The powerful mage looked at him with wide blue eyes. “You—of course you can—please be careful.”
“I will,” he nodded to her.
He stepped up to Sarai who was eying him.
“You know, I don’t want you to go,” she growled.
“You know I have to. Come on.” He headed for the exit.
Daena followed, and an apparently curious Janai followed as well.
“Bannor, you’re planning to get in trouble,” Sarai said walking quickly to keep up with him as they climbed the steps and headed out into the cold night air. “I can tell from your eyes.”
“Yes,” he agreed. He drew a breath as they crossed the balcony and started down the ramp into the yard. “I’m going to look around ahead of the team. Just to satisfy myself.”
“You want me to go with you?” Daena said.
He nodded.
“You mean astrally?” Sarai asked.
“Yes,” he answered. “I didn’t want to get Euriel’s hopes up. If we can guide Wren and Azir’s astral forms back, Euriel may be able to pull them back.”
“Like she did with us!” Daena said, thumping him on the shoulder. “That’s brilliant!”
“Yes,” he said with a frown. “It’s just that Quasar may have a way to block it. So, we explore first, see what we can learn.”
“I thought you couldn’t pass through metal,” Sarai said, as her feet started clicking on the bridge that crossed into Green Run.
“Not a lot, but even a small gap is enough to slip through. We just need to try and see.”
“Brother-to-be, I just hope this plan of yours doesn’t make things worse,” Janai said. “You and Daena are precious to me, I’d hate for you to get your taos trapped in that far off place.”
“Think happy thoughts,” he said. “Hopefully, we’ve already gotten our quota of bad luck for the month…”
* * *
Chapter Two
Void Trek
« ^ »
I almost don’t even bother with fear anymore. I know something will make an end of me sooner of later. For now, I’m resigned to dodging death as long as I possibly can. I just keep an eye out and watch my back. Worrying about getting killed simply drains any enjoyment I might get out of life.
—Bannor Nalthane Starfist,
Prince Conjugal of Malan
On his way back to their quarters Bannor resigned himself to the difficulty of the task he had proposed. Still, he had to try. If they were successful, it would circumvent the potentially costly need of going to that alien Homeworld and trying to spar with a creature that in many ways was more powerful than a pantheon lord.
Sarai walked at his side, her threads seething with frustration. He felt her tension in the way she gripped his wrist. She walked with stiff determined strides, her jaw set and eyes straight ahead. She had given up protesting verbally—there was no point to it. Emotions drove his wife-to-be only so far, she could see reason and necessity. That level-headed part of her was one of the things about her he admired. It was a trait he didn’t see often outside of their close circle of friends.
Practical or not, Sarai hated being left out of anything. He didn’t like excluding her, she was smart, experienced, and inventive. Astral travel was just not something she could do—it was a savants-club only activity. Even Wren, with her far greater experience had trouble keeping up with he and Daena.
They entered their quarters with Daena and Janai close behind. Bannor sat on the foyer bench and removed his dress boots and coat, handing them to the maid that rushed over.
Sarai folded her arms. When she spoke, her tone was brittle and raw. “So, what are we supposed to do if you get yourself trapped?”
Bannor looked up at her. She frowned back, glowing violet eyes narrowed. He rose and gathered her close in his arms and pressed his cheek against hers. “I’ll be okay,” he whispered. “If we’re not back in a bell just yell for one of the elders. Somebody will come up with a plan.”
She pushed back from him. “That’s your contingency!? Let one of the elders figure it out?”
He pressed his lips to a line and held her shoulders. “Star, if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s to have faith in our friends. I can’t let Wren down now—we owe her too much.”
“Hmph.” Sarai snorted. “I think that’s the other way around. You got her out of Hel. She owes you.”
He shrugged. “Then I might as well keep her indebted then.” He looked up at Daena. “You okay with this?”
The auburn-haired girl grinned. “I’m always up for an adventure, you know that.”
“Is this dangerous?” Janai asked head tilted and one glowing amber eye closed. “I mean, more dangerous than usual?”
Bannor frowned and rubbed the back of his head. “Well, there’s less risk for Daena than for me. She can last a lot longer outside of her body than I can. In fact, even if her body were to die, I don’t think it would kill her—just make life inconvenient until she found a body to bind with.”
The girl ran a hand through her wavy locks looking uncomfortable, but not deterred.
“Well, that’s an inconvenience I’d rather not deal with,” the second princess responded with growl.
“Trust me,” he soothed. “I don’t want to end up needing to be rescued myself.” He leaned into Sarai for a kiss. “Please don’t worry, I’ll be careful.”
Sarai resisted but kissed him after a moment. “You better.”
“Come on.” He lead the way to the conference circle. He plunked himself down on the cushions and lay out flat. “If we’re not back in a bell yell for help.”
Janai brushed back her long dark hair and put hands on hips. “Tell me again why you need Daena?”
“Because she’s about twenty times as strong as me in astral form,” he responded. “She’s also much faster. We have to cover a big distance in a short time, so for this to work I need her to tow me out there.”
Daena kissed Janai on the forehead. “Don’t worry Momsa, he’ll take care of me.”
She sat down on the couch across the circle from him, taking the combs out of her hair, and kicking off her slippers. Pulling her hair to one side she reclined on the cushions and let out a breath. “Let’s see if I remember how to do this.”
Bannor composed himself, focusing inward on the tracery he knew to be his ‘self’. He focused on the pattern, pushing himself into the tangled weave of threads and out of the confines of his physical body.
All sense of weight and tactile sensation faded, replaced by a distant tingling. The thudding of his heart became a far off pulsing.
The scene of the room, Sarai and Janai with concerned expressions leaning over he and Daena came into his view. He drew a non-existent breath, his ephemeral spirit-body not having substance to echo the habits of his physical form. Focusing his will, he made himself more ‘solid’, more tangible as he floated in the air above his body.
Startled, Sarai jerked back. She frowned up at him. “Damn, I’ve seen you do this several times, and it still catches me by surprise.”
He shrugged. Not really certain the gesture was communicated as when in his physical body.
His thought was interrupted as light erupted from Daena’s body causing Janai to reel back and Sarai to shield her eyes. The young first one’s spirit form emerged from her flesh in crackle of power.
She floated above her body, but her form appeared as a solid white rendition of herself, like a finely carved figure of marble. Her spirit form was even substantial enough to cast shadows on the furniture beneath her. The young woman’s long hair flowed around her as if she were floating in water. She looked down at her body, then examined her hand.
Janai was still rubbing at her eyes. “Are you okay, Mimi?”
Daena answer
ed. She drifted over and touched Janai’s shoulder.
Janai reached up to Daena’s hand. “You’re warm.” She looked down to Daena’s body. “I don’t understand. How can you be solid? You’re—down—there.”
Daena shrugged.
“Will Daena be all right like this?” Janai asked.
Janai’s glowing amber eyes were wide. She touched Daena’s arm. The alabaster version of the girl smiled down at her.
“I guess,” Janai responded, a concerned expression still on her round face.
He paused to give Sarai an intangible hug, allowing his essence, that of his love and unborn child to mingle. he told both of them.
Sarai blinked and sniffed. After a moment, she nodded without saying anything.
He stretched out his senses, following his connection to Eternity and to Wren. He found her thread as he had several times before. Focused on that far away contact he drifted to Daena.
Daena nodded.
Together they climbed into the starry sky of Malan with increasing speed. The radiant city gleamed beneath them, glistening rivers and glades sparkling in the moonlight. The details dwindled in instants, merging with the landscape of hills and vegetation. Snowy mountains like majestic shadows grew small as the land curved and grew tiny beneath their feet. The livid ellipse of morning burned on a horizon thousands of leagues away.
In moments, Titaan became nothing more than a blue green disk striped with clouds and storm systems.
The thought didn’t translate.
He could feel her drawing a breath.
Daena took another glance back at the world she had made her home for the past few scoredays.
The young first one pulled and the universe seemed to become a streaked tunnel as space flew around them. At the same time, pain cascaded through him, as though knives were shredding through his ephemeral form.
Daena slowed in an instant.
Had he normal lungs he would be gasping. They were alone in a vast void, the stars like distant pinpricks. A massive pinwheel of light gleamed above them. He could feel his far off body trembling, his physical heart pounding. The speed burned. He thought his recent practice might have made him strong enough to withstand it, but Daena was simply too powerful. Back at Green Run he sensed Sarai at his side fretting, seeing the pain echoed in his form. He was going to get a scolding for certain.
Daena shrugged. She looked around them.
He shook his head. He was certain Dulcere or one of the others would know.
What caused the pain? He had no body. Was the velocity so great that even his spirit form was being harmed? Daena was almost solid and experiencing no distress at all.
Daena studied him with a furrowed brow. After a moment, her pale expression brightened. She moved close and wrapped her arms and legs around him.
He struggled as the girl seemed to flow around him. Her enormous strength was pulling him in before he could even resist. Like being submerged in warm water, he felt himself engulfed in her spirit. He felt the thudding of a powerful heart.
Daena shuddered around him.
A moment of terror took hold of him. She had absorbed his spirit into hers, made him a part of her!
They shot forward. The universe gyrated around them, streamers of light sizzling around them in a dizzying array. Bannor felt no pain, but a queasy, uncomfortable intimacy made another tremble go through his far off body.
He didn’t respond to that—didn’t need to. She could feel and sense his every thought.
The whirling lights exploded to a stop. The stars had been replaced by what appeared to be a titanic barricade. Geometric shapes were carved into the surface in leagues deep notches. In an alien way, it looked like how a city might from above, only this was in front of them and stretched in every direction.
They drifted down into a massive crack ten times the size of any canyon that Bannor had ever been in. At close range, he identified the substance as some kind of metal. The perspective made him dizzy. The construct went on for thousands of leagues in every direction.
He wriggled, feeling Daena’s cloying warmth closing in around him. The most uncomfortable part was that it had begun to feel good. He tried to ignore that.
Daena didn’t disagree. In a surge of will, the girl leaped them away from the surface hundreds of thousands of leagues. At this range their home of Titaan had been a disk like a moon in the night sky. The impossible structure still looked to be, for all intents and purposes, a wall floating in the void although Bannor noted what looked like a slight curving of the surface.
her thought trailed off. In exasperation, they backed up yet further, streaking away from Wren’s trace at Daena’s horrendous speed. At some immense distance, they were finally able to discern the limits of the thing, visible as a black disk blocking the view of the stars in the backdrop.
That seemed to take the legs out of her awe. She seemed to res
olve herself.
That’s what he was afraid of.
They streaked around the spherical structure, at intervals there were raised projections that rose up from the surface for leagues. Nothing evidenced their purpose or function.
Daena paused with hands on hips.
How did they find the way in? As Daena said, it was nearly impossible. If they used her speed, they would never see the opening. Any slower and they could spend an eon looking and never locate it. When they were far enough back to survey a significant portion of the surface, even the most enormous of details blended together.
At the way-point they had seen the craft that the Kriar piloted in their voyages through the void. How would they find the door in such vast construction? The thought made him pause. How did they know Wren was here? He had followed a thread here. A magical signal, like smoke rising from a far off hilltop. It was a certainty, that the Kriar would have a way to signal their ships. Naturally, such a signal would show the way in. He could follow such a signal if he knew what to look for.
Without the native power of his body, and being so far from it, his thread sight was greatly weakened. It didn’t help that he was inside of Daena, her milky essence further clouding his perceptions.
He delved into his nola vision. As he went deeper and deeper into the view, it became obvious that this thing was not dead. Energies of all kinds radiated into space around it, most of them completely invisible to normal vision. The majority of the power seemed to pour from the raised sections that were evenly distributed around the sphere. That didn’t help much. Like Homeworld itself, it was too big and too much, there wasn’t anything that was different enough to follow. Maybe he was thinking about it wrong. What did they know? The ships. He remembered Daena saying she had felt a special kind of falling force coming from them.
Reality's Plaything 4: Savants Ascendant Page 3