Beyond?

by Andur

  The walls of the room are lined with guards. To the left are soldiers from Nict in light armour with shields and swords. The right side is occupied by a few guards from Dwem, they are wearing their standard grey uniforms made out of cloth. They have rifles hanging on their backs and guns on their belts.

  Helen and Lucas are sitting at table's side, which is to the left of the entrance to the room. They are wearing the same black and white clothings as me. On the adjacent side of the table is Chuck! I wave my hand at my good old friend to greet him and the four sour looking advisers of his. He answers me with a smile and a wave of his totem. It's lucky that he found the time to join this event. He is our secret card. The guys from Quinn surely weren't expecting to negotiate with two countries.

  Stella grabs my hand and pulls me to the free seats at Lucas's side. She takes the seat next to Lucas, so I have to sit at the corner of the triangle. Sola and Xander take the seats at Helen's side.

  That leaves the third side of the table for Leon and Giana, who take place on the empty seats there.

  Helen opens the conversation. “Greetings. I suppose you already know my children? My name is Helen Gejene and this is my husband, Lucas. We are the rulers of the Free City States of Nict. Our friends from Dwem decided to join us.” She flicks her hand at Chuck.

  Chuck waves his totem while he tries to get a better look over the edge of his table, but to no avail. He is simply too small to make an impression and the chair isn't adjusted to his size. In the end he decides to stand onto the chair. After he corrected his mask, he chose one with blue feathers this time, he starts speaking. “Ahem. Greetings! I am the Great Shaman of Dwem and these are my aides.” He stabs his finger at the four people to his left and right. “Nobody cares about their opinion since they aren't as smart as me. They got less than a full score during the national exam, so their names are irrelevant. You can ignore them.” The expressions of his advisers turn even unhappier and they bow to greet us.

  Leon and Giana look surprised, but they regain their composure immediately. It's Giana who speaks first. “I am the First Princess of Quinn, Giana Zerces. This is my brother Leon Zerces, First Prince of Quinn. We are on a diplomatic mission to determine the state of affairs outside of Quinn.”

  The Great Shaman waves his totem at them. “Diplomatic mission! Good joke! I took a look out of the window.”

  Leon looks in disdain at the Shaman and straightens himself. “Maybe we should explain the history of our presence here first.” He takes a deep breath to gather his thoughts. “Quinn existed in peace and flourished since Nict's downfall.” His expression turns into a smug grin and he looks at our side of the table.

  Then he continues with a sour tone. “That is until the attacks began about three years ago. Tribes from the north started raiding our villages, nomads from the plains disturbed our trading routes. Black ships with maniacs on board wreaked havoc in our ports and pirates took down our merchant shipping. On top of everything the southern nations attacked us in open warfare. It's like back in the days when we had to repel the Empire!”

  I tilt my head in thought. Three years ago? Isn't that the about the same time as when Dwem got attacked? But Quinn is on the other side of the continent. It's strange though I don't care much about their issues with their neighbours.

  Giana continues the explanation. “Our country was in a desperate situation since we got attacked from all sides. The southern nations even somehow got access to modern weapon technology.” Her eyes wander to the guards of the Great Shaman. Especially the guns draw her attention. “Then the black ships landed a huge army on the shores of the southern nations. They advanced together against Quinn's borders and we were about to forsake all hope. There were hundreds of thousands of soldiers with modern weapons and magic in their arsenal!” She stops for a moment and stares at the table. “When their army moved it was like watching a hill of ants.”

  After a few seconds of silence Lucas inclines them to go on. “And?”

  “They vanished!” Leon answers like he still can't fully belief it himself. “We were gathering our troops to force them into a final fight at a natural bottleneck between Quinn and the southern nations. There is a big and dangerous river between Quinn and the south. Just one big ford allows safe passage without bridges and we had destroyed all of those. Our long range artillery prevented them from building new ones. The enemies were gathering their forces in their main camp to push through when it happened. A bright light lit the horizon and an unbelievable shockwave almost blew our army's camp away. We were lucky to gather our troops so far away from the enemy, but we were counting on our mobility and range in case of them trying to cross the river.”

  I do my best to ignore Chuck's and Helen's eyes on me and force my attention somewhere else. The golden chandelier at the ceiling is very interesting right now.

  Hopefully they don't get the idea that I had anything to do with this event. I never told anybody that I detonated a nuke on this world and I don't have the intention to do so. Especially since they would probably require me to explain how a nuke works. There is no reason to share such dangerous knowledge with a world in war. I am quite happy that the idea of using atom energy to build a weapon didn't come up on this world... yet.

  The possible reasons for big flashes of light and vanishing armies are multifarious. Maybe I can make something up if they ask me about it. Luckily I have no moral qualms about my action. Not telling my family saves them the trouble to bother with such a dilemma.

  The only thing that bugs me right now is that it seems like I helped Quinn! So I am indirectly the reason why they are here right now.

  Giana nods. “The devastation at our southern border is unbelievable! We don't know what happened. Our scientists believe that the enemy lost control over a horrible new weapon of theirs. The area is a wasteland and everyone who goes there gets sick.

  At least the utter destruction of the enemy army gave us the time to consolidate our borders and to hunt down the rogue enemies which survived the explosion since they were too far away.

  The king and the queen decided to send the forces which were freed up by the mishap of our opponents to the west. We are hoping to get a clearer picture of what's going on and why our neighbours suddenly went nuts.”

  Leon nods his head with fervour. “There is also the point of why you threw one of your satellites onto our capital. The wreckage landed right on the queen's most beloved winter garden. The place is a mess.”

  I point at Leon. “You guys took it down somehow! It wasn't our fault!”

  He slams his fist onto the table. “I knew it! That voice! Giana, that's the so called scientist who laughed at me!”

  “I can laugh as much as I want! Luckily there are no laws against laughing in Nict!” I shoot back.

  Giana smiles at her brother. “Why don't we try to calm down. It was just a small winter garden and nobody got hurt. We already told our own airspace-control that deactivating the satellite at exactly that moment wasn't so smart of them. It was a series of unfortunate events. The guy who was in charge simply had a bad day.”

  I can't stop myself and add my own interpretation. “Or he didn't particularly like the royal family and hoped that the thing would fall onto the head of someone important. Just be happy that our satellites are essentially just big chunks of metal once they are disabled. I can't imagine that someone who is in charge of disposing of orbital objects would forget to calculate where the thing comes down.”

  Leon's and Giana's faces tell me that I hit right on the mark once again. Don't tell me that sending the satellite into their territory helped them to uncover an assassination attempt on the royal family? “I am right! Aren't I? I am bad with people, but your stupid expressions speak volumes!” For people whom I don't like at all I helped them far too much. And they don't even know it. Hopefully they'll never find out.

  68. ~Adjournment.~

  “I've made it to the coast! Ha! A landlubber would have drowned, but not the good
old Saltfoot. All I've to do now is to find one of those villages with lobotomised villagers and get them to do what I want. Just need a small ship that's all. Then I am on my way again! My prosthesis dissolved though, hopping to the next village will be no fun at all... but the stench is gone!”

  -Message in a Bottle.

  Eastern Plains

  Azir

  Suddenly something slithers around me and tightens. It circles around my neck once, twice and lays itself over my mouth. Straining my eyes, I can identify familiar, shimmering scales. Stella tied and gagged me with her tail! I force my head around to look at her out of the corner of my right eye, but she is acting like nothing special happened.

  After a few moments of awkward silence she lets her eyes wander through the room. “Is something wrong? Please, go on.”

  Leon starts grinning like a little child. The situation seems to amuse him to the point of almost bursting out in laughter. If the rope which is tying me up wasn't Stella's tail I would free myself and twist his neck by three hundred and sixty degrees. Though that would probably create a nice little diplomatic incident.

  Stella turns her head to face Leon. “Is? Something? Wrong?” Since she is looking away from me I can't see her expression, but it has to be fearsome! Leon's grin vanishes and he edges away from the table as if that would make it easier to jump up and flee in case of an emergency. “Everything is okay. If I am honest then the incident with the satellite was a good thing. Your fiancé’s way of speaking his mind may seem rude, but he is smart. Having someone like him at a conference lets you at least know where the other party is standing.”

  He complimented me! I would've never thought that a person like him could be persuaded to do so! Stella's expression must look like an ancient god of destruction and annihilation could come down on him at any moment! If I am honest then she is a god of destruction. She just doesn't know it. The nuke, which I used on the Black Magicians, is her power after all. The raw materials came from her efforts in helping me.

  Giana nods and places both of her hands flat onto the table. “We shouldn't harbour bad feelings about old stories. But since we shared our history with you, how about explaining how Nict and Dwem ended up in cahoots with each other?”

  Helen starts with explaining our ongoing conflict with the puppeteer who is hiding in the shadows, followed by the Great Shaman and Dwem's story.

  When Chuck stops speaking our visitors are left with confused expressions. It was a little too much information at once after all. Finding out that this conflict seems to span the whole continent has a huge impact if you aren't an emotionally-solid person like me.

  Though it seems like they haven't realized a very important point, which gives our voyage a new direction. First I have to free myself from this gag. I try to use my teeth, but I have to admit very soon that Stella's scales are as hard as my dental enamel. She doesn't seem to be bothered by my attempt to bite off the tip of her tail. A woman's tail is essentially just a big accumulation of muscles, tendons and bone. My attempt was probably doomed to fail from the start.

  Due to the fact that I'll soon be called “daddy”, I decided to study the female anatomy. If there is a small chance that you wake up one day and find your partner gnawing at your hand you have to take precautions.

  Going by the book's knowledge Stella has to feel at least something in her tail. Even if I can't cause her pain, the book said that most females are still sensitive to anything touching their most precious appendage. So I start licking the tail, moving my tongue back and forth, up and down. Stella doesn't react, so I pull out my trump card and start sucking while applying pressure with my tongue. That causes a slight reddening of her face, but otherwise she keeps calm.

  In the meantime the discussion between the present parties moves forward while they are trying to decide on how to proceed from here. It's the usual political talk where nobody wants to admit anything or take any responsibility. The tail is perfectly covering my mouth, so nobody notices what I am doing.

  Not giving up I intensify my efforts until Stella's expression turns strange. The pressure of her tail increases, but I endure it until a slight shiver runs through the living rope that binds me. Giving off a quiet, satisfied moan she slides from her chair while loosening her grip on me. How cute... that sounded sexy!

  I hurry to free myself and pull the tail away from my mouth. The discussion stopped when Stella slipped from her chair, so it's the perfect moment for me to insert my opinion. “Guys, aren't you all forgetting the strange fleet of black ships? Giana, Leon, you two said that the army was brought by them. Where did they come from? Judging by your description the number of ships must've been huge if they transported so many troops. Going by your observation that the ships were painted black it must mean that this is unusual? Isn't it possible to determine the origin of those ships and shouldn't they be related directly to our problem since they seem to belong to an unknown force?”

  Chuck is the first one to avert his eyes from the empty spot where Stella vanished from their view. “You are certainly right. We have a very small merchant fleet since Dwem has only one sizeable port, but our ships travel far up to the north and a long way down the coast and towards south. Some even go the western archipelago of islands. I've never heard of a fleet of black ships, nor do any of the nations on this continent paint their ships black.”

  Giana nods with slightly red cheeks. “Neither do we know of any nations with such habits. The northern tribes never had many ships since there isn't enough wood in the northern regions. The southerners don't paint their ships and the pirates use what they can steal from others. The Nomads don't have to be mentioned since they have no access to the ocean.”

  Then there aren't many possibilities left. “That means that our enemy has his base of operations on the second continent. It would explain why he was able to hide himself so well. Either that, or we are facing an invasion from another plane of existence.”

  Leon starts stuttering. “Inv... In... other... P... Plane of existence!?”

  I nod. “Well of course. Our enemy has proven that he is able to open portals to places which aren't on this world. But I think that the possibility with the second continent has much more appeal. If there are two solutions to a problem, you should always try the faster one first. Checking out the second continent is easy. Searching for our opponent on other worlds could prove to be a little time consuming.”

  “It's time consuming, he says! Hahahaha!” The Great Shaman shakes his totem at me and starts laughing.

  I shrug my shoulders and continue. “The other continent also has some kind of satellite defence, but we haven't tried our drones yet. It may work if we send one there to take a look at what's going on. Flying deep enough should do the trick. Though it seemed that their defence is similar to Quinn's. I suppose you won't tell us how your system works?”

  Leon snorts and shakes his head. “No. That's a national secret. We won't share our most secret technology with heretics.”

  Helen tilts her head while looking at Leon. “We'll still send the drone. It's worth the try.”

  Yes! I am allowed to use one of my toys! Stella's limp tail is still in my hands and I use it to point at Leon. “It's not like I actually need any hints to find out how your technology works. Our satellite's magical circuits are built very sturdily. It's a military device after all. The only thing that's able to take it down without visible effect is something that disrupts spell formations or a device which is able to suck the mana out of it's surroundings.

  Since the second option is hard to handle I suppose you built a disruptor. Most likely something that creates a big magnetic field to produce a ripple effect. Magic is after all obeying certain laws of nature. If your magnetic field hits the right frequency you can disrupt spells and magic circuitry like any other electronic device. We'll simply protect the next generation of satellites better against those kinds of influences.”

  Leon's expression darkened during my explanation, but
he didn't give himself away like earlier. “Magic is against the laws of the goddess. Protect your neat little devices against magnetic fields all you want. We don't fear you.”

  Giana grabs Leon's hand. “It's getting late and we've already been talking for a long time. How about postponing further talks until tomorrow? I am sure that everyone wants to think about what we heard here. We also have to inform the king and the queen about the situation.”

  The Great Shaman nods, bobbing the feathers of his mask by doing so. “That's a good idea. The new situation requires recalculations and careful considerations.”

  Lucas claps his hands. “If it's like that then we would like to invite everyone to stay and enjoy the luxuries here.”

  Leon rejects the offer by raising a hand. “Actually we need to get back to our expedition force. They have to be informed of the changed circumstances.” He stands up and bows to take his leave, followed by Giana.

  The Great Shaman also declines. “It's okay. There is much to do and since your stepper discs offer me the opportunity to travel quickly between this conference and Dwem, I'll use the time to get some things done.” He shakes his totem to say goodbye and leaves the room with his aides.

  That means that only we from Nict remain behind. Lost in thought I use the tip of Stella's tail to scratch my chin. Leon's reaction to my speech was a little subdued. Maybe they have a fancier trick up their sleeves?

  Suddenly a hand slams onto the table right in front of me. The shock causes me to twitch. I slowly follow the arm up to the shoulder of the person who shocked me like that. I notice the heaving chest and before I look into Stella's bright red face.