The elf princess raised an eyebrow. “It appears to be effective on those with more than a little red in their hair.”
“Can we table that for a bit?” Cassandra said. “When do we get to look at those items we took out of Starholme?”
“Cassandra…” Loric made a warning growl.
“Hey, those are some awesome magic items. I’d like some time to examine them. First one artifacts are—”
“—not something you should be toying with.” He said, interrupting her. He looked around. “Any of you—well, perhaps you, May.”
Damay nodded to him. “Thank you for acknowledging my adulthood.” She let out a breath. “Perhaps it’s my fondness for sparklies, but I have some desire to look at them as well. Perhaps, we should make plans to look at them together—say after dinner… to see if they are something that might assist us in our endeavors.”
“Prudent,” Loric said. “Until then, Janai, Sarai, can we deposit those items in one of the ghost vaults?”
“Loric, they’re fine in my cloak,” Desiray said.
“No, they’re not—they’re where you can touch them.”
Desiray growled.
Cassandra sniffed. “If I can’t play, neither can you.”
“Lady Desiray,” Octavia said. “Can I impose upon you to bring my host to Wysteri’s laboratory? I’ve called her and she will be here directly.”
“Sure.”
In a matter of moments, purple haired Wysteri and pale Mercedes came around a corner, the two lady physicians bobbing and nodding to the red-haired mecha.
“Go ahead, Loric,” Janai said. “Megan has access and says she will meet you at the royal infirmary and take you and Desiray from there to the vault.”
“Excellent.”
“Ric, if you don’t mind I’d like to accompany you,” Damay said.
“Of course,” he responded.
Loric, Desiray, Damay, Cassandra, Octavia and the two other physicians headed off on their delivery errands.
“I’m going to have to get used to everybody calling to one another without moving,” Bannor said.
“Oh, it is sooo awesome,” Janai said. She touched the bow over her shoulder. “The shaladen’s other powers are nice, but just the telepathy.” She rolled her eyes. “It is sweet as candy.”
He frowned. “You don’t use it to peek where you shouldn’t do you?”
Janai gave him a shocked expression. “Bannor! Perish.” She grinned. “Peeking in people’s minds would take all the fun out of already knowing what they’re thinking.”
“That and Koass would kick her arse,” Sarai said, hands on hips. “We were told that we would be able to stay on as honorary Shael Dal as long as our behavior remained ‘exemplary’. I don’t know about Janai, but I’m going to behave. I too have grown fond of the telepathy in just the short time we’ve had it. Mother is always peeking in on me, I can feel it. I know she and father love being able to keep track of us no matter what they are doing.”
“Telepathy, does have a very profound effect on one’s life,” Marna said. “Notice how its prevalence affects the Felspar household.”
Wren shook her head. “Learning to live around it was interesting,” Wren said letting out a breath. She looked around. “Gaea’s stomach was growling, but truth told, so is mine.” She rubbed her stomach. “I can’t imagine a first one ever getting fat. I’m burning up the energy faster than I can take it in.”
Bannor looked to Sarai. “Food is good. You’re right about these bodies, the weird thing is you don’t realize you’re hungry until someone mentions eating. Then you’re starving!”
Marna’s brow furrowed. “It must be an unintentional side-effect of some of the sensory controls. To be honest, those bodies are not perfected. They were kind of a rushed together solution.”
The blonde savant stared at her. She looked to Ziedra. She reached out and touched the magic savant’s hair. “Marna, you must be jesting. That’s a rushed solution? She’s beautiful.” She looked down at the lean lines of her own body which would be the envy of any woman. She raised her head, glowing blue eyes wide. “Heck, even I’m beautiful. How is that ‘rushed’?”
Marna made a dismissing gesture. “The symmetries of efficient and appealing humanoid design are reference templates. I pick them out of a library and simply make an adjustment or two. That takes little time. It’s all the fine touches where the refinement and time are involved.”
“A library?” Ziedra said with a tilt of her head. “So, you just picked my body out of a catalogue?”
The ancient Kriar shrugged. “In laymen’s terms, the equivalent, yes.”
Dulcere put a hand on Marna’s shoulder and leaned in.
“And I better check in with Megan,” Corim added. “Food sounds good to me though, so I’ll get to that and meet you back in the dining hall.”
“I so wish I didn’t have pressing things to do,” Marna offered. “Seeing Gaea eat would probably be entertaining. Like you Wren, I feel a pressing need to move forward on finding the genemar. I am going to follow up some leads and see if anything has been breathed in the dark realms on Homeworld about it.”
Dulcere had started to walk away and turned back.
Marna smiled. “Verbal first. I was thinking of putting our miss Quasar to use, since she is so eager to solve this problem with the Baronians who are now entangled with the Daergons.”
The elder Kriar sighed. “Yes, daughter.” She turned to Wren. “I will look in on Gaea later. If you are still having problems with her, perhaps I can be a little more persuasive.”
Wren rocked her head back. “I hope so.”
Marna nodded to everyone, kissed her daughter on the cheek and strolled off down the corridor.
Corim put a hand on Wren’s shoulder. “Hey, I wouldn’t fret too much. I think we have some time. Let Gaea come around. I have a feeling she will. I think Daena’s approach is a sure winner—lead the horse with carrots when all else fails. She’s smart enough to figure it out, but the way she is now—she won’t care.”
Wren nodded.
She turned and together she and Corim headed the other way down the corridor.
Ziedra leaned close to Wren. “Hey, Rad and I need to go back to our rooms for a little bit. I’m going to change clothes and catch up with you in a bit, okay?”
Wren nodded at patted her friend on the shoulder.
The ascendant of magic and her husband inclined their heads to everyone and headed toward the back rooms.
The blonde savant looked to Bannor. She folded her arms. “You’ve been really quiet, and you missed a bunch of opportunities to pick on me.”
He smiled. “The line was too long.”
That forced a laugh from her. “Yeah, I guess I am too serious. It’s just this stuff scares me.”
“I understand,” he said. “Have a little faith in Gaea, you had faith before. I don’t know her like you do, but…” His voice faded.
“But…???” Wren prompted.
He shook his head. “Does she seem the type to test people?”
Wren nodded vigorously. “Oh yeah. She’s tested me more than once… I—”
Bannor winked at her and thumped her on the shoulder.
Wren stared at him with her mouth open. She rubbed the bridge of her nose. She looked to Sarai. “You know, sometimes your One is pretty damn smart.”
Sarai smiled and punched him in the shoulder. “Sometimes.”
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* * *
Chapter Five
Spanking an eons-old goddess of
creation, now that’s a new experience I can
/> look forward to…
—Liandra “Wren” Kergatha,
Second Princess of Cosmodarus
The T’Evagduran sisters, Daena and himself tagged along with Wren to the dining hall where the Kul’Amaron defense force were taking their meals. Apparently, King T’Evagduran had arranged a kind of relay where “uninfected” food was being brought in from the city proper. With so many immorts in residence, it was essential to keep the tables stocked with various easily grabbed food items like bread, cheese, and fruit.
The valkyries from Idun’s cadre and the halls of Valhalla seemed to be enjoying their vacation from Gladshiem immensely. The ones not on guard tours lounged around the dining hall in groups chatting. A few were still tending wounds, others cared for weapons and mended clothes. The Kriar guards, the allied Baronians, Shael Dal and members of family Felspar also used the area as a gathering point. The four groups mingled freely, all being curious about one another.
The Kriar males were often seen in the company of the winged ladies with what appeared to be a special preference for the ones with red hair. In his short stint, he’d seen as many as three around one valkyrie. Being confident, aggressive women, the winged ladies seemed well pleased by the attention. Even prudish and reserved Jhord had broken down and had one of the off-duty Kriar on her arm.
When they followed Wren into the chamber, there were perhaps two dozen people, scattered about the room’s four tiers. Three Kriar, two females, and one male were apparently off shift. The three of them sat in a circle together with Desiray’s two sons Caldorian and Sebenreth along with two valkyries and one of the Baronian ladies. The whole group was hunched over studying something in their hands. Each person also had a small pile of objects gathered near their knees.
As he watched, one of the Kriar made a clucking sound with his tongue and tossed down a group of flat objects.
Wren was studying the circle too. “Damn, those two are Desiray’s kids all right. Only here a couple days and they got a gambling racket going.”
He looked at Wren. “Gambling?”
“Haven’t you ever played cards?”
“Not for money.”
The blonde savant winked a glowing blue eye at him. “If you haven’t played for money, then you haven’t really played cards.”
Sarai rolled her eyes. “Guilders.”
Janai rubbed her hands together and grinned. “I wonder what the buy-in is?”
Sarai elbowed her sister. “Leave it to you to be familiar with such a thing.”
“Are you saying you didn’t play when you were in the ranks?”
“That’s different. That’s between soldiers.”
Janai rolled her eyes.
The five of them went to the food table that had several trays of different kinds of cheese and bread. There were also bowls of crunchfruit, wine berries, and others.
Wren took a crunch fruit and rinsed it in some water and wiped it with a cloth and took a healthy bite. She looked around by the door. “I wonder how long it will take her to pick out clothing.”
“With her stomach growling like that, I don’t imagine long,” Daena mused with a smile.
Wren smiled with her. She looked to Bannor. “If we have to, do you think we can find this genemar thing without her help?”
“Probably,” he answered. “What we need her most for is what she knows about the Chyrith and the Baronians. I think it will be a while before she develops any powers that are useful to our search.”
“I wonder what she can do,” Daena said. “I mean, do you think she will have nola powers like us?”
He shrugged. “She certainly has the energy for it. Enough for you, me, and a hundred like us.”
“Why is that?” Daena asked. “Can one tao be bigger than another?”
“Definitely,” he said. “Your tao is far stronger than mine, denser so to speak—” He looked at her with one eye closed. “As you well know.”
Daena caught her breath, her face reddened and she rubbed the back of her head. “Oh, right—I forgot.”
“What makes one tao stronger than another you suppose?” Wren asked. “Why does she have so much more tao energy than you or I?”
“Mostly from the joining; when she and Hella merged, her tao absorbed Hella’s spirit and life-energy. Remember you were saying how savants receive the broadcast energy through that link to Eternity I talked about?”
Wren nodded.
“Daena now has two links. Her link to Eternity like we have, she barely uses now. She has a bigger one that sits right on top of Starholme. Even though she doesn’t use it, the idle power alone is enough to make her a lot stronger than you or I. After Kell messed with her, the link was opened up considerably. The presence of all that power is gradually changing her tao.”
“Change?” Wren stared at him. “What do you mean?”
“You know your tao doesn’t stay the same, right? The threads and patterns get more complex with age and the amount of power you use.”
She tilted her head. “Really? Are spirits that way?”
“Spirits grow too,” he said. “Now, this is just from observing people of different ages. The spirits of great elders like Loric and Aarlen are many times stronger than an average person. However, the difference they gain over the thousands of summers of life is smaller than what we can gain in a year or so.”
“Whoa, I never realized the difference was that huge.”
“In that way, we far surpass normal people, yes,” he admitted. “Wielded by the right person, even a tiny bit of spirit energy can do a lot. These elders not only have more spirit power but are dozens of times more efficient with it. So, they can do things that we can’t even though we’re spiritually more powerful. The main thing that sets us apart is how quickly we can increase our power. Simply using your nola and pushing your limits makes your tao stronger. Kind of the same way that exercise makes your muscles stronger.”
“I never realized,” Wren said. “I also never realized you knew so much about it!”
He scrubbed a hand in his hair. “It’s not what I know really. Some of my understanding is from some of the stuff on energy that Mercedes crammed in my head. I had her teach me how to do that energy thing you were doing to treat Sarai.” He looked to his wife-to-be. “Kind of a waste now that she doesn’t need it.”
“If you know how to do that,” Sarai said, raising her chin. “It won’t go to waste.” She smiled. “Trust me.”
His brow furrowed. “Huh?”
“Never mind.”
Bannor caught a movement out of the corner of his eye and turned to look. Gaea had appeared in the archway, her elbows held by the two males of the Kergatha family and flanked Euriel and Idun. She wore a jeweled hair net over her extremely long black hair that had been brushed out to a glossy luster. She wore a deep cut violet blouse and skirt that were chased with gold brocade. Strangely, her feet were still bare. Why would that be?
As he watched the goddess move he had to draw a breath. Perhaps it was just the programming down deep in his body, but seeing her like this made a stirring in him that he only felt with Sarai.
He noticed that she seemed to affect a lot of people in the room even though she hadn’t done anything to attract attention to herself. All of the valkyries looked up, and after only a few seconds rose to their feet and faced her. Caldorian and Sebenreth openly goggled at her. The Kriar seemed the least affected by her presence, but even those ancient creatures with their powerful minds turned to look at her.
Bannor gazed at the all-mother and realized that somehow that amazing amount of life-force had increased even further. What was holding that body together? Brow furrowed, he studied her even as she moved into the room. He felt her attention on him. He was still lost in the myriad of threads spinning around the green mother as she stepped right up to him. Maybe he was mistaken. Perhaps she just appeared to have that much power. The material threads of her flesh showed no signs of fatigue or stress.
“Son Ba
nnor?” He was so focused that he jerked when she put a hand on his shoulder and peered into his eyes. His sudden movement made her flinch. “Oh.” She leaned back and smiled. “Is all that concern and attention for me?”
“Yes,” he said. He let out a breath. “You seem to be walking better.”
She raised her chin. “I am.” She looked down at her feet and wiggled her toes. “Don’t like shoes though. I feel much more secure with them off.” She looked to Wren. “Did you have some time to relax? You seemed tense.”
Wren pursed her lips and brushed at her long blonde hair. “Perhaps you should eat something.”
“Thank you, I will.” She looked at the table behind them. She pushed away from Azir and Vanidaar, walked past Wren and stood at the buffet, gazing down at the trays of comestibles.
Bannor glanced around the chamber. The individuals who had stood up and focused on Gaea’s entrance were relaxing and going back to what they were doing.
He looked back to Gaea. She stood with her green hands pressed together and staring at each item on the table in turn. From her expression, she was completely lost. She had no idea what she was looking at.
Wren stepped up by her shoulder. “Would you like me to pick something for you?”
Gaea glanced at her, dark jewel-like eyes wide. “Please.”
The blonde savant started to reach for some bread, changed her mind and picked out a large ripe honey berry, glistening with gold dewy juice. “Try this. It’s called honey berry.” She handed it to her.
The goddess accepted the fruit and just gazed at it.
Wren leaned closer and tapped her own lips with her index finger and pantomimed biting.
Tentatively, Gaea opened her mouth, found the berry and bit down slowly.
She just stared at Wren mouth not moving. Wren took a fruit from the bowl bit into and chewed.
Gaea mimicked the chewing after a moment. The expression on her face changed from one of study to one of delight. She looked down at the berry and bit into it again.
Reality's Plaything 5: The Infinity Annihilator Page 6