Selena

by V Guy

  “I considered that. Location tags allowed us to group the origin of the charges and eliminate outliers.”

  “Nice work.” Malik nodded, and his complexion lightened. “You want access to their personnel files at the company headquarters?”

  Li smiled broadly. “I’d like to make an additional two or three trips later today to investigate some central sites. Different responsibilities are handled at different locations.”

  James’s eyes brightened. “I like this. We might finally find Selena.”

  Malik hazarded a crooked smile. “You’ll make Evelyn angry. Ensure you have enough help. If you require my assistance, you should wait until the late afternoon. If not, you can execute earlier.”

  “He already told us to take the ship during the week,” said Evelyn, releasing a sigh. “I can handle the remaining infirmary duties alone.”

  “You trust us?” an amused Li asked Malik. “You truly trust us with the ship?”

  Malik released a low growl. “Bring it back.”

  Li, Evelyn, James, and Violet used the time during Malik’s afternoon sessions to copy Exeocorp’s records and establish their ability to independently manage the trips. Ileana supervised the initiates handling the shutdown.

  “You’re keeping them occupied,” said Malik, after an evening return.

  “They are required to study something,” said Ileana. “It’s as much to keep them busy as to get them prepared.”

  “And you?” he asked, walking to the bridge.

  She followed. “Finance. But I’ll need some official schooling for that.” She stopped when they reached the bridge hatch. “I’m sure someone around here could get me into a good university.”

  “There is? Who would that be?” He chuckled and entered the bridge, pausing as he considered the occupants. Li, Evelyn, James, and Jenna manned stations. A fire beyond the ports indicated they were skating to the gravity barrier’s edge. Jenna glanced at him and smiled.

  “Angelis,” said Malik, positioning himself behind the secondary navigational console.

  James nodded. “We hope to reduce the number of possibilities to fewer than seventy-five people. Fifty if we’re lucky.”

  “That’s significant. Your methodology?”

  “Quite a few of the possibilities were in established locations when you first recognized Selena’s presence,” replied Li. “Others never used personal vessels, preferring private couriers or upscale passenger liners as transport. This next visit will illuminate meeting logs for the time in question. The paladin would’ve been running for his life rather than running his business, or at least we hope.”

  “We can visit conferences where those executives are expected to attend,” added Malik. “Perhaps even their homes. Have you infiltrated their messaging system?”

  Li nodded.

  “Are we done with Kroes?” asked Evelyn. “You finished her list.”

  Malik paused. “There’ll be another. I’ve learned interesting and disturbing connections to the past, which may or may not have been among her intentions. Catricel and Paradise are among them, council members and military officers are involved, and knowledgeable CSA officers are connected.”

  Evelyn scowled and crossed her arms. “Then we have more rabbits to chase.”

  He looked thoughtfully outside. “And puzzle pieces of my existence to find.”

  44: Valley Wraiths

  Day 803: Xist

  “I could tell everyone it was you,” said Kroes. She strode easily to Kilam, watching as he tweaked combat operations at a front half a world away. “I guess things must be going as planned; you haven’t been online in three days.”

  “I’ve been busy, and I have capable generals.”

  “The rumors would take substance.”

  “They will regardless.”

  “I marvel how you do it,” said Kroes. “I’m torn between anger and appreciation. What about that list I gave you? Couldn’t you have miraculously completed it?”

  “It’s complete.”

  “It’s not; they live.”

  The displayed canton faded to be replaced by another. Kroes examined the numerical display, tinkered with the numbers, and absently wondered why it once held interest.

  Kilam glanced upward and focused. “Killing people generates too much suspicion. I caused two of them to transmit incriminating evidence to the wrong people, placing them under active suspicion and troubling their supporters. Three others incompletely secured illegal financial transactions, rendering them unable to complete active deals, triggering fresh investigative interest, and implicating some of your corrupt CSA buddies as coconspirators. A last man forgot everything damaging about you; he’ll testify and quite honestly say you weren’t involved, which is why you wanted him dead. Your reputation will be preserved.”

  She paced as she considered his report. “They’re all still dangerous.”

  Kilam made a light chuckle. “Have you grown soft? Strike while the iron is hot. Cripple first, dislodge supports, then close for the kill. Be ruthless. Should I tell you how to do your job?”

  He abruptly closed his display and straightened, his eyes flashing and his body stiffening. “Incoming.”

  The majestic armor he had worn during their first Xist encounter formed again, and the music of numerous enchantments grew into a chorus of power about him. Shimmering orbs appeared and expanded around and above them, triggering a loud, warning gong. Practice evacuations had been rehearsed. No matter their purpose or placement, the patrons below made swift moves for the exits. Mages rushed through closed doors to take positions along the balconies. Incantations arose from their lips, triggering call backs for the fleeing residents who steadily faded and winked from existence. Unoccupied buildings shook, then wholesale disappeared as they were displaced to secure locations.

  “What’s going on?” asked Kroes, looking furtively about. “What’s happening?”

  He glanced at her and motioned. Two concealed assassins grabbed, dragged her into the suite behind them, and released her before a protected window. Paladins, assassins, necromancers, archers, and additional mages poured from doors to surround and fill the plaza. Thieves flitted into the area to take ambush locations.

  The yellow orbs grew, bending the air until they burst into portals, each releasing numerous hostile Coalition figures. Countermeasures closed them, but additional portals formed as replacements. The Coalition invaders immediately attacked, their bloated skills enabling them to easily slice through Cheonia’s defenders. Kilam layered additional spells upon his person, jumped from the balcony, and landed in their midst.

  The final buildings winked from view, leaving only the new, glowing, towering obelisks. Whips, enchanted weapons, and powerful spells decimated the defenders, fresh allied combatants poured from the surrounding doors, and reapers fled with their harvests. Kilam remained and fought.

  Enhanced Coalition invaders outmatched his troops, but he was a master; he kept his opponents at bay. Blasts of his power ripped through armor and shields. Lightning shredded magical protections. Heat and cold bursts shattered vitalities. An over-arching glamour slowed attackers, allowing his dual-wielded swords to split many of his opponents asunder. Kilam was remarkably efficient, but his capabilities were challenged by the invader’s numbers; he was soon surrounded by layers of them. The Cheonian army was disabled as quickly as it appeared. Reapers were frenzied, forming a cohesive cloud above the fray. New portals appeared to bring fresh attackers.

  Another gong sounded above the clamor. Cloaked healers directed their protection upon Kilam, hither unseen mages cast suffocating silence spells over the plaza, and a new, unforeseen presence arose. Darkness spread. Sword-and-shield-wielding specters poured from fissures in the grounds, and a chill covered everything they touched. A horrific stench followed. Unearthly cries broke wills, and an undeniable fear spread. Cheonia’s conventional forces strategically retreated, holding positions at the plaza’s exits.

  The wraiths initially a
ppeared to be too late—Kilam was cut off, and while his strikes were decisive, enemy whips encompassed and slowed him. He was reduced to holding his own against their combined power. New whips wrapped around him, fresh opponents entered though portals, and rings of combatants formed to protect the whip-wielders.

  The undead steadily rose, black mist forming around them.

  Kilam faced his tormentors, grabbed two whips with his gloved hands, and produced tentacles from his body to coil around the rest of them. Those weapons were conduits, which meant that their effects were bidirectional—they were most effective when pulling from high capacity to low, as in a vacuum. Kilam attempted the reverse, drawing from his attackers as quickly as they drew from him.

  He skillfully maintained balance. A stalemate formed, surprising the attackers. New enemy reinforcements passed through fresh portals, the circle of opponents deepened, and the whips afflicting the regent multiplied.

  As did the undead. Whips had the opposite effect against them, as they were the epitome of a void. The moment the glowing strands made contact, the whip’s holder was the one diminished, and while those dead thirsted for life and powerfully absorbed it, no amount of life satisfied. The edge ranks of Coalition attackers crumbled even as more fighters arrived through portals. The cushion surrounding Kilam stabilized. More whips encased him.

  The rumble of power grew within Kilam as he resisted, his body brightened with strength, and the imprisoning whips blazed from the conflict.

  At the edges of their cushion, Coalition members staggered and fell, their enhancements drained, their gear stripped by thieves, and their terror-stricken forms dragged to the crypts. Spectral forms continued to emerge, their death-poisoned blades and quivers striking blows on vulnerable forms. Darkness hovered like a heavy fog. Bony hands carried afflictions, foul breath suffocated, and hollow gazes paralyzed.

  The Coalition persisted in their attempts to overcome Kilam. It appeared they were steadily succeeding; he was surrounded, and numerous whips gripped him. An influx of incoming fighters stayed the undead’s advance.

  The battle was a picture of opposites; Kilam shone like a star, the darkness-shrouded dead pressed inward, and the Coalition was sandwiched between. After nearly an hour and thousands of teleports later, the stalemate broke. The Coalition was out of help. No more portals opened.

  The perimeter attrition gained momentum, and the attackers, beset by failure, unnatural terror, paralysis, a bone-numbing deathly cold, and the expiration of boosts, lost discipline. Some broke for the exits but were set upon and decimated by the potent undead. Others attempted to construct portals, but the entire area was portal-inhibited; they lacked the strength to trigger them. Some of the fighters tried to layer fresh spells to replenish the fading ones, but an army of concealed mages had cast a thick layer of silencing and slowing enchantments. Disconnections during a fight were prohibited by battle rules; those lucky enough to clear the gauntlet were assaulted by the conventional forces on the perimeter.

  Cries of discord coursed the enemy’s ranks. Panic filled them. The wraiths advanced, reducing and claiming them along an ever-compressing perimeter. From the center, an undamaged Kilam struck outward, using his overwhelming power to master the whip holders one user at a time. Occasionally a new whip would encircle him, but most of the attackers’ intent was escape. He eliminated them from the center, capturing whips to use against them.

  The expanding sphere of light met the compressing presence of darkness then receded to let the dead claim the remaining, weakened Coalition combatants. When the last enemy combatant was vanquished, Kilam shed his power. The undead returned to their crypts. The abandoned Grand Bazaar became unusually quiet. A quick levitation took him to his place on the balcony, where he dismissed his enchantments. His previous garb returned.

  Kroes returned under the guidance of her protectors, watching as the armies preventing the Coalition’s escape returned to their posts, the protective enchantments expired, and the remaining mages restored the buildings. She was mute as Kilam returned to his battle planning.

  He glanced at her in surprise. “You’re still here? I thought you might have disconnected.”

  “And miss that spectacle?” she asked, shivering from peripheral exposure to the specters’ effects. “That was astounding and horrible. How did you know?”

  He shrugged. “Once I discovered they acquired new portal knowledge, I knew an attack was inevitable. Defensive postures and plans were established.”

  Kroes paused and hugged herself—at least the air was warming. “I thought they had you.”

  “It was a good plan. Were it attempted a month ago, they might have succeeded. I have been preparing since the cheating started four months ago.”

  “You had help; you summoned the undead.”

  Kilam shook his head. “This bunch can’t be summoned; they’ve been lurking in my crypts. The Coalition were prepared for everything conventional, but not the undead. They were absolutely overwhelmed.”

  She raised her eyebrows in query.

  “These soldiers are Valley Wraiths, the most powerful undead creatures conceived except for their masters on all the worlds. I navigated through their valley on World One to their lich’s dark fortress, an intense fight followed, and the monster was eventually dispelled. I then returned to the head of the valley, awakened the spirits of those who had died in battle, and offered them freedom. Most preferred their chains loosed, but around a third offered to serve me. I repeated this same deed at another, similar valley on World Two. The game masters became alarmed, established prohibitions against this for perpetuity, and declared the valleys for quests, not conquest.”

  “You cheated?”

  “No.” He chuckled. “It’s not against the rules if there isn’t one. But there’s one now.”

  She glanced below to see people returning to their shops. “The Coalition could return.”

  Kilam shook his head. “Over sixteen thousand of their users are imprisoned in my crypts. Because they were in my capital at capture, their detention will last at least a week. I don’t expect another attempt soon.”

  “That many people? Why? How?” Her eyes widened in disbelief.

  “Two people arrived per portal, two to three portals opened per second, and there was just shy of an hour of portal creations. I deceived them into believing I was succumbing; they kept coming to seal the deal. As to why they won’t return, the experience of death will give them pause. This game taps into our natural emotions to authenticate the experience, and the horror and terror were intense and decidedly real. I expect some of them will have nightmares.”

  “They could summon their own undead, neutralize your advantage, and even the score?”

  “That’s not much of a worry.”

  She made a cough of protest and crossed her arms. “They cheat. They can do anything.”

  Kilam gazed across the plaza and made a lopsided frown. “I suppose, but it would be a hassle. Every living army in the X worlds is programmed to obey its leaders, but only one classification of the undead is similar. That’s the Valley Wraiths. I won the right of rule in Two Walls valley, yet most of them chose freedom. The general truism for summoned creatures is that power and volatility are directly related; these wraiths are truly powerful.”

  “Some of them could’ve chosen necromancy. They could possess that level of control.”

  “Possibly, but it’s an undesirable, restrictive, uninteresting, and limited skill tree. The Coalition defined what their members could learn to enable better battle cooperation, but I learned it because…because I could. And because I figured someone might use it against me someday and I’d need a defense.”

  “How did they know you’d be here?”

  “They didn’t. They guessed I’d be present because the area was restricted. They were right. Once my avatars were spotted in other parts of my empire, it was supposed my primary would be here. The other avatars quickly fell in the attack.”

  Kilam
straightened and split, a new copy of himself forming. It flew away in a shimmer of wings and light while a second copy formed. Fifteen copies were dispatched before he again accessed his console.

  “You could’ve overcome them alone,” said Kroes, pondering his words. “You didn’t need to sucker them all here, nor did you need the wraiths to do your dirty work. Why deliberately extend the fight? Why expose your hand?”

  He paused. “Overkill. I needed them to do their best and understand that it wasn’t good enough. I needed to make my point as painful as possible, and I needed them to second guess themselves in the future.”

  Kroes chuckled and shook her head. “Of course, I’m sorry. I should’ve known. This will make the blogs and discussion boards hop.”

  A deep, long laugh flowed from Kilam. “Oh, I hope so. A little respect makes an impression on the skin; a lot of respect penetrates to the bone.”

  “Explains your actions on and around Evaline.” She paced around him. “I need you to retrieve some of Britton’s items.”

  “How many?”

  She produced a note and pointed. “These.”

  He read the list and gave her a hard look. “Eight? This delivery covers the health of everyone else associated with me. I know the level of favors these are worth.”

  Kroes made a snort. “You should have realized by now that we’ve moved beyond that. Yes or no?”

  Kilam scowled and nodded, recognizing the truth in her words.

  She extended her hand to seal the agreement. “I can’t protect you forever, but I can temporarily redirect the response. The information about you will eventually emerge, and I’ll have to come down hard. It’s my job, you understand?”

  “But not against my crew, family, or friends?”

  Kroes shrugged. “It’s impossible to guarantee, but I will attempt to shield them.”

  He paused, pondering the price for his actions, then shook her hand. “I’ll provide the items. You provide the destination.”