Chapter 18: Reunion

Cole unexpectedly encounters an old friend on his way to The Enlightened Ones. He uncovers a bit of what happened to Shad after The Event.

Cole and Justice jerk awake to a rumbling from the mountain. Mojo responds by deciding it’s time to stretch, sending the two to their feet. Mojo stands tall, yawning and stretching just like a house cat before trotting into the forest. The light of the day has just begun activating the calls of the birds. The glow of the forest has long since disappeared. Cole groggily has an idea to cash in on some of the leftover cereal. To his surprise the food he summoned is gone. Not a crumb, not a plate, not a fork, not a table. Cole lets out a sigh before complaining, “The food! It’s gone!”

Justice replies while patting Mojo’s hair off her clothes, “It seems the mountain accepted your sacrifice. Good job Cole.”

“Man I was at least hoping for a little breakfast.”

“Are you ready to meet The Enlightened Ones?”

“Alright let's do this.”

Justice guides Cole to the rocky side of the mountain, “This is the last step.” she says before raising her hands and calling, “Great and powerful Growler, protector of the forest! Protector of The Enlightened Ones! Hear my call! The password is Scooby Dooooo!”

The call echoes through the forest for a moment. The silence gives Cole the thought that this whole thing was just a charade. Though the mountain doesn’t fail to respond. At first it was just the ground quaking but then Cole saw it. The whole mountain was rising straight up into the air. It lifted further and further until a cave entrance appeared in front of them.

“Huh, so that’s it then?” questions Cole heading into the cave.

“Yes through this cave and we have arrived.”

“So all I have to do is feed the mountain and say the password, Scooby Doo.”

“Yes, that is the mountain’s favorite TV show.”

“The mountain has a favorite TV show?”

With the words still leaving his lips Cole abruptly stops. His instincts kick in sensing something in the cave. Though he can’t see it, he can feel the changes in the air. He grips Justice by the arm lunging backwards out of the cave. Cole’s wind carries them back thirty feet.

“Why did you do that?!” cries Justice rubbing her arm tenderly.

“I don’t know how to explain it, but I know it! There’s something in there! I can feel its presence. A predator. I can tell by the way it moves.”

“Where?! I don’t, ohhhh I see.” she replies.

“Here it comes!” cries Cole.

A black silhouette emerges from the darkness. Cole shoots a windblade, with it the silhouette vanishes. Again he senses the presence, but now it's behind him. A light double tap touches Cole’s right shoulder. Cole hastily shoots another blade, but the blade hits nothing but the trees, because nothing is there.

What was that? I felt the tap on my shoulder. How is that possible? I don’t even sense him in the air.

Again the double tap, but now on the left. Cole reacts with a punch with his right. A particularly powerful horizontal tornado erupts from his fist, surprising even Cole.

A new ability? But where is he? I can’t see him!

Cole hears a taunting whistle.

It’s close! Where?!

He looks down to see a skull mask between his legs. He launches in the air forcing down a wind blade, but again he hits nothing. Cole’s wind ability sends him high in the air. He scans the area looking for the attacker. From the shadows of the forest he pops into Cole’s vision. A black figure already launching towards Cole with his fist cocked back ready for the hit. Cole shouts, activating yet another hidden technique, blasting all air away from him. The attack sends the black figure shooting to the forest floor. Cole watches the figure fall while he himself glides softly to the ground. He expects to hear the crashing body fall through the branches, but instead finds only silence. Before he could even hope to plan a counter offensive Cole realizes he’s already lost the battle. The figure had materialized up out of his shadow. A blade has already found itself resting on Cole’s neck. The attacker speaks in an unusually endearing tone, “Good job Cole, but I can still take you. Even since we were kids.”

“Huh?!”

The figure drops into its shadow, and begins walking from out of the forest canopy twenty meters in front of Cole before he could even hope to move.

His speed is so fast! How can I compete with that?!

Finally he comes into full view revealing what looks like black carbon fiber armor, a black hood, and a military skull mask still shielding his identity. Again the masked man calls, “Have you figured it out yet Cole?”

He removes his mask revealing a blond man with a blond five o’clock shadow.

“Shad!? Is that really you?!” questions Cole taken aback.

“One in the same! But that’s my old world name. Now you can call me Shado.”

“Are you boys done flexing?” says Justice in an almost annoyed tone.

Cole wails to Justice almost in an angered voice, “You knew this was Shad and you didn’t say anything?!”

“I knew as soon as I could see through his eyes in the cave. Of course he’s wearing the cross so I knew his intentions were pure.” she replies indifferently.

“And it's Shado now. I haven’t been Shad in years.” says Shado while punching Cole in the arm.

“Auhhgh! Why does everyone keep punching me in the same arm! Same damn spot!” cries Cole.

“You really haven’t learned anything since we were kids have you?” questions Shado rhetorically.

Justice questions slightly confused, “How do you guys know each other?”

“We’ve known eachother since school!” replies Cole.

“Small afterlife after all I guess.” she says.

Shado continues, “Cole and I were always getting into trouble since we were kids! He always had my back up until the day I was shipped off to military school, never to see my friend again, or so I thought. I guess Cole here was a bad influence on me.” says Shado going in for another arm punch. This time however, Cole dodges well before it reaches him.

“Not again!”

“Eh, it looks like you’re learning. Your powers aren’t half bad either. You’re really picking them up quickly. Man it’s just good to see you!”

“How do you know about my powers?”

Shado replies sheepishly, “I’ve been spying. I’ve been watching since you arrived at the NGP. I was that shadow you saw outside the fence.”

“You were that shadow? Is that how you move so fast? You can somehow use the shadows?”

“Wow, keen eye there. Sure, that’s one of my abilities. I can jump into shadows, travel through the shadow dimension, then come out another shadow. Teleportation basically.”

“Shadow dimension?... I don’t even know what to ask.”

“I can tell you are such a noob. You’re oozing noob.”

“Shut up I’m new here!”

“Yes, the shadow dimension. Though I can’t stay there very long or else I’ll summon the demon.”

“Dude you’re going to have to start making sense real soon. You’re literally the only person I know from before The Event.”

“I can tell I’m going to have to start from the beginning. Come on, follow me inside.”

Shado leads the way into the cave beckoning Justice and Cole to follow. His voice continues his story with his body fading in the darkness. Cole alone has to use Shado’s voice to follow since Justice has no problem navigating using both Cole’s and Shado’s vision.

“Ok, let's talk before The Event. Through the years at the academy I found I excelled in everything they were looking for. Leadership, close quarters combat, combat strategy, environment adaptation. After breaking many of the military records I guess I caught someone’s eye. They recruited me into the top secret military group, WolfPack. We were given secret technology, unlimited budget, and ironically stationed at the underground base currently where the NGP is residing.”

“What?! Why aren’t you there now then? That place has been taken over by some guy named Death!”

“Trust me I know who that guy is. We’ll get there.”

The trio arrive at the exit of the cave allowing Shado to shimmer back into existence. The bright light forces Cole to squint while his eyes are still adjusting. Justice cires out, “Cole, it’s dazzling! I love your eyes!”

The cave opens up to display a large valley enclosed by the mountainous range. The already large trees are even taller than Cole had seen before. Epically sized Banyan trees seem to have a special place in this land. Their canopies cover vast distances with large vines hanging down to their roots. He can see beautiful scenes of waterfalls and animal life living peacefully. The greenery, amazingly thicker by ten fold than what he’d seen outside. The forest is more than that though. Every part of it is alive, active, and aware. The cave exit makes a loud thud signaling the path has been sealed.

“Welcome to the heart of the forest.” says Shado.

“I guess this is where Bob Ross ended up.” replies Cole trying to be funny. The joke falls flat. Neither Shado, or Justice even gives sign of a giggle.

“What you guys never heard of Bob Ross?!”

The awkward silence is too much for Shado, forcing him to continue his speech pretending it never happened, “We specialized in missions that were not allowed to fail. I can’t tell you how many times we saved the world and nobody had a clue.”

“Come on it was funny!”

“I’m getting to the good part. Do you want to know what’s going on or not?”

“Fine…” replies Cole in a sigh.

“Just before The Event we were sent on our final mission, though we didn’t know it at the time.”

“The day of the KillShot?”

“Exactly. We were doing everything we could to save people. Cake and Em were warning everyone possible to get into the bunkers.”

“I know Cake! He’s a robot now.”

Once again Shado continues without acknowledgment, taking rest under a Banyan tree, “Em was especially excited during that time. He was able to finally release his inventions. He surgically implanted the WolfPack team with something he called a WolfChip. It allowed us to share telepathic thoughts.”

“That’s incredible, and this was before The Event? It’s hard to think that stuff like this existed before this world.”

“More importantly he upgraded my armor with nanobots. The design was for enhanced camouflage and self healing, but they ended up becoming something much more than what he intended them for. With the help of Cake we discovered an evil syndicate in Romania hellbent on ending the world. No, it was more than just a syndicate. It was some black magic cult that had been around for ages manipulating the world to armageddon. It was there in Romania when we first encountered him. The demon Sariph.”

“It has a name?!”

“Yes indeed. He has a human side to him too. After The Event I had plenty of time to research him, study him, fight him…”

“You fought it? So you know how to beat it?”

“No… Well, maybe, but it’s invincible. Let's just say I know how to run. Even the full force of the WolfPack team, fully upgraded, wasn’t enough to kill it. The more we threw at it the more powerful it became. We threw everything up to missiles at it. Nothing could touch it. My team died that day. Well, everyone died that day, but we lost to Sariph. We were rag dolls against a doberman. It destroyed me. I’m telling you the whole thing was orchestrated by this guy called the Black Prophet thousands of years ago.”

“Small afterlife…” says Cole spacing out into the distance.

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“This isn’t the first time I’ve heard of the Black Prophet. I met this guy named Broin, he said he made a pact with this demon, with the Black Prophet, for his son's life. Though it turned him into an immortal killing machine to be used to feed the demon.”

“I haven’t met Broin, but it would make sense. It sounds black magic enough. Sariph devours souls, sending them to the demon realm, or so I read.”

Justice, tired of standing chimes in, “Come on guys lets keep going.”

Shado nods leading the way deeper into the valley, “Like I was saying I think there may be a way to defeat Sariph. After the fight with Sariph I just couldn’t take it. I fought myself back into existence through my will.”

“Wait, you pulled yourself back? You were conscious of your resurrection?”

“Yes, and no. I guess you’ll learn now that you’re here in the forest. It’s not so much about being aware, it's more about unfinished business. You didn’t know? That’s how all Ultrasapiens awake. Something powerful enough drives them to do so. Can’t you feel it?”

Cole’s face goes deep into thought, “You’re right! I can feel what you’re saying makes sense. I just can’t describe it yet.”

“You’ll be able to soon enough. As for me, it was more of a feeling of giving up is, selfish. My whole life and career molded me into something where failure is not an option. My team's lives were my responsibility. The whole world was counting on me, and I failed them. I had to reconcile this failure no matter what. When I awoke I was in the wreckage of our helicopter completely disoriented. I couldn’t keep a straight thought. The crash site was weird. It didn’t look right. The metal was destroyed, yes, yet it was dirty, almost rusty. The engine wasn’t hot. Most of the debris was covered by the dirt. Something just wasn’t right. In hindsight it makes sense. I probably woke up in the wreckage at least a year after The Event.”

“You woke up that early after The Event? Sorry it’s all still so new to me. It’s just now hitting me how long you’ve been in this world.”

“Time flies when you’re running for your life!” replies Shado snarkily. “Of course one of the first things I did was try to find Em and Brody, or anyone from my team. I looked everywhere but they weren’t near the crash site. Then, out of nowhere, I’d find myself hundreds of meters away from the site. I would run back not knowing what else to do. I had no point of reference. I couldn’t tell where the sun was. The world was just dim ash and clouds. Then again, bam! I’d find myself wandering far from where I was. It was maddening!”

Justice takes Shado’s arm speaking, “I don’t think I ever heard the story of how you got here. I saw bits of it in my reading with you, but hearing you say it… Well, I’m just glad you made it to us.”

Shado holds her close, helping her along the path they’ve found next to a stream, “I’m glad you guys found me too. You all saved me. If it weren’t for Ghyia and the others who knows what literal hell I’d be in now. You see Cole, I was lost without hope before The Enlightened Ones found me. I was stuck at that helicopter for ages. Then I started to hear the voices. I was sure I was hallucinating. Whispers and shouts in my mind drove me mad. I’d go running to them just to end up another hundred meters in a different direction. Only after a few days of this did I start to realize the voices were those of my dead teammates. The members of the WolfPack. I’d ask them where they were, and what their situation was. Their responses were confusing. They didn’t make sense and their voices resonated like an echo. Their voices haunted me everywhere I went. They were in pain, lost and confused as much as me. Soon after, I started to get flashes of their lives. Random incoherent memories from different points of view. It was too much. I couldn’t even control my body half the time. I went into a psychological breakdown. I did what many animals do when they want to die. I crawled back into the wreckage and buried myself so I couldn’t get out. I just wanted to wait there until I died. I thought eventually thirst would have to take me.”

“But it didn’t, because you are an Ultra.” says Cole.

“That’s right. Only in times like that do you realize how much worse things can get. I stayed there for what must have been months before Em arrived. He found me, murmuring to myself like a mad man. He woke up near the wreckage too, and dug me out. I asked him how he found me. He said he could sense my pain.”

“I haven’t met Em yet.” replies Cole.

“You will. He’s here in the forest with the rest of The Enlightened ones. He’s Arch’s brother, and if you two say it’s a small afterlife one more time-”

“I wasn’t going to but I sure was thinking it!” replies Cole hastily.

“Em tried to help me the best he could but quickly noticed that I wasn’t myself. He said he could sense me changing every few minutes. I was losing it. Even Em wasn’t making sense to me. Over the next month he took care of me, and interviewed me like a therapist. He theorized my mind was broken from the WolfChip. That my mind was constantly switching between the personalities of the WolfPack. If he wanted to speak to me, he’d have to make sure that he told my other personalities the same thing or else the message wouldn’t fully get through to me. He murmured something about how he told me these chips were not field tested so undesired effects were bound to happen. The nerve of that guy I tell you!”

Shado stops sipping a few handfuls of water from the stream, “You want some? It’s good stuff.”

“No, I want to know the story!”

“Alright alright... We stayed there for a while. Em was much more coherent than I. He could tell something was up. We weren’t dying from thirst or hunger. The world was an apocalyptic wasteland void of animals giving us no direction. I kept crazily talking to my dead teammates due to the WolfChip malfunction. Em kept going on about how he thought he gained super powers because he could sense what was going on inside me, even though he never had a WolfChip implanted. Soon after, our helicopter pilot Brody arrived. He startled us stumbling into our camp in the middle of the night. He was in a daze. Did I mention he was buck naked?”

“Uhh no?”

“Ya as you know all Ultras arrive here naked. Except for me, I still had my armor on.”

“I didn’t.”

“Whaaat?”

“Ya I had on the same clothes I had before The Event.”

“Interesting… You’re the only other person I’ve heard of. Well, we already know there’s something special about you. We know that much.”

“What do you mean? Because I woke up recently?”

“Well, your arrival has been prophesied by The Enlightened Ones. Don’t worry it’ll start to make sense after talking with them.” says Shado picking up the trail again. “The next day Em decided since Brody was there to help manage me, we should make our way towards the Castle, where we fought the demon, the next closest thing around that we knew of.”

“What, with Brody buck naked?”

“No, of course not. We found him some clothes in the chopper. You haven’t changed a bit Cole.” says Shado with a grin.

“It was time to figure out what happened to the world. Time to find survivors. Anything other than sitting in the wreckage waiting for something to happen. It was a difficult task with me randomly switching personalities. When Husky’s personality bubbled up it was especially annoying for them. Every single time, Husky would come through in a panic as if waking up from a nightmare. He’d be dazed, aggressive, uncooperative, asking the same questions about what happened or where he is. Brody had to craft a piece of cloth to make me a literal leash to keep me from running off. Eventually we made it back to the Hoia Baciu forest, which by the way if you didn’t know, is the world's most haunted forest.”

“Ya I knew that. I watched the ghost adventure episode.” says Cole.

Shado replies without acknowledgement again, “I experienced dark magic in that forest. It’s an extremely dangerous place. Once we reached the forest’s edge, all of my personalities were of the same mind. That enabled us to speak in a unified way, to give a warning to Em, that we should avoid that forest at all cost. Em said that he understood, that he could feel what me and my personalities were trying to express. It didn’t make sense at the time, but it didn’t matter. He said he could sense something that needed to be found, something else driving him forward. The forest was dead and gone. Only remnants of dead tree trunks remained. This allowed us to see the castle still standing tall in the dark distance. Periodically Em would abruptly change our course. Once again he said it was because he could ‘sense’, something that we should avoid. Luckily we got through the forest without hassarasment. The small buildings around the castle were all but destroyed. The extreme armageddon environments were not kind to the structures. The castle seemed unscathed. Em kept pushing us towards the castle entrance until he stopped abruptly. His face turned to terror and shock. He rushed us behind one of the buildings to hide in the dirt. Brody questioned him, but it was hard for Em to speak. He was overwhelmed. Finally he told us that he now knew what he was sensing. It was evil, pure evil. The powerful emotion of it scared him. He had us peek around the corner to discover Sariph the demon, though now in his human form.”

“You mean to tell me that thing also survived The Event?”

“We were just as surprised. How was that possible? That thing really has no limits. Em said he could sense frustration coming from Sariph. Intense loneliness. But it was more than that, he could sense conflicting emotions inside him just the same as he could sense the different emotions inside me with the WolfPack. I told Em of a basement I found before The Event where there were documents explaining their history, and the source of their black magic secrets. He went in to study the documents while we kept watch. The basement was intact. Em studied every book in that room before returning. He discovered just as I said, the whole armageddon was influenced by this Black Prophet as a way to change the balance of the universes. It’s more than just armageddon in our world, it’s armageddon for all worlds. It has something to do with changing the vibrational frequency of the dimensions.”

“That is some black hippy dippy stuff. No wait, what’s the opposite of hippy dippy?” interjects Cole.

Justice rolls her eyes in response. Shad continues, “You see Sariph is half human. This demon is in symbiosis with the human side. I think that’s part of the trick to bringing him down. I don’t think the demon has full control.”

“What’s part two?” asks Cole.

“Em says the documents allude to the fact that Sariph has a brother. A failed attempt at summoning Sariph.”

“You mean, like another demon?”

“From the documents it sounds like it. The problem is almost everything about him has been erased. What we could surmise from the text we did have, it sounds like he would be the key to fighting Sariph. That’s why the cultists scrubbed anything about him. Otherwise he’s quite invincible. You can’t even kill the human host as the demon doesn’t want to lose his tie into this realm. We had a theory that perhaps the brother was somewhere in that area, but we soon found that we couldn’t be there long before Sariph could sense our presence. Em could sense Sariph’s emotions, his intent, well before he found us. He said it was overwhelmingly powerful. We had to sneak away to try and find more information another day. We soon found we had another problem. In the middle of the night we’d find Brody floating off in his sleep. It was already bad enough that I would walk off, and now we had to tie down Brody too.”

“I think I’m starting to pick up on their powers. Em can sense emotions, and Brody can fly!”

“Right on point.”

“Man I wish I could fly with my power! I have flying dreams all the time.”

“Hmm, are you sure you can’t? You have wind abilities.”

The expression on Cole’s face was priceless.

How have I not tried to fly yet?!

Shado laughed lightheartedly before continuing his story, “Brody was actually pretty annoying with it. He enjoyed his power a bit too much. He was always talking about it, wanting to show off, wanting to be our ‘lookout’, or even bragging about how nice he sleeps at night now that he’s on a bed of air.”

Bed of air! He might be able to teach me some things. I have to talk to this guy!

“Over the days we spied on Sariph looking for any clues. What we found was Sariph would unexpectedly disappear. One moment he was sitting doing nothing. Then he’d start walking, and he was just gone. He could be gone for minutes or days. He was totally unpredictable. We had to be very careful exploring the area due to the fear of him randomly popping into existence in front of us.”

“Where was he going?”

“We think he was going to gather recently released souls, taking them to hell, or devouring them. It’s hard to say whether the texts were literal or just legend. One day Em was watching Sariph intently. He said Sariph was having a particularly sad bout of depression that day. He had just materialized back into town. Em said he was frustrated that he didn’t feel in control, and most of all lonely. Think about it. Not many people left on earth after The Event. His only companion, an evil demon who's happy to just use him for his body. What would you think after being raised for this type of life? An immortal life of slavery? A kingdom of nothingness? He couldn’t even kill himself if he wanted to. His depression turned to rage. In return, his rage summoned the demon. Em said that it was like ecstasy for Sariph. He physically loved the feeling of transforming, but it was with mixed emotions, like a drug addict to heroin. Yes he loved the powerful feeling taking over his body, but after the transformation he wasn’t himself anymore. He’d just wake up naked and alone afterwards. A real love hate relationship. We watched that vicious cycle over and over again.”

“I think I hear what you're saying. If we have any hope of taking on this demon we’re going to have to speak to the human side of Sariph. He’s human after all. If his rage never ignites we might be able to control him?”

“It remains to be seen if it will be as easy as that though.” Shado takes a deep breath, sighs then continues, “Our final day exploring was my fault. Seriph had materialized very near to us. Literally just around the corner. Then bam! Dim witted Husky’s personality came beaming through, panic attack and all. Needless to say Sariph instantly knew we were there. We were screwed. We hoped for a gleaming second that we could talk to the human side, to convince him we would not hurt him. It didn’t matter, just a bit of anger is all it takes to bring it out. It was amazing, now under attack, I unlocked a hidden potential never seen before. My mind honed together as one. My consciousness, went somewhere else. I materialized a round table in my mind. At each seat a member of the WolfPack. In my mind we were free whereas everything in the physical world slowed to a halt. I was able to communicate and share my mind and body with the pack. With them helping guide me I could see clearly. I unlocked the full military expertise of the WolfPack team working as one. I had their muscle memory, weapons training, experiences and knowledge. All of it working together to give me the ultimate fighting chance. I was fast, agile, dodging attacks that would blow anyone away. Well, at least for a few minutes. Even though I have self healing nanobots, the demon is unrelenting. He rapidly self heals too. With each hit it grows angrier, bigger, stronger. Everything about it turns into a killing machine. Whole appendages form just for destruction!”

“How did you escape?!”

“I went through hell and back, that’s how.”

“Come on I wanna know!”

“No, I literally went through hell, and back. I call it the shadow dimension. He punched me so hard I flew back into a shadow. That’s when I first discovered my power.”

“What do you mean? What’s the shadow dimension like?”

Even Justice’s interest seems piqued by this question.

“It’s similar to our dimension. I mean that in the way where you can see the same geography, the same remnants of buildings, but everything is dilapidated. There is no sun, the sky is blood red all the time. No clouds, no water, no wind, no trees, no life. It feels as though all energy has been sucked out of everything after being created. I don’t know how to describe it. It’s hell man. It’s not a good place.”

Shado takes a break leaning against a tree. Remembering the bad memories seems to have taken its toll on him, “It wasn’t long in that land before Sariph found me. As terrible as he is in this realm, he’s magnitudes worse there. I ran as fast as I could. To where? Where could I possibly go? Then I sensed it. A shadow. Shadows are quite sparse in that land mind you. I still can’t quite describe why I was attracted to that shadow. I could just feel life on the other side of it. You know? By pure instinct I jumped into it to find myself back in this dimension, miles away from the castle. Brody had already spied me from high in the air. He flew down, swooping me up. We all escaped that day, but it took some trial and error to realize that if I spend too much time in the shadow realm Sariph can sense it. He would show up and we’d have to play that game of cat and mouse. Em theorized that when I first came into contact with Sariph before The Event, the nanobots absorbed some of the demonic energy combining it into my suit. Thus I can use the shadow realm to jump through shadows and teleport. Even my knives are poisonous due to the nanobots having the ability to imbibe only that what makes them stronger. So do you see now Cole? You never stood a chance against me.”

“That’s amazing! But I want to know how you escaped and got across the ocean! How did you end up here?!”

“After the fight I went back to scatterbrained. We continued to play the game of cat and mouse with Sariph until The Enlightened Ones rescued us. They taught me how to control my inner voices, how to take them into my being. Then they sent me to rescue someone who became the love of my life. Her name is Cinder.”

“Is that Cole I spy?” interjects a kind voice from just up the trail.

“Ghyia!” cires Justice running to give the new arrival a hug.

“Child it’s so good to see you!” says Ghyia embracing Justice in a long swaying hug. Cole instantly notices the warm feeling of a loving grandmother from her. He feels as though she’s about to embrace him by offering him cookies. She’s older, maybe in her sixties, but she also has the skin complexion that could let her pass for her forties. Her style of dress with assorted light green stones and feathers would make you assume that she’s of native american descent. She embraces Cole just as lovingly as Justice. Her hug duration bordering on uncomfortable.

She speaks with a wide smile, “Well it’s about time. What took you so long? We were expecting you. I’m Ghyia, leader of The Enlightened Ones. Welcome Star Child.”