by Skyler Grant
"These aren't the runes we are marked with, although I can see the similarities," Jinx said, holding up her hand and comparing it to the wall.
"I've studied the magical heritage of over twenty different alien species. They all use some variety of rune-work, and it is always unique for all it seems to also share some points of commonality," Kalisa said.
"Mara once told us that the Imperium never made any real sense out of the runes. Have yours?" Quinn asked.
"Not as a language. We've made them work for us, just as the Imperium did. The Runestone network is based upon that, the fact that certain combinations can be linked to other combinations," Kalisa said.
"It’s possible that what’s on these walls is just artistic, but I don't think so. Someone had a lot to say and they wanted to make sure it was seen," Dela said.
Sand continued to lead the way deeper into the tunnels, coming into a large spherical chamber. The rounded ceiling was covered with runes too. Unlike those on the walls these moved, writhing back and forth and joining to each other before parting.
As soon as they stepped into the chamber runes shifted and began to glow red, twisting slightly into familiar shapes. It was a bit embarrassing to admit it, but Quinn was well aware of the ones that covered Kalisa's body. These were them. Jinx's were next, glowing blue and drifting overhead as they formed a new shape. Then Quinn felt an intense burning as his own rune appeared above.
Quinn was distantly aware of Kalisa hitting the floor, Jinx fell a moment later, and then his own body followed.
Red and blue were merging into blackness and then into light. The world changing.
34
Quinn found himself standing atop a shard of rock projecting over a sea. The stars overhead were brilliantly bright in the way they could only be on a world without any light pollution. He wasn't alone—he shared the rock with a woman dressed in unfamiliar armor. She wasn't of a species he recognized, standing a fair bit taller than him. Her skin was golden, hair a vibrant and vivid green. She was looking out over the sea and stars.
"Don't worry. You haven't really gone anywhere," the woman said, looking over her shoulder and flashing him a smile. "The others are fine. Well, mostly. We'll get back to that later. Come, have a look at this view."
As invitations went Quinn had been subject to worse. Stepping forward, the view really was spectacular.
"If it isn't real, is there any point to enjoying the view?" Quinn asked.
"Is there any point to reflecting on a past that is behind you? Yet, you do that quite a bit. Sorry, I peeked a bit. I'm Aine, not a real name, but our languages are very different and I'm long-dead, so it doesn't really matter," Aine said with another smile. "Odd this. Smiling. To us baring our fangs meant something completely different."
"You are a part of this complex," Quinn said.
"An echo. Oh! I should have called myself Echo. Well, too late now. I picked Aine and we're sticking with it," Aine said with a laugh. "We don't laugh either. We sort of buzz when amused. I'm taking a lot of liberties here, I hope you don't mind."
"Glad you're having fun, and for us having invaded you're home, you've been nice and non-shooty, but what do you want?" Quinn asked.
"It is more about what you want, actually. I'm kind of, sort of, the interface for the archives. I'm also a bit of a former user of them. They try to present a familiar face, and I know, total strangers, but I'm the strongest on record to share a magical signature," Aine said.
Aine waved her hand and a pair of different-sized chairs appeared. Aine settled down into the larger one and motioned Quinn into the other.
"I'm looking for a magic-user named Mahara. I think she might have used the archive recently," Quinn said.
"I know that. Not interested. I mean we'll help, the archive provides answers to all, but we've got something else to discuss—your future. This archive is made to help one achieve their magical potential. Do you just throw fireballs or do you become a creature of living flame? That sort of thing. Not that you are going to do either, fire isn't our thing," Aine said.
Quinn couldn't figure out what to make of Aine. She was laid-back, almost too-laid back and seemed air-headed. Yet, obviously the archive was helping her figure out how to behave based on information from his head. To step right into a conversation with an alien species you'd never encountered and make sense from the get-go, he suspected she had to actually be incredibly intelligent. Quinn took a seat. "And what is our thing?"
Aine looked over at him, suddenly totally serious, "We cross universes. We shuffle the deck of fate and put in five aces where there should be four. We're card cheats every one. We have the capacity to really screw things up. You kind of already have."
Mahara was only here because of actions he'd taken. If a significant portion of all life was now in danger, Quinn knew he had to take some of the blame for that.
"You were what I am?" Quinn asked.
"We can go down a lot of roads. I chose the path of the wayfarer. I wasn't born in this universe, I doubt I died here. I was always in search of the new view, the new experience. That is one of the roads open to you, no strings, no commitments. Just the open road vanishing into the distance," Aine said.
There was a time that would have sounded really good to Quinn, when he wanted to do nothing so much as run away. Now? Now he had a family that needed him, and a child on the way.
"This is my home," Quinn said.
"Big family," Aine said cheerfully. "You have fun. I'd have married you guys too if I weren't, you know, dead. Your powers could also evolve into what is known as the master of all configuration. Out there somewhere is a you that can do pretty much anything exceptionally well, best pilot, best knitter of scarves, best painter. There, instead of going out, you sort of pull these bits into yourself. You aren't on that road now, but you could start working on it," Aine said.
"What road am I on?" Quinn asked.
"The one that seems like they’re all spread out before you," Aine said with a sigh. "You've already seen some of that. Mind-blowing sex that is like instead of having sex with one woman, you're sort of having sex with a hundred variations of her. The ability to predict things before they happen. I'm just a dead woman turned graphical interface, but if you want my advice—change course. You'll lose your ability to discern between realities, eventually."
Quinn remembered his reluctance to kill Selina because she felt like his wife, like the real Jinx, for all that he knew she wasn't. Things weren't nearly so far gone that he couldn't tell the difference between them, but he could see how that might one day be the case.
"Are those my only options?" Quinn asked.
"Of course not. Your powers, you figure it out, but understand that focusing on one area of your abilities comes at the cost of others. With your permission you can sort of keep a copy of me around in your head to help train you. We won't talk or anything outside of the occasional dream, and you usually won't remember, but it may help," Aine said.
Letting an alien intelligence run software in your head seemed like a terrible idea. Then again, so did going irrevocably insane.
"Permission granted," Quinn said.
"Fun. Trust me, I'm mostly friendly. Time to wake up," Aine said.
35
Quinn blinked, a stone floor cold beneath him. The others were stirring as well, except for Dela who was standing over them, worried.
"We're fine. I think. Did anyone else have a kind of useless conversation with a ghost?" Quinn asked.
"I had a long and enlightening conversation upon the nature of cross-species magical research," Kalisa said.
"I talked to Mahara, except it wasn't really her, but it sort of was," Jinx said, pushing herself to her feet and looking shaken.
"I'm in control, I don't want to be in control. Sand! Take over," Kat said, breathless as she stood up slowly. "Damn it. Sand says to let you know we're having technical difficulties."
Kalisa said, "I suspect intentional. You're technically the on
e with any magic. It’s a part of your genome now. This was a magical interface, it probably returned control to the proper party. It may be a persistent state. Try handing over control, not waiting for Sand to seize it."
Kat took a long and deep breath, and after a moment her expression flickered.
"Irritating," Sand said. "I am not some sort of parasitic organism or symbiote. I am the host here."
That sounded like something those two would have to work out on their own.
"Why would you see Mahara? I thought you were opposite powers?" Quinn asked Jinx.
Before Jinx could reply Kalisa explained, "Order and Chaos as it applies to magic are human constructs. Looked at from one angle, mending and unmaking could be seen as similar powers, both a sort of amplification of the natural order."
Quinn winced. This was all getting very esoteric and they had things they need to figure out.
"And on saving all life in the galaxy?" Quinn asked.
Jinx said, "I know where she's headed. A place we were already advised to seek out. Another Ido world, the one where the Emperor created the Divide. The one that gave him the power to wipe out all life in a system at a thought."
They made it back to the ship as quickly as they could. The many mysteries of this world lingered, but they would have to wait for another day. As soon as they were back aboard the Centauri Bliss Jinx called a meeting.
Jinx brought up a star chart showing both Imperium and clan territory with the Divide running through the center of the galaxy. An indicator marked a section clear of any territory, on the Imperium side of the Divide.
"This is what we're looking for. The archive coordinates won't be exact, but they'll get us in the area. The world we just left was a sort of archive of magical knowledge, a place designed to make learning easier and containing a database to help with magical knowledge. The Ido were big on sharing and learning. That is probably how one of their artifacts gave us magic to start with," Jinx said.
"That is off the Runestone network. Even if Mahara still possessed a runic sphere she couldn't use it. That means she'll have to go the slow route," Kalisa said.
Quinn pulled out a pad and tapped away, doing the math of setting out from the closest system in clan space with the latest generation of clan skimmer drive.
"Seventy-four days," Quinn said.
"They've got a head start, but given we can get there pretty much instantly it isn't a big deal," Dela said.
"Mahara may be able to use a runic sphere. It was one of the questions she asked the archive. It doesn't solve the problem of her acquiring one, but if she asked the question she’s probably looking," Jinx said.
"How many of those things are lying around anyways?" Quinn asked.
"The Emperor and his children were all able to use them, and did. They were tightly controlled, but since the Imperium fell apart it’s hard to know what happened to them all," Mara said.
"At one point there were over a dozen supposedly for sale on the black market. The three I looked at were all forgeries, but that doesn't mean they all were," Silver said.
"She is going to need more than that. The archive had some awareness of the things that happened on that world. The Emperor left forces there designed to keep anyone but him from approaching the world. The finest in equipment and weapons his power could produce, powered by the world itself," Jinx said.
"That was a thousand years ago. They'd be long dead," Quinn said.
"They had orders to build a society. Their ships stripped of any ability to leave. The archive couldn't confirm what they were like, but it does report humans are still there, and in great numbers," Jinx said.
"Mahara was almost a match for a far more experienced Emperor. Still, the fact that they may wield super-weapons of some sort will certainly give her pause," Kalisa said.
"She doesn't have a large force. What would she do in that case?" Quinn asked.
"Make the rounds. Gather the more warlike among us. One Unshackled is formidable in battle. If she can bring a fleet containing several it would amplify the threat she posed greatly. We're hard to keep together if fighting a prolonged war, but for a single battle? She could do it, her name is well-respected," Kalisa said.
It also explained just what she was doing when they first heard about her activities. Mahara was recruiting an army.
"Do we have enough to oppose her?" Dela asked.
Jinx shrugged. "I don't think so. I doubt it. That means we need to call in support. Mara, what are the chances your family will shoot us the moment we see them?"
"Low. You'll never see them," Mara said dryly. "I think they'll hear us out, at least if I send a message first. They're not an army though."
"They'll know where to find one."
Quinn believed that. Whatever else could be said of Mara's family, they didn't lack for resources.
36
It was strange how quickly you could become used to things. A call to Mara's family led to them being provided a set of coordinates and a time. Like before, those coordinates placed them in the hold of a massive and heavily shielded transport which then executed several more jumps in quick order.
Mara's family was being particularly paranoid this time. It was a good three hours of further jumps before they were finally given permission to exit the Centauri Bliss.
Again, as before, three women were awaiting them, one blonde, one brunette, and one redhead. Quinn did appreciate the thoroughness. He didn't recognize any of them.
Quinn had come to meet them with Tamara, Mara, and Jinx. He thought they were the ones least likely to make anyone get twitchy.
"No guns, nice and friendly," Quinn said.
"In all fairness there are a lot of guns. So many guns. You can pretty much think of it as being all guns," the redhead said with a sunny smile. "We can go with Alpha, Beta, and Charlie again. Or if you'd prefer we can move on to Delta, Echo, Foxtrot?"
"I think last time we went with the blonde being Alpha, redhead Bravo, and brunette Charlie? We can stick with it again," Quinn said.
"Judging a girl by her hair color? Shocking," Bravo said. "Now to get the due threats out of the way, if the whole gun thing wasn't enough. You are so threatened. We've inhibited your runic sphere, and have a host of our nastiest countermeasures waiting to go with a big doomsday device, just in case. Omega-level threat stuff."
"That's bad," Mara said, before stepping forward to give Bravo a hug. Given the threats being exchanged it was a surprisingly tight one. "Bravo here is sort of a sister. She's actually from my cluster."
"Something that has not helped my standing after my sister went all kinds of rogue and ran off with criminals and ne'er-do-wells of the absolute worst sort," Bravo said, returning the hug. "We're all a little bit rebels though."
Alpha and Charlie weren't looking nearly so cheery, for all they weren't shooting any glares either. Still, Quinn got a definite sense of disapproval from them.
"We didn't come here looking for a fight," Tamara said.
"Good, because seriously—the Omega-level threat level stuff. If there even looks like a chance you might get out of this place alive without our approval, we all die messy," Bravo said. "So, to summarize what we know, you took the most powerful Unshackled from another universe and decided, hey, let’s bring her home, and she seems kinky and psychotic—a big mistake. Now your mistake is rushing towards one of the Emperor's best-kept secrets with an army to murder pretty much everyone who'd stand against her."
Tamara cleared her throat. "For the sake of genuine correctness it is likely the other Unshackled would eventually stand against her, after murdering everyone else."
"Surprisingly not comforting. And you come to us, despite our general desire to lock you all in very tasteful cages, because you think that maybe we're the one group in the galaxy willing to work with you," Bravo said.
"And you haven't detonated your doomsday device yet so ... go team?" Jinx asked.
Bravo rolled her eyes and gestured. "Follow us. We
've got a room ready."
A short walk through featureless halls lead to a conference room neatly prepared with binders at each seat and strategically placed pitchers of water.
"As Mara has surely already told you, we don't have an army. That said, we do have forces we rely on occasionally when we need to carry out a coup against a lord gone mad. The Imperium rarely approved of killing its nobles even when they deserved it, and assassination isn't always viable. However, we can't bring mercenaries into the field that will be the equal of a clan fleet," Bravo said.
"They don't have to be. They just need to hold them off. Get me down to the surface and I can use the planet instead of Mahara," Jinx said.
Jinx hadn't mentioned this bit before, Quinn wished she had.
"And do what? Wipe out all Chaosians? I don't think so," Bravo said.
Jinx shook her head. "No, just Mahara and those with her. I take them out, I restore the Divide, and I destroy whatever technology there allows for amplification. In the universe that Mahara came from the Emperor did that to keep her from getting a hold of it. I know it’s possible."
"Intriguing. We have an interest, as you know, in seeing the Divide restored. The destruction of several magical threats and a powerful magical artifact are also compelling," Bravo said, looking at Alpha and Charlie.
"They're wondering what you'd do afterward," Mara said to Jinx.
"Build our little home on the Rim. We have no interest in the Core or the Imperium," Jinx said.
"Unacceptable," Bravo said, and offered a sad smile. "We have no problem with you. We like you. You seem a saner and less bloodthirsty version of the Emperor. However, your companions are not acceptable. The Sands, and the Chaosians in your family, and Quinn Jade, Ice, and Kalisa, all need to be contained. However, we're willing to negotiate for their lives. We can keep them comfortable, quarantined, we can even allow you to visit."
"You are not the ones in a position to negotiate. Without me I think you have effectively zero chance of stopping a catastrophe from occurring, and without my family I don't do that. Even if I stop this one, what are the odds of there being another one day? Chaosian outbreaks aren't terminal, that is old thinking," Jinx said.