Preserving the Ingenairii

by Jeffrey Quyle

  He set a stick in the ground, looked at its shadow, then began to shift back and forth through time, trying to jump an hour earlier or later. With each jump he fixed an expected time in his mind, then made the jump. He examined the stick to see how far the shadow had moved, and after several hours, found that he could exert reasonable control over time jumps of such length. He then jumped into the evening, and started jumping according to the position of the moon.

  Satisfied that he had practiced long enough to gain some mastery, Alec sat down and prayed his thanks. How long in real time had he practiced, he wondered. He could send himself back in time to the beginning of the day if he wanted. If only he could jump through space as easily as time, he thought wistfully back to Stracha’s comment. Alec made a time return to late afternoon, and then walked back into camp to eat some food and rest.

  That evening, shortly after dusk, he began to walk among the troops, until he found the 19th regiment’s place. “Thank you all for your service today,” he told them as they gathered in an impromptu inspection. He walked along the line, touching each to take away some ache or sore or pain, then left them, cheered by the notion that he had noticed and visited them.

  That night, as Alec fell asleep, he thought again about Stracha’s comment. He remembered seeing the chamber in the ingenaire energy realm where the power to translocate was available. If animals could do it, surely humans could too, he thought. If he still had the ancient talisman of Carthom Ingenaire Sivis he could return to that energy realm and find a way to acquire the power. He thought long and hard about it that night. But I lost that talisman long ago in the energy realm itself, he told himself, so there’s no way to solve the paradox of having to have the talisman to transport his body, when he would need his body to retrieve the talisman.

  The next morning he awoke, and carried out the inspection of the full army, units coming by turn to parade before him, a long process that took hours, consuming the full day. Afterwards, Alec thanked the staff for arranging the inspection, then went with Moab to practice his swordsmanship. At dusk, he left camp again and went back to his stick to practice time-jumping, moving back in time to the day before he placed the stick in the ground. At the end of the day he placed a second stick in the ground, and returned to camp.

  He stayed up late, practicing the elemental steps of entering the energy realm. As an ingenaire in four powers, he entered the energy realm through four approaches, walking cautiously into the deeper reaches of the realm, ignoring and batting down the preposterous promises each form of the energy tried to lure him with. He never walked deep enough to lose sight of the way back to the real world, but he wondered about the possibilities.

  For the following three days he held to a pattern of visiting with the commanders and the troops in the morning, then practicing his powers in the afternoon. And each evening he explored the energy realm wishing he could wander freely through it to search for the talisman and the other sections that held the unknown powers.

  On the following day, the sixth day since the parlay and return of Lady Jeswyne, a messenger approached from the Michian side of the lines. The message was delivered to Alec, to whom it was addressed, and proposed a meeting and lunch at noon on the following day, for all members of each general staff, to be followed by a parlay between General Bronson and Alec. Alec hastily scribbled acceptance and sent the messenger back to his own forces. Soon the Michian engineers were seen setting up large tent pavilions in the neutral field between the forces.

  During the afternoon the staff officers were busy brushing and cleaning their uniforms in preparation for looking their best while they met their opposite numbers. Alec continued his practice in the time ingenaire powers, now able to comfortably control precise jumps in time four or five days in one direction or another. There had to be better, faster ways to learn the skills he was sure, but there was no one to teach him. And he continued to wander deep into the ingenaire realm, wandering so far afield that he left the return portal out of sight, but always able to cut off the power when he felt the need to return to his body. He still found no clue or hope of discovering the way to the power axis, where he had left the talisman, but he was compelled to keep searching.

  The next morning, the two bodies of leaders walked to the neutral pavilion, each bringing some delicacies to offer to the other side. Alec shook hands with many of the Michian officers, observing the heavy reliance on the Emeral clan to provide leaders. There were a sprinkling of yellow, purple and red ornaments among the officers, but they were few.

  The number of Michian leaders who were comfortable talking to the demonslayer seemed to be few as well, and Alec was able to drift to a corner of the tent, where he stood mostly observing the interactions taking place. Not many of these leaders were shy men on the Michian part, or shy men or women on the Dominion part, he observed, and the Michian officers were attracted to the novelty of women among the high ranks, clustering around any woman who was present on behalf of the Dominion.

  “Your majesty,” General Bronson suddenly spoke.

  “You are light on your feet, General,” Alec said. “I wasn’t aware of your approach at all.”

  “Yes, perhaps I’ll be a dancing master when the war is over, I’m so graceful,” the general laughed.

  “You don’t seem to be mingling very much. I’ve been watching you,” Bronson said.

  “You’re men don’t seem very comfortable around me,” Alec replied.

  “Well, you can’t swing around a title like Demonslayer and expect them to want to hug you, can you?” Bronson said with a warm smile. “Would you like to join me for a private conversation?”

  Alec looked at the man, and used his spiritual powers to analyze him. There was great worry, no deception, and some strange element of compassion foremost in the man’s mind. “Let me inform my field marshal,” Alec said. “I know he wants to keep an eye on me, and I slip out often enough as it is.” He slipped through the crowd and whispered in Ulltar’s ear, then slipped back to join Bronson as they silently left the tent and went through the Michian lines to find a command tent, where the two of them sat alone.

  “We’ve had a great number of restorers traveling to us these past few days,” Bronson told Alec. “Would you like some ale or wine?” he asked as a servant entered the tent.

  “Just berry juice, please,” Alec answered.

  “A teetotaler? So rare for a great leader,” Bronson observed, as he asked for juice too.

  “I prefer to keep my mind clear. I’ve embarrassed myself every time I’ve indulged,” Alec smiled.

  “We don’t even need a drink to embarrass ourselves, it seems at times,” Bronson said, and waited for the servants to deliver the juices and leave before he continued.

  “There’s no clear direction on what we can tell you about your request for withdrawal, and in the absence of such an order, I cannot move an entire army from an eminently defensible position,” he told Alec.

  “If things were to clear up at home, perhaps I would have some direction to listen to,” he said.

  “Are there problems in the empire?” Alec asked.

  “As you know, there has been a coup attempt. It seems that your friend, Lady Jeswyne, may be in some difficulty,” Bronson said. “When the restorer she was riding returned to the Palace, she was intercepted by supporters of the former Emperor, Mikhail.”

  “He’s still alive?” Alec asked.

  “Very much so, and determined to regain his crown. The empire is headed towards civil war between the two brothers, and clans are picking sides. The festival is turning deadly,” Bronson said. “I shouldn’t tell you, but I suspect that I may lose some forces who choose not to fight, or begin to fight within our army, if we don’t keep a strict leash on our men,” Bronson confessed.

  “What about Jeswyne? What are they doing with her? Is she safe?” Alec focused on the topic that concerned him most.

  “She is safe, physically. We are told she is being offered as a barg
aining chip by her uncle. She may be married into the Canare house by the end of the festival to cement their alliance with the ex-emperor Mikhail, or maybe somewhere else, if a better offer comes along,” Bronson said.

  “I sense she is of concern to you, and if I could offer you some advice or words of wisdom, I would,” the general told Alec.

  “I have two questions general,” Alec said. He stood and paced with agitation. “Will you agree to another short term armistice, say for another week, or even three or four days? And is there someone here you trust on your staff completely, someone who would be totally loyal to the best interests of the Lady Jeswyne?”

  Bronson’s eyes followed Alec as he moved restlessly around the room.

  “What do you have in mind? You can’t get to Michian in three or four days without a restorer, and there’s no bloody way you’ll have one of those. Without one it’s a month’s hard ride to get back to the empire, and the Lady’s fate will surely be decided by then,” he probed.

  “I want to explore an option. It’s very much a long shot, but it’s the only choice I see. I will not use your restorer, and I will not work to the detriment of your empire, but I would like a few more days of peace to allow me to explore something,” Alec pleaded.

  “Given the uncertainty of the situation, I can live with a three day extension of the armistice, but after that I cannot tell you if I will be under direct imperial orders to attack or withdraw, or to teach dancing lessons,” he smiled as he rose. “And I do not want to advise you to talk to any of my officers about this, because of the potential that charges of treason could be raised against them. Whatever you do will be on your own.

  “Let me walk you back to the meeting place, where we can announce the three day extension of the armistice, and then you can go off to perform whatever black magic you seem prepared to call upon,” Bronson said, and he held open a flap in the side of the tent, then led Alec back to the pavilion in the neutral zone, where they informed the assembled leaders of the additional armistice, and the meeting broke up.

  Alec went directly to Stracha’s tent when they returned to the Dominion. “I’m going to try something Stracha, and you’re the only other ingenaire here,” he told her.

  She looked at him, and saw the intensity in his eyes. “What are you planning to do?”

  “I’m going into the ingenaire energy realm. I’m going in deep. There’s something there I need,” Alec said.

  “What exactly do you mean by deep, Alec? Alec, you are the king of the Dominion. You are the demonslayer. You can’t do anything that puts yourself at risk. The Dominion needs you,” Stracha whispered. She placed both her hands on his.

  “Jeswyne needs me,” Alec replied. His hands twisted and grasped hers. “There are ingenaire powers we have never seen before. Remember a few days ago, you said it was a shame we couldn’t travel like those restorer animals?

  “We can. When I was in the energy realm a long time ago, before my battle with the demon there, I found a place where the energy exists to travel to places, to translocate,

  “Jeswyne has been captured by her uncle, and he is going to marry her off to whoever provides a convenient ally. Stracha, I can’t imagine that girl being handed to someone as a political favor,” Alec released his stress.

  “Alec, what about the rest of us?” Stracha asked. “Do you remember where we were when you came back to us? We were in a river of refugees trying to escape from the pending fall of Three Rivers. Now look at us! You have the Dominion ready to win the war, and feeling ready to restart life.

  “Are you ready to give all that up to save Jeswyne?”

  She saw the anguish in his eyes. “Are you really ready to take this risk for that girl? Does she mean that much to you?”

  “God help me, and Bethany forgive me. Jeswyne and I lived together for all those months in the forest, Stracha. I wasn’t an ingenaire, and she wasn’t in an imperial family. We were two ordinary people. We took care of each other, we helped each other, we talked to each other, we laughed and shared with each other, and there was never any problem between us, only affection. Really something deeper than affection, but we could never put a name to it,” he told her.

  She listened to the sound of his heart in his words. “What can I do for you, Alec?” Stracha asked. “If you really want to do this, how can I help?”

  “Thank you, Stracha. There’s nothing you can do. But you will know where I am and what I’m doing,” Alec answered. “You can do one thing,” he added. “Please pray for me.” He lay down.

  “Now? Here? You’re doing this right now, in my tent? Is this really necessary?” she asked, but as she spoke, she looked at his face and saw the tranquility that denoted his spirit had left his body to venture into the ingenaire energy realm.

  Chapter 45 – The Search for New Power

  Alec was wandering in the healing realm, measuring off his steps, trying to gage how deeply he was penetrating into the emptiness. He stood and tried to remember the dimensions of the power realm, and the relative locations of the various components. He turned and looked behind him; there was no sign of the way back to the real world.

  Alec veered to the right, and hoped he was maintaining a straight line. Somewhere in that direction he would find another dimension, or possibly the central axis, the real goal he sought. If he could find the axis, he could try to find the talisman, and with the talisman, he thought he knew a way to acquire a new power – the power to translocate, the power to go to Michian and find Jeswyne.

  He walked onward, ignoring the tempting concepts the energy tried to lure him with. His steps continued to move him forward, though he had lost count of the number of steps he had taken. There came a sudden subtle difference and then he felt resistance to each step. He flashed back to the beginning of his training as an ingenaire, when he had faced the challenge of trying to leave the energy realm while holding his link to the power.

  It meant he had reached a boundary! This was the place where healer energy and some other energy realm intersected. He turned and began to walk along the boundary, hoping that it would take him to the central axis. He strolled deliberately along the boundary, aware that he was taking far more time than he had ever spent in the energy realm, other than during his encounter with the demon.

  The boundary seemed to stretch forever, and Alec began to worry that he had not remembered correctly how the realms and the boundaries came together at the axis. He tried to remember what the axis was like, but only came up with images of plants. Green growing plants, hungry roots digging into the soil, the joy of feeling sunlight energize his leaves were all his mind could grasp, and he realized that he had been in the boundary area with the plant energy realm, and the temptations from that power were leaking over, starting to affect him. He allowed himself to stray slightly back to the healer realm, relieved of the confusion of the plants, and continued onward.

  Abruptly he came to a hard wall, an invisible limit that stopped him in his tracks. Alec pressed hard but could not penetrate the resistance, despite his struggles. He stood there, and decided to try a risky strategy that seemed like his only solution. Closing his eyes, he struggled to force himself into a warrior mode. The pain was intense; the healer energy resisted the warrior image as strongly as it could. Focusing completely on the task at hand, Alec started at his feet, changing his sandals to boots, and then he moved up, changing the linen tunic to leather pants and a jacket. He buckled on a sword belt, and crossed his chest with knife bandoliers.

  He opened his eyes, pulled out a sword, and as he did so, he felt himself pulled upward and outward, and he flew through the space of the energy realm into the warrior energy dimension. As he traveled, awkwardly, he felt himself pass through the central axis.

  The healer energy no longer burned his body as he felt the warrior energy replace it in his system. He stood there, pleased that he at least sensed the axis as he passed through it from one realm to another. Now though, he faced the question of managing
to land himself in the axis.

  He began to undergo the transition again, beginning to revamp his image into that of a healer, while also trying to add his spiritual image elements. The edifice he was building was awkward, and painful, but he sensed that his image was losing its grounding in the warrior realm as he kept adding and subtracting items and concepts.

  Slowly his image began to move, it hovered and floated and tried to find a point where it could solidify ties to the various streams of energy Alec was calling upon. He had a flash of insight, and realized that the times he had taken power from other ingenairii of other houses had been instances when he must have filtered the energy through the axis to make it compatible with his own. Retaining his three-sided image, Alec began to reconstruct the memory of the multiple powers he had absorbed when he had destroyed the coup leaders in Oyster Bay, and he felt himself whirling and spinning, buffeted by the various tugs towards different houses, and then his feet were on a solid surface, his pain was gone, and he knew he had broken into the axis of energies.

  Alec opened his eyes, and looked around. He could see again the many walls, the barriers that separated all the energy realms. They were visible through the foggy atmosphere. And there on his left was the translocation realm. Now he had to find the talisman, and find a way to use its power to manipulate his access to the translocation energy. Alec cast his eyes down, and began to shuffle his image along taking slow, measured steps as he allowed his eyes to sweep broadly from side-to-side, alert for any flash of gold or jewels. He walked clear across the axis to the edge of the stone ingenairii powers, then turned, and began crossing towards the plant powers, still carefully observing the floor, until he imagined he saw a glint in the near distance to his left.