed his boots and set his toes into a crack in the wall, propelling himself upwards.
River watched the skinny little man ascending at a rapid pace. It only took a few minutes for him to reach the crystal and crush it to dust in his fist. Dangling from the light fitting, he dropped to the floor, landing with the consummate ease of a circus performer.
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Throughout the fortress, the freed prisoners spread out, searching for the dark crystals, hoping that they would be able to find and destroy all of them before Ciracea could make the volcano erupt.
Four versions of Andreas participated in the search — the priestly one with Morgan, the one in guard’s uniform accompanied by Fiametta, the one in the jumpsuit whom River followed and the one in the checked suit who carried the partially healed Gerald.
Surrounded by children, Apollo went off in another direction, heading for the upper floors. Two of the children had found crystals but no-one seemed to know how many remained or how long they had before the volcano became fully active.
Gerald let out a harsh rattling laugh, followed by a grunt of pain. “Returning the favour. Ye were trying to help us all escape and I saw an opportunity to do something after being locked up and feeling useless for the past few days. She might have killed ye if I hadn’t gotten in the way”.
Andreas shook his head. “No, ye can’t kill someone like me. Re-arrange me energy, aye, but not kill me. Tis complicated and I don’t have time to explain at the moment. But I owe ye two things — the protection of the Inner Circle Alliance and me real name”. He inclined his head and held up his right hand, using his forefinger to trace a circle in the air. “Carpathian honour. I be Lord Andreas Alano Cesario, Spy Master of the Inner Circle Alliance of the Carpathian Way and Shadow Agent of the Vyrdigaan Order. I ain’t much of a healer but I can lend ye some of me energy to help ye recover”.
He placed his hand on Gerald’s forehead and closed his eyes, murmuring some sort of incantation or prayer in his own Carpathian dialect.
The little girl danced in front of Apollo, still holding up the glowing cube. She sang in a soft gentle voice, apparently oblivious to the threat posed by the irate Ciracea.
Ciracea aimed a blast at the child, who made no attempt to move out of the way. She still had a contented smile on her face when the blast hit, vaporising her. The cube floated in the air, but nothing remained of the cheerful little girl who had held it.
Apollo reeled in shock, almost dropping his staff and making his shield waver for an instant. The prisoners in their cells gasped in horror. Time seemed to stand still for an interval which no-one could discern.
The only two people who appeared unaffected by the senseless act of violence were Andreas, who continued tending to Gerald, and Mazia, who laughed.
Apollo’s forehead creased in confusion, finding the eccentric little woman’s reaction most inappropriate.
In response, she grinned and fired off another energy blast at Ciracea. “Ye be worrying for no reason again, Lightbringer. No-one can kill the child within. Watch!”
She swirled her hand around in front of her. Multi-coloured ribbons of energy appeared, floating in the air and weaving themselves into intricate patterns which resembled those in her braided hair.
At the end of each ribbon, a small spark appeared, faint at first but growing brighter. The sparks resolved themselves into a group of children, who proceeded to dance in a circle around Ciracea. All the little girls were exact copies of the one whom Ciracea had killed. The little boys were of similar age, all alike with waist-length tails of hair and cheeky grins.
“The child within has infinite lives” Mazia pronounced. “Meself and me Grandpa, old on the outside but always the child within”.
Ciracea staggered for a moment before recovering her poise. Growling more curses, she aimed at the children, struggling to lock on to their fast-moving forms. When she did manage to blast a child, it was by sheer luck rather than any skill on her part. In a matter of seconds, another spark grew into a child to replace the one whom she had killed.
Mazia laughed again, a clear joyous sound, the trilling rippling laughter of a much younger woman. “Witness the mighty and fearsome Lady Ciracea DeGraaw being menaced by a group of children. Tis a wondrous sight, eh, Lightbringer?”
Apollo gave a vague nod before turning his attention to the little figure of Andreas, who had begun picking locks on cells again.
Ciracea continued aiming energy strikes at the dancing children, hitting some but missing most of them. Mazia, still laughing, aimed the occasional blast at Ciracea.
Seizing the opportunity, Apollo hurried over to Gerald, inspecting his injuries. “You’re lucky you’ve got such a strong constitution. It makes up for all the risks you take, I suppose”.
Gerald wheezed out a painful sounding laugh. “Couldn’t stand by and let the rest of ye have all the fun”.
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Andreas got off the bed and sat on the floor, taking up a cross-legged meditation position. “First, I need to find out the extent of the darkness within ye. I’ve got a rough idea, but I won’t know for sure until I get inside yer head”.
“Inside my head?” Morgan questioned. “You mean you’re going to take control of me like the Governess did?”
Andreas shook his head. “I won’t be taking control of ye. Tis what we call a mind merge. A joining of minds for a short time via the gift of telepathy. I’ll see some of yer thoughts and memories and ye’ll see some of mine. After that, we’ll go through some mental exercises to help ye resist the allure of the darkness”.
“What if the Governess catches you helping me?” Morgan asked. “Surely she’ll punish both of us? Drain our powers and kill us, probably”.
“She’d drain ye and cast ye aside eventually anyways” Andreas stated. “With me granddaughter’s help, I should be able to keep her out during the merge. We can’t afford to wait around. Mazia and Apollo won’t be able to distract her for much longer”.
A loud rumbling vibration reverberated all around them, causing the walls to shake and small pieces of plaster to fall from the ornate ceiling.
-----------------------------
“You dare to plot against me?” Ciracea raged. “I’ll destroy this whole fortress and all of you inside it. Throughout the centuries since the erroneous report of my demise, I’ve been acquiring more sources of power. Now I be stronger than all the Vyrdigaan Elders and Chronomage Elders put together. Witness this, you hopeless dabblers! Watch an expert at work!”
She closed her eyes and concentrated. From deep below the ground, she called the stagnant pools of magma, bringing them to life with a grumbling roaring sound. “Not many people know this, but Broken Hill happens to be a volcano. A small one, long dormant, but its eruption will be sufficient to end all of you. By that time, I’ll be far away, looking for a new location to build my empire. Twill be built and you’ll be dead and forgotten. Farewell, foolish mortals!”
Apollo looked up and paused in his healing of Gerald, seeing Mazia stumble as cracks began to appear in the stone floor of the dungeon. “What do we do now?”
The little woman’s wrinkled features set in harsh lines and no hint of her playful nature remained. “We need to find and destroy her sources of power. I can slow down time but she’ll be taking power from another Chronomage and she’ll be fighting me all the way”. She waved her hands in the air in a shooing motion. “Go on! Get searching! Remember the dark crystal which Grandpa made when he drained the darkness from the bars of the cells? Ye be looking for more crystals like that. If ye see one, destroy it”.
“They could be anywhere and everywhere within the fortress” one of the little girls added. “We’ll all help ye look for them”.
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Morgan was anxious about the amount of destruction around them, but he sat down across from Andreas when the man motioned to him. A little tentatively, he folded his legs in a position rather like Andreas’s, though not as gracefully or easily.
“Put yer hands on me head like this,” Andreas said, putting his hands on either side Morgan’s head, just above the ears.
Morgan swallowed nervously. “Should we be doing this when the fortress is falling down?” he asked with a touch of anxiety.
“Ye be perfectly safe,” Andreas assured Morgan.
“A-alright,” Morgan said, instinctively trusting the little man. He put his hands where directed and took in a deep yet shaky breath. “What now?”
“Open yer mind to me,” Andreas urged. “I will help ye. I will open me mind to ye in return.”
It wasn’t something Morgan was entirely comfortable with, but he had to make up his mistake to Apollo. For abandoning him in the woods, and for losing control. He closed his eyes, and opened his mind to the little man, letting his thoughts flow to Andreas, and feeling thoughts flow back.
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River woke as the ground rumbled beneath her, nearly tipping over onto the floor. Cracks seemed to be opening, and her eyes went wide. The door to her cell was opened, and she stumbled out into the hall, seeing the others there.
Apollo straightened from Gerald, who didn’t seem to have any desire to stand up. He was only half-mended, but if Apollo spent any longer on him, then he would just burn up. “Alright,” he said. He could use his magic to locate the darkness and find the crystals, but … how many were there?
“Go!” Mazia said, giving him no more time to think. The healer ran off, leaving Gerald alone.
Gerald leaned his head back in frustration. They had come so close … was he really going to die in a fiery death, whole worlds away from his wife? She would kill him — which he supposed was the least of his worries, considering that he would already be dead.
Still, Gerald felt as if he should be doing something. Not lying on the ground, broken and bruised, too weak to stand. Frustrated by his inability to do anything, Gerald groaned silently. Not only had he gotten himself injured, he’d done it for nothing. The man he’d saved hadn’t even needed it done in the first place!
River crept over to Andreas, acting something like his shadow. She didn’t make any noise or ask for his attention, but the rumbling and destruction was terrifying her. She hugged her book to her chest and stared at Andreas with wide eyes as he went about his work.
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Images flashed through Morgan’s mind. A large number of naked people, most of them with dark skins, gathered in a desert encampment, sharing food around campfires, followed by drinking and dancing. The same desert in daylight, with Andreas surrounded by a group of children, watching while he performed conjuring tricks, sang songs, played a flute and told silly stories. Beggars in grimy city streets whispering to Andreas and accepting handouts of food and money in return. Andreas drinking and smoking with several huge burly men in another city street. After that, Morgan saw the familiar image of Andreas in his priestly robes, picking locks on the doors of prison cells.
“Everything will be the right size, Morgan Shadowbinder”. Andreas’s voice spoke in a soft gentle tone within Morgan’s mind. “Wind turns green and the Goddess smiles.
One final image revealed itself to Morgan. Andreas, dressed in a shabby checked suit and brown leather sandals, kneeling in front of an altar in a small church. A statue of a reptilian female with spiky wings looked down at him from the altar. One clawed hand held out a cruel dagger, the other a book. “Iraevesh, Goddess of Justice, will help ye fight the darkness” Andreas projected.
Morgan found himself kneeling next to Andreas, staring up at the alien face of the Goddess. The thin lips curved into a smile and the threatening aspect of the statue changed into one of infinite benevolence and wisdom. Her voice sounded soothing, like an idealised version of a caring mother, full of kindness that he had never experienced. “Don’t deny the darkness within, Morgan Shadowbinder. Instead use the darkness to fight darkness. Make yours a righteous darkness”.
Andreas pulled his hands away from Morgan’s head, breaking the trance. “We be ready to go now”. He held up a dark crystal. “These be the source of Ciracea’s powers. They be hidden all over the fortress. We need to find them and destroy them”.
A larger chunk of masonry fell from the ceiling, landing too close for comfort. “I suppose now would be a bad time to point out that the place seems to be falling down around us” Morgan ventured.
“Ciracea be trying to set off the volcano” Andreas replied. “Me granddaughter be trying to stall her. Tis a battle of wills. I expect Mazia will bring Jude into the fight soon. He’s been around longer than Ciracea, so I heard”.
The names meant nothing to Morgan but he followed Andreas out of the bedchamber and into a grey stone corridor, hoping that they could both withstand whatever Ciracea threw at them next.
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Gerald stared at the crack in the floor. One moment it had almost reached him, threatening to swallow him up. In the blink of an eye it had vanished altogether, as if it had never been there.
“Whole place be in a state of temporal flux”. A different version of Andreas dressed in a checked suit and brown leather sandals heaved Gerald up as if he weighed nothing. “Let’s get outa here and go crystal hunting, eh?”
Too weak to object, Gerald allowed himself to be hauled around like a piece of baggage.
All of the cells had been unlocked by that time and the prisoners hurried out of the dungeon while Mazia and Ciracea remained in their temporal duel.
River followed the other version of Andreas out of the dungeon, up the winding staircase and along several dark corridors. At intervals, the ground shook beneath them and cracks opened up in the stonework, only to disappear again.
She stopped at an intersection and pointed upwards to the ceiling. A metal light fitting hung there, but instead of a lighting crystal or a gas lamp, one of the dark crystals had been set into the metal framework.
“Good job, me dear”. Andreas grinned and patted her on the arm. “I’d best save me powers of sorcery for when I really need ‘em”. He removed his boots and set his toes into a crack in the wall, propelling himself upwards.
River watched the skinny little man ascending at a rapid pace. It only took a few minutes for him to reach the crystal and crush it to dust in his fist. Dangling from the light fitting, he dropped to the floor, landing with the consummate ease of a circus performer.
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Throughout the fortress, the freed prisoners spread out, searching for the dark crystals, hoping that they would be able to find and destroy all of them before Ciracea could make the volcano erupt.
Four versions of Andreas participated in the search — the priestly one with Morgan, the one in guard’s uniform accompanied by Fiametta, the one in the jumpsuit whom River followed and the one in the checked suit who carried the partially healed Gerald.
Surrounded by children, Apollo went off in another direction, heading for the upper floors. Two of the children had found crystals but no-one seemed to know how many remained or how long they had before the volcano became fully active.
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