“Mother,” Terra asked. “This phasing thing, is that what’s blocking the telepathy?”
“Yes,” Gaea answered. “Imagine a building with thousands of floors. When you communicate telepathically you meet your partner and ‘shake hands’ on one specific floor. For privacy, you might move to another floor and continue your conversation. However, you always find one another on that ‘common’ floor. Knocked out of phase, your reference to the common floor is lost. Therefore, nobody can find each other’s mind and can’t hear anything because the entire telepathic spectrum has been shifted.”
Tal who was walking with his hands behind his back leaned forward, his dark eyes narrowing. “Spit. This phase dren is a chronal charge, right? We can’t get rid of it, we either have to be rephased or wait until the charge wears off.”
Gaea made a weary nod of her head. “Yes. The phasing works both for and against us. It prevents us from using many kinds of phase mechanics that include telepathy and such. Combined with the counsel shields and time wards put up by Koass, there is no possible way to gain entry to the citadel—physically or otherwise. No communication in or out is possible either. This is why you have not heard from anyone who was not on the premises when the accident occurred.”
“Damn, yer saying we’re trapped.”
“No,” Gaea answered. “You can leave the citadel grounds, but you will not be able to enter again.”
Bannor narrowed his eyes. “I think I managed to keep Daena and I from getting knocked out of phase. We can still telepath to one another.”
“If that’s true how can he and Daena be here?” Megan wanted to know.
“Probably when Bannor attempted to shield himself, the blockage was enough that he and Daena managed to keep their subpath reference. They are still out of phase, otherwise as Megan says, they would have been ejected from the phased space. If they can still telepath to one another it means they managed to hang on to the common telepathic reference.”
“So, Mother,” Sarai asked. “That means that we can use them to get re-synced to speak outside the shield?”
“That would follow,” Gaea agreed. She slowed as Bannor turned to take them through the gallery and down the steps. Already, he could feel the humming presence of the genemar.
Tal looked back to Sarai. His voice echoed down the stairwell. “Apparently the princess knows somethin’ I don’t. How hard is this re-syncing thing?”
“With the help of the eternals it would be simple,” Megan said. “Unfortunately, our shaladens are not working. We need a skilled natural telepath.” She frowned. “Loric would have been our man, but he’s down.”
“I believe any of the Kriar would suffice,” Gaea said. “Telepathy is their primary means of communication.”
Terra put a finger in her ear. “What is that buzzing? It’s making my skull rattle.”
“That is the genemar,” Gaea said. “The thrumming is the vibration of the subpaths holding it and the entire citadel out of phase.”
They walked down the long passage and around the corner into the destroyed vestibule. Marna, her daughter, and half dozen valkyries and Kriar stood around the laboratory entrance.
Marna stood in the entry itself staring up at the genemar with her hands behind her back. Her daughter, Dulcere, stood at her shoulder looking stiff and tense.
“I suspected I would find you here,” Gaea said.
Marna looked over her shoulder. She narrowed her black eyes. “This device has nearly caused the death of ten people, and caused injuries to a great number more. Our success against the Daergons and the Baronians hinges on it. It is in everyone’s interest that someone competent know what’s going on.”
Bannor felt a stab in his chest at the word competent. Gaea stiffened at his side, her fingers tightening on his arm. She already felt guilty for the accident. Marna was the only figure even close to being her peer, so the dig obviously stung.
The all-mother drew a long slow breath and pushed her hair back with a toss of her head. Seeing her jaw tighten, Bannor reflected on how much the incarnation of the goddess had changed in only a short span of days. Upon first awakening, she was practically a child, albeit an incredibly intelligent one. Though some aspects of that adolescent remained, she now had a unique self, one that wasn’t merely a reflection of all her children.
Gaea apparently decided to let Marna’s barb pass because she let go of his arm and pushed toward the doorway without comment. Dulcere stepped out of the green-mother’s path. Marna, however, did not.
“What are you going to do?” the matriarch asked.
Gaea stared at her. “Counsel—move.”
Bannor saw Dulcere’s hand take hold of the weapon on her side. Her subordinates also tensed. The movement, subtle as it was, made the valkyries, Tal, Terra, and Megan put hands to weapons. Daena and Sarai stepped up on either side of him. Sarai took hold of his hand, her fingers meshing with his.
He started to open his mouth and Gaea halted him with a held up palm obviously feeling his words before he could even vocalize. She put fists on hips. “What is this, Marna? Was I not properly grateful for your medical care?”
The muscles of the Kriar’s face worked. She was obviously careful to keep both hands in view. She would have to be a stone not sense the tension in the warriors around her. “This is caution. While I hope this was an accident. I find it altogether too convenient that every other witness in the lab was incapacitated. Loric and Czar’s spirits gone from their bodies and unable to return, your children injured in such a way that even Kriar medicine can’t revive them… Coincidence? Perhaps.” She tilted her head. “Tell me, Gaea, where is Bhaal? Was she in the lab with you?”
Bannor wondered how she knew all that if she was down here the whole time? Were agents of hers watching and reporting?
The all-mother’s brow furrowed. “Bhaal? No, I would not be foolish enough to try to control her in there. She is in my quarters. I left a request for food to be brought to her, as she is not safe around others without my presence.”
Marna waved to one of the Kriar. The male took off at a run, presumably to verify Bhaal was where Gaea said.
Gaea’s gaze tracked the running Kriar until he was out of sight. She looked back to Marna. “Counsel, where are you going with this? We need to secure the genemar. Our enemies may soon defeat the phase shield.”
“Accident, negligence, or deliberate sabotage?” Marna said. “Only one of your children could verify your identity, and they are all either incapacitated or blind. You do see how the coincidences pile up?”
Bannor felt a twist in his stomach. At his side, Daena drew a breath. Sarai’s grip on his hand was a steady pressure now. He looked down to her and saw her looking up, violet eyes narrowed. What the Kriar said made a certain provocative sense. He simply couldn’t give it serious credence though.
“This is ridiculous,” Gaea growled. “If I was an imposter, how would I know how to make the genemar?” She pointed to the device humming and glowing inside the chamber.
Marna glanced back at the device then focused back on Gaea. “Is that what it is? It could just as easily be a phase bomb. I could make one of those—perhaps not with magic…”
The green goddess cut her off. “Fooling the children would be possible, but Czar? Come now.”
“It is a weak spot in my theory,” Marna agreed. “How to fool an eternal specialized in magic.” She paused for a second and touched behind her ear. She nodded and then. “It appears the Lokori is indeed in your chambers.”
Gaea folded her arms. “This is getting tiresome. You are not the authority here. They are.” She tipped her head toward Tal and Megan.
“If this is indeed the genemar,” Marna declared. “We have already gotten a sample of what it can do. I have no intention of letting you near it until we know for certain what happened.”
He couldn’t hold himself back any longer. “Lady Marna, until that thing is turned off, we can’t know anything for certain. If the Baronian
s and Daergons get in here while we’re crippled, it’s not going to be good.”
“No—wait,” Megan said. Rainbow wings fluttering she stepped forward. “I understand Marna’s concern, the same concern we’ve had from the beginning. Creating a doomsday weapon to combat another doomsday weapon—it shows how desperate this situation has become. Marna, let’s compromise, I’ll handle the genemar, Gaea will tell me what to do.”
Gaea looked doubtful. “Child, I am not certain your spirit is strong enough to control the genemar, especially with its defenses up. Weakened as I am, I was bracing myself for a challenge.”
“Could something happen?” Megan asked with a furrowed brow.
“Certainly,” Gaea said. “You could set off another phase blast, and knock the citadel even further out of sync with real space. You thought the first explosion was uncomfortable…” Her voice trailed off and she shook her head.
Megan rubbed her forehead. She glanced to Marna. The Kriar matriarch wore a dubious expression on her gold face. She glanced up at the floating genemar, jaw working. He could see the pressure of time passing wearing away at her resolve. While Marna doubted Gaea’s story, she clearly accepted the threat of another explosion.
The lead shaladen warrior raised her chin and she straightened up. “I guess I just have to do it right then.”
She stepped up to Marna. She tilted her head and raised an eyebrow.
The ancient Kriar pursed her lips, black eyes rising to meet Megan’s gaze. The lead Shael Dal and wife of eternal Koass while not as gigantic as Aarlen, was still an imposing female, especially with the addition of the wings. Looming over the smaller female, she held a hand out. “Do I have to move you?”
Marna’s throat muscles twitched. To see a Kriar caught in the midst of being indecisive was probably something rare, and it was obvious the council leader felt the heat.
The Kriar balled her hands into fists and let out a breath. “G—” She coughed and cleared her throat. “Gaea—you—do it,” she gritted out. She snapped her fingers at her two remaining aides, and nodded to Dulcere. “My people are going to cover you though.”
Dulcere drew her sidearm as did the other two Kriar. The valkyries around them tensed, watching them with glinting eyes.
Folding her arms, Megan stepped back.
Gaea eyed Marna, casting looks at the weapons trained on her. “Trust is so hard to come by.” She made a coming gesture. “Bannor, Daena, assist me please. I will need all the help I can get the way I am feeling.”
Sarai gave his hand a squeeze, and he leaned down and kissed her.
“Careful,” she whispered.
“I will,” he answered, then turned to follow the goddess.
Marna stepped aside as Gaea moved forward but the all-mother made a point of putting a hand against her shoulder and gently pushing her back an extra two steps. Her expression made it clear that the confrontation would not soon be forgotten.
It appeared that the poisonous gas that filled the room earlier had either dissipated or been cleared away. Hand on his arm, Gaea stepped in with him. The goddess looked around at the destruction and her features hardened. She gazed up and the silvery egg-shaped thing hovering overhead. He saw a shudder go through her body. This was her antithesis.
Behind him, he heard Marna murmuring into the artifice communications, telling all the Kriar to spread the word that Gaea was preparing to shut down the genemar and to brace for either an explosion or an attack from the Baronians and the Daergons.
“Let us move around to the right where the footing is better,” Gaea said.
Bannor helped her through the debris, picking around to the right side of the chamber.
“Mother,” Daena murmured behind them. “Can it still explode?”
“It can,” Gaea said. “So, let us not make it angry.”
“Angry?” Bannor wondered. Was this again another living weapon like Gaea herself?
They found a position a little back from the crater edge where the three of them could stand together with Bannor and Daena on either side of her.
Daena brushed back her auburn hair. “It’s hard to believe that little thing caused so much damage.”
“Daughter,” Gaea murmured, while continuing to stare at the object. “A single disrupted chronon can wipe out all existence.”
Roughly the size of both of Bannor’s fists placed one on top of the other, the genemar was actually more of a rounded cone, the bottom having a cylindrical projection from which four thick vanes spread out and tapered toward the top. Crystalline veins pulsed on the thing’s shimmering metallic surface, shifting and changing in color. The whole device hummed and pulsed, bobbing in the air overhead as though floating on the surface of a lake.
Bannor wished his thread sight hadn’t been affected. No doubt it would help here.
Gaea drew a breath. “All right,” she said. “I need you both to lend me strength. Each of you put a hand on my shoulder.”
Bannor put his hand on the goddess’s shoulder, Daena doing the same. Beneath his touch, he felt Gaea tremble. He glanced toward the door threshold where the Kriar had their weapons trained on them.
“Daena,” Gaea said. “Reach out with your power, can you feel it up there?”
The girl held up her free hand, fingers spread toward the genemar. Her brow furrowed. “Sort of, I don’t think I could get much of a grip on it.”
“That’s fine,” Gaea said. She looked to Marna standing sentinel in the doorway. “Go ahead and warn everyone I’m starting. We don’t know if they’re out there pounding to get in, but they might be.”
“I have it covered,” Marna reported.
“Okay you two,” Gaea said. “You’re going to feel the pull, so brace yourselves.”
He nodded and saw Daena do the same. He concentrated on Gaea, relaxing his body and willing his strength to her. As she reached beckoning hands up to the genemar he felt a sharp tug against the nola power in his body. Daena made a little squeak, obviously surprised despite the warning.
All around the genemar, colors began to twist and writhe, like droplets of colored oil stirred up in water. Each pulsation of the genemar sent ripples through the air around it. The device itself began to give off a reddish light.
Bannor gritted his teeth and his heart sped up. Despite Sarai’s assurances to the contrary, red was usually a bad thing. The grimace on Gaea’s face confirmed his concerns. Across the way, Marna was wincing as well.
“Obstinate destructive little thing,” Gaea snarled. “Obey.” Bannor felt a massive heave against his power that made his legs go wobbly. Daena grunted and went to one knee.
The genemar’s placid movements became an agitated spin and wobble. The device made darting shifts like a fish striking left and right at the end of a fisherman’s line. The thrumming rose in a pitch and the walls of the lab already trembling began to shudder and moan.
Gaea let out a gasp, perspiration standing out on her skin, as she held out a hand in a clawing gesture as if trying to pull the stubborn artifice out of the air. The atmosphere, ground and walls flickered translucent, and a green illumination filtered through everything. The stone itself seemed to bend and sway like marsh weeds in a strong wind. Around the device the very fabric of existence seemed to churn and froth.
Bannor’s stomach tightened and his heart became a thunder in his ears. The Kriar in the hall staggered, grabbing for the walls and doorframe in order to stay upright in a world that seemed to flutter and contort on itself. Gaea was pulling every bit of energy he and Daena could lend and barely making headway.
Hand shaking with effort, veins pulsing in her temples, Gaea let out a hiss of effort. “Come—here!”
Tongues of energy licked out, discharging into the walls and ceiling, in rasping bursts of coruscation that gouged out hunks of mithril-reinforced stone like a cleaver hacking meat.
Tossing her head, Gaea snarled. “I made you. Come—now!”
In a room that twitched and writhed like somet
hing from a fever dream, the genemar lurched down toward Gaea’s waiting hand, the air a burning froth of distorted ether.
A pace from Gaea, the device paused. The heat and distortions making Bannor’s skin crawl. The blood in his body felt on fire and a hammer pounded inside of his skull.
“Mother—hurry!” he gritted.
“Trying,” she groaned. “A—little—more.” With each word, she yanked the stubborn artifact closer. Each effort lashed at Bannor’s insides making him grunt against the force that threatened to turn him inside out. On her knees at Gaea’s feet, Daena held on, tears streaming down her face.
An ether-storm shrieked and boomed around them, their clothing whipped by a gale of contorting reality. In all his imaginings, he never conceived this thing, this genemar, could be so wild… so uncontrollable. Gaea had forged it herself, and it fought like a demon to be rid of her. It was like Senalloy said, ‘creation run amok’, pure power, pure unfettered chaos. To risk using something like this as a weapon—the Daergons were truly insane.
The rasping, crackling device shuddered just out of Gaea’s reach, hovering just beyond the edge of the crater in the floor where she couldn’t go closer. Crimson motes spun in rapid orbits close to the thing’s skin, sizzling with flash heat.
Little by little, the device crawled toward Gaea’s shuddering fingers. She leaned precariously over the edge of the precipice, a single finger brushing the bottom-most edge of the thing.
A white-flash crackled over the surface of the genemar, and with a savage wrench it whipped away toward the floor of the crater like an animal darting for its burrow.
“Daena grab it!” Gaea yelled.
Perhaps it was pure instinct, or just the desperation of the instant—Daena lunged forward and threw out her hand. The air bent and churned as her power halted the device hairs from phasing into the solid surface of the floor.
“Can’t—see.” Daena gritted. Energy crackled and flashed on the surface of young ascendant’s skin. Muscles standing out like cables, she reeled the thing up a pace but seemed at her limit. “It’s slipping!”
Reality's Plaything 5: The Infinity Annihilator Page 31
