Reality's Plaything 4: Savants Ascendant

by Will Greenway

  “Ah yes, Kriar simplicity,” Aarlen said, stretching out her long body on one of the lower platforms with a weary sigh.

  Murmuring amongst themselves the other members of the team dispersed to similarly take advantage of a place to get off their feet.

  Relax. He wished he could do that as easily. How could he when he was separated from Sarai? He did find himself a spot to sit in the comfortable padding.

  His eyes widened as he remembered that the Baronians had been attacking at home as well. What if they had used those creatures against Kul’Amaron! He tapped Marna’s communication crystal. “Star, Star, are you there? Are you all right?”

  No answer came back immediately and he felt an icy fist clench in his guts. “Star?”

  Images of the damage one of those beasts could inflict on the Elven citadel whirled through his mind. Even the powerful contingent that had come to assist the King and Queen might not be enough against those indestructible brutes.

  “Star!” he yelled.

  There was a crackle in his ear. **Urgh! What? What? What?** Her voice sounded weak and strained. **My One?**

  “Are you all right?”

  **Damn, I’m sorry. I should have called you as soon as they broke off. I got hit really hard and I sat down to rest and just faded out.**

  “Hit!?” He let out, heart lurching in his chest. “Are you okay!?”

  **Easy, my One, easy.** He heard her let out a breath. **You were right about Senalloy. She came out of nowhere and blocked the attack, but the shock blew me right on my arse and mashed me against the wall. Ow.** He could feel her wince. **Mother checked me, I’m fine. What about you?**

  “We almost lost. The Baronians have a new weapon called a coven dreadnaught. It’s big with gold skin. They’re almost indestructible. If you see them there, just get away. One mashed up Daena in battle form like she was made of wax.”

  **Whoa.** He heard her swallow. **Really?**

  “Really.”

  **I’ll pass that along. What are you going to do?**

  “Loric says that each creature is powered by a coven of mages. If we disrupt the coven, the creature will lose its power.”

  **How will you find the coven?**

  “That’s what we’re working on. Meanwhile, we’re trying to make some weapons to match them.”

  **Bannor, I want you to stay safe,** she told him in a growl. **No crazy heroics. I’m counting on you and so is Vhina.**

  “Vhina? You’re going to use the name I suggested?”

  **I thought about it and I like it.** He heard a smile in her voice. **Our daughter needs a strong name.**

  He sighed. “I love you. I’ll stay as safe as I can.”

  **I’ll do the same and pass along what you told me. I don’t think the Baronians have given up. They were surprised by how much resistance we put up. The valkyries really took them off guard—you know how much those girls love to fight.**

  Though it seemed impossible, he managed to smile. “Yeah I do. Okay, I better go. Love you.”

  **Love you.**

  He tapped the connection off.

  Bannor was startled by Daena’s voice above him. “Sarai’s okay?”

  He got over his startle and nodded. “She had a close call, Senalloy stepped in at the last moment.”

  “Good, I’m glad she’s safe. Janai checked with me a few moments ago to say the Baronians pulled back there too.”

  “She’s okay?”

  Daena nodded. The girl let out a breath and settled on the pads next to him. “You know, I feel like a real priss. I have all this power,” she clenched her fists. “And I still keep getting the spit beat out of me.”

  “Dane you are so young, it takes time. Having a more adult body won’t speed it up. It’s the amount of time you spend with your nola using it that gives you the control.” He turned to Wren who was looking at them. The blonde savant was sitting with her family, Damay, Ziedra and her husband. The whole group seemed very close. Wren’s brother was draped around their mother. Euriel leaned against her husband.

  The blonde savant nodded. “He’s right. Training is another big thing—you have to learn to know your body. I got beat-up for moons until I knew things I didn’t want to know. In some ways, that first-one form is probably holding you back because it makes the stuff you can do so easy.”

  Daena’s brow furrowed and she pursed her lips. “I never thought about it that way. The things I do really aren’t that hard for me.”

  “The maturity they speak of is truly a synthesis,” Damay said running a jeweled hand through her hair. “Confidence, acceptance, and simply liking what you are. Your nola is alive, it will be hesitant to reveal its secrets to someone who thinks of it as a ‘monster’.”

  Daena frowned and clenched her fists. “What else can I call myself? I mean I can look human, but it’s a lie… I am this thing that Hella forced on me, and Kell made worse.”

  Idun snorted. “Child, you are too preoccupied with being human. The likenesses between any two humans are superficial at best in any estimation. You do not have to be one of them to be accepted—at least not by people who matter. I rather think most here admire what you are.” The goddess looked around and pressed her lips to a line. “Some of us have chosen to protect humans, but honestly, don’t you think what you are now is better suited to the task?”

  “I suppose. I’m just afraid I’ll go crazy or something…”

  The goddess rocked her head back. “Do you feel touched in the head?”

  “Well, no, but crazy people never think they’re crazy.”

  “And normal people never think they’re normal,” Euriel said, getting into the discussion. “My mother is right. Your angst is misplaced. You worry over the acceptance of a faceless jury who disregard all who are different, a little different or lot is of no real moment to such creatures.” She leaned across the tier and put a hand on Daena’s arm. “It is far more productive to focus on the people who love you, and how little your differences matter to them.” She gripped the girl’s arm and smiled. “You’re immortal, you’re beautiful, you can do practically anything you put your mind to—by Ymir’s flame let yourself enjoy it!”

  “Celebrate your differences,” Aarlen rumbled from where she lay on the padded tier. The woman’s eyes were closed and her fingers were laced over her chest. “Just don’t go overboard like I did and get whole planets hating you. With all your blessings, expect to be hated some. It’s inevitable. Embrace it as validation. People are jealous and covetous creatures. It’s not uncommon for them to loathe what they cannot have and can never be.”

  Ziedra frowned. “Auntie, you are so cynical.”

  “People my age get that way.”

  Daena let out a breath and nodded in response to what everyone had said. She turned glowing green eyes on him. He rubbed her shoulder. She smiled. That glimmer of happiness made him tingle inside. He winced, damn it, what was wrong with him? He could NOT let himself have serious feelings for this girl!

  She looked up at him. “Bannor?”

  He rubbed his face. “It’s nothing. I’m just a little tired.”

  Perhaps Ziedra sensed his discomfort or maybe it was something else but it was obvious she wanted to break the silence. “Wren, about this body thing. You’re the only one who’s done it. What’s it like?”

  The blonde savant looked uncomfortable. She rubbed the back of her neck and rocked back. “I did it with Mom,” she said. “It’s not the same thing.”

  “What about those times with Desiray?”

  “Zee, nothing I can say would really prepare you for it. The toughest thing is holding onto yourself. There’s a part of you that’s asleep, and when it wakes up—” She blew out her cheeks. “It’s really pretty scary.”

  “I think I know what you mean,” Daena said. “A kind of wild feeling an urge to…” Her voice faded.

  “You want to use your powers,” Wren finished. “It doesn’t matter how or where, you just want to do it because—�
�� She paused. “Quite frankly—it feels good. When Starholme came into me… it hurt—it was pain like I can’t describe—that pain is the only thing that kept me from losing myself and mother.”

  “So, isn’t there a danger with this thing of Marna’s?” Ziedra asked.

  “Sure,” Wren said. “But I won’t kill my own mother if I decide I want to stay in that body.”

  “Would you still be you?” Daena asked.

  Wren shrugged. “You’re already in a body like that. Are you still you?”

  Daena blinked. “Uh. I don’t know. Sometimes I wonder.”

  “Li,” Wren’s father said. “Stop trying to confuse the girl.”

  “Dad, that’s the thing. Daena has a really strong grip on herself. It’s just that she’s the only one who doesn’t realize it.”

  Daena thumped her hands down on the padding. “You know, damn it, you’re right. Every time I’m certain, I cross myself up… I keep doubting… I keep thinking it’s all a dream or something—or that I’ll wake up and it’s really a nightmare. Like your mother said, I’m immortal—I need to lean into it! I already live in a house full of half-way immortal elves!”

  “Right!” Wren agreed. “Just take it eeeasy. Try not to scare anybody.”

  “Mmmm,” Daena hummed, seeming pleased with herself.

  “Here you are,” Dominique said in her silky voice. She came down the ramp and looked around at everyone. “Marna sent me to get you and said that everything is prepared.”

  “Whoa!” Wren said. “That was fast.”

  “Li,” Vanidaar asked his daughter. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

  “Dad, these guys need to get popped for trying to kill everyone in that party. It’s not going to be my real body so it’ll be very tough to kill me.”

  “Daar,” Euriel said. “She’s got my warrior blood. We can’t deny it.”

  Wren rose. “Lead on.”

  “This should be interesting,” Aarlen said, rising. “Hope those Baronians hold off a bit longer. I’d like to see this.”

  The group followed Dominique out into the corridor and down the hall, taking a few turns down progressively more alien-looking passages that were lined with conduits pulsing with energy. The air grew stiff and it smelled like it did after a thunderstorm.

  The pale woman touched a panel at a heavily reinforced door, causing it to slide aside.

  Inside was a circular chamber humming with strange machinery. In it were twelve large clear half cylinders set on gray metal pedestals. Cables dangled down from the roof and were strung along the floor, obviously hastily connected to the various apparatus which hummed and vibrated around them.

  Bannor noticed that half the cylinders were already occupied.

  “Whoa,” Wren breathed looking around. “Why are there so many?”

  “I assumed you didn’t want to do full mergers, just spirit mergers, so the empty tubes are to monitor you,” Marna answered, looking around with a raised eyebrow. “The extras were just in case others decided at the last moment to lend a hand.”

  Wren glanced up at her father and brother who were looking at one another.

  The blonde savant walked toward the chambers and gazed through the clear glass walls at the contents with wide blue eyes.

  He stopped at the first tube he came to and looked in. Inside was a man dressed in one of the skintight outfits that they had been asked to wear before the mission. The body was well over two paces tall and head and shoulders bigger than himself with a thick chest. The musculature seemed exaggerated, the golden-brown skin seemingly pulled tight over it. The dark hair, its length and the way it draped over the longish face seemed to be somewhat reminiscent of him, but that was probably a coincidence.

  Wren had stopped at another tube and was making an ‘ooohing’ sound. Bannor stepped over and looked in. The statuesque blonde female inside was heroic in every proportion, with just enough muscle to show that the form was intended for combat. The composed face looked like a magnified and refined copy of Wren’s.

  Hands behind her back, Damay stood across the way studying another body which shared her hair color. The elder looked up at Marna. “There isn’t much subtle about them.”

  “I didn’t have time,” Marna said. “I worked from models sampled at Starholme Prime and, of course, existing immortals when in their native form. The First-ones designed with power, aesthetics, and fertility in mind.”

  “Not necessarily in that order,” Ziedra said looking at the dark-haired body obviously intended for her.

  “Huuuge tracts of land,” Radian said looking over her shoulder and holding his gold palms up in front of him.

  Ziedra glared at her husband.

  “Your tracts are nice too, Sweets.”

  She rolled her eyes.

  Bannor saw that the bodies were significantly different in their features. Ziedra’s in particular had some unusual threads associated with it.

  Wren’s brother Azir was looking at a burly shape in another container and touched the clear material. “And we can try this too if we want?”

  “Indeed,” Marna answered.

  “This was a great deal of work,” Aarlen remarked, standing next with Euriel, Idun and Vanidaar as they stared at the body intended for the red-haired mage. “I’m surprised you could accomplish it in such a short time.”

  Marna sniffed. “Time dilation is one of the few legal uses of time diving that does not require authorization. This is actually several bells of work. I had to make sure the hosts matched the correct patterns.”

  Wren narrowed her eyes. “Gaea would probably be pretty uncomfortable if she thought you’d been studying us carefully enough to do that.”

  Marna walked over to the Wren and patted her cheek. “She doesn’t need to know, does she?” Her tone dropped. “My loss is your loss. Take my meaning.”

  Wren looked like she’d eaten something sour. “I savvy that.”

  “Well,” Ziedra said. “What are we waiting for?”

  Radian turned his head to one side. “You know I’m looking forward to seeing you in those new assets.”

  “Darling, nice as it is, I’m not keeping that body.”

  The young Kriar raised an eyebrow. “You say that now.”

  Ziedra rolled her eyes. “So, Lady Marna, I just climb in this other thing?”

  The Kriar nodded.

  “Are these bodies alive?” Wren said, still staring at hers. “They don’t have a spirit do they?”

  “No,” Marna answered. “Also, I believe I improved a little on the original first one design, their understanding of organics while rather good still had some rather significant flaws.”

  “You couldn’t tell it by me,” Azir said letting out a breath. “So, Sis, I’ve never done this. Do we do that astral travel dren and overlap ourselves with these things?”

  “That’s it exactly,” Wren said. “In fact, if Marna designed the bodies right, you won’t have to find a binding spot, it will just draw you in.”

  “Oookay,” He said with a shrug walking around to the empty chamber near the body.

  Bannor drew a breath. He really didn’t like the idea of this. Then again, this was his chance to not be the weak link on the team. He took another look at the burly form that was a magnified and iconized version of him. Steeling himself he stepped around to the empty chamber.

  “Now,” Marna said. “The bodies are in stasis. When everyone is in position, I’m going to give you a ten count, that will give you time to prepare. I’m then going to drop the stasis and start the body functions, you need to take possession as quickly as possible. Understand?”

  Everyone nodded. From his position by the empty chamber it appeared that Vanidaar had decided to join in as well. At least they’d all be sharing in the experience.

  “Dom, ‘Cere,” Marna said. “Help them in.”

  Dulcere came over by Bannor and opened the case for him. The crystalline lid parted from the bottom with a hiss and opened with a quiet
chugging sound.

  “The other reasons for these tubes is, of course, to make sure your original body doesn’t die,” Marna told them. “Your hosts can survive indefinitely as long as this tower doesn’t lose power.”

  “Good to know,” Vanidaar said in a cool voice glancing at his wife.

  Dominique opened the case for the red-haired savant. She helped him remove his armor and other Kriar equipment. He sat down on the padded cushions and lay back with his hands across his chest. Euriel put a hand on his arm. He nodded to her with a smile, then to Dominique.

  The pale woman reached up into the cylinder lid and pulled out a cord with a flattened disk at one end. This she pressed into the middle of Vanidaar’s chest. She then swung the lid down and latched it. The crystal hummed and sealed with a thunk.

  Dulcere asked Bannor.

  He nodded.

  The Kriar woman helped him strip out of all of Kriar equipment including the signaling crystal he used to contact Sarai. This she put aside for him.

  Heart thumping he pushed himself up to sit on the pads. Fingers laced at her mouth, Daena watched intently, her glowing green eyes never seeming to blink. “I’ll be okay,” he told her.

  She nodded. “I know you will.”

  Drawing a breath, he pulled up his feet and swung around to lie flat on the soft cushions. He worked his neck and head into the cradle that seemed to be filled with some kind of thick liquid to provide extra support.

  Dulcere pulled the cord down and pressed the disk against his chest.

 

  He nodded.

  She pulled the lid down with a clunk. The cylinder hissed and he felt a vibration under his back. The cushions under him seemed to grow softer and his whole body seemed to press down into the sponginess.