ALEXiThymiA: Epilogue II

Epilogue II

Ms. Lane Tutlidge

For two days in a row, she avoided her classes. Laney, or Lane Tutlidge, had gone out of her way to be as accommodating to the warrior woman. The woman who stared down a Tier V mage and caused her to cry in the staff bathroom. Laney knew firsthand how scary the girl was, she never even blinked. The entire time in her classroom, she would just sit there and stare her down with those cold blue eyes of hers. Eyes that spoke of an emotionless existence of disinterest.

The wolves, or rather the rest of the pack she could deal with, they at least smiled every once in a while, but only when Alexa was calm. The moment Alexa showed any type of emotion, that was when the girls got distracted.

Hell having the girls in her class for the last two days had been an exercise in teaching drones. None of the girls seemed to show any signs of life. The lesson flew by, and despite showing up late, she still ended her lessons early because no one asked questions or anything.

Then when she went to Mr. Mackie about her absence, he just assured her that everything was fine and that she was completing her Trials of Ascension, whatever that meant. Apparently, it was a big deal for Truedungeon delvers. Laney herself thought the entire thing was ridiculous, as she couldn’t understand what was so important about going through ten levels of a hard dungeon. At that thought, Laney stopped herself, dungeons were scarry and girls who went through Red Tier difficulty dungeons were even scarier.

Worse, her parents were in on it, almost encouraging her to succeed. Laney couldn’t even understand what was happening. That was why she now found herself tossing and turning all night on a Saturday night, thinking about her students, rather than getting a good night’s sleep.

“Well, I might as well work on lesson plans while I am up.” Laney said to herself as she got up from her bed and walking the four feet to her desk, fired up her computer and began creating next week’s lesson plans.

***

Luke Thyme

For days his visions had been getting worse, been getting more and more granular to the details. He saw what Julie would be wearing. He knew the time, fifteen minutes before they were dismissed before lunch. He knew the location, the north side of campus, just past the chow hall. He knew and saw everything, but when he awoke, key details left his mind like fleeting vapors on the wind.

He could remember pieces, and if he focused, he could swear certain details would come to him. Julie wearing a red sweater, Gina looking nervously for him as if he would know where his sister was. Then some time would pass, he would go to class, only to leave with Julie to the cafeteria, only to be attacked.

Over and over the details of events played out and over and over the details changed. Minor variations to script, Julie wearing her blue sweater instead, and it happened. Avoiding talking to Gina, so many different things happened, but in the end the Necromancer was still released on campus.

Worse, she somehow managed to take down Mr. Mackie with but a single flip of her finger. Then he heard the Necromancer’s oddly melodic voice capture him in pure darkness and speak, “where is Alexa Thyme. Where is your sister.”

***

General Marcus Mackie

An ass chewing, there was no simpler way to put it. General Marcus Mackie had been berated by a know nothing elven Knight, little more than a squad leader. Worse, he had taken it, all because he knew eventually that elf would lead him back to his son, Kelvin.

“You get all that?” The Elven warrior said, in a tone that spoke as if he was speaking down to a junior enlisted, rather than someone of higher rank.

“Sir.” Mackie said, standing to his full height and while smaller than the tall thin frame of the Knight, he still put on an intimidating aura.

“What?”

“Sir, you will address me as Sir from your feet, or I will clean my floors with your face.” Mackie said.

“You dare…” Was as far as the Knight got, before an enraged Mackie charged forward grabbed the moron by the head and slammed him into the ground. Simultaneously, Mackie activated glyphs that were invisible to the naked eye but that now glowed with an intense energy.

Slam!

Crack.

The tall elf might be of the same sleek build as Mackie, but Mackie had long ago passed most physical boundaries in all attributes, having each of his Physical attributes near their level cap of 5,000. Being small meant that he often had to prove himself to his subordinates and superiors alike. This was why he had been prepared to take such actions.

“You will…”

“Silence.” Mackie spoke and instantly glyphs on the ground began to light up, causing the elf under his grip to scream, only no words could be heard. At that Mackie nodded to himself. “That’s better. Now I will show you the folly of coming into a Rune Master’s den and demanding answers, without showing a modicum of respect. For starters, let’s see how much you really know.”

With that Macke took off a glove from his fingers that showed runes of all types that were etched onto his skin.

Seeing the runes, the elf’s eyes went wide with panic.

“Oh, only now do you recognize your true transgression.” Mackie said, as he placed his glowing hand onto the skull of the panicking elf. An elf that was trying desperately to move Mackie, but he would have an easier time trying to lift a mountain given his angle of movement and sadly lacking level and attribute ratings.

Sizzle.

The fingers touched with a searing sound, as memories from the elf came flooding into his Mackie’s mind.

“Oh you have been a busy little soldier haven’t you. Far out of your jurisdiction..tisk tisk,” Mackie said, as the elf’s eyes began to glow from the strange magic that Mackie was employing on his mind. The elves feet kicked hard off the ground, hard enough to dent the flooring slightly, but nothing more.

“You might as well get used to it, this will take a while.” Mackie said, before continuing.

***

Sarah Marie Stevens

“Yes, I told her.” Sarah said, speaking into her phone.

A pause.

“Yes, she is willing to help.”

Another pause.

“There is already one in Madison?” Sarah asked incredulously, then turned to her guard Maxwell.

Maxwell for his part just shrugged.

“They have Alexa?”

“Oh as Aru’ka, I guess that makes sense. Can she even do anything? Okay, sorry bad question. No I will get her first thing when she gets back and… no. No you shouldn’t come. No everything is fine here. It is just that… Okay fine come if you are coming anyways, but no one comes out here ever for a reason. This is literally the middle of nowhere. Well yeah, of course your daughter is here so you would come here, but should we put her through that? Okay, okay, I get it, London is burning and so far most of the forces have only been able to push the dragon back a bit.”

A pause.

“No, I haven’t told her about that either.”

***

Matriarch Magdala

The matriarch awoke to a terrible headache. One second the world was a complete void of darkness, the next she was fully awake if not a bit woozy.

As she awoke the dungeon, her partner for all of these millennium noticed her and began speaking to her in the strange way that only dungeons can.

Flash-flash-flash.

“Slow down, and stop screaming, my head still hurts.” Magdala said in the ancient Precursor tongue.

Subdued flash.

“Better.” Magdala said, finally raising back up to a perched position. “So I take it, your end went well?”

Subdued flashes.

Nodding to herself Magdala only shook her head and then let her eyes begin to glow. “She is off killing the true enemies, killing off his spawn.” Magdala said adding venom to the word his.

Rapid flashing.

“Of course she suspects something. You all but made yourself a target by intervening like that. Thank you for that by the way.”

Flashing.

“Yeah, she caught me off guard with that little stunt as well.”

Slower flashing.

“No, you did well. You might have blown your role in all of this, but again I thank you and am happy to serve.”

Flashing.

“That is hard to tell. For now she is going to deal with the troubles of her world. I think we can recruit her, but we might need to be more open with our approach.”

Flash.

“I understand, but she has already sided with the other dungeons, the ones who are too young to fully remember what it was like before.”

Flash.

“Yes a bit of deception and trickery are at play.”

Flash.

“No, she can’t kill you. At least not yet, but give her enough time and I think she will puzzle it out.”

Flash.

“Obviously we need to kill her or convert her before then, for now though let us leave her alone to her own devices. This will also mean cutting yourself away from the network.”

Flash.

“You set that option in place when you outed yourself as a sympathizer at the very least. Who knows what she will try once she finds out you are the leader…”

***

Alexa Thyme

Alexa felt a shiver run down her spine, but then instantly dismissed the feeling. She was prepared for battle, the TSI agents had somehow stolen her Super uniform from the school and modified it slightly. Well Polyglot had modified it as a number of glowing runes of protection could be seen at different points all over her uniform.

“You ready?” Bullford asked, standing in front of the mass transit runes that Polyglot had spent most of the week setting up for just this moment.

Alexa nodded.

“See you on the other side.” Bullford said, as he darted through the transit showing that it was completely safe. For a second Alexa saw a flash of light, and then for a moment she swore she saw the torn up countryside of Madison county splayed out in front of her, before the image disappeared.

With that Alexa nodded to herself and walked forward, as she moved, she let her status screen flash before her eyes, before she was gone.

Name: Alexa Thyme   

Status: Pre-Awakened   

Slotted Class: Absorber (A)   

Trials Completed: 25 of 10 (5 Remaining)   

Dragon Trials Completed: 15 of 10 (5 Remaining)

Rank Bonuses   Viscountess +30% All Attributes, Skills, Psychic Powers, Magic Aptitudes, and Fast Travel Times.

Physical Attributes Rating   Strength 150 (Max)   Agility 150 (Max)   Endurance 150 (Max)

Mental Attributes Rating   Intelligence 150 (Max)   Perception 150 (Max)   Willpower 150 (Max)

Skills unlocked

Arcana: 15% Parkour 11% Strategy: 12%   Gymnastics 17% Rune Reading: 25% Throwing 26%   Insight: 11% Rune Writing: 8% Unarmed Combat (Tier II) 150%   Medicine: 11% Stealth: 15% Wall Walking 11%

Perfected Skills:

Dragon Tongue Precursor Tongue Celestial Tongue   Harbinger Tongue Chaos Tongue Runic Language   Elven Tongue Orc Tongue Gnomish Tongue   Dwarven Tongue Beastkin Tongue

Psychic Powers (Related Attributes)   Mind Shield (Willpower)   Telekinesis (Intelligence, Perception)   Magic Disruption (Willpower)

Magic Schools Unlocked:

Magic School Tier Rating   Healing X   Nature X   Wind X   Arcane X   Creation V   Water V   Light III   Earth IV

Titles:

Dragon’s Bane (5): All Magic abilities increased by 10% (50%). Magical effectiveness against all dragons increased by 25% (125%).   

Dragon Slayer (20): All Magic abilities increased by 15% (300%). Magical effectiveness against all dragons increased by 50% (1,000%).   

Attribute Increase (10): All Attributes increased by 10% (100%).   

Dungeon Runner (1): All Attributes increased by 1% (1%).  

 Protection of Life (11): Death Magic Resistance +5% (55%), Necromancy Magic Resistance +5% (55%)   

First Monster of Pandora: Can call into being the words of change. Known Words: Hope

Stolen Powers:

Regeneration, Night Sight, Agility, Longevity, Pack Link, Pack Bond, Eyes of the Architect, Hands of the Architect, Enchanting Voice, Scentless Stride.

“See you there.”