by HDA Roberts
"It doesn't. You're only nineteen! You shouldn't have to make these sorts of decisions!"
I didn't really know what to say to that, but apparently Kron did. She'd arrived without my noticing.
"Back when I was learning to use Magic," she said, moving into the room, a small smile on her face, "one of the Archons of my time told me that the Creator never places a man in a field that he cannot tend."
I gave her a look.
"It was practically pre-history, we had a lot less to worry about back then," she replied with a glare.
I smiled at her and she grinned back.
"My point is that your son knows what he's doing, and believe me, it hurts to say that."
"You did look somewhat agonised. I thought it was gas."
"I promised I wouldn't hit you anymore, but don't think I won't summon that Warden of yours! And respect your elders!"
"Yes Ma'am."
"You actually said something politely; I'm tempted to check my sources to see if Hell has, indeed, frozen over."
"You're very grumpy today."
"Captain Vallaincourt!" Kron shouted.
"Shh! Sorry, I take it back! She's already had a go today!"
"You bellowed, my Lady?" Cassandra said, coming in with a smirk on her face.
My arm actually started to itch.
"Nothing, nothing, I thought I'd need you to mediate a... dispute, but it would appear that everything has worked itself out."
Cassandra smiled again and bowed out.
"That was just cruel," I whispered.
"Shall I call her back?"
"No!"
Chapter 18
Kron helped me explain my problems with the Vampires. There was no one better at dumbing down a complex web of politics, philosophy, culture and psychology, than her (goodness only knows how many times she’d done the same for me since I’d met her). That was all relatively simple. But then we came to the prickly issue of my parents and brother staying with me for at least a week and probably longer.
They didn't like that very much at all. Des came to the rescue there, bless his self-centred boots. He wanted to stay with me thanks to those connections of mine on the duelling circuit, and my parents didn't want to leave him behind so soon after getting him back.
While they were having that conversation, Kron was looking through Des' head. Eventually, her face creased into a frown. She attracted my attention and nodded to the door.
I excused myself (I needn’t have bothered, they’d forgotten I was there again), and Kron guided me into a nearby reception room that we were using for storage.
"Something is very, very strange in there," she whispered.
"What is it?" I asked, suddenly worried again.
"That's the thing, I have no idea!" she said, perching on a stack of Tethys' boxes. "All I know is that everything in there is too perfect. His mind was shattered glass, and now there aren't even fracture marks. That's not possible."
"Could it be Mryddin's power? His way of doing things? He is the Primal."
"Perhaps. I'm sure I'm just overreacting; Myrddin's good people. It's just... it's too seamless."
"What should I do?"
Kron rubbed her eyes. "Nothing. I saw nothing that you would need to worry about. I saw no signs of malicious intent, or any of the danger signs of mental illness. He seems perfectly fine, I'm sure he's fine."
"You said 'fine' too many times."
She harrumphed. "I'm just... jealous, that's all."
"Jealous?"
"He fixed what I couldn't."
"Oh, then the terror on your face was just a... jealous terror?"
"Shut up, Graves."
"You were worried."
"Yes. By any modern standard, memory and personality excision of that magnitude is ethically... problematic. A person, a soul, is the sum of their memories, after all, and it’s like soup, you shouldn’t be able to just pick ingredients out after everything’s been cooked.”
I sort-of understood. Every human mind was different, changed in a million different ways by experience and memory over the course of its life. Even one as young as mine had developed a unique signature, full of nuance and depth. Insanity fragmented that signature, shoving things out of alignment and shape. Des' had been particularly bad, the damage exacerbated by exposure to Black Magic. If we use Kron's analogy of glass, then before he went mad, Des' mind was like a thousand sheets of glass laid one atop the other, glass his madness had shattered into a million unrecognisable pieces.
The only way I could have fixed the problem was to wipe everything and rebuild the mental architecture from scratch while hopefully keeping most of the memories intact, but that was no better than killing a person, removing the personality. There was a debate that the essence of a person existed only in the memory, but convention and consensus agreed that a human mind was a combination of memory and architecture. You supposedly couldn't have one without the other and keep the 'true' mind intact.
“How do you think he did it?” I asked, instead of vomiting out a tide of worried nonsense.
“Not the first clue.”
“Should I be worried?”
“As far as I can tell, everything is as it should be. I just wish I could have done this myself. I really should ask Myrddin how he did it, but he may not even be able to tell me.”
"You're sure that’s all you’re worried about? You're the one who brought it up, after all."
"Sorry. Didn't mean to panic you. A Primal's powers are like ours, they can do things that even we can't with their Affinities. I'm sure that's all this is."
"You tell me this after making me need a change of underwear?"
"You always need a change of underwear about something, how am I supposed to keep track?"
I shook my head and she patted my shoulder.
"Desmond is back, and healthy. Myrddin did a far better job than I could have managed, and I'm sorry that I was... startled."
I nodded, trusting her, allowing myself to be relieved, and relaxed.
"Now, do you want to discuss this Vampire mess you've created?" she pulled out a huge, silver pocket-watch and snapped it open. "Maybe we can help brainstorm a bit. Jen should be here to help right about..."
"What the hell do you mean, you were attacked again?" Hopkins snapped, darting through the door and making me jump, while waving her phone at me.
"Damn, so close," Kron said, folding her watch shut.
I explained and then talked it through with them, including the updated plan I’d cobbled together. They helped me refine a few of my more esoteric ideas before we all sat down to a very cheerful dinner. Conversation flowed around the table, and I felt myself relax as my old family started to mesh with the new.
The Pixies were there from the get-go, adding lightness to the proceedings and cheerfully getting in everyone’s way. Grommit stole Burglar's dinner, and he stole mine (no need to look too far to see the pecking order in my house...).
Finally, everyone was finished, and I showed my parents to one of the guest rooms and Des to another before sharing a few minutes of peace with Kron and Hopkins before they left.
"Be careful with this plan of yours, Mathew," Kron said. "If you aren't careful, this could end... badly."
I nodded, "I know, but I can't see any other option that won't result in a lot of death."
"There's that, but it could still go so wrong. For you and them. Not that I care too much about those over-grown leeches," Kron said, “but if it comes to that, you might have trouble living with the consequences.”
"But if all goes well, then this will be a problem that will almost resolve itself in the fullness of time," I replied. "I hope!"
"Well, let me know if you need help... or a bombardment. I haven't had a good purge in centuries," Kron said with a little too much relish.
"We really need to get you a hobby."
"I'm over two thousand years old, Graves, do you really think that I don't have hobbies?"
She confirmed it! And damn...
"Do any of them not involve a weapon of some sort?" I asked.
"I enjoy boxing," she said menacingly... very menacingly.
I ducked out of reach, making her laugh. She came after me and patted my shoulder before heading through a Portal back to her own home (a subterranean Chinese castle which made Camelot look like Legoland, by the way).
Hopkins stayed for a while, and we chatted, but eventually she left as well and I was finally able to collapse into bed. It had been a very long day...
Eventually, the Pixies flitted in and curled up next to me in a big heap, yawning sweetly as we all settled down to a well-earned rest.
But of course my day wasn't over.
Evelina was in trouble.
The outer bailey of her fortress was in flames, with great pillars of smoke reaching into the sky. Across the chasm were the corpses of three Hyde Dragons, shattered and broken into messy, charred pieces. There were more fires within the inner fortress walls, though they seemed to be under control. Evelina stood on the apex of the citadel, her arms raised to the heavens, which were erupting with back clouds.
Her beautiful face was stretched with fatigue and her arms shook with stress, but she still found the strength to finish her Casting. The clouds burst, hurling lightning at the assembled mass of Hyde monsters, and also spilling copious quantities of rainwater into the burning parts of her fortress. It was more than enough to quench the fires, releasing more smoke and steam.
The army on the other side of the chasm seemed to have expanded again, if that was possible, and there were flying monsters everywhere, though they didn’t tend to last long against massed volleys of black-feathered arrows.
One of the Sidhe caught Evelina as she staggered.
"Your Highness, you have to rest," said the unfeasibly attractive looking man. He was maybe two inches taller than her, with long, shiny, black hair tucked behind his slightly pointed ears. He wore the same black armour as everyone else, but his was pristine and unblemished, as was the pure white tabard he wore over it.
"Thank you," Evelina said weakly as he helped her to a stone bench. "How goes it?"
"The invaders in the second level are dispatched, as are the ones in the third and the Citadel. There are a few dozen more in the outer bailey, but they are being contained. I sent Medrine to deal with them."
"We were keeping her in reserve, Torys, I gave specific instructions!" Evelina said with a frown.
"There was nobody else to send, your Highness."
She sighed and nodded. Torys knelt next to her and took her hand in his, "You're pushing yourself too hard, Beloved."
Beloved?!
"Don't call me that," she snarled.
Don't get me wrong, I knew that I had no claim on Evelina, especially not after she'd ripped out a piece of my soul and put a Dimensional Barrier up between us (well, not her, but still...), but I still cared about her, and this guy seemed like a snake to me. I'd already have done him a bit of a mischief if I'd been there.
"I know you don't feel the same way about me, yet-"
"Yet?" she hissed, pulling her hand back, "You presume too much. Return to your post!"
He stood, smiling as he bowed, "As Your Highness wishes," he said, his confidence unaffected by her rejection.
I glared as he walked away, he was now on the list....
Evelina stood on shaky legs and almost staggered to the parapet, where a dozen of her soldiers, armed with bows and short swords, waited. They bowed respectfully as she approached and she nodded back, smiling at them.
She was obviously popular with her men; they were relaxed in her presence, unworried, confident in her. That wasn't something you could teach, believe me, I'd tried to learn it. You either had the talent for leading or you didn't. She clearly did.
She glared down at the Hyde army, her hands clenching into fists. Her eyes darted about, taking in everything.
I moved to stand next to her.
"I know you can't hear me," I whispered to her, "but I am coming. If it's the last thing I do, I swear, I'll be here."
She frowned, looking around for a second before pulling something out from under her armour, a black crystal on the end of a necklace. It shone with an inner light. She pulled off her gauntlet and held it in her bare palm, closing her eyes as she reached into that little thing with her Magic.
Even from the other side of a Dimensional barrier, I recognised the power in that little gem.
I’d wondered where she was keeping that piece of me...
Her eyes relaxed for a moment, and she smiled a little, enough to remind me of the girl I'd known, rather than the commander she'd become.
"Your Highness! Ships!"
Evelina snapped back to alertness and she turned from the horde, towards the water. I turned with her as she cheered, her men taking up the cry. The man I recognised as Cruinn came darting out of a heavy door to see what the commotion was about. He had a heavy bandage around his head, soaked in red.
"Ha!" he roared, thumping his hand into the stone.
There were dozens of black Unseelie ships sailing towards the fortress. Some were clearly damaged, but that didn’t seem to be slowing them down any. At the centre of the formation were a number of heavy cargo ships, their decks packed with soldiers and crates of supplies.
The enemy ships were drawn up around the harbour in a wide arc, ready to repel the landing, but Evelina's reinforcements weren’t going anywhere near that dead town, they were heading straight for the cliffs under the battlements.
The shouts of triumph quickly turned to dismay as the water around the incoming galleys churned, and great tentacles speared through the froth to slash down at sailors and whatever the Sidhe had in place of marines.
These, too, had been made by the Hyde. At some point they’d killed the Unseelie’s underwater allies and reanimated them into their cause. The limbs of land creatures had been fixed to these rotting coils of flesh, making them even more dangerous (as if a fifty metre tentacle needed to be more dangerous). Men were snatched from ships by the dozen, but the Sidhe were quick, pinning the dead limbs to the deck before hacking them to pieces with long-bladed axes.
For a moment, I thought the Hyde might have the advantage, but it wasn't enough. The galleys were being torn to pieces, but the transport ships were already through and into the shallows, where Evelina’s ballista crews could protect them while they were being unloaded. Cranes were already lowering towards the bottom of the cliffs, where the water was relatively calm, and the transports' crews were already prepared for the resupply.
Evelina’s eyes clenched with pain as she watched the warships sink or be de-crewed one by one, sacrificing themselves to get those supplies up to her. As if that wasn’t enough, the Hyde carracks broke their blockade and started sailing towards the melee. By the time they arrived, half of the Sidhe warships were already out of action, but two thirds of the cargo vessels had been unloaded, and the rest were well on the way.
It was still a steep price to pay.
"That should buy us time," Evelina said softly.
"Time for what, Highness?" Cruinn whispered back, "That was the last fleet in these waters, and the rest of the men even near this continent are even now ascending on the lifts behind us. That's it."
"My mother will provide," Evelina said confidently.
Cruinn looked pained, but he nodded.
I felt my grip on the dream start to fade as Evelina turned back to the besieging army, her shoulders set in determination. She watched the Hyde flyers take to the air once again, more creatures clutched in their decomposing claws...
Chapter 19
I woke into pandemonium.
There’d been enough chaos last time, when I’d been sleeping alone, but this time Tethys and Kandi had crawled into my bed when I wasn’t looking, and thus were front and centre for the sudden appearance of the same delegation of Grotto inhabitants as last time.
The sudden noise was more th
an enough to wake Kandi, who shrieked in surprise, which woke Tethys, who started complaining while the Fairies all tried to apologise or talk over one another...
That, I could have dealt with without too much trouble. If I’m used to anything, it’s chaos. What I wasn’t prepared for was the noise attracting the attention of my mother, who’d been looking for the bathroom, even though there was one en-suite to her bedroom (none of the Graves family were great thinkers right after waking up).
The door slammed open.
"What the hell is going on in here, it's five o'clock in the morni-"
I wasn't one hundred percent sure what struck her dumb. It could have been the collection of fairytale creatures gambolling around my bedroom, it could have been the Pixies swearing at Tethys for accidentally rolling over on them... or it could have been the two women in bed with her son.
I'm going to go ahead and guess that it was that last one.
The room descended into instant silence. The Fairies took a look at me, then my mother... and simply vanished, the cowards. The Pixies stayed, though they fluttered away from Tethys to hide behind my back. Oh, how I wish there was a convenient back I could have hidden behind...
My mother's face had gone steadily redder as the seconds ticked by. Her eye started twitching as it went back and forth from Tethys, to me, to Kandi, then back again.
I decided to try and nip this mess in the bud.
"I would point out that everyone in this bed is fully clothed," I said, quite reasonably.
Tethys coughed urgently and I looked over to find that I wasn't entirely correct with that statement.
"I mean that most of us are fully clothed."
Kandi gave that exact same cough.
"Oh, for heaven's sake..."
My mother ran for it. I was surprised by that, I’d expected swearing.
"Oh, she looked mad," Melody said, poking her little head out from behind my back.
At least she was clothed, in one of those cashmere onesies my mother had made for her. The other Pixies were similarly attired and flew up to land on my shoulders.
"I think you might have some explaining to do, Matty," Jewel added, giggling a little.
