The Last War (Book #9 of the Sage Saga) by Julius St. Clair Page B

word.”
    “Well, it’s no more gross than what you just said.”
    “Geez, I take it back,” Catherine laughed.
    “Hey, I’ve been meaning to ask you…how is your eidolon doing?”
    “My eidolon?”
    “The atmosphere was affecting them, I remember. But they seem to be back to normal for now.”
    “May come with the seasons,” she sighed, looking up at the sky. “Sometimes it’s good, sometimes not. What about you? You have an eidolon as well.”
    “I hardly use them now,” he said, clearing his throat. “The Quietus form is a lot stronger.”
    “Technically, we can all go into that form if we knew the specifics, so I wonder if even that will get weaker at some point.”
    “All the more reason to end this quickly.”
    “Yeah,” Catherine said. She took a deep breath and they continued walking forward in silence, unsure of where they would end up next.
     
    *              *              *
     
    Bastion’s eyes fluttered open and then they shot open wide. He grunted and fought against his restraints, and surprisingly, he was able to pull at them. He had gained a considerable amount of his strength back and he could only wonder how long he had been unconscious. The gigantic needle that had been practically lodged in his chest was now retracted and sitting high up in front of him on the ceiling, and he couldn’t see nor hear anyone in the room. Did they somehow achieve what they wanted? But if so, how was he still alive?
    He wretched one arm from the restraints and immediately grabbed those over his left arm and began ripping them from the table. He then took the ones off his legs and then leapt to his feet, standing up on the table so that he could survey the room.
    It was empty.
    Nothing but white walls and a cleaning solution smell. The room had been sterilized and everything but he had been taken away. Did that mean Lily had been too?
    “Lily,” he called out. “Are you there?” He clutched his chest and concentrated on hearing her voice, but there was only silence. “LILY!”
    He leapt onto the floor from the table when he heard someone enter the room from behind one of the large white walls. Casimir revealed himself, and in his hand was Lily, still in her stone form.
    “What have you done?” Bastion demanded, but Casimir wasn’t impressed with his bark.
    “Calm down,” the Sorcerer said, throwing Lily to him. Bastion caught her and pressed her against his chest. It took a moment for her to begin fusing, but eventually she began to melt into him.
    “What did you do to her?”
    “While you were sleeping, we extracted her, and then we gave you the necessary dosage to ensure that you slept until you had recovered your strength. I have some good news and some bad news for you. Which would you like first?”
    “Whatever,” Bastion said. “She just better be okay.”
    “The good news then,” he said, crossing his arms. “The good news is that you are both unharmed. We were able to perform our tests without taking your lives.”
    “You tested her?”
    “Well, once we discovered that you weren’t strong enough to restore the barriers, we were quite disappointed. Extracting Lily and testing the full extent of her power was essential, but even she didn’t have the necessary energy. Really, none of the stones do, and that is why she’s the last of her kind.”
    “WHAT?!” Lily shouted in Bastion’s head. He winced and clutched his temples.
    “Goodness, Lily, that hurt!”
    “Sorry,” he cried. “Ask him. Ask him if it’s true about the others. Are they really all gone? I’ve been wondering what happened to them. We looked for another stone for so many years but we never found one. I always wondered why I was alone.”
    “What happened to the others?” Bastion asked, afraid of the answer.
    “They were destroyed, I’m afraid,” Casimir said. “We collected and tested each one in private. When they didn’t live up to our expectations, they were discarded.