Interlude 2

  Hell-4 sneaked his consciousness past Surface-17, then Hell-1, and settled down three seats over, right between Hell-5 and Surface-21.

  ‘Hey there, how is it going?’ Surface-21 greeted him.

  ‘Yeah, well, it’s going,’ he replied to his fellow spirit. ‘Is that energy-blob over there new?’

  ‘Yeah, Chairman arranged for extra snacks,’ he said. ‘It’s a new flavour, apparently, something like … I don’t know, Sacred Surface Soul Mix, or something like that.’

  Hell-4 extended himself a bit, getting a sniff of the energy-blob.

  ‘Hm. More like “Holier Than Thou” with a hint of “Smug”. That’s what it smells like. Not bad, I like it,’ he mused.

  ‘Anyway, we’re waiting for Chairman. No snacking before he arrives,’ Surface-21 said, then extended a tendril of himself closer to him and whispered, ‘Hey, what’s going on with Hell-5? He’s been really depressed, hasn’t he?’

  Hell-4 opened his mind in the direction of his gloomy colleague.

  ‘You okay there, Tyrant?’ he asked him.

  Hell-5, also known as Tyrant, wobbled and rippled uncomfortably.

  ‘No. I am not. I hate this job. They hate me, and I don’t want to manage them. They’re unmanageable,’ he complained. ‘I want to retire. Or get reassigned. Oh, how about you Hell-4? Do you want to take over the Fifth? I’ll pay you to do it.’

  ‘Uh … no thanks, I’ve got my hands full with the Fourth. You know, invasion and stuff, lot of RE and EXP to handle, not to mention skills and levels,’ Hell-4 said, trying to sound genuine and sincere, which was difficult between spirits who could sense each other’s emotions.

  ‘Heeey theeeere!’ a spirit yelled over from the other side of Chairman’s empty seat in the middle of their gathering. ‘How is it going over there? How are my guys doing in your Ring?’

  ‘I’d like to invite you to sod off, Hell-3,’ Hell-4 yelled back at him. ‘My guys will kick them out soon enough!’

  ‘Heh! You think? Have they got the numbers and the …’

  ‘Well, as I was saying, the ongoings require my full attention at the moment.’ Hell-4 turned away from his insufferable colleague, shutting his voice out of his mind and re-focusing on his nearest two neighbours. ‘Oh, and I go by Genius now, by the way.’

  ‘Genius, huh? Hm, alright,’ Tyrant said, shrugging spiritually, obviously exhausted and probably considering whether he should go on living or not.

  ‘Has a nice ring to it,’ Surface-21 said, somewhat more cheerfully. ‘Better than what they gave me.’

  ‘I’ve been meaning to ask,’ Tyrant turned to him. ‘Why don’t you use it? It’s not a bad name.’

  ‘Because I don’t appreciate being worshiped as a god. I’m a spirit of the place, nothing less nothing more.’ Surface-21 explained. ‘Plus I don’t like the way it sounds. Kridea. What kind of name is Kridea? It just doesn’t resonate with me.’

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  ‘So … you’ll be Surface-21 for all eternity?’ Genius inquired.

  ‘Of course not. Hopefully a few generations and they’ll come up with a better name,’ he said, imitating a sigh. ‘I mean, Fourth Ring demons have just come up with a decent enough name for you, so I’m sure humans, elves and orcs will be able to do it between them. Somehow.’

  ‘Yeah, about that …’ Genius began to say when the whole place went silent, the gathered spirits withdrawing their consciousnesses floating all over the limited dimension.

  Chairman arrived.

  ‘Greetings, my fellow spirits, let me welcome you on behalf of Sun to our monthly meeting.’ Chairman’s mind-voice filled the realm as he took his seat in the middle. He extended a small portion of his consciousness, a tendril of it, in the direction of the flavoured energy-blob. ‘I have prepared a new flavour for you all. Nothing special, but I hope you’ll all like it.’

  Murmurs of appreciation rippled through the dimension, and spirits began to extend themselves again to sample the snack.

  ‘Pretty good,’ Tyrant commented, his mood becoming a little better.

  ‘Not bad at all,’ Surface-21 — or Kridea — agreed.

  ‘Definitely better than last month’s flavour,’ Genius joined in.

  Minutes passed as everyone had their share of the flavour, then Chairman signaled them to return to their seats.

  ‘As always, Sun and I appreciate the hard work you all do. It’s not easy to maintain balance in our part of the universe, and to resist the temptation to steer our fellow inhabitants, the material races, any more than necessary. We are happy that both the Surface and Hell remain stable and hospitable to their respective residents.’ Chairman sang his subordinate spirits’ praises as usual. ‘Now, if you remember, I have mentioned a few times over the past hundred or so years that a minor interruption in the energy flow of our world has been occurring intermittently. I have not gone into details before because Sun hasn’t shown much concern. Until now.’

  A nervous murmur ran through the assembled spirits.

  ‘Oh my! When was the last time Sun was concerned about anything?’ Kridea whispered.

  ‘Uh … never?’ Tyrant whispered back.

  ‘Well, there was that one time …’ Genius said.

  ‘It was a false alarm.’ Kridea hushed him.

  The spirits quieted down after a minute, and Chairman continued.

  ‘What we know is that due to these interruptions, small losses of Universal Energy have been occurring sporadically over the past hundred or so years. A year ago, these occurrences began to grow in number and scale, and it warranted Sun himself to look into it. What he found was that Universal Energy is being siphoned from our world.’

  ‘Siphoned? To where? By who?’ one of the spirits asked.

  ‘By who or what we don’t know. But Sun seems convinced that energy is leaving our universe, possibly for another.’ Chairman said.

  The spirits were suddenly in an uproar, theories and ideas immediately filling the dimension, everyone angered and worried. Chairman waited for them to settle down once again.

  ‘The loss of Universal Energy is growing as we speak. It is possible it will, at some point in the future, affect the day to day running of your respective realms, and the lives of our fellow, material inhabitants,’ he said. ‘Ideally, Sun and I will be able to resolve this issue, or the very least discover its cause. In the meantime, we want all of you to be prepared for certain eventualities, and if any of you have information that might be of help, we’d like you to come forward and share.’

  Another round of speculation began, spirits guessing and calculating, some just munching on the flavoured energy-blob, but most of them trying to figure out what could be the cause of the issue at hand. Except one spirit.

  Genius floated out of his seat, his consciousness reaching out to Chairman.

  ‘Oh, you have something, Hell-4? Oh, you go by Genius? So sorry, I just noticed,’ Chairman said, letting him closer. ‘So, Genius? Do you know something?’

  ‘Well, yes, kind of.’ Genius said. ‘So, I have a new resident down in the Fourth.’

  ‘And?’

  ‘And I did suspect … well, knew, he was not from around here, but now that you said that our Universal Energy is being siphoned to another universe, I’m inclined to think my new guy may have come from … you know, from there. The other universe, I mean.’

  Chairman was quiet for a moment, and Genius was regretting the whole coming forward thing already.

  ‘Genius, after the meeting I’d like you to come with me.’

  ‘Okay, where are we going?’ he asked.

  ‘I’d like you to tell me about your new resident.’ Chairman said, then added, ‘With Sun present.’

  Genius was thankful that spirits couldn’t panic and sweat like the material races could, but oh boy, this was going to be a long and uncomfortable conversation.