Hunting the Puppeteer

As soon as the monsters entered, the glowing space slammed shut, and the valley plunged back into darkness. Nood crawled back in and woke Rashid.

After telling him everything, they discussed for some time more about the strange things going on around them.

In the morning, Liam got up early.

He checked the marshal first, and when he was sure he was breathing normally and that the bleeding had stopped, he changed his bandage, using a flap from his shirt.

Then he made his way to the surface and verified his hunch: despite the presence of the Reapers, the planet was still intact.

But why? The first thing these things always do is consume the core. That's why they've come all this way. For the sake of the core, they kill and stop at nothing.

What's wrong this time?

Liam strutted around in front of the cave entrance.

"Why do I get the feeling that someone is holding them back, but who has that kind of power?"

Liam pondered when a sleepy apprentice appeared from the cave.

"Master," Nood spoke, "there is something you should know."

"What is it?"

The apprentice recounted in detail what he had seen during the night, and Liam's heart ached.

"Where do you think they went, Master?" The apprentice asked.

"I don't want to think about it," Liam answered honestly, and then he listened and climbed back into the cave.

The marshal came to his senses and cursed at everyone and everything.

"What's the matter?" Liam raised his voice, stepping closer.

"What the hell, Liam?" The man was irritated, pushing Rashid aside as he checked his wound.

"Calm down," the Head swapped places with his friend and strove to calm him, "it's not good for you to scream like that, the wound might reopen."

"Then explain to me why we didn't leave with those people?"

Liam sighed and pursed his lips. Looking sternly at the distraught marshal, he sat down across from him and said:

"Just think, Pittsu, what's wrong with this planet?"

The question piqued the angry man's interest, and he was silent for a while.

"And what is it?" He asked, having come up with nothing, "Tell me if you've guessed it already."

"Why are we still alive?" Liam asked.

"Pfft! What kind of question is that? We stayed alive by chance and luck. And only because of the effort and the hard wounds."

"You're right about the fighting, but what about the planet?" Liam kept talking, wanting to push Pittsu toward a solution.

"What's wrong with the planet," the marshal grumbled, "The Reapers are already here, they will take the core soon."

"And?"

"And what?" The marshal was furious.

"All right, tell me, how long does a rapid-response team have, according to military regulations, to arrive at a planet like this to save it?"

"Eight to twenty-four hours," the marshal mouthed.

"Why not more than that?"

"Because in that interval the Reapers usually..." the marshal stammered, adding two and two, "damn it!"

He sprang to his feet, and so did Liam, and they stared at each other with a twinkle in their eyes as they drew closer.

"Buddy, you're a genius!" The marshal patted Liam's hair.

"You exaggerate," Liam laughed in relief to see his friend in a cheerful mood again.

Only the students, standing off to the side, were looking at them like two madmen, not knowing what they were talking about. And it seems that no one was going to tell them, understandable only to those two, the truth. So obediently accepting their fate, they waited for orders.

"In that case, we must find it," said the marshal and happily rubbed his hands, but, at the same time, he grimaced from a sharp pain in the shoulder.

"Don't hurry," Liam stopped him, "though you're right, we'd better wait for the troops. Until then, he'll hold these creatures back, and send them down the passage, probably to the Academy."

"Don't you think that's risky?" The marshal asked, referring to the hordes of creatures on the Academy grounds.

"I'm sure they'll be dealt with quickly there," said Liam.

"How do you expect to find him?" Pittsu said quietly, moving in close.

"You have to be close to him to open the portal," Liam said thoughtfully.

"Do you think we can catch him in the act?" The marshal looked at his friend uncertainly.

"Is there any other way? We're not going to question his bloodthirsty friends. That leaves us to wait until he reopens the passageway."

"Shall we split up then?" The marshal suggested.

"I thought of that, but how do you feel?" Liam touched his shoulder.

"Don't worry, you know how old I am," the marshal smiled.

A few meters into the depths of the cave stood two of the Head's students. The light barely penetrated this part of the grotto, and they could communicate discreetly.

"They are like lovebirds," Rashid whispered in his friend's ear.

"Stop it, in case they hear you," Nood elbowed him.

"But it looks very similar," Rashid laughed.

"Don't judge everyone by yourself," his friend scolded him.

"You mean don't judge everyone by us?" His eyebrows arched, and his eyes became very sly.

The twinkle in his eyes betrayed his playful, flighty nature. Nood lit up like a match when he met that gaze. Like a shadow, he moved behind Rashid and came close to him.

"What are you doing?" He got worried.

"I want to punish you," Nood whispered in his ear, and put his hand between his thighs, "now stand still and show meekness."

"You are heartless!" Rashid replied with his lips, feeling as if he were fighting a wave of heat.

Nood's hand persistently caressed him through his clothes, causing an agonizing shiver and a thirst for more touches.

"Can you feel it?" Nood scoffed, "It's that long tongue of yours. How many times I've told you not to say too much."

"Oh, stop it," Nood pinched his tender crotch painfully, "enough already."

"This time, yes," Nood leaned over and bit his neck.

Rashid turned and hissed in his face:

"Why are you acting like an animal?"

"Maybe I want to be tamed?"

His words made Rashid flare up even more.

"You will regret it when we return," Rashid uttered his threat, but he never finished, for Nood left a wet mark on his lips in a flash.

"You're so handsome when you're angry," Nood smiled.

"I am always handsome," Rashid turned away from him to hide his smile.

"If you are finished, come and hear the plan," the Mentor called to them, smiling faintly.

Marshal saw his contented smile and followed his gaze, but found nothing of interest. The disciples came closer.

"Now we'll split up and take up positions with as good a view of the cliff as possible. We will wait for the portal to open, and most importantly, look for whoever opened it."

The disciples nodded, but then they looked at each other.

"What do we do when we find him?"

"Send a signal to the others, with the crystal, and if that fails, then try to disarm it."

"Try not to give yourself away, this man is most likely very clever, and has some rare artifact that gives him power over the creatures," said the marshal.

"Better call for help," Liam repeated.

After this conversation, they left the cave one by one and divided the area around the rock into four sectors.

The place Liam had chosen was a small cleft in the ground, around which walls of heaving rock had naturally formed.

For a long time, these rocks protected him from the scorching sun, and he remained invisible to the enemy.

From his hiding place, he could see a large area around the platform. Fortunately, there were plenty of such hiding places, and Liam was sure his students could find a suitable place for themselves.

He couldn't see them, but he could see the marshal hiding behind a similar rock to his left. Thus, from his vantage point, Liam observed the rock and Pittsu's shelter. It gave him peace of mind.

The time dragged on endlessly, and his body stiffened from sitting in the same position. To amuse himself somehow, Liam began to analyze the situation. He cleared a small area before him and placed the first stone.

"Let this be the rebirth lake, and this be the portal," Liam placed the second stone. "Then this will be where the creatures came from"-the third stone lined up in line with the first two.

Liam drew a line between them and thought.

"When the portal opened here," he pointed to the third stone, "then the creatures came to this planet and began to destroy it." He pointed to the portal stone… "No, not like that."

"First, those who made the portal came here and connected the planet with the place where the critters came from." Liam tried to remember exactly when the unknowns did this, seems like two weeks ago.

It turns out that about ten days passed between the events here and at the Academy. What was taking so long?

"It probably takes a lot of effort to create and manage a portal. Most likely, having created a portal on the planet, this person stayed here, recovering his strength for a while. And then was able to arrive at the Academy and repeat his experiment."

Realizing that this man needed time to recover, he understood why the portal only opened for an hour.

"Using the artifact takes a lot of strength too, in which case it will be weak when it opens the passageway again!»

Liam anticipated an easy victory and looked eagerly at the surrounding environment.