The Nick Of Time (and other abrasions)
A Heart Full Of Dust
by
Al Bruno III
(Ten)
The crystal gleamed in hand like a shard of frozen blood.
The Xenon Splinter- his at last.
Well not his really, but it was in his charge and that was enough.
Adiramled ran his hands covetously over the crimson shard, it was long and thin, one end was rounded like the bottom of a teardrop, the other pointed and sharp. That was a bit of surprise actually, according to the surviving records, the Xenon Splinter was rounded on both ends. But that's the way it was with an apocalypse, the first things to go were the paperwork and the plumbing.
Luckily in his current state Adiramled didn't need either.
Slipping the Splinter into the folds of his voluminous gray robes, Adiramled left his chambers and began to pace the hallways of the Complex. All around him the Myrmex were toiling away, some doing simple repairs to the sagging walls, others manning the consoles that controlled the fusion reactor at the heart of the structure. The majority of them however were outside, making the last push to complete the tower.
In some ways he envied them, the way they blithely passed through their existences without so much as a single thought or worry to call their own.
Such freedom! Such peace!
At the end of the hall he pressed the button to summon the service elevator, the cables strained audibly. Of course, such peace would never be his lot, after all he was Ltolox's ancilla and that was a great responsibility. Ltolox had survived the war of the Monarchs but at a terrible cost, it was gravely wounded and trapped here on this dead husk of a world.
He checked his digital watch and found the readout incomprehensible. Adiramled sighed sadly, he'd had this watch for over a thousand years and now it was ruined. Doubtlessly it was all the radiation in the Monarch's den. There was no way for him to be sure of the time now, or more importantly the date.
The elevator doors creaked open. He got inside and pressed the button for the basement level. When Ltolox escaped this world, it would take him along and reward him with the kind of power that he'd always dreamed of. True, the cost of opening the gateway would be the complete and utter annihilation of the planet but he would a make glorious new Earth to replace it. Adiramled vowed to rule it as a stern but loving god.
The elevator doors shuddered to a close, Adiramled closed his eyes as a screech filled his mind. “I'm coming Ltolox. I'm coming. Yes. I have the Splinter. No, it won't be long now, I promise.”
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