Interlude ε
“What on…” Sridhar gasped as Christine burst through the door. Quickly recovered, he swept an arm out to indicate her. “Guys, meet Christine.”
Christine stared at him, gasping for breath. There was no one else in the room, if you could even call it a room. She couldn’t make much sense of what she saw.
Sridhar sighed. Melinda, Gary, and Liz had all gone out to help repel the Lee-Landers, but when the dragon had shown up, the Hahr Kerr himself, their efforts shifted from bold to desperate. Meanwhile, Sridhar was stuck here, sitting in a chair and trying to contact the Ne Ha, as the world fell apart below him.
They didn’t have to be so insistent as to lock me in the room! he thought furiously for an instant before realizing that, yes, there was indeed a mortal standing in front of him, in the domain of the Avatars.
“There’s an elevator‽” Christine said incredulously, looking over at the polished steel doors at the opposite side of the room.
“Um,” said Sridhar. He was furiously collecting his thoughts from where they lay, strewn across the room like an invisible ball of thread after a lolcat finished playing with it.
With a sudden flourish he bolted to his feet, the chair sliding backwards three feet before vanishing in what appeared to Christine to be a small, semisolid cloud.
“Now, you know you’re not supposed to be here—” he began, but the whole movement, quick as it was, had still taken too long.
“Listen, I don’t care about my talent right now,” Christine interrupted. “I don’t care about the freaking tournament.” She raised her head and met his eyes; Sridhar held the contact without blinking. Good technique there.
“I just care about my friends.” Christine paused. “And the fact that there’s a dragon down there, and it’s destroying this beautiful tower, the Tournament, and the world.”
In spite of himself Sridhar grinned. “All right,” he said, knowing that he would probably be kicked out of the Avatars for this. At the very least I’m going to be judging the next five tournaments…maybe more…
It couldn’t hurt to try once more. He scooped up his exodimensional cell phone and dialed the number, using his nifty retro rotary telephone app.
“You’ve reached Neha J. I’m not able to come to the phone right now; please leave a message after the beep.”
Sridhar took a deep breath, possibly the first breath since he had become an Avatar. “Hey, Neha, still wondering where you are. We could really use you down here…the Hahr Kerr is becoming a bit of a—” He stopped and glanced at Christine. “—a pain in the butt. I’m not sure we can take him on our own. Oh, and you want to go out to Santana Row with the other Avatars next week? …That’s about all, see you later.”
Sridhar put the phone down and grinned. “All right. Let’s go.”