Olice and the Red Crystal Realm Part Twenty Five

Chapter 24: A poor roll of thoughts

Olice’s first thought was of the other, the impostress, so without thinking she blurted out to the two soldiers.

“Oh that isn’t me”

Their coreheads span wildly, becoming blurs that looked like spheres.

“Can I eat them now?” Gander asked.

“I am beginning to warm to Gander’s position” Susasov said.

“Susasov unwell?” Ka questioned.

“Hey, ssssomeone doesssn’t have to be sssick to think I’m right!” Gander objected.

“No, I suppose they’d just have to be wrong” Susasov mused, giving a rare quip back at Gander.

“Well, you’d know all about that wouldn’t you?” Gander snapped.

“Gander not denying being wrong, astonishing” Ka said.

Olice was trying to ignore this as she looked at the soldiers of fortune, she was trying to discover the marks of their maker, if she could see something it might give her more of an idea of what she was dealing with. Well, that at least was the justification Olice used for observing them. In truth she was just quite curious about them, she had never seen them in person before.

She wasn’t at all worried about being captured by them. Their spirit musculature was extremely weak, mere tendons reaching from the being’s core to its body like puppet strings. The heartflame of each was a kind of muddy-white, the flame itself while small was wild, spinning and shooting off gouts of heartflame unpredictably.

The body was the only thing keeping it from flying apart, it didn’t look like a cage, but it did somewhat serve the purpose of one.

Olice was fairly sure that she could cause it to collapse just with a that half-spell of breathing fire she had come up with. She had the unchild-like realisation that who ever made them either didn’t intend them to get into combat or was an idiot.

She hadn’t considered that the maker could have intended them not to go into combat and was an idiot, but as it was, that wasn’t the case either, not that Olice had enough knowledge to work out what the presence of the soldiers of fortune and the blue crystal meant.

There was a ding as the soldiers’ cores stopped spinning, a two and a four.

The eyes blinked in disbelief at Olice.

“Hold on here a moment, what are you trying to pull?” Two said.

It pointed its spear at Olice, prompting a hiss from Olice, which prompted in turn Two dropping its spear in fright.

“It is you on that poster! You’ve been causing a lot of trouble you have, getting up to all kinds of nasty stuff, interfering with our grand work!” Two complained.

“Oh no, not the grand work! What a fiend! Ssssome nerve sssstirring up trouble like that!” Gander said melodramatically

Two bobbed in agreement.

“I’ve done nothing here… yet” Olice said.

“Ah so you are going to do something!” Two babbled.

Four’s four eyes were scrunched up, as if it was having a particularly painful thought.

“Hold on, wasn’t she already captured?” Four remembered.

The soldiers of fortune spun again.

“Can I eat them now?” Gander repeated.

“Mistress will likely have to deal with the other before we escape” Susasov astutely reasoned.

“Soldiers have other caught!” Ka remarked.

“Yes, so it might be easier to deal with, so you can’t eat them Gander” Olice said.

Gander made a very ugly face.

One rolled a three, the other rolled a five.

“We did!” Five exclaimed.

“She must be trying to escape!” Three reasoned poorly.

“If I was escaping why would I be coming into the blue curtain and right in front of you”

“Maybe it is all part of a very clever plan?” Three said.

Five sighed and closed its eyes, it gave Three a wack on the back face, sending its core rolling.

It rolled a one.

Five slapped it again.

A two this time.

“I really want to eat them” Gander said.

In total Five ended up slapping the other soldier about five times before it got a favourable result.

A four.

“She must be a shadow or something, a second body sent to help her escape!” Four said.

“Just what I was thinking!” Five said, giving a thumbs up to Four.

Olice, Gander, Susasov and Ka groaned.

Olice decided that she had seen quite enough of this routine.

“Look can you just bring us inside your fortress, we want to get this sorted out” Olice pleaded.

The soldiers’ core heads rolled.

Gander twisted in the air in frustration.

The soldiers came up a pair of ones.

“This is just all part of your insidious plan, isn’t it? We can’t be fooled!”

“Yeah, Yeah, we’ll never let you near the Roumotte!”

Gander began banging his head against the crystal wall.

Olice was at a bit of a loss.

“Mistress, we only need one to lead us to the fortress” Susasov said slyly.

Olice seemed confused at first, but then that particular wicked smile that children can have appeared on her face.

“Gander, you wanted to eat them didn’t you, Hmm, which one should I let you eat?”

“Right one looks better” Ka suggested.

Gander turned from his headbanging and stared hungrily at the unfortunate soldiers.

Their heads did not roll as they spoke next.

“I-i guess we really should take them to the fortress, protocols and stuff”

“Y-yeah, protocols, can’t disobey, disrespect to the Grand Eye!”

Gander however was moving closer.

“I guess you don’t need to eat one after all” Olice said.

The soldiers visibly sagged.

“Right then, this way” One said.

So they set off, towards the Fortress of these Soldiers of Fortune, the place called Roumotte.

As they walked, Olice thought about things, in particular what the presence of the soldiers and the blue crystal meant. The more she thought about it the more her gut told her that some mage was trying to do something to the Red Crystal Realm, control it? Pacify it? The blue curtain was very peaceful.

She couldn’t help but think that the soldiers weren’t very effective, whatever their purpose was. Then again. That Fortress had to have been built somehow.

How did they even make the crystal blue anyway?

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Author: SnowyMystic