The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance (Season 2+)

The Voice in The Wall

"I would like to witness such an occasion," skekUng said.

"Ah yes," the scientist stammered. "Well, you see the problem with that is, we have no more gelfling in our possession that we can drain."

Instead of becoming angry, the Garthim Master simply sighed.

"What of these rabble?" he asked, motioning to the pens around them.

"The machine is not entirely, shall we say, conforming to their anatomy," skekTek pointed out. "And gelfling are the closest beings to Thra. I do not know for certain if we will get any pure essence from them or essence of the same strength or with the same results."

skekUng nodded.

"This is not my area of expertise," he said. "So I will have to take your word for it. To a similar matter however; how much do we have left?"

skekTek moved to the cabinet on the far wall. The two locksnakes spun at him and hissed in a threat. He had upped security since skekSil broke into his stores. He calmly and carefully coaxed the two creatures into a small jar before pulling a key from his belt and unlocking the padlock with a click. He pulled the doors open and showed the new master of garthim. Two shelves of essence were left.

"A limited supply," skekUng observed.

"I am doing my best to keep up rations but-"

"I will speak with the emperor," the other skekSis interrupted. "I will try to sway his mind to see the reason. Until we quell this rebellion and can restock our supply of essence."

"I thank you," the scientist said, unsettled by the skekSis' calm, generosity. He then locked the cabinet and put the two locksnakes back.

"I can be reasonable," the master said, noticing skekTek's off-put body language. "In the same way I won't be taking control of the garthim until the time is right."

skekTek looked up into the eyes of the garthim master.

Until you can make a move that makes you shine in the emperor's eyes, he thought to himself. His thoughts must have been easy to read for the garthim master simply smirked with a slight cock of his head, confirming the scientist's suspicion.

"In the meantime," skekUng said, getting closer until he towered over the other skekSis. "With the chair fixed, I would make sure garthim are created at a steady pace if I were you."

"I only have enough material for one more," the scientist protested.

skekUng grabbed skekTek by the throat. The scientist choked in the grasp and clawed at the talons that held him.

"Then do your best to look for more," he threatened. "skekNa will be arriving within a few more days. With him he will bring grunak. I'm certain we will be able to defeat a few arathim when he arrives. When that happens, I don't want to see you outside your lab unless it's to say you've created a legion for me."

"And if the emperor calls for me?" the scientist jabbed, causing the garthim master to squeeze stronger and his eyes to glisten with more malice.

"Then you will do well to follow his orders," he glowered.

skekUng released the scientist before walking from the chamber of life without so much as a glance behind him. skekTek was left gasping for air and clutching his throat. The garthim master was gone before he could make a retort. Not that he would have had the mind to do such a thing. Such a play would have been foolish on his part. He valued his life too much, and skekUng was quick to anger.

And now he was alone again.

"skekTek," the voice called.

The scientist looked up to the sound that was barely a whisper, yet echoed through the room as if it had been shouted. He picked himself up from the countertop and moved to the nebrie pen. He opened the cage doors and stooped down to look in at the crack. He didn't crawl in like he had before, but he just looked. There was no eye.