Groaning loudly, I doubled over in pain, blinking almost spasmodically as I tried to clear my vision, while all around me I detected a sharp clattering, like a bunch of rocks being dumped out of a wheelbarrow.
I got the impression of motion somewhere near me, then heard Rune ask, “You all right?”
Nodding, I clamped down on my pain receptors and slowly straightened up as the agony receded. With the physical discomfort gone, my vision returned and I looked around the room, noting with some surprise that the floor was covered with rubble. It was as though someone had taken a jackhammer to the floor and broken it all up. Without being told, I understood that — whatever had happened — it had destroyed the rest of our statuary assailants.
“Why’d you do that?” I heard Mariner ask. Turning in the direction of his voice, I saw him addressing Reverb. “I was having fun.”
Looking at Mariner, I couldn’t help but think that he had a very different definition of “fun” than I did: there was the handle off a blade sticking out of his right eye.
On his part, Reverb didn’t respond. Instead, he pressed a hand firmly against his left jaw and sort of pushed in, reminiscent of a guy massaging a sore spot after taking a punch in the chops. I didn’t know if Reverb had a similar definition of fun as Mariner, but I did notice that he had three arrows sticking out of his chest.
Curious as to whether the other Incarnates had suffered injury as well, I was about to do a quick tally when, without warning, the room began to shake. No, it wasn’t the room; it was the shards on the floor — the remnants of the statues. They were vibrating en masse, and a moment later, they began to emit a soft red glow.
I was still staring at them, trying to figure out what was going on, when I unexpectedly found myself back in the living room of our suite, along with Rune. A moment later, a sound like a gigantic, muffled cough echoed through the castle, accompanied by a rumble that shook the floor and walls.
I looked at Rune and asked, “What just happened?”
Chapter 20
Rune refused to answer any of my questions until he looked me over and confirmed for himself that I was okay. Thankfully, that didn’t take long (although it required me becoming substantial again), at which point I once more asked, “So what just happened?”
“If you’re talking about the noise we heard after we arrived back here in the suite, that was an explosion,” he explained.
“An explosion?” I muttered in surprise. “What kind of explosion?”
“What kind of explosion? A cute one, with rabbit ears and a big fluffy tail,” he deadpanned. “What do you mean, what kind of explosion?”
“I mean, what caused it?”
“I’d have thought that was obvious: the killer.”
“So now he’s just trying to murder us all?” I asked, using the term “he” to encompass both genders since we didn’t know if the killer was male or female.
“With an effort like that?” Rune said derisively. “Unlikely. That was just to destroy clues.”
“Huh?” I muttered, frowning. “Okay, maybe you just need to start at the beginning.”
“Fair enough,” he said with a nod. “I got the initial idea after you mentioned us going back in time to look at Gamma’s murder. As was explained before, we couldn’t do that, but it occurred to me that we could do something almost as good: reverse engineer the crime scene.”
“The Incarnate Bomb Squad,” I chimed in. Rune frowned, obviously not comprehending, so I explained the reference.
“That’s actually a pretty good analogy,” he said when I was done. “I probably would have compared it to arson investigation myself, but they ultimately involve the same thing: analysis of a crime scene in order to determine what happened.”
“How’d you find out where Gamma died?” I asked.
“We always knew where it happened,” he replied. “We sensed it. But since we couldn’t go back in time, we didn’t know exactly what had happened — until you gave us the idea.”
“Glad I could be of service,” I intoned. “Also, the way you guys reconstructed everything was impressive.”
Rune made a dismissive gesture, downplaying my praise. “As I stated before, when it comes to Incarnates, much of what we do can be most likened to magic, which is why many on Earth consider me a magician of sorts. In terms of reverse engineering what happened, you have to understand that, visually, we Incarnates see the world very differently than you do. But much like a bomb expert might investigate a crime scene in order to figure out what caused an explosion, we were able to examine the area of Gamma’s demise and ascertain how events unfolded.”
“So you did the Chomarsus equivalent of looking at shrapnel, structural damage, and debris to understand what happened,” I summed up. “And then you recreated it.”
“In essence.”
“So what’s the story with the statues coming to life?”
“That was the killer’s handiwork, of course.”
“So it was an ambush?”
“Not exactly,” Rune said. “They weren’t really there to hurt us. They were there to keep us from seeing what happened to Gamma.”
“How can you be so certain?”
“Because they weren’t anywhere near powerful enough to cause real harm.”
“Speak for yourself,” I chided, then relayed how the statues went into super speed and appeared to affect me to some extent even while I was phased.
“As you’re probably starting to realize,” he stated, “you’ve got an impressive power set, but it’s not remotely comparable to what an Incarnate can do.”
I nodded, not
