PART ELEVEN: AMABEL’S GRAND SCHEME
Skip looked around Director Awaya’s office nervously. Although he had the sense to admire a number of curiosities displayed in the office, the sense of urgency in Director Awaya’s summons meant that there a storm brewing. His Protector Maris, squeezed his hands in reassurance and he turned to smile wearily at her, appreciating the gesture even though it did little to quell his anxiety.
A few minutes later, the Queen-Sage of Timeline B-3, Queen Denise, her Protector Basil, her daughter Crown Princess Calliope and Calliope’s Protector and lifemate Ovid and several other members of the royal guard were ushered into the office by a few Protectors and urged to wait for the Director who was presently at a debriefing. The royal family all merrily greeted Skip and Maris. After pleasantries were exchanged, they all sought further answers from Skip and Maris who both assured them they had no idea why they were brought in by Director Awaya.
Queen Denise and Princess Calliope opted to use their clairvoyance to get to the crux of the matter, when the door to Director Awaya’s office opened once and the Second Sage of Light of B-3, Sage Zariya and her Protector, Ekene, both entered the office.
“Oh, fancy meeting you lot here,” Sage Zariya resolutely.
“Oh something’s definitely cooking if they have all of us in here,” Protector Ekene responded, mirroring his charge’s tone.
“So they didn’t tell you why we’re-” Skip begun before the door to the office swung open once again and none other than Queen Iara and King Rian and a few of their Selkie companions walked into the room as well.
“Iara?” Queen Denise asked in surprise.
“Your majesty,” Queen Iara responded with a respectful bow.
“Why did they call you in?” Queen Denise wandered aloud.
“Something major must have happened. I am sure the Director will be right here,”
Queen Denise nodded but her gaze did not depart from her step-daughter and King Rian.
“Have you been well, Iara?” Protector Basil asked with concern.
“Yes, father, my people and I are well,” Iara responded nervously. She turned to face her lifemate King Rian who smiled reassuringly at her.
Basil nodded and waited a few more minutes before Director Awaya returned with Protectors Adalyn, Ashton and Avery Alison. The presence of the Alison witches made Skip gulp knowing that things must have been really messed up. Just before the meeting begun, the final participants in the meeting, the Savior (from Timeline A-20) Imani and Imani’s Protector, Aerlin, came into the office with Oracle Emica and Protector Nobu guiding them.
“Thank you all for your patience,” Director Awaya stated.
There were brief introductions to all in the room before Director Awaya stated, “I’ll get straight to the point on why I called you all here today. I am afraid our Reality is in grave danger and we need to rely on your gifts once again…”
With a click of a button, a holographic screen popped up and Director Awaya pointed her laser pen at it. She proceeded to debrief all invited guests on the threat of the grotesqueries. The second the Director showed a picture of the sea-bound grotesqueries Amabel and her family were using as their main muscle, there was a collective gasp from Imani, Aerlin, Oracle Emica and Protector Nobu.
“Anything you’d like to share with the class?” the Director asked them.
“Aren’t those the monsters you drew for that art competition, Imani?” Oracle Emica asked in sheer horror.
“They were… These monsters, they’ve… been plaguing my nightmares for weeks… So they are what I assumed they would be… Variants of the grotesqueries,”
“I’m sorry, did you say this nightmare fuel is simply another variant of the grotesqueries? Exactly what are these so called grotesqueries?” Skip asked in horror.
Director Awaya nodded to Imani and picked up the discussion, “Grotesqueries are corrupted beings who have consumed malus fruit; a twisted version of ambrosia. I will be honest with you all, things do not look good. It appears Amabel discovered a way to corrupt even Queen-Sages across multiple timelines… These timelines were then plagued by something even more sinister- a corruption of the mystic energies contained in the Undine pillars. Several Undine flora and fauna species have already been corrupted to this end, becoming agents of the Corruption which Amabel and her family now serve,”
Queen Iara soon translated what King Rian asked in the Selkie tongue, “How powerful are these grotesqueries? If they have consumed some type of ambrosia, that must mean they are essentially as powerful as the Demiurge, am I correct?”
The King’s assessment of the threat made the color on Skip’s face completely drain away. If the grotesqueries were that powerful, what hope did they have at defeating them?
“I assure you all that the grotesqueries can in fact be defeated and they are definitely not as powerful as the Demiurge of your former world,” Director Awaya stated.
“It’s true… They can be defeated… I… did it once… In Timeline B-3,” Imani chimed up.
Queen Denise gasped. “That’s our native timeline. How come I did not hear of this?”
“It happened in Mialand, your majesty and luckily did not escalate further than the Alison Family Manor,”
“Why did the grotesqueries pick the Alison Family Manor to attack?”
“Initially, Amabel and her family were focused on converting as many Alison witches as possible. It is quite possible that Amabel felt it would be easy to sell them on Malus fruit and also she must have hoped that she won over the Alison family for her cause, fearing the more powerful members of their family would pose a considerable threat to her plans,” Director Awaya stated turning to face the three powerful Alison witches in the room nodding appreciatively.
“Well, that was rather clever on her part. I wouldn’t want those three as enemies even on a good day,” Skip stated nodding appreciatively to the three Alison witches in the room.
“Amabel’s scope expanded to Blake witches as well as the Alison family as the two families have been allied for centuries. However, we soon discovered that this was merely a side quest. Her real objective it appears was the corruption of the Undine Pillars of several Timelines,” stated the Director before pointing her laser several red dots and named affected Timelines.
“Those are one too many red dots, Director Awaya,” Queen Denise commented.
Director Awaya nodded. “We have dispatched as many forces as necessary to subdue, rescue and recover as many unfortunate victims in the affected Timelines with help from our allies. However, in order to make a true difference, we need to apprehend Amabel and her family as well as stabilize the power of the Undine Pillars that has been corrupted,”
“How did you defeat the grotesqueries, your ladyship?” Sage Zariya asked Imani.
“By manipulating Divine Light. It is the only thing powerful enough to destroy them,”
“Destroy them? Isn’t there a way to save them instead?” Queen Denise asked.
“That is why we have Avery Alison, our resident expert on all matters Curses and otherworldly threats leading our research team. Hopefully they can come up with a way to save the grotesqueries. However, we must contain the threat as best we can and use whatever means necessary to subdue any attacks on the world. This may involve making sacrifices for the greater good,”
“You’re essentially asking us to kill other Queen-Sages in the name of the greater good!” Queen Denise proclaimed in exasperation.
“Let us hope that it does not come to that but if the situation calls for it, we must do what we can to save the world, your majesty,”
Queen Denise shook her head.
“How do we propose we do that?”
“There is a clear pattern in Amabel’s grand scheme. She targeted Timelines where there are no iterations of the Lake Guardian and no heiresses to the Queen-Sage titles. Amabel maliciously targeted these Queen-Sages knowing that it would be difficult for us to indiscriminately sanitize the mystic energies contained in the Undine Pillars by essentially vanquishing the corrupted Queen-Sages with divine light. In other words, she was counting on us not being willing to sacrifice the Queen-Sages lost to the corruption for fear that the Queen-Sage legacies were not secure,”
“I think it is also important to note that Amabel used her special connection to the Primordial Lake to summon, immobilize and convert the Queen-Sages into grotesqueries. Once the Queen-Sages were converted, it was easy to use the connections they have to their respective Undine Pillars to corrupt them and thus convert majority of Oceanic flora and fauna into grotesqueries without having to use Malus fruit…”
“Director Awaya, Amabel was perfectly right in her assessment of our reluctance to kill the corrupted Queen-Sages… Sacrificing these Queen-Sages for the greater good notwithstanding, what exactly is your plan for after we have successfully destroyed the grotesqueries and broken those timelines from the hold of the Corruption? If we vanquish the Queen-Sages who do not have heiresses to succeed them, even if we temporarily stabilize the mystic energies and power contained within the Undine Pillars of the affected Timelines, they would fall into chaos again without a Queen-Sage to keep them in balance,”
TO BE CONTINUED…
What strategies shall be effective against the perilous situation caused by Amabel and her grotesquerie family? Shall our fateful heroes have what it takes to save the world, even if it means sacrificing powerful casters such as the Queen-Sages of the affected timelines? Stay tuned to find out! Links to the associated part and previous entries in the Saga of the Lake Guardian, are listed below:
New to the Elenaverse? Fear not, I got you… Please find the link to the first part of the Lake Guardian below:
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