The Battle Royale S2 [Round 4: Burnination Studios]

Originally posted on MSPA by Dragon Fogel.

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The page opened the office door, then looked down the hall before waving to the two fugitives.
"It's clear," he said. They rushed into the door, and the page closed it behind them. He then poked his head under the large desk.
Geoff and Wardell stared at each other for a moment, then Wardell went back to burying his nose in a book. Geoff sighed, he supposed he'd have to do the talking.
"Not that I object or anything," he said, walking over to the side of the desk, "but why exactly are you rescuing us?"
"Boss told me to," the page replied. "Tell you more in a minute. Oh, and you may want to step away from the bookcase."
Geoff glanced at a large bookcase behind the desk, shrugged, and stepped back.
"Further back," the page said, poking his head out. "Trust me."
Geoff obeyed. A moment later, the bookcase swung upwards to the ceiling; there was a doorway behind it. The page smiled, and gestured towards it.
"Gentleman, your freedom lies this way."
He lead them into the passage, and then flipped a switch on the wall. The bookcase swung down behind Wardell, just close enough to make him once more aware there was a world outside of his book.
"So, here's why I helped you out," the page said. "The office of the Grand Inquisitor has a long history of just blaming whoever's convenient, a tradition which our friend Acolyte Calor is only to happy to continue."
"Now that's an old story," Wardell mumbled.
"But how do you know we actually didn't do it?" Geoff asked mischievously.
"Don't, really," the page said with a shrug. "But even if you did, well, my boss thinks you could help him out. He's willing to take a chance here. If you're not interested, of course, well, he can always track you down and hand you back over to Calor."
Geoff and Wardell looked at each other for a while.
"You talk to him," Wardell finally concluded. "I'm not a negotiator."

***

"Ah, Calor, Dreus. You're the last ones here." Archbishop Pentago glared at the new arrivals. "Try to come sooner next time, hmm?"
"Forgive them, Your Grace," Acolyte Midro interjected. "I am sure they arrived promptly; my page must have simply been late in delivering the message. I will speak to him later."
"You are too kind, Midro," Calor replied. "I am sure we could have arrived earlier."
"Hmmph. Enough pleasantries. We're in a rush," Archbishop Blun grumbled. "Someone close the door, this is a sensitive subject. No one below the rank of Minister may hear this."
Midro closed the doors. Blun nodded, and resumed speaking.
"We've received an unusual report from Public Works," Blun explained. "We have more energy than expected. Significantly more. This would not be distressing if not for the fact that we have no idea where it came from."
The room was silent.
"I believe you are all having the same thought I am," Pentago said, breaking the silence. "There is one particular energy source that we are aware of and Public Works is not."
"We speak, of course, of the Heart of Endymion," Blun interjected. "You should all know that under normal circumstances, it accounts for approximately 13 percent of Endymion's energy output. What you may not realize is that this percentage used to be significantly higher."
"Indeed," Pentago continued. "As the rest of our technology grew more efficient, we designed regulators to control the output and decrease our dependence on it. If the regulators were to fail, it would naturally result in a higher energy output."
"And consequently, a sudden and unexplained surge of energy," Blun concluded. "However, this is nothing more than a hypothesis. We will need to send someone to examine the Heart before we can be certain it is the cause. Acolyte Zaedr!"
A tall, blue-skinned man stepped out from the crowd of priests.
"Yes, Your Grace?"
"We are assigning you to lead the investigation, as you have more experience with the Heart than anyone else here. You may select anyone else in this room to accompany you, though we ask that you not travel in a large group."
"Of course. No sense alerting the public needlessly," Zaedr agreed. "I shall bring Minister Dreus, and Minister Telon; both are well-versed in the relevant mechanisms, even if they have not seen the Heart itself."
"Very good, then," Blun concluded. "That is all. Everyone save Zaedr, Dreus, and Telon are dismissed. You may resume your duties."
"With all due respect, Your Grace," Calor said, raising a hand, "why did we have to come in for this at all? You had already selected Zaedr for the mission, and it was unlikely he would need another Acolyte's assistance."
Blun glared at the young Acolyte.
"I will be lenient this time because you have not had your rank for very long, Calor," he said disapprovingly. "Simply put, we are preparing for the worst. If Zaedr runs into unexpected problems, we will ask another among you to assist him. And we would prefer to waste as little time as possible explaining what you must do. Do I make myself clear?"
"Yes, Your Grace. My apologies."
"Now, return to your duties."
Calor raised his hand again. Blun sighed.
"What is it now, Calor?"
"I apologize once again, but Minister Dreus was assisting me. I will require a replacement..."
"Sort it out for yourself, then. Surely you are capable of that?"
Embarrassed, Calor bowed his head.
"Ah, yes. I merely wanted to be sure I had permission."
"Hmmph. Another impertinent question like that and I may consider assigning someone else to attend to the late Grand Inquisitor's duties."
"I will keep that in mind, sir."
Acolyte Midro walked up to Calor, a satisfied expression on his face.
"I can spare an assistant or two, Calor. I don't mind taking on a little extra work myself."
"How very kind of you, Midro," Calor muttered. "I don't see how I can refuse such a generous offer."

***

"I don't see how I can refuse such a generous offer," Geoff replied, slightly frustrated. "So what does your boss want us to do?"
"It comes down to Calor again, as it turns out. Where do I begin... Okay, well, he was a Minister until only a couple of months ago. He was in the enforcement division, that's how he ended up filling in for the Grand Inquisitor."
Geoff shook his head.
"I'm sorry, the titles don't really mean anything specific to me."
"Oh, then I'll just give you the short version. So a couple of months ago, Calor was assigned to shut down a cult. He managed to track down every member and capture them, and that impressed the Grand Inquisitor enough to promote him."
"Well, good for him," Geoff said. "But you haven't explained what that's got to do with us."
"Ah, yeah. My boss, look, I don't know how he knows, but my boss thinks Calor didn't hand over all the members. Thinks he joined up with them, handed over a few to make himself look good, and had the rest go into hiding. Only thing is, we aren't sure why; Calor's ambitious, not rebellious."
"So you want us to find out," Geoff concluded.
"Right. Now, the cult's mostly genetic rejects, from what we can figure out, and with all due respect, you could pass for one," the page continued. "The guy in the scarf, not so much, but it's all right; they're hardly exclusively for rejects. Even if they did let Calor in." The page smirked.
"And how are we going to find this cult? If you could, surely you wouldn't need our help."
"Well... it's true, we're still working on that," the page admitted sheepishly. "But we can get you on the streets and hopefully you can find something out. Don't think about trying to weasel out, though; we'll be keeping an eye on you."
"Wouldn't dream of it," Geoff acknowledged. "So where are we going right now, exactly?"
"My sister's place," said the page. "Well, okay, it's not just her place. But my boss arranged things so she'd get the room on the other side of the passage. Ah, here we are!"
The page reached for a switch on the wall. Geoff coughed.
"Er, perhaps I'm being presumptuous, but won't your sister mind if you come in with two strange men without, say, knocking first?"
The page laughed.
"She's always working at this hour, don't worry," he said. "Can't think of a single thing that would keep her away from work." He flipped the switch, and a panel opened up.
The three of them stepped out, and were greeted with a scream.
Wardell glanced towards the bed, where a very attractive woman had pulled the sheets over herself.
She wasn't alone. Her partner slowly picked himself up, and waved at the newcomers.
"Hey Geoff, Ward," Jeremy said dreamily. "This is Ellena. Who's your new friend?"