“I will take your vow of fealty next week, and as your liege I will do everything I can for you, George. Not because I was Walter’s friend, but because I need you. I need you to succeed. I need your support. If you have doubts, I will advise you, but forget about being worthy. Historians can make up their minds about that after you’ve found the sweet release of death. Until then, you will suffer, you will work, you will do everything in your power to serve me and your people. Do you understand me?”
“But…”
“Do you understand?” I repeated, raising my voice and adding a subtle undercurrent of implied violence.
“Yes, my lord,” George answered meekly.
I smiled and stood, walking over to a sideboard to fetch a bottle of wine and two glasses. Sitting back down, I poured the wine and handed him a glass. “Here, this will help settle your nerves.”
George dipped his head respectfully. “Yes, sir. Thank you.”
His manner made me laugh. “I scared the shit out of you, didn’t I?”
Nervously, he dipped his head again. “Yes, my lord.” Then seeing that I seemed to be in a good mood, he added, “You were joking?”
I took a sip of my wine, and after a pause I showed my teeth in a feral grin. “Not at all. I was dead serious, but I’m not mad at you. It was just something you needed to hear. Stop bobbing your head like that, though.”
“My lord?”
“Always know the forms required by etiquette, but do not offer more deference than is necessary. Otherwise they’ll take it as weakness. Nobles are like wolves, remember that. They’ll eat you alive if they smell blood,” I told him.
“Oh,” mumbled George.
I almost felt bad for abusing him, but I remembered too well what I had gone through in my early days. I had had even less support, and if it hadn’t been for James Lancaster and his brutally honest advice I might not have survived. Then I thought of Walter, something I hadn’t had much time to do since his death. “Your father loved you, George, and in the years to come, if he can see you from wherever he is, he will also be proud of you. I’m sure of it.” I raised my glass. “Let’s have a toast for him.”
We talked for a while after that, and I tried to make George more comfortable. He needed to find his balance if he was to succeed. It was a delicate balance I had to strike, at least until he found his footing. I didn’t want him to turn into a whipped dog, but I needed to be firm. After we finished our glasses, I gave him one final instruction.
Lifting a folded sheet of parchment from the desk, I handed it to him. “I need you to go to Surencia and deliver this to King Nicholas.”
“Couldn’t a courier handle it?” asked the young baron.
“They could, but I need you to do it. This is a warning for him regarding the Ungol within his borders, but it’s also a chance for you to make yourself known to our neighbor to the north. Spend a couple of days there, and don’t be afraid to use your unique abilities,” I told him.
George frowned. “You want me to spy on him?”
“I trust Nicholas, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t use every opportunity to acquire more information. You may hear things from him, or those around him. Be discreet.”
For the first time, I saw a glimmer of confidence in the young man’s face. “Don’t worry, my lord, when a Prathion doesn’t want to be found, a Prathion isn’t found,” he answered, reciting his family’s motto.
Chapter 33
I had barely gotten out of my chair after George’s exit when my daughter charged into the room. Moira had been rather disappointed about being left out of the mission to Tyrion’s island, so after passing her spell-twin, Myra, over to Lynaralla, she had spent the rest of the day looking for ways to occupy herself.
As I soon discovered, that had primarily meant questioning Sanger and sifting through his thoughts.
“The Ungol come from a world that is overrun with ANSIS!” she began, leaning over my desk excitedly.
With a groan, I sat back down. This chair is going to need better padding if I have to keep sitting in it for hours on end, I thought miserably.
“Forget about your backside and listen to me,” said Moira, referencing my unspoken thought in her usual unsettling manner. “The Ungol have been dealing with ANSIS for several years now.”
I frowned at her. “Just years?”
She nodded. “Since the Dark Gods vanished.”
Because I had destroyed the Dark Gods, not realizing that they were somehow responsible for protecting our world from the She’Har’s mysterious enemy. I put my face in my hands, rubbing my temples. “Why are they still free then?” I asked suddenly. “If ANSIS has been running rampant on their world for years, surely they would have taken control of the Ungol by now.”
“They’ve been in hiding,” said Moira. “They’ve been hiding for generations, for thousands of years. They hid from the Dark Gods first, and now they hide from ANSIS.”
And now pieces of their world were appearing in ours. Was it possible that that was how ANSIS had gotten here? Like rats hiding on a seafaring vessel, they had been swept along with some piece of the Ungol’s home world?
Moira nodded excitedly. “I think that’s exactly what happened.”
“Would you let me actually speak my thoughts before you answer them?” I complained.
My daughter grinned at me. “I would if you didn’t pause for so long to sort them out. It’s exhausting, waiting for people to speak their minds.”
I sighed. “Is there anything else?”
“That was the main thing,” said Moira. “I thought you should know right away.”
Rising from my chair, I massaged my sore posterior. “It certainly helps clear up a few things.” I started for the door again.
“Matthew is looking for you as well,” said Moira before I could leave.
I didn’t sense him nearby, so I gave her a questioning glance.
“I felt some excitement from the workshop as I was heading here,” explained Moira. “I didn’t wait to see what they were excited about since I wanted to find you first, but I have a feeling he’ll be wanting to see you.”
“Let’s go find him, then,” I offered.
“I’m hungry,” countered my daughter. “It’s almost dinnertime.”
Exasperated, I gave her a long-suffering look. “Fine, you go eat. Tell your mother I’ll be late for dinner.” Then I left and headed into the castle yard.
True to my daughter’s word, Matthew was just exiting his workshop when I approached. It was obvious from his demeanor that he was about to seek me out, but his eyes relaxed when they fell on me.
“I was just about to look for you,” he said simply.
“So I’m told,” I answered wryly.
He ignored my remark and gestured toward the workshop, so I followed him into the interior. There I found Gary seated next to the worktable. A number of small ring-gates were arranged across the table, standing on their edges with small stands supporting them. Each ring-gate connected to one of the antenna locations, and all of them had a thick copper wire extending across the table. The wires all converged at the center of the table, where Gary held his arm. The forearm was open, as though it had been partially disassembled, and the wires all connected to what appeared to be smaller wires within it.
If someone without a broad experience of the world, along with the knowledge of Gary’s artificial nature were to see it, they might assume it was some sort of diabolical ritual taking place. I merely found it interesting. Gary’s right arm held a quill pen, which he was using to make notations on a map of Lothion and Gododdin.
Considering how expensive good quality maps were, that would have been upsetting, but I knew what his purpose was. “What have you discovered?” I asked, leaning forward to look closely.
“First, I would like to note that the distances noted on your maps are not entirely accurate. I have corrected for this by making measurements from each antenna site, but there will still be some incon
sistencies. This was expected, however, given the state of cartographic finesse present in your world,” said the android.
I smirked. “I appreciate the disclaimer.”
Gary went on, “I have approximated the positions of two distinct signals using a fifteen-meter wavelength to communicate, presumably with each other, though I can’t positively confirm this without being able to decrypt the signals.”
“It’s a safe assumption, though. Since there are only two signals, they are almost certainly communicating with each other,” I observed.
“Exactly,” agreed Gary.
There were two small ‘x’ marks on the map, one where Lancaster had been and the other in the forest northeast of Cantley. “Are these marks where the signals are originating from?”
Gary and Matthew both nodded. Then Matthew spoke up, “It suggests that one might be where the Ungol that attacked Brodinton came from, while the other is probably in that strange, primeval forest.”
“Things are starting to make sense,” I declared.
“How?” questioned my son. “One is where some of the Ungol came from, and they gave no sign of being possessed by ANSIS, and the other is from a site we’ve already investigated. We didn’t find any of the Ungol there either. Moira said that Sanger’s people came from a spot within Gododdin’s borders.”
“She just found out that the Ungol have been hiding from ANSIS for the past few years,” I answered. “That fact, combined with this, means that ANSIS probably hasn’t been arriving here under their own power. They’re crossing with parts of the other world as it somehow bleeds into our own. The piece that replaced Lancaster might have held some elements of ANSIS when it came here, and the same is probably true of the area near Cantley. Now they’re growing like a cancer.”
Matthew frowned. “That fits the observations, but I don’t like it. The whole thing is messy. It lacks rationality. Whatever is causing these pieces of that other world to appear, it almost has to be the result of some sort of deliberate magic. If so, why would it be so random?”
“I have a suggestion,” offered Gary.
We both turned to stare at him.
“We could talk to them,” said the android.
“Then we would give away the fact that we are listening. ANSIS might realize we can locate them. If they do, they might find another way to communicate, costing us a strategic advantage,” responded Matthew.
I was confused. Obviously, my son understood the technical aspects of what he and Gary were doing better than I did. “Wait. I thought we couldn’t understand them because of this encryption of theirs.”
Gary nodded an affirmative. “Yes, but that doesn’t mean we can’t transmit an unencrypted signal to them. The technology they use is fundamentally based on the same technology that I use. They can understand a message if I send it that way, and if they choose to reply they merely have to respond with a similarly unencrypted signal.”
“I see,” I replied to fill the space in the conversation while I absorbed what he had said. Then I asked, “If we send a message, will they be able to locate us?”
“Yes,” answered the android. “But that will only give them the location of whichever antenna we use for our transmission.”
“They already know where we are,” put in Matthew. “The attack on Rose shows that, and they probably were spying on us for some period before that.”
“Is there any possibility they already know we’re listening?” I added.
“A low chance,” responded Gary. “We haven’t sent any definite messages, but the initial pulse I used to measure the distance between our antennae might have been detected. If so, they might suspect we are trying to listen.”
“The real question,” I continued, “is whether we have any more information to gain by waiting. You say we won’t be able to break their encryption, right?”
“Not a chance,” replied Gary.
Matthew spoke up again, “But we might discover more signals. They may be operating from more than these two locations.”
“The chances of that are small,” opined Gary. “They had no reason to suspect we would try to eavesdrop, given the technology, or rather the lack of technology, possessed by your world. Any other large clusters of ANSIS would almost be transmitting constantly, just as these two are. If there are small clusters, we won’t detect them until they become larger.”
“Then we don’t gain much by waiting,” I observed.
“If you’re thinking about a surprise attack, then sending a message will only warn them,” argued Matthew.
The frustration of a day spent locked indoors, combined with my general dissatisfaction with the way things had gone the past few weeks, made me want to do something definitive. “A warning won’t help them,” I responded. “We’ll wipe out both locations, tonight. The message will just be a statement of intent.”
“What will you tell them?” asked my son.
“Nothing complicated,” I told him. “How do we do this?”
Gary answered, “Just speak to me as if you were talking to the enemy. I’ll record your face and voice as you speak before converting it into a compressed digital signal and transmitting it.”
“How long will that take?” I asked.
The android smiled. “It will be done almost as soon as you finish speaking.”
“Very well,” I said, squaring my shoulders and facing him head on. “Let’s begin.”
Gary nodded, and then his head and body went still, staring directly at me. “Go.”
Recalling desperate times, I put in my voice all the steel that I had once used when facing down the Iron God, Doron. “This is Mordecai Illeniel. As you are doubtless aware after the events in Dunbar, you are not welcome on this world. I am told that negotiation with your kind is pointless, but given your intelligence, I thought I would offer this warning. You will not find success here. If you persist, we will eradicate you. If that proves impossible, I will make certain that this world is worthless to you before I surrender it, even if it costs the lives of every human now alive.
“These are not idle threats, and furthermore, if I am pushed to such extremes I will also destroy the world you hail from. I am told that humanity has already been exterminated there, at least humanity as I recognize it. Therefore, I will suffer no remorse in annihilating your world. This is your only warning. Remove yourselves or face extinction.”
I stopped there, and after a few seconds Gary blinked. “That was the end?”
“That’s it.”
“You think they’ll fall for such an obvious bluff?” said Matthew somewhat disdainfully.
I rewarded my son’s disbelief with a dead stare. “Bluff? I think you misunderstood.”
My son rubbed at his metal hand, polishing an imagined blemish. It was a frequent habit he had developed since replacing his lost appendage. “Yes, a bluff, a strong front meant to scare an opponent, a threat you have no way of carrying out. We only just located them, and within minutes you’re trying to intimidate them without even bothering to make a plan.”
I had to admit, he was partly right—about the immediately trying to intimidate them part. “Actually, from what you’ve told me, and what we learned in Dunbar, I don’t expect my words to have any impact. But I did not say those things without reason. I have spent most of my spare moments thinking about this. Now that we have something solid to grasp onto, I don’t intend to waste any time.
“ANSIS spreads like an infection. Every second wasted only allows them to become more firmly entrenched. We know where they are, or at least the biggest portion of them, so we act quickly, like a surgeon, to cut the infection out. My words were a warning, and a promise, to whatever is left after that.
“If these machines are as intelligent as you keep telling me, they may realize the sensibility of not provoking us further. If not, we’ll make good on that promise,” I finished.
Gary watched silently, his eyes moving between us, but Matthew wasn’t done yet. “Dad, I kno
w you can do things that go beyond magic and wizardry, and I have no idea what happened to you a few days ago, but from everything you’ve told me there’s no way you can destroy an entire world. A city, maybe. A small piece of a kingdom—sure, I could believe that. But I’ve seen Tyrion’s memories too. I remember what he did to eliminate the She’Har, and it won’t work on ANSIS. You can’t create those wasp-like krytek he used, and even if you did, they can’t eat non-living matter. Maybe you could set off a chain of volcanic eruptions like he did, but that won’t stop these things. It would only kill us.”
Matthew had obviously spent some time contemplating the problem, just as I had. For all his flaws, for all the ways he was different than me, I was proud of his thoughtful nature. But he had missed the answer. Probably because he was used to thinking in terms of what I could do. He had grown up in the shadow of a legendary archmage, and that shadow had obscured the solution from him.
“I can’t do it,” I said at last. “But you can.”
“What?”
I didn’t look at him, setting my eyes instead on Gary. “I’ve spent some time talking to Gary as well, privately. Asking questions, mostly, to confirm my suspicions. Just from that, I bet he knows what I’m thinking. I’m also sure he hasn’t said anything to you about it either. Probably because he fears to even put the seed of such an idea in your mind.”
Matthew turned to the android. “What’s he talking about?”
Gary said nothing, having gone so still he seemed almost a statue.
I moved closer to the machine-man, setting my hand on his shoulder before speaking to my son again, “He doesn’t want to answer you. He’s afraid to confirm what I said.” Then I clapped the android on the back, hard enough he was forced to move slightly to correct his balance. “Tell him, Gary. He’ll figure it out on his own anyway.”
Woodenly, Gary answered, “The Fool’s Tesseract.”
The Fool’s Tesseract, or FT for short, was a dimensional enchantment Matthew had devised to serve as both a protection and a weapon when he had gone to rescue Gary’s daughter from imprisonment by ANSIS on her world. When activated, it formed a six-sided cube, with each side being a one-way dimensional plane that allowed matter and energy to pass in one direction, inward. The matter was directed into a separate pocket dimension, whose size was controlled by the enchantment. The enchantment could be reversed, and depending on how much matter had been compressed within the pocket dimension, it usually resulted in a devastating explosion.
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