Reality's Plaything 5: The Infinity Annihilator

by Will Greenway

  Bannor glanced up to where the Vatraena sat with her daughter. The Kriar matriarch wore a serious expression as did her daughter and Eladrazelle who was sitting next to her. None of the three looked ready to jump into this particular fray. Bannor understood the Advocate’s upset—that had been one big promise. On top of things she had promised to protect the Kriar from future Jyril magic attacks. She had all but given away the house in order to come into Eternity in the flesh.

  “Well, if I have to bust heads once in a while to keep this body,” Ziedra said. “Sign me up. Small price to pay if you ask me.”

  “I don’t like being required to do it,” Damay said. “But I always have and always will defend what is right and good.”

  “Well, I don’t know what you think you’re getting in me,” Wren said. “I’m not staying an ascendant.”

  “I get the mistress of Starholme,” Koass rumbled. “And it doesn’t matter whether she’s an ascendant or not.”

  Gaea hadn’t said anything. She just stared at Koass.

  Bannor sighed. “Koass, I am so done with being a soldier. I’m going to be a father soon…”

  The Advocate Eternal fixed him with white glowing eyes that made him tremble inside. “Are you refusing?”

  He swallowed, glancing over to Wren and the others. Sarai squeezed his arm. She didn’t seem to be pushing him one way or the other. He suspected that was because she planned to maintain her status as a Shael Dal in order to keep her promise to Gaea.

  He let out a breath. “No.”

  Koass raised an eyebrow. “Daena?”

  The youngest ascendant growled. “You know I won’t mess it up for everyone else.”

  He focused on Gaea, and tilted his head. “Mother?”

  “This confrontation was entirely unnecessary,” the all-mother growled.

  “Maybe,” Koass said. He let out a breath, softening somewhat. “Mother, we will work out the rest of the particulars in private.”

  Gaea clicked her teeth together. “Indeed we shall…”

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  * * *

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  We risked our lives, our family, and our

  nation. It was pleasing indeed to see it

  acknowledged by the eternals. Fair

  treatment in an unfair universe is the kind

  of satisfying surprise that one gets few

  times in their lives…

  —Jhaan T’Evagduran,

  King of Malan

  The tension from the conflict between Koass and Gaea wound down after a few short breaths. The giant terraced hall was filled with many who were happy for a break of any kind. For Bannor, he felt overjoyed to simply be able to spend time with his new family, Sarai, and a large supply of food (not necessarily in that order). Consolations could wait a plate or two, and he busied himself with the more-than-adequate comestibles.

  The King and Queen were in good spirits. Despite everything that Kul’Amaron had endured in the conflict, it was nothing that couldn’t be mended in time. In the space of a few breaths, Malan had become the Protectorate’s one and only “favored nation” and that new status could be spun into a resilient shield against any deprecations put forth by the Malan’s council of noble houses. At least according to a few things said by Kalindinai and the King between bites. The family heads were investing considerable energy catching up on missed meals.

  Spirits rose as the meal progressed. Visits from various allies and the open and welcoming greetings given by the T’Evagdurans showed how far the royal elves had come in terms of new friendships and camaraderie with the Felspars, Kergathas and their extended circle of friends and supporters.

  “Doesn’t being press-ganged by the Protectorate bother you?” Daena asked him during a break in the conversation.

  Bannor shrugged and glanced at Sarai. “Since the whole family is in, I might as well be in too.”

  Daena pursed her lips, her gaze going to Janai who raised an eyebrow. “I don’t want to join the army.”

  He nodded. “Well, I certainly understand that. I was thirteen when I was trotted off to war with a rusty second-hand sword, a half-boiled jerkin and a helmet made out of pot shavings.” He looked to the tier above where Megan, Tal, Terra, T’Gor and other Shael Dal were enjoying themselves. “I won’t say the duty will be any easier, but the commanders are people who look after their own.” Bannor paused. “I thought you told Koass you wanted some excitement?”

  Daena snorted. “Done, had my fill, thank you very much. That whole deal with the Lokori by itself—” She made a slashing gesture with her hand. “Lifetime—I am good.”

  “It won’t be so bad,” Sarai said, sipping from her cup. “It’s not like you’ll be walking a picket line or doing regiment maneuvers in knee-deep mud. The Protectorate is more like being a city guard, only the city is all of Eternity.”

  “Yesss,” Daena drew the word out. “And the criminals are like these freaky scary elders with time powers and stuff.”

  Janai laughed. “Dane, take a look around the room. Freaky scary? Please. See that lady…” She pointed to Aarlen where she was sitting with Beia, and other members of the Frielos clan. “She’s on your side, and they’re getting ready to add a dozen Kriar, valkyries, and Baronians to the roster. They will partner you with somebody good—trust me. You’re fifteen and your mother is bloody Gaea. They will not gank you around. I would bet three crowns they put you with Megan, Adwena, or if they want you really safe—with Elsbeth.”

  “Elsbeth?” Daena frowned. “That scary red-haired lady?”

  Janai shook her head. “She’s not scary—she’s stuffy. She pretends to hate youngsters when she actually likes them.”

  The girl’s brow furrowed. “How do you know that?”

  Janai rolled her eyes and pointed to the band on her arm. “Shaladen—telepathy—remember?”

  “Mimi, let the girl breathe,” Kalindinai chided her daughter. “She’s been told she’s going to join one of the most powerful organizations in the universe whether she wants to or not. These people are scary. It’s a monstrous responsibility—for anyone—much less a girl not even out of her teens. I would object to it myself except that I know she will be supervised. I am certain that is why Koass wants her in the Protectorate. It gives him control over her mentoring.”

  Janai snorted. “I am a fine mentor.”

  “There are apparently others who don’t see it that way,” Ryelle remarked swirling wine around in her goblet. She finished off the cup looking at Janai as she drank. As she poured herself more, she glanced sidelong at her younger sister. “Wasn’t it your fine leadership that got her in trouble in the first place?”

  The second princess sniffed. “Other people were being nosy.” She gave Sarai an arch expression. “Some people have favorable status with a certain garmtur and are more than willing to convince him to spy.”

  Bannor almost choked on a bite of beef. He washed it down with a gulp of mead. “Hey, I did not spy. You willingly tendered that information.”

  “After you scared Daena and myself half to death you mean!” Janai growled.

  Smiling, Sarai made a dismissing gesture. “Don’t worry, Dear sister, it won’t happen again. It is sooo moot. You keep the Protectorate powers, Rye and I know your precise location and what you’re up to every instant of every day. Why, we’ll be looking over your shoulder even while asleep, making sure you and Daena stay safe and healthy. Isn’t that lovely?”

  Janai grimaced and rocked her head back. She had obviously forgotten that particular drawback to being a Shael Dal. What was wonderful in war and crisis was not so helpful in peace when one wanted to keep to themselves.

  “Why that expression, hmmm?” She made an innocent expression. “You get to know where we’re at too.”

  Janai ground her teeth. “I don’t care where you two are…”

  “Jan, that is so harsh.” She put a hand to her breast. “I’m hurt.” She looked to her eldest sister. “Aren
’t you hurt?”

  “Absolutely crushed,” Ryelle agreed with a mock expression of pain.

  “You could give it up I suppose,” Sarai said with a wistful tone, sipping from her cup. “No shaladen strength, no shaladen health, no shaladen teleport powers, no translation, no mind protection, no telepathy—”

  “Sar…” Janai interrupted her with a snarling sound. “I get it.”

  Ryelle brushed at her translucent hair. “Sister, I don’t see why you’re snapping,” she said in a mild tone. “She was just trying to be helpful.”

  “The both of you are about as helpful as a lead corset!” Janai snapped. “Why can’t you two just mind your own affairs instead of constantly trying to interfere with mine?”

  The eldest sister waved a hand in front of her face as if to dispel an unpleasant odor. “Perhaps you’ve forgotten a certain elf lady who used to make great sport of undermining her sister’s projects; scandals in court, misdirected caterers, errant animals, mislabeled seating charts… is any of this familiar?”

  “It was just harmless fun,” Janai protested. “No permanent harm was done!”

  “I don’t recall either of us doing you any permanent harm…”

  “These are real negotiations, real treaties, real money…” the middle sister gritted.

  “Ah, I see how it works,” the Queen observed. “When Janai does it, it’s fun. When they do it, it’s interference.”

  “Mother, they don’t have business interests outside of Malan—I do.”

  King Jhaan raised a finger. “So, let me see if I have it right. Disrupting internal negotiations and causing embarrassment for your sisters is harmless, but when it costs you money and political favors it’s espionage?” He sighed. “Well, as Sarai said, the point is moot, unless, of course, you really do plan to give up the shaladen. However, I must note that it wouldn’t keep them from reading your mind. Protectorate rules forbid using shaladen powers for personal or political ends—but there’s no rule about keeping siblings in line…”

  Janai let out a breath and rolled her head forward in a show of defeat. “Okay, okay, I apologize.”

  Sarai brightened. “Oh now that’s a step in the right direction. I don’t know which of the six dozen dirty tricks you’ve played on me and Rye you’re apologizing for—but it certainly can’t hurt.”

  Bannor empathized and put a hand on his sister-in-law’s arm. “Sister-to-be, I don’t know what you were thinking teasing them like that. They outnumber you… and it appears they don’t forget a thing…”

  Janai closed her eyes and shook her head. “So it would seem.”

  “Perhaps you need to pay me extra to protect you from your sisters,” Senalloy mused with a grin.

  Janai pushed a hand through her hair and made a sputtering sound. “If only…”

  “Matradomma,” Senalloy said. “I did have one thing to ask.”

  “What is it, Sen?”

  “How do you want to secure the citadel before we let the regulars back in? I mean, assuming that we get the stand down order. There’s a huge mess and who knows how many trap wards—both theirs and ours scattered everywhere. We could be a solid tenday making sweeps to make sure we found everything.”

  Kalindinai rocked back in her chair. “That’s a good question. There’s also a great number of hotspots that will be potentially hazardous…” She puffed out her cheeks. “That’s a very good question. It’s not that we can’t do it, it’s just going to take time to do it right…”

  “Well, I can help find such stuff, Matradomma,” Bannor offered.

  “Finding them is the easy part,” Kalindinai said. “It’s disabling them that takes all the resources. The Baronians had elder mages laying those damnable things, and if we miss even one it will cost lives.”

  “It takes a mage of near equal power to remove them,” Senalloy explained. “Battle weaves are notoriously hard to break. They are designed to backlash if they are tampered with. So, whoever does it needs to be experienced. I can do it of course, but even if I do a few a day, it will be several score-days cleaning them out.”

  “I have much more productive things for you to be doing than scrubbing Baronian dren off the walls,” Kalindinai said with a frown. “We need to be able to hold court as soon as possible.”

  Bannor straightened up. “I have an idea.”

  “What would that be, Son-to-be?”

  He smiled, thinking about how clever he was going to seem. That didn’t happen often. He pointed to the gold-blooms that Sarai had brought. “Koass showed Sarai and I something on the way here. He told us that what we’re in here.” He gestured to the hall around them. “Is part of the ‘paradise space’. Anyone who is a Protectorate member is allowed to use this space to create anything ‘within reason’. That huge hall out there.” He pointed outside to the gigantic cavern where the fifteen thousand soldier assault force had temporarily bivouacked. “That’s about the size of Kul’Amaron. I say you have the subnet make some gates at some strategic chokepoints in the citadel and make the drop points to corresponding gates in a replica setup here. The advantage is, of course, it is secure. That and you can put it into effect almost immediately. In the meantime, we can take our time cleaning up the traps and other nasty stuff.”

  “But what if someone were to somehow wander out?” Sarai wondered.

  “We make it closed in—if it’s just the citadel core, there won’t be any outside windows that might give anything away.”

  “A scoreday ago I would have scoffed at such an outrageous proposal,” King Jhaan said with a shake of his head. “Hold court in Eternity’s Heart—it’s so preposterous. Given what I’ve been through recently, I suddenly find the idea appealing…”

  The Queen seemed dazed. “I can’t believe I’m saying this but I like it too. I know we’ll have to persuade Koass, but I’m certain we can satisfy all the necessary security measures.”

  “I think it’s a great idea,” Senalloy said. “We only need to plead Koass for say a scoreday and a half. In that time I’m pretty certain we can have it safe again, I just need to get some help, probably my sister. Maybe Bannor can sweet-talk Sindra and Drucilla into helping,” She winked. “They’ve been making moon-eyes at him.”

  He winced, why did she have to bring that up? He had hoped that would blow over and be forgotten. Mention of it happened right before the genemar exploded.

  Sarai frowned at him. “Hmmm?”

  “Nothing,” he moaned. “It was no-thing!”

  Janai sniffed. “Have you ever noticed the more my brother-to-be protests, the more some-thing it is?”

  Sarai straightened up in her chair. “That’s right, the rescue thing, right?”

  He slouched down in his chair and covered his head. “It’s not my fault.”

  Sarai drummed her fingers and sighed. “Sen, I think we’ll keep him away from those two.”

  “I was really just teasing anyway,” Senalloy said with a grin. “About Bannor anyway. I would just ask them myself.”

  The Queen spoke up. “I know she’s young, but what about Lady Ziedra?”

  Senalloy pursed her lips. “She’s certainly strong enough…”

  “What about Zee?” Wren asked walking up to their table.

  Bannor uncovered his head. A distraction. Good.

  “Arwen Wren,” Kalindinai nodded to her. “We were speculating about how to get all of the Baronian magical traps out of Kul’Amaron so the citadel could get back to the business of being the capital of Malan.”

  “Oh,” Wren said. “Zee would probably help with that. Sure.” She walked over and knelt down between Kalindinai and the King. “Matradomma, are you really okay? I feel bad. I feel like I let you down. I stood there like a salted fish. I should have done more to protect you.”

  “Hey,” Daena growled. “If you’re taking blame I need to as well.”

  “Look you two,” Kalindinai said. “No guilt. It happened fast. I am the elder, I should have advised you. Daena you tried to
shield me, and Wren,” She flipped a hand. “Gaea was in you, and she wasn’t thinking tactically. She’s not a soldier. I should have been faster, I sit in a throne most of a tenday and I don’t train enough.” She patted Wren’s arm. “It’s okay, really. This thing.” She thumped the arm of the artifice she was sitting in. “This is a setback—nothing more.” She sighed. “Now, was there something else?”

  “Yes, Matradomma, there is,” Wren said, face serious. “Am I the only one feeling dissatisfied with the outcome? I don’t care if we’re free to go about our business. Somebody started this and I want a little payback.”

  “Well, I laud the sentiment,” Kalindinai said with a nod. “However, it’s a little misplaced. If we knew the culprit, the eternals would be pounding down their door right now.”

  “Isn’t that what Eladrazelle was finding out?” Bannor asked.

  “That’s what she’s supposed to be finding out,” Wren said. “I wonder though. I wonder if Marna is going to let us in on it.”

  “Posh. Why wouldn’t she? The miscreant, or miscreants, we don’t know if there is more than one, plotted to have her slain. She has to want some justice.”

  “Private justice,” Wren said. “Kriar justice. That doesn’t necessarily include us. Our satisfaction isn’t necessarily a priority for her.”

  “I see what you’re driving at,” Kalindinai mused fingering her lower lip. “There’s many political reasons to quietly corner and eliminate this villain. To save public embarrassment for her and her council—assuming it is one of their high councilors as she has speculated.” The Queen shook her head. “Still, there’s little we can do. We have no jurisdiction on Homeworld.”