InterMezzo

Intermezzo



‘One moment!’ Esal called from his desk. The communication orb sat in a small black hold for it; it had been glowing an odd blue and had been refusing to work for days now, and it was really rather aggravating. Esal had ended up taking it mostly apart and putting it back together. Periodically he would crack, fizzle or whir, he theorised that Shandor was trying to contact him. The knock at the door seemed out of ordinary, the people of the nearby village didn’t bother him. He stood up and decided to risk the voyage across his littered home. Every room was swamped with random scrolls of text and diagrams. His hand reached out and unlocked the door.

‘Hello, Esal, right?’ A kindly-looking elderly Elf gentleman stated.

‘Yes, that’s right.’ Esal replied, curious.

‘I’m Caeilie,’ He looked at Esal, seeing the absence of recognition, he continued, ‘I travel with Shandor and the others, I’m one of the Wise Elves.’

‘Oh! Oh, of course.’ There was a brief pause before Esal said, gently pushing his glasses back into place, ‘Is there anything I can help you with?’

‘Yes, actually, a rather delicate matter, may I come in?’

Esal nodded and swung the door wide open, ‘Please do. Where exactly are Shandor and the others? I’ve been trying to contact them, but the orb refuses to work for me...’

‘Oh, they are proceeding as best they can.’

‘I heard about the destruction at Viirnial, were they there?’

‘I’m not sure, they were visiting Ograkk before I was... forced to leave, to come here.’

‘On your own?’

‘Oh no, Shandor is down in the village getting some supplies.’ He stated, sitting on a small chair, the only one that was not covered in notes.

‘Sorry for the mess.’ Esal said, waving about, ‘I’m afraid I never remember to clean Recently, I’ve been too busy trying to get the orb to work.’

‘It’s no problem. Actually, the orb is one of the things I’ve come about. We’ve been noticing some problems with it.’

‘Myself also, I assume you have some important information if you chose to get yourselves here?’

‘Something like that, yes.’

‘Would you mind coming to have a look at the orb; there might be a difference between the two that might explain it. They have to both be nearly identical for them to work, especially because of the-’ Esal took the moment to launch into a technical explanation of the orb as he headed up to his study room. Caeilie followed quickly and bent down to have a closer inspection of the orb,

‘Fascinating...’ He reported.

‘Indeed, surely no more fascinating than the other?’

Caeilie looked at Esal, before quickly giving him room to sit down and saying dismissively, ‘No, I guess not. Although, I haven’t seen the inside of one.’

Esal picked up a small instrument and gently tapped the orb with it.

Caeilie stood quietly as Esal continued to tap it, he turned it around and looked inside. Carefully, and as quiet as death, Caeilie picked up a stray chair leg. The chair was in the corner, and had several metal objects on it, the weight probably caused the leg to snap a while ago. He stepped towards Esal, his foot pressed against a floorboard which took the moment to creak loudly.

‘Caeilie,’ Esal asked, not turning around, ‘could you pass me that instrument with two prongs?’ He requested, pointing vaguely in the direction of a tool box.

Silence greeted him.

‘Cae-arh’ Esal managed to mutter as the weapon wielded by Caeilie struck Esal’s head. He slumped forward, knocking the black hold off the desk and sending the orb rolling into a pile of pages and a book or two.

‘Sorry, friend. Just business you understand. Everyone has to pick sides, I don’t favour your chances much compared to the Seventh’s. At least with him I might get reincarnated as something more powerful.’ He pushed Esal off his seat onto the floor before he prodded him with the tip of his boot, ‘Hmm, still alive. He might come in use.’