by JD Cole
“Certainly, Deschin,” the Second-Mark said, motioning for his men to do as she asked.
As they exited the stage for the seats, Brevha stepped toward Marc, looking down at him. If the six-foot two-inch human was displeased at standing more than two-feet shorter than her, he did not show it. “And now, Colonel Marc Tritt, were you successful in communicating our intentions? Are your people willing to negotiate for aid and the weaponry which Master Hood seems to think so highly of?”
“I don’t know for sure, yet, but how would you know where to open your... your gateway?”
Brevha looked once more to the mystics. Nonder answered, “We have already created the beginning of the spell. If you can ask your people to speak the words ‘yesh merrekin’, the spell will be completed and open wherever they are.”
Lumina, along with all of the Paladins, wrinkled his brow in confusion until he realized what was going on. The mystics did not want to reveal that they could see almost anywhere on Earth through scrying, and had found the humans’ location beforehand. That knowledge would unnerve the humans. He decided to let the deception live for now and made a subtle motion to his fellow Paladins when they looked his way. Bartley quickly came to the same conclusion Lumina had.
Marc nodded. “Very well. I will try to make contact again.” Marc cleared his throat, standing straighter as he thought back to Lumina’s display. Deciding he couldn’t come up with hand-theater anywhere near that convincing, he closed his eyes and repeated his previous act, pressing fingers to his head.
“Samantha, if you can hear me, our hosts want to discuss a possible alliance,” he paused and looked up at Brevha, who nodded positively at his verbiage. He closed his eyes once more. “..and a joint operation. They can open a... a wormhole to let you and a few others through to where we are, but you need to speak their activation code. Say the words...” He opened one eye at Nonder, who repeated the magic words for him. “Okay, Samantha, speak ‘yesh merrekin’, and they’ll open a door to teleport you guys here.”
Marc let out another breath, opening his eyes and relaxing. “I guess we’ll know in a moment if they heard me,” he told everyone.
The mystics heads bowed once more, and an ethergate appeared as before. This time, the other side was a cold, concrete and metal room, and the humans waiting there wore black armor, except for their enormous leader who wore a dark green military uniform. Monwyn moved to stand before the ethergate, looking up at the lion-like jimani.
“Holy Cat,” Derek breathed at the sight him.
Sean stood there for several moments, peering through the impossible portal before looking at Monwyn. “I understand you are submitting yourself to our care as a guarantee for our return?”
“It is as you say, Master human, if you agree to the arrangement?”
“You’ve thought this through?”
“We have.”
Sean looked at Marc, who nodded his opinion subtly. “Okay,” Sean said, gesturing back toward a pair of armed guards. “I have instructed my people to treat you as well as you treat them,” he warned.
“That is more than fair,” Monwyn bowed, moving to place himself in their custody.
Sean then took in the auditorium again, settling his gaze on Brevha. “I believe we are being summoned for a possible military action, ma’am. May I bring my forces through?”
Brevha, who stood at least a head shorter than Sean, paused for only a moment. She hadn’t been sure what to expect, but she had only been thinking of a group of planners, like the Paladins had brought, and was briefly paralyzed at the thought of bringing a small human army through the gate. She glanced over at the mystics, and realized they were straining to hold this ethergate open. Recovering, she bowed and gestured for him to join her on the stage. “Please do, Master Human. You are most welcome.”
Sean stepped through and was immediately followed by twenty troops and two quadruped drones carrying several hundred pounds of weapons and equipment. The new humans drew looks of wonderment from the gathered faeries, but when the large VT-4 battle platforms ambled through, everyone’s breathing stopped momentarily.
“Holy Gundam,” Derek said.
When the gate closed behind them, the humans stood at parade rest behind their General, who had moved to stand near Marc and Dr. Valentine. The single mystic who had not participated in opening the ethergate now waved his staff, enacting a fresh language spell to include the newly arrive humans.
“Ma’am”, Sean’s commanding voice echoed across the stage. “I am General Sean Vox. I wish to understand the situation that led to my troops being held prisoner here,” he glanced at Marc momentarily, then to the troops seated down below, before returning his attention to Brevha. “But at the moment I believe you are seeking assistance in a rescue mission. Is this correct?”
Brevha had to tear her eyes away from the battle platforms after several moments of staring. “It is as you say, General. I am... we are grateful for your willingness to enter discussions with us, under the circumstances.”
Sean took immediate stock of the scene, noting that it appeared only leaders were on stage. He motioned his troops to take seats with the others below, then looked back to Brevha as he held his arm out toward the battle platforms. “Might I request my heavy troops remain on stage, for practicality’s sake?”
“Of course,” the sprye agreed as the black-armored humans found seats near Marc’s group in the front rows directly before the angled table onstage. They seated themselves professionally, stowing their rifles between their legs with the muzzle pointed at the ground, but ready to quickly aim and fire. “Now then,” Brevha continued, fighting to keep her voice neutral despite the anxiety and excitement of what was going on, “Once more, on behalf of the Sprite Kingdoms, I, Deschin Brevha Moniscii, welcome and thank you all for joining in support of our plight.
“General Vox, there is much that we need to discuss. I regret that the first meeting between our peoples, after all these ages, could not wait until a more peaceful moment. But time is of the essence, and our queen is in danger.” The mystics had moved into the background, and a quintet of sprites joined Brevha. “My friends, and especially our new human guests, what we would like to do is a ritual known as shi’un. This powerful magic is normally reserved for the sprites alone. But these are strange days indeed, and there is no quicker way to share all of the information that you need.
“With your permission,” she panned her gaze across each human in the theater, “we will perform shi’un. This is a spell that will allow all of us to see and hear the memories from our questers,” she held her arm out to Graon, “that led us to this emergency. If we are going to work together, we must all know what transpired.”
Sean, standing straight and tall, eyed the sprye. “What exactly does this entail, Deschin?”
“The Hood has experienced this with the queen,” she answered. “Perhaps he could prepare you better than I?”
Derek shrugged at the enormous metahuman. “It’s like watching a movie, except it’s happening all around you. It doesn’t hurt or anything. It’s way more immersive than any holovids or VR games you’ve ever seen, and even better, time passes quickly in these shi’un spells. They could probably show you a week’s worth of events in just a couple of minutes, but you can’t tell the difference.”
“Interesting. Well,” Sean turned to Brevha, “we came here to find out what’s going on, so count us in.”
The sprites closed their eyes and began murmuring a spell, bolstering Brevha’s magical strength as she began chanting.
Over the next half hour, a shi’un memory replayed the quest to find Kelli, followed by Ercianodhon’s attack and capture of her father. Even most of the gathered faeries had never heard the particulars of the quest into the human realm before now. Graon, Kassak and Nim, seated near the middle of the front row, instantly gained legend status among their peers, and the Paladins, including Bartley, nodded approvingly at seeing Lumina’s exploits with them. All of the Pal
adins noted Brevha’s careful omission of anything happening near or within the cavern leading to Sen’giza.
Meshra and rest of the war council gawked at the firepower employed by the humans, instantly realizing what a boon the humans would be to their rescue efforts, as soon as they could figure out how best to exploit those skills and weapons.
Kassak’s fingers dug into his armrest as Gemlorry was shot, and despite himself he let out a loud, angry sob as a bucket of tears fell down his face.
Brevha struggled as the shi’un became hazy and scrambled at several points… and she could not view any memories involving Krin Ahgl. Was the Dragon blocking those memories? Leaving the mystery for later, she jumped ahead to when Kelli awoke from her Lifishi’un trial. The battle of Boston followed, and the shi’un finally faded as Ercianodhon retreated with Kelli’s father back into the Shadowlands.
~ ~ ~ ~
“That was… incredible,” Sean growled, shaking his head clear as the shi’un spell faded. He glanced down at his wristwatch. The Hood wasn’t kidding. He hadn’t even been here an hour, yet he’d just watched several days of the elves’ adventure to find Lumina, journey through South Cross, and battles against the alien and its chamoids in Greenland. If he could wrangle a working relationship with these faeries and acquire this capability, it would revolutionize everything.
Brevha walked to the edge of the stage, kneeling and looking down at the elf questers. Nim and Graon were trying to comfort Kassak. “My deepest apologies, Master elf. I was so focused on hiding certain details from the humans, I did not realize until it was too late. That was an unintentional cruelty. Please, I beg you to forgive me.”
Kassak did not respond, his energy completely focused on regaining control of himself.
Seeing Kassak’s reaction to the shi’un, Marc edged closer to Sean, whispering. “General Vox?” When he had his attention, he pointed at the elves. “They think she’s dead.”
Sean considered the situation for several moments, then lifted his chin toward them. “Go build some goodwill.”
“Deschin,” Marc called, gesturing his hand toward her to ask permission. “May I?”
Brevha stood and nodded. Marc walked over to her, his eyes on the crying elf. He kept his voice low. “I was at that battle, Deschin. If I might ask, why did they leave her behind?”
Brevha matched his whispering. “She was dead, and the urgency of their mission forced them to abandon her body.”
“She didn’t die,” Marc shook his head.
Brevha’s eyes widened. “Truly?”
“Honest, ma’am. We treated her wounds, but she completely healed up, and we don’t think it was our doing. Anyway, she started learning our language and has been working alongside our people for weeks now, teaching us little bits of her culture in exchange for learning about ours.”
Brevha smiled brightly, reaching out excitedly to grip Marc’s shoulder, but catching herself. Clenching her fingers and dropping her arms back to her sides instead, she turned to the questers. “This human was at the forest battle, Kassak. He says Gemlorry is alive! She is alive and living with their Paladins!”
Kassak’s eyes shot up at her, then to Marc and back. “That… that can’t be! Krin Ahgl told us she was dead!” Kassak’s face scrunched in anger and his teary eyes stared a challenge at Marc. “He’s lying!”
“Are you sure, Master human?” Brevha asked. “You must be absolutely truthful about this. One of our greatest authorities told us she was dead.”
“I swear to you,” Marc raised his hands, “she’s very much alive. And she’s not a prisoner, she’s proven herself to be a dependable comrade. I can,” he thought for a moment, then nodded. “Yeah, I can prove it. Her full name is Gemlorry, daughter of Annam. I couldn’t have learned that from your memory spell just now. She told us.”
Brevha repeated this, and Kassak’s breath left him, followed by his strength. It was true.
“Why would the Dragon lie?” Graon asked.
“Who cares!” Kassak exclaimed, struggling to remain upright. “Gemlorry’s alive!” he cried, then began laughing through his tears. “We have to go get her!”
Marc turned back to Sean, nodding with a tight smile.
“We will,” Brevha said, this time masking her speech from Marc. “I promise, in time we will. The mystics will need to rest first, however. Opening that gate to the human world has sapped all of their strength. For now, we must continue to form the rescue plan, yes?”
Kassak nodded as Graon and Nim violently shook his shoulders in joy. The two of them could not hold back their own tears, either.
Brevha rejoined the others further back on the stage, unable to hide her smile as she shared the news. Gemlorry’s survival might have seemed small in scope compared to the war and the rescue mission, but the ellh was a hero and having her back from the dead was no small boost to morale.
“We thank you for taking care of her,” Brevha concluded, bowing to Sean and his troops.
“We’ll be happy to see her home, once this is over,” Sean replied, ignoring some of the shock he sensed. He’d effectively made Gemlorry part of the collateral, along with Monwyn. “Now, Marc was able to give us a sense of your rescue plan. Could I request that your planners walk us all through this one more time?”
~ ~ ~ ~
A hologram-like spell covered the large table, objects being moved and highlighted as Meshra briefed the plan once more. The war council’s plan was mostly the same as when they’d briefed Marc and the Hood. A battleprok –fifty soldiers— commanded by Meshra and accompanied by the sprite wizard, Serann, would be transported by ethergate into the Borderlands, fully provisioned and armed, and mounted on gherats to travel onward into the Shadowlands. Several vyzen had already been chosen for the battleprok based on their tracking and navigation skills.
Derek wandered next to Lumina. “How many people can you transport in those Ripwingers, Lumina?” He quietly asked in Gine.
“Our size, about ten, without weapons and gear. With all their supplies? We could perhaps squeeze in six. If it was just elves and their provisions, perhaps ten or eleven.”
“How many Ripwingers?”
“We have two.”
“Hmm,” Derek stared at the table, his mind already crunching numbers as he next made his way to Marc and Sean, who both nodded in greeting.
“Would you guys be willing to give them a brief demonstration of what you bring to the fight?”
“We haven’t decided whether we’re helping or not,” Sean said. He thumbed at his troops. “They’re a show of force to make sure our people get home.”
“You have to be intrigued by the possibilities here,” Derek prodded.
“Obviously,” Sean replied, “but it wasn’t that long ago that my troops were sent blindly into conflict with a non-human, and we lost a couple of them. For no reason.”
Derek looked away. “I didn’t know that. I’m sorry.” He paused for a moment before continuing. “I think you guys could make all the difference, here, though.”
“These guys can open wormholes between Mars and Earth,” Sean snorted, “and pull recordings of the past out of thin air. I think they’d manage without us.”
“They have more limitations then you’d think. You could really make some useful allies if you stay and help.”
Sean traded looks with the Hood and Marc both, then shifted his gaze to the table, considering the Hood’s words.
« CHAPTER 19 »
Draggin’
“What did Uncle Krin do, anyway?” Devon peered at Zaiyensa while driving down an open dirt path. The devastated town was miles behind them now, and the landscape was devoid of anything beyond grass, trees, and the occasional paved road.
“I truly do not know.” Zaiyensa stared out her window, watching the trees zoom past. “The elders detected him removing shi’un memories from the earth, something that is extremely difficult even for Dragons. I’m not privy to his reasons or any arguments in his defense. Th
at is for the elders to consider.”
“Who are these elders? How you guys pick who’s in charge? Where did we come from, anyway? How can we be immortal? If you have kids, what, they going be immortal too? And how can Ben be immortal in space, there’s no air, no food, no water—”
Zaiyensa chuckled. “So many questions!” She leveled her head down to stare at Devon over the top of her glasses. “The human ideas about life are indeed humorous.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“You believe life requires certain basic factors, based on your own existence. Here on earth, there is water, oxygen, sunlight, all in the perfect proportions that allow you to survive. The truth, however, is that the kind of lifeforms requiring these factors are by far in the minority of the beings in the universe.”
“How do you know that?”
“Our knowledge was imparted to us by our Regents, who themselves received it from the Twynlight.”
“Who’s that?”
Zaiyensa grinned, almost matronly, and turned her attention back to her window. “The Twynlight, the one we also call the Creator… our creator. He was a creature possessed of power even beyond our own imagining.”
“More powerful than Dragons?”
Zaiyensa chuckled. “Well, hatchling, you would have to be more powerful than a Dragon if you created the first one, yes?”
Devon shrugged, unashamed that he hadn’t made that connection. “So who made him, then? The Twynlight.”
“That, we do not know. What we do know is that there was a civil war among his people, and he fled, mortally wounded after a deep betrayal. The Twynlight eventually took refuge in this dimension, on a barren rock orbiting a yellow star, a rock which would eventually become our home, the Earth.”
“What was he like? I mean like, he was an alien, right?”
“He was, and he wasn’t.”
Devon’s face scrunched comically. “What? What kine stupid nonsense is that?”
“You have much to learn and experience Devon. The Twynlight had a physical form, but he existed on many different levels at once. Remember how I showed you a glimpse of the modern human world overlaid around us as we walked and spoke in Strenovia? You and I can move between dimensional realms in a limited fashion, and even see through them, but we can only exist in this physical plane.”