It

It scrambles out from the hiding place that He had put It in earlier. It was time for It to meet up with His companion at their designated spot. It scuttles through the halls of the school to an old classroom. He concentrates and manages to move His hand in the real world while staying connected to It. He contacts the companion.

“I’m on my way.”

“Good.” Replies the companion. “I’ve been waiting for ages.”

“It’s only been twenty to thirty minutes.” He replies indignantly.

“It feels like a lot longer when you could be caught at any minute.” She snaps back. Then sighs, “I’m sorry, I’m just really tense, and waiting this long doesn’t help any.”

He doesn’t reply to that, turning his attention back to It, sending It speeding towards her location. He wants to get this over with. If there is an Aberration, it will probably be in hiding when the students and teachers are out, but it will come out when the students are going to bed so it can hunt. That would be the best time to release the captured pets. He just hopes that they are in better shape then the bunny that He and his friends found.

He sends It scuttling into the classroom where His companion for tonight hides. She doesn’t notice It at first. It is only when It scuttles up a desk near her and climbs onto the back of her hand does she see It. She lets out a muffled shriek and flings It skyward. It flies through the air while He desperately tries to right It so It won’t land on Its back. When It crashes down, halfway across the room from her, It skids to a stop and He contacts her furiously.

“What was that Valkallyn!? You just threw my best one across the room!”

She looks mortified. “I’m so sorry! I just reacted instinctively! I don’t like bugs, and I’m scared of them crawling on me.”

“Ugh. You were waiting for a bug. What did you think was going to happen?”

“Not finding the bug crawling on me!”

“Well how else was I supposed to get your attention?”

“Maybe contacting me through the begonia?” He harrumphs quietly, He hadn’t thought of that. He isn’t used to having helpers yet, even though He had practice with one just last night.

“Let’s get going.” He says, shutting down that conversation.

“Where exactly?” the companion asks, “You never told me.”

“A room that doesn’t technically exist.” He replies shortly and begins to calculate the shortest way there in His head. “I’ll go on ahead to scout for Masters and students. You follow along behind when I say the coast is clear. Got it?” She nods. “Good.”

It scuttles along His chosen pathway, going slower than Its normal speed so she can keep up. Nobody is on this chosen route which is excellent for them. Eventually they arrive at the area where His maps can help them no longer. The room where the life signs were spotted didn’t exist on any map that He knew.

He has It search around for the hidden room, sending Its scanners whirring left and right, up and down, searching for any sign of magic that might give away a key to the entrance. It finds a small glimmer hidden beneath a stone near the wall, and another at human hand height up on the wall. The magic is old, very very old, and worn out. But it should still fulfill its purpose. He has It skitter over and settle on the stone. She follows, and steps on it too, then he has It scuttle up the wall onto the other stone she must press. She looks at It, confused.

“What are you doing?” She asks. He concentrates and is able to connect with her via the begonia again.

“I need you to press this stone. Otherwise the door won’t open.” She shrugs and presses the stone. A part of the wall creaks, then begins to rumble, a sound that is quite loud in the otherwise smothering stillness. The wall quickly sinks into the floor, and the silence returns. They are left staring down a long dark stairway that ends in a room with a light on inside.

“I will go in first.” He says through the begonia to His companion. “I'll tell you if it’s safe for you to follow.”

“Okay.” She replies nervously.

He begins steering It down the secret passage. Down one step. Then another. Then another. He isn’t nearly as fast on stairs as on a flat surface. He wishes he could make It go faster. He doesn’t feel safe here, even though He is technically far far away. He wants to get in and out and be done.

He tries to distract Himself by wondering why this area wasn’t on any map. Perhaps some students made it long ago and it was abandoned and forgotten after they graduated? Then how would the Aberration find it? But is He even sure it is an Aberration? Well what else could it be? He doesn’t know! He never studied the possibilities of dark magics and life force transitions! The closest they got to that in class was the Magical Etiquette Module at the beginning of Magical History first year, and that basically said that it was forbidden to even mess with that sort of stuff. Maybe He should look into this more when He gets out of here.

Well how did the Aberration find this place? As far as His research suggests they aren’t sentient. Why does He feel like he is forgetting an important piece of this puzzle? Perhaps there is more to these kidnappings than He realizes. Perhaps they should go back and rethink this. No, that is His fear talking. He can’t go back, He is already here, it is way too late to turn back. It is already at the bottom of the stairs, waiting for Him to give It another command.

He has It go into the room with the flickering light. Everything is silent inside. On Its sensors He sees no people, but a bunch of various sleeping animals.

There are dogs, cats, bunnies, a few lizards, a parakeet, and a guinea pig; all normal pets. But there are also larger, more wild, animals. A few horses– one of whom is probably Myrddin –a couple of large snakes that look like they belong in a swamp, five deer, a caribou, a large striped cat, even a scattering of wolves here and there. All of them are deeply asleep, if He didn’t know better He’d think they were dead.

“All clear.” He says through the begonia. “I’ve found the pets, and quite a few other animals.”

His companion joins It in the room. She stares at all the sleeping animals silently.

“I feel like I should be really quiet here.” She murmurs. “Why are they all asleep?”

“I don’t think they are sleeping.” He comments. “Try waking one up.” She goes over to one of the cats, and touches it gently between its ears. It doesn’t even stir.

“My cat wakes up, or at least opens its eyes, whenever I get close to it.” She whispers. “What’s wrong with them?”

“If this is the work of an Aberration, then you won’t be able to wake them up until it releases them or it is destroyed.” He says with a sigh. “This is going to be complicated.”

They both are silent for a while as they consider what to do. Suddenly their silence is broken by the curfew bells. Behind His companion He sees another student enter the room, He doesn’t dare say anything in case she hasn’t heard Him yet. But He makes It scurry around like crazy to try and alert her. She only looks confused. He sighs, and back in His real body facepalms as the other student notices her.

“What are you doing here?! No one should know about this place!” The new person says shrilly. His companion turns around and sees Lyra Aumrauth standing in the entryway, blocking their escape. “And where is the second person I heard?” She continues, then she looks Valkallyn over. “Or were they even here in the first place? That flower design on your bracelet looks familiar. Why?” She takes a step closer to Valkallyn. Valkallyn quickly unties the bracelet and eats it. Lyra smiles. “So it was important. Was it what you were using to contact your helper on the outside?”

He gulps back in His own body. This isn’t going to end well, He should have expected a human helper. How else would the Aberration be created, find this area, and know not to prey on humans?

Valkallyn doesn’t answer any questions. Instead she takes a step back, and asks one of her own. “What are you doing here?”

“What am I doing here? Wow, you are dumber than I always thought! I’ll be the one asking questions, you are the intruder after all.” She says, sneering. “How did you find this place? No, nevermind that. Who is working with you?” She begins to prepare a spell. He isn’t sure what it is for, but it can’t be good. Valkallyn notices it as well, and mutters a spell for a quick shield. It won’t last long.

“Not inclined to talk hmm?” Valkallyn doesn’t say anything. “Well I can guess. Your twin for one, and probably Briareth as well since they seem to do everything together nowadays. I wonder if that disgusting prince is in on it as well? Seems like something he’d do.” Lyra finishes preparing her spell and casts it. Nothing appears to happen, It can’t even sense anything. Did she really cast a spell?

Valkallyn seems confused as well, her concentration fades, and her shield fails. “What did you just do?” she asks, a slight quaver in her voice.

“Why should I answer that?” Lyra says looking bored, and prepping another spell. She advances forward another step. Valkallyn backs up again, and nearly squishes It under her boots. She glances down in surprise, and looks at It for a little while, a particular gleam in her eye. He feels a rush of nervousness.

“The real question is,” Lyra says, advancing another step towards Valkallyn, “What should I do with you? It’s not like I can just let you go after you’ve seen all this. What do you think, death or coma? I’ve been trying my best to avoid actually killing anything, but it does clean up messy situations like this quite nicely, and it would have prevented the animals from escaping and causing an uproar. However, if I kill you, Ryfon might not like that.”

Valkallyn frowns, taps her leg twice while looking at It, then takes another step back. “What do you mean Ryfon might not like that? Do you mean Ryfon Narebeth, your old boyfriend? Isn’t he dead?” He wonders why she tapped her leg like that earlier. Does she want Him to have It climb her? But if He is wrong, then she might freak out again. Then again, having It climb her might be an important part of a plan she might be making. Considering this, it would be more dangerous not to climb up her leg than to climb. He sends It Its orders.

“Yes.” Lyra says matter of factly, “Ryfon Narebeth died. That doesn’t mean he is gone forever though.”

“You're not trying to bring him back are you?” Valkallyn looks shocked.

“Well of course I am you silly twit. Why else would I steal all these pets? He wouldn’t like it if he came back to life because someone died, but I think he could bear a couple of dead pets on his conscience. He did fight in the war after all. Unfortunately I have to use a lot of them, but only the first couple died. The rest I took out of the comas recently, but they escaped before I could nurse them back to health. The ones that are still in a coma I’ll return once I’m done.”

“But this can’t possibly work!” Valkallyn protests.

“Why ever not?” Lyra says staunchly. “People have gotten really close to raising the dead before, and they never tried using a bunch of smaller life sources. Even if this doesn’t work I’ll just continue experimenting. Or, did you mean the part about returning the animals once I’m done with them? That might be a little difficult, especially now that you're here, but I’m convinced that I can do it.”

“I mean the whole thing! We aren’t supposed to mess with life and death for reasons!”

“What reasons? What exactly is stopping us from figuring out their secrets? People always say ‘because reasons’ but no one actually says why.”

“It’s dangerous! It’s unnatural!”

“Why? It’s progress, isn’t progress natural for sentient beings?” Valkallyn doesn’t answer. He doesn’t know if she can’t, or if she just doesn’t want to. Lyra though looks bored with the conversation. “You're beginning to annoy me with your blabbering, you doltish brat.” She says, raising her arm with the prepared spell. “I think I’ll just knock you out now.”

“Wait!” Valkallyn shouts, grabbing It. Lyra raises an eyebrow.

“Why should I? You're irritating.”

“I have this whole conversation recorded and can send it to my friends if I press the button on this bug's head! They’ll take it to the Masters and then you, your scheming, and your experiments are finished!”

“You recorded our conversation!?” Lyra looks furious, but then her expression changes to calculating. “Wait, how do I know that you aren’t bluffing? That might just be a random bug. Or it could be real and you could have already sent it; in which case I should subdue you as soon as possible and then get out of here.”

“You don’t know if I’m bluffing or not.” Valkallyn states boldly. “But do you want to take the risk? I can promise that I haven’t sent anything yet, but if you try to attack me in any way, I won’t hesitate to send it.” Lyra stares at her for a while, trying to gauge the truth in her statement. Of course, she is really bluffing. He knows this better than Valkallyn does. It could never record video, much less transmit it, although perhaps it wouldn’t be a bad idea to install such options in the future. He should consider ways to add that feature after all this is done with.

“Well, saying I don’t take the opportunity to knock you out, what happens then? I can’t possibly let you go. You’d tattle-tale to the Masters.” Lyra says eventually, taking another step closer to Valkallyn. He notices that she is no longer in front of the door. Perhaps Valkallyn can escape?

“I suppose that’s true.” Valkallyn says. “But you can’t shoot me either, so we are at a stalemate.” Since He is looking at the doorway and considering possible escape routes, He sees the Aberration first. It’s arrival is a disaster. Now it is two against one, and Valkallyn hasn’t even noticed the Aberration yet. He tries to have It wriggle to catch her attention. She only grasps It tighter, not realizing the encroaching danger.

Lyra seems to sense that the tables have turned in her favor though, and smiles viciously. “Maybe it’s not as much of a stalemate as you think.” With that statement, Ryfon Narebeth, former soldier and wizard, and now an undead Aberration, tackles her. It goes flying out of her hands, and lands on Its back.

He can’t see the battle, but He hears a piercing scream, probably from Valkallyn as she is subdued. He can’t help her, He can’t even see her! He desperately tries to flip over, but only rocks back and forth. After about thirty seconds, He can’t hear Valkallyn any more. Instead He hears loud footsteps coming in His direction. Above Him, He sees a large dark oval block out the ceiling and hears Lyra say, satisfied, “Just in case…” And then her foot comes down on Him, and everything is destroyed except for darkness and pain.