by John O'Riley
His lips formed a pleased smile as he took up a position in front of Josephine. “You’ve come to rescue Mark, I take it. What an unexpected bonus.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Josephine eyed him with a wary look.
“You’re an omnipoten but you’re pregnant with a child of the White Knight. Even when the White Court was still around, this was a very rare event. This phenomenon will give me a greater understanding of White Knights and what other weaknesses they have besides dark energy.”
“You must be Ludovic.” A cold shiver of dread crawled up Josephine’s spine as she watched the android.
His smile widened. “You’ve heard of me.”
“Unfortunately, yes.”
“You’ve probably been told I’m a monster but I want to assure you that your child will come to no harm as long as you don’t turn him against me,” Ludovic said. “His power will burn out in a year or two after he’s born anyway. In that time, I will make observations of his abilities and you will take him to a medic who will take scans and blood samples. I will do everything in my power to make sure he lives. You do understand that a baby so young would likely die from burnout, don’t you?”
Josephine fought the rising panic that flooded through her. “He’s different. His connection to source energy will prevent his power from dying out.”
“You’re wrong. For centuries, there have been no White Knights who managed to escape this outcome. The resources to allow them to flourish don’t exist anymore.” Ludovic made his way over to a nearby computer console and the buttons lit up as if he were typing them. A panel beside it slid open and he withdrew a metallic syringe shaped like a gun. He eyed her with a regretful expression. “I’m sorry to have to do this but your White Knight friend must die.”
Josephine’s heart thudded wildly as he approached Alice. “You don’t have to kill Mark. You said it yourself that all White Knights lose their abilities.”
“They are a threat that must be extinguished.” Ludovic reached Alice’s chair and brought the syringe towards her arm.
“Wait! What are you doing to her?” Josephine shouted swiftly.
Ludovic paused as he regarded her with bafflement. “I just explained to you that she’s going to have to die. Don’t worry, it will be a fast and painless death.”
“She’s not a White Knight!”
“But she’s full of light energy.” The needle of the syringe remained poised several inches from Alice’s skin.
“That’s because she was cursed with immortality. Her consciousness was possessed by it and I had to cure her with a praesentia infinitus spell,” Josephine explained. “She can’t use white magic at all!”
Ludovic straightened to his full height and he lowered the syringe to his side. “I will continue scans of her to confirm your claim. It’s extremely difficult to get any kind of reading with the light energy interference but I will find out the truth and if it turns out she’s a White Knight, I will know soon enough and she will have to die.”
“She has no talent with source energy whatsoever.”
“It’s remarkable that you created a praesentia infinitus enchantment using mainstream magic. That’s extremely difficult to do. Very few could accomplish such a feat.” Ludovic’s eyes gleamed with interest. “I plan on making you a guard. My worlds are run like caste societies. There are laborers, scientists, guards, and leaders. The guards are considered part of the elite and form many functions besides just the obvious. I will use your talents to make advanced magic. Once you’ve passed basic training, I will assign you to a facility to work that is in close proximity to a vortex.”
“Why would you do that?” Josephine peered at him with frank disbelief and bewilderment.
“Because a society that is operated by satisfied and happy citizens are a stable and productive society. There is no poverty on any of my worlds. You’ll probably like it here better than Earth but I plan on seizing control of that little gem soon enough so you can always apply for a transfer,” Ludovic smirked.
Josephine wanted to tell him he was crazy and she’d like nothing better than to find his crystal skull and smash it into pieces. “I would be a lot happier working for you if you didn’t kill Mark.”
“I’m sorry but I simply can’t allow a White Knight to live.”
“Do you kill every single one of them?” Josephine demanded.
“Yes, it’s unfortunate but necessary.”
“You could just lock him up in a prison until he burns out,” Josephine argued.
“It’s too risky.”
Frustration and terror warred within her. “Why are White Knights such a threat to you? They can’t use their magic to attack! I just don’t get it!”
“It’s true they’re limited to defense but that’s the reason the World Wars lasted for so long. We fought for years against the humans because they cowered behind the shields of their White Knights. Entire cities were protected from our most potent weapons,” Ludovic said.
“But black magic always cuts off the light energy,” Josephine pointed out.
“Do you realize how difficult it is to produce enough dark magic to take down a shield protecting an entire city?” Ludovic moved past Alice’s chair and loomed over Josephine.
“I hadn’t realized they could do that,” she admitted.
“The war would have lasted even longer if the White Knights hadn’t made a critical error.”
Josephine tensed with anticipation and concern. “What did they do?”
“No one knows.” Ludovic’s gaze went distant with introspection. “They were working on something big. I had spies but they couldn’t give me specifics. My people had reason to believe it would be some sort of weapon but we had no idea how white magic could be used in such a way. There was lots of speculation but in the end, the White Knights failed. They cast the spell and all of their shields failed. Every single last one of them. And all of the White Knights vanished without a trace. It was just the kind of breakthrough we were waiting for. We seized control of half a dozen worlds within a matter of months.”
Josephine was struck speechless by this information. She mulled it over as a sense of horror dominated her mind.
“We rule twenty-one planets as of right now.” His lips curled in a self-satisfied smirk. “Eventually, we will control all of them.”
“The Kalos Confederacy is a group of AI’s, isn’t it? You’re not the king of all of those territories, are you?”
“Usually, the AI’s rule together in groups. I choose to run this government on my own,” Ludovic boasted.
“With a little help from your offspring.”
“I hope you’re not under the mistaken impression that Maggie is still free,” he said. Ludovic’s abrupt change in topic startled her. She had in fact assumed Maggie had escaped capture. “She’s in a different part of the facility. I couldn’t keep two omnipoten prisoners in the same room together. It would be much too risky. I’ve been performing continuous psychometric scans of you both and have gleaned some very useful information about APU 81. It’s interesting that it kept it’s sterile identity instead of coming up with its own after all these centuries.”
“I don’t understand how you have memories of the World Wars but Hermina doesn’t remember what happened.” Josephine leveled a curious gaze at him.
“A small percentage of my kind have the ability to inhabit humans. When they do so, there is a side-effect that they hadn’t noticed until it was too late – corruption of long-term memory. It has something to do with using the human brain for temporary storage. They can mitigate the effects by performing regular defragmentation sessions while controlling a host but it still doesn’t entirely prevent the unfortunate loss of memory. This can be a useful ability but they lack the natural talent that the rest of us have in hacking into computer systems and creating computer viruses. That’s the only reason APU 81 hasn’t seized control of Earth on its own,” Ludovic said.
“I suppose it’s one of
your allies,” Josephine said with disgust.
“Yes, it is,” he agreed.
“Why are we having this conversation if you’re gathering information from me through a psychometric reading?” Josephine asked.
“It’s helping to fill in the gaps.” Ludovic shifted his stance as he gazed down at her. “It takes longer for our systems to gather data from omnipotens.”
“That’s true. We don’t give off very much readable psychic output.” Josephine took a small measure of comfort knowing that she caused this minor setback in his plans in spite of her capture.
“Tell me about Mark. How many teleportation enchantments does he have with him?” Ludovic’s gaze became more intense and focused.
Josephine’s heart raced as renewed fear for Mark’s safety coursed through her. “I’m not really sure.”
“You’re lying.” Ludovic stilled as he closely scrutinized her. “Your body gives you away. Just tell me what I ask.”
“I won’t help you murder Mark.” Josephine glared at him with defiance and loathing.
“Don’t overestimate your value to me.” He pinned her with a cold, assessing gaze for several seconds. “It doesn’t matter. I’ll get the answers I need from you through the scans. It will just take a little longer.”
Josephine wanted to scream with frustration and tear the straps off her body that imprisoned her. If only there was a vortex nearby that she could access. She narrowed her eyes at his retreating back until the door slid shut behind him.
Chapter 30
A sliver of sun rose just above the horizon as Mark trudged through a thick forest. It frustrated him to return to this shelter when he’d come so close to finding Josephine, Alice, and Maggie but he couldn’t evade the search parties without the cover of night. He reached the hidden doorway in the ground protected by light energy. A beautiful shade of green moss spread across most of the forest floor, including the rock door. Mark issued a brief pulse of light energy and the door slid to the side, revealing a deep stone staircase. He descended down the steps and a short while later, the entrance slid shut behind him. Brass sconces jutted out from the stone walls, containing clear glass spheres the size of a fist that radiated a soft glow. White magic had created these enchanted fixtures.
As Mark descended deeper into the underground dwelling, he came to an area where the wall lighting had darkened. He activated them with another brief pulse of light energy. After trekking all night, exhaustion had settled deep into his body. He wanted nothing more than to collapse in one of the cots that he knew would be waiting for him in one of the chambers. He finally reached the bottom of the stairs and trudged down the long corridor. He wondered who had created this secret base and why they had abandoned it. He turned the corner to continue trekking deeper into the passageway which was dark. He raised his hand and issued another pulse of light energy which activated the illumination, revealing Hermina Draco who stood waiting for him.
Mark stilled and he couldn’t quite believe his eyes for several seconds. Realizing he was in imminent danger, adrenaline pumped through his veins and he stumbled hastily backwards. He drew as much light energy as possible and realized there was no way he could activate his teleportation amulet to escape. Instead, he ignited the protection enchantment. A sphere of white energy popped into existence around him.
Hermina offered a tentative look. “I mean you no harm.”
“Source energy is the most potent magic there is.” Mark straightened to his full height and forced a stoic expression on his face.
“I realize that.” She paused and spread her arms out in an expansive gesture. “Which is why I helped to create this place. I’m part of the resistance movement which will one day overthrow the Kalos Confederacy and make this a free world again.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Now that your friends are here, your magical network should be stronger. Can’t you use your intuition to see that I’m telling you the truth?” Hermina suggested.
It hadn’t occurred to Mark to try as his mind was sluggish with fatigue and the shocking sight of his mortal enemy made it difficult to think clearly. He realized he did have enough spare light energy to use his intuition.
“Is everything you told me a lie?”
“Everything I’ve told you just now is true. When you were in my home, I couldn’t be completely honest with you. The guards work for Ludovic even when they take orders from me. I’m always closely watched. Ludovic controls over a dozen androids that are identical in appearance in different parts of this world. He can access my computer systems in my home at any time and ever since you landed on Adamas, he’s kept me under constant surveillance. None of our conversations were private at my residence and when we were out in the city, the guards were eavesdropping for Ludovic,” Hermina said.
Mark regarded her with surprise as she was definitely telling the truth. “Couldn’t you have disabled the systems in just the room we were in for a short period of time?”
“I’m afraid not. I don’t have the same abilities as Ludovic.” Hermina frowned with contemplation. “Most AI’s have the ability to hack into computer systems with ease and to plant computer viruses. These types of AI’s lack the ability to control people. A small percentage of us are just the opposite. We can inhabit the minds of people but we’re unable to directly interface with computer systems. I’ve had this body for centuries. The humans created a clone of an omnipoten and I interfaced with it as it grew from an unborn baby to adulthood.”
“Why didn’t you wait until it was older before you took over?” Mark asked.
“Because I didn’t want to run the risk of a young mind developing. I can’t stand the thought of stealing someone else’s body like a parasite. I would never do that.”
Mark’s intuition flared as she spoke and he could sense everything she spoke now was the truth. “Are there others like you on Adamas?”
“Not any more. There were five like me who died in the war against the Kalos Confederacy. We thought our defenses were strong enough to withstand them. We’d managed to fend them off for centuries.”
“The colony worlds have been at war for centuries?” Mark wouldn’t have believed this was possible.
“I suppose so. There’s no official declaration of war. Their goal is to eventually rule everything. We were never under constant attack. Every few years or so, they would try to hack into our computer systems and open a portal to this world. Because we wouldn’t establish a connection with their interplanetary transit system, their ability to come here was extremely limited through one-way travel. It takes vast quantities of power for that. Unfortunately, they managed to take over one of our Interplanetary Transit Centers and succeeded with forcing a link between our worlds. This allowed them to come in en masse and their forces overwhelmed us.”
“Why don’t the human colony worlds unite their forces?” Mark asked.
“Some of us do form smaller groups. The largest one is called the Delphis Alliance which has eight. The problem is that most of the human governments are confident they can stay independent without the help of others. Adamas never came close to losing against the Kalos Confederacy for centuries. Unfortunately, the Kalos Confederacy is so doggedly persistent that they achieve victory every once in awhile,” Hermina said. “As president, I had concerns about this growing threat and urged our government to unite with the Delphis Alliance for security; however, my fears were not shared by the majority of the people.”
“I’ll bet they wished they listened to you now,” Mark said.
Hermina’s lips formed a sad and wistful smile. “Yes, they do. But I don’t blame them for not listening to me. Even if they had joined the Delphis Alliance, there isn’t much more other planetary governments can do to guarantee security for other worlds. The Kalos Confederacy may have broken through our defenses in spite of the added protection.”
“Tell me about the AI’s living on this world before the invasion,” Mark prompted.
�
��There were hundreds of us living peacefully as citizens of Adamas. Most of them inhabited androids. There were eight who served as elected representatives in our government. When the Kalos Confederacy invaded, most of the AI’s living here were killed in battle. When the Adamas military officially surrendered, the rest of the AI’s were rounded up and executed. I was the only one spared because my kind who inhabit mortal bodies are considered inferior and they always keep a small fraction of the elected officials of a government to remain in power. It helps facilitate the transition to the AI takeover,” Hermina said.
“Wait a minute.” Mark patted his pants to feel his wands and frowned with bemusement. “Why did Ludovic let me keep my white magic enchantments?”
“He didn’t.” Hermina’s lips twitched in a smug grin. “Your light energy amulets and wands were confiscated by Ludovic; however, the resistance broke into the facility where he’d stored them and they switched them out with replicas. They returned them to me and I evaded the cameras by slipping them back into your clothing as I pretended to tend to you while you were in your coma. It took me many trips because I could only risk returning one item at a time but I succeeded.”
“Yes, you did.” Mark couldn’t help but admire her spirit and cleverness. “How long has Adamas been a member of the Kalos Confederacy?”
“It’s been about four years now,” Hermina said. “I have to admit the resistance sometimes gets caught and our numbers are dwindling.”
“Why don’t you live in this underground base?” Mark asked.
“Some of them live in similar bases but it’s very hard to be self-sufficient and remain off the grid.” Hermina’s bright blue eyes conveyed uncertainty. “I hope you will help us to drive Ludovic’s forces away. We might be able to offer you the tools to succeed.”
Mark deactivated his shield in a show of good faith. “If you have some sort of stash of white magic hidden away that can help banish Ludovic, I’m in. But we have to save Josephine and my friends.”
“Of course. We will do everything in our power to help you rescue them. I can’t risk staying here any longer. As you pointed out the other day, we do a lot of walking here. I have some teleportation enchantments that allow me to get away for short periods of time if I need to. I’m supposed to be on my way to a meeting and I’ll be expected shortly. You can find the vault for white magic when you awaken by scanning for it. This base is larger than you think with hidden passageways to other bases. However, this particular area is abandoned and the closest inhabited one is several days journey. For now, you’re going to be alone. I’m sorry, Mark,” Hermina said.