Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 3

Into the Storm

"This is almost insulting. I was expecting Kazna herself not.... One of her void creatures."

The chairwoman stood next to her holodesk staring at the doorway where the silhouette stood indistinct and backlit in in near complete silence heralded by nothing but the soft hissing of the distant wind against the windows.

"If you are here to kill me, I wish you would have the courtesy to at least do it quickly. I simply do not have the patience for waiting around panicking "

Still the creature didn't move.

The Charwoman didn't move either.

They stood in a motionless tableau for some time until the creature took a halting step forward.

As it did it's form grew more distinct, and the chairwoman could see that it was partially human in shape, or at least mostly, not very told and not particularly wide. When it walked, it walked with the hesitation f someone who was either, not accustomed to walking, mildly impaired, or someone who had not used their legs in a very long time.

She could make out no physical features on the creature's face, but she could see the slow thrumming pulse of orange light inside the creature's chest. It took another step forward, and the chairwoman took another step back. Her guards should have shown up by now. She had pressed the panic button under her desk as soon as she had seen the creature in her doorway, but she supposed it made sense that they weren't coming to help.

This thing probably already dealt with them.

She did her best not to think about what that meant.

She had seen a lot of death since this all started, so she was used to shoving the pain back in her head.

Right now she had this to deal with .

The creature took another step forward.

It was so close now that the chairwoman could see tiny little dots of light swirling around inside the creature's body as if its skin was struggling to contain a tiny universe. The closer it go the more the chairwoman felt...... an overwhelming feeling of sadness and confusion radiating from the creature in a bubble. The feeling of loneliness was so overpowering that it almost knocked her off her feet, but she fought to stay upright taking another step back.

She was nearly backed up against the wall now in an almost motionless standoff with he creature until.

It lunged.

The chairwoman dodged to the side, barely dodging the swiping hands, which she somehow instinctively knew should never touch her, and then bolted for the doorway.

No one might have guessed it, but the ciswoman was fast, just as most Rundi were. IN a step for step race with ostriches over open ground a Rundi can outpace an Ostrich by at least ten miles per hour clocking in at around fifty to sixty miles per hour, and unlike the large earth bird, Rundi arms gave them the added balance that allowed them to turn on a dime.

Not only that but the chairwoman had trained for just such events. She had a planned escape rout and more, so the execution of her running turns was something to be impressed by.

Even so, the moment she slowed to look behind her, she narrowly managed to dodge the hand that was reaching out for her as the creature kept pace at her back . She tried to scream for help, but she was using all her air to keep up the back breaking pace.

She skidded around another corner, almost going parallel to the floor as she did, but righting herself at a seconds notice.

The creature wasn't so agile, skidding over the floor and plowing into the far wall before shaking itself off and racing after.