Adventures in Summoning

Chapter 17

The gateway led to a tunnel carved out of solid stone. It wasn't neatly done, obviously chipped slowly with crude tools that left the walls and ceiling with gouges of various depths on them. The floor most likely had those same gouges at one point, but now was worn smooth except near the edges which still showed the roughness. The hum of machinery echoed from further ahead, and cool air pumped out of small vents on the ceiling. Carefully, our foursome made their way down towards that sound.

"These tunnels are used for storage, everything coming from our Earth is kept here until it is needed," Helen explained in a whisper.

"The supplies come from Earth?" I asked, confused. "What about his planet?"

"His planet supplied the magic. The first planet he was going to invade was Earth, but he realized that we had already taken so many of the riches from our planet that it wouldn't be worth the investment to go against our armies. So instead, he used it to buy and trade for equipment, mostly weapons that were a lot more advanced than anything on his planet," Helen stated. "He sends gems and rare minerals to earth and trades it for military grade equipment that he then uses to keep the wars going."

"That is what Nana's company does?" I asked, dreading the answer.

"Yes, it is," Helen confirmed.

"So, she knows what is happening here?" My heart was breaking. If my sweet Nana knew what was happening on these other planets, how could she accept this?

Helen put her hand on my shoulder and squeezed it gently. "Justin, everyone in our family knows. You and I are just the only ones that want to do anything to stop it. Even your parents knew, they just didn't want to deal with the blood, they simply wanted the wealth."

I stopped and leaned against the cold stone wall; this was going to take time to process. How could my whole family think this was acceptable?

"Justin, come on. We need to get out of here, we can process the crap later," Helen insisted, tugging on my hand.

I stood and walked mechanically after her. I knew she was right, this wasn't the time to be broken up over it, we needed to get away from my grandfather's men, to get Quin home and plan our next steps. But it wasn't easy.

"Quin, I'm so sorry for my family's actions. I'll try to make it up to you," I whispered to her as we moved through the tunnels. She nodded in reply, a small smile on her face. I felt dirty to my soul and didn't like it one bit.

A short time later, we passed a small chamber that was the source of all the noise. Air handlers for the air conditioners that fed the vents chugged away, and I assumed their compressors were somewhere outside.

"How did he get electricity here?" Dee wondered. I hadn't even thought about that, it wasn't like he strung wires through the nexus.

Helen pointed to a small black box, about the size of a shoebox, with wires heading out of it and going to a breaker box. "That box could power a city."

"What kind of generator is that?" I asked, amazed at the small size.

"Talkorn can bind extraplanar creatures to objects to do his bidding. That box contains a lightning elemental, that does nothing but generate spare electricity," Quin stated softly. "Elementals are the living embodiment of the element they're made of; they can live anywhere comfortably. When they're on a plane other than their own, they generate excess amounts of whatever element they're made from, like a human sweating. So, you bind a water elemental to a bucket, and that bucket will keep overflowing forever."