He looked to Sarai, since Bannor had no body or presence to look toward.
Bannor paused.
The little G’Yakki stiffened, raising her head for the first time.
The little G’Yakki had rocked her head back. Bannor didn’t think it was fear, but something had the little woman in anguish, because she started trembling.
Sarai snarled. He felt the tears burning her face.
He couldn’t shrug.
Bhaal who had been silent the whole time did something surprising. She put a clawed hand on Sarai’s shoulder. “Mother protect them.”
Sarai made a growling sound and looked from Bhaal to Kalindinai as if pleading for intervention. The elf Queen wore a dark and implacable expression. Brow furrowed and lips tight, she shook her head. She tilted her head.
The little G’Yakki grimaced. What the internal battle was going on in her, Bannor did not know, but it was obviously fierce. She finally drew a breath and fixed dark eyes on the queen. “I am not worthy,” she said in a tight voice. She looked up at Wren and for an instant it seemed like there were tears in her eyes. She touched the blonde ascendant’s arm. “But my—” She paused and swallowed. “My student does not yet have the skill.”
Vera’s lips pinched tight. She made a weak nod.
Vera shook her head.
Wren nodded.
Kalindinai held up a hand. She stepped closer to Vera, glowing amber eyes fierce.
Vera’s dark eyes widened. “But…”
The little woman looked like she’d been pinned to a wall with knives. She swallowed. “It cannot…”
Vera’s jaw dropped. “The ancient? He’s…”
Vera shut her mouth. She swallowed, glanced up at Wren, and after a moment, gave Kalindinai a nod.
Sarai thought to everyone with a growl.
Corim shook his head.
Bannor felt another tremor go through Sarai. She looked to her mother who nodded and rubbed her shoulder. She let out a huge breath and grabbed the band clamped to her arm that was Xersis. He felt her press her will into the weapon and urge it to change. A moment of dizziness went through him as the shaladen reformed into a sword.
A green glow went around the weapon. She held the blade out hilt first to the little G’Yakki.
Vera stared up at Sarai, dark eyes wide as she stared at the weapon. She glanced to Corim, to Wren, and then to Kalindinai.
She reached out and wrapped her fingers around the hilt, and gently eased the weapon away from her.
For Bannor, the world went black, no longer having eyes with which to see, or ears to hear. Simply being in contact with a body obviously was not sufficient to allow him to perceive. He guessed they must also be a recognized Shael Dal.
How much time passed he didn’t know. Being returned to the empty void was an unhappy reminder of the state in which he now lived, barely able to even interact with the world.
The humid misty hallway flared into view. Vera was staring at the metal grillwork of the floor, her small olive-colored hands splayed over the slats and the hilt and blade of the shaladen. He felt her heart beating fast and her breath coming in gasps. After a few instants he experienced a hot rush of heat in her face as she jerked herself straight, flustered at her lack of composure and show of weakness. Thoughts pinged through her mind. She now clearly heard the mental voices of the other Shael Dal even though they weren’t speaking to her. Everything in the corridor now had a sharper focus and her body felt so light.
Letting out a breath, she tried to push to her feet but her knees buckled before she managed a third of the motion. Wren and Corim caught her shoulders.
He felt shock, dismay, and embarrassment shriek through her.
She blinked. She was looking up at Wren, at the glowing blue of her eyes. Bannor noticed the way the G’Yakki lady focused on her face.
Vera nodded.
Wren and Corim helped her to stand.
She stood there in the corridor on shaking legs that felt entirely new. Her whole body felt changed and horribly out of sync. Bannor experienced a jolt of discomfort as she realized her balance was different. She hadn’t gained or lost more than a quarter stone of weight in more than a century. She flexed her knees experimentally. This was bad—she didn’t have time to learn to readjust, they wanted her help now.
“I—” Vera stopped.
al—as if she had been doing it her whole life.
A chilly sense of disquiet went through her. It was obvious that this woman lived a painfully private existence. For someone to know the tiniest detail was uncomfortable.
She looked around at the others all staring at her with expectant expressions. They had already wasted a significant amount of time.
Bannor focused the garmtur down into the G’Yakki woman. His first task was to make tao and body get along better, then get her nola and the shaladen to mesh. Where born savants flourished in stronger bodies, the disciplined G’Yakki tao gained its strength from knowing each and every iota of the body it inhabited, being able to focus all of its energy down to a needle’s point if need be. Changing the body meant relearning its limits.
When he avatared Gaea, the ancient G’Yakki masters had been in him, they used disciplines in order to learn the body quickly and make the most of it. Those principles were simply patterns of thought, and patterns were his strength. He shared that knowledge with her, felt her draw a breath of realization and sensed her push into her center, mastering the changes in her body. He busied himself while she focused on her balance, bringing the shaladen into synchronous with her tao, the garmtur, and her body.
The threads of eternity flared in her sight, colored lines of connected relation and energy, emotion, and thought.
He sensed Vera settle, the perfect harmony of her body gradually being restored.
It took the G’Yakki woman only a handful of heartbeats to have the sword shaped into a band on her wrist.
She bowed to him.
Vera turned to Kalindinai. She didn’t say anything but simply looked into the Queen’s glowing amber eyes. The elf lady nodded in recognition.
Last, Vera turned to Wren and gave her a hug.
It seemed to take a long time before Vera let go. She swallowed and faced Sarai. She held out both her hands.
Sarai pursed her lips, violet eyes big in her slender face. She looked pale, and her silvery hair hung down across her brow. The thought of him leaving terrified her now. He hated that. She took Vera’s hands after a moment and squeezed her fingers.
Vera told her in a certain tone.
Bannor felt the little woman’s body grow hot as she focused, practicing a ritual performed hundreds, if not thousands of times. She pushed her hood down, and flipped out her hair and re-knotted it. Reaching into her sleeves she pulled out heavy spiked gloves, slipped them on and strapped them down. Her boots she cinched up tight. From her sash and hidden pockets, she slid out curved pieces of blacked metal that were assembled and strapped to her shins. Straightening, she pulled a mask up to cover her nose and face, then pulled her hood into place.
With a slow pivot she stared into the Queen’s amber eyes. She pressed spiked knuckles into the palm of her free hand and bowed.
The Queen bowed back.
She raised a fist to Wren. The blonde ascendant stared at her with wide eyes. It was obvious to Bannor that Wren had never seen Vera braced like this. In fact, nobody had. This was a G’Yakki battle master, able to go blow for blow with an elder Baronian war witch—now with the powers of a shaladen and a savant of reality. Wren gripped Vera’s fist and bowed.
Vera said in a calm voice. She turned to face the room.
She stepped forward and focused, allowing her tao to feel and harmonize with the environment and drifting forward. A hazy translucent glaze seemed to surround the G’Yakki’s body as she hurried into the chamber on silent feet.
The ebb and surge of the strange vibrations grew stronger as they moved into the flickering illumination. The area looked to be some kind energy manufacturing artifice. Bannor didn’t have anything to base his surmise upon except that a large spherical device at the center of the chamber appeared to be the origin of a great deal of power that flowed upward through huge crystalline cylinders connected to the ceiling and walls. It gave the device the appearance of some gigantic alien spider with glowing legs. Dozens of black columns rose from floor to ceiling, their surfaces bristling bizarre artifices, tubes, and glowing jewels.
Bannor focused on finding enemies. It didn’t take long as he found voids where the threads of the universe appeared cut in half by something occluding his view of them.
Vera seemed aware of them and stayed well clear. As she grew close she stepped with more care, her feet placed with exacting care, hands and body swaying as she seemed to slip between folds of the ether itself.
This she did all with the use of her own native strength, somehow able to focus all of her energies inward and hide her presence. Added to the concealment provided by the shaladen, it was clear that neither Kriar eyes or artifices detected Vera as she slipped past the first two observers poised in the niches in the columns.
Mist swirled around the G’Yakki as she crept down a ramp into a lower portion of the chamber. Black hemispheres crackling with energy lined the walls. Metal grills flexed underfoot but made no sound. More enemies waited in the confined space—Bannor counted nine. Three above, and two poised against three of four walls. A single closed portal led out of the space in the direction where he sensed the genemar.
How would she get through that?
Vera slipped into a niche that guarded her from direct observation by the nine stealthed guards lying in wait. She relaxed her concentration.
he answered.
He sensed her frowning.
Vera contained her surprise and did as he suggested, letting the powerful mind bending power of the eternal weapon scan the minds of the guards to locate a way to open the door.
She glanced out of her cover, gaze fixing on the hidden figure closest the door. Vera drew a long deep breath, pressing the tips of her fingers together and bringing them to her forehead.
Bannor felt her mustering energy and focusing it on the guarding Kriar. The figure didn’t do anything at first, but after a few moments began to fidget and twitch. A few moments more the individual stepped from their hiding spot, legs and arms moving with rough, jerky movements.
He felt perspiration trickle down the G’Yakki’s face. He knew from trying to control Quasar how strong the minds of the Kriar could be, that she could do it at all even with the help of the shaladen was amazing. Until picking up the weapon of Eternity, she had no telepathic ability. How did the G’Yakki do that?
The figure turned to the door and reached toward it. Unfortunately another guard intercepted, grabbing the Kriar’s wrist.
Bannor felt tension going through the other figures in the area. They didn’t have time for this. he
told the struggling Vera. He pushed into the garmtur and snatched up the threads of the interfering Kriar and yanked.
The defender let out a yell, a sound clearly heard through his helmet. He staggered back from the one Vera was controlling and fell over writhing and twisting.
This sudden unexpected outburst had the other Kriar warriors moving. Just to confuse matters, Bannor grabbed the threads of one of the defenders above and yanked down.
With a yelp and a cry, the armored figure slammed down among his compatriots, causing a flurry of confusion as weapons were whipped from holsters and plasma blades sprung into existence.
Vera never broke concentration, keeping the one Kriar engaged with the task of opening the door. By the time the others noticed what was happening, the door was hissing aside and Vera was hurtling forward.
The little G’Yakki twisted in the air, shooting between two Kriar and into the gap as one of the Daergon soldiers noticed the door was opening and jumped to stop it.
As Vera arced through the opening she twisted, caught hold of a wall support and swung into it, catching her weight against the surface and balancing so that her feet did not touch the floor of the passage.
Behind them, the door ground closed with a boom. Vera glanced back.
Reality's Plaything 5: The Infinity Annihilator Page 47
