A Shuffling of Planets (The Chained Worlds Chronicles Book 3)

by Daniel Ruth

  "I would like to ask something if it's not offensive," the Baron asked tentatively. "If you have mastered the ability to reverse aging... then why are you the age you are?"

  They were, of course, referring to Alan's greying hair. He was not at all ancient but it looked like he was nearing middle age.

  "Vanity," admitted Alan with a cough. "Despite, youth being available for the asking for over fifty years, people still tend to listen to their elders slightly more than younger people. Biologically speaking I am twenty-five. However, I chose not to fully reverse my appearance. It's fairly common. It's purely cultural."

  "Hmm, that makes sense," a man down the table nodded in agreement. Several others made sounds of approval.

  "Is there any research to bring such services to shifters," I asked. Alan went into a brief reverie again as he searches the database.

  "No," he said in surprise. "It has been brought up a few times but shifters are a minority. They also have very few scientists or biologists of their own."

  "I imagine that might change once that fortifying procedure is available to the general civilians. I am sure it would be very tempting not to be so fragile in a dangerous world."

  "It is doubtful," the Duchess countered. "Once people are aware of how painful it is, I doubt it will be popular. It would also be extremely resource intensive to upgrade an entire population of millions."

  Alan and I looked at each other. These people didn't seem to be aware that the population of the Earth was several billion. Down from the beginning of the century but still fairly massive.

  "These are all details that need to be worked out," Alan said with a smile. "It does appear that we each have various things that the other would find desirable."

  We all smiled as we heard this. Mine was perhaps a bit forced. Everyone else was much better at acting. Then the fellow next to me started to gag. Then he coughed. A moment later he stopped breathing and fell out of his chair onto the floor.

  Frowning I focused on his aura as I reached over to stuff a roll in my mouth. "Poisoned." His aura was a bit of a mess but the effects were obvious. I heard a cough and looked up to see Jeremy at another table giving me a pointed look. "Right. I'll keep him alive until... what do you all do without your clerics? Seems like you could trip and die at any minute."

  I stuffed another roll in my mouth and kneeled next to the fallen nobleman. I flooded him with psionic energy and easily reconstructed the destroyed liver and intestines. However, he was still poisoned. The damage continued to happen as I kept his system from going into complete shutdown.

  "There are some circles set up in the academy that have various healing effects. Alchemists do make potions..." Duchess Margaret said as she looked from her own food to the fallen man with a look of dawning horror. "But there aren't many alchemists. There wasn't much demand for them when the gods were listening."

  I grabbed the man's plate as I kept one hand on his chest. I shoved a handful of it in my mouth. "Perennial dust. Delicious. Also, incredibly poisonous to most races and... grows in the elemental plane of fire and hell."

  "Professor, what are you doing," the Duchess objected as I continued eating. "It would be a disaster if any of our honored guests died. You especially..."

  I was fascinated to know why my life was especially precious. I mean naturally it was to me but this was the first time anyone else expressed the same feeling. I would have been touched but from the way she cut herself off and looked sideways at Durmont, I doubted it was because of my beautiful personality.

  "Nothing to worry about, I have a..." I paused a moment. My branch of dragons was actually immune to poison. It was one of the contributing factors to our being excellent alchemists. However, as much as I have basically given up passing as a human, I wasn't quite ready to out myself. "Psychic ability that makes me immune to poison. Unfortunately, I can't cure others." There is an ability to negate toxins, however, I never thought to research it. "I am a bit of an alchemist but I can't really do much and still keep him alive."

  "Allow me," Durmont said from the side. He chanted a spell for a few seconds and I felt space-time freeze and distort as a glittering cone of frozen time congealed around the fallen fellow.

  I nodded in appreciation. Time manipulation of that magnitude was heavy duty magic. Obviously, it took too long to cast in most combats but it was good stuff. "How long can you keep that up?"

  "Ten minutes on my own," he replied. "Maybe an hour if I borrow energy from our guests."

  "Excellent," I called out. "It's simple then. All I need is the leaves of a berly tree, the berries of a canterly bush and mold from a dying bowlering plant."

  Blank looks stared back at me. I frowned. I turned to the Duchess. "When you said alchemists were rare, did you perhaps mean that you haven't any at all in the city?"

  "Of course not," she replied shortly. "But none of us are alchemists."

  "Okay, plan B," I nodded to myself decisively. Pointing to the waiter at the other end of the room, I activated my telekinesis. Fortunately, this fellow wasn't psychic, a mage or supernatural in any way. When I gestured him over, he flew spinning around and land with his neck in my palm. "This is likely the poisoner."

  "That is our waiter," Baron von Frilly said in surprise. "What makes you think it was him rather than the kitchen staff."

  By his aura, he was significantly more powerful than all the other servers. While he wasn't a mage his aura projected a feeling of violence and experience. Unless the nobility was used to being served by ninjas or highly trained mercenaries, I was pretty sure this was the person I was looking for.

  "I can tell from the killing intent coming off of him." This elicited some puzzled looks. Diego and Jeremy gave me quizzical looks. Jeremy no doubt was thinking of several movies we had watched. Yes, it was his fault. "Also, I recognize the food what's his name was eating. It was one of the extra serving I asked this waiter to bring me."

  "Are you saying all your food was poisoned?" Durmont asked in exasperation. "Then why didn't you mention it earlier."

  I coughed awkwardly. The truth was that it had tasted pretty good. I hadn't given it much thought until I saw the noble keel over and realized that delicious ingredient just may be fatal to most races.

  "You were giving a wonderful speech at the time," I defended myself weakly. "You have only yourself to blame for being such a riveting communicator. I was completely enraptured."

  I felt a presence at the edge of my awareness. A dragon was in the city and they weren't hiding. It could be Maribel, the hydra or a random wanderer. It was probably my girlfriend. Shrugging I began pawing through the waiter's pockets. He glared at me but could barely breathe around my hand, let alone talk. He looked vaguely familiar.

  I found several sealed packets of powder. Putting up a small telekinetic field I opened one. Perenial dust. A snap of my fingers and powder was burnt. Despite it being delicious, it was a little too effective to walk around the city with. The next two packets were similarly exotic poisons. The fourth actually was a mix of antidotes.

  "We lucked out," I called out with a smile. "He doesn't seem to be a poisoner by profession!"

  "Oh, I see," Jeremy said in surprise. "You mean that if he made his career in poisons, he would have an immunity to the poisons he used. However, because he doesn't, he actually has antidotes to the poisons in case he mishandles one."

  I gave Jeremy a dour look. All the movies he's showed me has a big reveal at the end. He should know better than to steal my fun. This was the most excitement all evening. Instead of looking abashed he had the nerve to gesture to the noble frozen in time.

  I snorted. He was perfectly fine in temporal status. There was no reason to step on my moment. I snapped my fingers and cast dispel on the time freeze. I was taken slightly aback when it remained.

  "That dispel version works best on less powerful spells," Durmont said. "You'd either have to cast it a few times or get lucky to take down a spell with this much energy bound in it." He ge
stured and once again time flowed around the noble laying limply on the floor.

  I sighed as I poured a dash of the antidote in his mouth and applied enough energy into his body to keep him alive as the poison was slowly neutralized. The waiter who was still gasping for breath collapsed to the floor as I let him go.

  "Any idea why he wanted you dead," Jeremy asked as he stood next to me.

  "Maybe he's an agent of Hydra," I said as a joke. Jeremy sighed. I looked at the waiter again. He did look familiar. Of course, most humans looked alike but...

  At this moment the waiter's hand jerked and a pellet he was holding hit the floor, causing a bright flash to light up the room. Light steps were heard as additional flashes strobe through the area. Then a wet squelching sound was heard followed by a thud.

  As the lights died down the waiter's body could be seen near the door. He had a bloody hole in his chest where his heart once was. A red-headed waitress stood in the door, one of her arms was drenched in crimson liquid while the other rested stylishly on her hip. She glanced over at me and jauntily winked, then turned and quickly left the room. The guards in the room quickly moved to lock down the exits and several ran out of the room after the woman.

  I didn't recognize the face but I was pretty sure that was Maribel. I was wondering what she was doing here when I finally realized who the waiter was. He was one of the agents of the Dark Guild.

  I nodded to myself as the last few minutes started to make sense. Unfortunately, it highlighted how the memories I had stolen were rapidly fading. Still, they had served their purpose. It was too bad that the nameless noble had been poisoned but at least it had livened up the evening. If Durmont tried to give another speech maybe I can hire another assassin to try to kill me.

  I leaned over to Jeremy and whispered in his ear, "Does this mean they're not going to serve dessert?"

  Chapter 14

  The party broke up after that. People get upset over the littlest things. Only an assassin actually died yet they sent everyone home. Durmont was left to handle the fallout so another flying carriage sent us off.

  "Why are you so hungry all the time," Jeremy grumped. Apparently, I wasn't as quiet as I thought and garnered a few glares earlier.

  "Well originally it was because your world was so magic poor," I replied. Mei and Diego were also in the carriage but were deeply involved in some discussion on the other side. "When your world got flooded with energy I wasn't hungry anymore but..."

  "You sure look like you're hungry," Jeremy snorted.

  "Well, when I was hungry, I ate a lot of things," I shrugged. "A lot of very delicious things. It's not like I have to worry about my weight so why not eat it if it tastes good."

  "You don't have to eat at all," he asked.

  "Not with the world pumped up with life energy," I confirmed. It was better this way. The constant gnawing hunger had been extremely uncomfortable.

  "So, your saying your one of those nervous eaters," he clarified.

  "No," I said indignantly. Supernaturals don't get nervous. Of course, some mortals have said that it's because we are more instincts than intelligence. While there's a smidge of truth to that I also noted that he didn't say that around the supernaturals.

  "Okay, what is next," Jeremy asked.

  "Well you stay here and spend some quality time with Beth," I said placidly. "And I finish up the little things such as that midterm thing Beth wants me to do."

  "Right," Jeremy said as he rolled his eyes. "I was thinking about that project you were so anxious about. The map thing."

  "Eh, that's more of a long-term project," I said with a shrug. "It's more of a puzzle than a map and the clues hidden in it are more like shorthand. Beth is giving me a hand with it."

  "Oh? How is she doing that?"

  "She didn't mention it? We took holograms of it and she's helping me piece it together."

  "Really? Beth hates puzzles," he said skeptically.

  "She has some friends who may be good at it." I looked at my terminal and idly sent her a message asking if her contacts had accepted the job. A moment later the terminal chimed with an incoming call.

  "Hey Beth, what's up," I asked. I was headed over to the apartment anyway. She could have just told me about it then.

  "It's done!"

  "Done?" I asked confused. "As in all done?"

  "It's not actually complete maps," Beth said. "Even though it looks like entire multiple worlds, most of them were different angles of the same worlds."

  "Are you sure they aren't analogs? Like your world and Diego's?"

  "I mentioned it in the parameters," Beth confirmed. "There are parts of ten worlds but it just seems to be areas around the portals. Even with ten portals per world, it doesn't cover a lot of space. I'll put it up on the projection."

  The tiny image of her hovering above the terminal vanished and ten translucent globes floated inside the carriage compartment. Naturally this distracted Diego and Mei enough that they stopped talking and looked at the floating planets."

  "Beth, I'm not sure I have enough power to do this long," I said distractedly as I examined the planets. Two of them were earth analogs. I assume the alleged AI used existing maps to fill in the blank geography. Another was filled in and looked remarkably like Pangea was supposed to appear. I would assume that to be the dinosaur planet the Arc portal connected to.

  "Can I assume the dinosaur world has satellites that they used to fill in the information?"

  "Yes, the information on that has made it to the net," Beth said. "It’s a government satellite but it's not restricted information."

  "The other worlds are almost blank. Maybe ten percent of them filled in," I frowned in concentration. "I could have sworn there was a lot more content than that. Did we get holograms of everything?"

  "I think so," Beth replied. "You haven't let me see it in person but I didn't see any empty spaces. As I said, there's a lot of repeated maps."

  "This is less helpful than I had imagined," I mumbled to myself. "Is the buoy project moving along? It looks like we're going to need them to scout things. More than I previously thought. It will take a long time if I have to personally roam the ten worlds."

  "Seven worlds," Jeremy chimed in helpfully. "These three are fully formed. Of course, it doesn't tell us where these portals go to, but it will help."

  "We'll have our first batch of buoys in a month," Beth said proudly.

  "That was fast, its barely been a day," I said in praise.

  "The plans are online," Beth responded with a smile. "I used a lot of your money to get a fabrication plant to make this a priority. Considering all the government contracts around for the rebuilding projects we were really lucky to get a small percentage of their resources."

  I suddenly felt a lot worse about it. Still, it was only money and not gold and gems. "Make sure the buoys are networked and update this constantly."

  "Hey, little girl," Diego said with a smile. The shining planets vanished, replaced by Beth's frowning face. I didn't think she liked that greeting.

  "Call me Beth, Zorro," Beth commanded. Jeremy coughed while staring at his sister. "Please," she grudgingly added.

  "I would suggest you have very good cybersecurity on these drones. We don't want the demons to know where we are."

  "What kind of idiot..." Beth started, only to be interrupted by more coughing from Jeremy. "Never mind. Of course, it will have security. However, I want to point out the demons have had sleeper agents in all these worlds for at least a hundred years. Securing our data is important but this ship has sailed."

  "We are playing catch up," said Mei. "Why aren't you going to the government for this?"

  I looked blankly at her. "What do they have to do with this?"

  "Aren't you doing this to map out the demon forces?" Diego asked.

  I frowned in concentration. Of course, the demon forces would be good to know. However, that wasn't why I was doing it. I was doing it because I was curious. If I found a way to drive
a dagger into the demons while I was exploring then that would be a nice bonus.

  "Right," I said vaguely. "Beth, keep the alliance informed about any demons we find. The other stuff they can find out on their own."

  "I remember you working a lot better with the packs and the vampires," Mei said.

  "I directed the packs and the vampires," I clarified. The thought of taking commands from vampires, shifters, and humans was absurd. Unless one of my people asked me to do something why would I even care? It already grated on me that I had that agreement with Kingston.

  "That’s not how I remember it," Jeremy said, needling me. I snorted but didn't deign to respond. They had asked me to track down the demons. I had told them how to do it because I wanted to. "If the government got involved, they could do this lot faster."

  "I'm not in a hurry," I replied. "I have that test that I am so looking forward to." This earned a look of disbelief from Beth. "I need to stop by the library." A few hours there should let me pass anything in the exam.

  "I thought you had been in the library for the last month?" Jeremy asked.

  "Well, it’s a very big library," I awkwardly responded. Beth started glaring at me again. "I just study so slow, because...er, I love reading and feeling the sensation of books in my hands." I was starting to feel ill. I swore my IQ just dropped fifty points just by making that statement.

  "Do you want me to start buying books for you here?" Jeremy used to go to the few remaining physical bookstores in the city as well as order books from around the world in order to let me comb through them for references on magic.

  "I am not sure that's a good idea," I reluctantly told him. "Real books on magic are illegal unless you’re a graduate. I don't want you to be arrested."

  "What about the alchemy stuff you were zoning out about yesterday," Beth said. She must have seen me looking at them.

  "Good point," I said. "Go for it with alchemy. I saw a couple decent books in a magic shop and it wasn't restricted."