by Matthew Peed
When I was sure the rage moment was over, I slowly released the barrier with a breath of relief. I turned to Ignea. “What happened?”
“Hold one.” She flew over to Alara, then whispered, “I’ll be right back. I promise.” She faded from sight but returned in less than twenty seconds. She had another fairy with her that was more what I thought fairies should look like. “Lena, what happened?”
“I feared this. A few days ago, weird shadows started to form in the dungeon. Things . . . things that happened to Mother in the past. They were happening all over the dungeon.”
“The time illusions!” I said. They had been getting worse here. Everyone was doing their best to ignore them, but that was a tall order. We weren’t sure how it worked, but the images were almost always related to the observer in some way, unless it dealt with the valley at large. A party refused to enter the dungeon, as they kept seeing a member who’d died a few weeks ago.
“I should have figured they would affect your dungeon as well. Sorry I didn’t warn you, Lena,” Ignea said, bowing her head.
“No. I understand. It’s just hard for Mother. Such terrible things were done over the decades. So many people were killed,” Lena explained, moving over to hug Alara. Alara came out of her huddle and pulled her into her arms.
“I’m so sorry, Alara. You can stay here if that will help.” I moved toward her carefully. I’d never really interacted with her outside of Regan’s presence. I wasn’t sure if this was a safe course of action, but if I was near her, I reasoned I should be able to hold her until she calmed down.
She turned to look at me. Her expression had gone completely emotionless. I pulled my hand back, worried I might upset her again.
“Regan trusts you. I will trust . . . you,” she said finally. She moved over and sat in the corner of the room, curling into a ball again.
“Will her dungeon be ok?” I asked Lena, who was crying at the sight of her mother.
She wiped away the tears and turned to me. “I will handle it. I’ll let you know if something happens that requires help. Lord Regan’s forces are still protecting us, so we should be safe for a while.”
I glanced over to Alara’s figure. “That’s good to hear. Damn it, Regan. You can’t afford to disappear like this.”
Chapter 11
Regan
The world came back to me in the form of a splitting headache. I gripped my temples as the pain grew for a second before it faded to a dull ache in the back of my head. With the pain fading, I realized that there was . . . less. My senses were more on par with when I was human. I was only aware of myself.
I froze, a deluge of memories rushing into my head. This was the fiftieth time I had returned to this moment. In a moment, I’d etched the Stasis spell I had managed to work out on the . . . tenth playback onto my staff, then jumped to my feet, bringing everyone on the deck back online. With a tap of my staff, I sent a wave of mana throughout the ship to bring everyone else back online.
“We have ten minutes! Realign the sensors. Quickly!” I shouted before concentrating on the engineering bay. Teleporting, I made it there in mostly one piece. I glanced at my ring finger on my left hand. It had decayed to dust during the spell. For three of the loops, I had worked solely on getting the spell to work. I frowned but disregarded it, rushing to the reactor. I shoved my hand inside and forced exactly one hundred million two hundred thousand and fifty-nine mana into the primer core.
With a surge of new mana, the reactor flared to life. I pulled my hand out before it could be incinerated and quickly moved over to the console, reactivated the shields, and set the ship to maneuver over to the Hydin, a similarly-sized ship in the fleet.
“Sensors back online, sir!”
“Begin calibrating the shield to these settings.” I quickly typed the equation onto the screen on the console and sent it to the bridge. “Once you’re done, have the sensors feed the targeting information to the comms. It should take exactly forty seconds. You are to then begin pulsing the shields at a rate of a four count. Once you’ve done that three times, bring all weapons online, targeting this position.” I sent coordinates to the first officer in a separate screen.
“Sir?” she asked.
“Just do it. I’ll explain later!” I ordered and closed the comms. I moved over to the hatch that led to the void. Activating the airlock, I moved to the outside of the ship. The energy of the space-time conduit or subspace or whatever we were in pulsed around us. While I stood on the hull of the ship, the shields suddenly pulsed, releasing a burst of mana.
Pinpoints of light began to appear as the pulse reactivated the automata on the other ships. I remotely sent a formation for them to move into once their engines were operational. With the flagship’s reactor back online, we could use it to jump-start the rest of the fleet. Thankfully, most were a fraction of the size of the main ship.
I ran along the hull until I reached the ship’s main cannon. Directing my staff at it, I began carving new runes and magic script on the surface. I only had three more minutes, or I would have to go through this all over again. While it appeared to be a time loop, I was sure that things weren’t that simple.
For one, whatever was maintaining this . . . “space” could collapse at any minute. The question was whether it would spit us back out into regular space, or we would just cease to exist. Even if I could feel my link back to my cores, I clearly couldn’t access it. The last thing I wanted was to turn into a vegetable because my consciousness was torn to shreds here.
With a twist of my wrist, I finished the scripting. The weapon began to pulse with a cyber-blue light. A flash in the distance signaled the arrival of the constructs’ vessel. On the thirty-third loop, we’d managed to get some relatively accurate readings on it. It matched the missing mass of the moon perfectly. Without pause, it fired on the nearest ships to it. I cursed and worked to ready the next phase of the weapon.
In the five minutes it took, half the fleet was destroyed. Their shields were operational, but the twisted space we were in caused the effects to vary. At times they would work normally, while other times they would repel the energy fire back at the enemy ship. More often than not, the fire would pass through the shield without issue.
“Fire! Hold them off for another four minutes!” I shouted through the comms. The ships that were operable directed their weapons at the massive ship, but it had little effect. One of my ships shot forward, and I realized they were doing a kamikaze run. I shouted for them to stop, but it was too late. It slammed into a barrier surrounding the construct ship, and the resulting explosion managed to damage the ship inside the barrier. Pieces of it fell away into space.
I looked around and sighed. Most of my fleet had already been decimated. I thought about how to proceed in the next loop. Obviously, I needed more time. I glanced at the retrofitted weapon I was working on. I wouldn’t be able to finish it in time this loop either. In the remaining time, I thought about changes I could make to accelerate the process.
I flipped off the enemy vessel, then tapped my staff. The safety measures of the reactor ceased, and the mana reacted to the strange space we were in. A second later there was a blast that ripped through the space around us. “Next time.”
~~~
Memories rushed into my head as soon as I opened my eyes. This was the hundredth loop. I immediately teleported to engineering while sending a signal through the comms. Using the ships sensors, I was able to broadcast the signal throughout the fleet with what little power there was still in the system.
I shoved my hand into the reactor, simultaneously calibrating the weapon via linking with the ship. I pulled my hand free exactly when it flared to life. Teleporting again, I began scripting the weapon, using each finger as a separate etching tool. I finished the second phase in only two minutes.
Without wasting a single movement, I ripped open the panel over what would be the heart of the energy-based weapon. Pulling the mana stone out, I inserted one of my subcores. I
glanced at the spot in the distance—still four minutes before the enemy appeared. I linked my subcore to the weapon and allowed the ship to begin feeding it mana.
When there was enough, I activated the core. The aura flooded out much faster than it had when it had started from zero. Soon, over fifty kilometers of the space were encompassed in the aura. I felt my mind snap to the core and regained the omnipotent view I normally had.
Right on time, the enemy vessel appeared. I tapped my staff on the ship, and all the weapons on every ship in the fleet activated at once. A barrage of weapons fire careened into the construct ship. Explosions and bursts of light made it impossible to see the vessel. I knew we weren’t causing any damage to it, but it kept them from firing on the fleet.
While the fleet continued to fire, I moved them back so that I could use the shield emitters to configure the barrier to encompass the entire fleet. This allowed it to take much more damage while being supplied by mana from dozens of points.
Chapter 12
Louella
Having Alara in my office was only distracting for the first hour. After that it quickly became strange. She managed to pull herself out of the ball and was now looking over my arm as I worked on paperwork. I couldn’t decide if she reminded me of a child or was just being nosy.
“Interested?” I asked finally. I just couldn’t take it anymore.
She looked at me but didn’t give me an answer, just turned to look back at the glass tablet. I sighed, then pulled open a drawer on the desk, retrieved another glass tablet, and handed it to her. She gave me a grin and hugged it to her chest before running back to her corner.
I shook my head but jerked back as a shadowy body flew through my desk and kept going until it traveled through the ceiling. I wasn’t sure, but I thought it was a phoenix. This was really getting annoying.
While I worked, Gulv made his way in and took his spot around my neck. He’d been irritated by something the last few days, but I wasn’t sure what. I still couldn’t really understand the little spirit, but I did my best.
“My lady?” a voice called from the hallway. I looked up to see one of my assistants at the door. I motioned for her to enter.
“What is it?” I asked, setting my tablet down.
“They have a suspicious gentleman in holding that they believe you should see,” she said quickly.
“Why do they need me?” I asked. Ezal handled all that.
“Because of his race, my lady. It’s the same as yours,” she replied carefully.
My eyes widened at that, then held my hand out and Helios flew into it. “I’ll be there in a moment. At the portal site, yes?” I said and she nodded. “Lady Alara, will you be ok for a while by yourself?”
The dungeon core, so engrossed with the tablet, barely nodded. Dungeon cores and magic. They were probably the only race that could learn from only studying something like this once or twice. It would take some of the royal mages a decade to recreate the magic used in it.
I opened a portal over to the holding building near the portals. Several dozen guards surrounded it with their weapons at the ready. I could sense a very dense aura coming from inside the building and motioned for the guards to remain calm as I made my way inside. Moving down to the interrogation room, I found Ezal waiting in the hall.
“What do you know?” I asked, cutting to the chase.
“Not much. He came from Steel Spire two days ago. He didn’t pass the test to get into the valley. He’s not a necromancer, but he won’t tell us his intentions either. This morning his aura changed, and well . . .” She motioned into the room. A one-sided mirror allowed us to see inside it.
A man with light blue skin sat with his arms crossed. He possessed twisted pointed ears like mine. Other than that, he reminded me of an elder who hadn’t had breakfast yet. If I were to place his age, I’d have guessed between fifty and seventy years. Though, I felt I noticed a type of youthful energy that came off him every now and then.
A flaming raven was sitting on his shoulder, and they appeared to be having a conversation. I thought I’d seen a lot of weird things since Regan had come into my life, but this was certainly out there. The dense aura I had felt from outside the retention building was clearly emanating from this man.
I turned back to the others. “I’ll go and have a talk with him. Hopefully, he’ll be cooperative.”
“I’m not sure that’s safe, but we have little choice in the matter,” Ezal said, clearly upset.
“You said he came from Steel Spire. Then Regan likely knew about him and let him be.”
I moved over to the door and placed my hand on the panel next to it. A surge of mana traveled through my hand into the panel, and the door unlocked. With a nod to the others, I moved into the room. The man and raven ceased their conversation when they heard the door open.
“It’s about time!” he said but fell silent when he saw me. He stared at me as I moved to take a seat opposite him.
“Sir Rens, correct?” I asked after a good thirty seconds of silence had passed.
“Indeed. And you, young lady?” he asked, seemingly coming back to himself.
“You may call me Lady Louella. I am the queen of Vaihdetta.”
“Seriously . . . what has happened on the surface?” he mumbled, so quietly that I barely heard him.
I decided to call him out on it. “Surface?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Caw!” the raven issued at Gulv, who I realized was still wrapped around me.
“Hiss!” Gulv replied.
“You are just full of surprises. I can’t believe I would find one of us out on the surface. Though, I can see you’re quite young, so you likely haven’t been affecting the ambient mana enough for us to see you,” Rens said, leaning back in the chair.
“Who are you, sir?” I asked, not wanting to play any more games. This man knew about my race and, given the few clues I’d seen so far, was likely from the Beneath. That meant he was dangerous.
“Oparens Wanderer, at your service Your Highness, though you can call me Rens. You may call the raven Qez. He is closer than even some of my friends back home,” Rens said with an elegant bow.
“That didn’t really answer my question,” I retorted, crossing my arms over my chest.
“That it did not. I have come from the city of Fallen Rose due to an event that took place a little over a month ago. A wave of energy, mostly composed of terra mana, made contact with our subterranean home, nearly destroying us. I have come to the surface to find the cause, as well as to ascertain the situation of the surface.”
“Fallen Rose. City of wonders and magic . . .” I said, maybe a little more cynically than I meant to.
“Indeed. Still I haven’t been to the surface in over a hundred and fifty years, though quite an advanced nation has developed in the meantime. How long has Vaihdetta been around? Fifty years? A hundred?” Rens asked as he reached forward to take a sip from the tea that was prepared for him before I arrived.
“Two months,” I replied absentmindedly while I thought about what he told me.
Rens spit his tea out and jerked forward. “TWO MONTHS! Even that tower in the forest should have taken years if not decades to build!” he shouted, slamming his fist on the table.
“Well . . . dungeon cores . . .” I said, glancing at the top of his staff. Even I could feel the power coming from it. Having seen Regan’s core multiple times, I recognized the sensation.
“So, we are in a core here as well. I thought as much but never got the chance to check,” Rens said, glancing toward the mirror on the wall. “I’m surprised the mortals let one of a High Race rule them, though. I thought there were myths and legends about the disaster that would bring.”
“So, I am a High Race human, then?” I asked. I had never been sure. I’d asked Father but he only said my mother was assuredly human, though he could have been lying. He was locked up in a cell and not very inclined to answer questions. I guess it was as Regan said. Someone in the
far past in my family had been from the High Race.
Rens cupped his chin as he regarded my face from multiple angles. I narrowed my eyes, wondering what he could be looking for. I didn’t like people trying to find answers from my body when I didn’t know what they were seeking.
“Yes. I’d say from the Airs branch likely. The old hag will be happy to learn her line still flourishes on the surface.”
“Wait, wait, wait. You’re telling me I have an ancestor from where you came from?” I asked, getting more bewildered by the minute. Right now, the only family I had were my father, who I honestly would rather see dead, and my brother, who I’d not seen in a long time. I wasn’t even sure he was still alive, given the undead scar.
“I can’t be sure without some of the tests we have back in Fallen Rose, but there is a definite resemblance. And yes, we can live to be extreme ages. I, for example, am three hundred and sixty-five years old. I may not look like I’ve aged well, but that is for a personal reason.”
I leaned back as I quickly processed the information. I didn’t believe him, not without proof. But it would not behoove me to deny him outright. If Regan was an example, there was no way of knowing what was out there. I could feel the power that slept in my mana pool and would not have been surprised if someone of the same race could live to be several centuries old.
“So . . . what has the ambassador from Fallen Rose decided so far?” I asked. He had dropped the city’s name. If he was going to play that game, then I would too. If he was going to use the name, then I would make his actions correlate to their image. It would also allow me to keep a closer eye on him in the guise of protecting him.
Rens grinned. “That is still in the air. I have yet to find the cause of the terra wave that struck my homeland. It also looks like a lot of interesting things are happening on the surface. Lastly, it is the first time that one of our kind has managed to be in the same location as another and the area does not start to experience interesting effects. Even with a dungeon involved, I’m amazed that the host of this one can handle the excess tainted mana we’re putting off.”