Crystal Screams: A Terra Crystalus Story

Crystal Screams

A Terra Crystalus Story

by Michael P Calligaro

He's started calling to me in the day. It used to only be at night. I'd finally reach a deep sleep, where the screaming crystals no longer bother me, and he'd start with his promises. "I can make them stop. I can free you from your torment. Open the door. I can help."

I want to believe him. I need to believe him. The screams get louder every day. If they don't stop soon I'll go crazy. I know I will. They're starting to hurt. I want them to stop. I need them to stop. Can he really help me?

* * *

Loc Kaffen looked up from his books. The resonators up at the tunnel's entrance were humming, but only quietly. It was hard to take his job seriously when the vast majority of terrorists bent on world destruction were nothing more than crackpots with low power warding crystals.

He leapt over his desk and landed lithely on his feet. As he trotted up the tunnel the sheaths of his shard knives rubbed against calloused spots on his legs. "Am I overqualified for this job?" he wondered. He hadn't needed to draw the knives in over a year. When it came down to it, few people actually wanted to destroy the world.

Two teenage Toren were milling about at the end of the tunnel. The female was worriedly clutching at the male's arm while he looked around dumbly in search of the source of the humming. His inability to find it showed a remarkable lack of intelligence. The resonators filled the long tunnel. Every once in a while, an anarchist tried to smuggle in a crystal bomb that masked its own power, but the very sensitive resonators near his desk always detected it. Loc took what little pride he got from this job from the fact that no one had ever gotten anything past him.

The humming quieted as he approached.

The female dug her nails into the male's arm and pointed to Loc. She whispered, "look" in a quiet voice. Toren weren't very bright, and they had lousy hearing. She probably thought Loc hadn't heard her.

The male turned to him and blinked. "Whoa, a Niat."

Reproachfully, Loc replied, "You were expecting a Lorrian?"

The male laughed nasally. "Naw. I can't imagine a Lorrian cooped up down here without any magic. He'd go crazy."

With a sigh, Loc said, "There is no such thing as magic, young one. It is nothing more than vibrations in crystals."

Showing a sliver of backbone, the female said, "Strange words coming from a magical creature." When he looked at her, she cowered behind her boyfriend.

"My brain senses the energy fields emitted by powered crystals. It synchronizes itself with that energy and puts out a similar waveform that is one hundred and eighty degrees out of phase with the crystal's, thus canceling it. While it happens subconsciously, there is no magic involved, I assure you."

The male looked to his girlfriend and grinned, "He's just bitter because he can't use magical talismans like we can. His mind makes 'em stop working."

Loc's eyes darted back and forth between the two of them. The male continued to look like a big oaf. But the female was looking at him strangely. He got the impression that she was pretending to be afraid in order to cover something else. This might turn out to be an interesting day after all.

"I am sure that, as a result of your youth, you will find this hard to understand, but it is possible to live without the conveniences of powered crystals. Some people even believe that society has become too dependent on them. Look at the Sol'ghanar, floating about on their airboats when they could easily travel by land. And the Lorrian, do they really need cities in the sky and communication over distances? Since you Toren are the only major race without some sort of natural ability to manipulate crystal energies, there are those who believe you came from a place without crystals. Yet, if that is true, you survived there. No, the loss of our crystal energy, or 'magic' as you seem fond of calling it, would not bring about the end of the world."

The male looked at him dumbly, but the female's mouth turned up the slightest bit, and her eyes seemed to sparkle. Though Loc believed the things he'd just said, he'd said them as an intentional bait for her. And she was biting. If given the chance, Loc would have bet his next paycheck on her being an anarchist. He'd said all the things an anarchist wanted to hear, and doing so had made her happy.

Working less hard to hide behind her fake mask of fear, she said, "If you feel that way, why not let the Destroyer loose?"

No question--she was an anarchist. Now, all that was left to learn was whether she planned to talk him into letting lose the energy mass, or whether she was trying to smuggle in a device to do it herself.

The male got a little pale. "Destroyer? What's that?"

She nodded to Loc. "Our Niat friend here is the prison guard for a voracious creature that eats magic. Let it go, and it'll race around the planet sucking the magic out of all of the crystals, until all the magic is gone."

The male stared in fright down the tunnel. "What would make the creature escape?"

The female replied by pointing at Loc and saying, "He could let it loose."

Pleadingly, the male turned to Loc and asked, "You're not going to do that, are you?"

Loc smiled. "I've considered it from time to time." That was a lie, told only to cement his theories about the female. She beamed while the male looked horrified. Loc continued, this time telling the truth, "But while some of the things your friend says are basically correct, others are not. For one, she speaks about the energy mass as though it's some sort of sentient creature. This is not true. It is nothing more than an amalgamation of energy that is attuned to the vibrations of crystals. It is true that it grows by taking energy out of crystals, leaving them dormant. But it does this naturally, not out of some hunger for 'magic.' On the other hand, if it were released, it would quickly spread around the planet and take the energy out of all crystals. Your 'magic' would be gone."

Grinning, the female said, "So, since you think the world would be fine without magic, let him go."

The male extricated his arm from her grip and backed away from her. "What are you saying? Why did you bring me here?"

He'd moved a bit behind Loc, but not enough to warrant concern. The fastest Toren alive couldn't outrun the slowest Niat. And Loc was fast for his kind. Besides, the female was the anarchist. The male was just baggage she was traveling with. Loc replied, "I do my job for a number of reasons. For one, it is my job and my responsibility, two things I take very seriously. For another, I'm not so conceited as to think that the world should live by my whims." He glared at the female while saying this. She held his gaze evenly, without even a twinge of self-doubt. This didn't surprise Loc greatly. The youth of most races were impetuous and overly confident of their own opinions, and the Toren were the worst at this.

"Most importantly, though, while the world could stand to live with fewer creature comforts than it currently has, it is definitely dependent on them right now. Any change that did not come about gradually would result in the deaths of millions of people." When she looked at him blankly, he continued, "How many Lorrian do you really think would survive when their cities suddenly came crashing to the ground? And what about the Shrinem? They use powered crystals to light their mines and to draw fresh air underground. How many would suffocate while wandering around in dark mazes full of stale air? And letting the energy mass out would be a sure death sentence for the entire race of Fazors. It would eat the ones in energy form outright. Then the remainders would desperately hold on to their solid forms as long as they could, only to slowly be forced to revert back and be eaten." Turning on as much animosity as he could muster, and he could muster a great deal, he glared at the female and said, "Is that what you want?"

She smiled wryly and nodded. Then she focused on something behind Loc and nodded again. It took Loc only a fraction of a second to understand what this meant, but it was already too late. He should have realized what was happening minutes ago. He spun around to see the male, who was standing out of reach, hurl something at the ground. The Toren wasn't a dumb oaf. That was a clever ruse that played to Loc's prejudices. He was an anarchist, just like his equally clever girlfriend. As Loc watched the crystal fly toward the floor, he decided that the female had played him like a shard flute. Every emotion she'd supposedly hidden yet he'd seen through was again calculated to play to his prejudices.

He reached down for his shard knives just as the crystal hid the floor. Its protective casing shattered, and the world suddenly went crazy. A wave of wildly varying, random crystal frequencies smashed into Loc and caused all of the resonators in the hallway to start screaming. His mind desperately tried to cancel out the energies, but couldn't possibly live up to the task. Still, it tried, expending more and more energy and quickly exhausting him.

Loc felt no pain. Such reports from his nervous system would have been a waste of energy that could have been diverted to stopping the crystal frequencies. Loc felt nothing at all. His vision would go next, then his consciousness. Unfortunately for the anarchists, he knew this because exposure to a rambler bomb was a regular part of his training. Just last month he'd been subjected to one at least twice as powerful as this one. And he'd stayed awake for a good ten seconds that time.

He drew his shard knives and immediately threw one at the male. Not waiting to see the knife hit, he spun and leapt at the female. She managed a terrified screech as he caught her hair, yanked her head back, and slit her throat. Loc fell to his knees while still holding her hair. He used all of his willpower to drag his head around and glance back. The male was lying motionless on the floor with a shard sticking out of his eye.

Loc collapsed onto the female's corpse. With the resonators making such a racket, his reinforcements would be here soon. If there were any other anarchists nearby, they'd soon feel the brutally self-righteous pain that only a Regniva could inflict. Loc smiled as he slipped into unconsciousness.

* * *

I left my parents. They didn't understand me. They never did. When I was a baby, I'm sure they loved that the crystals would sing me to sleep at night. But, by the time I was ten I was just a burden to them, always complaining about the crystals. I'm twelve now and I could tell that they couldn't take much more of me, just like I can't take much more of the crystals. So I left. I'm sure they're glad I'm gone.

I'm not as scared as I thought I'd be. I think the constant screaming of the crystals is making me too crazy to be afraid.

Okay, I did get really scared three days ago, but it was his fault! Really.

I was walking across a crystal field, just about out of my mind, when this Sol'ghanar airboat floats by. Most of the airboats I've ever seen have been high in the sky, but this one is low to the ground. The driver was Toren, like me, but really old. And he looked really sad. When he saw me, he sighed and said, "I don't know how much farther my old boat will make it, little girl, but you're welcome to ride with me."

My feet were hurting, and my head was throbbing, and I just wanted to curl up and try to sleep. So I climbed aboard. I noticed that the crystals of the field got quieter as I moved up away from them, but that the airboat had crystals of its own. These crystals also screamed, but they did it in a way I'd never heard before. It was like they hated the field's crystals and just wanted to be away from them. I could sure relate to that. And the boat's crystals weren't really screaming. Okay, they were, but they didn't hurt as much as most do.

So I started thinking, like, maybe there are good crystals and bad crystals. And maybe these boat crystals weren't so bad. Then I started thinking that maybe I could scream the way they do. You know, show the bad crystals what I think of them? So I did. Not with my mouth, of course. Crystals don't scream with their mouths. Then, the boat crystals seemed to get together and they started yelling louder at the field ones. I think they were depressed or something that they were getting so close. Maybe they got happy that I'd decided to help them. One thing I know for sure, the field ones didn't like this at all. I sneered at them and screamed louder.

Then, suddenly, our boat was high in the air! The driver looked shocked, but then he got really happy. I told him the direction I was hoping to go, and he said he'd take me anywhere. That was nice. I could barely hear the field crystals while up in the boat, and the boat crystals weren't too bad. They still screamed, but I kind of felt like they were screaming with me instead of at me.

So what scared me? Well, at some point I said I needed to go in one direction and the driver said we had to go a different way. I asked nicely, just like my momma told me to, but he wouldn't listen. So I asked to get down. I didn't like the idea of going back to the field, but I couldn't go the way he wanted.

Here's when I got scared. He said I couldn't leave! He said I was too valuable to him and that I needed to stay with him. I couldn't do that. I said, "No," and backed to the edge of the boat. He came toward me. This time I yelled "No!" but he kept coming. I didn't know what to do. I didn't really want to hurt him; I just wanted him to let me go.

Then I got an idea that he probably wouldn't like feeling the way I do when the crystals scream at me. Really, all I wanted to do was scare him a little. But when I screamed at him, he flew back and over the side of the boat. I ran to the side, but he was just lying there in the field, not moving. This made the field crystals really mad, because they all started screaming at me lots louder than ever before. I couldn't go down for the driver. I tried, but the field crystals hurt me too much. So I yelled back at them the way the boat crystals do and we went higher and higher until they no longer hurt me too much. I'm still on the boat now.

* * *

Loc Kaffen leaned back in his chair, crossed his arms, and put his feet on the desk. That seemed to annoy his Toren boss, what was this one's name again? Oh yeah, Jonse. Of course, Loc took great pleasure in annoying his bosses. He didn't get many opportunities to really enjoy his work, and had to grab them where he could.

"Don't get smug with me, Kaffen. Do you know what kind of bind you've put me in? The Toren high council is saying those two deaths were racially motivated, that you'd have never killed a pair of Niats or Regnivas." He glanced over his shoulder at Radien one of the Regnivas on duty.

Radien clenched his teeth and frowned at Jonse's back. Loc saw the enormous muscles in his forearm tense as he tightened his grasp on his shokren staff. Loc laughed. "First of all, your Toren high council represents a grand total of ten percent of your people. Hardly a force to be reckoned with. Second, I would be unable to kill a Regniva if you clipped his wings, took away his shokren, and broke one of his arms. Fortunately, none of them want to destroy the planet." When Jonse rolled his eyes, Loc pulled a medium-sized crystal sphere out of his top drawer and held it up. His hand and forearm turned orange to match the sphere. "And finally, no Niat could have carried in a charged one of these."

Jonse stared at the crystal without comprehension. "You're holding it."

Radien looked ready to explode. Loc smiled and said, "Now, now Radien. You know the rules. We're not allowed to kill the boss until the end of his first week on the job."

That succeeded in breaking the Regniva's tension. He laughed in a booming voice that would have caused an avalanche had they been up in the Kiernan Mountains. Fortunately, they weren't up in the mountains. They were deep underground in a tunnel so well fortified it would likely survive a massive planetshake.

Jonse looked back in terror at the giant behind him, then in a forceful voice that only partially covered his fear, said, "That isn't true!"

Putting on a confused frown, Loc looked up at Radien and said, "Was it the end of the second week? Is that why we kept the last guy around so long?" Completely relaxed now, Radien just smiled. Before Jonse could speak again, Loc bobbed the crystal in his hand and said, "Look, you clearly do not know what this is." Dropping into his "perturbed teacher" voice, he said, "This is known as a 'Lorrian Killer.' It stores an enormous amount of power in such a way that the more you put in, the more fine-tuned your energy must be. Releasing the energy goes the same way but in reverse. Coarse waves don't do anything, but a fine effect will get it started. And once it starts, it feeds upon itself and releases all of its energy in an enormous blast."

Worriedly staring at the bomb, Jonse said, "Why's it called a Lorrian Killer then?"

Loc rolled his eyes and gave Radien a look that said, "What do you expect from a Toren?" Bringing his attention back to Jonse, he said, "Lorrian brains are always finely adjusting the energies of the world around them. Get one of these within a foot of a Lorrian and boom."

Breathing a sigh of relief, Jonse said, "Good thing there aren't any Lorrian around."

Loc put his face in his hands and shook his head. "You moron. A Niat brain will set it off too. The only reason I am alive is that when I got close enough to the female to set it off my brain was already using coarse energies to fight their warbler bomb." Jonse started to say something, but Loc abruptly sat upright, pointed at him, and said, "Stop! Don't ask me why it's not going of now. Give me the slightest illusion that you are even remotely competent at your job. When you learned that you were going to be working with Regnivas you did a bit of studying and learned that they can use their shokren staves to swallow just about any kind of energy, and a lot of it. Correct?"

Jonse clenched his teeth. Loc glared at him. Jonse held his glare. This surprised Loc. He wasn't expecting to find any backbone in the Toren. Wondering if he'd misjudged the guy, he said in a calm voice, "So, do you know why they were trying to bring this down here?"

The Toren laced the fingers of his two hands together and held them in front of his chin as he stared thoughtfully at the bomb. Then he looked up at the ceiling. Nodding, he said, "I did read about the facilities. The resonators at the mouth of the tunnel are coarse, and they get more and more fine-tuned as you move into the tunnel. They planned to take you out with their warbler bomb, then roll that down the tunnel and let the finer resonators set it off."

Loc blinked and smiled in genuine appreciation of his boss. "Very good! Radien, this one might survive beyond the two-week grace period." The Regniva nodded. "What else did that document say about this place? I don't think I've ever read it."

With a sneer, Jonse replied, "It said that the Regniva are brutal but fair, and that you're impossible to deal with."

"There are other Niats working here."

"Strange then that the document saw fit to single you out."

Loc glared at him for a moment, but when his boss didn't back down, he broke into a smile. "Damn Radien. I might get to like this guy. He's not bad for a Toren. Okay, boss, tell me what they were trying to accomplish."

Nodding, Jonse said, "The Destroyer eats crystal energy. A large release right next to the edge of his cell would most likely give him enough power to break free."

Applauding quietly, Loc smiled and said, "Score one for the boss."

Jonse held hand out and said, "Give me the Lorrian Killer. That'll help get the Council off my back."

"Gladly." He handed over the sphere.

"Thank you." He bounced the crystal around in his hand for a second before saying, "Now, answer a question that the document didn't address." He waited for Loc to nod before asking, "Why don't we fill this tunnel in and be done with it?"

Loc's growing respect for his boss rose higher. "That's a very good question. Your last two predecessors never thought to ask it."

"That's probably because you gave them less than two weeks to think about the problem," Jonse interjected.

Loc grinned and continued, "We can't guard this whole mountain. So we're purposely giving the occasional anarchist a weak link to attack. We keep it open, bring tours through, show them the measly Niat guard, and neglect to mention the Regnivas stationed nearby. That way they are considerably more likely attack here than hire some Shrinem to dig them a new tunnel from some place we're not watching."

When Jonse nodded, Loc continued. "Realize, however that we lie about the dangers down here. This wall," he tapped the one behind him, "is extremely thick. I doubt that even the Lorrian Killer would have been enough for the energy mass to feel through the rock. But we play it safe, since we don't really know much about the thing."

Jonse nodded and said, "I'll leave that last part out of my report to the Council."

* * *

He knows I'm coming to him. He's not gloating, but I can tell he's very happy. I still don't know if he can help me, but I'm desperate. Even the airboat's crystals are starting to hurt me now. I don't know what else I can do. If he's lying to me, I guess it's no different than if I don't go. I can't imagine how life could get much worse than this. Death is starting to seem appealing. I wish it would just stop.

* * *

The resonators at the end of the tunnel started humming and immediately built to the loudest wail Loc had ever heard. Fighting panic, he leapt up. Whatever was coming in, it had enough energy to make a Lorrian Killer look like a dim light crystal. As he raced up the tunnel he fretted over what might be happening. Had the anarchists decided on a full frontal assault? Had they already killed the Regnivas stationed outside? Loc couldn't imagine a force being able to kill two Regnivas, but he'd never heard resonators scream like this before. He drew his shard knives and prepared himself for the worst.

He wasn't prepared for what he found. No armored army carrying a giant, powered crystal. No burly warriors ready to tear him limb from limb. All he found at the beginning of the tunnel was a young Toren girl. She was crying outright and was clamping her hands over her ears. Loc immediately knew what was going on. The anarchists had planted a huge energy source on an innocent little girl and sent her into the tunnel. They were hoping that he'd overreact and kill her, and that the political backlash would result in him and his companions being removed. It was a clever trick, but one that wouldn't work. He wasn't nearly as dumb as the anarchists seemed to think he was.

His mind was trying to counteract her power source, but he knew that would fail. The power was too great and growing by the moment. Still, it was a steady frequency of high amplitude, not the exhausting shifting frequencies of a warbler bomb. His brain would fail to silence the energy, but he wouldn't become exhausted in the effort.

The Toren's mouth was moving, but he couldn't tell what she was saying over the clamor of the resonators. Judging from the way her lips were moving, she was saying the same two words over and over again. He approached cautiously, still holding his knives bare, but not planning to use them. Both Radien and his lover, Vona, arrived behind the girl, looking worried and ready to kill. Loc waved them off and continued to approach. All he had to do was get her safely out of the tunnel and everything would be okay.

The girl started shaking her head as she pressed her hands more tightly against her ears. Her lips were still moving the same way, but the strain evident on her face seemed to suggest that she was saying it louder now. Suddenly she screamed in a shrill voice that cut through the wail of the resonators, "Stop it!"

A wave of intense power swept down the tunnel, shattering Loc's shard knives as well as every single resonator embedded into the ceiling and walls. As glass shards showered down on Loc, he stared at her in shock. They hadn't put a powered crystal on her. She was the source of power. Torens lacked the ability to influence crystal energies with their minds. But this one somehow harnessed more power than a Lorrian high wizard could.

The tunnel was silent but for the girl's sobs while Loc and the two Regnivas stared at her in disbelief. Then the mountain trembled. Loc swore, "For the love of quiet crystals!" The energy mass had felt the Toren's blast. That almost guaranteed that she'd be able to free it.

The Regnivas drew the same conclusions. Vona clenched her teeth, hefted her shokren staff and charged at the girl. Wide eyed, the girl held her hands out and screamed. Vona was thrown back down the hall. When Radien saw this, he started spinning his staff in front of him to swallow the next blast. The mountain trembled again.

Loc yelled, "Radien, stop. We can't take many more of these blasts." Vona leapt up from the ground with a look of death on her face, but Radien moved into the center of the tunnel to block her path. Loc knew what he needed to do; he just couldn't imagine himself doing it. Be comforting to a little Toren girl? Still, the thought of the energy mass getting out and annihilating the Fazors was more inconceivable.

In as calm and relaxing a voice as he could manage, Loc said, "Little girl, please don't do that again. This is a very dangerous area."

She wailed, "Make them stop!"

He stepped forward slowly. "Radien, Vona, back off please." They didn't need to take orders from him, but they could obviously see what he was doing. They complied by backing away. "There, the Regnivas won't hurt you. Now, can we go outside and talk about this?"

She stared up at him in terror. "No! The crystals are out there. They scream at me. They hurt me! Make them stop!"

She was sensing the vibrations in common field crystals? Poor thing. Those crystals were everywhere and collected small amounts of solar energy, making them continuously powered. If they hurt her, there would be just about nowhere she could go. In a quiet voice, he said, "What's your name, dear?"

Her voice was small and weak and just didn't seem appropriate for such a powerful person. "Derin."

Loc forced himself to smile warmly. "Hello Derin, my name is Loc. That is Radien, and his companion's name is Vona."

She looked to the Regnivas, nodded, and squeaked, "Hello."

Even Vona couldn't stay angry with someone who spoke like that. She smiled stiffly and nodded.

Loc continued, "Now, Derin, do you know what this place is?"

She shook her head. "All I know is that this is where he told me to go."

Ah, they might learn the identity of the anarchist who'd sent her. It would be nice to go on the offensive for a change. Working to keep the excitement out of his voice, he asked, "Who told you to come here?"

She frowned. "He doesn't tell me his name, but he's near here. He says he can make the crystals stop screaming at me. I just need to free him. I think he's right down there." She pointed down the tunnel behind Loc.

Loc felt his eyes grow wide as he looked up to Radien. Was the energy mass sentient? Had they been keeping a sentient being locked up in solitary confinement for all these years? He felt sick to his stomach. Unsure of himself, he stammered, "He talks to you? How?"

She frowned. "I don't know. I just hear him. Kind of the same way I hear the crystals screaming, but he doesn't yell." Her face turned to fright. "He's telling me that you're trying to trick me. He's saying that I should yell at you again."

The Regnivas tensed. Loc managed to keep his composure. "Please do not. We will not hurt you. It is the energy mass that's trying to trick you."

"Energy mass?"

Loc nodded. "Some call it�him, 'The Destroyer.' He is a raw mass of energy with no body, and he eats the screams of crystals. When you scream at us, he is focusing on you and using you to help him escape."

"So he's not lying to me? He can make the crystals stop screaming?"

The intense degree of hope in her voice terrified Loc. To lie or tell the truth? Would the young Toren understand the truth? If not she'd likely release the energy mass. On the other hand, if she saw through a lie, she might release him out of spite. After agonizing over this for a few seconds, he decided that the truth would be easier to keep consistent. He said, "Yes, but in doing so, he'll kill millions of people. Do you understand what that means?"

As she stared at him a tear rolled down her face. "If I release him, it'll be my fault. Like the Sol'ghanar? I didn't mean to hurt him. Really, I didn't!"

Loc made shushing sounds. "It's okay. I'm sure it was an accident. But releasing the energy mass would be no accident. Do you want to hurt a large number of people?"

She shook her head emphatically. "I just want the crystals to stop hurting me."

Nodding, Loc said, "I can help you. Do you know what a Niat is?"

She pointed at him. "You're a Niat."

He smiled. "Yes. And did you know that all Niats make crystals quieter when we're around?"

Her eyes widened. "You do?"

Nodding, he said. "I can take you to a Niat city. No crystals will scream at you there."

Looking hopeful, she said, "Really? And I don't have to hurt anyone?"

"Correct. No one needs to be hurt."

Breathing a sigh of relief, she said, "Okay."

The two Regnivas relaxed, and Loc stepped toward Derin while breathing his own sigh of relief. Suddenly she bent over and held her hands over her head. "No! I don't want to! They say you're going to kill people. Stop shouting at me!"

Loc quickly said, "Derin, we should move you away from here."

She stood up straight. "He says he won't hurt anyone."

There were only two possibilities. Either she was imagining talking with the energy mass, or it really was an imprisoned sentient being. The latter, while painful to his conscience, seemed more likely. "All of the texts say that it took the planet over a thousand years to recover from the last time he was released. My ancient predecessors were only able to imprison him because they moved the last powered crystals into the chamber and lured him in. We can not afford to let him out again."

Derin closed her eyes. "Talk quieter. You're hurting me."

She looked back to Loc. "He says that's not true. He says they trapped him so they could use him for energy. He says he never hurt anyone." She looked confused.

Her apparent confusion was nothing compared to Loc's inner turmoil. Was he responsible for keeping locked up an innocent creature that had been imprisoned for multiple millennia by evil people? There was no energy siphoning equipment anywhere near the mountain, but it could have been removed long ago. He gave Radien a pained look, but, not surprisingly, the Regniva didn't offer anything to help him. His race were fantastic soldiers and bodyguards, but weren't the smartest creatures on the planet. They generally left matters of philosophy and ethics to the other races and just focused on ways to break things.

Frowning, he said, "Derin, I don't know. The ancient texts say something else, but if they were written by bad people, then they could be wrong. How about if we investigate the matter first? After waiting for thousands of years, a few more days shouldn't hurt him."

She looked thoughtful for a moment, then plugged her ears again. "Why can't you wait just a bit longer? No, I don't think the Niat is tricking me. He seems nice. Please stop yelling."

Suddenly she looked at Loc with worried eyes. "He's lying. He's evil. Very--" She doubled over clutching her gut. In a pained voice she screamed, "Stop!"

The mountain started to shake.

Derin yelled, "Help me! He's found me! He's eating
my--" She collapsed to the floor, and the mountain shook violently.

Loc yelled, "Radien, get her out of here! Fly her as far away as you can!"

The Regniva had already scooped her up and was racing toward the mouth of the tunnel. Loc and Vona raced after him. As soon as he cleared the tunnel, he unfurled his giant wings and took off into the sky, Vona followed. Loc clenched his fists and watched them go. "Come on," he muttered, "square of the distance. Your influence should drop off quickly." The mountain continued to shake. "Let's hope it's quickly enough."

The Regnivas continued to fly away as fast as they could. The mountain's shaking gave way to rumbling, which in turn became trembles. Loc looked back into the tunnel and saw that large rocks had fallen from the ceiling. It was going to take a long time to clean this mess up.

* * *

Loc came to see me today. Everyone says he's mean, but I know better. He's nice inside. The Niat city is okay. The Niats don't really like me, but at least the crystals don't scream here. And they're teaching me how to keep the crystals quiet. So maybe I'll be able to leave sometime.

Vona was here a few days ago. She feels bad for attacking me, so she's going to go search for my parents and tell them that I'm okay. Maybe when I can live without always complaining about the crystals they'll take me back.

Radien was here with Vona. He said he was going to find a Lorrian to teach me more about using my skills. Loc says that if anyone can convince a Lorrian to do that it's a Regniva. I can see why. Those guys are big. But they're nice inside too.

When Loc was here, I gave him the message the Destroyer gave me. I don't really know what it means, but it seemed to make Loc worried. He wouldn't answer my questions about it, though. I'm going to write it down so that I remember it. Maybe I'll figure it out later.

The Destroyer said to tell Loc that until I was born he didn't realize that we Toren existed. We're "new," whatever that means. He also said that we're "malleable." He said that I was nothing more than a successful experiment, and that he could make many, many more. He said that it was only a matter of time before he was freed, and there was nothing Loc could do to stop it. Then he laughed in an evil sorta way.

Crystal Screams

A Terra Crystalus Story

by Michael P Calligaro

The End

Copyright Michael P. Calligaro

All Rights Reserved