17(S2E4)-Find Me An Orc

17

(Season 2 Episode 4)

Find me an Orc.

The slap was loud and echoed in the druid clan-leader’s quarters.  To see it without understanding the situation would have made it look comical; the smaller Aodan slapping the broad and muscle bound Seamus.

To understand Seamus’ relationship with his father made the act anything but.

“Do you realize what you’ve done?!” Aodan spat the words at Seamus in old time Gaelic.

“I’m sorry father.” Seamus replied, regretfully.

“You’re sorry?!  That is your response?  You may have doomed us all.  I told you the Rognaithe could not return alive!”

Seamus frowned, “Father, I don’t understand.  He’s here and he is on trial for murder! Why not just let justice run its course?”

Aodan shook his head.  “You still don’t get it, do you?  This is not about your foolish sister or some dead wards.  The Rognaithe must die.”

Seamus’s look of hurt shifted to one of anger.  “My sister was not a fool.”

Aodan’s eyes narrowed.  “Are you challenging me, boy?  I can assure you, you are not ready.”

Seamus took a deep breath and backed off.  “Alright father, what would you have me do?”

Aodan seemed to consider this.  “I want you to go to the ground level, find me the biggest meanest orc and bring him to me.”

Seamus stared at him.  “An orc?  In the high city?”

Aodan gave Seamus another hard look and Seamus backed down again.  “Yes father your will be done.”

Seamus walked out and Aodan frowned.  He wished he could fill in Seamus, to explain what was going on.  This was not the way Aodan preferred to handle it, but desperate times called for desperate measures.  Aodan knew the true secret of the Rognaithe and it had nothing to do with an ancient wyvern.

The Rognaithe had to be destroyed before he destroyed all of creation.

****

Their room was something to behold.  It was huge and wide open with cathedral ceilings high above them.  To the right was a staircase built along the stone leading to sleeping quarters with three small bedrooms.  The main floor had all the amenities one could ask for; beautiful, comfortable furniture in the living area, a wide and open kitchen area to the right when they entered and a large and old table to dine on between the two.

“This place is an Antique Road Show judge’s wet dream,” Zach muttered as he surveyed his surroundings.

“Get used to it.  You guys aren’t to leave until the trial is over.”  Mel said as he walked to the refrigerator and pulled out a beer.

Zachariah’s eyes widened.  “You have beer here?”

Mel frowned at him.  “Of course.  What did you think, because we live in a castle we’re all primitives?”

Zachariah shrugged.  “It was a natural assumption.”

Mel found that he couldn’t really argue with that so he just shrugged and said, “Well… we’re not.”

Zachariah began to rifle through the cupboards for a glass and Mel shook his head. “Just drink it out of the bottle.”

Zachariah frowned at him.  “That’s the wrong way to drink it.”

You’re on a floating castle awaiting a trial to begin where, if you lose, you will be killed and you are worried about drinking beer out of a glass?”

Zachariah nodded ignoring his sarcasm.  “Yes, speaking of this floating city, how the hell is it floating?”

“Remember that light in the sky when we got here?” Mel began, taking another drink.

Zachariah smiled as he found a beer glass.  He popped the top and began to pour.  “I do.”

“That is the chamber.  That’s what keeps us afloat and keeps people from seeing us.  Unless, of course, you’re in the city, itself,” Mel continued.  “At the top of the highest tower, they built a room around the light that they call The Chamber.  It has a very special, very old and very deadly spell cast on it that only one person may enter The Chamber at any time.”

Zachariah nodded.  “What happens if a second person enters?”

“Poof, human air freshener,” Mel said with a grin.

Zachariah frowned.  “Congrats.  I think that was the worst possible way you could have said that.  So, the light, what is it?  How does it keep the city afloat?”

Mel shrugged.  “It keeps us afloat with magic.  For someone who has been where you have been, it surprises me that you need that explained to you.  As for what it is, some say it’s a direct line to God, others say some super power spell cast at the beginning of time.  Personally, I think it’s a crack where the life force actually touches our world. Anybody who has ever entered the room has seen something different.”

Zachariah thought about that and could vaguely remember a dream about Jim Rockford.  He suddenly wondered if he would see Jim Rockford.  “Have you ever entered the room?”

Mel frowned suddenly, the emotion draining out of his face.  “Every nex is brought to the room on their thirteenth birthday.  It is a rite of passage.  They say it is to see your destiny.”

Zachariah leaned forward, intrigued now.  “Did you?”

Mel nodded.

“What did you see?” Zachariah asked.

Mel forced a smile, but it was empty.  “I haven’t stopped running since.”

“It’s all real.” Mary’s voice broke the surreal moment of contemplation and Zachariah was hit with a ping of guilt, as they had forgotten about Mary.

“That story you used to tell us when you got really drunk, about the ninjas and the dragons, it’s all real?” She questioned.

Zachariah had told about all of these things after a certain amount of alcohol had been consumed.  Everyone around him thought it was a joke.

Mary was now realizing that it was not a joke.

She fell into a chair at the dining table and Zachariah set down his beer and went to her.

“I’m gonna head to the library to work on the case,” Mel said awkwardly, before leaving.

“Look, I’m sorry about all this.”  Zachariah was trying to find the words and Mary turned toward at him with a strange look on her face.

“No, No.  I feel like somehow I should have known.”  Mary said as if confused with her own words.  “I feel like I should have known it was the truth the whole time.”

Zachariah sat down next to her.  “And it is very obvious that you need me, so I’m here.”

The words almost made Zachariah tear up.  He moved in and they kissed, once quick and then a second time, deep.  The kiss had its usual amazing effect on Zachariah, his knees went weak and his body felt tingly.

It was as if he was sharing his life with Mary.  Giving it to her.

****

Mel peeked through the door before he left, watching the exchange and knowing without a shadow of a doubt his original suspicions were dead on.  He frowned and slowly let the door shut before moving past the guards and down the hall to the library.

As usual, Zachariah had gotten himself into serious danger and was completely unaware of it.  Mel tried to shake it off, one problem at a time.

Mary would never get the chance to kill Zach if Mel didn’t find a way to prove he was innocent.

Mary kill Zachariah?  They seem to be so much in love?  What a bummer.  At the end of the day, will any of it matter?  Who will save them from Aodan and his orc assassin?  And what exactly does Aodan mean by ‘the Rognaithe will destroy everything’?

Most of these question answered next week on…

Stranger Things: Zachariah’s Trial.

To Be Continued….