Egregious: Conspicuously bad; Flagrant

  “Derek, please check on the heroine, if you don’t mind” the tall man said to the other one. He did seem to mind, but he went anyway. The tall one turned back to Sebastian and Brutus. “Welcome heroes!” He said with a broad smile and open arms. Sebastian noticed for the first time a midget on the ground beside the smiling man. The midget stood up. He looked pale, and judging by the state of the grass beside him, Sebastian figured he was sick.

  People who stayed human tended to get sick more. Common illnesses were more or less eradicated with the nanobots that accompanied being a cyborg. Yet another reason to not stay human, Sebastian thought.

  “My name is Tristan, and this is Hror and Derek,” Tristan said, indicating fluidly each of his companions. To Sebastian, he looked outright comical with his overly-accentuated arm movements.

  Sebastian didn’t relax the laser pistol in his hands, but he kept it pointed safely to the ground.

  “‘Scuse me,” said the huge cyborg sitting on the grass. “Saint Tristan, was it?” Tristan’s smile faltered and his eyebrows scrunched, but the cyborg didn’t seem to notice. “But, did you jus’ call ‘im a whore?”

  The midget, Hror, bristled and one hand fell to the axe on his belt. But Tristan held up his hands placatingly and stepped between them. Sebastian was impressed with the ease with which Tristan seemed to fill the fifteen-foot gap between the oblivious hunk of metal and the offended midget.

  The cyborg held up his hands too, as if surrendering. “Didn’t mean no offense by it! I don’t judge people by their professions, ma’e.”

  “My friend,” Tristan said, looking the Cyborg almost eye to eye despite the fact that the latter was still sitting on the ground. “This is Hror, Dwarf High Mage. You roll the “r”. He is not a… h-his name is Hror.” The cyborg seemed to ponder this. “And may I ask for your names?”

  “Bru’us!” The cyborg said immediately, “Bu’ when I’s in th’ arena, they call me Caesah!” He put a fist to his chest with pride.

  Tristan turned to Sebastian expectantly.

  “Sebastian,” he said. He didn’t see any harm in it. “Now how ‘bout we cut the crap and get to why we were in an arena and now we’re in a meadow?”

  “She’s alive!” Derek called from where he knelt by the Overseer.

  This piqued everyone’s interest and they made their way over to him. They stood in a semicircle amidst the tree debris.

  Sebastian made sure to stand on the edge, where he could see everyone else.

  The overseer had many dents and cuts in her power suit, and even an arm twisted the wrong way! Her bionic eye was nowhere to be seen, leaving a gaping hole around her eye socket. But as they watched, the nanobots were making quick work with the repairs. Sebastian envied her. It would cost him two years of pay to afford nanobots that efficient!

  “Her eye won’t heal right,” he muttered to himself with some satisfaction.

  “Wha’ d’you say?” Brutus said next to him. Sebastian didn't answer. He just continued to stare at the Overseer with a smug smile. “You were talkin’ abou’ ‘er eye, righ’?”

  Brutus knew instantly that he didn’t really like Sebastian. Anyone willing to ignore a direct question simply wasn’t respectable!

  Brutus decided to scan the surrounding area. His optics highlighted a small chunk of metal lodged between two branches. He swapped his right photon blaster into his forearm for the mechanical hand, and he reached into the crevice.

  When he pulled out what was left of her bionic eye, he looked at Sebastian and held it up. “You mean she needs dis?” He asked for clarification.

  Sebastian just glared at him. So Brutus shrugged and walked over to the body. He slapped the bionic eye into the socket with a wet metallic click-crunch, and waited.

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  A few seconds later, the eye started to rotate and slide into place, as if of its own free will.

  “Incredible,” Tristan breathed from behind him.

  “Yeah, she gots da good stuff. Mah nanos aren’t nearly dis fast.”

  “What magic is this?” Hror spoke up in a deep voice.

  “Magic?” Sebastian said, askance. “It’s just nanobots. You guys don’t have…?” Sebastian looked around. “Oh no…” he said, and his face went pale.

  Suddenly, he whipped around to face Tristan and grabbed his robes in his fists. “You don’t have electricity?!?”

  Tristan’s stunned silence told him everything.

  Slowly, with his eyes glazed and staring past Tristan, Sebastian let go of his robe and rested his hand on the tree as his legs turned to jello.

  “I’m a dead man,” he murmured, as he scooted down the tree to sit.

  “We’, le’s no’ get drama’ic,” Brutus said. “Jus’ cuz you don’ ‘ave electrici’y don’ mean you’s gonna die! You’ll live wiffout your TV, ya know.”

  Tristan looked back and forth between Sebastian and Brutus, utterly bewildered.

  Derek enjoyed this very much. He was having a hard time keeping the smile from his face.

  “What do you think is so funny?” Hror asked. “If these heroes don’t start acting like heroes then you can kiss that court magician seat goodbye!”

  Derek apparently had not done as good a job as he thought at containing his mirth. Now everyone was staring at him.

  He was well aware of the seriousness of the situation. But he also knew that if this failed, the blame would rest squarely on Tristan’s shoulders. And nothing could be sweeter than that.

  “Okay okay!” Tristan said, spreading his arms out as if trying to clear space, even though no one was within arms reach. “Okay!” He repeated.

  Brutus took pitty on the human and took a step closer to rest a hand comfortingly on his shoulder. The shoulder turned out to be even more frail than he’d anticipated. Tristan crumpled under the weight with a cry of pain.

  “Attaboy Brutus!” Sebastian cheered sarcastically. “That’ll show him for using that word so egregiously!”

  “I don’—” Brutus began. But he stopped himself, because he didn’t want to admit that he didn’t know what that word meant. So instead he bent down to try to help Tristan back onto his feet.

  “Please!” Tristan shouted, his hand outstretched to stop Brutus from coming closer. “Stop! I’m fine. I can get up just fine.” He stood, wincing at the use of that arm. “I’m fine. Everything’s fine,” he repeated.

  “Well you may be fine,” interjected Derek. “But this lady isn’t waking up. You wanna wait here all day, or take her to the physician at least.”

  “Hold up!” Sebastian said. “I’m not going anywhere with you crazy lot ‘til I get some answers!”

  “Splendid idea!” Tristan said, wringing his hands. “That, I can do!”

  “Okay first off, I think Brute and I would both like to know where the heck we are!” Sebastian stated.

  Brutus leaned over to whisper to Sebastian, “name’s Bru’us, ma’e.” Sebastian glared at him. “You were close! Maybe nex’ time, yea?” Brutus tried to give him an encouraging pat on the shoulder, which Sebastian shrugged off irritably. “An’ I alrea’y know where we aw,” he added in a whisper.

  “You are in Arania,” Tristan began. Brutus nodded knowingly. “In the kingdom of the elves, ruled by King Wrolfson. We are at war with werebeasts, the likes of which we’ve never seen before. At the king’s command, we three cast a spell to invite you three…er…four,” he motioned to the cat sitting beside Sebastian. “To come to our aid. You accepted and…well here we are!” Tristan’s smile returned, but it looked more like a nervous tick than a smile.

  “Jus’ my luck, tha’ as soon as I ge’ ‘ere the angel’s aw under attack!” Brutus said while popping his neck and knuckles in anticipation. He’d had augs put in to make those sounds. It helped to make him feel loose, and to intimidate people. Especially since he could control the cracking volume.

  “Accepted?” Sebastian asked with a hint of hysteria in his voice. “I didn’t accept anything!”

  “But you must have,” Tristan said. Hror nodded in agreement. “The spell was supposed to draw you to it and as soon as you touched it you should’ve come here. Is that not what happened?”

  “Touching a freaking floating orb is not consent to be teleported to another dimension!!!” Sebastian shouted. Brutus thought he looked on the verge of tears. “This has gotta be a joke,” Sebastian put his head in his hands. “Just some illusion or hallucination. Yeah! Yeah, that purple orb must’ve just been a drug, and now I’m happily unconscious on the ground of the arena!”

  Brutus stared at Sebastian with the rest of them. But he wasn’t understanding a thing he just said. “Riiigh’, well le’s jus’ go see dis king o yours, yea?”

  “Yes, right! But um… what of her?” Tristan asked.

  “Simple.” Brutus grabbed the Overseer's unbroken arm and slung her over his shoulder like she weighed five pounds. “Lead da way, Saint Tristan!”

  Tristan led the way, followed close behind by Brutus.

  Hror offered Sebastian a hand to help him stand. Sebastian stared at the dwarf that nearly stood as short as him while he was sitting. His interest piqued, he took the offered hand.

  The dwarf gave a firm tug and Sebastian found himself standing without having registered the transition. How in the blazes did he have enough leverage for that? Tristan thought in astonishment.

  “Um… thanks,” he said lamely, looking from the dwarf to his hand and back. The dwarf nodded and trundled after the others. Derek brought up the rear.

  This feels like we’re being escorted on a death march, Tristan thought.

  Using his optics, he discreetly gave Fang the command: SURVEILLANCE. He walked close by his tiger’s side, the automaton’s readings pinging to his optics with a constant stream of information.

  He never holstered his laser pistol.