"No, not really. We only discussed with Joy the resources available to us in the local area."
"Well, I suggest that you take advantage of some of the abilities I offer. I will, for instance, be able to cloud the perceptions of those standing watch on these facilities. This will enable you to get a small force into effective range, or even inside the facilities, without loss of life or undue attention."
Griffin reassessed all the assumptions he had been building his plans on. However, he needed more details of her ability to transport people. "Well that will be useful, but perhaps more helpful will be your ability to transport people through the astral plane. What exactly are the limits on how many people you can move this way and how far you can go?"
"The restrictions are complicated,” she said. “I've never really tried to move large numbers of people before, I wouldn't feel confident moving more than say five or ten people. Distance, however, isn't the issue. I had to have been at a location and fixed it in my mind before I can travel to it."
Griffin nodded his head, lost in thought. He was impressed with this ability. He hadn't been told exactly how either the Magi or other Godsborn traveled from one location to another. From how she described traveling, she opened a portal both to the Astral and back from it which could be traversed in a couple of steps.
"So how draining is this on you? I mean, do you think you could make three trips in a day with five people if we can get forces in place?"
Brianna noticed the concern that had suddenly filled his voice. She wasn’t sure what was going on, but it seemed that the mere assertion that Nin and Griffin were lifemates was influencing Griffin. Or perhaps they were destined to be a couple. She wasn’t sure she believed Nin either, but her abilities were so much more than Brianna had ever experienced that she would not dismiss the concept either. It left her feeling a little hollow as she had found herself attracted to Griffin.
Nin looked at him consideringly, then thought about it seriously. She honestly was not sure if she could manage three trips and cloaking at three different sites. It was best for them to plan with that uncertainty in mind.
She answered him in a careful tone "I've never attempted anything like that before. I'm confident I could do it, and cloak the assault groups, at two locations within a short time frame. Three may well be beyond my ability."
Griffin was stunned that she could even do it twice. That she considered this a lack on her part made him realize how powerful her father must have been. However, they were planning an assault that may be critical to the survival of the Godsborn. Now was not the time to ask her about facts irrelevant to their current situation. He felt a warm glow of contentment that this newly found ally not only had limitations but was aware and unashamed of her restrictions.
Here was someone who had a frightening level of self-knowledge. Although the fear was more because of his lack of self-knowledge than anything on her part. She was definitely someone he could learn to respect. Hell, her decisive nature had already earned her a level of esteem he held for few people.
For the next half-hour they fleshed out a series of plans depending on the force levels, they could have available. After this, despite the obvious urgency that both Griffin and Brianna felt, Nin insisted that they at least have a meal in her cave. Leaving them alone in the cave, she traveled down the footpath to the Monastery to get the food.
Griffin started pacing, getting more agitated the longer that Nin was gone. After a quarter hour, Griffin turned to look at Brianna. In an exasperated tone, he asked her, " What is she? Some kind of lunatic? This interruption is the last thing we needed right now.”
Brianna looked at him, a little confused. It was like Griffin was a different person now the strange woman was gone. He was showing an irritability she had not seen from him before. Then she drew in a deep breath and answered, “She seems to completely believe what she said. And she has the power to back up her actions.” She then walked to the cave entrance and looked out. With a low whistle, she turned to Griffin, amazement in her eyes. “We aren’t in Kansas anymore, Griffin. We are in some serious mountains, far bigger than anything in Australia. I couldn’t tell you where, but without her help, we will not get back home anytime soon.” There was a mixture of awe and fear in her expression.
Griffin let out an angry yell. With frustration in his voice, he said, “I want to get on with it. Every day we delay is giving the Order more time to kill other Godsborn and Magi.” He slammed the fist into the wall, his frustration boiling over. “This is the last thing we needed!”
Brianna looked at him thoughtfully and said, “What do you think she means by ‘you’re her lifemate’?”
Griffin’s face took on an edge of contempt. “I didn’t believe in ‘destined mates’ and ‘true love’ before I left the Order. I’m not about to start now.” Brianna tensed, her body stiffening, her eyes going wide. Griffin continued, “I will let her think I’m ambivalent about it at least.” He snorted again. “But to be honest, I’m too old to believe that sort of thing. I’ve never seen it happen in two hundred years. People grow to love each other, it doesn’t just come out of nowhere.”
Brianna relaxed a bit at this, and Griffin continued. "Besides, we are going to have to play along to have a good chance of getting back to Mount Victoria soon.” Then his shoulders slumped as he realized the cards were all held by this strange lady. Whatever this woman wanted of them, they would have to give her some of it.
Mount Victoria, Australia, March 16, 2014.
When Nin finally agreed to take them back to Australia, it was already the next day. Well, if you call really early morning the next day. To say Griffin and Brianna were a little miffed by this would be a slight understatement. However, on the plus side, it was evident that Nin was not only confident in her abilities and their use but aware of her own limitations with them. Not only that but they had come up with a viable plan that would leave the Order reconsidering its position.
By the time they got back to the Mount Victoria guesthouse, dawn was peeking through the horizon. It was six-thirty in the morning when Nin knocked on Rinzen’s door, and she was met with a ferocious glare. "That wasn't a nice trick you pulled,” Rinzen scolded. “Leaving me alone with twenty cranky people could have ended badly for me you know."
Nin looked abashed at this. With a pleading note in her voice, she said, "I'm so sorry, Rinzen. I never intended for it to cause you trouble, but when I saw my lifemate, my instincts just took over. I'm so sorry I left you in danger. My instincts, my being, needed time with him. I wasn’t thinking, I was merely acting as my instincts demanded."
"Well now, you're back with them, I'd better call their leader, Joy, so we can arrange a place to meet. You three might want to take a shower while you wait." Rinzen then left the room, leaving it to the three wanderers. She stalked out still upset but accepting Nin’s reasoning somewhat.
Nin looked at her two companions and raised an eyebrow. "Well, does one of you want to go first?" Griffin and Brianna looked at each other, and Griffin shrugged and indicated that Brianna was welcome to be first. Brianna went to shower, leaving the other two alone in the room. She felt a twinge of jealousy at the other woman being alone with Griffin.
Nin moved closer to Griffin, and when he did not object, she placed an arm around him. Griffin was slowly becoming used to the affectionate behavior of this strange woman. Although it seemed her companion, Rinzen, had not noticed, both Griffin and Brianna had seen significant changes in Nin over the last twelve hours. Nin’s appearance had gone from that of a sixteen-year-old, at most, to looking in her early twenties. Both of them still found it hard to believe her claim to being thousands of years old, but the depth of her historical knowledge showed it was at least plausible.
Griffin found it obscurely pleasing that this woman was so attracted to him. Although he was not willing to jump into a physical relationship with her he found her constant desire to hug him a comfort. That she was judging him on his present actio
ns and goals was also a great relief. He realized that he had no other choice but to evaluate her on her choices after she transported him back here. Something weird had been going on with her, his gut feeling told him. As for the past, it was the past for a reason. If she evaluated him on his recent actions, she’d want nothing to do with him.
As she leaned into him, Nin asked him, "Why do you deny yourself the option of physical pleasure?"
Griffin thought about how to answer her. Nin was obviously more at peace with the choices that had been made throughout her life than he. "I feel a need to start down the path of fixing the damage I've caused over the centuries before I can let myself be distracted. It’s been that way since I found out about the world behind the veil. Well, further behind the veil than before. I need time before deciding anything about my future. Relationships, what I’ll do once this is all over, everything. Besides, I’m not sure with everything I’ve done I’ll ever deserve to have anyone."
"It's not because I'm punishing myself. I simply feel a need to at least have a plan for my life before I do anything else." He finished.
"So who do you consider your own people then? Just the Godsborn? Just the Norskrinjar? Or all the Godsborn and the Mage born?" Nin queried.
"I consider anyone that belongs to a group I've harmed 'my people.' These are the people I have to make reparations to. These are the people I was deceived into harming."
Nin snuggled into his chest with her face. She quietly said, with loving respect, "You realize you have a bigger heart than you think?" She was more certain now than ever that he was the right person for her. Griffin didn’t seem to hear her, his mind on other things.
She’d noticed the jealousy from Brianna but was not opposed to sharing Griffin. Only the young, in her experience, believed in monogamy. When you lived as long as many of the Godsborn, people changed. They had centuries to live, after all. She almost chuckled at the thought. With the Travelers gone she was probably the oldest being around. She would work on getting Brianna comfortable around her.
Rinzen walked back into the room. Still looking at her phone, she said to those in the room, "Well we have half an hour, and they want to meet us in the back room of the pub. Nin, I'm not sure they believe you're a Godsborn. There hasn't been a recorded Godsborn who can travel the way you do for at least five centuries. You might consider wearing something low-cut so you can show your birthmark."
Nin smiled and answered, "I was just gonna leave the choice of my clothing up to you as I usually do, Rinzen." Rinzen shook her head at this although she had a slight smile on her face. Nin really was clueless about modern clothing. To be honest, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to learn. Maybe by involving Brianna in choosing her clothes, she could get the young woman more comfortable around her.
Within the half-hour, Brianna and Nin had showered, and all three of them were in fresh clothes. After the shower, they all felt as good as a person can after spending a night trying to plan the deaths of others. They headed next door to the pub's backroom. Joy was already there, waiting, with an expression somewhere between resigned amusement and anger. When her eyes locked on Nin, she glared and snapped at her, "What the hell did you think you were doing, lass? If I hadn't been there, with more of a mind to listen than most, your friend there would have been dead. There were twenty men all with skill in violence. I mean, yes, two of them were down, but do you really think she could have handled eighteen? After that, she would have faced me."
Nin looked at the older woman straight in the eyes. With a slight blush to her cheeks, she answered the older woman, "I wasn't exactly in my right mind at that point I'm afraid." She looked straight at Joy with a bittersweet smile on her face. "It's a problem somewhat unique to me, at least in this time and place. I'd rather not go into it unless you insist."
Joy gave her a considering look and seemed to be about to ask when Griffin caught her eye and shook his head at her. She glared at him, but he only shrugged at her as if to say ‘I'm not blaming anyone, nor should you.’
Over the next twenty minutes, nineteen men came into the room, one of them with a cast on his right arm. Many of them did a double take when they saw Nin. She did appear significantly different to what she was less than twenty-four hours ago. The Barman arrived carrying several plates of breakfast foods, eggs, toast, sausages, bacon and fried mushrooms, and placed them on a rear corner table next to the plates and eating utensils.
Griffin started the discussion,"Well, we were rudely interrupted yesterday by Nin here. However, all's not lost." A chuckle circled the room at this. "It seems we have in Nin a potential asset in the conflict ahead. She has rightly suggested that my initial plan was too limited in scope. That even if we took out the Monastery, it would have such a limited effect on the Order as to not achieve our goals. I will let her explain what she proposes."
"Why should we listen to that violent bitch?" Said the man with the broken wrist. A murmur of agreement rustled about the table. Before Griffin could speak, Nin carefully showed her birthmark by unbuttoning the top three buttons of her blouse and revealing it below and between her breasts. Her birthmark was an Ouroboros, a snake eating its own tail. A couple of the older men at the table murmured when they saw it. Most of the younger people did not understand what it meant. Joy drew in a sharp breath when she saw it. Brianna was less shocked than the others as she had learned about it recently. However, it was still disconcerting to see the near mythical birthmark.
Nin drew in a deep breath and started her explanation, "I have been slumbering for over a thousand years. I thought the damage that my brothers had done to humanity could only be made worse, not better if I tried to change things at that point. That was when I slept. However, recent events have woken me, and I see in the present I must act to limit the damage done by my brothers. Why should you trust me? Because we all wish to survive. With the storm that is coming, we must either stand together or fall alone."
"What I propose is near simultaneous attacks on several of the Order’s assets. I believe your group has people not just on this continent, but on other continents. Is this true? For if we do not have people who will fight with us and enable us to strike other places at near the same time, then we will fail. We cannot do this tomorrow for I have no familiarity with locations on the other continents. Optimally, we would strike locations in Europe, Russia, North America, South America and Australia within twenty-four hours of each other."
There was a murmur around the room. Obviously, this group thought this plan was either too ambitious or unachievable. Joy had a frown on her face was shaking her head lightly. Griffin looked at her and raised an eyebrow. He asked her, "You said the organization had people in many places. I assumed that meant more than just this country, especially since I know you started in America. Nin's plan is better than what I came up with because she is thinking large. The Order is thinking large. They don't plan on just wiping out the Godsborn and Magi of Sydney or even Australia. They plan on killing us all."
A man in the room spoke up. "And how can you be so sure of this, mate? After all, none of this trouble seems to have started till you turned up."
Griffin glared at the man then drew in a deep breath and sighed. Slowly he answered, "Because of what happened at the Water's farmhouse. The Order has never killed young children and infants before. Definitely never a pregnant woman. The children were raised to serve the church." He waved his hand and continued, "Yes, yes, they were actually stealing the children. After all, that is probably how I ended up in the Order. Not the story I’d been told about being abandoned at a nunnery by my mother. I suspect they did this so they had loyal people who could challenge the Godsborn. The fact that they're now killing them indiscriminately says they've moved into a new phase, one that was never mentioned to me. The only logic behind it I can see is that they plan to eliminate all the Godsborn once and for all."
There was a murmur around the table mostly in agreement. Here was someone who had great depth of knowledge regar
ding the Order. He had been its champion for more than a hundred years. At this point, Joy spoke up, "Not only that but they brutalized their victims. They don't want there to be a hope of reconciliation. They don't want there to be a hope that things can return to how they were. The Order and the Cabal that controls them either want us to run and hide in fear, or to fight in the open where they can condemn us in the media and gain widespread support.
“Which one they choose depends on what their ultimate goals are. If they wish to obtain popular support, it is probably for a program of control where they take over leadership of the world. If they keep fighting us in the shadows, then they are purely in it to exterminate those who could touch the planes."
Nin nodded at both Griffin and Joy and then continued, "That they started in such a relatively isolated location as Australia shows that they want to test their program. Australia is dislocated from the world media. Events here do not gain the same coverage as incidents in the U.S. or Europe. While attacks that massacre thirty or forty people may be front page news worldwide if it happens in those places, it rarely happens in Australia.
“If we strike them across the world, simultaneously, and leave evidence – their weapons, their armories – then we bring them somewhat out of the shadows. At that point, they will be more worried about explaining why they had such sites, to the governments of the regions, and will be forced to put on a back burner any plans they have for the Godsborn."
Grey was still shaking his head. "I'm Grey. I understand what you're trying to say, lass. It just it won't work, not fast enough. At the moment you have the provisional support of twenty of us, well, nineteen combat effectives. Griffin felt that with that many he could take the Monastery he knows of near Blackheath. Until we prove that we are prepared to strike, we cannot gain additional allies. I doubt the Order is the only string of the bow of those attacking us."
"We need to strike the Monastery to show we are prepared to act before we do anything else. It will make it easier for us to convince members of the Sisterhood," a brief chuckle flowed round the table, "to join our actions overseas. It will enable us to make contact and alliances with the minor Conclaves. At the moment the only Conclave we are in regular contact with is the Hathori. Besides with a clear conscience we cannot let Joy recommend your plan to the other parts of the Sisterhood until you have proven you’re willing to carry through on violence. The last thing we need here is a weak link." A murmur of agreement ran through the table. Griffin could see Nin tense at this, and he laid restraining hand on her shoulder.
A-Viking (Betrayed by Faith Book 3) Page 12