“But Mother, Marna wants to stay here. Even if they have the genemar they won’t use it.”
“Daughter, what’s stopping them from changing their minds? Let’s be clear, Marna does not like that I can control those subpaths. Their civilization’s biggest advantage is largely their ability to move around as they do. The fact that I can disrupt that gives me tremendous leverage over them. It puts them at a tactical disadvantage, one she may at some point decide is too inconvenient.”
“But that doesn’t mean they have to kill you if they decide to go elsewhere.”
“No, it doesn’t. Don’t misunderstand me, I know Marna. I have touched her spirit, and she herself would not attack me in such a fashion unless severely provoked. However, she is a figurehead. Her power amongst her people while great is not absolute. If it was, she wouldn’t be hiding here would she?”
Daena leaned forward with her chin in her palms gazing at Gaea. “Mother, are you the same Gaea who didn’t know what eating was earlier? How do you know all this?”
“Child, I may not know what it is to be flesh, but politics and motivations—those things I know well. My children deviled each other with it for millennia. When considering the actions of one who is not completely trusted, you must expect the worst. I trust Marna to an extent, but I have no confidence in her council. Their decisions concerning the Baronians have been suspect at best.”
“I think Daena is wondering more about when you became aware of all of this. It wasn’t discussed. Looking at the faces around the table, much of it is new to us. When did you learn all this?”
“Daughter, this body is new. Sensations are new. I have been enjoying them. I came here to help. Did you think I was doing nothing all this time?”
“I—” Wren stopped, and her brow furrowed. “We’ve been with you the whole time.”
Gaea looked perplexed. “Since when is doing more than one thing at once unusual? Marna and I have been conversing all along since she left to do her investigation. Cassandra, Megan, and the other Shael Dal have been chatting with me as well.”
Wren’s mouth dropped open.
The all-mother’s brow furrowed. “Child, please, you didn’t really think my mental capacity was that feeble did you? Now that I am here in real time, I can telepath normally. I might be challenged by the physical aspects of this body, but I assure you my ability to communicate and multitask are undiminished.”
Radian rubbed the back of his head. “Wren, come on, you lived at the house. Name a time momma Cassandra or Dorian weren’t carrying on two or three conversations.”
“Oh. I should know that. I’m just being dumb.”
Gaea smiled at her.
“That still leaves us at an impasse,” Bannor said. “If you can’t trust Marna with that knowledge. Can you solve the problem without her help?”
Gaea rubbed her forehead. “It is not an easy thing, and I am not an expert on heredity…”
“Wait,” Idun said. “You just said that you felt Marna was trustworthy, and without saying it, you implied that she might be pressured into giving up that knowledge. Why not simply safeguard the information?”
“How? Once a secret is revealed, it can always be divined by chronological dissection.”
Radian raised a finger for attention. “The council shield my mother and Loric put around Kul’Amaron is proof against time scans.”
“Really?” Gaea said. “What about physical access? Timescans done inside the barrier.”
“Ummm,” Radian winced. “I know time diving could be prevented, I don’t think we’ve ever set up a screen that way because of all the anomalies that creates. Everything inside would be out of touch like you were in subspace because event transphase was suspended. Usually, if we want to do something without someone being able to record it, we do a timewipe.”
“You have chronomasters that can do that?” Gaea asked.
“It’s only been done a couple times that I’m aware of,” Radian answered. “I think Elsbeth can do it. I don’t know if father Loric can. There are others, but I don’t know if we could trust any of them.”
“Aarlen and her daughters,” Wren said. “Not a chance would we want them to come across it. If you want somebody you trust to do it, Mother, Koass could probably do it.”
“I would only consent to letting Marna know this material if the shield is proven to be sufficiently opaque, and someone of suitable skill time wipes the research areas. Otherwise, I am not sharing the specific knowledge of necrotizing my subspace body.”
“I think we understand the sensitivity of that information,” Euriel said. “Whoever had it could hold half of Eternity for ransom.”
“Tell me, Mother,” Wren said, her expression turning grave. “Do you think it’s possible to only kill a specific subpath? Cause a disruption in just one particular area?”
“The application of the genemar is to chain react all the subspace life that makes up my body.”
“If we speculate the Daergons have the genemar. Suppose they don’t want to cut and run. What if they’re trying figure out how the thing works? If I were evil, that’s what I’d be after, figuring out how to just kill a small area. Like Radian said, blowing up the whole house with you in it, that’s not very bright. Blowing up one room when there’s billions of rooms… Now you have a weapon you can aim. What does that weapon aim at? The gates the Kriar prize so much. If the Daergons have that, they can hold Homeworld hostage. They wouldn’t use it right away. They’d wait until the Kriar are situated. Then once enough people and materials are at risk, they could use the threat.”
“I don’t know if that’s what’s going on, but it sure is scary,” Bannor said. “Didn’t Marna say one of those gates blowing up would destroy the whole planet they were on?”
“No, more,” Daena breathed. “Bigger, a lot bigger!”
Gaea’s brow furrowed. “That is a truly daunting prospect. One I had not considered. I don’t know if it’s possible, but I have to believe it is.”
“Whether that’s their plan or not, the very possibility is the reason this genemar thing must be found and destroyed,” Euriel said. “I agree with Gaea that any information concerning this thing be held in the utmost secrecy…”
Bannor felt a twinge of unease, a subtle shifting of threads that made a chill run up his back. The effect did not seem to be localized, but it did seem to be close. He gazed around the chamber. The valkyries, Kriar, and Baronians seemed relaxed, he felt no tension or particular alertness amongst any of them. Whatever he was feeling, none of them had sensed it.
The feeling grew stronger. He looked up into the shadows of the high ceiling. The broad skylight the Baronians broke when they forced entry had been repaired. There was no place to hide up there, no supports or even a ledge. There were chains that hung down to support the lighting sconces, but that would be a precarious position for any creature.
He started to discard that location as a possible source of his discomfort when he caught a glimpse of a flash of metal and one of the chains shifted. An icy hand of realization racked through him in a shot.
In a heartbeat, he sensed threads of magic and saw movement. Bannor threw back his chair, bounded to the top of the dining table and pushed off into the air lunging toward Daena with a hand outstretched to intercept the hurtling object.
He caught only a glimpse of the surprised faces of Daena and the others, eyes wide and mouths open as he flew forward. Pain shrieked through his hand and up his arm as something long and thin struck his palm, ripping flesh and shattering bone.
Even before he had time to hit the floor, a flood of agony made him scream. He slammed down on top of a table on the next tier, crushing through it to the hard stone underneath.
In the times since he had acquired the power of the Garmtur, he had felt many kinds of pain, this sensation dwarfed them all. It felt as if his flesh were being melted from his bones. He howled and writhed, his muscles riveted and unable to focus to remove the horrid thing that h
ad hit him.
He heard screams and sensed activity, but the torture blotted out any ability to focus. His racing heart seemed to slow. He gasped for breath with lungs that wouldn’t take air.
Lost in the torrent of agony, another stronger sensation slammed into him. Behind his clenched eyes, the universe flickered green then turned crimson. Creation. The word hammered into him. His bones quaked. His already disintegrating body flopped. Perpetuity. He gurgled and coughed blood. Annihilation…
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* * *
Chapter Six
One word—ow! Three words—
oh frellin ow!!
—Bannor Nalthane Starfist,
Prince Conjugal of Malan
Bannor winced and moved his head. It felt heavy, like his skull was filled with sand and the gritty substance was sliding around. A pulsing went through his temple and he groaned. His body still hurt like every iota of his skin were burned. A pasty dry scum seemed to coat the inside of his mouth and he swallowed dry lumps of saliva that slid down his throat with a grating sensation. It took effort but he managed to crack his eyelids.
There were figures nearby but they were only colored smears in his vision.
“He’s moving,” a voice said nearby that was strangely distorted in his hearing.
“Oh lords, thank you!” another voice said.
“That was so close,” a third person said. “Little bastard. Damn Set for ever creating that vile stuff.”
The voices were slowly becoming clearer.
“Bannor? Can you hear me?”
He tried to speak but it came out in a croak. “I—uck.”
“Don’t try too hard, my One. You’re really hurt.” He felt a pressure on his chest. “The attack destroyed your ascendant body, and forced you back into your normal body.”
“Damn, he is messed up. How did it hit his host body too?”
“It must be a new strain of jikartandak. Something designed to attack a host through their avatar.”
“It did a pretty frellin’ good job thrashing that immort body too.”
“Damn, Sarai,” he heard Daena’s familiar echoing voice say. “I’m so sorry. I don’t know what to say.”
“What are you sorry for?” He heard a trace of irritation in her voice. “Because Bannor risked his life for you? You’re his sister—what do you expect?” He felt her hand pressing his chest. “Damn, damn,” he heard her sniff. Drops of moisture hit his arm and ran down. “Whoever ordered that attack is sooo going to pay.”
It took all his strength simply to move his arm, find her hand, and squeeze her fingers. He took an aching breath. “D-d-don’t—ca—cry.” He swallowed. It was so hard to breathe. “L-love y—you.”
“My One,” she murmured. Her voice went on, echoing in his mind.
“He needs a bit longer to stabilize,” he heard Wysteri say. “This attack was extremely sophisticated. Even though his body was in stasis, this effect still managed to damage him. Had his body processes not been in near suspension he would have died in instants.”
“They must think Daena is tao inhabiting that body, or at least covering that possibility. That is some vicious stuff.”
“I confess I have never seen, nor is there any record that I can find, of anything able to strike quite like this. The poison destroyed the avatar, then followed the link back to the body, penetrated the dimensional shell of the ghost vault and disrupted his host’s microstructure.”
He blinked, trying to focus and failing. Was one of those figures green? “M-m-mother—i-i-is she here?”
A shape moved close and a soothing hand touched his face. Her touch dispelled some of the pain and he felt stronger. “I am here, my son.” She leaned closer and she pressed her lips to his forehead. The ache in his bones receded and it grew easier to breathe. “As Sarai said, save your strength, think it, I will hear.”
He closed his eyes and tried to focus his thoughts.
“The genemar?” Gaea repeated.
“What’s he saying?” Wren asked. “That he had one of those attacks when he was hit?”
“Yes,” Gaea said with a grave tone.
“Did he have an attack or was he attacked by the genemar? Can it do something like that—attack through his psychic ties to his host body?”
“It can,” Gaea answered. “The link between a host and spirit or tao, what you call the silver-cord, is actually the same living essence that comprises my subspace body. Your tao is actually a self-contained part of my essence. That is what makes you truly my children and also a part of me.” She let out a breath. “So, in the same way it can destroy me, it can annihilate your tao as it nearly did with Bannor.”
“Spit,” Wren growled. “Now you tell us.”
“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” he heard Ziedra murmur.
“What if he blocked two hits meant for Daena, the super jikartandak to kill the avatar body, and the genemar to destroy the tao and host body.”
“Whoa, you’re suggesting someone here has the genemar? Not only that, but has control of the thing? No way.”
“Daena isn’t an avatar though. Why both? Just killing the tao would be enough don’t you think?”
“I can answer that,” Gaea said. “A tao is fairly durable, and parts of it can exist in multiple places. When you astral travel, your whole tao does not leave your body, a monitor essence or core remains behind in the host. If the whole tao is not completely destroyed, it can regrow. However, it must have a host body to gestate in or it will expire. You must kill both in order to ensure death.”
“Wren is proof of that,” Bannor heard Radian say. “Her body was killed and Mom just bound her tao to another form.”
“Bannor survived because he was partially shielded by the barrier around the ghost vault. The stasis around his host body limited the damage to his core tao.”
The realization hit him—why he couldn’t see. The garmtur had been destroyed. His body was just a burned up husk kept alive by the tiny shred of his tao left behind when he astral traveled. Even if Wysteri somehow repaired his body, he was no longer a savant. The little bit of tao left in him was not strong enough to touch the threads of Eternity and thereby grow. It would be summers, if ever, before he could see again.
He was crippled in both body and spirit. A rush of sadness and embarrassment roared through him. He might as well be dead. At least he gave his life protecting someone else. The burning on his face grew worse and the blurs of the figures around him were blotted out. Streaks of heat rolled down the sides of his face and across his ears.
“Oh Bannor,” Sarai murmured.
“My brave son,” Gaea soothed, brushing his forehead with her fingers.
“This is bad. Nobody is safe. That stuff will kill anybody—all it takes is frelling scratch. Bannor got stabbed in the hand and was dead almost before anyone could get to him. I sure as frell hope the genemar attack was a coincidence or we are in serious doo-doo.”
Bannor heard sniffing. “I’m so sorry,” Daena sobbed. “Damn, after what I did, and he…”
“Shhh,” Janai hushed. “Come here.”
“Sarai, Janai, we need to make sure everyone knows. We have to assume the worst.”
“Right,” Sarai answered. “I’m telling Mother and all the Shael Dal now.”
“Gaea, please tell me if this thing hits you it won’t do to you what it did to Bannor.”
“Daughter, I wish I could reassure you. What hit Bannor was a necrotizing attack little different from the kill signal used to annihilate my entire subspace body.” She drew a breath. “By necessity, I still have a link, however tenuous, with my subspace form. The tao annihilation would follow that link as it did with Bannor back to my original host form. I cannot hide myself f
rom such an attack.”
“Spit. Just frelling great. It won’t collapse your whole body at once will it?”
“No, the effect would begin at the core and spread outward. It would take longer than the kill signal, but the net result would be the same.”
“Lords,” Euriel murmured.
“Damn, this reeks,” Azir rumbled. “What the frell do we do? If they already have the gene thing up and working, even if we find them, we’ll get fried the moment we move in.”
“Mother, please tell me something good, like that genemar thing can’t be fired over and over in rapid succession.”
“It cannot,” Gaea confirmed. “In order to kill the tao, the antithesis must be calculated and projected. A tao, while it is comprised of the same substance as my essence, is by necessity more complex so that the entity’s intelligence and memories can be shadowed within it. That is why when you occupy a body other than your own you have your intellect and recollection. When the tao binds with the temporary host, those memories transpose non-destructively. That’s why you can double or even triple up in single body. The silver cord tying you back to your host is primarily to keep that body’s physical copy of those memories synchronized. It is a safeguard should the wandering tao become heavily damaged and lose the stores of memory.”
“How did his memory get updated while he was in stasis? He seems to remember what happened.”
“A tao has more than one safeguard. Not only do memories get streamed back through the silver cord to the host, but memories are shared with nearby taos. One of a tao’s functions is to replicate the patterns of other taos and the spirits of entities that have a close affiliation.”
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