Mindgasm - A Bad Boy Romance With A Twist (Mind Games Book 3) by Gabi Moore (27)

“A black diamond works best,” she shouted out to them. “Anyone got a black diamond?” One look on the blank faces told her all she needed to know.

“I guess that’s a no,” she yelled back at the rest of them, just loud enough so Dion could hear her.

“Jeweler’s been closed for hours,” Dion shouted back. “Wish I’d know about this thing in advance.”

“Hindsight is no good now,” Sean said. “Anything else can stop it?”

Dion halted as he watched the mass of tentacles slowly work its way to the fire. He worried it would begin to grow enormously if it reached the fire. The beast had an insane demand for energy, if what he remembered was right. There had to be one other way to stop it. He just couldn’t remember what bound it in place beside the black diamond Cynae mentioned. He continued to think as the Naiad sisters moved the boys back and out of its path.

And then he remembered.

Chapter 16

Dion wasn’t sure if they had what was needed. He glanced around and saw a table unfolded next to the bonfire, which was what the chess club brought out to the party. On it were a few chessboards with half-finished games, some hotdogs, buns and mustard. Then he had a thought and ran ahead of the beast to the table. Dion scattered the condiments across the table as the mass began quivering toward the fire. He needed to be quick since the table was in its way.

In the distance, his uncle stood in place with his arms folded and a smile on his face.

Dion grabbed a saltshaker and dumped the contents over a hot dog bun. He rubbed a few more hot dog buns with salt to make sure they were ground into the loaves. The next thing he did was to grab up all the buns and walk into the direction of the tentacles, but he made sure to stay out of their range.

“What’s he doing?” one of the chess club guys asked Emily as Dion slowly made his way to the mass of tentacles. The creature didn’t have any sensory organs. It had no way of seeing or smelling where it was, but it could feel its way about with the scores of pseudopods which spread from the center of it.

“Don’t worry about Dion,” Emily said. “He knows what he’s doing, just let him do it. Or at least I think I he knows what he’s doing.” As Emily watched Dion walk into the path of the monster with a handful of hotdog buns, she wasn’t so sure.

Dion was just out of range of the monster when he hurled the first bun at the creature. The tentacles grasped and then released the bun. The tentacles it used to grab them shook violently when it released the bread. It appeared the creature was in pain, but there was no way to know because it couldn’t make any kind of noise, other than the oozing sound it made as it pulled itself along on the ground.

Dion began to throw more buns at it and the monster retracted its tentacles. It seemed to shrink every time a bun stuck it. Dion waited to throw another one and the creature seemed to wail, even without a mouth to scream. It continued to shrink in scale under it was no more than two feet high. When it had shrunk to the small stump of no more than six inches, Dion walked over to the monster, dropped the final bun on it, and rubbed it into the ground. He lifted the bun and checked underneath it.

“Gone,” Dion announced to the crowd. “Back to where it came. Just don’t eat any of the buns I threw.” There was a muted laughter from the crowd.

Dion went back to the table and grabbed a trash bag. As the rest of them watched, he picked up each bun and placed them in the bag. Then he tied the top of the bag and took it to Ken.

“Make sure you burn this later,” he instructed Ken. His friend nodded and put the bag to one side.

There was a clapping sound from the embankment. Dion turned to see his uncle with a smile on his face again. “Very good, nephew. How did you send it back?”

Dion walked up to him. “I remembered what instrument was the counter against it. Bread and salt. We had the bread in the form of hot dog buns; all I had to do was get the salt on them and hurl the buns back at the monster.”

“You are your father’s son, I have to admit. You do know who your father really is, don’t you?”

“He’s your brother.”

“Not exactly. He never did tell you why the older woman tried to have your nursemaids kill you, did he?”

“What are you talking about?” Dion demanded.

“Your real father is Jupiter Olympus, didn’t he ever tell you? No, I guess he didn’t. My brother wouldn’t want it known his wife had an affair with her employer. It didn’t matter that he paid off your parent’s mortgage when Jupiter’s wife found out. She was furious over what happened. It’s why you have the potential for five elemental powers, Dion. You’re half-Olympian yourself. Your parents never told you, but I guessed it a long time ago.”

“You are just saying that to keep me out of the tower,” Dion snarled at him.

“Go ask around. I guess this makes me your half-uncle. I don’t care. Jupiter’s wife found out and tried to have you killed. She can control water elementals too because she is an Olympian. It almost worked, but Jupiter thought she might try to hurt you someday, so he paid one of the men to follow you. He acted as protection until you were big enough to take care of yourself. Even wonder why that truck just happened to be there at the right time? It’s because the man driving it worked for your real father who didn’t want anything to happen to you.”

“Get out of here, uncle!” Dion thundered at him. “You can forget about my allowing you to keep the mall after I rescue my parents and the grandmaster. I will see you are stripped of everything you have!”

“All you have to do is ask around,” Seth Bach laughed as he vanished.

Dion stood in place and swore at the empty space where his uncle had stood. This could be a trick to make him stay away from the tower. But if his uncle was lying, why had he done it in such a way that would allow Dion to check up on what he said? It would be very easy to look into it. His uncle had to know this and had to know that Dion would check up on him. Which meant he had to know that he was right.

If it was true, why had none of his parents told him what happened? Why did they let him go through life and assume he was his father’s son? Were they eventually planning to tell him the truth? He could understand if they hadn’t wanted to talk about such shame on the family. However, he was eighteen. Couldn’t they could have broken the truth to him years ago and prepared him for this? Why did they force him to hear it from his uncle, the man who had imprisoned his parents and forced him to come here in the first place? Dion stood in place and felt the anger inside him.

“Dion!” Sean yelled. “Lilly’s hurt!”

Dion turned around and saw Emily and Sean holding Lilly between the two of them. She was bleeding from a gash to the head and blood was all over her clothes. Horrified, Dion ran to her and tried to stop the blood flow. He could see it wasn’t as bad as he thought, but she still would need stitches to get the wound closed.

“What happened?” he asked them.

“I don’t know,” Emily said. “When you got rid of that thing, we couldn’t find her. Sean and I looked everywhere and found her lying on the bank.”

Lilly’s eyes opened up and she looked at Sean. “Is everyone alright?” she asked him. “The last thing I remember was that monster sending its arms everywhere. It hit me and I went flying. Guess I hit my head on something. Ow, everything hurts.” She looked down at her clothes in the firelight. “Oh, my parents will not be happy.” She blinked again. Dion realized they needed to get her to the hospital because something was wrong with her head.

“We’ll take my van,” Dion said and placed one of her arms around his shoulder. He turned to the partygoers. “You’ll have to break things up. Lilly needs to get to the hospital. The police may come around here and snoop around because I’ll have to tell them she slipped and fell. I suggest you tell your girls good night and get home as soon as you can.”

“Sure thing,” Ken said. “Call my house and let me know how everything went.” He turned back to the assembled Naiad sisters and their boys. As Dion walked away, he could see they were sad to hear the news, but understood the party would have to end.

Dion had Lilly in his van and out on the road ten minutes later. Right then, all he could think about was the hospital and making sure he got Lilly there without any problems. Emily sat in the back with her and kept a towel on her head. She constantly talked to her to keep Lilly awake. Dion tried hard not to roar past any of the cars on the highway, but he was concerned about getting her to the hospital. The nearest one was five miles away.

He planned to call her parents as soon as she’d been admitted. He hoped they wouldn’t be too mad at him, but wouldn’t blame them if they were. What a way to announce an engagement: in a hospital bed. This was a fine thing to happen on the day before he needed to go into the clock tower in the middle of the mall and rescue his parents and the grandmaster. His uncle hadn’t planned this to happen, but he’d created the events by unleashing the monster from the abyss. Dion’s blood boiled when the thought about what happened.

They had all rehearsed their story before leaving. Dion and friends had left the mall later and noticed some people they knew by the creek. They went down to see who it was and Lilly slipped on the mud. When she fell, Lilly had struck a rock and they left immediately to get her to the hospital. Thank God, none of them had anything alcoholic to drink at the bonfire because it would make the cops suspicious if they did. Dion assumed the cops would get involved. They always did in these kinds of cases. He hoped they would merely announce the creek as off limits and leave it at that. If they decided to question each of them separately, the story might fall apart. He wasn’t even sure how much Lilly remembered what she was supposed to say. She was still somewhat delirious when they talked it over.

“How’s she doing back there?” Dion called to Emily.

“I’m fine,” Lilly said to him. “My head hurts, but do you really have to go to the hospital?”

“Your parents will take you there even if I drop you off at your house. At least this way, they’ll realize I’m responsible. At least I hope they do.”

Dion gave the van some gas and it lunged forward. He glanced back and saw the bleeding hadn’t stopped. He couldn’t tell how much blood she’d lost, but it didn’t seem to be that much. He swore and wished his elemental powers extended to healing. For all the forces he controlled, there was nothing he could do to cure a sick person. The powers of elemental manipulation didn’t include an ability to stop injuries or disease. It was a sick joke that he was the master of four elements, but still had to take his injured girlfriend in a van himself when she’d been hurt.

Soon he could see the lights of the hospital off the highway. Dion made the exit slowly as he didn’t want to topple the van on his way to the hospital. Vans were notoriously top heavy and could turn over with ease if the driver didn’t know how to handle them right. Snow and ice was a terror when it came to vans.

The van spun into the parking lot for the emergency room. Dion could see the lights of a few other cars in the emergency room parking lot. He pulled his van into the nearest parking lane to the glass doors of the emergency room clinic. He killed the engine, opened the driver’s door and ran around to slide open the door to the rear passenger side so Emily could help Lilly climb out of the van.

Two attendants at the hospital ran out with a wheelchair the moment they saw Lilly bleeding. Dion let them take over her care and they wheeled her into the clinic as the rest of them followed along. The attendants fired off scores of questions about Lilly as they took her into the hospital.

The doors flew open as Dion left Lilly with the doctors on duty. He went right to the pay phone situated next to the entrance to the emergency room and made a quick call to her parents.

“Hello,” her father announced when he picked up the phone. “Who is this?”

“It’s Dion sir, he said. “I need to tell you something. I will get straight to the point. Your daughter in the county hospital. She fell and hurt herself, but I think she’s going to be all right.”

Her father swore on the other side of the line and wanted a detailed report on what happened. Dion told him the rehearsed story and hoped her father would accept it. He seemed to believe him, but it was hard to tell over the phone. Her father told him he was leaving right away and to stay there until he arrived. Dion assured him he had no intention of leaving until he was certain Lilly would be safe. He heard her father slam down the receiver and worried he would drive too fast on the way over.

Finally, he called his aunt and uncle. His uncle answered the phone and he gave him the rehearsed story of what happened. He uncle was silent for a few seconds after he finished.

“That’s not what really happened, is it?” his Uncle Rich asked. “This is what everyone is supposed to think happened, but you can tell me the truth. After all, I’m family.”

“You want to know the truth?” Dion asked him. “You really want to know the truth?”

“Of course.”

“Lilly was attacked by a primordial monster your brother Seth summoned from the abyss to stop me from rescuing my parents and the Aether Element Grandmaster. She was knocked to the ground before I had a chance to send it back to where it came with hot dog buns rubbed in salt. Tomorrow I have to go into the tower and get the final power I don’t have, which your brother does possess.”

“So you did get the fire elemental power today?”

“Yes, but only after using all the other elementals to keep from getting immolated by some fire elemental salamanders who didn’t like me. It’s all good, they work for me now. But the best part is what my Uncle Seth told me tonight. He claims my real father is Jupiter Olympus and that is why the crazy lady tried to get my nursemaids to kill me.”

His uncle on the other end of the line was silent, which told him what he needed to know about his lineage.

“Other than that, I’ve had an excellent day. I’ll be home after I make sure Lilly is all right. Oh yes, one more thing. If I survive tomorrow, Lilly and I will be married. I asked her today and she accepted.” Dion hung up the phone.

Chapter 17

Just as soon as Dion hung up the phone, Emily was on the pay phone. He could hear her talk to her father about what happened earlier in the evening. As planned, she used the rehearsed story.

“Guess I get to use the phone last,” Sean said to him as Dion came around the corner.

“How is Lilly?” Dion asked him. “I just got off the phone with her dad. He’s on the way over here.”

“Doctor says she’s going to be fine,” Sean told him. “They’re stitching her head up right now. Guess they’ll have to shave part of her head to sew her up. But her hair will grow back.”

Dion went directly to the nurse on duty and asked her when she would be out of the clinic.

“Shouldn’t be too long,” she told him. “My guess is that they’ll keep her in for a few days in case she had a concussion. Are you family?”

“Kind of. I’m her fiancé.”

“You’ll need to talk to her doctor. Are any other family members here?”

“Her father is on the way.”

The nurse told him to sit down and wait. Dion when into the waiting room and watched the TV screen for a while. There was some network show on about a pair of crime solving old women who were trying to stop a coven of witches. Or something like that. He really couldn’t concentrate on what was on the television with everything else around him. How would Lilly’s father take the news of both the injury and the engagement? He couldn’t imagine.

Dion looked up to see Emily walking into the room. “I just got off the phone with my dad. He’s concerned, but understands I might be late tonight. Sean is on the phone with his mother right now.”

“Did you tell your father about you and Sean becoming engaged?” he asked her.

Emily frowned and looked the other way. “No. Sean and I decided to do it later. Sean will have enough to deal with when he gets home tonight. He doesn’t need his mother badgering him about me too. She drilled him constantly about what happened and be on the phone to every other woman in her church. I went over the story several times with him. So long as he sticks to it, everything will be fine.” She sat down next to Dion.

“How about Lilly?”

“Getting the stitches put in as we speak and her father is on the way over here.”

“No, are you going to tell her parents about the engagement?”

“I don’t think so. I hope I’ll see her first before they arrive. I still have to enter the clock tower tomorrow. I don’t want to add any problems to her. I think we should keep the announcement quiet until after tomorrow.”

“I can see why you would feel that way,” she told him. “Do you really have to go into that tower tomorrow?”

“Yes. I have to bring this thing to a conclusion. Plus, I think my uncle is planning something. I don’t know what, but he wants me out of the way for the next week. If I don’t get in there tomorrow, anything might happen.”

Dion was quiet. He blamed himself for Lilly’s injury. If he hadn’t let her come with him today, she wouldn’t be in the hospital right now. Lilly had stood next to him all the way and been there for him these past few days. It was only a few days ago he’d encountered her as a tiny young lady standing in the lot with her shoes in her hand. Why had he allowed her to see some of the small things he could accomplish with his abilities? She would have been better off somewhere else. Lilly would make a lawyer or international diplomat a fine wife. She might have a career herself these days and end up a politician. He could imagine her on TV, with the cameras pointing down since she wasn’t very tall.

He felt she’d given up so much for him and nearly been killed several times. How many girls would have stood with him patiently as he went up against these elementals time after time? Not too many. Most of the girls at the high school didn’t interest him. All they seemed to care about as whatever rock star was popular that month. Lilly she was different.

After fifteen minutes had elapsed, Sean came into the waiting room and sat down.

“Any word about Lilly?” he asked his friends.

“Dion told us she’s getting stitches put in,” Emily told him. “Should be out soon.”

“They may want to keep her overnight,” Dion added. “Concussion and all that.” Sean nodded and sat down next to them.

“How did it go with your mother on the phone?” Emily asked him.

“About as best as you could expect. She kept asking me over and over whom I was with and was I okay. I told her each time that it was and what we agreed to say happened. I expect the preacher will be waiting on the front porch when Dion lets me off at the house tonight.”

“You want to stay over at our house tonight?” Emily asked him as she slipped her hand in his. “I’m sure my dad could let you sleep on the couch.”

“I appreciate your concern, but I have enough to contend with when I get home. If I was at someone else’s house tonight, I’d have to put up with worse.”

“And you didn’t say a word about our engagement?” she asked him.

“No, too much to handle at once. You?”

“Didn’t say a thing to my dad either, when are we going to break the news?”

“Let’s see what happens after tonight. We can always go over and talk my parents and your dad when we get the chance. No reason to rush on it.”

“Did you say you were her fiancé?” the desk nurse suddenly came into the waiting room and asked Dion. All of them stood up right away.

“Yes I did,” Dion said. “What’s happening?”

“She’s out of surgery and the doctors wanted to her to see someone who was family. Do you want to go in and see her?”

“Yes. Can all of us go inside and see her?”

The nurse looked them over. “I don’t see how it will be a problem,” she said to them. “Why don’t all of you come with me?”

They followed her as she went behind the admissions desk and into the surgery area. They walked through a place that reeked of alcohol and disinfectants as the sound level dropped perceptibly. The nurse led them to a recovery room, which had a chart attached to the door that was open. She ushered them through.

Lilly was in a bed wearing a hospital gown. She lay back and gently turned to them as they walked into the room. There were an assortment of medicines on the bed next to her and her clothes were piled up in one corner. Dion could see the white bandage wrapped around her head as she lay there. The smell of disinfectant was intense in this room.

“Are you okay, Lilly?” Dion asked her as he walked into the room and took her hand. She looked up at him and smiled.

“I’m just fine now that you are here.” She sounded weak, but Dion realized it could be the medicine that she had taken.

“The doctor said you might be here overnight,” he told her. “They’re worried about head injuries and want to keep you under observation.”

“Will that stop you from going into the clock tower tomorrow?”

Dion was embarrassed. Here Lilly was inside the hospital with her head stitched up and all she wanted to know was would it effect what he had to do the next day. Dion squeezed her hand.

“No, I still have to finish what I started out to do this week. Things will be much better when it’s done. When can tell your parents about our plans when I come back. You should be out of here by then.”

“You want to wait to tell them until later?”

“Yes. Sean and Emily are holding off, I think it’s a good idea for us to wait as well. You still want to have a double wedding, don’t you?”

Dion could see a single tear form at the corner of Lilly’s eye and drop down to the pillow. He felt even worse at that minute, but he knew he had to finish what he’d started tomorrow if for his family. His parents had to be freed, along with the grandmaster. Only then could he return for her.

“I’ll be back for your, don’t worry,” Dion told Lilly.

There were voices down the hall and the three of them turned to see the desk nurse walk into the room with Lilly’s parents. This was the first time Dion had seen them up close and he could see the physical resemblance Lilly had to her father. He wasn’t a whole lot taller than Lilly. Her father marched up to him and starred directly at Dion in the face.

“What happened to my daughter?” he demanded. “She’s been with you every day this week and now I have to come here to the hospital. What happened?”

“She fell. Just as I told you over the phone. I took her directly to the hospital when I saw how badly off her head was. You can ask her the same thing.”

Her father turned to Lilly. “It’s true,” she told them. “I fell and he brought me right to the hospital. They waited until the doctor finished stitching me up before coming to see me.” She reached out and held Dion’s hand.

Her mother was silent up until now. When she saw how Lilly took his hand, she spoke. “We just talked to the doctor,” she said. “They want to keep you overnight for observation. I’m going to stay in the room with you.”

The nurse started to say something, but kept her mouth shut. It seemed the issues which brought Lilly here could be dealt with later. She decided not to tell her mother families were only allowed in the rooms during visiting hours.

“Could you wait in the lobby?” the nurse said to Dion and his friends. “I need to talk to Lilly’s parents about a few things.”

Dion, Emily and Sean left the hospital room and went out to the waiting area where they’d sat after bringing Lilly into the hospital. Dion tried to look at a magazine, but couldn’t concentrate on it. Sean and Emily tried to watch the TV which was provided, but their gaze kept running back to each other.

“I think her parents calmed down once they had a chance to talk to Lilly,” Sean finally spoke. “They looked pretty mad when they came into her room. When she took your hand they changed a lot.”

“I can’t really blame them,” Dion said. “Their daughter is in the hospital, they’ll want to know why. I expected her dad to get in my face.”

A few minutes later, Lilly’s parents came out into the lobby. Dion notice her father carried some kind of folder with the hospital’s name on it. They stood up and went over to them.

“We talked to Lilly,” her dad said, “and she swears she fell on a rock by accident and you raced to get her to the hospital. I suppose I owe you some thanks for getting her here right away.” Her father held out his hand, which Dion shook. “We were terrified after you called. Lilly means a lot to us.”

“She means a lot to me as well,” Dion said. It was obvious she hadn’t said a thing about the engagement.

‘We’re leaving. The doctor we spoke with said she needs rest and they’ll watch her tonight. If anything happens, they’ll call us. Do you have our number?”

“Yes I do.”

“Call me the first thing in the morning. No, wait until about eight in the morning. By then I will have spoken to the hospital and will know how she is getting along.”

“I’ll do that.”

Lilly’s family left. Dion thanked the nurse for the help she’d been and went to his van with Emily and Sean. He watched her parents drive out of the parking lot before he decided to leave. Dion started up the van and was soon on the highway.

“Do you still want to go into the clock tower alone?” Sean said to him from the backseat. “I’ve talked with Emily and we’ll find a way to come with you if you need us tomorrow.”

“I appreciate your help,” Sean said. “But I have to do this one myself. Remember, that clock tower sits directly over the abyss, or something like it. The monster you saw this evening is only a small sample of what lies in it.”

“Just keep us in mind.”

“I will.”

They dropped Emily off first. Instead of letting her walk up to the house alone, this time both Sean and Dion walked up to the door with her. As they expected, her father met them. He asked Dion and Sean to come inside and sit down. They went in and were seated at the kitchen table.”

“Is Lilly okay?” Emily’s dad asked. “I’ve been worried ever since Emily called.”

“She may have a slight concussion,” Emily said. “They stitched her up tonight and she’s spending the night in the hospital. But I think she’ll be fine tomorrow.”

“And she fell and hit a rock?” her dad asked.

“A big one. Dion drove like a madman to get her to the hospital when we saw how bad her head looked.”

“I’m glad you got her there quick,” her dad said to Dion, “but I don’t like hearing that you drove fast.”

“I don’t think I drove as fast as Emily imagined,” Dion responded.

Dion glanced around the kitchen. It was easy to tell that there was little in the way of a woman’s touch. It was clean, but looked Spartan. No lace curtains or the little signs a woman worked in it. The entire house was devoid of the presence of any older woman. He remembered Emily had told him her parents were divorced, but it must have happened years ago.

Emily’s father allowed her and Sean to have a few quiet moments together in the kitchen while Dion and him went in the living room. While they waited, Emily’s dad looked back at the kitchen and turned to Dion.

“This seems to be pretty serious. I don’t recall her being so heavily involved with any guy before. How long do you think it will last?”

Dion wanted to say ‘forever’, but knew that Emily and Sean didn’t want anything said about their engagement until they made it public. Since they were extending the same courtesy to him, Dion remained quiet.

A few minutes later, Sean came out of the kitchen with Emily holding his hand. He tried to look away from her father, but it was almost impossible to do. Dion could tell he felt uncomfortable. Also, he could tell they had been talking very seriously about something. The low voices, which came out of the kitchen, were an indicator. Dion had a sense what they were about to say and groaned on the inside. He was afraid this would happen.

“Daddy,” she said to her father. “We need to tell you something.”

He father went pale.

Dion could tell her father feared something terrible, but Dion couldn’t tell exactly what that might be.

“You’re pregnant,” Emily’s father said and dropped into a chair next to him. He turned and starred off into the distance.

“Daddy!” she yelled. “How could you think something like that about me?”

He father continued to stare away. “I should never have allowed you to visit your mother. It’s my fault. Is Sean the father?”

“Sir, would you snap out of it?” Sean said to him. “I haven’t done a thing to your daughter. Don’t you think highly enough of Emily to trust her? Haven’t you allowed her the freedom to choose the people she associates with? She’s eighteen and old enough to make her own decisions.”

“We’re going to get married,” Emily said. She turned to Dion. “I know, you wanted me to wait because you were told first and Lilly is in the hospital. But daddy should know. He’s been scared for a long time something bad would happen. We’ve had talks. I’ve had them with mom, too. She’s not as bad off as you might think, dad. She has her days, but I think she feels guilt for running off on us.”

“Congratulations,” her father told her. “To the both of you. Sean seems like a fine boy. You might be a little young, but there’s no reason for me to block it. If you really want to, I won’t stand in the way. When were you planning on going to the courthouse?”

“Soon. We have to tell Sean’s parents too. That will be the hard part.”

Sean looked at the floor.

“His mom is very religious, so be prepared for it.”

There were a few more hugs and Dion excused himself to go wait in the van. It seemed as if everything would work out. At least for them.

Sean opened the door and sat down in the front passenger side a few minutes later. Dion started the engine and backed the van out of the driveway. Next stop was Sean’s house.

“Sorry we popped that on you,” he apologized. “I know we planned to wait until all four of us could break the news to our families, but Emily wanted to tell her dad right away. She was worried about him.”

“I can see why,” was all Sean could say. He came to a red light and let the engine run for a bit. “Are you going to tell your parents when you go home?”

“No, we decided to wait. It buys you and Lilly a bit of time too.”

They were quiet until Sean saw Dion turn the van onto his parents’ street. “You’re still planning to go into that tower yourself tomorrow? Don’t you even want me as back-up?”

“I have to do it alone,” Dion said. “This is between my uncle and me.”

Sean nodded.

Dion pulled up to Sean’s house and told him good night as he watched his friend walk up to the door. The light was on when they arrived and the door opened before Sean was up to it. Dion could see his mother at the door. She hugged her son in relief when he walked inside the house. The door closed and patio light when out, which plunged the yard in darkness. Dion pulled the van back out of the driveway and onto the street.

He wondered how it was going down inside Sean’s house. Good thing there was no school tomorrow. He didn’t enjoy the idea of everyone asking him what happened. News traveled fast in this little suburb. It was amazing how many people knew each other when so many had relocated from somewhere else. Dion didn’t know too many people from California, but there were some at his high school. The local air force base had something to do with that.

He wondered about that air force base at times. It was very close to the entrance to the abyss. There had to be a connection. It wouldn’t be an obvious one as the abyss didn’t have a physical entrance in the way most people understood it. The abyss could be accessed in many different ways, but his uncle had found a means to lock it down into one location. Perhaps the first inhabitants of this area had known about it. If they had, they kept the knowledge to themselves.

It took Dion another half hour to arrive at his aunt and uncle’s house. The outside light was still on and he expected they would be waiting up for him. It was still only eleven in the evening, not too late by local standards. He would need to explain to them why he had to return to the mall tomorrow and enter the clock tower. Tomorrow would be the day of reckoning between him and his Uncle Seth. Tomorrow he would discover why his uncle had gone to such great lengths to keep him away from the mall. There was a lot happening beneath the surface right now and Dion intended to find out what it was.

Dion stepped out of the van when the light began to fade around him. There wasn’t a lot of it in the first place, but he knew someone wanted to take him somewhere else for reasons he could only suspect. This time it had to be his uncle. Good and fine, but he’d had enough of his uncle and his tricks. Time to make Seth Bach arrive here for a change.

Dion closed his eyes and resisted the transfer. He felt the light; no matter how little of it, return and he opened his eyes. He was still in front of his aunt and uncle’s house. Dion looked at his wristwatch. It was still close to eleven in the evening and the same date was on the inner dial of the watch. His uncle had failed to pull him over to his own time circle.

However, his Uncle Seth was standing in the middle of the driveway.”

“Glad to see you again, uncle. Is this a family visit? I do think it’s been a long time since you saw your brother and his wife.”

“You think you are so powerful, so talented, so brilliant,” his uncle snapped at him. “We’ll see how well you do tomorrow. Don’t you think I know what you’re up to? You do know, don’t you, that I can keep you far from the mall itself?”

“Why don’t you try and stop me?” You’ve tried to make yourself master of this universe and it hasn’t worked. You have something else in there you don’t want anyone to know about. You are afraid I’ll find out what it is, aren’t you?”

His uncle glared at him.

“And you couldn’t even bring me to your turf,” Dion concluded. “It would appear, uncle, your powers have their limitations.”

“We’ll see about that tomorrow!” his uncle growled and then disappeared.

Dion looked at the empty space his uncle had occupied. He was ready, that was for sure. Dion wasn’t sure what the best way would be to get into the tower. His uncle would be watching every clandestine entrance to the mall. Granted, he would have a new security company in place and they would be green. There were plenty of outside contractors who could police the mall for him. His uncle would make sure the guards would be on the lookout for Dion or anyone who matched his description. With his elemental power, Seth Bach would know the minute Dion entered the mall.

Dion continued to his aunt and uncles house, pulled out his key and unlocked the door. As he expected, they were in the TV lounge watching the news. Both of them jumped up as Dion entered the room.

“Are you okay?” his aunt ran to him and put her arms around Dion.

“I’m fine. Lilly is going to be all right, but they are keeping her in the hospital overnight to make sure she doesn’t have any head trauma. Or something like that.”

“Your Uncle Rich told me about your call,” she said as they sat down. Dion place the bag he carried into the room on the floor.

“What’s that?” his uncle inquired about the bag.

“Something I need to return to Hobbs. It’s a censer that can be used to trap fire elementals. I have my full fire elemental powers today and don’t need it anymore. I didn’t have to use it, so he can sell it to someone else.”

“And your uncle tells me you plan on going back to the mall tomorrow?” his aunt asked him.

“I have to. Uncle Seth has imprisoned not only my parents in that clock tower but the Fire Elemental Grandmaster too. I need to obtain the power of the fifth element to stop him and get my parents out of there.”

“Can’t someone go in there with you?” his uncle asked. “I’m willing to accompany you. After all, I am Seth’s brother.”

“It won’t make a difference,” Dion explained. “He’s out of control. I have to be the one who goes into there alone and deal with him. Nobody else but me can do it.”

Dion stood up. “I need to get to bed. Big day tomorrow.”

His aunt and uncle watched him leave.

“He didn’t say a thing about Jupiter Olympus,” his aunt said to her husband.

“Isn’t it enough that he knows? It’s one more thing on Dion’s mind. I didn’t think my brother would sink so low to tell him, but he’s desperate and will do anything. He hasn’t changed a bit.”

They turned back to the TV. Tomorrow was supposed to be a bright and clear day, according to the weather report with no storm clouds on the horizon.

Dion faced the door. He’s spent the better part of his morning in search of the entrance to the clock tower that dominated the center of the mall.

With all four of the elemental powers under his control, he still needed something special to get inside it. The tower sat over the abyss itself and his Uncle Seth planned to use the forces beneath it for something. Dion didn’t know exactly what it might be, as he could only speculate.

He entered the mall with all the shoppers that morning. By now, there was no reason to hide from the security guards. The fire elementals, who ran security, bowed to him as he walked past. Dion expected his uncle to replace them after he obtained the fourth elemental power, that of fire, yesterday. However, he hadn’t. This made Dion even more concerned about what his uncle had in mind. His uncle had to know the fire elemental salamanders, who were in their human form, would never oppose him since he was now a fire elemental master. Combined with the other powers he had earned over the past few days- earth, air and water- there wasn’t much his uncle could do to prevent him from entering the mall. His uncle might own the mall, but it wasn’t worth the trouble to keep him out of it.

His first stop that morning was Hobbs’ place in the “earth” part of the mall. Hobbs and his psychedelic shop provided Dion with many of the weapons he needed to defeat the elementals sent against him. If there was a weapon he needed to enter the clock tower, Hobbs could find it.

The grandmaster of the fifth element, aether, was held prisoner in that tower. So were his parents and Dion was determined to get them out. Let his uncle think there would be no way he could enter the tower. Dion planned to be inside it in the next hour. He merely needed a special key for a special lock. Hobbs would have that key if anyone possessed it.

“Back again?” Hobbs said to him from behind the counter as Dion entered his store. He was in the process of putting more discount albums in the racks when he noticed the young man who had been there every day of this week.

“I’m going in the clock tower this time,” Dion told him. “I need to find out how to get inside and what weapon I’ll need once I’m there.”

“Are you serious?” Hobbs put down a stack of albums and walked over to Dion.

“My parents are held there. My uncle, who owns this mall, has them imprisoned. And what’s worse, he has the Aether Grandmaster too.”

“For God’s sake, it’s right on top of the abyss. Look, we all know what that tower is over and we live with it. The rent is cheap here and the traffic is good. I know the management is a little bit funny, but- wait! Did you say your parents are held inside it?”

“For the past year. Everything I’ve done this week was to get them out. My uncle is a master of the aether, but he doesn’t have the other four elemental powers. I do. I want that fifth power as well. With it, I’ll be stronger than him and he’ll have to set my parents free.”

“The aether is the root of the other four elements,” Hobbs said. “It’s unstable in this time circle, which is why you don’t see it used very often. If your uncle wants to make use of it, it won’t be for our benefit.”

Dion put his hands on the counter. “So you understand what I’m doing. Do you have anything to help me?”

“Not once you’re inside that place.” Hobbs shifted some merchandise in the cabinet below to find what he wanted. He was a short man, barely five foot, but stout and solid.

“Here it is,” Hobbs announced as he pulled an envelope out of the cabinet. He sat the envelope on the counter and pulled a silver disc out of it. The disc had mystical signs engraved on it. Dion didn’t recognize any of them.

“What is it?” Dion asked the small man across from him.

“It’s a sigil that unlocks certain doors. It will only work once and the door will open for ten seconds. You put the disc on the door and push it into the surface. It will stick to the door and you can leave it. Step back because there will be a loud noise when it opens the barrier. The door will fly open. Like I said, you have only ten seconds to get inside before the door closes.”

“Do I need to retrieve the sigil?”

“No you don’t. It will burn itself up after use. This is a one-time tool. Remember what I told you about standing away from the door.”

“Thanks, Hobbs. Send the bill to my aunt and uncle. This should be the last time I need your help.”

“I’m not so sure about that.” He turned and noticed a sales clerk looking at one of the album covers he had stacked. She had a notebook in her hand.

“We need to get the inventory finished by this evening,” he called out to her. “You can read the credits later.” She placed the album on the rack and went back to her count.

“She’s a good worker, just has problems paying attention to the job,” Hobbs explained to him. “Where are your friends?”

“Staying home today. I have to do this one myself.”

“Wise decision, but I’m glad I don’t have to go in that place. You take care and come back to see me once you’ve returned.” He shook Dion’s hand.

Hobbs watched the young man leave his store and walk down the corridor outside.

“I hope I do see him again,” he spoke aloud. His clerk turned and looked up, her hand still holding the pencil she used for the inventory notebook.

“Nice kid,” Hobbs said to her from the counter. “I think he’s way in over his head.”

“Can’t you help him?” The clerk wore a pair of jeans and shirt with a flower stitched on it. She had long red hair, which cascaded down her back.

“I wish I could. There is too much bad energy in that tower for me to go up against it. I don’t want to go anywhere near it.”

“You didn’t have any trouble summoning me.”

“You aren’t in the same class. I know how to get results in some areas. In others, I’m happy leaving it to people with more experience. Now get that inventory done before I send you back to the forest.”

The red headed women grumbled and returned to her notebook and pencil.

Dion continued down the hall with the sigil in his pocket. He didn’t have the map any longer and had no idea where the entrance to the clock tower might be located. He was already tired of spending every day this week in the mall; he couldn’t imagine how people worked here all the time. It was possible to get used to anything, he once heard, but this place was beyond understanding. The only reason he was here was to get his parents out of the tower.

He’d spent a lot of time on the phone with Lilly before coming here. She’d broken the news to her parents about their engagement, which he suspected would happen once Emily told her father. Whatever. Right now, all he could think about was the location of the tower.

It was situated right in the middle of the mall. The tower had four clocks mounted in it; each one faced a different section of the mall. The clock faces could be viewed at any location in the mall since the top of the mall was built to be a transparent atrium. It allowed the sunlight in and saved money on lighting, or so the story was told. In truth, Dion felt the reason for the atrium glass was to allow the clock tower to spy on the mall. There was a small section on top of it with windows that would allow someone to be stationed in it and have the mall under surveillance at all times.

“It’s at the end of the hall,” a voice said behind him. “A door marked ‘Employees Only’ takes you into the personnel office. Beyond that you will find a wooden door to the tower.”

Dion turned to face the form of his grandfather. The old man, who had passed on years ago, stood there alone. There were so many questions he wanted to ask his grandfather.

“How will I know it’s the door into the tower?” Dion asked him. “I would expect the office has many doors inside it.”

“The one to the tower will be obvious. The sigil given to you will open it. You must hurry. You need to arrive there today.”

“Grandfather, there is a lot I want to know. My uncle claims my real father was someone other than the man who raised me. What is the truth?”

But his grandfather was gone.

Empty space was in front of him. Dion shook his head and looked again. There were so many rules to this game that he didn’t know. He shrugged and continued down the hall in search of the door into the personnel office that his grandfather informed him about it.

He found the door a few minutes later. It was at the end of the corridor, as he’d been informed. The door was glass with the words stenciled on it just as his grandfather told him. As Dion watched, the door swung open and two young high school girls emerged with applications in their hands. They waved at Dion and continued down the hall. The glass door was translucent, so he couldn’t see what was on the other side. Dion pulled the door open and went inside.

It was a small waiting room with pictures on the wall of the other properties his uncle owned. There were no exterior windows and soft music played from hidden speaker. A few chairs, and at least one couch, faced the desk where a small man sat with a pile of papers stacked in front of him. He wore a shirt, tie, and was busy making notes on each stapled collection of documents piled next to him on the desk.

“Hello, Dion,” Edward said to him. “I wondered how long it would take you to arrive.”

“You work for the mall?” Dion asked. “I had the impression you weren’t part of this time circle.”

“I wanted to see you off,” he said while rising from the desk. “It’s not often that one gets to meet a knight on the verge of his final quest. So I made an arrangement with a temporary company who placed me here. The regular human resource manager needed a day off and I was able to fill her position while she took some vacation time.”

Edward looked back at the table behind him. “Beastly job, I don’t know how anyone manages to do it. I’ve spent the day evaluating peoples’ performances. Someone will wonder why they all have ‘outstanding’ marked on their performance reviews, but I decided anyone who works in this temple of consummation deserve it.”

“So where is this door to the main tower?” Dion asked.

“You have the sigil to open it?” Edward asked him. He smoothed out his trousers. “Disgraceful clothes they sell in this place. Hardly a decent pair of pants anywhere. Don’t get me started on these clip-on bow ties.”

Dion pulled the silver disc from the pocket of his jacket and held it up.

“That’s the right one,” Edward said. “I see you do have a good supplier. Those are hard to find. Now let’s go to the entrance.” He turned and walked down the hall that led from the office. Dion followed him.

The door was massive. It was made of solid wood and had twelve locks on it. The first one started at the bottom and the others continued all the way to the top. There was even a secondary lock at the doorknob. The wood was made from lignum vitae, a wood so hard it was known to break axes. As Dion looked the door over, Edward rattled on about the construction and the history behind it. Not that any of it would affect Dion’s need to get on the other side; Edward just liked to hear himself talk.

“Built in the year 1531,” he told Dion. “It was supposed to be the door to a duke’s study in the south of France. He felt a secure door would protect him from his knights. In spite of what you may have read in the history books, medieval nobility didn’t always trust the men in arms under them. This door was never installed in the duke’s palace. Instead, it was impounded by a tax collector when the duke failed to pay the king’s share on the funds he squeezed out of his farmers. The door ended up in many places, all of whom shared one thing in common: a bad end. Note the carved face of a fiend at the top. This indicated exquisite care put into it, it also means the door was sacred to the night side of the elements. It’s a one-way trip to the abyss if you don’t know how to open it right. Now, can I see the sigil?”

Dion, a little bored by Edward’s history lesson, pulled it out of his pocket again. “Hobbs told me to place it at the lock...”

“Did he tell you which one?”

“No, I didn’t realize there would be more than one.”

Edward sighed. “Even the retailer fails to read the instructions these days. Something tells me Mr. Hobbs doesn’t know a how to operate this key. You have to put it on the right lock, or it won’t work. If you activate it on the wrong lock, not only does the door remain closed, but also the sigil burns up. And where will you get another one on short notice? There is a five-year backlog from the factory on these things. Here, just give it to me and I’ll take care of it.”

“I think I’m supposed to be the one who activates it,” Dion said. “At least I’ve done every part of this phase by myself. It’s why I don’t have anyone with me.”

Edward looked at him. “You might be right at that. It’s been a long time since I’ve used one of them. The last one was supposed to open a treasure chest. It opened it all right, but all that remained inside was an IOU note from the last thief who got inside. Go ahead and place it on the lock right next to the latch. The other ones are dummies designed to fool an uneducated burglar.”

“Do I have to chant anything? Hobbs didn’t give me any words to say.”

“No,” Edward said as he adjusted his bowtie. “Just put it in place. The sigil key is self-acting and will penetrate the door on its own.”

Dion walked to the strange door and placed the silver disc next to the latch, just as if Edward told him. He felt it attach itself to the door. Dion could feel the disc pull when he drew back to make sure it would stay in place. He removed his hand and the disc stayed put, even though there was nothing sticky on it or the door.

Then Dion noticed something else.

“There is more than one latch on this door. Did I put it on the right one?”

Edward stepped closer to look at the door. “You’re right. There is more than one latch. The designer of this door thought of everything.”

“But is it the right latch?”

“I don’t know. Guess we will both know in a few minutes.”

“I was told to stand back.”

Both of them took a few steps away from the door.

There was a buzzing sound from the sigil disc and it began to spin in place. The disc spun faster until it turned into a blur. Then it stopped, rotated back a few turns, rotated forward a few more, and made a few more backwards rotations. This continued for a few more minutes.

“What is it doing?” Dion asked Edward.

“I believe it’s trying to find the correct combination,” the small Englishman replied. “Similar to the dial on a safe.”

The disc ceased its movement and remained still. Dion waited a few more minutes and turned to Edward.

“Is it done?” he asked.

The response came with the sound of a multitude of locks unsnapping. The door slowly began to open with the loud creak of something not used in a long time. When the door was perpendicular to the doorway, it ceased moving. There was very little light inside the room beyond the door.

“It worked,” Edward, proclaimed. “I don’t think those additional locks were dummy ones after all. Did you hear the sounds they made?”

“I’m sure the entire office did.”

“Or would, but I gave them the day off. Now off with you! The door will close in sixty seconds.”

Dion shook Edward’s hand as he walked into the passage to the clock tower. Edward watched him go inside and vanish with the light into the next room. Just as he’d predicted, the door swung shut and closed less than a minute later. The sound of locks triggering were heard.

Then silence.

Edward bent over to look at the door. The sigil disc was gone. There was no trace of one ever being attached to the door.

“Single use,” Edward noted. “Just as I thought. Now how will he ever get out of there? I’m sure he’ll find a way. He’s resourceful. Oh, well, back to those disgusting performance reviews.”

He turned and went back to the office.

Chapter 2

Dion rubbed his eyes as the light returned. This was similar to the last time he’d been sent outside the circle of time where the mall existed. The light would fade, and then return with fury as he found himself in a new environment.

The door must work the same way. He turned to look at the door from the other side and found a blank wall behind him. How was he supposed to return from where he’d come? The door had to work in one direction only. There must be other ways out of the clock tower, but escape was not on the front of his mind.

Now that there was light around him, Dion could see where he was. It was another office, not surprising, as he’d left one before this place. It was made from modern furniture and the fabric on the walls appeared to be fresh. The paint on the office furniture was unblemished. This office appeared to be brand new.

This time there were two men behind the desk.

They sat on opposite sides of the small partner’s desk. Both wore leisure suits, although one had blue polyester and the other green. Both had printed silk shirts, which were open with the lapels over the suit. Neither wore ties. Dion looked at them again and tried to figure out what else seemed strange about the two of them.

They were twins.

Not identical twins but close enough in physical height and weight to be indistinguishable from the other. Both looked to be in their twenties and both were about five foot seven. One had dark hair, the other was blond. The blond twin had dark eyes and the black haired one had blue eyes. They were both typing on electric typewriters when Dion entered the room and stopped when they turned around to face him. Dion heard the zing of a carriage return and the hum from the typewriter as one of them finished what he’d typed.

“Can we help you?” the blond twin asked him. “It has been a long time since someone used that door.”

“At least twenty years,” the black haired twin responded. “I think we should celebrate this event.”

“The tower wasn’t built that long ago,” Dion said. “And this office appears to be brand new. Both of you would have been toddlers if you were around back then.”

“Who said anything about being around here twenty years ago?” the blond twin snipped.

“And this tower has been around a lot longer than what you might think,” the brunette added. “You focus on the exteriors and ignore the truth of what it hides. Just like the man who sees a rope in the dusk and assumes it to be a snake.”

“Or one who sees a snake and assumes a rope,” the other pointed out. “The tower exists in many places at the same time.”

“I’m Dion,” he introduced himself.

“Pleased to meet you, Dion,” the blond said to him. “I’m Anders.”

“And I’m Blaze,” the other said. “We are the Chance brothers. You may have noted we are twins.”

“But not identical,” Dion said.

“What are you talking about?” Anders snapped at him. “Can’t you see we are the same in every way shape and form?”

“No difference?” Blaze responded. “I’m surprised to hear you say that. Most people can’t tell us apart.”

Dion refrained from mentioning the hair and eye color distinctions. When he was living in California, there were two brothers who were identical twins. The only difference was the birthmark one had on the back of his neck. It was common to see the other kids walk up behind one or the other and look at the neck to see whom they’d be conversing with today. These two, were easy to tell apart.

“So what kind of work do you do here?” Dion asked, as he hoped to change the subject.

“This is the Department of Disunity,” Blaze told him. “We are very important in the administration of the tower.”

“It couldn’t function without us,” Anders added. “This place would sink into the abyss if we weren’t here.”

“Not that it would be a bad thing,” he brother said. “Sometimes we are bored beyond belief in this place. We just finished typing up a report to send upstairs.”

“Spent two years on that one.”

“No, I think it was five. Doesn’t matter, it’s done and now they have our findings.”

“I assume it wasn’t anything to do with the mall,” Dion said. “It hasn’t been around that long.”

“Mall?” Anders’ eyes went wide. “What mall?”

“The Fromatius Mall. I entered this office from it. You know the one around the tower.”

“They built a mall, did they?” Blaze asked. “So that explains all the feasibility work the upper floor had us doing before this report. I thought they might be working on something like it.”

Dion looked at them oddly. Nothing in this office made sense, but he’d entered the clock tower by way of a door that vanished once he used it. They were contradicting themselves and didn’t seem to care on way or another.

“How often do you guys get out?

“We never leave,” the twins said simultaneously.

“There is a mall around the clock tower. Do you ever go upstairs? You can see windows at the top of the tower from the ground level of the mall.

“We’ve never had a reason to do that,” Anders explained. “The upper floor sends us paper work and we take care of it.”

“Every so often someone like you appears,” Blaze said. “But not too often.”

“What happens when they do? Do you send them upstairs?”

“Oh, my goodness, no,” Anders told him. “They would never forgive us if we did that. We’d never hear the end of it. More paperwork. Tons of it.”

Dion continued to stare at the two of them. He looked around the office and didn’t see a door to any place. If there was a way out of this office, it wasn’t evident to him. Perhaps they were right about never leaving it. The perfect office workers. Trapped in their little spaces for all eternity. If the tower existed in multiple time circles, as they claimed, there was no one place each level or door might lead. The same door, which took you into one room, might dump you into a jungle when you left. He no longer had the sigil disc as it was used up when he opened the door into this room. If he were to get out of here, he would need the help of these two. Provided they could give him any help at all.

“So what happens to the people who come through the door?” Dion asked them. “I mean the one behind me that isn’t there any longer.”

“It’s still there,” Blaze said. “You just have to look for it.”

“Can’t be seen by the uninitiated,” Anders pointed out. “But, in his case, I don’t think he even knows about the temple.”

“He might. Is he a unitarian or a dualist? What do you think?”

“I’d suggest a syndicalist.”

“Did I say a word about politics?”

“Who said a syndicalist couldn’t also be a dualist? Have you been reading those old books again?”

“I’m talking about the third commentary of the fourth citation of Ames and Breslow. Didn’t we bring that one up last week?”

“No, we were discussing the lack of intersectionality on the progress of critical mathematical studies. You were the one who brought it up when we had our quota accomplished for the day. I pulled out that journal and showed it to you. It caused more confusion than the survey about Planck’s constant.”

The two of them ignored Dion and continued to babble on for another fifteen minutes. He was unsure about the way time ran in this part of the tower, but he assumed it worked the same way outside the tower. Dion looked at his wristwatch. It showed twenty minutes had elapsed between the time he stepped into the doorway and now. At least the passage of time was constant. It also told him he had only twelve hours to reach his parents and the Aether Grandmaster.

“Pardon me,” Dion cut into their diffuse discussion. “I don’t mean to interrupt your progress, but I need to get to my parents. They are somewhere in this tower. I need to find the Aether Grandmaster too. She’s held inside here as well. Do either of you know where they might be?”

The starred at him for a few seconds. Finally, Anders took a phone receiver off its cradle. From his side of the table, Dion could see Blaze dial a telephone number. Anders waited until the phone on the other end was answered before he said a word. But he didn’t take his eyes off Dion. Neither one of them did.

“Hello, security?” he said into the receiver. “We have a live one here. Yes, the young man you told us to watch out for yesterday. He’s here and you need to get over to our office and deal with him. No, we’re not going anywhere. Yes, we’ll be here until you arrive.” He hung up the phone.

Dion looked at them.

What kind of game was played in this tower? He entered with a door that disappeared behind him to an office run by twins who didn’t look alike and were angry when you pointed it out. They couldn’t make up their minds about anything and now they’d called security on him. Dion was in no mood to deal with more goons after the past few days in the mall and his confrontation with Karanzen’s security guards.

He decided to try a new approach.

“Do you have any idea who I am?” He asked them with a stern look on his face.

Blaze turned to his brother. “Smart kid, isn’t he?”

“Assumes a lot, I have to admit,” his brother responded. He turned to Dion. “Of course we know who you are. You’re the communist they warned us about last week. And now you can deal with our peoples.”

“No, he’s a fascist,” Blaze corrected. “Didn’t you read the memo?”

“That was last month.”

“No, last month was the monarchist. You almost let him through.”

“Because he told us he was trying to stop the revolution.”

“Why would a monarchist be in favor of a revolution?”

“I said he was trying to stop one! Don’t you ever listen to anything I say?”

“I’m Seth Bach’s nephew. If you don’t show me how to get to the next level, both of you are going to be in deep trouble.”

“Deep what?” Anders said to him.

“Who’s nephew?” The other said.

They stared at him for a good thirty seconds, finally one of them spoke.

“Why didn’t you tell us that in the first place?” Anders asked. He reached over and slid his hand under the table. There was a click and a cabinet full of books next to him swung open to reveal a hidden staircase.

“Sorry,” apologized Blaze, “we thought you were the man with the FBI. Please convey our apologies to your uncle.”

“I thought he was with the CIA.”

Chapter 3

Dion turned and walked to the staircase. It led upwards, but he couldn’t tell where it went. At this moment, he didn’t care because it would get him away from these two.

He walked up the stairs and heard the sound of the twins arguing as the cabinet closed and clicked into place behind him.

The staircase was long and steep. How it was approved by the building code was a mystery to Dion until it occurred to him that the tower was in many different time circles, which meant the inspectors were shown something other than the tower. He climbed the stairs. Dion noted the light was very faint in the staircase, probably for a definite reason. He turned his head upward and saw that the light emitted from gas flames. They flared out from small jets in the ceiling. Gas lighting was almost unheard of which meant the building was never inspected or he was in a time circle where it was common. He bet on the latter.

Dion reached the top of the steps after a few minutes. The steps were placed higher the further you climbed up the stairs, which made it difficult to mount the last few ones. It was this way for a purpose, he decided. The best he could figure out was the builder of the stairs wanted to make the person who ascended them think about where they were headed. By the time he reached the final step, Dion was exhausted and leaned on the wall before trying the handle.

He found it unlocked and the door, made of a lightwood, swung without much effort.

Dion walked into the room and blinked at the light, which nearly blinded him. It wasn’t that the light was intense, the room was painted white and the light reflected off the surfaces and into his face. Dion let his eyes adjust from the dark staircase for a few minutes to the difference in the room. He closed the door behind him and looked around.

The room was empty. Empty as in there was nothing inside. He walked the expanse of the room, which had to be twelve by twelve feet, and looked at the floor and ceiling. All were a bright shade of white. It was as if someone had entered the room with an airless spray unit, popped open some five-gallon pails of latex paint, and proceeded to coat the entire room from top to bottom. Even the chairs, which sat in the corner, were painted with the same bright white color. So was the rest of the room. He looked at the wall and noted the coating was continuous, which meant the room was painted at the same time. Dion tried to scratch a bit of the paint away and discovered it to be on an ordinary wall. Off course, the wall was white, but made out of stone. The room lacked windows, which didn’t surprise him, as they were deep inside the tower.

He turned around and looked at the door he’s used to get inside it. Once again, the door was gone. Was this a truth for all the doors in the tower? Dion looked around and noted there were no doors on any of the other walls. He appeared to be trapped inside a room and this time there was nothing to hide a secret passage, or so it seemed.

There was a hum and the outline of a door appeared on the wall in front of him. He stood and watched as the outline merged into the image of a wooden door with a peephole in the center, up near the top. The sound stopped as the door took material form. Dion stepped back and the door’s lock clicked as it opened and swung out to meet him.

From out of the door stepped a man in his forties dressed in white. He was slender with blonde hair and a contagious smile. He shut the door behind him as he entered the room, but the lock did not click a second time.

“Good day,” the man said to Dion as he extended a hand. “I am Adam Belial. You are Dion?”

“I am. I’ve just came from the other office, the one down at the end of the stair case. Do all the doors here form and disappear when you are done with them?”

“Not all,” the man told him, “but many do. I would say most fit the profile you just described to me. It’s a safety feature in the building. You don’t want the wrong people penetrating the financial sector as they could easily run out with economic reports. Imagine how that would damage the company. This way they can’t get any further unless someone allows them to do so.”

Dion looked the blank room over. “Interesting decoration. I expect you paid a lot of money to have it done.”

“Not me. The man who owns the corporation did it out of his own pocket, if I recall correctly.”

“So what kind of work do you accomplish here, Adam?”

“I’m not sure.”

“You’re not sure?”

“I was hired to run this office three months ago. They still haven’t told me what I’m supposed to be doing.”

“Does this office have a name?”

“It’s a separate company inside the mall management. We’re known as Edom Consulting. At least that is what I know from the name on the stationary. I don’t see much of the building. As far as I can tell, my office is cut-off from the rest of the world. Would you like to see the rest of it? This is only the antechamber.”

“I’d love to. Please tell me it was more furnishings than this room.”

“Of course. This room is where I meet new clients. Can’t impress them unless you keep them guessing, as I once heard someone say.”

He turned to the other door and made a few passes over the door. There was another sound of a lock unclicking and the door swung open again. Adam held the door open for Dion.

“After you,” he invited Dion.

The next room was a vast library. Dion walked inside it and admired the extensive collection of materials it contained. He went to the nearest shelf and pulled out one of the books. It was in a language he couldn’t understand, so he placed it back on the shelf. As Adam watched, Dion pulled several other books from the shelves and looked at them too. Each one was in a different language. He looked at a few more. Also in different languages. A few used alphabets he did recognize and some even had characters in the standard Roman style of writing. But none of them had words that he understood. Nor were any two the same.

After a few more minutes of his book hunt, Dion found one that was in English. It was one he could read. Naturally, it was a book of limericks and he couldn’t make sense out of the subject. Dion sighed and returned the book to the shelf.

He turned to Adam, who still waited in silence. “Is this your job? Taking care of all these books?”

“It’s one of my jobs.”

“And the other?”

“Processing people who come through here.”

“I thought that was the job of the twins in the last room.”

“Oh, no. They don’t really do anything other than screen out travelers who found a way past that door. A few minutes with them and most people are begging to be sent back to where they came.”

“So what is the next destination on my trip?” Dion asked him. He didn’t see any windows in this room either.

“Through that door over there,” Adam pointed to the one at the other end of the room. Dion failed to notice it when he came into the library.

They walked across the library to the door on the opposite end. Once again, Adam opened it and beckoned Dion to walk to the other side. Once again, Dion followed his request and went through the door. Like the last one, it was too dark to see what was on the other side of the door before he walked through it.

Dion walked into a thunderstorm.

It was night and the lighting lit up the sky the moment he was through the door. He found himself outside and protected by the rain from a cupola, which extended a few yards over the door.

In the distance, the lightening illuminated a lone tower that stood across the rain-drenched landscape. The tower appeared to be several hundred yards away and the only thing he could see in the distance, due to the storm, was a river on the other side of it.

“I thought I was in a tower,” Dion said to Adam who stood next to him with his hand on the door. It was still open. “Where am I?”

“That was someone’s time circle,” Adam told him. “This is another one. The tower exists in many places and circles. You’ll need to reach the one over there if you want to achieve your goal. I’m not permitted to tell you anymore than this.”

“But what about the clock tower that overlooks the mall?”

Adam frowned. “I really have no idea what you are talking about,” He said and shut the door on Dion. Dion heard the lock click on the other side. There was a flash and he found himself starring at a gray rock wall.

Chapter 4

Dion was soaked by the time he’d walked thirty yards. The tower was the only shelter he could see in the darkness besides the covering he’d just left. Mud covered his high-top shoes by the time he was at the halfway point to the tower. The rain was cold and beat on him from all sides as the wind shifted. Clouds covered the stars and sky, which further increased the blackness into which he walked. The only way he could see the ground was when the lighting arced across the sly and lit everything up. The ground was hard and full of rocks.

He was in some kind of valley. The tower overlooked the river from a high vantage point, but he could see no signs of habitation anywhere else. Dion had no idea where he was. The only thing, which offered safety, was the tower and he didn’t know what lay inside it. Light flicked from the occasional window in the tower, so someone had to be there.

The tower was forty-four stories high. Dion managed to count them as he trudged his way in its direction. The different levels had windows, but he could see no one at them. All the windows were protected by translucent glass, which made sense in this weather. Occasionally when the lighting illuminated the sky, he could see crosses cut into the stone. He puzzled over their meaning. Then it hit him: the crosses were arrow slits for archers and snipers. The same for the crenellation on the top of the tower, it allowed a defender protection from any ground fire. This tower, which appeared to be made of stone, was very old. It was also positioned here for military reasons and not a tourist attraction.

He stopped at the ramp that led to the huge twin doors on the first level of the tower. The wind continued to pound him with rain. Never once had the storm lifted in his walk across the field, which separated the tower from the rock walls where Adam dumped him. Dion could still see the lights burning in the windows, but no one waited for him at the door. The tower, which had to protect this valley from something or someone, lacked any kind of heraldry or banners. It had no fortifications or walls around it. It did have a moat around it. The sheer size alone was enough to give any potential attacked a second thought about an assault. There was a bridge across the moat, but very little water flowed through it. Dion wondered if the tower was still in active use, or just some kind of relic. Given the remote location, whoever built might’ve repurposed the tower once it was of no more strategic value.

Dion tested the bridge and found it would support his weight. He looked down and didn’t notice any spikes at the bottom, just a shallow stream of dirty water that flowed a few feet deep at the bottom. It was still a thirty-foot drop. He trod across the bridge with care and stayed in the middle. It moaned under his weight and he doubted the bridge could hold much more than what he weighed.

Once across the bridge, he mounted the ramp and walked up to the doors. The second before he raised his hand to pound on the door, a bolt of lightning ripped across the sky, which almost blinded him. He counted two seconds between its appearance and the sound of thunder. The noise was loud enough to deafen him. Based on the last time he timed the lighting, the storm wasn’t going anywhere. He’d left his smart phone back at the house this morning. He doubted there would be a signal in this place for a weather report.

Shivering from the wet cold, Dion pounded on the doors. No one came to answer him, so he tried the handle. Locked, just as he suspected. Whoever was inside that tower didn’t want to deal with whatever lurked in this night land. Dion waited a bit longer and pounded again. He prayed the lighting would not pick this moment to try some target practice.

This time a peephole opened up inside one of the big doors. The peephole was about five feet from the ground and no more than six by six inches. It was built for concealment and he didn’t notice the tiny door until it opened. A pair of eyes starred at him until it shut.

There were multiple sounds from the other side of the massive doors as someone unlocked them from inside the tower. Dion stepped back as he couldn’t tell which direction the doors would swing. The lighting gave him a better look at the doors, which were covered in metal and studded with spikes. Whoever built the tower knew the entrance would be a weak point if it were under attack.

The doors swung out very slow. Dion could hear a clacking as they opened. It occurred to him that the doors were too heavy to be pushed and had some kind of mechanical system to open them. He’d noticed a small stone building attached to the tower near the base and wondered if it had something to do with the door’s operation. He doubted it as the outbuilding would make the door vulnerable to an opposing force. Whoever built the tower wanted everything protected on the inside of it.

The doors took a full minute to crank open. Dion guessed this was for protection as well. You didn’t want huge doors that could be swung open quick during combat. If the doors locked in place when they opened, this gave extra protection to an adversary who tried to storm them from the ramp. Although, given the lack of any structures in the visible distance, where could anyone hide who attacked this tower?

There wasn’t much light on the inside but Dion could see a figure who held a lantern. The doors stopped their motion at the apex. Since he had nowhere else to go, Dion stepped inside and let the cold water drain from his clothes. His hair was matted down from the wind and rain. He shivered from the walk through the storm.

“Please step inside a little further so I can close the doors,” a voice said to him. Dion complied and tried to wipe the water from his face.

He thought the voice sounded feminine, but the thunder muffled his hearing. Dion couldn’t be sure how anything sounded until his sense of sound returned to normal

Dion heard the doors began to move back in place when he was clear of them. Once the doors closed, he heard the sound of locks as they snapped into place. This had to be done by something automatic since the dim figure in front of him hadn’t moved since he’d entered.

Once he managed to wipe the rain from his face and his vision adjusted to the dark room, Dion was able to see the person in front of him.

The person who’d opened the door was a woman. She was dressed in black.

Not only was her outfit, a dress which cascaded to the floor, black, but so was the woman who faced him. Dion himself was dark in complexion, but this woman was the color of a black diamond. She appeared to be in her thirties and had blood red lips. Her hair was straight and flowed down to her waist, but was unkempt. As his vision further adjusted to the room, he could see she held a short spear in the other hand. Her nails were the same brilliant red color as her lips. She was also barefoot.

“Pardon the spear,” she apologized. “But we can’t assume anyone knocking on the door is a friend. I’m Kiley Mahen. We’ve been expecting you, Dion.”

“You know my name,” he stated. Somehow, this wasn’t a surprise.

“I know a lot about you,” she told him. “The elemental grandmaster you need to find isn’t here, but she’s supposed to be back soon. The sooner the better for all our sakes. Come upstairs with me, I’ll get you some dry clothes and everything will be explained.”

Dion heard a rumble to his right and turned to look. The lamp cast long shadows in the room they were inside and Dion noticed the large boxes and crates piled around them. They were in some kind of storage area or warehouse with wooden crates piled every place. He saw all manner of tools and metal piled up in on corner. The level they were on, the ground floor, was easily two levels high to accommodate whatever they needed to bring into to the tower. The stairs to the tower where built into one side of it. He could see the doorway leading up to the next level.

“You bring people into this room?” Dion asked her. “Guests are shown the warehouse?”

“This tower was built for defense,” she told him. “It has guarded the Borgia Pass for the past thousand years. It’s only in the last hundred years the pass was at peace. We were sold the tower because no one thought there was the possibility of invasion again. Besides, air power takes out any reason for a huge fortress such as this place represents. Do you want to go upstairs and get into some dry clothes or do you prefer to stay down here and shiver?”

Dion was about to apologize when he heard the rumbling noised and turned to look again. The light had cast a beam on the bars of a cage. No, it was another entrance of some kind. The bars blocked something from entering the bottom level of the tower. This had to be the small, attached building he noted on his approach to the tower. From the bars, he could see the eyes of something very big stare at him with hunger.

“That’s Draco,” she told him. “We keep him in the former stables. Don’t need to keep teams of horses in reserve any longer since the tower doesn’t guard the pass. There is a barn out back for the ones we need. We do use the old stables to keep Draco inside when the weather is bad. Can’t let him run free in the tower, too dangerous. He has plenty of room to hunt outside when the weather is good. Keeps the deer population under control and people away.”

She held the lantern up a little bit higher and Dion could see the face of a very big adult lion that starred at them from the bars. The beast didn’t look very friendly and all Dion could see in those eyes was a big cat who considered him dinner. “Draco” growled again, the source of the rumbling noise he’d heard.

“That cage door is locked?” Dion said to her.

“Of course,” Kiley replied. “How stupid do you think we are? Draco is a wild animal. Always will be. The only reason we have him here is for protection. Now come on, don’t you want to see the rest of the tower?”

He followed her to the stairwell. His shoes made a squish every time they touched the stone steps. Water still dripped off him. The stairwell felt chilly, it was obvious the tower lacked any kind of central heating. He wanted to ask the women where they were, but Dion decided to take his time about gathering information. She’s known his name when he arrived and acted as if he was expected. Plus, she knew about the Aether Grandmaster he needed to locate.

At least the grandmaster didn’t appear to be in danger. One of the reasons for his trip to the clock tower in the mall was to rescue her and obtain full aether elemental powers. But, according to this woman, she was gone. At least for the moment.

The other thing he wanted to ask her about was….

“You uncle is upstairs too,” the woman told him, as she looked back. He red lips contrasted with the rest of her appearance and Dion noted she had red eyes to match. Who had red eyes unless they were bloodshot? In this woman’s case, the entire cornea was red. Was she even human?

“I expected to meet my uncle on this side,” Dion remarked, “just not as quick.”

“He informed us about your arrival,” She told him. “Your uncle is an interesting man, to say the least. He seems to think his birthright was stolen from him. He also felt he could manipulate the abyss to do what he wanted. But now he’s opened a gate to it and we have to deal with the consequences. You’ll learn more when we get the great hall.”

He exited the stairwell into a smaller room. Dion looked up to see the light of the lantern vanish into the open space and realized the small room was divided by a series of partitions. The tower solved the problem of privacy by creating dividers inside each level, but this one lacked a ceiling for some reason. He stopped and let the water flow off him. Kiley opened a small cupboard door and took out some dry clothes.

“Here you go,” she said. “There’s a towel with them too. On the floor, you will find a basket. Drop your wet things into the basket. The maids will take care of them later. Put on what you find in the bundle.”

Dion took the clothes from her.

She handed him a pair of boots. “These should fit you. I’ll be outside with everyone else. When you are ready, come and see us. There are a number of people out there who want to meet you.” She opened the door on the other side of the partition and left him with his clothes.

Dion removed his dripping clothes and dropped them in the basket next to the door. After drying himself off with the towel, he unfolded the clothes she gave him. It consisted of a tunic and pair of loose hose. Since he didn’t want to violate her hospitality, Dion went ahead and put them on, followed by the boots. This was a little bit difficult since there weren’t any chairs in the vestibule. Comfort was not a big item to whoever lived in the tower. And he didn’t even know if it had a name or did they just call it “The Tower”?

He left the vestibule and shut the door behind him. Dion found himself in a large hall, which was, once again, two levels in height. Whoever built the tower wanted it to impress everyone. At one end of the hall was a large fireplace with a stack of wood, which burned and produced enough heat for the entire hall. In front of it was a long table where a group of people was seated. They turned to him when he approached.

It was that moment he recognized his parents.

Chapter 5

Dion’s mother jumped up from the table and ran to him. She wasn’t his height, but his mother could still toss her arms around him. Dion was relieved, as he now knew both of his parents were safe, something which concerned him for the past year. His father stood up and walked over to Dion too, placing his arms around both Dion and his mother.

The other person he noted at the table was his Uncle Seth. His uncle sat closer to the fire, near the three women at the head of the table. As Dion expected, he didn’t look too happy to see him. It was obvious his uncle was not in charge in this place. If anyone was in control of this tower, it had to be the three women on the other end of the table.

One of whom was the same woman that greeted him when he entered the tower.

“I was worried we’d never see you again,” his mother wept on his shoulder. “I knew you’d find us, I always knew you would make it here. Your father worried it was too much responsibility, but I knew you’d come for us.” She continued to sob.

His father removed his arms and stepped back. “As you can see,” he announced to Dion, “We are guests of the ladies who own this tower. As is your Uncle Seth.” He glared at his brother.

Dion was happy to be reunited with his parents, but he needed to know something. When he last confronted his uncle outside the shopping mall, his uncle made a claim that needed to be resolved. This might not be the best time or place to ask such questions, but he had to know for sure.

“I’m glad to see both of you too,” he told them. “But there is something I need to know.” His mother released him and stood back.

“What is so important you need to hear it from us before we get out of this place?” she asked.

Dion looked up at the great hall and thought for a few minutes. He had to word his question with care or he’d never know the truth. And he needed to know, or it would affect his ability to get them all back home. He could see a small window near him and watched the lighting illuminate the sky once again. The storm raged in the distance. He was grateful he’d found his way to the tower before it got this bad.

While the thunder boomed outside, Dion looked the great hall over. He could see several small rooms and partitions that were built into the far end of the wall. Metal pipes ran down into the rooms, which confirmed what he thought. The tower had its own plumbing system and it was protected by the walls. This had to be a recent innovation. Indoor plumbing would not be big concern to a war tower.

Banners hung down from inside the walls. The entire hall was illuminated by lamps and candles. He couldn’t see any electrical devices inside, which seemed to indicate the tower didn’t have electricity. He wondered if this particular time circle used electrical power or did the tower lack it? Surely, wiring the entire tower for power would be expensive, but so would any construction work need to make it into an estate and not a military emplacement.

“I want to know if you are my real parents,” he asked his mother and father. “Uncle Seth claimed you aren’t. I don’t expect much in the way of truth from him, but I need to know.”

His mother appeared shocked, but the look on her face told him a lot, as she lowered he head. His father put his arm protectively against the shoulders of his wife and looked at their son.

“We’re you foster parents, Dion,” he told him. “We planned to tell you when you were much older, but I see my brother has forced this issue.”

“I hate to interrupt this moment,” Seth Bach spoke from the table near the fireplace, “But we have to talk about something. In particular, the reason we are all in this place. You’ve just had your tearful family reunion and I sympathize with what you had to go through to be here, Dion.”

“In spite of the fact that it’s because of you I’m here,” Dion snapped from across the room. “You did your best to keep me from reaching the elemental grandmasters that just happened to be working in the shopping mall you owned. You had my parents abducted over a year ago and paid to have my friends snatched away too. You’ve threatened me with all kinds of things and tried to keep me away from fulfilling my quest. Now, what on earth could you have to say?”

“I think he’s a little bit angry, don’t you?” It was one of the women at the other end of the table, close to the fireplace. “Why don’t you come and sit at the table Dion. Dinner is almost ready and I’m told you like beef stew. The cooks are serving it tonight. I’m sure you’ll like their recipe.”

“Let’s go sit down,” his father said to him. Dion still thought of the two people who raised him as his real parents, even though they’d confessed to being his foster parents. Dion followed them to the table where they seated themselves between his uncle and the three women on the end.

“So what did you want to talk about?” Dion said to his uncle. “I don’t have the slightest idea where I am. I went through a door into your clock tower in the middle of the mall and emerged in two different rooms. The last one ended up across the fields. Where is this place?”

“Outside the time circle you remember,” his uncle Seth replied. “I expect you understand this after what you had to endure. Sorry about all the trouble I had to put you through to get you to the tower, but it was the only way I could accomplish it. I knew if your parents were gone, you’d do anything to get them back, including obtaining full elemental powers from the grandmasters. No, they weren’t in on my little ruse. I really didn’t think you would pull it off, but you impressed me. And now you are here to obtain the Aether Grandmaster’s accolade, but she is nowhere to be found.”

“She supposed to be back,” said one of the women at the other end of the table.

“Why did you allow her to leave?” one of the other women asked her.

“Wasn’t my place to stop her.”

Dion looked at the two women who sat next to Kiley Mahen. It took him a few minutes to realize it, but they were related. The same body types and facial structures. All were as dark as Kiley, but they were of different ages. The one who sat next to her wore the same kind of gown, but it was golden yellow. The woman to her right was dressed the same too, but she wore green.

Although Kiley appeared to be in her thirties, the women in yellow looked in her late twenties, with the remaining women in her early twenties, perhaps just eighteen. All of them possessed the intense dark complexion and red eyes. If they were the same age, the women would’ve passed for triplets.

Dion tensed as another clap of thunder boomed outside the tower.

“Don’t worry about it,” the women in yellow said to him. “Lightning rods protect this place. We’ve put them all over the tower.”

“Forgive our lack of manners,” Kiley said to him. “These are my sisters, as you probably can tell.”

“There is a slight resemblance…” Dion began to say.

“The lady next to me is my younger sister Loris,” Kiley told him. “The one in green next to her is my youngest sister, Susan. We own this tower.”

“Lease it from the kingdom, actually,” said the one called Loris. “The kingdom owns it.”

“We have a thirteen hundred year lease on the tower and the property,” Susan explained. “Yes, the kingdom does technically own it, but our family has been here the past hundred years, ever since the tower was decommissioned. So long as the court gets their money, no one cares what we do here.”

“That is all about to change,” Seth Bach said, as he placed a glass of wine down on the table. “When your illustrious sovereign finds out who’s taken the tower, I dare say she’ll have it pulverized.”

“We have them under control!” Kiley snapped at him. “And they wouldn’t be here if you hadn’t showed up with your schemes.”

“You didn’t mind the funds when I gave them to you,” he sneered. “A little short on the monthly payments to the capitol? It’s hard to make those transactions when the local farmers have packed-up and left. No farmer to soak for taxes means no cash for the tower.”

“It was a temporary condition,” Susan spoke up. “But you convinced us to allow you to establish the abyss link and now we’re stuck with what’s in the top of the tower.”

“Stuck with what?” Dion said. “You haven’t made any sense so far.”

“Queen Lilith and her Azuroth hordes,” Kiley explained. “They control the top two levels of the tower.”

“And they’re about to burst through to the one below that,” Seth told him. “The abyss experiment was supposed to ground the mall’s clock tower in this time circle and provide me an unlimited source of electrical power for the mall. If I could’ve taken the mall off the power grid, it would show the way to provide cheap electrical power for the rest of the country.”

“Which,” Dion’s father pointed out, “you would have provided cost-free to everyone.”

“Nothing is cost-free,” Seth Back snapped back. “Of course I expected to get something out of it. Do you think John D. Rockefeller gave away the oil from his wells? At least America would no longer have to worry about foreign oil.”

“One set of infernal deals for another,” Dion’s father grumbled.

“It didn’t work out so well,” Dion’s mother told him. “Your uncle let in a horde of creatures from the abyss to this place before he closed the gate. He can’t send them back and they don’t want to return.”

“Queen Lilith and her minions,” Seth grumbled as he took another sip. “She controls the top levels right now. My development laboratory was up there and she came through with her bad boys the first time the gate lifted. We had to retreat lower and barricade the stairs. This all happened three months ago, I don’t see any further reason to discuss it further now that Dion knows about it.”

“We had every precaution taken!” Seth Bach continued. “There wasn’t a single safety factor we ignored. I had the instruments charged, the right protection in place and opened the gate to the generators. They were waiting on the other side. Someone tipped her off and she blew through with her minions the moment we began to pull power from the differential between the two universes. She destroyed every bit of equipment we had in place when they all charged through the opening.”

“We know about it,” Kiley Mahen replied, as she lifted a goblet to her mouth. “The noise was horrible. It woke up everyone.”

“We had to send all our household guards up there with Seth’s men to keep them from taking over the entire tower,” Loris grumbled. “And we can’t get rid of them.”

“The gate closed when they destroyed the equipment,” Seth explained. “I have no way to send them back.”

“I still say we should have contacted the sovereign,” Susan sniped. “When she finds out we opened a gate to the abyss, she’ll send the army down here and they’ll blow the entire tower up.”

“And we could kiss good-bye our lease and property,” Kiley returned. “Seth seems to think his nephew can succeed where he’s failed.”

“How am I supposed to bring this thing to an end?” Dion asked them. “Besides, I’m strictly here to get my parents and the aether grandmaster back home.”

“You can’t do that unless I open the door back to our time circle,” his uncle explained. “You have four elemental powers and will soon have the fifth when the grandmaster returns. Then you will be strong enough to open the gate and send them back.”

“I thought you had full power over the aether, dear uncle,” Dion sneered. “Why can’t you use it to send them back?”

“Because it takes all five powers,” he reasoned. “Don’t they teach you young elemental workers anything? Abyss creatures only respond to a combination of all five. When our grandmaster returns, you’ll have them all.”

Dion sighed. “Does this tower have a name?” he asked. “Or is it the only tower around?”

“Peace,” Kiley Mahen told him from her side of the table. “Its official name is the Tower of Eternal Peace. But the locals call it Peace Tower.”

Seth Bach stood up from the table. “Come on, Dion, you might as well see what we have to deal with in this place. I refuse to apologize for my actions because everyone sitting here would be wealthy beyond their dreams if it had worked out. I took a chance and it failed. Now I’ve had to do some bad things to fix it. Discussion over. Let’s go, the elevator will take us most of the way up. Trust me; you don’t want to walk all the way to the top of this tower. Its twenty-two stories high. The elevator can take us most of the distance. We take the elevator after you’ve seen the kitchen. You might as well get to see more of the tower”

Dion stood up, gave his mother one more hug and left with his uncle.

Just before he departed, Dion turned to the Mahen sisters at the table and asked them something on his mind. “Did you say your problems started three years ago?” he asked. “My uncle kidnapped my parents over a year ago.”

“Different time circles,” Susan Mahen told him. “The passage of time is different where you come from.”

“Does that mean years will have passed when I return to my time?”

“No,” Loris cut-in, “The door you used can be recalibrated to take you back to the moment you left, or at least a few seconds beyond it.”

Dion nodded and followed his uncle upstairs.

Chapter 6

They stepped out of the stairwell into a huge kitchen, which took up one entire level. The kitchen area was designed as a combination mess hall, pantry and cooking area. Dion could see four or five cooks working away at the end of a table and using a stove that vented to the outside. A small fire provided heat from one end of the room. He could only speculate how cold this place became during the winter months.

“Next stairwell is over there,” he pointed to another door. “The stair system doesn’t connect. It was built that way in case the defenders needed to retreat to the top of the tower.”

Dion followed him to the next stairwell, but stopped when he saw an open door between both passages. He turned and looked at his uncle with confusion. He doubted the builders of the tower had cut closets or rooms into the walls since that would have weakened them.

“Elevator shaft,” he explained to him. “One of the few designs in this castle which turned out to anticipate the future. It still works because the counterbalance and pulley system is internal. Thank our lucky stars the maintenance crew finished working on it last month because we sure need it today.”

Dion followed her into the next stairwell. This one took less time to ascend as the kitchen was built on a single level and not as large as the ground floor warehouse.

The elevator shaft was built into the inside of the tower, much in the manner of the plumbing. It wasn’t very big and could only hold four people at most. Dion expected some heavy freight elevator, such as the ones found in industrial plants where he originated, but this one was much smaller.

His uncle went to a small tube attached to the wall and blew a whistle, attached to the tube into it. “Murphy here,” came the muffled voice from the tube.

“I’m in the great hall, Murphy,” Dion’s uncle said to the person on the other end of the tube. “We need to go up to the top. I’ve got my nephew with me and he needs to see what we have to contend with.”

“Okay, “the voice replied. “You’ll go all the way up to the nursey. Did you tell him you’ll have to walk up to the next level beyond it?”

“He knows now. Give us thirty seconds.”

They stepped into the elevator and waited. Dion noted again there was no door on the lift.

“They never saw the reason for an elevator door in this place,” Dion’s uncle explained. “Something to do with the family who leased the tower not wanting to be surprised. They put the elevator shaft in place, in case you wanted to know.”

The elevator began to move up and Dion saw the great hall disappear as they ascended up the shaft. Another room appeared with the next opening, but they continued to travel upwards. It was quite different from being in an elevator from where he came. Dion never liked elevators; he hated the sense of isolation they gave him. It was a discomfort being inside one. It gave him the eerie sensation he was trapped. In this case, it was different; a person could jump off the elevator and reach the floor while it still moved.

“So how did you find this place?” Dion asked his uncle. He continued to watch the floors fall away beneath him.

“The tower?” his uncle asked Dion. “It’s been here a long time. Some people claim it goes back to the third empire of….”

“No, this entire world. How did you locate this particular time circle?”

“Can’t give away all my secrets, Dion. If I did, how could I earn any money at all?”

The rest of the trip to the top was very quiet.

The elevator came to a rest in a small vestibule, which blocked the view of its floor. Dion noted most of the tower levels had partitions, which made it difficult to see inside them. He speculated the family who remodeled the original military installation wanted to have some privacy against whoever used the lift. Keeping the service door of the elevator open alerted everyone to their presence. The partitions didn’t allow the elevator occupants to see what was happening on the other side.

“Level nineteen,” his uncle announced. “The nursey. Here is where we get off.” Seth Bach stepped out of the elevator.

“I haven’t tried to summon any elementals in this place,” Dion said to his uncle. “I don’t feel their presence here. Do our elemental manipulation abilities work in this place at all? If they don’t, why did you bring me?”

“You can summon elementals from your time circle,” his uncle explained, “but I wouldn’t do it unless you need to do so. There are limits to what you can do. It takes a long time for the energy level to reestablish itself every time you bring one of them over. So once you summon the earth elementals, for instance, you won’t be able to do it again for months. You can call the air or any other elementals right away, but the same limitations apply. You’ll need all of them, once the grandmaster returns, to take care of the problems we have. Ah, there is the stairwell upstairs and you’ll get a firsthand look.”

His uncle strolled past a shelf full of toys and went into the passage. Dion was directly behind him as he climbed the stairs. Dion glanced back at the nursery and noticed everything was covered with a layer of dust.

“Haven’t been any births around here in years,” he explained. “Those sisters are the last ones and they don’t seem interested in breeding. Guess the kingdom will take this place back once they’re gone. Too bad, it would make a nice mansion for the right people.”

Dion looked down. The tunic they’d given him felt a little bit strange. Perhaps the servants would have his clothes dry by the time they returned to the great hall.

All hell was breaking loose when they walked into the level above them, which Dion learned was dedicated to storage. They walked into a group of men who were desperately trying to reinforce the door on the other end of the room. Four of them held it tight while the rest hammered some more boards in place. From the other side, the sounds of growling and screeches could be heard. The door vibrated from whatever pushed against it.

One of the men turned around and Dion noticed the face of one of a security guard fired by his uncle. He was one of the ones replaced by the fire elementals back in the mall yesterday. It appeared they had a new job in a similar line of work. Plaster shook from the walls as something slammed against the other side of the door.

“Mr. Bach,” the man shouted. “We have a problem here. They started to pound this door an hour ago. I don’t know what started it. Oh, hello, Dion, what are you doing here?”

“An hour ago?” his uncle stated. “Right when my nephew arrived. Funny how they can find out these things. Oh, well. Do you have all the important things moved down to the ground level?”

“We salvaged what we could,” another man said to him. “I think we should reconsider holding this level.” The door slammed forward another inch.” Dion noticed twenty men in the other side of the room, which was almost bare of any items.

“Then have everyone retreat to the nursey and block the door down to it. I don’t want to go back further because they’ll have access to the elevator shaft.”

“Those beasts are too stupid to know how to use it,” one of the other men holding the door yelled.

“Inform me if there are any new developments,” his uncle told the man. “We’re going back down to the great hall.” There was another heavy slam from the other side of the door and one of the men was tossed to the ground from the impact.

“I don’t like a fall back,” his uncle explained to Dion. “Don’t know what else we can do. They can’t go anywhere but down. As long as we hold them off until the grandmaster returns, we’ll be okay. She left to get something she needed to send them back to the abyss.”

“What happens if she can’t send them back?” Dion asked his uncle.

“Then we lose the tower and make for the gate that took you into this time circle. I don’t want to make a run for it in this weather, but better the storm than those fiends on the other side of that door.”

His uncle seemed to be afraid of what lay on the other side, so Dion didn’t ask any more questions about them. He didn’t say anything else until they were half-way down to the great hall in the lift.

“How long have those former mall guards been keeping the tower safe from what was up in the tower?” Dion asked his uncle.

“About two months,” his uncle replied. “After the first month, the Mahen sisters’ couldn’t field any more tower guards to contain them and everything I tried to send those them back didn’t work. Since I needed to get rid of those guards at the mall, I made them an offer to transfer somewhere else at a better pay rate. I tried to locate Karanzen, their former post lieutenant, but he was gone.”

“Two months? I was at the mall yesterday when they were let go! What are you talking about?”

“Time runs different in this circle,” his uncle explained. “Don’t worry about the return; I can put us all back two seconds after you left.”

This was the second time he’d heard about the time discrepancy. Was it even true?

The elevator stopped at the bottom of the great hall. Dion and his uncle stepped out of the open door and returned to the long table next to the fireplace. The same group of people was still sitting next to the fire. As Dion sat down next to his parents, he noticed a pair of serving women place bowels down. Dion made a point to thank the lady who set his service out in front of him.

“So did you have any further trouble in the tower?” Kiley Mahen asked Dion’s uncle. “You weren’t up there very long.”

“They’re about to break through,” he told her. “I ordered the guards to abandon the warehouse and work on the next barricade to the level instead. Most of the important materials were transferred down to the warehouse, so that is no concern.

“If they could break through to the nursey,” Susan Mahen spoke, “and then they could get to the next level.”

“And so on,” commented her sister Loris. All three sisters shook their heads.

“Sometimes I wish I wasn’t born the oldest,” Kiley spoke. “It’s my duty to see this tower is preserved. Without the tower, we won’t have a purpose as a family.”

“With no heirs,” Dion’s mother pointed out, “you won’t have much of any future.”

“We’ve been over this before,” Susan grumbled to her. “All of us have to be married at the same time or there will be arguments over the succession lines. We’re young enough. Once we get this matter resolved with Queen Lilith and her horde, we’ll return to finding suitable matches.”

The window to their right lit with another lighting strike, but they ignored it. “You needed my brother’s schemes to increase your endowment,” Dion’s father mentioned to them. “Right now your fortune is in decline. What happens when your money runs out?”

One of the sisters was about to say something when they heard footsteps approach the table from the stairs. Dion turned and saw a small man carrying a lantern in one hand walk to the table and bow. He looked up and spoke in a soft, muffled voice that was still loud enough to hear.

“Excuse me, ladies,” he said to the sisters. “It appears you have some unexpected guests.”

Chapter 7

“Please let us know the nature of these guests,” Kiley said to him. She leaned back in her chair, but Dion noticed she never took her eyes away from the newcomer, nor did he look away from her.

“A bus has broken down outside in the storm. “There are ten members of a women amateur writing club on their way to Shedreck. They are down stairs removing their rain cloaks. Shall I have them come upstairs?”

“Ten women?” Loris said to her sisters. “This is unexpected. What in the world is a tourist bus doing around these parts? We hardly ever get any traffic through here.”

“Writers,” Susan rolled her eyes. “Tell them to come up here and join us. Also, have the cooks bring some more bowels. I’m sure they’re hungry. They always are.”

The man bowed low again and walked back down the stairs. Dion noted he didn’t turn his back on the sisters until he reached the stairwell.

“That was Rudy,” Kiley explained to him. “He’s been a retainer with our family before any of us were born. He almost raised us. Mother and Father were gone on business much of the time and he became the only parental figure we knew.”

“He is deaf, in case you didn’t notice,” Susan, the youngest sister, spoke. She adjusted her green gown and continued to eat the stew.

“You have to make sure he is looking directly at you,” Loris added. “Elsewise he can’t understand what you say. Rudy reads lips, but can’t hear a thing.”

“Was he born deaf?” Dion asked her.

“No, his hearing was normal until he was eight. He came down with a fever that lasted for weeks. He survived it, but lost his hearing as a result. This all happened before any of us were born.”

“Where are we going to place all these women?” Susan asked her sisters. “We have those creatures on the top level tying to work their way down and now a whole group of women who will need care.”

“Send one of the mechanics out in the morning and have them look at the bus,” Kiley recommended. “That man Giles can do miracles with his tools. Maybe he’ll know how to fix a bus.”

“Do you have any motor vehicles here?” Dion asked them.

“Of course not!” Kiley snapped at him, her red lips quivering.

“Not on your life,” Susan added.

“Disgusting things,” Loris chimed in. “See, even the one they used broke down. A team of horses wouldn’t break down if you treat them right.”

A noise came up the stairs. It consisted of a group of voices, all female, which merged together in one disharmonious collection. The people who sat at the table turned to look as the women from the bus flooded up the stairs and into the great hall. The woman pointed at the hangings on the wall, commented to each other about them, and marveled at the carvings of gargoyles around the arched ceiling. The seemed to be a mixed bunch, but at least they were dry and not dripping water everywhere.

“The laundry will work overtime tonight,” Susan commented. Dion could see she was like her sisters, but still had trouble getting a word in as the youngest.

Rudy the manservant emerged out of the crowd and bowed to the women at the end of the table. He held a piece of paper in his hand.

“Permit me to introduce the Potson Women Writers’ Circle,” he announced. “The maids have their wet cloaks downstairs and will transfer them to the laundry room. I have the names of them all here; there are at least ten, so I wrote them down in advance.”

He looked closely at the paper. “Ladies, please present yourself to the Mistresses of the Tower of Eternal Peace when I call out your names. Let’s see first we have Madam Kris Brown, followed by Teresa Wati, and Sondasha Martin.” The three women, still laughing about some private joke stepped forward and curtseyed. “Next we have Beth Ravi, Bernice Cosmo, and China Masters.” They did the same, although with less formality. “We also have Deborah Khalil, Betty Mook and Mary Tangent. Lastly, I am pleased to present Kristen Malor, who, I believe is the bus driver and organizer of his excursion.”

He turned to the crowd. “Ladies, may I present the Mistresses Mahon; Kiley, Loris and Susan.” The women at the table stood up, bowed and returned to their seats.”

“So we must ask,” Kiley said to them, “what brings you to the tower this time of the year. It’s the rainy season and most people choose to stay away from this part of the river when the storms begin.”

“I thought it would be a good idea for everyone to get out for a weekend,” the woman called Kristen Mar explained. “We’re bored and not running into much in the way of inspiration. I planned to drive the bus over to see the Ruins of Tarish, but we took a wrong turn at the pass. When we ran into the storm, I decided to make for the tower once I saw the lights in the place. We’re grateful for you being here.”

“And we’re glad we could be here for you,” Kiley continued to speak. “I’m hoping the storm dies down by the morning and we can get one of our mechanics to look at your bus. I understand it broke down outside?”

“The very moment we pulled up to the bridge. I looked at the bridge and couldn’t make my mind up if I should attempt crossing over it with the bus. The bus made the decision for me when the engine died. I couldn’t start it up, so we decided to cross the bridge one at a time.”

“Good decision,” Kiley commented. “That bridge is old and needs replaced. I don’t think it would have held the weight of your bus. Or a large group of people. But you’re here and that is all that matters.”

“How do you manage to survive out here so far from any settlements?” one of the women asked her. It was the young black woman who was known as Sondasha Martin. She appeared to be still in her teens and was dressed in an expensive jacket and skirt combination that matched the spike heels she wore. “We didn’t pass up too many farms on our way to this part of the valley.”

“We manage,” Kiley responded. “Somehow we pull through every year. Not too many tenant farmers left out here. Most have moved on to the city. This tower once guarded the entire mountain pass, can you believe that? Air power made it redundant and our families leased it from the kingdom a long time ago.”

“Did your family put the elevator shaft and plumbing into it?” another woman in the group asked. This was the one known as Beth Ravi, who was a large white woman. Dion felt she had to be a schoolteacher of some kind from the way she carried herself.

“All of the improvements you see here were made by our family,” Kiley told her. “This place was stark and barren when our family leased it. It was used by the military for a thousand years or more. Think of it, a thousand years as a military garrison. Not much in the way of accommodations for the troops who had to be ready at any moment to march out and defend the kingdom.”

“Is this where the Battle of Blood River was fought?” another one of the women questioned. She was Mary Tangent. With her thick glasses and prim manner of speaking, Dion felt she must be some kind of academic.

“No, that was the river which flows into this one, about fifty miles upstream. This was the tower that defended the troops of Melkor the Obvious from Brandon the Less. You may have read about it in the history books. The battle raged for days until Melkor and his mercenaries retreated back across the mountain pass.”

Dion heard some surprised sounds from the crowd. This had to be some important battle, which he wouldn’t know about. It didn’t matter, as the women seemed to understand what Kiley Mahen talked about. They would be just as confused as he would if he took them to his time circle and tried to talk about the Battle of Bull Run.

More people joined the mob inside the great hall. Dion saw a group of servers move emerge from the stairwell to the warehouse move into the hall. They swerved around the women who’d broken into individual groups discussing what to do next. He noticed the servants wore the same tunics he’d been given once his wet clothes were removed. Although the women from the bus were all wearing gowns, it seemed the basic clothing styles in this world were similar to the ones from the Middle Ages back on his world. There was a strange blend of styles and technology. Some of which he could recognize from his own time period, others which made no sense to him.

This time there were three servants, all men. The oldest one approached the table, bowed just as the others did, and spoke directly to Kiley. “My lady,” he said, “we have a problem with the lift. It doesn’t seem to be responding as it is supposed to. We have the mechanics working on it right now. In light of the seriousness of our current condition, we felt it advisable to let all of you know.”

“Can the lift be used?” Kiley asked him. “As you can see, we are flooded with unexpected guests this evening.” She paused when a clap of thunder drowned out the sound before she continued. “How bad off is the lift? Do we need to order parts again?”

“The mechanics feel they can have it fixed in a few hours. In the meantime, no one should use the lift. The last thing anyone would want would be an accident.”

“I’d advise to shut it down for the night,” Loris told her sister. “Remember what happened ten years ago? They never did find all the body parts when the cable broke.”

“Can’t do it,” Kiley turned and said to her. “We might need it right away if Lilith and her mob break through to more levels.”

“We need to inform these women about her,” Susan interjected. “If they want to take refuge here for the night, they should know what they’ve walked into.”

“Give me a chance, will you?” Kiley snapped at her. “This is worse than the time we lost half the cattle from the near village.”

“Tell them to let us know the moment the lift is operational,” Kiley told the servants. “Let them know the lift is crucial to removing the invaders at the top of the tower. We may need it to transfer men and materials to the top.”

“And we might need to get them back down in a hurry,” added Susan.

“Would you shut-up and let me handle this?” her older sister Kiley snapped at her. Kiley turned to the servants. “Dismissed and keep us updated on the lift.” The three men turned and walked back to the staircase, which led down the ground level of the tower.

Dion could see the angry look on Susan’s face. This was not the first time her sister had put her in her place.

Susan pushed her unfinished bowl away and left the table. She walked over the stairwell that led to the upper floors.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Kiley called after her.

“To my room,” she stopped and called back. “You want to be in charge so much, handle it yourself.”

“You will have a long walk up there without the lift to take you.”

“I’ll manage.” Susan turned and vanished up the stairwell, her long skirt trailing behind her.

“You really shouldn’t be so hard on her,” Loris said to Kiley. “She is an adult you know.”

“Then she should learn to act like one,” Kiley sniped as she lifted her goblet up and took a sip. “Mother and father left me in charge. I make the final decisions.”

“You talk like they will return some day.”

“It would make my life better if they did.”

“But you know that day will never come back,” Loris reminded her as she finished the contents of her bowl. “It’s been five years since their ship vanished at sea. If they were ever to be found, it would have happened by now.”

“No body, no death,” Kiley pointed out. “That is the sovereign’s law, not mine. We are merely place holders until she rules otherwise.”

“I’ve never recovered,” Loris spoke to the empty space in front of her. Dion could see by the look on Kiley’s face that this was a speech she’d made many times. “I expect they’ll walk in that door any minute and put things to right. I know it might never happen, but I have to believe they’ll be back someday.”

Dion didn’t know what to say, so he remained quiet. It appeared he’d walked into a family argument of some kind, so the best policy was to stay out. Until the creatures at the top of the tower were neutralized, there wasn’t much he could do. He was reluctant to use any elemental power to alter the direction of the storm; if what his uncle said was true. He needed to save anything he had for an emergency. Furthermore, there wasn’t a thing he could do until the Aether Elemental Grandmaster returned.

Chapter 8

“Where did you say she went?” Dion looked across the table at his uncle.

“Who?”

“The elemental grandmaster. Didn’t you say there wasn’t much we could do until she returned?”

“I don’t know exactly where she went. When Queen Lilith broke through from the abyss all kind of havoc took place in the upper tower before we could contain them. She took off a week ago and said she needed to bring in some more help to prevent them from gaining control of the tower.

“Why can’t they just climb down the side of the tower?” Dion asked him. “I take it they can’t fly or levitate.”

“They’re grounded,” his uncle responded. “As far as we can tell. She and her troops have a deadly fear of heights, which works in our favor. They are a ruthless bunch and I’m glad we’ve never had to worry about them climbing out of the tower.”

Dion watched as a few more servants came out to bring water to the women in the hall. They were there for the night at least and might as well be made comfortable. Eventually, Kiley Mahen looked over at them and called to the group.

“Why don’t you come sit at this table?” she said to them. “It’s long and was built for large gatherings. There is plenty of room for everyone. I’ve even had the cooks warm up the dinner we were eating before you arrived.”

The women seemed to find this a good idea and soon they were all seated at the long table near the fireplace. The quiet hall now vibrated with the background chatter of voices and discussions. Dion found himself seated next to one of the women on the bus who was quiet. She continued to stare in wonder at the great hall and took it all in.”

“You don’t usually see places built like this?” he asked her.

“First time,” she told him. “I’m Teresa; this was supposed to be a fun weekend. It was before that storm hit.”

“Didn’t the weather reports call for it?” Dion asked her. “Oh, I’m Dion, by the way.”

“Weather reports?” the woman said to him. “How can you report on the weather? It does what it wants to do and the rest of us just endure.”

Dion decided not to pursue this line of conversation either, but it did tell him a bit about the place where he was. Instead, he went in another direction.

“So you like to write?” he asked her. “Any kind of writing in particular?”

“All kinds,” she told him, “Just nothing scary. I manage a cemetery, so I stay away from those kinds of books.”

“I’m sure your work is important. I’m here waiting for an elemental grandmaster. I can’t do much of anything else until she makes an appearance.”

“I see. What is her name?”

“Phologostron. Mary Phologostron. It’s the name by which I know her, she may have another. We’ve never formally met, but I was supposed to meet her here.” The last statement was true, although Dion didn’t know it when he entered the tower entrance back in his world.

“I think we might know her,” the woman said to him. She turned to the woman on the other side of the table. “Sondasha, didn’t you say that the lady who was supposed to come with us was called Phologostron?”

“I think that was her,” she confirmed. “Tall white lady with short hair? I think she runs a travel agency some place.”

Now Dion was very interested in the group. Did the grandmaster have some kind of connection to them?

“She was supposed to come with you?” he asked. “Does she belong to your group?”

“No,” Teresa told him. “She came by a few times last year. I think she might have family in town. I don’t know too much about her.”

Moments later one of the guards shot out of the stairwell, which led to the upper levels, his breathing labored. Dion knew the lift was down, but this man had run all the way from the upper levels. He recognized him as Izzy, one of the guards who’d worked in the mall. He wore shirt and jeans, which already put him at odds with everyone else in this place. Izzy went directly to Dion’s uncle and whispered something in his ear. When his uncle nodded, the man turned and ran back in the direction of the stairwell. Dion could hear the pounding of his boots as he ran up them.

“Problems?” Dion aske his uncle.

“Not anymore,” he responded. “The opposing force broke into the nursery. I didn’t think they would get that far, but the boys have contained them. They’ve stopped them at the eighteenth level. The creatures were busted up so bad by the time they reached the latest barricade, they couldn’t even pound on them. I hope the grandmaster gets back here soon enough; I’m tired of contending with these things. Back home I could call in an airstrike. Not an option in this place.”

“I thought they had airpower in this world?” Dion spoke. “Is the storm too much or do the sisters not want to get the government involved.”

“More of the latter. You can only do so much with dragons. They tend to burn up everything in their path, but they’re cold-blooded and don’t like storms.”

“Did you say level nineteen?” Loris Mahen asked him from her position on the table.

“Yes, but they’re holding it,” Seth Back responded. “I hope they’ve stopped the advance this time. Those things are really messing up my life. Sorry they got in, but we’ve been through all that.”

“Level nineteen is where our parents’ kept their rooms,” Kiley explained. “We’ve tried to keep it the same way before they took off on that voyage. If they are ever found, and it’s not looking good at this point, I’d hoped they would find their rooms in the same manner when they left.”

“Not possible. The guards will need ever table and heavy object they can find to stop the advance.”

“I would like to know, Mr. Bach,” Loris cut her sister off, “how you expect to recompense us for the damage done by your experiment. You better pray it never leaves this tower because the sovereign will have you on her list if they do get out.”

“I’ve told you,” Dion’s uncle snapped. “When we get this under control, we’ll have a conduit to the abyss and all the money you’ll ever need. Nothing else came through the gate, did it? We managed to close it when Lilith and company breeched the perimeter. It won’t happen a second time.”

“You’d better be right,” Kiley grumbled.

“I think I’m going back up to the guard’s level,” Dion announced as he stood up from the table. “They might need some help up there.”

“Are you sure that is as good idea?” his mother asked him.

“I’m not doing anything useful down here,” he explained. “Might as well go up there and see what I can accomplish.”

“It’s a long walk,” his uncle told him from the other side of the table. “Stick to the stairwells. Don’t linger around the floors. And come back down if anything happens I need to know about.”

“I’ll be sure to keep you informed,” Dion said to him in a dry manner. His uncle was the source of all these problems, yet acted as if he was still in control.

“Elevator’s fixed,” Susan Mahen announced as she strolled back into the great hall. “Mechanics say it should work just fine. I took it down here and didn’t have the least bit of trouble.”

“Appears you won’t have to walk all those stairs after all,” Dion’s uncle said to his nephew. He turned to Susan as she sat back down next to her sisters. “Anything happening where you were at?”

“Just a lot of men shouting and making noise,” she told him. “Nothing to concern me. I decided to come back here if there was going to be more tension up there.” Her older sister Kiley glared at her.

After using the speaking tube to let the lift operator know where he wanted to go, Dion was whisked toward the top of the tower. This time it let him out on a scene of exhausted men who were watching a table nailed over a stairwell entrance. Most of them didn’t even turn to look at him. Whatever they were fighting took every bit of energy to contain.

The level he was on was eloquent, but appeared to be a mess. Fine cabinets and benches were busted up to make wood for the barricades. Saws and hammers lay on the floor and splinters were everywhere. It was a scene of an utter mess. The only good thing was there were no noises coming from the other side of the barricade. Whatever forced their retreat had to be just as exhausted as the defenders.

“Weren’t you the kid we were supposed to keep out of the mall?” one of the exhausted guards looked up and said to him. “What are you doing in this place? And what happened to your friends?”

“My friends couldn’t come with me,” Dion said. “This is good because I don’t think they would have cared very much for this place. How long have you worked here?”

“I can’t remember,” the man said to him. “Seems like a few months. The pay is good and things weren’t too bad until a few hours ago when those things on the other side started pushing their way through. It’s our job to contain them. Right now, I’d give anything for a cheap grenade. It would solve all our problems in a hurry.”

Dion talked with the guards for a few minutes just to make sure they were okay. There were a few scuffling sounds on the other side of the barricade, which caused the guards to jump, but not enough to rouse them into action. They were curious what happened to their former post lieutenant, Karanzen. Dion was able to tell them he’d left the mall and didn’t know where he went. He didn’t tell them the last thing he saw the man do was turn into a swarm of flies.

“Did you get a look at what is on the other side?” Dion asked them, pointing at the barricade.

“All I saw was a whole lot of furry things with claws and sharp teeth,” the same guard said to him. “It’s all I ever want to see.”

“There was some woman in there with them,” one of the other guards added.

“A woman?” one of the guards asked, “In there with those things? Are you serious?

“I’m not kidding,” he said. “Swear that I saw her back there.”

This had to be the “Queen Lilith” figure they were talking about down at table. How she figured into all of it was something Dion didn’t understand, but he needed to ask his uncle when he returned to the great hall. His parents seemed clueless when it came to this world, but they’d been snatched into it without any preparation. He still thought of them as his parents and always would, but Dion needed to find out more about his real origins. This fiasco at the tower created more issues than anyone could have anticipated.

Chapter 9

Dion thanked the men for their time and returned to the lift. The operator took him back down to the hall. Dion initially couldn’t understand how the operator knew when it reached the right level until he noticed a small switch that was attached to a cord that the lift touched as it made its way past each floor. Every floor where the lift stopped had these and he guessed they were attached to different bells at the lift operator’s station. The people in this place didn’t like to use electricity if they could avoid it for some reason. Since his uncle’s reason for opening a way to the abyss was for the generation of electrical power, Dion guessed electricity was very expensive in this world.

“They’ve got it under control up there,” Dion spoke to his uncle as he sat down across from him. “Doesn’t appear to be much activity for now on the other side of the latest barricade. It could all change very soon.”

“It will all change very soon,” his uncle told him. “The minions are tired. Once they’ve rested, she’ll send them back against my guys again. They don’t want to be trapped at the top of the tower and I can’t say I blame them.”

Dion turned to his parents. “We were talking about my origin,” he said to them, “when I first arrived. You just confirmed everything he told me outside the mall yesterday back in Ohio.” Dion glared at his uncle who smiled just enough to almost make his blood rage. Almost.

His parents tried to look away, but they couldn’t. “You know, this really isn’t the best time to bring it up,” his mother said as her eyes swept across the women at the table. Many of them were exploring the great hall, but the others were still at the table enjoying the stew brought out to them by the servants. The Mahen sisters were preoccupied with their own conversation in low voices.

“Then let’s go up to the next level,” he said to his parents. Dion turned to his uncle, “What is over us?”

“Just the kitchen and laundry room,” he told Dion. “Both need a lot of water close to the ground. You can’t imagine the pressure needed to pump water to the top of this tower.”

Dion turned back to his parents. “Then we might as well go upstairs and have a conversation. I don’t expect much else will happen unless the invaders break through the barricade up at the top. In which case we’ll hear about it before the great hall learns.”

His mother shrugged and his father left the table with her. They followed their son up the stairwell into the kitchen without saying a word. In the kitchen area, several cooks were working on dinner for the next day. It was a huge facility with plenty of room.

Dion noticed a table near the stairwell and took his parents to it. This part of the kitchen was quiet and the sound didn’t echo off the walls the way it did in the hall beneath them. They sat down at the table and watched the kitchen help go about their business for a few minutes. It was Dion who spoke first.

“So are we going to talk about this?” he said to them. “It’s not every day you get to learn the very fact of your existence is a lie.”

“The lady who talked with your water nymphs nursemaids,” his father brought up an old story Dion remembered from when he was very young. “She was not your real mother. She was the wife of your real father. Your real father is Jupiter Olympus.”

“So I am one of the immortals?” Dion asked.

“No,” the man whom he always assumed to be his father spoke. “You real mother was human. Jupiter Olympus decided to stray one evening and his real wife found out later. She was furious about his actions. The fact that he had a son by someone other than her drove her to the point of insanity. So she went looking for you.”

“How do the two of you figure into all this?” Dion asked. Right now, he was ready to believe just about anything.

“We found your real mother on the side of the road,” his mother told him, tears on her face. “We’d always wanted a child. She didn’t live very long after you were born. I don’t know much about her, I think she was a farm girl somewhere. We decided to keep you and hired a lawyer to make everything appear legitimate. We even invented a relative who didn’t exist as your mother.”

“Where is my real mother buried?” Dion snapped at her. They could see the anger in his face.

“I’ll show you if we get out of this,” she said to him. “We took care of that too and planned to show you her grave when you were old enough to understand.” She dropped her face in the sleeve of her dress to prevent Dion from seeing her tears.

“When you were six months old,” the man he assumed for so long was his father said to him, “we had a visitor. It was a man in a truck. He introduced himself as Hermie Vektor. He claimed Jupiter Olympus was your real father and that everyone on Mt. Olympus knew about his little affair with the farm girl. He gave us some money to help out with your education and told us he would always be close by if we needed anything. He warned us that the wife of you real father vowed to make her husband pay for what he did. Your life would always be in danger. I used to see him drive by every now and then just to make sure you were okay. He would stop in and check on you, but we never had much interaction with him.”

“We thought using the water nymphs as nursemaids would be easy and they never gave us any trouble. You liked them and they were perfect to have around the house, in spite of all the men who slowed down whenever they saw them on the street.”

“But Jupiter Olympus’s wife found out where you were. She was the older woman you saw talking to the water nymph elementals before they attacked you. The man in the truck who rescued you was Hermie. He got in touch with your real father and us right away. He later told us Jupiter Olympus vowed to destroy the entire mountain if his wife ever tried that again. She must have listened as we never had any trouble afterwards.”

The two people who raised him were silent and looked at the table. Dion didn’t know what to say. He decided to confront his real father later, but, as far as he was concerned, the only people he ever knew as his parents were right in front of him.

He placed his hands on theirs. “I know you wanted to protect me,” he told them. “But it is better I know. I’ll pay Jupiter Olympus a visit when this is finished. I need to talk to him about the way he treated the woman who gave birth to me. But I want you both to know you are the only people in the world I consider my true parents.”

They were quiet for a few minutes until Dion heard his name called from the other end of the kitchen. He looked up to see one of the women who’d come in with the writers’ group standing across from them.

“I’m going up to where the action is,” she told Dion. “Did you want to come with me?”

Dion turned to his parents. “Why don’t you go back down to the hall?” he said. “I’ll go up with her and find out if there is anything I can do to help. I’m getting a little tired of all these trips up and down, so I may be awhile.”

“Take care of yourself,” his mother said to him as she gave Dion a hug. His father also hugged his son and then vanished down the stairwell with his wife.

“I don’t know about you,” the woman said to Dion, “but I intend on taking the lift to the top of this thing.” Dion joined her in the lift after she’d given the operator instructions through the speaking tube.

“I seem to have trouble recalling your name,” Dion said to her. She was a black woman who appeared to be in her twenties. She wore a conservative dress and a big pair of spectacles.

“Kris,” she said to him. “Kris Brown. I’m dying to see what’s happening up at the top. I’ve spent most of my life reading about adventure. Now I want to find it for myself.”

“Be careful what you wish for,” Dion told her. “Do you know what we’re up against?”

“The sisters downstairs told us,” she explained to him. “Pretty crazy. A whole group of screaming demons trying to chew their way down the tower led by an insane queen.”

“I wouldn’t go so far to call them demons,” Dion commented. “They do have an element of free will in their actions. Why else would Queen Lilith bring them through with her? You don’t fight with automatons. The big question is how to send them back.”

“Do you think you can do it?” she asked him as they passed another level. “The sisters said it all depends on you.”

“Only when the fifth elemental grandmaster appears and authorizes my power,” he told her.

“Don’t you have the other four?”

“Yes.”

“Should be easy. Can’t you work something out with that uncle of yours? Doesn’t he have the fifth power?”