by T J Trapp
“I’m not sure why you would want to. After a drone leaves the Domestication Facility, and the training is completed, the wild orbs have buried their old memories and only think about pleasing the mothers. They no longer think of themselves as orbs and have become completely loyal drones.”
“Then why do they wear the neckbands?”
“The bands are insurance to make sure that the new drones maintain their new, higher, state. It is a favor to the drones, really. As long as they get occasional reinforcement from the bands, they don’t usually revert. However, without reinforcement from the bands, some wild-caught drones will slowly revert to their pre-drone state and become … just wild orbs again. Useless.” She shook her head. “Wild orbs are just that – wild. That is why our domestic drones are better. They are born here and raised as drones here – they appreciate their function to serve us. They have no ‘wild state’ to revert to. They rarely need to be retrained – only a few sometimes that lose their minds when they go through the obscuring field, or sometimes, not very often, ones that have come into close contact with the wild-caught drones start to lose their abilities, but then they simply need a little retraining to be useful. That’s all.” She looked at Erin to see if she understood the goodness of the drone system.
“I see,” said Erin. “So if it is not wearing the neckband, any drone could … possibly … revert to its pre-trained state.”
“Possibly. Given enough time.”
“How much time?”
“I don’t know! I’ve never seen a wild-caught drone revert! If one were to lose its neckband, forget its training, we would probably just kill it. Too much trouble to re-train it and who knows what bad habits it might have picked up in the meantime!”
“I see.”
Erin and Alec looked at each other. Our plan is beginning to come together, Erin thought to him.
Erin again stood over the kneeling Suva. “You speak the truth, as you know it,” Erin said. “But I sense something. You are too smug. What have you not told us, that we need to know?”
The chained mother looked down at the floor and then answered, “I have told you everything you have asked.”
“There is something else. What is it?”
The mother was silent for several seconds and then spoke. “Tomorrow is an important day, and if I do not appear with the other mothers, my absence will be noticed.”
“What is so special about tomorrow?” Erin demanded.
“Tomorrow is the convergence of the five moons. A very special time. A day of reverence that goes back to our beginning.” Mother Suva paused again, then continued. “When the five moons converge, the Disca has a gathering. We mothers all come together in a convocation. Mothers are expected to be there. If I am not there, someone will come and check on me.”
“Where is the gathering?”
“It is at the Disca chambers, of course; it will start at the height of the sun.”
High noon, thought Alec.
“How will they know if you are there?”
“By my rod, of course. I must bring my rod. It will be noted when I use it for entry.”
“What is that? Your rod?”
“My rod? Why, it is just that! My little rod! I wear it around my neck.”
“Where is your rod?”
She shrugged. “I do not keep track of it. The house drones know where it is.”
“What happens at the gathering?”
“Why, it is a celebration of our ancestors. We celebrate them! Our ancestors!”
“I see.”
Erin and Alec stepped out of the small room, standing where the mother could not hear them. “Do you know what she is talking about? Do you have anything like this in Theland?” asked Alec, quietly.
“We used to have some sort of late-fall celebration, when we would chant to our First Mother,” Erin answered, “but I have not heard of anyone doing that since I was a small child. It has fallen by the wayside, with many of our other old traditions.”
“It sounds like it is very important here, if all the mothers have to attend.”
Erin put her hand on his arm. “I think that I am going to have to go to the gathering. If I do not go, it will be suspicious. To not go will put us on the run while we are trying to free our people.”
Alec scowled. “I don’t like it. But I suppose that you need to go. It will take us a few more days to free the riders, and we don’t want the elf mothers to figure out what we are up to.”
“Anyway, I need to learn more about how the elves think – what their customs are. It may help me interact with the elves when I am Queen, so this may be good.” She looked beseechingly at Alec. “You could come as my serving drone.”
Standing around as a pretend ‘serving drone’ did not appeal to Alec. “I think my time would be better served continuing my research in the archives.”
Erin sighed. “I agree – that would be better. Maybe this is just another boring formal assembly where nothing happens except self-aggrandizing speeches, like Mother has to attend back home.”
“Or maybe not,” said Alec. “Hopefully you can learn something. But be careful. Crowds can be dangerous. Keep your head down and don’t go looking for trouble.”
“Oh, Great Wizard,” Erin laughed, “I never need to look for any trouble. All the trouble I need finds me unbidden!”
Alec had to smile. “I agree, you do seem to attract trouble!”
Turning serious again, Erin said, “Most of our formal etiquette in Theland seems to have come indirectly from the elves, so maybe I will know how to behave.”
“Do you ever know how to behave?” Alec said, stroking her face fondly.
✽✽✽
Erin motioned to one of the drones. “Bring the mother’s rod to me.” Shortly, the drone returned with a small case containing a finger-sized crystal rod attached to a sturdy silver chain. Erin took the open case back into the dungeon and approached Mother Suva. “Is this the rod that you were talking about?” she said, holding it up by its chain.
Suva looked longingly at the rod and nodded her head. “Yes, that is my rod.”
“Now what am I supposed to do with it?”
Suva started to reach out for it, but Erin jerked it back. “Don’t try to touch it!”
“Well, to answer your question, all mothers wear their rods to the Disca convocation. Like a necklace, or an amulet. Around the neck.”
Erin pulled the rod from the case by its chain. Suva watched, licking her lips, as Erin put the chain around her neck and let the rod dangle down underneath her robes, resting against her bare skin. Immediately she felt an intense sensation as the rod touched her skin – somewhere between searing heat and excruciating pain. “Oh!” she gasped. Then, instinctively, she concentrated on the vision of her little red stone, and the feeling subsided, then vanished.
Suva was clearly disappointed.
“What happened? I sense you are disappointed. Why?” Erin asked.
“The rod did not kill you,” Suva answered, almost growling. “It kills all who touch it – unless they are mothers.”
Erin stared at her, then tentatively felt the rod hanging around her neck. “It seems that you forgot to tell me that little fact. Now that we have that out of the way, what do I do with it? This time if you leave anything out, you will punish yourself severely.”
Suva resumed her compliant drone position. “They will have a round sensing stone, probably at the door of the Disca’s Audience Hall. You will be stopped there before you are allowed into the chamber. You will need to light the rod before you can proceed. If the rod lights up, it will be linked to the stone.” Her eyes narrowed as she stared at Erin.
“Let me see if I can light the rod.” Erin closed her eyes and sensed the rod. The lines of energy in the rod appeared to be twisted in strange ways; she tried to untwist the lines, but nothing happened. Then Erin relaxed her mind and thought about the little red stone as she sensed the lines. Some of the lines now appeared different
– some were tinted with a slight reddish hue. Erin tried to untwist the colored lines. The lines slowly moved. Erin heard Alec gasp and opened her eyes. The rod was glowing with a bright light.
“Let it go!” Suva said in alarm.
Erin let the lines return to their original position and the light faded from the rod. “What did I just do?”
Suva looked shaken. “You lit my rod! You lit it! I didn’t think that you could! Only another mother can light my rod!” She sat back on her haunches. “But how?” She put her hands to her face as a new understanding crept over her. “You must be of the dragon’s blood! You are not descended from a coercer or you would have felt my ancestors through the rod, so you have to be descended from a protector!”
“A ‘protector’?”
“Yes, a protector,” Suva said sharply. “Sometimes called a ‘Dragon Mother.’ The Dragon Mother protectors are the only ones who can relate to the dragons and coax them to do what we need. They are said to be ‘of the dragon’s blood.’ In ancient times, the most powerful were called ‘Dragon Queens.’ Traditionally they have always been the leaders of the Disca. But the Dragon Mothers are dying out. The last of our line of protectors is the current Dragon Mother, who is the head of the Disca of course. Her daughter was killed a few years ago in an accident, so there is no one else to control the dragon. That is why we are re-doing the dragon.”
“What is she talking about?” whispered Alec.
“‘Re-doing the dragon’ – is that why you needed the cross-breeds?”
“Of course,” Suva snapped. “Every few centuries, the dragon requires that a part of its brain be refreshed. That part must come from a cross-breed. The Disca had thought that sometime soon, in fifty or sixty years or so, or within the century-mark anyway, we would need to do that. However, since the offspring of the dragon protector mother died so inconveniently, we decided to speed up the timing.”
“But if the … the ‘protector’ … is not there, who will control the dragon?”
“There is another way to control dragons besides through the protectors. I recently learned about this, when I was going through some of our ancient runes. When we put a new brain in the dragon, we can alter the connection … sort of rearrange things slightly … to create a flaw that we can make use of. Then, using a control stone, a coercer mother can control the dragon, instead of a protector mother. Our protector mother knows that we can do this, and does not like it, but she has agreed that we have no other choice. She said that there are severe disadvantages to controlling a dragon in this way, but I think that she just didn’t want to give up power over the dragon. Those Dragon Mothers! They were always a bit too fond of their dragons. The advantage with our little ‘fix’ is that a coercer can not only control the dragon, we can force the dragon to work when it doesn’t want to! The dragons are lazy and don’t want to work unless they feel like it, and the Dragon Mothers tended to let them get away with it. Pamper them. We need to change that!”
“Have you ever done this before?”
“No. We never had to. And it was not allowed under our tradition. But, a few turns of the moons ago, the Disca and the mothers at council agreed to change our tradition, because we have no more mother protectors. It is a tradition that I think we should have changed centuries ago. Maybe it is just as well that the last protector is aging and near her natural death.
“What is a ‘protector’?” asked Alec.
Suva looked at him but remained mute.
She can only speak to me, Erin reminded him. “What is a ‘protector’?” Erin asked.
“A protector is one of the original elf lines that were preserved in our New Haven,” Suva answered.
“What does that mean?” Alec asked.
“What do you mean?” asked Erin.
Suva sat upright. “There are different lines of elves, you know, and always have been. Our elf lines go back as long as there have been elves – to the time before time. You understand, of course, we elves were created to be superior to other beings: stronger, fiercer, more clever.”
“You know about ‘the time before time’?” asked Alec, incredulously.
Suva looked at him but did not answer.
“Do you know …” Erin started to repeat Alec’s question, then snorted. “This is ridiculous. Suva. Answer this man as if you were speaking to me. Only this man.”
Suva looked at Erin, then Alec, and shrugged. “As you wish.
“Yes, I have read about the time before time, in our ancient text, the Book of Times. I am considered to be better at reading old runes than my sister coercers. We needed to know if the old stories were true – if there was a way that we coercers could control the dragon. Hence, I went to our archives. I don’t know if you have heard about them. A terrible place. Boring. Full of old dusty reading stones and scrolls and parchments and what not. A waste of space, if you ask me. But I was entrusted by the other coercers to find out how this could be done, so I went there, a few turns of the moons ago, and with the help of an older clutchman found the old records. While I was there, I read the Book of Times.
“That old book says that in the time before time, an ancient race made the elves, and planted in each of us a special talent – a special line of ability. Each of us here in New Haven can trace our ancestry back to one of those original lines. The lines have been passed down over time, you see, from mother to daughter. The Book of Times speaks of hundreds of lines in the ancient days, but many of them have died out.
“My ancestors founded the Haven, here, eighteen generations ago, to be a refuge for us upon this new world of Nevia. At that time, the original elf settlers descended from twenty of the lines. All the elves who are here now are descended from these original lines. Four of those lines have withered away – the mothers of those lines did not successfully breed daughter freshlings, and the talents died with them.”
“What are the lines that are here?” asked Alec.
“Now in New Haven we have ten lines of coercers, five lines of empaths, and a line of truth-feelers. I, of course, am a coercer,” Suva said proudly. “Besides the line of protectors that is dying out, two lines of coercers and the line of far-sensors have gone dark.”
“All of this that you have just told us – about the lines and talents and all – what does any of that have to do with this rod?” Erin asked, holding the rod up in front of her face and peering at it.
“Everything!” Suva exclaimed. “Each mother’s rod allows us to experience the memories of everyone in our ancestral line! Each of us can experience our ancestors’ memories back to the original member of our line, at the end of the time before time. The first time we are able to experience our ancestors is a rite of passage that marks the transition from youth to mother. Every mother on Nevia has experienced some of her ancestor’s memories, a few all the way back to the original mother of her line.”
“How do you do that?”
“We will go to the Disca chamber and join our minds with the ancestor stone. The memories are contained in the stone. Some call it the truth stone, because it does not allow deception. There we experience and celebrate the vast memories of our ancestors, and also the memories of the skills handed down through our line.”
I do not know my line, Erin thought to Alec. I know I am descended from the elf Lian, the First Mother of Theland, and she from her mother, Syna, one of the first elves on this planet. But I never heard of celebrating my ‘line.’ She cleared her throat.
“And if a mother does not know her ancestral line?”
Suva arched her brow slightly; a small smile flitted across her face. “If you do cannot find your line, then my rod will deny you entry to the Disca chamber, and you will be uncovered as a charlatan. An impostor. A thief of our memories. And … you will be dealt with … harshly. Only if you can connect with your own ancestor and your ancestral line will my rod respond favorably to you.”
Erin looked at Alec, trying not to show her alarm.
✽✽✽
>
“I never heard of ‘elf types,’” Erin muttered to Alec, back at their bedchamber in the residence. “Or ‘elf lines.’ Have you? In all this research that you are doing at the archives, have you come across anything like this?”
“Well, not exactly, but it does fit in with what I’ve found. I was looking at the part of the archive information devoted to ancient elf history, to try to figure out how they came up with that obscuring field. And I came across a discussion of merging the ‘special senses’ that were held by the ancients – I’m pretty sure that they were talking about positive and negative ‘dark energy’. There was something about needing to do this to defeat ‘the Ancient Enemy of the Gon.’ I’m not sure what that was all about. But I think that the elf lines were created to help defeat that ‘Ancient Enemy.’”
“Well, I can’t see how,” replied Erin.
“The elves have their own kind of perception of energy,” mused Alec. “They can sense negative dark energy, and lines of energy, but not positive dark energy like orbs can. But orbs can’t sense the lines of negative dark energy at all. The elves need something like the ring to help them manipulate negative dark energy and orbs need something, like my medallion, to let them focus and direct the positive dark energy flow. My old world, Earth, didn’t have enough background dark energy to draw from. That’s why my mentor Dr. Alder was so interested in Nevia – because of the extreme prevalence of background positive dark energy here. That’s what makes Nevia a ‘zero-point’ world.”
“Oh Consort – you are speaking in wizard-speak again,” Erin snapped. “I am talking about elf lines. I need to figure out what my elf line is or I will be drawn and quartered at the Disca gate!”
“Well, I am talking about elf lines,” Alec retorted.
“No, you’re not – you are talking about dark energy. And your medallion. And a zero place.”
“But the dragon – the dragon is a big bag of dark energy,” Alec said, continuing his train of thought. “So the elves should not be able to control it, but they can. At least, the Dragon Mothers can. And we know that you are descended from a Dragon Mother, because Suva said you had to be, or you would not have made her rod light up.”