Page 7 of The Erion Triad

Erix worked the hand-screen over her head. The screen lit up with an activity of lights. “It’s off the charts.”

A sick feeling settled in the pit of his stomach. “It’s doing something to her. Feeding off her energy somehow. How can we stop it?”

“The crystal harnesses the same power. When she held it, it acted as a magnifier for that power,” Erix said.

“That’s how this entity is trying to gain entry into this dimension. The clouds. Didn’t Evelyn, the Arabis mate, say something about being held, imprisoned on a beach by black clouds? Riley, the Ozar mate, also said the same thing. It’s happening to our Lucie too,” Juliran said.

Erix’s fingers danced over the control panel next to the medi-bed as a list began to scroll one after the other. “Her body is starting to fail. She will die if I don’t put her in cryo.”

That was the last thing they wanted to do. She would be all but dead, her body in a suspended state, not dying, not waking, not living. Notanything.

“What?” Kyel roared.

“No!” Juliran said.

Kira gasped and fell into one of their fathers’, Emex’s, arms.

“What do you mean, Erix?” Emex said.

“It’s taking over faster than I thought possible. The only way to stop it is to stop Lucie. I’m… I’m sorry. It’s the only way to save her. If nothing is done, she will die.” Erix looked as distraught as all of them.

Kyel’s wrist comm pinged with an incoming message from Tann. “The clouds. They’re expanding and have covered more than half of the city. It seems to be drawing the energy from the crystal.”

This was bad. Very, very bad. It had escalated so quickly. Too quickly.

“Whatever it’s doing, it’s harnessing Lucie’s power to manifest,” Kyel said.

“If we don’t stop it, we’ll lose Lucie and that thing will be unleashed,” Juliran said.

There was a commotion in the background of Tann’s communication. He spoke quickly, his voice thick with tension. “Clouds have appeared over the Ozar Homeland. They started over the Ozar Tower and are drawing all the light-energy from their crystal. The Erion Homeland is also at risk with manifestations over their land.”

“Gods, this is an invasion, only we don’t know who or how!” Zaen paced, too wired to stand still. “Surely their Erion crystal will protect their Homeland?”

“The crystal is not in their tower. They are still stranded and not due back for weeks,” Tann said.

“Gods help us all if it can draw power from all three crystals once the Erion is here. Our planet will be at its mercy,” Kyel said.

Zaen stared at his wrist comm as though it would provide him with answers. “Send word to them, Tann. Keep them away.”

“Of course,” Tann said.

The crystal was not here to protect their Homeland, but that also meant the entity could not access its power as it wasn’t in their tower. Hopefully. A tumult of emotion came crashing through him. He couldn’t even name this enemy, and yet their planet was more at risk than it had ever been. In fact, he didn’t rightfully know, but he had to do something.Anythingto stop this thing, whatever it was, from gaining more power. This was all types of crazy and he lacked any experience dealing with such a thing. All he could do was make strategy up as he went.

He put a halt to the crashing thoughts that weren’t getting him anywhere and applied the logic he knew so well. His mind clicked through scenario after scenario, coming to conclusions that made the most sense.

This hadn’t started until Lucie had touched the crystal. Whatever was happening was linked to her. This entity needed her to manifest on their world.She was the lock as well as the key.Zaen placed his spread hands on top of the screen of the medi-bed.

“Sheis the catalyst,” Zaen said.

“What do you mean, brother?’ Kyel asked. The muscle at his temple worked as he clenched his teeth.

“It’s using Lucie’s natural energy field to enter our dimension, like the scaled ones the Ozar interrogated said. The Erion’s mate also said that it captured her in a wall of clouds. It can’t be a coincidence. Only this time, it’s gotten smarter. It’s using Lucie and blocking us out so that it has full use of her energy,” Zaen said.

“How do we break back in?” Juliran said.

“We can’t see this enemy. The battlefield is in her mind. We can’t fight it here, but there is only one place where we can fight it at its own game. We enter Lucie’s mind. We attack from within,” Kyel said. It was the only option he could think of. The only thing that made sense.

He only hoped he was right.

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