Sora and Akiko had a bunk bed, with Akiko on top. Izanami had a bed of her own. She covered herself with the blanket and cried herself to sleep.
✽✽✽
With the sun just over the horizon Mako, Miko, Sora, Akiko, and Izanami were working in the gardens behind the mansion. They each wore overalls, work gloves, boots, and a large hat.
Akiko pushed the wheelbarrow, Sora stood over Izanami and pointed out weeds to her while Mako and Miko spread bark over the soil.
“What were you trying to do?” Sora asked Izanami.
“I was trying to access our birth records,” Izanami replied.
“Why would you do that?” Akiko asked.
“I wanted to find our parents,” Izanami replied.
“You cannot,” Mako said.
“Why?” Sora asked.
Miko looked around and came up close and said, “You’re like us.”
“We’re sisters?” Akiko asked in a soft voice.
“What do you mean?” a sceptical Izanami asked.
“Do you know-” Mako started.
“What a Blood Baby is?” Miko finished the question.
“Kind of?” Izanami replied.
“No,” Sora replied.
“What is a blood baby?” Akiko asked.
“Blood-Witches made us from blood,” Mako said.
“Birthed by an artificial womb,” Miko said.
“I don’t get it,” Akiko whispered to Sora.
“Neither do I,” Sora replied.
“You’re all sisters,” Kenta said behind them.
Sora gasped, Akiko stood behind Sora, Izanami stood and asked, “Then why am I the only smart one?”
While Mako and Miko bowed to Kenta, Sora slapped Izanami over the back of her head, and Akiko kicked her in the bottom, but only enough to startle her.
Kenta looked around and said, “Relax girls, you’re not in trouble, but I will tell this only once. I expect you to tell no one, but the Blood-Witches made Mako and Miko in a laboratory to grow up to be super soldiers to replace the Imperial Knights.”
“Why did Mako and Miko get a family and not me?” Izanami asked.
Sora and Akiko looked at Izanami.
Kenta laughed and walked over to Izanami. “I didn’t take Mako and Miko in to be family members but to train them. But they exhibited too many behaviour problems, so Sora and Akiko were born. You were one last attempt.”
“Why were Akiko, and I put in a home?” Sora asked.
“Let me guess, once they found out you were dumb, you got thrown in the bin,” Izanami said.
Kenta ignored her and replied Sora. “The Emperor put you and Akiko in a group home for girls after Patya pressured him to shut the program down.”
“What’s a super soldier?” Akiko asked.
“We made you more agile, stronger, smarter, and fitter, but you’re too aggressive to be bodyguards,” Kenta replied.
“Why did they make us?” Sora asked, almost in tears.
Kenta knelt and hugged her. He said, “The Navy wanted to use the Imperial Knights to defend ships against pirates. But we couldn’t recruit enough people to be knights. Most people want to live in their comfortable homes and expect someone to do all the hard work. But Patya believed the program was unethical and after an inquiry, the Senate voted to shut the program down. We are trying to give you girls a normal life.” He stood and walked over to Izanami, “Even you.”
“What about me?” Izanami asked.
“You are the last one, and the biggest troublemaker,” Kenta replied.
Izanami frown and stated, “But you said after Sora and Akiko were born, Patya shut down the program.”
“Yes, but instead of destroying you, a witch carried you to term and put you in with Sora and Akiko.”
“Was Izanami,” Mako started.
“The last one?” Miko finished.
“Yes, we dismantled the facility,” Kenta replied.
“I am the normal one, and the rest of you are the rejects,” Izanami proudly said.
Kenta knelt and said to Izanami, “No more hacking, no more talk of super soldiers, and no more talk of who your mother is, because you do not have parents.”
Izanami snapped, “You know who she is?”
Kenta stood and said, “No. No one does. Toshiko and I wiped the memory of those who took part, including parts of our memory. We destroyed all the records,” he looked around and said, “Are you girls going to behave, or do I put you in an asylum?”
Mako and Miko bowed, “We will behave.”
Sora and Akiko bowed, “We will be good.”
Izanami said, “Sure, I will be good.”
Kenta smiled and said, “Finish this patch and come inside for your first meal of the day.”
As he walked away, Izanami crossed her arms and poked out her tongue. The four older girls crowded around her. Izanami gulped and tried to run away.
Akiko tripped her. Sora pushed her face down in the manure.
Mako stepped on her back and said, “Respect our father.”
Miko stood over a sobbing Izanami, and said, “We are sisters, not rejects,” while holding her boot just on Izanami’s face.
A frightened Izanami nodded. Miko took a step back and nodded to Sora and Akiko, who lifted Izanami out of the mud, scared, she looked around.
Sora gave her a hand fork and said, “We will be in the shade, watching you.”
“But we’re going to Kaede’s today,” Izanami called out as Sora walked away.
Akiko said to Izanami, “You better hurry or we leave without you,” then ran over to join the others.
The girls watched Izanami struggle with the weeds, then Miko came over and knelt beside her and helped her pull out crabgrass.
Izanami looked up and said, “Thanks.”
The girls came, and Mako asked, “Are we sisters or rejects?”
Izanami looked to the side and replied, “Sisters.”
Mako, Sora and Akiko grabbed tools and helped Miko and Izanami to pull out the weeds, break up the soil, fertilise the ground, plant some flowers, and cover the earth with bark.
Chapter 15
In the asteroid cloud, on the system’s edge, Andre stepped out of a small shuttle, in the hanger of a massive base inside of an asteroid. A group of a hundred short, ugly people waited at the far end of the bay. They had a dull, pale grey skin, a flat head, long narrow faces with a square chin, large round ears, pointed teeth, a long hook nose, long fingers like spider legs, and large round eyes with large pupils.
Andre looked at the Goblins; Most of them wore grey baggy overalls with tool belts. Ash and Avi stood behind him. Three Dökkálfar Witches got out and walked past them.
“The Dökkálfar Sisterhood rewards hard work and loyalty. Today this base is under the command of Captain Andre Barbaro, fail him, you fail us,” the lead Witch said.
The trio turned to Andre, who walked over to the group and said, “I heard good things about some of you. I am your judge, and there is no appeal. From now on, this base will turn a profit, or I cut costs by tossing the weakest amongst you out of an airlock,” Andre barked as he inspected the Goblins.
“The sisters ain’t complained before,” a Goblin said.
Andre walked up to him and said, “The Hub is my station now. I heard when the Sisters are not here you lot slack off. That ends today. I am in charge.”
“What are you going to do?” the Goblin yelled at the Witches. “Not like you can pluck engineers from thin air,” he stated. He pointed at the trio and sneered. “None of you will bitches will work here,” he added with a growl.
The Witches did not respond; they turned to Andre. Not sure if he is drunk, or they made him say this to see if I will overreact. Andre turned to Ash and Avi and pointed at the loud Goblin. At 240 cm tall, they towered over the 130 cm tall Goblins. They pushed their way through the crowd of Goblins with ease. When they grabbed the loud Goblin, he yelled, “Down tools!”
All the Goblins put dow
n their tools. Andre walked up to the loud Goblin and tapped him with his quarterstaff and shredded his spacesuit.
The Goblin screamed and tried to run. “Turn him black and blue, boys,” Andre said.
Ash pinned him to the ground and stepped on him, while Avi started kicking him. The other Goblins stepped back and looked at the trio of Dökkálfar Witches, who remained by the shuttle. They said nothing and watched the beating.
Andre stood the Goblin up and pushed him to Ash, who punched the Goblin in the face into Avi, who knocked the Goblin back to Ash.
They beat the Goblin back and forth a few times until he fell to the ground, then Andre stomped on his arm and broke it. Andre made a signal to stop. Ash and Avi stood at attention. The Goblin lay in a pool of his urine, vomit and blood.
“Pick up your tools,” Andre said to the Goblins.
While the Goblins picked up their tools, the lead Witch said, “Any of you worms get out of line, plot any accidents or think about running off. We will hunt you down and skin you alive. We know everything about you. We know you better than you know yourself. We know where your family lives. We know all your habits and who your friends are. You can crawl under a rock, but we will find your friends, your family, and your children.”
Andre dragged the beaten Goblin over to the healer, an old Goblin in a green smock who stood at the back of the pack with a medical bag.
“There are 100 of you. Do well and come in under budget. I will reward all of you with whores, beer, and beef once a month. Should one of you complain, then after a beat down, all of you go on half rations and work double shifts for a month. Does anyone else want to mouth off?” Andre asked.
The Witches nodded, and the lead one said, “We will show you a tour of the place.”
✽✽✽
Late at night, Kaede and Toshiko headed to the parking structure north of the Palace, via the underground tunnel from the kitchens. He swiped his identification card, and they took the lift down. At the bottom, Toshiko pressed the close button twice and pressed privacy mode on her phone.
“Something wrong?” Kaede asked.
“The sword has the wrong metallic mix.”
“Maybe Lilith changed the formula.”
“Maybe, but the outer coat is Lilith’s Molybdenum alloy. But inside, is an inferior carbon alloy, one often used by the Dökkálfar in casting devices.”
Puzzled, Kaede asked, “An inferior copy?”
“No, Abelle showed me the replica of the sword. The Sword of Light doesn’t have a hollow round guard on the hilt but has a sword catcher.”
Kaede looked at her. “You didn’t notice?”
“I had only seen the sword of light a few times, and that was thousands of years ago, and we were told it was the sword of light. We had no reason to doubt it.”
“Are you saying we developed new lasers for replicators to scan the sword and peel off layers so we could study it? The aim was to repair it. Was it for nothing?” Kaede asked, “We went billions over budget, and took engineers off many projects. The Treasury could deny my tax deduction claim.”
“No. The scans reveal Lilith made the sword; her signature is on every layer, including the layer of Dökkálfar orichalcum. This confirms she was working with the Dökkálfar.”
“Izanami is working on using those lasers and scanners to improve replicators.”
“Good, we need to make atomic alignment easier and cheaper.”
“Oh. About the sword. I noticed orichalcum had an odd pattern; it looks like a leaf.”
“Yes. I think the sword was a casting device.”
Curious, Kaede asked, “If it was a casting device, where is the spell gem?”
“Missing, they also removed something from inside the hilt. There are tool marks. Slight oxidation indicates the damage was done recently.”
“Did you compare scans of the void in the hilt to that in a ‘Cauldron of Everlasting’?”
“Yes. How did you know?” Toshiko asked. She waited for an answer, and he stared at her. Toshiko said, “Never mind. Inside the hilt was an impression in the sides, the same as in the cauldron’s base, indicating it once housed a Mobius loop.”
“Yes, a sustaining loop smaller than any previous loops,” Kaede remarked.
“Yes, but without a source of mana, the spell would eventually end after a year and one day.”
“What if the sword used an entity trapped inside the chamber as a mana battery?” Kaede remarked.
Toshiko looked at him. She frowned and asked, “What makes you think that?”
“The blood from the blade runs into the chamber at the base. We know many of the Dökkálfar worked with demons.”
“Are you saying it was for blood witches to stab people for their blood?”
“Yes, to feed the demon inside the blade to fuel a spell cast onto it.”
“Why would Lilith make such a sword?” Toshiko asked.
“What she was not just working with, but she is a Dökkálfar?”
Toshiko gasped, then mumbled, “That would explain so much.”
Kaede went to press the door button and asked, “Did you scan for DNA? Skin stuck to or blood soaked into the blade?”
“I found no viable sample.”
Kaede nodded and pressed open. He and Toshiko walked out. The bottom level of the parking structure was a racing track made from water barrels, complete with a pit stop at the far end. They walked towards the bay where the karts were parked. Two were in the bay, and two were on track.
Nori and Emi raced past them. Emi pulled into the pit stop and got out.
Kaede headed over to them. Emi removed her helmet and bowed, “I am sorry, your Imperial Highness, we could not wait.”
“It is all right. Did Nori have fun?”
“Yes. If you don’t mind telling me, how much does a kart cost, and where can I buy one?”
“These are custom made by my company. Each one cost a million gold. A normal kart is about twenty thousand.”
“A million?”
“Yes. The body is a new material known as superplastic, stronger and lighter than metal. Each has a high-power electric engine built by my company and is more powerful than a V6 methanol racing engine. The battery is an experimental long-life, high amp, fast-charging power cell known as a ZPM.”
“ZPM?”
“A Zero Point Module, it is a battery. The 5-kilogram battery is easy to replace, and it has enough power for one-thousand hours. It only charges in one hour; it will revolutionise technology once we can mass-produce them.”
“Wow, what is stopping you?”
“They need exotic matter to work, and we already cannot mine enough to meet demand.”
“I see,” Emi said, “Well, not to nit-pick, but I noticed the speedometers top speed is three hundred, yet the kart has a top speed of fifty.”
“It is a small track, so I set the speed limiter to fifty-five, but they can do 280 kilometres per hour. Each one has more features than one of Dain’s superkarts, including an onboard computer, but is a twentieth of the price of his superkart.”
“Wow.”
“Do you mind telling me why you asked?”
“Nori wanted one.”
“There is no track in the city, but I plan to build one at the fun park.”
“Fun park?”
“As part of the island development, I plan to build one.”
“I see.”
“I will get Nori a kart as a late birthday present.”
“You’re too generous.”
“I would look bad if I invited him over to play and then made him watch. I will also give you one.”
Emi hesitated, looked at the kart and said, “I do want one, but-”
Kaede cut her off. “Instead of a gift, I pay you and Nori to test drive them, and when the research is over, you can buy them.”
“No offence, but I doubt many could afford to pay a million dollars for a car that you cannot drive on the road,” Emi remarked.
�
��Oh. I am not selling karts to the public. Other than my racing teams, my kart will be exclusive to my racing track at my fun parks, my good friends and my racing team. Soon I will have a massive private track.”
Emi looked at the kart and said, “I accept your offer, your Imperial Highness.”
“Please, call me Kaede.”
“Yes, of course. Thank-you Kaede.”
Kaede glanced towards Nori, who was at the finish line, Nori waved, Kaede waved back, “Emi, I know you love being a knight, and I am not asking you to end your service contract, but would you consider taking leave and doing some work for me?”
Emi looked at Lady Toshiko then Kaede and said, “I am training for a promotion.”
“Lady Toshiko will complete your training, and you still get two shifts.”
“Why me?”
“I need gifted Witches to work on some projects for me.”
“Kaede, which project are you thinking of?” Toshiko asked.
“I think we will start Emi on the mana bracelet,” Kaede replied.
“What is a Mana Bracelet?” Emi asked.
“A wristband that reveals the mana level of the wearer,” Kaede replied.
“I don’t mind, but can you tell me a little more about it?” Emi asked.
“My team created an organic compound that glows depending on the level of mana to which it is exposed. We call it Glow Gel, and we want to put it into a device to measure mana levels,” Kaede replied.
“Why?” Emi asked.
“The Empire employs many covens,” Kaede replied.
“What’s a coven?” Nori asked.
“A group of witches who share mana,” Emi replied. “I take it your target is the Blood Witches?”
“They would be our primary customer,” Kaede replied.
“What is my job?” Emi asked.
“We need a range of devices, not just a rod or a wristband. The more uses you find for glow gel, the more we all make. Each device will need an instruction book, a safety test, and market research,” Kaede replied.
“No offence, but I feel overqualified for that,” Emi replied.
“The laws on magical development prevent me from hiring anyone other than the overqualified,” Kaede said.
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