“Was there an inn hidden somewhere in Eternity’s heart that I didn’t see?” Sarai said, looking around in wonder.
Koass glanced back at her. “One of the benefits of being in the Protectorate is the ‘Paradise Space’.” He waved his hand gesturing to the long hall. “Anything you want, within reason, can be created.”
“Anything?” Sarai said. “So, if I wanted a bouquet of flowers for my mother, they’d just appear?”
The eternal shrugged. “Think of Garadhyr and its tie to Eternity. Ask for that boon. Will it the way you would transform your shaladen.”
Sarai stopped and closed her eyes after a few instants a glow flickered around her. In a flash of multicolored motes, a huge spray of golden flowers appeared in her hands.
“Whoa,” Bannor said. “That’s like the creation ability Idun gave you in Gladshiem.”
Sarai looked down and the shining blooms and their bright green stems. “Nice.”
“Indeed,” Koass said with a nod. “The same method created these environs and the large adjoining space. Eternity’s heart is thousands of leagues across so there’s more than enough room to accommodate a wish or two.”
“I would guess,” Bannor murmured.
The rest of the walk was brief, the hall opened out into that same terraced area Bannor had been in before. It appeared that most of the several thousand soldiers had been moved out, making the space seem like a vast empty cavern echoing with the sound of their footsteps. Sarai gazed around the huge space in with wide eyes, silently marveling at the spectacle.
Koass followed the terrace wall for a few dozen steps before turning into another opening where a sizeable banquette hall had been set up. The design was similar to the hall that they had been using at Kul’Amaron, divided into terraces that made it easier for all to observe the central area. Buffets filled with various foods steamed at the back of the room, giving off a wonderful aroma of mingled meats and sauces. Bannor hadn’t felt his hunger, but that smell reminded him like a kick in the stomach.
It appeared that every one of the Kul’Amaron defenders was seated somewhere in the chamber, every Kriar, valkyrie, Baronian, and mecha. Seated together were the three noble families, the T’Evagdurans, Kergathas, and Felspars. Mingled among them were the Shael Dal and savants along with Marna, Dulcere, and Eladrazelle.
The Advocate Eternal gestured them toward Sarai’s family and proceeded down the steps to join eternals Garn, Nethra, and Foross who were standing in the central area.
Bannor peered around to see if Gaea was present and found the green goddess seated at the Kergatha table, lounging between Wren and Damay. He glanced over and rushed to keep up with Sarai who was already part way around the circle heading straight toward her mother.
They both greeted everyone as they passed, touching hands and nodding in response to the congratulations and welcomes. They finally arrived at the table reserved for the T’Evagdurans. King Jhaan nodded to them, his arm draped protectively around the Queen.
Bannor noticed that Kalindinai was not seated in a regular chair but was in some kind of artifice that hovered above the floor. She still looked a bit pale, but worlds better than she had been.
Sarai handed the flowers to him and leaned in to give her mother a hug. Kalindinai smiled for her daughter and patted her back. “It’s not as bad as it looks,” she said in a calm voice, heading off Sarai’s concern. “I just refused to lie in bed. It takes no energy to talk and listen to the briefing.”
His wife-to-be turned and took the flowers from him. “Here, some gold-blooms to celebrate the end of this thing.”
The Queen accepted the gift with a smile. “It might be a trifle premature, but the sentiment is certainly appreciated.”
Sarai and Bannor went around the table, trading hugs with all their close friends and family, settling down next to Ryelle, Janai, Daena, and Senalloy.
On the floor below, Koass did a slow turn, casting his gaze around the room. He raised his hands and bowed. When he spoke, his voice resonated through the room in a deep thrumming bass.
“To all gathered here, and those sharing in the telepathic broadcast being sent to those who could not be present—I salute your valiant efforts and contributions.” He drew a breath and seemed to collect himself. “This is our first general assembly. I have called this meeting to address recent events, establish our current situation, and acknowledge exemplary accomplishments. To start, tactical leader Garn will provide the battle analysis.” He turned to the massive blue-skinned eternal. “Garn.”
The huge burly eternal, topknot bobbing as he moved, stepped to the front as Koass stepped back.
Garn raised his fists, muscles standing out on his monolithic frame. “Listeners of the assembly,” he boomed in a rumbling voice. “There was a time when I feared that true strength of heart had fled Eternity, never to return.” He shook a fist. “Never was I more pleased to be proven wrong!”
“Booyah!” Tal shouted from the tier behind them.
Warriors around the chamber rattled the walls with foot-stomps in appreciation of the eternal’s show of enthusiasm.
Garn swung around. He rubbed his long mustaches. “The fight got off to a slow start.” He nodded and grinned. “Allow me to put it indelicately.” He made a thrusting hooking gesture with his fist. He made a fierce grin. “Oh yeah, we stuck it to them.” He looked around. “How does a sixty four percent attrition of the enemy sound, eh?”
There was a chorus of gasps around the chamber, Kriar and valkyries turning to one another.
Garn grinned. “You heard right. They had just under one point three million troops.” He swung around pointing with both hands. “We, with your assistance, and the aide of some support troops took out over half of them.”
He tightened his fist, knuckles cracking loud enough they were heard throughout the room. “That doesn’t mean there weren’t losses on our side.” He frowned. “A lot of good brave people died protecting Eternity. We lost twenty-three hundred souls. They lost roughly eight hundred thousand.” He sniffed. “If that’s not an arse kicking, I don’t know what is. In fact,” he pointed around the room. “In the history of large scale arse kicking,” He slammed a fist into his palm. “I can’t recall a group getting better schooled in what it means to gank the wrong people. Gentlemen,” he gestured to one side of the room. “Ladies,” he gestured to the other side. He put a hand over his heart and bowed his head. “I salute.”
The room hummed with energy as warriors murmured with disbelief. It was a result far beyond anyone’s expectations, even backed by the immense powers of the eternals.
Bannor looked to Sarai. “How did we kill eight hundred thousand—?”
Senalloy leaned down the table. “Well, this one guy fried like a hundred thousand of them by himself. Something about exploding a star in their barracks…”
The Baronian’s words rocked him back in his chair.
“A hundred—” he repeated.
“Thousand?” Sarai finished in a bewildered voice.
“That’s the guess,” Senalloy said. “We think there was a large chunk of command staff amongst them, so that really messed them up.”
“Shhh,” Koass shushed stepping forward and waving a hand at Senalloy. “We’ll get to the hows and whys.” He glanced back to Garn. “First, I want to make sure everyone knows that none of the Protectorate feel that any losses are trivial. The death of one, much less two thousand, is unacceptable. However, when aggressors seek to take lives, the only recourse is to fight back as has been so admirably done.” Koass looked around. “I wish I could say that this battle would end it, but I think everyone here knows better than that.” He gestured to Nethra, the fire-haired lady eternal. “Nethra, the strategic outlook please.”
Hands behind her back, the female stepped up and gazed around. “Good people,” she said, her voice not as loud or deep as Garn’s but still penetrating and strong. “Before I get to the more sobering parts, let me assure you that I am as enthuse
d and proud of this group’s performance as I can be. The decision made by Koass, Garn, and myself to use non-elders as main surrogates has long been under attack. Granting field deputization powers was another decision heavily contested by the staid minds of the time council. The guardians hated the idea. Well, I can safely say—strategically speaking—that we would not be having this discussion right now if we had not stood our ground on these issues.”
The lady eternal sighed and gazed around. She pressed her hands together as she cast her gaze over the various people throughout the chamber.
“It is indeed gratifying to see our faith in the hearts of the young ones demonstrated so profoundly. To the youngsters, the elders, grand-elders, and my peers, to all of you, I give my congratulations and thanks.”
Nethra bowed her head. After a moment, she sighed and looked up. “Now, the part that is less rosy. A large part of our tremendous success was the enemy breaking its back to try to keep a time table. We saw numerous examples of hastily constructed strategies that generated horrible scenarios for them. They played this campaign with high risk, high reward tactics and I have to tell you…” She shook her head. “It just didn’t work for them, as we all well know. So—what now?” She glanced around. “Despite the huge number of warriors lost, it still leaves them with nearly half a million fight capable soldiers. What will those people do? Will they continue their agenda? In a word, yes. Do we expect an immediate reprisal? No. We found some evidence that suggests a large number of their highest ranking command staff were on-site when a rather large Kriar shield generating installation just happened to…” Her gaze fixed on Bannor. “Blow up.”
The red-haired eternal rubbed her throat. “While we’re on Bannor’s particular contributions to this conflict, I will mention two others. He took two rather formidable weapons away from the Daergons; both their genemar and their creation Garfang.” She pressed her lips to a line. “Another interesting windfall from Bannor’s participation was a rather graphic demonstration of ascendant strength. He hammered the dren out of a Baronian assault team and when they were down, he asked them to join him. They declined but—” She raised a finger. “It is my belief that word of that particular event spread through their ranks and resulted in a something we have heard little of…”
“Desertion,” Senalloy said.
“Desertion,” Nethra agreed pointing at the Baronian lady. “There are now a significant number of units not on task, and one of our plans going forward is to locate those rogue elements and make assets out of them if possible.” She paused. “In the short term, we must find and seize the genemar—or at least determine if it was destroyed. Next, we will attempt to isolate the entity that instigated this conflict. Lastly, we will track down what elements of the Baronian invasion we can and eliminate them if necessary. I anticipate that we will be able to stand down from high alert within the next 20 bells. I know many of you have serious personal obligations to attend to, and we will release you to address them as soon as we ascertain it is safe. All newly deputized Shael Dal will remain on alert status but in a reserve capacity until the threat particulars have been researched and evaluated.” She looked around again and shrugged. “That’s it, I can’t tell you much more yet.”
“Thank you, Nethra,” Koass said. He gestured to the Foross the blond male eternal who Corim and Aarlen served. “Foross has a few words about alliances.”
Jewels winking on his green satin surcoat, the eternal of shapes bowed and stepped forward. His voice was not a thunderous boom like Garn’s, or Koass’ penetrating timbre, it was instead a rolling smooth tenor that made the skin prickle.
“Garn and Nethra,” he said, “have given us some heartening facts. However, there are more important things in our lives than details.” He looked around. “There are loved ones, friends, and allies. Not all of us have someone close we want to protect, but there are none of us here that don’t feel the need to guard something precious to us. All of you have done an excellent job of defending each other and protecting interests that likely preserved an untold number of lives. One of the excellent things that came out of this crisis was the teamwork of Tarkath Chauser, Chosen Millicent, and Barona Vi.” He gestured toward the upper tiers. “Commanders if you would please stand.”
The Kriar Tarkath, the be-speckled valkyrie commander, and the red-haired Baronian lady stood, and looked around.
“With the support from Lady Idun and members of the Felspar and T’Evagduran families, these three leaders combined their units on short notice into a truly formidable force. With permission of Isis, Idun, and Vatraena, and of course the unit commanders themselves, we have submitted a charter to permanently form a combined forces legion that will train and further enhance their effectiveness as a fighting force.” Foross focused on the Kriar Tarkath. “Lord Chauser, did you and Millicent ever decide on a name?”
The Kriar leader shrugged and glanced at Millicent.
A number of the valkyries in the top tier hooted and raised their hands.
“The Sabre-wings.” Foross smiled. “This new vanguard force will be receiving arms and equipment from the Protectorate. As a special vote of confidence, the commanders can cast votes for twelve Shael Dal deputizations among themselves and their unit members.”
Chauser leaned forward.
A stir went through the normally placid Kriar soldiers.
Koass stepped forward.
The whole group of warriors murmured among themselves, no doubt stunned by the ramifications. Koass was doubling the number of Shael Dal, and the new inductees would be elders already powerful in their own right. It certainly didn’t sound to Bannor like the conflict was over.
“Whoa,” Daena breathed. “I didn’t see that coming.”
“Neither did I,” Bannor said. He looked to the King and Queen who wore contemplative expressions on their faces.
“Another situation arose during this crisis that has never come up before,” Foross continued. “Field deputizations. We granted all the beta rank Shael Dal field deputization powers. We had seven deputizations in all and most of those contributed in some major fashion. For their sacrifices in this conflict, the T’Evagduran family can remain as gamma class reservists or accept full beta class membership as each of them deems appropriate.”
Janai clapped her hands. “Veeg!”
Sarai looked to Bannor from the corner of her eye. “Think you’re pretty smart don’t you?”
He shrugged and grinned.
“The last issue that I will address,” Foross said, “concerns Gaea and pacts and promises that bound her, her children, and dasta Fabrista. Gaea unilaterally made a decision for Koass and members of Protectorate trading certain protections for resources unique to the Fabrista. While we have in no way regretted that agreement, Gaea left out a certain amount of quid pro quo…”
“You’re going to bind me in the general assembly, Koass?” Gaea said, leaning back in the chair with arms folded. “At least do it yourself, don’t make Foross be the bad boy.”
Blond Foross frowned. “Mother Gaea, you—”
He stopped as Koass put and hand on his shoulder.
“All right, Mother,” Koass said. “I want to make clear that you don’t make policy for us.”
“Even if that policy is the wisest course of action?” Gaea asked with an arch expression, still leaning back in her chair.
“Mother, less than a tenday ago you weren’t even a corporeal entity. You undertook this—this joyride in the flesh—and put a titanic number of people at risk!”
“Koass, you can’t be saying I haven’t contributed. I know you’re not saying that.”
The Advocate Eternal clenched a fist. “Of course you contributed. You have been a huge help. That is not the point. The point is undermining procedure is a very bad precedent. Therefore, I am compelled to get something out of the headaches your physical presence in Eternity is going to cause.”
“Headaches?” Gaea frowned.
Damay thrust up out of her chair next to the all-mother. “Eternal Koass, I must protest this disrespectful…”
“Ahhht!” Koass roared cutting off the elder savant, slashing down with a pointed finger. “No! Your mother is plenty old enough to stand up for herself.” Koass swung around to the room. “For those that don’t know, our fine mother of all made an agreement with the Kriar that she and her firsts would be seen as a sovereign entity, bound by Kriar accords and subject to an arbitrary armistice. A step we of the Protectorate have been approaching with extreme caution. Given that the villains in this situation are Kriar, I cannot think of a much greater conflict of interests. The troubling thing is that she promised our,” he thumped his chest with a fist. “Our conduct as well. So, if we are going to be bound by this promise between firsts, the Protectorate is damn well going to get something out of it.”
“Koass,” Gaea growled.
“No,” he raised a hand. “Let me say my piece. You—” He stabbed a finger at Wren.
The blonde savant clutched her chest. “Me?”
“You.” He pointed at Damay. “You.” He pointed at Ziedra. “Her.” He flipped a hand at Daena. “Oh yes, and especially you.” He thrust a finger at Bannor. “If the Protectorate is to be bound by Gaea and her agreements, then Gaea’s children are bound by mine. When we need them. Those five, Gaea,” he pointed to the floor in front of himself. “Right here with bells on.”
Bannor winced.
Wren scowled. “Wait a darn moment,” she burst out. “Why punish us? We had to do it, you know we did.”
“This isn’t punishment, Wren. This is resource management. You and your siblings are assets, powerful assets. If I am going to be wasting manpower making sure she stays out of trouble.” He pointed at Gaea. “I need compensation.” He swung his hand to include all the savants. “Any of Gaea’s children who retain ascendant status will be required to register as beta class enforcers subject to all the rules and responsibilities thereof. Mortal savants will be put on gamma class reserve status. Honorary shaladens will be created and kept in trust should your service be required. If the family of Gaea agrees to this, then the Protectorate will enter into all the commensurate treaties.” He swung his hand around. “This is an all or nothing arrangement. Either all of you agree, or we walk from this deal.”
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