by John Corwin
"David!" Mom rolled her eyes. "Please forgive him, Legiaros. He's not much on formalities."
Ivy reached a tentative hand toward the gem Ketiss wore on his chest. "That's pretty. What does it do?"
"It's for communications." I waved off further questions. "Let me give him some background before the rest of the war council shows up."
Ivy looked ready to protest, but Mom shushed her with a look.
It took me a moment to figure out where to start. Seraphina seemed like the best place. "My mother and Daelissa were once the best of friends." I crossed my arms and gave Ketiss a second to absorb that.
Aside from looking as if he wanted to throw up, he handled it pretty well. "I see."
I continued the story. I told him how Mom had discovered the way to unlock the Grand Nexus by singing to the Chalon, a small orb which was the key to operating the nexus, and attuning it to different realms. "Alysea and Daelissa entered Eden, the mortal realm, and soon discovered how powerful they became by feeding on the soul essence of humans. Daelissa invited other associates of hers. Before long, the Brightlings had enslaved thousands of humans and were using them to fight wars, all for their sick entertainment."
"I left them when their dreadful games began," Mom said. "I wanted no part in it."
"This is part of our history passed down by the elders," Ketiss said. "I thought the name Alysea sounded familiar."
Mom looked away. "All this mess is my fault. Daelissa was so popular among our friends. I just wanted to impress her." She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment. "Instead, I unleashed an unholy terror on this realm."
Dad patted her back. "You got a handsome husband out of the ordeal, so I'd say we all came out ahead."
Ivy gave Mom a stern look. "You always told me peer pressure was bad."
Mom would get no complaints from me. I wouldn't exist if she'd never opened the nexus. I forged ahead without commenting on Ivy or Dad's statement. "The first human Arcane, Moses, began searching for others who could also use magic in the hopes they could fight the Brightlings. Baal, the demon overlord of Haedaemos, also thought the Seraphim posed a future threat to him. My father and other demons merged with humans to become the first Daemos."
"There are mentions of such factions in the histories." Ketiss furrowed his brow. "I also remember something about humans the Brightlings mutated into creatures who required human blood to live."
"Vampires." During our effort to shut down the Grand Nexus we'd met the original vampires. They were a lot tougher than their descendants. I didn't want to go off on any tangents, however, so I continued the story. "The final battle was fought at the Grand Nexus. Darklings, humans, lycans, felycans, Arcanes, and even dragons fought against Daelissa's forces. Just when the alliance made a final push for the nexus so Alysea could disarm it, a siren by the name of Melea removed the Chalon from the nexus. The shockwave drained the light from those caught in it, reducing them to dark husks. This is what our side calls the Desecration. Your people refer to it as the Schism."
"One of the Primogenitor's builders caused the Schism?" Ketiss gripped his hair as if he planned to pull it out. "I thought you told me the Brightlings were the cause."
I felt really bad for the guy especially with the next bit of information about to hit him over the head. "Yeah, well, Melea is sort of the adopted sister of a Brightling we're now allied with."
Ketiss blinked a couple times and shook his head. His wrinkled forehead went flat, probably because it was so tired of crinkling with surprise. "This is all so confusing and troubling."
"Tell me about it," a familiar voice said. "I don't understand half of what comes out of his mouth."
I looked right and saw Shelton and Bella standing in the door.
"Oh, you'll adjust." Bella smiled sweetly as she and Shelton approached.
Shelton held out a plateful of doughnuts to Ketiss. "Try one. This is literally the food of the gods."
Ketiss took one and bit into it. "Delicious." He polished it off in a couple more bites. "Might I have another?"
Shelton grabbed another for himself and nodded. "Help yourself." He set the plate on the table.
Ketiss took a cream-filled pastry and bit into it with gusto.
Thomas Borathen, Christian Salazar, and Commander Taylor entered the room. Despite his customary serious expression, Thomas seemed in high spirits. The lycan Alpha, Colin McCloud came in behind them along with a huge man I recognized as the leader of the felycans. Though he'd never offered his real name, everyone had taken to calling him Saber since his preferred feline form was that of a massive saber-toothed cat.
The Templar leaders reached us. Commander Taylor shook my hand. "You've beaten the odds once again, Mr. Slade."
"Aye," McCloud said as he and Saber joined the group. "Mr. Slade has a knack for that."
I extended a hand toward our guest. "This is Legiaros Ketiss of the Tarissan Legion."
Ketiss held out his hand, palm down, fingers splayed. "A pleasure."
The others didn't seem to know what to make of the Darkling greeting. McCloud broke the silence. "This is how we greet each other on this side of the arch, Mr. Ketiss." He gripped the seraph's hand and shook it vigorously.
Ketiss seemed a bit taken aback by the lycan's enthusiasm, but quickly recovered. "Apologies. Commander Slade taught me this greeting, but I have yet to grow accustomed to it."
Captain Takei of the Blue Cloaks entered the room. "Oh, my. You've done it once again, Mr. Slade." He introduced himself to Ketiss and shook his hand a bit more gently than McCloud had. "I'm certainly looking forward to learning more about your people."
"I am very interested in learning about Arcanes." Ketiss looked at the wand Takei wore on his side. "Is it true you channel magic through those?"
"We cast magic." Takei smiled. "I believe we will have very interesting conversations when time permits, Legiaros." He glanced at the door as more people filed inside. "I believe there are others who want to meet you, so I'll find my chair and make room." He took a seat on the left side of the table, pilfering one of Shelton's doughnuts in the act.
I wondered if Takei had heard anything from Kanaan lately. The enigmatic Magitsu master had departed on a covert mission for the Blue Cloaks after our last engagement with Daelissa's forces, presumably to find where Cyphanis Rax was keeping political prisoners.
Kassallandra Assad entered the room flanked by several other Daemos heads of house.
A dreamy look came over Ketiss's face. "Such beauty."
"Yeah, don't let the outside fool you," Dad said. "She's frosty on the inside."
To my great displeasure, Godric Salomon and his wife-slash-daughter entered a moment later with Yuuki Wakahisa by their side. I uttered a silent prayer that Godric wouldn't see me.
He continued to walk with the group, but once they drew near, he did a double take, as if realizing for the first time that I was in the room. "Ah, Kohvaniss, it is a pleasure to see you here. House Salomon once again stands ready to impart its wisdom and guide the alliance in these troubling times."
How about I impart a flying dragon fist punch to your face? Gathering my willpower, I decided to adhere to expected social standards. "We are bettered by your presence." I made sure to look at the others in the group while I said that so Godric, the incestuous attention whore, wouldn't think I was directly addressing him.
Kassallandra curtseyed, her red eyes maintaining contact with mine as she did. Despite our past, I respected her more than the other leaders, though Domitia Calidious ran a close second.
"Greetings, Daemas Assad." I took Kassallandra's proffered hand and pressed it to my forehead, released it. I turned to Domitia. "A pleasure, Daemas Calidious." I repeated the process with the females in the group and then offered formal greetings to the males. Although my Daemos social acumen was still weak, I remembered some of the tips my father had given me.
"Have I heard correctly that you've just returned from Seraphina?" Yuuki asked. The slit in her red dres
s ran all the way up to just below her hip, showing off her firm caramel colored legs. She wore her black hair in an intricate weave and heavy eye makeup enhanced her already large almond-shaped eyes.
"You have." I noticed her and the others eyeing Ketiss as he spoke with the Templar commanders. "I will fill in the details during the meeting." I could tell Godric was itching to open his big mouth again so I quickly turned and headed to the front of the room. It was kind of amazing to think about, but I wasn't even twenty and had probably led more meetings than the CEO of a major company.
Cold gray eyes met mine from across the room as Fjoeruss, aka Mr. Gray, entered the room. My friend Cinder, one of Fjoeruss's golem creations, followed close behind him. Fjoeruss was technically a Brightling, thought he preferred channeling gray Stasis. Cinder hoped to learn the secrets of creating golems from his creator. As part of a deal we'd made with the seraph, Fjoeruss was supposedly teaching such things to Cinder.
Everyone took a seat. I caught Ketiss's eye and motioned him to join me at the front of the room. Shelton stared forlornly at his empty doughnut plate. He tried to rise but Bella gripped his hand and gave him a stern look.
I knocked a fist on the table. The room grew quiet. An expectant air hung heavy around the table as curious eyes met mine. I was the first person affiliated with the good guys who'd gone to Seraphina and returned in thousands of years. Not only that, but I'd returned with an army at my back. I made me feel pretty darned gangsta, like Hannibal or Genghis Khan.
I thought of all sorts of profound things to say, but didn't want to sound like a blow-hard so I kept it simple. "I've been to Seraphina. While there, I made new friends and new enemies." I let my gaze wander over the assembled allies. "Though I've returned with an army we still have tough challenges ahead. We have to supercharge them with human soul essence, and we have to find out how to counter the new army Daelissa has gathered."
I paused to let those words seep in and then launched into my story about the past couple of days. As I described the aether vortexes and floating skylets of Seraphina, Ivy raised her hand and waved it vigorously. Mom pulled down her hand and whispered something to the young girl. Ivy pooched her lips in a pout, but I was glad Mom hadn't let my sister derail the story.
I continued with the meat of the story, reciting it as briefly as possible. I made no mention of my demonic issues or my emotional state. It wouldn't be wise to open up in front of Daemos like Godric and Yuuki, and I was also ashamed of my loss of control.
Once I finished, I summed up my thoughts. "Though Ketiss and his people are experienced veterans, I believe it's vital we invest more people in finding human volunteers."
"We now have fifty revived Darklings who have reached maturity," Cinder said in his calm voice. "The number of volunteers has been more than adequate to help them achieve 'supercharging' as you put it."
I looked at Fjoeruss.
The seraph seemed to anticipate my next question. "I can supply more prisms so Ketiss and his people can feed."
"Prisms?" Ketiss exercised his forehead muscles again with a questioning expression.
Using my arcphone, I projected the image of a Darkling feeding with a prism. "The prisms are small gems which enable Seraphim to feed from both the dark and the light sides of the spectrum."
Ketiss's face went slack with amazement. "This is truly the edge we need." He looked at me. "Do the Brightlings have such devices?"
I shook my head. "Not that I'm aware of." I turned off the image. "Darklings become nauseated when they feed from the dark soul essence of humans. When Brightlings feed, they feel an elated rush. The prisms allow Darklings to balance the flow of soul essence so they don't become nauseated. With training, those Darklings can also channel both Brilliance and Murk."
"It takes many weeks of feeding from humans to saturate a Seraphim," Cinder said. "The longer such saturation has occurred, the more powerful the Seraphim becomes."
"Daelissa is extremely powerful," Fjoeruss said. "But because she feeds exclusively on light soul essence, it has prevented her from achieving her full potential."
I certainly didn't want Daelissa figuring that out.
"Apologies if this is off subject," Commander Taylor said, "but can Seraphim feed on each other?"
"We can, but it doesn't have the same effect as feeding on humans," Mom said. "We aren't supercharged from such an exchange."
"We have hundreds of Templars who will volunteer for feeding duty," Christian Salazar said. "We just have to be sure they aren't drained too much. We don't want to weaken our fighting forces."
"Speaking of which," Thomas said, "our infantry will have a very hard time fighting the Brightling ground forces."
"They were outright slaughtered by the bloody city guard." McCloud didn't mince his words. "Those crystal swords of theirs shattered our steel."
"The First Battalion no longer uses crystal swords," Ketiss said. "Since those swords are charged with Brilliance and absorb magic attacks, we long ago discovered they broke apart once saturated with Murk."
McCloud grunted. "What are they using now, toothpicks?"
"Whatever they're using looks just as deadly." I blew out a breath as I thought about the fight outside the Three Sisters. "It's like their swords have lightning running up and down them."
"Vjaltis," Ketiss said. "Only the archangels use those blades. The front infantry use brightswords and glaives."
That caught Thomas's attention. "Brightswords?"
"They are Brilliance forged, but do not absorb magic," Ketiss said.
Thomas laid a silvery dagger on the table and pushed it to the Legiaros. "Our weapons are aether forged by Arcanes, infusing steel and silver into an alloy. How would they fare against brightswords or vjaltis?"
Ketiss channeled strands of Murk, lifting the dagger from the table and rotating it in midair. He closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them again, the dagger settled back onto the table. "They should withstand the blows from enemy swords quite well, but because they are made of conductive material, they will be very vulnerable to aether charges."
Thomas didn't look pleased with the news. "In other words, the energy from the vjaltis and brightswords will travel through our swords and into our people. They don't actually have to strike us to win."
"I'm afraid so." Ketiss picked up the dagger in his hands. "We adapted to this by infusing our swords with Murk. The opposing charges cancel out each other for a time."
"Are you saying the energy in the swords runs out?" I asked.
Ketiss nodded. "Both their swords and ours recharge by absorbing aether in the air. During an intense swordfight, the energy output is much greater than the rate of recharging."
"How difficult would it be to infuse our swords with Murk?" I asked.
"I would have to ask our crafters," Ketiss said. "The infusion is usually done during forging. It may not be possible to do it to a finished blade."
Thomas tapped on his arctablet and nodded. "Do you have weapons to spare?"
"Not many." Ketiss set down the dagger. "Certainly not enough to equip another army."
I waited to see if Thomas or anyone else had more questions, but the room remained quiet. "I think our next steps are obvious. We need Darkling crafters to examine our arsenal, we need more volunteer feeders, and we need to determine when and where to attack Daelissa."
"Our intel indicates she's at her stronghold in Thunder Rock," Thomas said.
Shelton raised his hand. "I got an idea for upgrading the weapons that won't take any time at all."
All eyes turned to him.
"What would that be?" I asked.
"Duct tape." He motioned at the dagger. "Wrap the handle with a couple layers. It won't completely stop a strong aether charge, but it'll keep the worst from getting through."
"Duct tape?" A bemused frown crossed Ketiss's face.
Thomas seemed to seriously consider the suggestion. "Have you ever tested it before?"
"I had to get inventi
ve on a few bounty hunting missions." Shelton grinned. "Duct tape fixes just about anything."
Thomas tapped on his arctablet. "I sent out a general notice about the duct tape. Perhaps it will work until we can look into Ketiss's solution." He opened his mouth to continue when the comm pendant on his uniform beeped sharply. He touched the pendant. "What's the emergency?"
A voice at the other end answered. "Sir, there is a large army moving northeast from Thunder Rock toward Atlanta."
Thomas bolted to his feet. "Daelissa?"
"Yes, Commander."
"Units?"
"We don't have a full headcount yet, sir, but they have several giant battle golems flattening the forest between Thunder Rock and the city." The voice paused. "We estimate they'll reach populated areas within the hour."
Chapter 20
By the time the Templar finished speaking, everyone was on their feet.
"Scramble the Templars," I said to Thomas. "You have full tactical command." I turned to Ketiss. "I'd like you to ride the command platform with Commander Borathen. You two can coordinate your armies from there."
"Yes, Commander Slade." Ketiss saluted in the Darkling way.
I turned to the others. "Liaison with Commander Borathen for your orders. I need every available fighter between Daelissa and Atlanta within the half-hour."
"I'm not sure how we can accomplish that," Christian said. "Even operating all our omniarches at maximum capacity, we'd be hard pressed to send through so many units."
Commander Taylor spoke. "The Grotto way station might be the answer."
"It's in a densely populated area, and too far north," Thomas replied.
"What about Kobol Prison?" I asked.
The Templar commanders looked at me.
"Is it still standing?" Taylor asked. "I was under the impression the arch there was destroyed by a malaether crucible."
"Only one way to find out," I said. "In the meantime, use every available omniarch to portal our forces in." I pulled up a map and traced a line northeast from Thunder Rock. Daelissa probably knew we'd abandoned the Ranch after her last attack. If that was the case, why were her forces on the move toward Atlanta?