“Let us tend her!” Kenden said.
“Give us room!” Rinaldo said. All three adepts did their best to heal, neutralize, and regenerate her. First they removed the arrow very carefully.
“It…missed my heart, at least,” Naero said, weak and choking for air.
“Lie still. Don’t talk,” Pharrah ordered.
The Sea King looked on and could not believe his eyes. “Amazing. The lethal wound is healing; I can see the flesh closing up.”
“My friend,” Queen Aijarri asked, pulling him aside. “Let me send word to my people on the cliffs. They will be worried about what is happening down here.”
“Please, do so, great queen.” He turned to his brother. “Nokarro, her life is yours to watch over. Yeshida, Kutira. Stay with me and our little mediator.” The king shouted aloud in a fell voice. “Death to any who lift a hand against the royal family, or any of our honored guests. Allow no further treachery!”
Ahhh…at last, we’ve done it, Naero. We’ve neutralized the toxin. In a few moments, you will start to feel much better.
Thanks, Om.
After a few tense moments more, Naero felt her strength return, and spoke aloud for all to hear.
“I’m all right. Help me to my feet, my friends.”
Naero rose up, and allowed a shimmering, blue-white aura of Cosmic energy to surround her entire form, from head to foot.
The crews of all the ships present, even the king and queen themselves, gasped, backed away in awe, and fell to their knees.
“The child shines with the very light of the gods themselves!” Queen Aijarri proclaimed.
The Sea King shook his head as if he might go mad. “She lives. She should be dead, and yet she rises from such a wound, hale and unhurt. Truly, it is the will of the gods!”
“I was spared,” Naero said, “from the brink of death, by the will of the gods. For my task among you is not yet finished–to bring a lasting peace, to all the children of the gods. To help you establish peace upon your world, for you and all of your children. Are you not all tired of war and senseless death and misery? Together, let us work to find and sustain, a better way–the way of peace, and freedom for all.”
Naero went to the king and queen, lifted them up, and embraced each of them, as her aura slowly faded.
Later that night, when all was done, not only a new treaty, but an alliance had actually been formed between the Maedo and the Kall. Trade would resume between the two former foes. Maedo forest and mountain warriors would help protect the secret shipyard, and the Kall would help protect what remained of the Maedo lands, and their access to the bay.
Naero filed her report to the High Masters, certain that they would find some fault with it, and threw herself on her bed to sleep. Of course, she thought she was doing a great job.
She dreamed of dragons again, including nightmares about a terrible golden wyrm, drenched in human blood.
The time to meet with Emperor Vauk would come the very next day.
19
Naero had trouble replicating a tree the next day. Trees, as they turned out, were incredibly difficult to get right–just something about them. One of hers even turned all rubbery and floppy for some funky reason.
How. Embarrassing.
Frogs, even birds, a squirrel type creature–even a kind of deer and a bear–she was able to replicate just fine after a few attempts. Mammals seemed easy. Mammals just came to her naturally. Maybe it was because she was one. Perhaps that gave her an edge. But trees? Even little trees, damn it. Even just saplings were nearly impossible.
Trees were tough. Maybe it had something to do with their lifespans being so long and stretched out. Naero wasn’t quite sure.
Finally, they went to a place on one of the continents that had large primates–a baboon creature with gray fur, living on the edge of a savannah jungle.
Naero tried replicating one, and it seemed to go all right, but the attempt also gave her a massive headache.
That was something new.
The more sentient a species was, the more painful it was to attempt to replicate it. Go figure.
Naero, that’s enough replication for today. I knew we shouldn’t have skipped startapping, and went with replication first.
Cool your drives, Om. So we mix it up a little? Let’s hit the desert and try some startapping. We still have some time.
All right. Now today, we just want to focus on tapping a small amount of energy and being able to store it again, for a longer period of time.
Gotcha, buddy. Will do.
In the desert, once they startapped, Naero attempted to store the tiny amount of Cosmic energy within herself.
Instead, her Dark Beast broke free just enough to gobble it down.
Emboldened by the energy feed, it lashed out in fury, trying bust out completely and seize control.
For an instant, Naero forgot that what she had access to–so did her Dark Beast–and its lust and hunger for any type of energy was constant and ravening.
First she thought she could simply wrestle with it, and drain the energy it had seized back out from it. Yet anything it devoured, it transformed into destructive, Darkforce energy. If she absorbed such energy directly, she would be infused by its taint, leaving her open to her Dark Beast even more.
Naero…remember what we have learned about the Lifespark and the Darkforce–how they balance and even compliment each other to form the Harmony–The true balance of all energies Cosmic.
Dark and Light.
Life and Death.
Creation and Destruction.
I’ll try to balance them out, Om.
She struggled to summon just enough of the Lifespark to balance with the Darkforce powering her monster within herself.
Naero gasped.
Almost instantly, her Dark Beast wailed, bereft of all its stolen power. It roared in fear–in terror actually–and slipped away to hide.
The thing within her had never shown fear before.
The serenity of the Harmony suffused Naero. She hovered on the brink of becoming an energy being. She pulsed first with Scarlet Chaos energy, then Blue Order Energy, and finally a mix of the two, creating violet energy.
Violet energy…just like that of the artifact statue.
She swelled with energy until she towered ten meters over the spot she stood upon. Her hands and arms shifted into huge scarlet katanas. Red, blue, and purple blades emerged out of her energy form.
She looked like Baeven, in his partial, Cosmic energy being form.
In a flash it occurred to her.
This was hers. This was what her partial energy being form looked like, when it took shape.
She couldn’t wait to try it out.
“What are you doing, Naero?” High Master Tree suddenly asked.
She felt all three of the High Masters suppressing her powers once more, siphoning them away.
She did not try to resist them–this time–but at some point, that was going to change. Naero shrank down to her normal form and size.
“Just trying out some new ideas that came to me.”
“We and Intel have been monitoring some strange Cosmic energy spikes showing up on the planetary scans each day, at about this time,” Master Jo stated.”
“I’ve been trying to use balanced energy strategies to help control and contain my Dark Beast,” Naero said. “Isn’t that one of the goals I’m supposed to be working on?”
Master Tree looked uncertain for once. “In theory, yes. But it troubles us greatly that you have been going off on your own–and doing so–without our input, and without us there to safeguard you, should you lose control.”
“See, we cannot trust her,” Master Vane said. “What if she goes off on her own and loses it? She could wipe out an entire continent before we could arrive to contain and suppress her. It’s the exact same situation on Janosha. What if the artifact statue should sense these Cosmic spikes and seek to investigate them? What if it takes her over, like the on
e on Janosha did with–”
Master Tree cut him off sternly. “She did not know that, and does not need to know the particulars of that event.”
Naero, do not tell them about your replication abilities just yet.
Don’t worry, Om. I’m not about to.
So, the artifact on Janosha took over Baeven somehow? What did it do to him? What did it do with him? Naero vehemently disagreed with the High Masters. They wanted to keep her ignorant, and saw safety in that strategy. Yet more and more, she needed to know exactly what had happened back then to her uncle.
She needed to know, in order to better control what just might happen to her as well.
“High Adept Maeris,” Master Tree said, “we are deeply concerned and alarmed by this secretive, reckless behavior, and frankly, with some of your choices and decisions that you have made in your role as Mediator.”
“What have I done wrong? I have achieved a major treaty between the Maedo and the Kall.”
Vane snorted. “What have you done wrong? Where do we begin? This was busy work. This was a lark, meant to keep you occupied, so that you did not get into trouble. And here you are in the thick of it. You are only supposed to be negotiating these issues, not making them turn out the way you want them to–pretending to use godlike powers, duping the natives, and meddling directly in the affairs of the natives–far beyond any authority we ever thought to give you. You meddle too much, and you enlist the other adepts with you in doing so!”
Naero tried to ignore Master Vane. She knew exactly what he was going to say. “Look, you three gave me a mission, and I have taken the initiative to try to actually do something with it. And I have done real good. Tell me now. What was I supposed to do? Let the Thanarran royal family be murdered? Let Prince Tavul of the Maedo be killed, just like Prince Jigan of the Kall? Without my meddling, the Maedo and the Kall would be at war right now, to the detriment of both. Instead, they are at peace, and have formed a mutual alliance.”
Finally, Master Jo came to her defense. “Brothers, she makes many good points. We did send her on this mission. What real harm has she done within the farce that we ourselves have established? She has brought about positive results, and avoided direct violence, whenever and wherever possible.”
“I am not convinced,” Master Tree said. “All of this could collapse and turn bad very quickly. And I am very uncomfortable with the element and level of deception being used, as far as manipulating the natives through their superstitions.”
Naero couldn’t believe it. She had to go ballistic on that one. “Seriously? You sent us among the natives, posing as ‘the holy ones,’ and yet we are not supposed to use that at all to our advantage, or to the furtherance of our mission? If the results are good, what do the methods matter?”
She had never witnessed Master Tree nearly go into a rage. “That opinion is dangerous and problematic almost in its entirety. I question it by its very nature. The ends cannot always justify the means. Can you not see the danger in that, High Adept Maeris?”
Master Jo shook his head. “I strongly disagree. No one is saying always. Yet face the facts–sometimes the ends do justify the means. We should not fail to act, just because we might do harm. Harm will be done anyway, even if we just stand by and let things happen the way Master Vane would. Why should we not try to modify things and make things better, for all concerned?”
Vane jumped in. “That is not what we should be doing. Why are we even meddling at all? Who cares what the natives do to each other? We shouldn’t even be here or be involved. Maeris is right in one thing: If you don’t expect her to do what she does, in the way that we can guess she’s going to do it, why in the hell should we give her the task anyway? I know very well what’s going to happen. All of her attempts at peace are going to lead to the worst kind of war imaginable. Everything she touches ends in disaster and destruction. When has she not left destruction in her wake?”
“You all gave me a task,” Naero said again, reminding them. “I have made it my own, and I am pursuing it to the best of my ability. It is far too late now to get cold feet, well after the point where I have committed so much time and effort, and the fates of so many are already at stake. You yourselves said that I would more than likely fail, as others before me have failed. At least give me some trust to make the best effort possible, using my own methods.”
“I still question your methods in many ways,” Master Tree said, folding his hands together. “But it seems that we are all both invested and fully committed to you seeing these matters through, whether we like it or not. Tell us then, Naero. What do you think we should do?”
Naero spoke bluntly. “Easy, kill the sleazy emperor of the Vaedo and defeat the Vauk. We could do so in less than a day, and save tens of thousands of lives. The Vaedo are constantly fanning the flames of war, and playing everyone against the others for their benefit. They are without honor, and cannot be trusted. They are the obvious, greatest obstacle to peace between the city states.”
Vane covered his face with his hands and shook his head in frustration and despair. “Now do you see the problem?” he howled.
“I do,” High Master Tree said, his face very grave and troubled. “Naero Maeris, this is the exact reason why I commanded you expressly not to use violence. Is it not your go-to solution for everything? We cannot interfere in that way, and simply pick the leaders for the natives–and certainly not through assassination. That is not our role, or our place.”
“Why in the hell not? You tell me…exactly how are the other city states supposed to negotiate peace with a diseased maniac like Emperor Vauk on the throne of the most powerful and numerous nation, with the largest army and active spy and assassin network? That is why Vauk keeps winning, and everyone else keeps losing. He is a genocidal maniac, a deluded tyrant, and a brutal, bloody thug of the worst sort. Why is his life so important, as opposed to all of the people he kills and tortures and maims on a daily basis?”
Master Jo looked at her pointedly. “Yet, the High Masters are still right. It is not our place to decide who lives and who dies; that is a slippery slope that we cannot go down. You must find another way. We do not work this way.”
“Yes. We do,” Naero told them. “What a load of crap. We face down tyrants all the time–and kill their sorry asses–cold, stone dead. We took out Triax Gigacorp in the Annexation War. We exterminated the Ejjai invasion during the High Crusade–and it was a very good thing that we did!”
Master Tree took up the argument. “High Adept Maeris, you are confusing what our people–the Spacers and our military do–and what the Mystics do. You cannot confuse the two. The Mystics do everything they can not to interfere in primitive cultures and backwards worlds, for good or ill. It hardly ever turns out well in the long run. And we are very careful about what we do, and how we do it. That is why we have so many rules concerning such things.”
“So, I can be used as an all-out weapon when we are at war, when serving attached to our military, but when I’m just an adept on my own, my hands are tied on undeveloped worlds? We can’t do what we would normally do to protect others, the way that we in fact, protect ourselves and our people? You’ve read the reports. This guy is a major problem. If we can’t deal with someone like him, what in the hell are we even here for?”
Vane finally lowered the boom.
“That’s just it, Maeris. You don’t even get it. We wouldn’t be here at all, doing any of this, if the artifact wasn’t here, if Thanor-4 was not the best current candidate for the new replacement, Mystic Homeworld for Chaos Wisdom. Understand this: We would be ignoring the natives and their issues absolutely. They would be completely left on their own–as I personally think they should be. If they kill each other off completely, then so be it–that’s their problem, and their business. My constant vote is for total, non-interference.”
“I disagree,” Naero said.
Vane rolled his eyes again. “We get that, Maeris; boy do we get that with you. Trust us; we kn
ow. Unfortunately, we have to deal with this kind of crap, as you so rightly refer to it, because my two counterparts think that if we are using the world of these natives for our purposes, then somehow we owe them some kind of deal or guidance, or assistance–as long as we just happen to be here. While I contend that we owe them squat; all of this is nothing more than a needless irritation and distraction. I have no problem with lying to and deceiving these poor, backwards, ignorant boobs to get everything we need and want from this planet. But why should we interact with them at all? It is maddening.”
“Undeveloped or not,” Naero said. “They are still people, they are sentients, and they deserve to be free, and live in the same security and freedom that our people demand for themselves.”
Master Tree and Master Jo shook their heads.
“But according to our rules–the rules of the Mystics–we cannot directly solve their problems for them, or hand-pick solutions for them that we like.”
“They must learn to solve their problems for themselves. We can only advise and help them. They must make their own decisions.”
Tree pointed his finger at her. “I forbid you, directly, to take the life of Emperor Vauk, or have a hand in his death. This is also a grave test for you, Naero Maeris. This is where your former uncle failed. He could not be obedient to the High Masters and serve our direct will. Especially when it became difficult for him to do so. What choice will you make?”
Naero bowed her eyes. “I am obedient to the will of the Mystic High Masters, even if I strongly disagree with them. Yet that does not and should not trump my free will as a Spacer in a free society. Nor does it change what I see to be right and wrong.”
Master Jo took her hand. “We know this is a difficult trial for you, Naero. Yet, just as in the Spacer military, there are many good reasons why you cannot simply act unilaterally on your own, and do whatever you wish. We are watching everything you do, and every decision you make, very carefully, in order for us to decide what is best to do with you, for you, and for the good of our people. The natives are not on trial, in our minds, Naero–you are. So make your choices, and choose wisely. This is the very reason why you are being tested in these ways: to see what you choose to do, and how you go about doing it.”
Spacer Clans Adventure 3: Naero's Fury Page 17
