To Defenestrate a Codex, Pt. 4

Here's the fourth part in a series. This one was inspired by today's prompt over at Creative Copy Challenge. The words in bold were the challenge words.



"Tell me again. Where did you find the shiny sphere?" asked the crouching, old man.

"I already said two times," said the child, sitting in his chair.

"Just say it." He stood and crossed his arms. "I can't make any erroneous conclusions."

"Arrow what?"

"Erroneous. I don't want to make a mistake. Now, where did you find it?"

The student looked down. "The first time I saw it, it was in the stream, but I didn't pick it up."

"You have it now. How did you get it then?"

"It was just sitting on my pillow when I woke up two mornings ago."

Arne raised a hand to his chin and whispered, "Oh no... The advent is upon us."

"What?" asked the child.

Arne crouched back down beside the child. "Are you sure you didn't pick it up?"

"Yes, I'm sure."

The old man raised his eyebrows. "You just found it in your room one morning?"

"Yes, two days ago."

Arne stood back up, began to pace and whispered to himself again, "It's already making its choice. But the child is so innocent and innocuous. It can't be his time yet."

The boy stood up and went to stand by the old man. "What are you doing?"

"I'm thinking."

"About what?"

The old man stopped and thought for a moment. "We are going to have to make some big decisions in the next few days. The shiny sphere is already sensing your virility."

"My what?"

"It knows you're changing. Even I can see it." Arne knew that many men resting in the catacombs, though their corpses may be weathering away from the elements over the years, had their souls ripped away from them by spheres very much like the one the boy now possessed.

"But I'm only nine!" protested the boy

"It doesn't matter. It seems to want you now. I will look deeper into the matter. Until then, we must placate the shiny sphere. Carry it around with you wherever you go. If you don't your body may become catatonic."

"What?"

The old man's legs felt gelatinous just thinking about it.