“I think that’s being overly optimistic. The world you exist in now is not a world of rainbows and unicorns. It’s a dark, dangerous, and lethal place ready to impale you with death at any moment.”
“Whoa, dial back the dark side a bit there, Darth Monty,” I said, glancing at him. “I know the things we do and face are dangerous, but seriously? A dark, dangerous, and lethal place ready to impale you with death?”
“Too much?” Monty asked. “It does sound a bit oppressive.”
“You think?”
“I didn’t finish my cuppa,” he said, looking out of the window. “I can’t be held responsible for my words until I’ve had some proper tea—with my digestives.”
“Fine, I’ll make sure to get you your cookies.”
“They’re not ‘cookies,’ and your ‘hellhound ate them’ excuse was a load of rubbish.”
“Wow, you are cranky today. I’ll get you two boxes of digestion cookies. I’ll even throw in some lettuce for roughage since you need digestive help. Happy?”
“I just can’t make heads or tails out of the shortcut failing.”
We arrived at the Bowling Green hub with little traffic. Ursula’s vehicle was parked outside, the black sheen reflecting the early morning sun. I tried to read the runes on the surface of her vehicle, but came up empty. They kept shifting and changing as I looked at them.
“What do those runes say?” I asked as we passed her car. “The symbols keep shifting around.”
“Wait a second,” Monty said, stopping mid-stride, snapping a finger, and turning back to examine Ursula’s car. “That’s it—that’s what I’ve been missing in the shortcut. Permutational persistence!”
Monty moved to place his hand on the surface of Ursula’s car.
“Do not touch the Widow,” Ursula said. “She doesn’t like strangers, and I don’t like smudges.”
“Permutational what, now?” I asked as we followed Ursula back to the hub. Sprawly McPeaches was still snoring in the back of the Dark Goat. I thought that hitting XL, tangling with the golem, and then overstuffing himself with Ezra’s pastrami was taking its toll on him. He was actually tired.
“I’ll explain later,” Monty said as we entered the hub. He turned and focused on Ursula. “Now, what is this catastrophe you were mentioning?”
We approached a small, nondescript building in the center of Bowling Green. It was basically a plain, small, rectangular structure about twenty feet square, on the outside. Inside, it was considerably larger, and I figured it sat sideways, somewhere adjacent to our plane, taking up more space somewhere else.
“This building is called an Oracle, and it houses a nexus point,” Ursula said, pointing. “In this case, a nexus hub. One of several.”
In the center of the Oracle rested a confluence of energy with extensions running in different directions. It basically looked like an active orb of violet energy with extensions shooting out from its center.
Nothing appeared to be happening.
“So, you called us down here to see your orb of energy? Where is the—?”
The orb in the center of the Oracle blasted a beam of energy straight up into the top of the structure.
“That—is not supposed to happen,” Ursula said, her voice grim. “These pulses have been regular, every five minutes, since they began.”
“Maybe it’s bleeding off excess energy?” I suggested. “You know, clearing the energy plumbing?”
Both Monty and Ursula stared at me.
“When did they begin?” Monty asked, ignoring me and narrowing his eyes, examining the orb in the center of the building. “Do you know where they are going?”
“We calculated that they started around the time Simon fought Toson,” Ursula said, looking up into the ceiling. “As for where they’re going—look again. They aren’t going anywhere.”
I looked up when the next pulse blasted into the ceiling.
“What do you mean ‘they aren’t going anywhere’?” I asked. “I just saw it go up into the—”
“Bloody hell,” Monty said, his voice laced with fear and anger. “That was the purpose of the attack. It wasn’t a scouting mission.”
“What?” I said, still not seeing it. “What did he do?”
“Look,” Monty said, pointing to the ceiling. “Really look.”
I did my best Eastwood-Monty impression and narrowed my eyes at the ceiling. For a few seconds, all I saw was the smooth surface of the ceiling, and then slowly, like seeing something out of the corner of your eye, figures formed—two human sized golems. Floating in space above our heads.
Another pulse blasted, and a stream of violet energy channeled into each of the golem bodies, bathing them in the energy until it was absorbed completely.
“What the fu—?” I started.
“Toson must be using the energy of the hub to feed them,” Monty said, letting his gaze trace the blast of the last pulse back to the confluence. “Is it possible to shut down this hub completely?”
“Too dangerous,” Ursula said. “We have line regulators which allow the regular nexus points to be isolated if they became corrupted or fall under attack.”
“We need to shut this hub down,” I said, pointing up. “Toson is creating more golems up there.”
“It’s not that simple,” Ursula said. “Every nexus point is interconnected. The hubs are unique; they hold up the framework.”
“This is a poor design. Each nexus point should be able to be shut off independently.”
“I’ll be sure to pass on your design feedback to the originators of the nexus network,” Ursula snapped. “I’m sure they’ll be eager to hear your ideas.”
“Can you contact them? Maybe they know a way to shut this thing down?”
“Is he always like this?” Ursula asked.
“Only when awake,” Monty answered, still looking up. “You get used to it. She can’t contact the original designers, Simon. This network was established a millennia ago. They’re all dead by now.”
“You must have incredible patience,” Ursula added. “Anyway, I tried to find everything and anything on this situation. Nothing about a siphon attaching itself to a hub.”
“We can’t shut this down, then,” I said. “It’s too dangerous.”
“Exactly—this is a hub with some strange siphon casting happening. I don’t know what will happen if we try isolating it. It
