Rising Shards

I cursed at my own inability to avoid falling into a trap as I struggled against the energy bindings on my wrists and ankles. The other devils and Michi were bound too, with some empty chairs at the end. Even the devils weren’t strong enough to break these.

Once more, I tried to observe my surroundings, using what I’d learned in class about the void to find any kind of advantage here. Something about the stage and the set parts was so frustratingly familiar, was this a common arrangement for void nodes to take? Did I see this in a textbook or something?

My eyes widened as a memory returned to me like rejected mail coming back from a changed address. It was just a bit ago, how had I forgotten already?

I was spending time with Ko, watching random things together when she asked if I’d ever seen a reality show from about twenty years ago. She loaded up an episode from it, and pointed at the main host.

”Look familiar?” Ko asked, barely holding her laughter back.

I squinted at the screen, hardly believing what I was seeing. ”That guy from all our Cani training videos?”

Ko couldn’t hold it in anymore, as the intro for Thadley’s Love played. A man with long wavy blonde hair wandered into frame.

”Um, I’m like Thadley and stuff, and I’m here lookin’ for love,” he said, eyes darting all around. It seemed like in this environment he had similar acting ability and stage presence to the training videos. A narrator took over, announcing that fifteen men, fifteen women, and five ’wildcards’ were in the running to win his affections. The show didn’t explain what it meant by wildcards in the episode we watched, but it could be assumed that was the way a show from twenty years ago handled people outside the gender binary.

The show itself was an awkward mix of over editing and awkward performances making up a blatantly scripted ’reality’ television series, but it seemed that series had come back to haunt me. I could guess who had arrived when a heavy metal door opened and shut, but my guess wasn’t correct just yet, as it was Tay.

”Oh, crap,”

With the spotlights blaring, I couldn’t see her until she was close to us, but she looked panicked.

”Tay, if you did this, I will ensure you don’t go a single day for the rest of your life without immense regret over this,” Anastasia snarled.

”This isn’t me, I swear!” Tay said. ”Do you really think I’m capable of rebuilding the Thadley’s Love set? For what, for my relationship tracking?”

”Yes, actually,” I said. On the show, Thadley or one of the other hosts sometimes sat at a desk to introduce the episode’s premise or for talking head segments. That desk, or a recreation of it, was behind me, and I could see a thick book resting on it. ”That’s your book, isn’t it?”

”One of them!” Tay said. She scuttled over and snatched it. ”They stole my book!”

”Who did?” Myles said. ”Do you have any clue what’s going on here?”

”I assume another imp, right?” Tay said.

”Are we running into more of those lately?” Ash asked.

The last one was Reed, who caught a fair chunk of Rising Shards, Falling Shards, and Wildfire Hearts students along with visiting civilians. If it was another one, this could be a much bigger situation than just the group trapped.

”Could they be targeting the school?” I said.

”Maybe they’re after us,” Ash said.

”This one didn’t even happen on campus, so yeah, we’re the common denominator in this one,” Myles said. ”Did we piss off some node with a bunch of these imp guys?”

Sai, Anastasia, Ash, Myles, and Charmaine took a moment to think it over.

”I mean, if we did before we got here I don’t remember,” Sai said.

”I don’t fully know what you all got up to before we met, but I can’t think of anything after that would cause void imps to go after us specifically,” Anastasia said. ”The one with Penteldtam was his fault, so maybe these aren’t even related.”

”Maybe they were already targeting us and Penteldtam was convenient to get what they needed,” Sai said. ”And also even if they weren’t, us stomping on Penteldtam makes that whole thing still kind of on us.”

”On the school board for making us do that,” Anastasia said.

As the other devils started to argue with Anastasia about that, I spoke over their bantering.

”Tay. Get us out.” I commanded.

Tay flinched. ”Can’t you use your powers?”

Michi and I tried. It felt like a stronger version of our power blockers, that same sensation of wanting to conjure abilities but being unable to.

”And don’t stand too close or you’ll end up bound in the chairs too,” Michi added.

”Stand too close to what now?” Tay asked. A split-second later she vanished, her thick book of classmate lore dropping to the ground as she teleported beside us, also bound with the same energy. ”Oh.”

”Damn it,” Sai said.

”Though I really didn’t expect her to be much help,” Anastasia said. ”I still wouldn’t be surprised if she turns out responsible for this.”

”Hey! I already said this isn’t me!” Tay said.

As Anastasia looked like she was about to break out of her chair out of sheer rage, a song that could best be described as stock production music used to replace a licensed track. The vaguely rock music beckoned the arrival of another, the man with long blonde hair and tanned skin who looked barely aware of his surroundings.

”One of the most influential voices in Cani education, and a wicked good surfer, Thadley had been on a quest for love,” An annoying and grating voice blared around us. ”But this season, things are a little different. Welcome to...Thadley’s Love: Matchmaker Edition.”

Thadley waved, almost getting lost walking through the empty seating for a studio audience before finding the front.

”Whoa, it’s like...been a while?” Thadley said.