The Complications

A couple of hours before the party had returned from Delphi. The dwarves were just going about their day.

Bolat was having a great day, the humans hadn't returned from their mission in a week and were assumed missing in action. His intelligence reports had indicated that the humans have been investing heavily into research and development of space technology and had even made some rudimentary steps towards developing their first field sensitive material.

The dwarven leadership had agreed to sponsor his proposal to the council on them cancelling the handover procedure. Bolat believed without Null and Infinity the council would be happy to take on responsibility for protecting the humans until they reach tier 5.

He was sure once he became the ambassador and told the humans how he had single-handedly saved them from a galactic war. They would see him as a hero and reward him handsomely. He was already developing the contracts he wanted to forge with the humans on behalf of the dwarven kingdom which would, of course, be fair and considerate to both sides.

During his lovely day, he was unexpectedly dragged away to a luxurious room where he met a familiar face.

"Hi, Hi. Here is your reward for a job well done" Phosphoros had called in some favours to have Bolat transported to one of the secret leisure spiritual realms for the day. This realm allowed Bolat to get everything he desired just by thinking about it. Phosphoros was happy, as the hybrid was going to be a hindrance to his plan and now that they were gone, He could move his plan forward.

When it became time for Bolat to return home, he couldn't.

"This is awkward, it seems I'm having some performance issues, just give me a minute" Phosphoros had no idea why he couldn't return Bolat to his body. Little did he know that his timing was incredibly poor and the golden chariot was now shielded from spiritual intervention.

At the same time that Bolat was enjoying himself with Phosphoros, Runemagi Vark was running his latest experiment. The insight he obtained from his last talk with the boys had led to him making the largest gains of his Runemagi career. It hadn't all been smooth sailing but he had finally developed the runes that could search for a intend from a different source.

He had attempted to copy the boys' runes directly and they didn't work, He had assumed it was because he didn't fully understand the intent behind each rune. Knowing it was possible, was all the motivation he needed to delve into his stores of Zallium and run many different tests. He had hope that the twins could recycle the wasted Zallium but sadly that had good missing in action.

Now with the runes finished he had to work on the reusable intent input. He was making less progress on this front. He tried to use some Zallium substitutes that were cheaper to construct but they weren't reusable and they affect the whole spell efficiency. He had currently developed a middle ground solution. He had one Zallium crystal which could have others placed inside it, these other crystals held atomic intents. He had developed different crystals for size, colour and strength.

If he wanted to make a large red bright light he would select the 3 crystals for that and place them into the control crystal. This wasn't as revolutionary as the boys' solution but it was a step in the right direction. Vark was about to run his largest test to date. He was about to create a variable gravity spell. He currently had it set at 1.8g and was slowing ramping it up. Just as he got to 6g's when a shockwave passed by and he was thrown against the roof. He had gone from 6g to 0g in a literal heartbeat causing him to effectively jump into the roof.

He knew only one set of mischievous twins which could have caused this. 'gah, I'm glad they are back but I am going to kill them for this, what the hell did they do this time. The grumbling Vark left the dwarf section to go give them a piece of his mind.

He went to get Bolat to welcome them back but found him unresponsive. He knew that the boys' spell shouldn't have been anything hostile but maybe he had been knocked out when the gravity changed. Vark was unable to find anything wrong with him. He decided to carry Bolat to the workshop where the internal sensors told him the humans were.

Maybe they could work out what had happened. Dwarfs were strong for their size so carrying Bolat didn't pose much of a problem especially in the human section of the ships with its lighter gravity.

"Hey, You Festering, Rock-brained, mushroom kickers, is that any way to return home? What did you do anyway?" Vark was happy to see them but he still had a sore head from hitting the roof and had lost some of his normal restraint.

Infy explained his spell and why he had done it.

"It shouldn't have done anything like that to Bolat, I don't know what's wrong with him" said Infy

"I do, bring him outside the new shield and he will be fine," said Unit2317 from the wrist band.

"What wrong with him?" asked Vark, he was also wondering where the Valtaui body was.

"I think it might be best for you to ask him, now let go get my body back."

Null and Infy took Bolat with them on The Eous, to the rendezvous with Unit2317 warship. They had to also get their shuttle back. As they got on the warship Bolat woke back up, but Infy was able to sense Bolat spiritually return. He had assumed that the Primordial must have taken him so they wanted to get him back to the Golden Chariot to check up on him.

Unit2317 and Bolat returned on the shuttle, while Null and Infy returned on The Eous.

Unit2317 started the conversation. "You must know you can't trust Phosphoros, He betrayed his own kind. Be careful what you believe it could cause problems for you." Phosphoros had contacted Unit2317 to see if he could explain what was going on and to help reunite Bolat spirit with his body.

Bolat just grunted in return, he was angry, not only did the human's return but they had cast a spell which had nearly killed him. He believed that it must have been on purpose. 'they can see through walls, I bet they knew I wasn't there and deliberately cast the spell to trap me outside my body'. Bolat paranoia was growing daily.

Infy had sent a clone along on the shuttle, he was sure Unit2317 had detected him but was ignoring his existence. He was hoping to gather some intelligence on what the Primordial wanted but found out he was talking to Phosphoros.

After the advice from Pythia, Infy didn't know how they were going to handle Phosphoros. He suspected that Phosphoros might have had some valid motives for his actions but he would need to find out what those motives were before making any decision.

They were now all gathered on the Golden Chariot, Unit2317 had also joined them. He wanted to know what had happened on the planet. They had all returned which his probabilities engines had estimated was 1 in 40 million chance.

Infy had informed all the other humans over their private network what he had discovered about Bolat. Chris suggest they give him a test to see if he would admit it. Chris set out his bait to see what he would catch.

"Before we start, Bolat what did the Primordial want?" asked Chris.

"Oh, He wanted to see if you had returned and told me to tell him when you have, I will do that after this meeting" replied Bolat, he knew he was lying, but we didn't want to say he was being rewarded for getting them killed.

Chris now just had to set the hook "You sure that the answer you want to go with?"

"Yes, are you calling me a liar? How dare you challenge my honor"

Chris was adding some tension to the line "I do challenge your honor, we had already met with the Primordial before Null and Infy had cast the spell. He already knew we were back"

Runemagi Vark was upset, challenging a dwarfs honor was a grave accusation, what was worst it seemed the challenge was warranted.

"Bolat Niddad Son of Golab, I demand you tell the truth on the honor of your family name" Vark needed to know the truth now.

"You don't want the truth!, Truth is we should've killed these humans back when we first found them. They are like slimes, they just won't die. Phosphoros had insured me that mission should have killed them, yet here they are back and stronger than ever. Don't you see because of them the dwarfs will be wiped out, Phosphoros has seen it" Bolat had now lost all reason.

"I will have to kill you myself, how ironic that it is your gifts that make it possible" He had used all his return spells to summon all of his arsenal of drones. "It is tim—"

He didn't get to finish that sentence, Bolat was already dead he just didn't know it.

"Oh, it is easier the second time" Null currently held Bolat heart in his hand. Once Bolat had decided to attack them he was no longer an ally. Null had just teleported Bolat heart from inside his body to outside of it.

Everyone else in the room had a shiver down their back at the sight of a nearly 12-year-old boy holding a heart in his hand and saying it gets easier.