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The Storm
The funeral services were held
in the rarely-opened and not-in-your-lifetime Hall of the Unicorn. Approximately
800 people were in attendance including Flora, Gerard, and Brand looking
exceedingly dapper in green. Martin made a relatively short, unemotional
speech. Corwin spoke at some length about his relationships with all of
his newly-dead brothers and sisters.
Then the High Priest of the Unicorn,
good old what’s-his-name, was helped up to the podium. He recited some
really boring litany and tried to put everyone to sleep with his deep,
powerful yet boring voice. He failed because the air pressure suddenly
changed and the big, heavy doors slammed shut. Abashed servants quickly
propped them open, but it was too late. The noise shocked the ancient
priest so much he burst into flame. People screamed.
Corwin grabbed an incredibly
old and valuable tapestry off the wall and flung it on the geezer to try
to smother him, so to speak. Whether it worked or not we never found out,
because behind the tapestry was a large, gaping hole in Raj’s funeral
security system. It was approximately three feet in diameter, and sorcerously
exuding invisible black smoke (don’t ask me how it can be both invisible
and black at the same time). Flora cast a massive “Damn, make this stop”
spell that slowed the entry of the invisible black smoke into the Hall.
Aedan leapt to the hole and studied
it. It was black, really black—too black, so he caused a silver wisp of
light to vanish into its depths. Raj arrived and poked his sword into
the hole. Then he poked his whole upper body into the hole, but stayed
holding his buddy Corwin’s hand. When he unpoked his head, he mumbled
something about the Unicorn being in trouble. So Aedan, Giselle, Raj,
and Corwin all dived through the black hole and disappeared from our story
altogether. The end.
They were in a weird, spectral
cavern, lit spookily by Aedan’s wisp. Ahead of them was the unicorn, prone
with a thorn-like claw stuck in her shoulder. The Unicorn was in a bad
way. Giselle rushed forward and projected both herself and the Unicorn
back into the Hall. Aedan tagged along. The thorn-like thing dissolved.
Back in the Hall, people were
exiting in a neat and orderly fashion, aided by Gabriel’s blinding light
spell to keep them from seeing what was happening. Flora’s spell failed,
but Brand zapped the oogie black stuff away. The Unicorn dissolved in
Giselle’s arms, leaving behind a horn two feet long oozing milky white
liquid.
Brand and Raj had a little discussion
about the nature of the hostile power. Brand was of the opinion that it
was of a similar nature to the power of the Unicorn, something more comparable
to the original, behind-the-scenes powers. He asked Flora to find out
how long the black hole had been there, then vanished.
Giselle huddled on the floor,
rocking, clutching the horn of the Unicorn.
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