Loric gritted his teeth. “Which is exactly where we don’t want her.”
“We don’t have to fret as much as that,” Marna said. “That is one tough body. It’s going to take a lot.”
“We’re dealing with enemies who dish a lot,” Loric murmured. “And as she said, she can’t defend herself. She has a lot of power, but absolutely no experience interacting in the real world.”
“We’ll have to teach her,” Bannor said. “What else can we do?”
“I wonder what kind of student she is,” Sarai murmured.
“Either incredibly receptive, or immeasurably stubborn,” Marna remarked. “Having been alone for eons, she is going to want to swallow up every bit of attention she can garner—so I would imagine she’ll be receptive.”
“Bannor?” Gaea was leaned over on the tier looking over toward him. Her dark eyes gleamed. “Why are you over there?”
“Guess, I better go pay attention to my mother.” He started to head over, stopped and looked back. “Octavia, when will it be safe to move her?”
“I wouldn’t take her through any gates or teleports until she’s stabilized for at least another half bell,” Octavia recommended.
“Okay,” he said. “I know she’ll ask me.”
Sarai walked with him as he headed back over and knelt down by Gaea. The air around the goddess was warm. He noticed she smelled nice. Her green skin gleamed as though lit from within.
“Yes, Mother,” he said. “I apologize. We had some things we needed to discuss and didn’t want to disturb you while you gain your strength.” He drew a breath and fixed her jewel-like eyes with his own. “You gave us quite a scare.”
She swallowed and nodded. She tilted her head to look back at Wren. Then her eyes tracked to Daena, Damay, Vanidaar, Ziedra, Azir and himself. She seemed to devour every detail as if she couldn’t get enough.
“You—you’re all so—so beautiful,” she said. She reached out toward him.
He captured her hand in his.
“Just go slow, Mother,” he said. “I know this is all new to you.”
“This is no place for her,” Wren said. “We should probably have her in a bed. Did Octavia say how long before we can move her?”
“Half a bell,” he said. He leaned close to Gaea. “Mother, is there anything you should tell us?”
She blinked at him. “Hmmm?”
He sighed.
“Something wrong, Bannor?” Ziedra asked.
“Yes, I think you’re a little too strong for your own good,” he answered.
“Oh.” She rubbed the back of her head and glanced at her husband. “You noticed, huh?”
“What did I notice?”
“Uh,” she lowered her voice to a whisper and leaned close to him. “I think there’s a bit more of her here than there’s supposed to be.”
He nodded.
Wren frowned up at the two of them.
“Daughter, will you help me to sit up?” Gaea asked. Bannor noticed her voice was starting to take on the echoing quality of an immortal.
“Are you strong enough?”
“Let us find out,” she said.
The savants working together helped Gaea to sit. The goddess wobbled but seemed to enjoy even that sensation. She grinned at the savants as though she were herself a child. She pushed against the bench, shifting her weight.
“It’s so—light,” Gaea said. “Not like that other form.” She rocked her head side to side, and ran her fingers through her hair. Bannor could see her cataloguing every sensation, relishing each one like candy. Sarai had been so right.
“I want to stand,” the goddess said.
“Mother, I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Wren advised.
“Shush, let me try,” the green woman said with a frown. She looked down at the ground and her feet. She looked up at the savants. “Feet! Would you believe I never saw my feet?” Her brow furrowed and her toes wiggled. Even that little thing seemed to delight her. “Toes!” She moved her legs side to side, watching the movement of her kneecaps.
“Mother,” Damay tried. “I think Wren is correct, you’re—”
“Daughter,” Gaea growled. “I understand your concern, I am not a child. Please allow me to explore a bit.” She focused back on her feet moving her heels back and forth. After a moment she looked up. “Son Azir, Son Vanidaar, please help me up.”
The two men frowned, looking at the other savants who scowled at them. Drawing a breath, they each took a side and pulled Gaea to stand, holding her up while her feet dangled above the floor. Slowly, a little at time they settled her weight on those untried and no doubt unsteady legs.
Gaea’s whole attention seemed focused on her knees which were shaking. “This is—rather—intense.” She grinned. She shifted her weight from one foot to the other. “Ah.” She looked around with such glee that it made Bannor’s heart ache. “I’m standing!” She declared.
Sarai must have felt the same emotion, because she hugged his arm.
Gaea started to move her foot.
“Motherrr…” Wren growled.
The goddess ignored her daughter’s warning, pushing her foot out to take a step. It all started well, but those shaky legs were just too new. Half way through the movement, her back leg buckled, and she started to collapse.
Gaea let out a gasp of surprise and started to flail for balance.
Azir and Vanidaar caught her before she went far, but the cloak she was holding around herself fell down around her ankles.
She looked up at them dark hair falling across her face. She blew a few strands out her eyes. “Oh.”
Wren winced.
Euriel seemed to be enjoying her daughter’s discomfort immensely. “She’s just like you, Baby.”
The blonde savant scowled at her mother.
Idun laughed and gazed at Euriel. “She got it from you.”
They helped Gaea to sit back down, and gave her the cloak back to cover herself.
“I guess I will need to learn to walk again,” Gaea said with a sniff. “And I will.”
“Mother Gaea,” Wren said. “You must take it easy. Give the body time to adjust.”
“Daughter, I am taking it easy. You’re worrying too much.” She sighed. “I will try again in a little bit.”
Wren growled. “You’ll be the death of me, I swear.”
Bannor sighed. He sure hoped not.
Return to Contents
* * *
Chapter Four
We rarely had anything much more
exotic than an archmage or two in
Kul’Amaron. Suddenly, we started playing
host for dozens of immorts, aliens, and
even a pantheon lady; then came Gaea.
Which suite do you give to the creator of
the universe…?
—Kalindinai T’Evagduran,
Queen of Malan
The remaining time spent in Starholme wrecked poor Wren. By the time the group was ready to be summoned back to Kul’Amaron by King T’Evagduran, the blonde savant looked like she’d run half way across Malan. Marna and Octavia packed up the mecha’s paraphernalia and Desiray put it back in her cloak. The doors to Gaea’s audience hall were unlocked and Hyperion was sent back to the lab to sleep until needed again.
At Gaea’s direction, they retraced their steps to one of the rooms they had passed in their tour of Starholme. In that place, which was filled with dozens of artifices of the first ones, Gaea pointed out a vault door to Wren.
This secure portal, the ‘master key’ as Gaea called it, opened, and inside was a storage facility. Unlike a closet with shelves, the walls were like a clear, soft, extremely malleable clay into which objects were pressed.
In a row, low on the wall, were ten devices similar to the one Wren wore. These Gaea explained were keys for the interior of Starholme. They were not like the master key Wren wore, but would assist the savants in opening doors should they ever come back. Gaea pointed out some other ob
jects of the first ones that were gathered up much to Cassandra’s glee and Loric’s fume. There were a pair of gauntlets, an elaborate necklace obviously designed for a woman, an intricately carved and jeweled staff, a set of thick silver bracelets, a heavy metallic belt, and two unadorned plain-looking daggers. All these devices were thrown into Desiray’s cloak for safe keeping.
All throughout the short walk and exploration, Gaea made Wren crazy. To be truthful, the blonde savant was simply being over protective, but Gaea made it worse by dismissing Wren’s admonitions. Taking several spills that made Octavia and the Kriar wince. To be truthful, he found himself gritting his teeth. Knowing what they knew, it was hard not to think of Gaea like a giant bomb. Every time she slipped or staggered they kept expecting her to explode. He knew it was silly, the body made by Octavia would take more than a little fall to injure. Still, like parents trying to protect a child, it was hard not to lurch when the exuberant youth insisted on testing her fledgling limits and took a tumble.
Wren shoved the vault door closed with a heavy thud. The artifice room hummed with energy; the flat black walls devoid of any adornment. Bannor had no idea what any of it did, although he guessed some of it might have something to do with the subpaths in which this part of the complex was built. Many of the strange spidery-looking devices had the feel of the ethereal chaos about them.
“Corim,” Loric asked. “How many can a shaladen summoning carry?”
“Five plus the wielder,” the burly man said.
“Damn, not enough,” Loric looked to Marna. “And you can’t get us out?”
The elder Kriar shook her head. “Not a chance, this place is locked down tight.”
Corim raised a finger. “I have this one covered.” He raised his shaladen and held it up in front of himself and stepped a little ahead of the group and closed his eyes.
After a few moments he made four slashes with the blade.
Nothing happened.
“What—?”
“Wait for it…”
A single dot appeared in the very center of the area Corim had described with his weapon. The dot expanded slowly, a flickering light shining through it like the beam of a hunter’s lantern.
Bannor glanced to the all-mother. Wren’s brother Azir was carrying her. Arms around the young ascendant’s neck, expression intent, she studied the glowing phenomena with dark jewel-like eyes.
The circle grew until it was a few paces across, the opaque surface collapsed with a hiss of air revealing a cut in the air peering into a stone corridor where Tal stood holding the shaladen Nova.
“Damn,” Tal said with a shake of his head. “That gate took forever. That’s a hella shield around that place. Hop smart, this thing is hard to keep open.”
In ones and twos they jumped through and back into Kul’Amaron. They were in the back corridors near the chambers of the King and Queen. Here the walls were adorned with art and tapestries. An open window looked out into one of Kul’Amaron’s many gardens, illuminated by shafts of afternoon light. A pleasant gurgling came from a many-layered water sculpture that gleamed and sparkled in the sun.
Dulcere and Corim came through last, and turned to watch as the gate closed with a rasp of disrupted air.
“Thanks, Tal,” Corim said. “It was going to be a long hike otherwise.”
Tal thumped Corim on the shoulder. “No problem, Kid.”
The shaladen warrior looked to green-skinned Gaea, who pulled the cloak around herself as he viewed her. Tal bowed. “Green, it can only be mother Gaea.”
“Thank you, son Talorin,” Gaea said with a grin. Still holding around Azir’s neck, she peered around the corridor in wide-eyed fascination. She pulled on the ascendant of light and pointed to the opening in the wall. “The window.”
He walked over so she could look out. Gaea touched the wall and leaned down. “So beautiful.” She looked over his shoulder to Janai and Sarai. “This is the place where you were raised?”
“Yes,” Sarai said with a nod.
“Azir, please put me down, I can hold myself here,” she asked.
Wren’s brother sighed and set her down, slowly allowing her to take the weight on her legs. Still clutching the cloak around her body, she stared out the window. She closed her eyes and sniffed. “Oh, so nice. This is—” A gurgling sound came from her middle and she clutched at her abdomen. Her brow furrowed. “Ugh. What is that sensation?”
“Food,” Wren said, letting out a breath. “We need to get you something to eat.” She frowned and looked at Octavia. “She doesn’t need anything special, does she?”
Octavia shook her head. The mecha glanced back to Gaea then looked to Marna. “Vatraena, perhaps I should remain, she may need further adjustments. I can keep my host with Wysteri’s while I am in residence.” She turned to Janai. “As long as it’s permissible.”
The second princess laughed. “Why not? There’s room, it’s not like the castle isn’t already filled with Shael Dal, valkyries, and Kriar.”
Octavia bowed. “Thank you, Arminwen.”
Gaea looked around between them. “I get to eat? Is eating pleasant?”
Bannor couldn’t help but smile.
“First things first,” Euriel said. “Let’s get her some clothes.”
Gaea’s gaze snapped to the Aesir. “Do I get to pick them?”
“Of course.”
Euriel touched Idun on the arm. “Mother, you can make some things, can’t you?”
Idun shrugged. “Of course. I don’t know why we didn’t dress her before this.”
“Because she was hopping around like cat with its tail on fire,” Wren growled.
Gaea waved a dismissive hand at Wren. “It wasn’t important. I’m not cold. I’m not even certain why I need to be modest—although, I have this instinct to be.” She frowned and her brow furrowed. “I wonder where that comes from? I must get that from all of you.”
Bannor was beginning to realize that while they may have burgeoned from Gaea as entities, that they in fact shaped her perceptions and intellect. They were as much a part of her, as she was them.
“Well, if she wants to wander around without any clothes, I ain’t complaining,” Tal said with a grin.
Gaea focused on the fighting man. “Are you saying I’m attractive?”
Tal chuckled. “I’m saying you got a lot of great stuff in all the right places, and it ain’t hard on my eyes at all. That’s what I’m saying.”
“Right places?” Gaea pursed her lips and looked under the minimal covering of Wren’s cloak. “Which parts are the ‘right places’?”
“Mother, never mind,” Wren said. “Let’s get all the right places covered up, so you can eat.”
Gaea put a hand on her hip and frowned at Wren. “Which one of us is the Mother here? Must you order me about?”
Wren put hands on hips. “I’m simply trying to be practical and protect you. When parents get old and helpless, their children take care of them.”
The goddess opened her mouth then closed it. She looked back to Euriel. “I get to pick, right?”
“Yes, Mother,” Euriel said.
“Let us go then,” Gaea said. She raised her chin and made an imperious sniff. “Wren, Euriel and Idun will dress me.” She made a dismissing gesture. “You do whatever it is you need to do.” She smiled at Azir. “Son Vanidaar, son Azir, if you will assist me, I would like to walk the rest of the way.”
Wren’s father and brother helped lead the goddess after Euriel and Idun.
Wren glared at the goddess’ back.
Ziedra had her arms folded and was grinning. “You created a monster.”
“Gah!” Wren looked out. “She went from sweet to snot, in one transformation!” She turned and glared at Marna and Octavia. “Did you like quadruple that body’s supply of obstinance?”
Marna chuckled. “I think she spoke true. She is a reflection of all of you.”
Desiray leaned close to Wren with a knowing smile. “She just emulated what
she saw.”
Wren growled.
“Well, it’s been fun,” Tal said. “I got stuff to do. Kid, Megan is back in charge, I got field work. Just scream if you need me, okay?”
Corim gave the other man a clenched fist high sign.
Tal nodded. He swung his shaladen, slashed a hole in the air, stepped through and was gone in a rush of collapsing atmosphere.
Wren looked where the big man had gone. “I just don’t know what we’re going to do if Gaea keeps acting like this.”
Damay shook her head. “For some reason I find you being bothered by her willful behavior extremely amusing.”
“It’s not funny,” the blonde savant said with a stomp of her foot.
“Wren,” Daena said. “You’re just hacked because she won’t do every little thing you tell her. No matter how old that creature in subspace is, this one is brand new. She’s a little kid and she’s having fun, and you’re trying to be all serious and stuff.”
Wren clenched her fists. “We don’t have time for fun! We have to find that bleedin’ genemar thing before whoever has it—uses it. We need her to help us find it.”
“Wren, I know this must be frustrating, but Daena is right,” Loric said. “Imagine being eons old and never having had a body or any extended interaction with a real environment or sensations. That would regress the most staid creature. And that’s just it—she’s not staid. She’s an amalgam of traits assembled from her rather youthful children.”
“I thought she had her own personality,” Cassandra said. “She sure seemed to.”
“You always faced her under particular circumstances. Wren did the summoning both times, right? It’s not surprising she mirrors a lot of our little force savant’s traits—” He grinned at Wren. “Notably her fondness for authority figures.”
“She’s being a brat,” Wren fumed. “I am not a brat.”
Cassandra put hands on hips. “Excuse me?” She opened her mouth then closed it. “No, I better not go there.”
Desiray grinned. “I will.” She poked Wren in the ribs. “It is so sweet seeing you deviled with it for a change.”
Wren scowled at her.
“Give up on pushing her around,” Daena said. “I’m sure she has an infinite supply of stubborn. Be clever about it. She wants to experience new stuff. Just bait her.” She looked to Janai. “It works for me,” she raised her chin. “Doesn’t it, Jan?”
Reality's Plaything 5: The Infinity Annihilator Page 5
