by Skyler Grant
The pillar of light ejected him. Quinn had gotten his wish and he was no longer welcome. Sprawled out on pink stone his entire body ached and he could see the glow coming from his arms. Two marks adorned his flesh now, one red, one blue.
Kalisa had theorized in the past that this might be possible, although there had been no recorded cases of someone being both a Chaos and an Order mage. The past experiments to create one had all proved fatal, highly destructive.
That fit, Quinn certainly felt as if he were about to die. His body was aflame, and it felt near to bursting.
There was the sound of footsteps approaching. Quinn hoped that it was Jinx, but the pair of bare legs that filled his vision weren't hers, and the red rune curving alone one ankle made that clear.
"Interesting," Mahara's voice said. "I knew there was something special about you, but I didn't expect this. I wonder if you'll survive what is to come. If you do, I'll have a place for you. If you fought all the way here, you deserve it."
Quinn looked up and it was almost painful to look at her, her runes were glowing so brightly. Reality twisting and distorting around her in an effort to unmake itself.
"You don't have to do this. This isn't your universe. Things can be different here. Look at me and realize the proof of that," Quinn said. Any further words were cut off by a spasm of pain.
"I'd say you are the proof that coexistence is not possible," Mahara said sadly. "Perhaps what I do will purge just the other side from you. If possible, I shall see it happens."
Mahara seemed to be done wasting time. She stepped forward into the pillar of light and vanished.
Quinn's vision blurred and he lost consciousness.
When he came to it was to a kiss. Jinx's lips were pressed against his and through that contact he felt power flowing in. Straightening him, reinforcing him. The pain didn't vanish, but it faded, becoming almost a dull background ache.
Quinn forced himself to pull away, as much as he wished the kiss could continue. "Mahara is already in there."
"I know, I know a lot of things. I know what you did, and with that power boost I see things coming together far more than I did. Selina, she's ... carrying our baby now. Kara is getting her back to the ship. We need to go," Jinx said.
"What about Mahara?"
"The font isn't infinite in power and you used a chunk. What you did was harder than you realize. Mahara thinks the font is strong enough to let her overcome her nature, but it isn't, not now. It will just amplify what she is."
47
Space wasn't a constant on this world. As soon as they moved away from the font, they found themselves going where they needed to go, rather than where was closest.
The family had taken up positions around the remains of the Centauri Bliss and were engaged in a firefight. The red-armored soldiers were familiar to Quinn from one of his visions, shock-troops. The rune-work on their armor was crude and a few corpses showing flesh revealed they were humans here, early models perhaps for what was to come.
A shock-trooper fell from above, armor dented with teeth marks and still smoldering. Vess flew overhead in her dragon form and breathed a stream of fire at another.
Mara hung back near the ramp of the ship, getting as much elevation and cover as she could as she squeezed off round after round from a sniper rifle.
"You got the juice for this?" Quinn asked.
"With the way this place is charging the batteries? Yeah," Jinx said, moving to the wreckage of the ship and placing her hands on it. A blue glow spread from the point of contact and the damaged hull was left whole, improved with new rune-work a lot like those that had graced the Vigilant vessels in orbit.
The prototype shock-troopers were suddenly coming under attack from the rear. Malformed warriors, clansmen.
The planet shook underfoot, a violent earthquake.
"Everyone aboard. Someone guard those two," Quinn called out, nodding towards Selena and Bravo, and running for the cockpit.
It was a bit disquieting each time Jinx put the ship back together, and as before it wasn't just that it had been made whole again, but it was different, slightly improved. Quinn settled behind the controls, firing up the engines. Jinx had even brought back the fuel in the tanks. He didn't want to consider the metaphysics of that one.
Jinx took the copilots seat beside him. "I want to have a word with the Legion."
If it made them less likely to shoot at him Quinn was all for it.
The Centauri Bliss rose from the surface, energy fire coming from the soldiers, but nothing that made it past their new layer of enchanted armor.
There were more quakes happening and the sensor readings showed they were steadily increasingly in intensity. Quinn headed for orbit at full burn.
Quinn opened Jinx a comm channel and gave her a nod.
"Vigilant, we return from the surface alive and your sensors will show you that it is destroying itself. I don't know what your orders say regarding this. I do not care. We are leaving this system and if you will swear your service, you are welcome to join me," Jinx said.
"Decided to steal a fleet?" Quinn asked.
Jinx shrugged. "We could use them and otherwise they'll be trapped here."
The response came quickly crackling through the comm. "Majesty, we accept. How much time do we have to evacuate our people from the stations?"
"You don't. Stand by, I'll see what I can do," Jinx said.
"You can take one, but whatever else you're thinking it’s too much," Quinn said.
"Even with the new marks you're right, but like I said, I understand things now that I didn't before. I can harness a lot from the planet's destruction. I already am," Jinx said.
"So with whatever is happening down there, half the life in the galaxy isn't about to made extinct?"
"It never would have been half. Even in the Imperium Order mages are only a small part of the populace. Still, no. Mahara won't get exactly what she aimed for, but she might be happy with the result. The Divide is powered by this world. With it gone it will fall," Jinx said.
The ramifications of that were complex. On the bright side, it no longer left them right in the middle of two advancing powers. Instead of the only place to fight a war being systems under their control, it vastly widened the potential battlefield.
By the time they reached orbit the planet was crackling with red lightning, massive sparks spreading across the whole of the surface and the mass readings were decreasing by the moment as the world imploded.
Jinx headed back for the runic sphere and Quinn fed her the coordinates of Hope's Reach.
Quinn didn't get any might-have-beens when jumping this time. Perhaps it was his new ability, or perhaps they were simply lost in the blur of potential realities that were constantly clouding his vision.
They weren't alone. The Vigilant fleet had come with them, and six of their stations. Mahara had destroyed one.
48
No meeting around the dinner party this time. They'd thrown a proper party for the family at Hope's Reach. Alcohol was flowing freely.
Some were happily indulging but couldn't actually get drunk, like Kara and Kat. Some were abstaining because they loved a clear head—that included Mara and Tamara. The others were somewhere in between.
"I want to congratulate everyone for coming through once more. Another mission some would have called suicide pulled off, and the galaxy a safer and better place because of it. We even turned a decent profit, if you count our new allies and the resources they brought with them," Tamara said.
That got cheers from around the room.
Quinn winced as he picked up his drink. The runes on his hands were a constant ache. Jinx could soothe them for a time, but the pain always returned. His body was literally in a process of constantly trying to tear itself apart. Kalisa had no solution yet, she was looking into it.
"I think that Mahara died on the surface, but I can't be sure. Most of the Unshackled that followed her managed to lift off shortly after we did.
Without her, they have to take the slow way home, but they'll make it, eventually," Jinx said.
"You figured out yet where we stand?" Kalisa asked.
"The Triumvirate is building horrors in the heart of the Imperium. Enslaving races like the Yek, turning them into soldiers and breeding mindless husks capable of operating runic spheres. The clans hold many Unshackled who have been twisted by their magic and made into truly horrorfying creatures who make legions of monsters. We're on our own side," Jinx said, her voice strong, powerful.
Quinn remembered when she'd been so uncertain, a college girl on the run. Now she was something different, they all were.
"So what does that mean?" Dela asked.
"Everyone has been pushing for me to be Empress. Magic has been pushing for me to be Empress. I still decline," Jinx said with a shake of her head. "What I propose is one last big job, as it were, and then we go quiet. We destroy the Imperium's weapon program and shut down Kadello and Barr. We take out the Unshackled who are more nightmare than human."
"You want to take on the biggest threats in the galaxy directly. You know I'm for it," Kara said.
"I don't think we can stop the coming war, but we can make sure that only the sane are around to fight it. Those who will eventually stop. We go loud and then we go quiet. We build our spy network, we build our criminal empire, we retire rich and powerful and having done some good," Jinx said.
"You think it will be that easy? You think they'll just let us walk away? Is that even something we all want to do?" Quinn asked.
"We're thieves, sir. That's what she says and that’s what we've always been. We're not breaking up the gang, but the heat is too high. We're burning like the sun, sir, and that don't last," Taki said.
"A dark and terrible future awaits the galaxy. I've seen it. You've seen it. We steal it away and then rob a happy ending from fate for good measure," Jinx said.
Coming Soon
Centauri Pax
War has broken out across the galaxy and the forces of Order and Chaos both perform increasingly unspeakable acts. The family give themselves one last mission, one last job. To steal peace for themselves and the rest of the galaxy by bringing war to the worst it has to offer.
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