Gerard growled, “That’s crazy. You’ll die if you go out there.”
I shook my head, “You don’t understand, on my world there are no goblins, she doesn’t know about evil races. Most likely they attacked her when she arrived, she enslaved them, and then had the crazy idea of using them to help her find me. On my world, this scene would just be Tuesday night’s entertainment on the news. She won’t hurt me, and she’ll kill anyone who tries.”
Both Gerard and Cynthia looked confused, as if they couldn’t comprehend it. Of course they couldn’t, my old world was far different from this one. I just knew I had to go talk to my mom, and try to explain to her she had to behave here. It wasn’t a game on this world.
Easier said than done. I’d been so afraid I was a disappointment to them when I didn’t display enough aggression like a supervillain should back home. Now I had to not only make that stand, but also convince my parents that on this world they had to do the same. Maybe not be good, but at least not be evil?
I was so doomed.
I leaned in and kissed his cheek, “Trust me, I’ll be right back.”
Gerard sighed, “I do trust you Katrina, but I don’t like this. This is an invasion… not, what did you call it? Entertainment.”
I nodded, took off up into the sky, and headed toward my mother, who sat on the ship. I wondered if it could go into space. I was mentally prepared for attacks from the goblins, and felt guilty I wasn’t already killing them, but right now they were in a stalemate, neither side seemed to be making any progress in the siege.
Still I was ready, if they tried to shoot me with arrows, or a spell, I’d retaliate quickly. Apparently though, this day just hadn’t been strange enough yet.
One of the goblins pointed at me and turned toward my mother.
“I found her!” he screamed.
All the other goblins looked up and then cheered, and then they bowed, to me. I looked back up at my mother in disbelief as I got close, and she was smiling. So was dad, and I rolled my eyes when I saw him judging the appropriateness of my riding outfit. I was sure he’d never mourn the death of my black, skin tight cat suit.
When I landed, she hugged me tightly, and I started to cry. It was all so crazy, but seeing her again was too much.
She pushed me back and held me by my shoulders. There were tears in her eyes too, and her voice was thick with emotion, “Let me look at you. You look good Kat, we have a lot to catch up on.”
I nodded, “Umm, like the invasion?”
She snorted, and ordered a retreat. I calmed down a little as the goblins started running south, and was about to explain about Gerard, but before I could the ship lifted us up high into the sky, and shot off to the south like a bullet… Gerard was going to kill me.
I was ecstatically happy to have my mother and father back, but I was also confused as my two worlds collided. How could I explain to my parents that I not only had a fiancé, but worked for a goddess? That it was my duty to destroy evil, which she’d apparently made into her minions.
How could I explain to Gerard, Edea, and Cynthia, not to mention Danielle and the goddess, about my parents, and what they were like. That they weren’t evil. Worse, my parents were on a new world, and like me they were the ones that would have to change, not Gerard, or the people of Trelin, they would have to. I just… couldn’t actually see them doing that, changing I mean.
So, I was ecstatically happy, confused, conflicted, and scared all at the same time. I just hoped Gerard could deal with all this, if I lost him, I don’t know what I’d do.
I had the sense though, to send out two telepathic messages before I got out of range. One to Gerard to say I’d be back after I talked to my parents, and the second to Edea, so she didn’t think I’d abandoned her. We moved about fifty miles before we slowed down, and then landed in a courtyard.
Chapter Three
There were tents and camp fires, with several goblins around. I guessed the ones she took with her wouldn’t get back for about eight hours if they ran the whole way. There was also the loud noise of drilling, and I saw several robots with construction gear. I supposed the ship wasn’t enough, my mother was building a true mad scientist lair.
The ceiling of the ship opened, and we floated down to the deck. I closed my eyes in pleasure and felt immediately ashamed for my hedonistic response to the air conditioning.
My mother said, “I want to know everything, including about that boy you kissed, and the symbol around your neck. Don’t tell me your worshipping one of those powerful beings that pass themselves off as gods here.”
I snorted, “Powerful beings beyond mortality is the definition of a god mother.”
She scoffed, “One of them tried to recruit me. Slimy thing, I told him to… well never mind that right now, let’s get a drink, sit, and talk. I want to hear all about your last three weeks, and to tell you about what we were up to.”
I smiled, “I’d like that mom, dad,” and then I hugged my father. He was never one for physical affection because of our powers, but I had my shields up and wasn’t leaking, so he hugged me back.
We went down the hall and into a lounge area, with soft black leather couches. I sighed as we sat, and my mother sat right next to me and gave me a penetrating look, while my father made us all a latte. It was a bittersweet moment, everything I’d missed was right here except my friends, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to stay here long. I’d be able to visit in the future, but my life was in Trelin, and with Gerard. I wasn’t a little girl anymore, a shallow want to be hero that was graduating high school.
It’d only been three weeks, but those three weeks had been profound for me. Of course, that didn’t mean I couldn’t teleport in a couple of times a week, but the idea of associating with goblins in any way made it feel wrong. Then again, if my mother could keep them leashed, wasn’t that a good thing? Assuming she doesn’t use them to try to take over the world that is.
I took the hot drink and sipped it, “Thanks dad.”
My mom grinned, “So, who was the cute guy in the armor?”
I giggled, “Gerard. He’s umm, my fiancé. A lot has happened, I know a lot of time passed for you, much more for you than me, but I’m not that girl who wore clothes too tight to rebel, and didn’t know how to make a stand. I… love you and missed you both more than I can say.”
My father glared at me, and I laughed, “He’s a good man dad, the best.”
She nodded, “We won’t get anywhere if we skip around, start from the beginning, and don’t leave anything out.”
I did just that, minus my more intimate moments with Gerard. I went over everything since I woke up with a head injury in the jail cell, until I came back to Southwater with Edea and to help Gerard. I didn’t flinch when I talked about good and evil, the gods who were good, elves, magic, or my decisions.
I almost cried when I finished, because they looked proud of me, if a little worried as well at all I’d done, and the true danger I’d been in. My mother was especially proud of my control, learning to teleport, and the other things I’d learned to do with telekinesis and summoning. My mother also suggested a few things, since teleportation was quantum in nature, I should be able to do a few more things with it, that wouldn’t be stopped by a mage’s shields.
The problem was, the suggestions were so abstract in nature I wasn’t really sure I understood them. The only one that made sense, was that I should be able to teleport someone even if they’re shielded. Which meant I could kill them. Still, I was sure I was just as vulnerable, unless they threw physical things at me like fire and the other elements, I wouldn’t be able to stop them.
They also didn’t seem at all surprised about this world’s true evil and good. I guessed they’d learned that already, come to think of it, dad would have picked it up from the goblins as easily as I had. His telepathy wasn’t nearly as strong as mine, but the goblins weren’t exactly a subtle race.
They both seemed to want to meet with Gerard as well, esp
ecially my father, which was a bit worrying.
“Your turn, what happened?”
She hugged me, which was new in a way. I felt guilty for what I’d put them through, at the same time now that they were here I wouldn’t change a thing. I fit in on this world, harsher as it was, far better than I’d fit in at my old home.
“It was hard, and your father was very mad at me at first. I stopped trying to take out Omega, it didn’t seem all that important anymore to gain those bragging rights. I knew you were figuratively caught in amber, time wise I mean, in comparison to how fast we were moving, so I knew we had time to prepare before we came here, but at the same time we missed you a lot. But I knew this place had no electricity, and was backwards, though I didn’t know they had magic and gods at the time.
“I changed my focus to my lab almost exclusively. It took me over thirty-five years to prepare, this ship has a dimensional drive on it, which is similar to the device I used that day, like a bow and arrow is similar to a cruise missile. The ship also has a fusion power source which will last a millennia, along with electro-magnetic shields, anti-gravity systems, and a decent lab and living space. I also set up some automated robots for mining and for building what we’ll need to survive here.”
I almost laughed at that, but then I thought of hot showers, and electricity.
Dad said, “We were in a hurry, but we realized even spending several minutes here, if we found you that fast, would be hundreds of years back home. The ship can take us back, but we also wanted to be prepared to stay if things didn’t quite go to plan, which turned out to be a good idea. This world isn’t too bad, and we don’t have much competition.”
She nodded in agreement, “I know I’m not exactly roses and sunshine, but I’m glad the so called goddess you ran into was one of the good higher beings. When we came through it all went wrong, you weren’t in range of the ships sensors, and we were attacked by the primitive goblins. We decided then by the time we found you it would be too late to go back, the world we left behind would no longer be there. I’m still working out the kinks, but it wasn’t hard to just ignore them from inside the ship behind the shields, until I’d formulated a mind control agent that would work. After I started to implant them all, one of those evil gods must have noticed my activity because he approached me.
“Said he’d help me take over the world, and destroy the human plague to the north. Well, I might be a supervillain but I wasn’t having any of that crap. I told him to take a hike, and that if I rule the world it will be on my terms. The first time one of the mage goblins broke through the control and tried to kill me, I almost died, as my disintegrate ray took several seconds to break through some kind of magical shield. I experimented with a few other goblin mages until I came up with the sonic pulse weapon which works like a charm.
“It took us a couple of weeks to get the mining and building bots working, and to consolidate and control the area. Then we headed north to try and find you, but none of the people had a clue in Southwater who you were. My scanners showed the spot you came through, and you were nowhere to be found. The world is a big place and we had no idea where to start looking. We decided making a lot of noise would bring you back down to the border faster than we could find you. So, we rounded up the goblins we were controlling, and have been attacking the city the last couple of days, and boom, it worked, because here you are.”
I nodded slowly, “You know, they see you as evil now. I know you could have flattened the village without effort, but they don’t. All they know is you were working with evil beings.”
She snorted, “Working with? No, they’re under tight control, and I’ll have the failure rate down to .3 percent soon. I didn’t let them run off and attack farmers either, and mostly goblins died in the raid, only a few goblin arrows got lucky on the walls, and that man of yours was able to heal most of those according to the scans I was making.”
Even a few deaths were too many to me, but I let it drop. My parents were never concerned about collateral damage as supervillains back home. They’d planned the best they could to keep casualties at an absolute minimum, but that was the most I could ever expect from them.
I sighed, “So… what are your plans then, are you going to come up north where people are?”
Her father shook his head, “You fit in here Kat, and we made a mistake in not encouraging you to take your own path. We should have just let you be a hero, instead of constantly browbeating you to be a better supervillain. I figured that out twenty-five years ago, my time. We’re too old to change, if we go up there we’ll try and take over any nearby town. Here, we can be ourselves, and rule over the goblins. In a way, we’ll even be heroes doing it, because we can keep them from raiding, enslaving, and raping the locals.”
She smiled, “Your father’s right, maybe we’ll take over the whole kingdom of Chilik. We get to do what we want, aren’t beholden to anyone, and we won’t even have to feel guilty when one of the evil little bastards die in our games.”
I tried to wrap my head around that. Be supervillains but ultimately good because they’ll be terrorizing evil? I wasn’t sure if that passed the smell test or not, but it was a lot better than the alternative. I couldn’t imagine facing off against my parents, and if they attacked Trelin, we’d be on opposite sides.
She added sternly, “But! We want you and your man to visit often, and I better get a damned invitation to your wedding. I mean, it’s the whole reason we banished ourselves, to be near our amazing daughter. If umm, your goddess will let us in her temple,” she trailed off sounding unsure.
I laughed, “I think that can be arranged, like you said, you’re not evil, not really. Just, don’t attack Southwater anymore just to get my attention.”
She stuck her tongue out, “I’m still the mother in this relationship young lady,” then she pulled out a miniature cell phone and tossed it to me, “Don’t lose that, and I won’t have to.”
I was guessing it wasn’t really a cell phone, since there were no cell towers on this world.
“How does it work?”
She replied, “Entangled particles. I’ll make another one for Gerard, so you two can keep in touch when you get sent off in different directions. Don’t think I missed that part of your story, but it will take a few days, I only made the three to begin with. The power source will last for weeks, idle and talk time included, no power draw difference. But it’s one more reason for you to drop in on us every so often, this ship is currently the only source of electricity on this mud ball. Just being inside the ship will charge the super capacitors in moments.”
I smiled, “I didn’t need the extra reason, but I’ll take it. Thanks mom.”
Then I teased, “The latte is reason enough.”
I’d have expected them to be much more upset with me, after what I’d done. I still thought it was the right thing to do, but when I’d done it, it had been for the wrong reasons. I could hardly believe I was that girl just three weeks ago. But I supposed after thirty-five years they were over it, and just glad to see me. They weren’t even all that freaked out over me being engaged, but I knew my father at least had reservations there.
She said, “You should go fill in Gerard, and make sure those folks up north are okay with this. I’d hate there to be… any misunderstandings. Your father and I have a kingdom to conquer. It should fill in the boredom while I wait for our new building and lair to be finished. Lots more goblin tribes to catch, not to mention orcs, ogres, and so called demons.”
I snorted, “Fine, I’ll try and explain all this craziness. You might want to wait though, I have a few histories you might want to look at. Especially the one about Chilik, I’ll try and read it tonight and get it to you. Goblin mages aren’t that powerful, and there are a few evil mages and witches down here that are extremely powerful with magic, powerful enough that they’re left alone and not hunted down to be punished as they deserve. Please don’t underestimate them. The shields on the ship are powerful, and can
block a fireball, but would it block a magical curse made of pure magic?”
She sighed and turned to my dad, “I am the mom here right? This isn’t some weird alternate world where our daughter birthed me?”
I giggled, “Yes mom. Doesn’t mean I can’t worry about you. There are no jails on this world, failure doesn’t mean a three-day stint in the pokey until you escape, it means you’re dead.”
She nodded with false contriteness, and said sarcastically, “Yes mother.”
I stuck my tongue out at her, it seemed appropriate…
Chapter Four
I teleported back, and appeared above the town about five hundred feet up, and sent out a telepathic wave. It had taken a few hours to answer all their questions. Strangely enough, them telling me about over thirty years took a lot shorter than me telling them about my three weeks.
But then, they were the parents and all, I wasn’t allowed to put them through the third degree.
Point was, I doubted Gerard was still on the wall. I felt him and Cynthia in the inn on the ground floor, along with the mayor who I hadn’t met last time. I just knew he was a mage, as all the nobles under the king were. Magic could be random, but as I’d found out it can also run in families. I didn’t feel Edea, and I couldn’t help but look toward the north west, but I knew I couldn’t check on her and that she’d send word when she could.
Witches were private, and easily spooked, best to stay away.
I floated slowly toward the ground, and landed at the inn. A few people gave me a second look, and then dismissed me from their minds as I walked into the inn. The place was packed, and I maneuvered my way toward the table he was sitting at with Cynthia and the mayor, I couldn’t help the smile on my face when he looked up and saw me.
The relief and love that surged from him to me made me weak in the knees, and he stood up and pulled me into an embrace. Then he kissed me, and far from chastely. I resisted at first, a little embarrassed at the PDA, but his arms were like iron around me, though I was cradled in them like I was made of glass, and eventually I just gave into it and kissed him back. I used a little projective empathy to let him know exactly how much I’d missed him.
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