Shadow Sun Unification: Shadow Sun Book Five

by Dave Willmarth

  The ancient elf’s gaze met Allistor’s, but was unreadable. “I have been sitting here this fine morning, listening to the birds and contemplating exactly that question. Your actions yesterday showed wisdom and a great deal of wit. You cleverly manipulated Loki into attacking you, thus increasing Baldur’s obligation of honor. At the same time, you allowed Baldur and Odin the time they desired to determine the extent of Loki’s guilt, and discover how much guilt should be placed on the shoulders of others. And by retaining your claim on Loki’s mortal life, you have already garnered the reputation gains and losses you would have received had you killed him then and there. So in essence, much of the damage you might have done to yourself has already been done. Whatever enemies you would have made by killing him, you’ve already made.” He paused and raised a finger for emphasis. “And you have made some powerful enemies. Loki employs armies of operatives who make their livings serving him. And has an even greater number of allies who benefit from his machinations. Many of them will see you as the cause of their losses now that Loki is not long for this plane.”

  Allistor didn’t want to anger his mentor by arguing, but he felt he needed to defend himself on this one issue. “But master, that was not my doing. Baldur declared Loki’s life forfeit, not me. It’s not my fault I was the cause of that. Weren’t most of his… minions going to blame me no matter what?”

  “You are correct. Loki was caught in his own trap, or one set by his daughter Hel. And even his staunch allies would agree that he has earned his fate many times over. The repercussions involved are in no way your fault. And yes, you were fated to be blamed by those who find it convenient, profitable, or in some way beneficial to do so. I would only point out that the arrogance you displayed in executing your scheme will have made you more enemies than if you had been more… humble.”

  Allistor sighed. There was no arguing with that logic. He pictured a horde of aliens watching holograms of him tricking Loki and benefiting from it, muttering something like “Who does that little shit think he is?” to themselves. He had learned the hard way dealing with other Stronghold leaders and trespassers over the last year that perception is everything.

  “I understand, now.” Allistor replied. “Though, had you explained that possibility to me beforehand, I don’t know that I would have acted any differently. Powerful people or factions are going to hate me, no matter what. I’m not sure I would have given up the potential benefits to avoid the additional risk. I’m sorry, Master Daigath.”

  “I know, Allistor.” Daigath put a hand on his shoulder and gave it a gentle pat. “As for what you choose to do a week from now, what are you thinking?”

  “I’m thinking that I’ll kill him.” Allistor stated bluntly. “I think my people, and really every human left on earth, need to see the murderer of our race executed. Or at least be able to hear that it was done. Retribution is a basic component of our culture. If, as you say, I’ve already earned the enmity and paid the price for it, why not do it?”

  “Well, for one, it may hasten the retaliatory responses from his allies. Knowing you are the indirect cause of Loki’s death is one thing. Witnessing you executing him is quite another.”

  “But wouldn’t taking his life make me extremely powerful, and much harder to kill?”

  “Indeed. But if I were one who wished to inflict punishment upon you, I would not act against you personally. I would punish those you have sworn to protect. Your people are vulnerable, Allistor, even with the additional levels they received yesterday.”

  Allistor’s gut clenched, and the color drained from his face. He pictured bombs dropping on his strongholds, his people’s bodies littering the ground. “But… the alliances we’ve made. Aren’t those supposed to help protect my people?”

  “They are. And they will, to some extent. Anyone bold enough to attack Invictus will pay a heavy price. Your allies will exact retribution, swiftly and mercilessly. But there are those to whom that is meaningless. Emperors send millions to their deaths on a whim. And what good will that retribution do for your citizens who die in the attacks? If Hel destroys Orion and everyone on it, will you feel any better when Or’Dralon destroys a moon with tens of thousands of her servants on it? Or will you be crippled with guilt for the loss of so many more innocent lives?”

  Daigath saw the look of horror on Allistor’s face, and took pity. “That is an extreme example. And honestly, killing Loki would more likely make an ally of Hel than an enemy. But I hope you see my point?”

  Allistor could only nod. Daigath had just shown him that he’d already likely doomed some, or all, of his people. And he didn’t see that there was anything that he could do about it.

  “You’ve been thrust into an arena you were not equipped or prepared for. In part because of the choices you’ve made, and in part through simple luck, both good and bad. Your choices have mostly been wise, if risky and sometimes brutal, and came from a desire to help others more than yourself. They are one of the reasons you garnered so much attention during this world’s Stabilization. Now, with the level of power you’ve achieved, your choices, and your actions, have far-reaching consequences.” Daigath’s stare moved from the forest to Allistor’s face.

  “Let us both spend the next week contemplating your choice, Allistor. As things are now, I hold great hope that you will lead your people, and now your world, to thrive within the Collective. And I will certainly assist you as much as I am able. You have a great many friends out there, and I’m positive you will earn many more. Do not give up hope.”

  Allistor mumbled his thanks as he numbly got to his feet and began to descend the stairs. He was so distracted and horrified that he forgot to ask Daigath about additional Battlemage training. Instead his mind was awhirl with questions and apocalyptic visions, regrets and guilt.

  He barely noticed when he passed by the point where he needed to turn off the path to meet up with Helen and the bears. Shaking his head, he focused on where he was going.

  Chapter 13

  Allistor returned to Invictus having left Helen in the woods with the bears. She had calmed Fiona to the point where the bear had fallen asleep with her head on Helen’s lap, and they didn’t have the heart to wake her. Allistor was confident that between Helen and the two bears, there was nothing out there in the woods that might harm them.

  Heading up to the conference room on the analyst’s level, he asked Nigel to have whomever was available meet him. When he arrived, he found all but Longbeard sitting at the table waiting for him. Droban got to his feet, bowed his head and spoke first. “My congratulations, Emperor Allistor.”

  “Please, sit. And thank you. I meant to ask… I noticed a whole crowd of minotaurs with you yesterday. Were they family?”

  “Some were, yes. I passed along your invitation to my family and clan. About half of them elected to join me here, one hundred and eighty all told. They arrived and were sworn in the same morning you left to visit the station. My apologies for not informing you sooner, but I didn’t want to intrude.”

  “No apology necessary. I’d love to meet them all sometime soon. Where will they be living?”

  “My immediate family will take up residence here in Invictus City. The rest were hoping to purchase some land. Perhaps some open range with forest nearby for hunting? If that is agreeable to you?”

  Allistor chuckled. “I suddenly find myself with quite a bit of available land, my friend. Choose a good spot, and I will grant your clan members the same ten acres each that every other citizen has been given. They can be all together, or separate. And of course if you choose land in or adjacent to one of the parks, they can freely use that land for farming or hunting as well. If they feel they need more, we can talk about it. And if they need a loan to establish a Stronghold, just see Chris.”

  “That is most generous, thank you.” Droban bowed his head again. “I will inform them as soon as we’re finished here.”

  Allistor looked to Selby, then L’olwyn. “Did you have a chance
to glance at the faction reputation notices I forwarded to you?”

  Selby giggled. “We did more than glance. But the list is longer than my… longer than Droban’s leg. You might have set a record, Allistor. I’ve never even heard of so many entities and factions having an opinion regarding a single person’s actions. And a lot, I mean aaaa loooot of them are not happy with you.”

  Daigath’s warnings came back to Allistor, and he grimaced. Selby quickly backpedaled. “Still, there are more that looked favorably upon you. And some of the reputation losses were with folks who already liked you, and just like you a little bit less, now.”

  L’olwyn took over for the flustered gnome. “We will need significantly more time to perform an in-depth analysis, Allistor. Several days, a week at most. But a preliminary perusal of the list has not revealed any surprises. Nor any obvious imminent threats. However…” He paused to look at the other analysts, who both nodded. “An event of this magnitude, and the likelihood of another in the prescribed week when Baldur returns, we feel it would be prudent to hire some… facilitators. To assist with our analysis by gathering information on various entities.”

  Allistor didn’t immediately understand. “Facilitators? Like, researchers?”

  “Spies!” Selby shouted, then covered her mouth, her eyes widening. After a moment she uncovered and gushed, “It’s all very exciting!”

  Allistor couldn’t help but smile at her enthusiasm, even if he didn’t share her excitement over the need to gather information on a large number of new potential enemies. Still, it seemed like the smart thing to do.

  “What do you need in the way of resources?”

  Droban was the one to answer this time. “Several hundreds of millions of klax. Maybe as much as a billion. Some factions will be very difficult and expensive to penetrate and gather information on. Those most closely associated with Loki, and therefore most likely to move against you, are in that position because they are skilled at subterfuge and deceit.”

  Selby bounced up and down in her chair slightly, clearly wishing to say more. Allistor looked at her and raised an eyebrow. She immediately burst forth in a loud whisper. “We should also hire some spy hunters to help us weed out anyone who’s infiltrating us on our enemies’ behalf.” As she finished she looked up at the ceiling and around the room as if searching for listening devices.

  “Great. I’ll never sleep again.” Allistor grumbled to himself. For the benefit of the others, he said, “Do what you need to. I’ll instruct Chris to give you access to a billion klax for now. If you need more, let me know. And please be careful. Don’t put yourselves at risk while contacting these spies of yours. Maybe ask Harmon if he has a reliable intermediary.”

  “I have several reliable contacts that I have worked with in the past.” L’olwyn assured him. “From before I was unhoused. My… social standing among the elves should help defer any connections being made between us by our foes, at least for a while. No one expects reputable elves to have contact with an unhoused.”

  “Alright, thank you L’olwyn. And I’m sorry. If it helps at all, I don’t believe you are unhoused any longer. You are as much a part of this family, this clan, as anyone.”

  The reserved elf didn’t speak, only nodding his head in thanks.

  “Right. So what other business do we have to discuss this morning?” Allistor looked around the table. “Oh! I know. Hold on let me grab my list.” He pulled it from his inventory and spread it out on the table. “Do we need to send gifts or, like, thank you notes to the folks who attended the memorial yesterday? The guests, I mean.”

  “It is not required. As an Emperor, you may assume that any invitation extended to one of a lesser rank is an act of favor, or even an honor bestowed. You may even receive gifts from some of those who attended.” L’olwyn provided. “However, there is no harm in sending a brief note or small gift if you are so inclined. I would simply caution you that all gifts should be of roughly equal if not identical value. Otherwise you risk showing favoritism and offering offense.”

  Allistor was about to tell them to forget the whole thing when Longbeard came bursting into the room. Not wasting time on greetings, he hopped into a chair and said “Nigel, please pull up this mornin’s survey data, Invictus City.”

  As the holo image he requested came to life above the conference table, he turned to Allistor. “Me apologies fer bein’ late. I was just leavin the lads workin on the volcano at Yellowstone when the survey team called me about this.” He pointed to the aerial survey of Invictus City, formerly the southern half of Manhattan, and the surrounding area. With a few quick motions of his hands, he panned the map eastward, zoomed in on Brooklyn, then moved farther east and north into Queens. “There they be.” He zoomed in tighter, then said “Nigel, real time, please.” He looked at Allistor and the others. “As soon as they called me, I had em hold the satellite in position above us. Here’s why.”

  Allistor looked at the image as the real time feed kicked in. The ground looked as if it were covered in ants, slowly advancing toward the west. “What is that…?”

  Longbeard flicked his fingers once more, and the image zoomed in tighter. Allistor blinked twice, staring at the moving figures.

  Zombies.

  Thousands and thousands of undead humans shambling along through city streets and alleys. Maybe hundreds of thousands. Some were just skeletons with tattered scraps of clothing hanging from their bones. Others were fresher bodies, leaking juices, pus, even dragging entrails as they walked or crawled toward Invictus.

  “There be more.” Longbeard panned twice more across the map, showing Allistor two more insanely large hordes of undead advancing from different directions. The last was on an island to the northeast that Allistor vaguely remembered from some movie. It was the island that housed the Potter’s field cemetery, where New York had buried its indigent and unidentified corpses for something like two hundred years. The undead were advancing off the edge of the island, falling into the East River. Others could be seen crawling back out of the river up and down the western shoreline, having been scattered by the currents. Every one that he saw was doggedly moving toward lower Manhattan island.

  “It has to be that lich.” Allistor barely spoke the words as Longbeard widened the view to show all three of the undead armies moving toward their location. “Nigel, sound an alert. We’re about to be attacked by a very large number of zombies. Have anyone who wants to fight join us here in Invictus City in… an hour. They’re not moving very fast. Ask Prime to double the droid guards on the eastern and northern wall. And tell him to add some anti-personnel weapons batteries up there as well. Focus on fire and explosive damage. He’ll need to do it quickly, before the first of them reaches us.”

  “Of course, Sire.”

  “How the hell did he raise so many, so fast?” Allistor asked his advisors. “And how can he control them?”

  Droban grunted as he studied the map. “He would have had to have been working toward this for some time. A master lich can empower necromancer adepts to raise and control their own undead, bound to him through them. His orders would become their orders, much like a standard military structure. A general giving orders to his officers, passed down the ranks to non-commissioned officers on the ground, who in turn issue commands to common soldiers. An army this size would have to involve many adepts. If I had to guess, I would say this process started several months ago, at least.”

  “What does he hope to accomplish with this? These zombies don’t look like they can climb our walls. And even if they were to dogpile on top of each other and build themselves a ramp, we could just burn it down before they reach the top.” Allistor drummed his fingers on the table as he watched the live feed outside.

  “Longbeard, please ask the survey team to start checking recent footage of the areas around our other strongholds. Maybe this is some kind of diversion, to make me gather our fighters here while he attacks somewhere else?”

  “Aye, will do, yer Emperors
hip!” the dwarf winked at him, then began talking into his wristband.

  “Nigel, remind me… with your most recent upgrade, are you able to detect undead within your sensor range?”

  “Unfortunately, if they are not on the surface and moving, I am not, sire. That ability would require two more system upgrades. And even were you willing to make such an investment now, I fear it would take too long. I may only be upgraded once per planetary rotation. It takes that long for my enhancements to fully process and be implemented.”

  “Well, just in case, let’s take care of the first one right now.” Allistor pulled up the Nigel tab in his UI and located the next update, grimacing when he saw the cost. Still, he confirmed the purchase, spending nearly four billion klax worth of his gold reserves. He was going to need to speak to Chris soon about their finances, and potential income streams. Maybe move forward on auctioning some of the land on Orion, now that the new gate had increased the value. “Be sure and notify me when you’re eligible for the next upgrade tomorrow. If fighting undead is going to be a thing from now on, we’re going to need you to be able to detect them.”

  “That is most generous of you, sire. Thank you. I will notify you the moment my current update is complete.”

  “Don’t thank me. Pretty soon you’re going to have two whole planets worth of Strongholds to oversee.”

  “It is my pleasure to serve. I now have the capacity to operate quite a large number of facilities.”

  Allistor looked to the advisors. “You’re welcome to join us for this fight if you like. I know you all received at least a few levels yesterday, except maybe Master Longbeard.” He paused to look at the dwarf, but got only a poker face that was momentarily interrupted by a wink. “But it never hurts to gain more experience.”

  “My clan are still here in the city.” Droban answered. “I will bring them to the eastern wall. If the undead should somehow reach the top, our axes will clear them away.”