Welcome, you’ve stumbled into The Tori Story Series. If this is your first visit to this realm you might want to catch up.

“Andor explain.” Peace Keeper Lain eyed Andor suspiciously. His left eyebrow raised, the right one turned down. He sucked on his teeth while tugging at his long braided beard and waited for a response. 

Andor shifted his weight from one foot to the other and stared at the myriad of screens on the wall in front of him. He looked from Daniel to Lain and back again trying to gage the emotion in the room. Why he bothered with the Daniel was beyond me. A humanoid is devoid of emotions; Andor knew that. Trying to read the subtleties from a bag of bolts was futile no matter how well they played the part. 

Still Andor did look to Daniel— if only to buy time. 

Furthermore Andor wasn’t physically present in the control room and that made it impossible to ascertain the emotional environment anyway. Instead, he was viewing Keeper Latin’s control room through a lens. 

At a loss, Andor aggressively scratched his head and shifted again. 

Of course he knew Tori was living in his realm. He’d spoken with her on several occasions. Hell, he’d even shifted his Dwelling to be near her. Why? So he could accidentally ‘run’ into her while he was… out and about? Ridiculous! Lain would never buy it. But I tell you that’s exactly what happened. 

This alone put Andor in dire straights. Keepers were never supposed to be out and about. It was their job to monitor. What in the world was he thinking? Well, he wasn’t. He was completely distracted by Tori.

Andor bit at his nail. Did Lain know he had offered Tori a few Keeper secrets? Was that what this was all about? It was harmless, she was merely people crop. Intriguing people crop for sure. But seriously what was the harm? She certainly didn’t have the power to do anything with Keeper Secrets.

Lain interrupted Andor’s thoughts. “Your silence speaks volumes. Let me ask you this… How long have you known Tori was living in your realm?” Lain emphasized the word long stretching it out so to speak. He squeezed his temple with his left hand, closed his eyes and sighed. Much like a father chastising a small immature child.

Andor returned the sigh, equally frustrated and fidgeted more. There really was no point in lying. It was only a matter of time before the truth revealed itself anyway. Truth always prevailed. Andor was old enough to know that but still young enough to test the limits. So he settled for a vague partial truth and said. “For some time, Sir.”

“Ah,” Lain shook his head in affirmation. He removed his left hand from his temple and let both hands rest on the control panel. Leaning in, he continued. “So this is how you will play it. Let’s try again. Exactly how long is ‘for some time’?”

Shit. Andor was caught between the proverbial rock and hard place. He might as well just face the piper. “Three years, Sir.” 

Lain bolted upright and raised both eyebrows— shocked. 

Andor squirmed. He knew when he first discovered Tori that he should have told Lain immediately, that’s exactly why he had submitted his realm under Lain’s authority. A young and inexperienced Keeper needed direction if they meant to survive. Especially now with the Keeper War waging. It wasn’t that he lied per se; he just left out key information. A lapse in judgment. He opted not to report to Lain, why? In the hopes of hiding Tori in his realm and keeping her all to himself?

“Three years! Andor, you do realize she is foreign matter?” A statement that came out as question. Lain could only shake his head.

“Yes.” 

“Andor, tell me. Have you been monitoring your people crop?” Lain asked. 

Andor coughed and cleared his throat. “Well… yes.” He said then quickly followed up with “…and No. Kind of. It’s been a bit.” Andor sighed again and ran his hand through his brown shoulder length hair. Ashamed, he stared at his bare feet. 

“A bit. I see.” Keeper Lain turned to Daniel. “Daniel, can you access the footage you showed me earlier?”

“Yes Sir.” Daniel clicked twice and jerked his head to the side. At the same time he busied himself with the control panel. Turning a few knobs and levers. A few moments passed before the entire wall was covered with one single image. 

“Have you seen this?” Lain asked. 

The image showed several patches of ground deadened by an oozing parasitic substance that appeared to be slowly eating away at the flesh of the earth. In its wake it left lifeless sick void patches. Much like Ben’s body after the leeching… It appeared to be eating the area alive. 

Andor gasped. Taken aback. “Where is this? What is it? How did you…?” He blurted out rapid fire unable to process or articulate. 
Flummoxed, Andor asked at length “Where did it come from?”

“We were hoping you knew that. It should have shown up in your people crop first but apparently you have neglected that area.” Lain then turned to the Humanoid. “Daniel, I asked you to run diagnostics. What did you come up with?” 

Daniel ticked and whirred, his eyes blinking rapidly. When he found the information he was looking for he spoke. “It has all the makings of foreign matter except that it isn’t—” 

Andor interrupted “What do you mean? How can that be?” 

Daniel smiled, it was meant to offer reassurance but instead a glitch in his programming pulled his lips into a sinister twisted grin. “We suspect Tori might have something to do with it. You do realize harboring this fugitive violates all International Keeper Laws. When the Council of Keepers finds out you will be banned— but that will be the least of your concerns if you don’t find a way to deal with this parasite, you might end up displaced.”

Andor’s heart sank. “I still don’t understand how Tori has anything to do with this.” He argued.

“Well, if you had been monitoring you would know. Our data indicates she might be Keeper offspring.” Lain paused to let that sink in. “The first time we ran diagnostics she stood out like a sore thumb. But the second time proved interesting. It seems her entire physical structure has shifted somehow. It is mirroring your world more and more. In other words, she appears to be taking over.”

Andor’s eyes widened in disbelief. “Impossible!” he blurted out.

“Apparently not.” Lain replied. “Regardless, she will need to be removed and dealt with— preferably extinguished— immediately. It is your realm Andor and you have let her in. I leave it to you to deal with her as you see fit. See to it or I will be forced to enter your realm and do it myself. You do understand the implications of that, do you not?” 

Andor nodded. Indeed he did.