A pulse of pain made the room go fuzzy for a moment. Through narrowed eyes, Bannor peered over at Wren. “What do you mean?”
“Wasn’t it apparent?” the blonde savant responded.
“He knew us,” Ziedra grumbled. She relaxed back against her husband, lolling her head back against his shoulder. The gold boy ran his hands gently through her hair. “Bugger knew us intimately, knew our powers and weaknesses.”
“And what exactly did he do to you, Dul?” Senalloy asked. The tall elder lay on the divan near Dulcere and behind Corim who was sitting on the floor back against the foot of the couch. Head propped on an elbow, silver hair falling down around her face the woman’s demeanor made her appear more like a child than a great elder of staggering power.
The Kriar looked down at Senalloy who was looking up at her. The gold woman frowned, the question obviously a source of embarrassment. This incredibly potent elder had been dealt with out-of-hand just like the rest of them. She pressed her lips to a line. The stars in her obsidian eyes appeared to dim.
Senalloy’s brow furrowed. “Dul, I know a lot about Kriar, I couldn’t drop you like they’re saying he did. You’re hedging. Tell me.”
The gold female squirmed, obviously troubled by her own conclusion.
Corim twisted in discomfort against the foot of the couch, he rocked his head back as Senalloy brushed the strands of hair away from his face. “More disconcerting I think was his ability to disable my Shaladen.” He raised his head and looked around to the other. “It is only half as powerful as the real weapons, but still…” His voice trailed off.
Janai who was rubbing Daena’s huge back made humming noises. They had wrapped a bed spread around the now huge girl, but had yet to get her to say anything coherent. “Strange. What was his intention? Why just Daena? He obviously had the advantage and could have killed any of you.” The elf princess pressed her face against Daena’s shoulder an expression of honest empathy on her face. “Ena,” Janai said in a soothing, almost mesmerizing tone. “Tell us. Tell us what’s wrong.”
“Monster,” Daena rumbled with a sniff.
“Monster?” Janai repeated. “Little sister, you’re not a monster. Come, tell me, what did he do?”
Daena drew a breath, her body slowly animating like a carving of stone coming to life. Her arm shook as she held out a huge hand on which something black sparkled.
Janai leaned forward. “A flux stone? But it’s broken. Whose is it?”
The girl’s voice rumbled. “Mine.”
Wren stiffened and pushed herself up to her feet. “Then how are you…???”
Daena’s gaze dropped back to her lap. “Monster.”
“I don’t understand.” Ryelle said. The eldest sister had been watching the whole proceeding with much interest and apparent vexation, but had kept quiet.
“A flux stone is how an immortal controls their energies,” Sarai explained leaning back from Daena. “Even half and temporary immortals use similar devices to handle the magic.”
Wren walked over and knelt by Daena. She put a hand on her arm. “Dane, you’ve changed. I can feel it. Do you hear voices in your head?”
The young savant’s head swung up, her glowing eyes now wide. “How did you…???”
Wren’s voice dropped to almost a whisper, her expression tight. “Is there a single voice that’s loudest? A kind of deep rumble that echoes and threads through the others?”
Daena’s tear-streaked face turned to an expression of amazement and awe. “Yes, yes! How do I make it stop?”
“You don’t,” Wren said.
The sound of the blonde savant’s voice made Bannor’s skin prickle. He pushed himself up to sit. “Wren, what’s wrong?”
“A lot is wrong,” Wren murmured. She picked the pieces of the flux stone off Daena’s palm. “The reason this is broken is she doesn’t need it anymore. She has a better one.”
“A better one?” Bannor echoed. He felt a twist in his stomach. Something told him that Wren’s ominous tone foreboded something terrible.
“Starholme Prime is now her flux stone. She hears the voices of all the first ones demanding to ‘be’ again.” She put a hand on Daena’s arm. “I’m sorry, it must be scary.”
Tears welled in Daena’s eyes, she rolled onto her knees and took Wren’s shoulders in her huge hands. “Wren, I—I—please…”
“What are you talking about?” Bannor wanted to know.
“I’ll help you, Dane,” Wren said, rubbing the younger savant’s huge arms. “To the best of my ability.” She looked back to Bannor. “Starholme Prime is for lack of better words, a titanic world-sized flux stone. All of eternity’s energies are focused there for the use of the first ones. All of their patterns and memories are stored there. If you know how, you can become not only a first one, but every first one who ever was—and like I did one time—all of them at once. It is…” She dropped her chin. “There isn’t words.”
“And now this child has access to that power?” Senalloy said, sitting up with concerned expression.
“Kell completed her transformation,” Wren said. “She is now a true second generation first one—or a second one if you like.”
“Why in hades would he do that?” Ziedra said. “It doesn’t make any sense. You don’t attack someone to give them power.”
“He said I failed,” Daena murmured.
“Not that you failed,” Bannor corrected. “But that you would fail. Everything he said, crazy as it sounds, was as if—” He paused, rethinking his own conclusion.
“The future?” Corim said. “Is that possible—I mean without making some huge snarl in the continuum?”
“Well, speculation or not,” Wren said. “Daena’s association with Starholme is real. Any savant can access Starholme, we simply don’t have a body properly attuned and durable enough to utilize that magic. Daena now has both.” She put a hand against the huge savant’s cheek.
“What do I do, Wren?” Daena murmured taking Wren’s hand and clinging to it like it was her last hope. “I’m scared. It scares me. It’s not like when I merged with Hella the first time…”
“Shhh,” Wren said in a gentle voice. She turned to the dark-haired princess. “Janai, may I?”
Janai frowned but rose and stepped out of the way as Wren went behind the sitting form of Daena and put her hands on the now giant girl’s shoulders. “Your form hasn’t really changed, Dane. Kell just synchronized you. You have more control than before, it just doesn’t feel like it because of all these other new sensations.” Wren leaned forward, forehead pressing between Daena’s shoulder blades. “Feel me, Sister. Accept me. Let me show you…” Wren’s voice drifted off but a blue illumination surrounded her body.
Daena’s eyes fluttered and her body shuddered.
Bannor blinked as he saw what appeared to be millions of threads line up around Daena and begin to spin and dance. He swallowed. The glare making him wince back against Sarai. “Lords,” he gasped.
A brilliant nimbus gleamed on the surface of Daena’s skin. The auburn haired savant rocked her head back and made a moaning sound. “Oh…my…” Even those two simple words seemed to echo.
In Bannor’s nola sight, thousands of threads hummed and vibrated. Seeing it made his stomach
knot and his heart flutter. So much power, one slip and all of them would be annihilated. No one else felt or saw the danger.
Daena took a shuddering breath. She moaned again. “Wrennn… what… are… you… nnnh.”
“Just…finding… your voice, Sister,” Wren answered.
“I—ahhh!” Daena jerked. A flare of brighter light flooded into the room from the auburn-haired savant casting shadows on everything. Making everyone stagger back a step.
“There,” Wren said. The color around Daena turned from white to a deep violet hue. Thousands of threads seemed to compress together. “Dane, do you feel it? Do you hear it?”
“What? Hear? I—” Her eyes went round. “Yesss.” She drew another breath. She bowed her head. The illumination on her skin shimmered, and a bubbling sound came from her flesh.
The atmosphere around Daena began to churn, making hair and clothing rustle and flick. A pulsation hummed through the floor the as the glow around the young savant surged in brightness then dimmed in a steady rhythm. Ripples pinging back and forth across her exposed flesh, the woman decreased in size by halting stages.
Daena seemed to struggle, wincing and tensing at each progressively smaller step. When she had returned to the moderate stature she possessed earlier in the day she stopped with a gasp.
“Damn,” she murmured. “Why is it so hard all of sudden? I have the control back… better like you said.”
Wren blinked and rubbed her eyes. “You’re fighting the equilibrium. Because of the extra energy, your form has a sense for its optimal size. See, after you merged with Hella, your body had something of an intelligence of its own. It’s a kind of a self awareness that knows what to do without you thinking about it. When you want to do something that goes against those instincts—it’s harder.”
Daena pulled the bedspread around herself. “It didn’t use to be that hard.”
“The intelligence used to be in the flux stone, now it’s in Starholme Prime. More power, greater consciousness and will.”
“Li,” Euriel said. “How do you know this though? I don’t recall you ever mentioning it.”
Wren looked to the blonde woman. “Well, not directly, Mother. I always wondered why the first ones bothered to give their beta bodies self will. It wasn’t until I was actually in such a body that I realized why.”
“Designed?” Bannor asked.
The gold woman sighed.
“That’s what happened to the first ones,” Wren said looking around to everyone. “They made their new bodies too smart, or at least smart enough to realize they didn’t want to be subjugated.”
“Creepy,” Ziedra said.
“So,” Janai said, leaning over Daena. “You going to be all right now?”
The young woman nodded. She looked up at Wren. “I think we need to talk more. I know I haven’t always been nice…”
Wren waved her off. “We both know why you were miffed with me, and that’s hardly an issue now, right?”
Daena dipped her head. She glanced up at Bannor and furtively toward Sarai. The young woman pressed her lips together and nodded.
“Daena,” Wren said. “I called you a sister. I believe it. I mean it. Just like Bannor is my brother, and Zee is my other sister. I hope you’ll truly think of all of us the same way.”
“I apologize,” Princess Ryelle said. “If Ward Daena will be alright now, I would like to focus on another issue. Jan go get her into some clothes.” She looked to Bannor. “You four went out to solve a problem to help my parents. In my mind, you have exacerbated the situation. The citadel is a hive with guards running everywhere to discover the source of the commotion you four caused!”
Janai coaxed Daena to her feet. The young savant was no longer huge but she was still a formidable size for a woman, broad across the shoulders and hips, not at all like the thin-limbed almost scrawny kid that Bannor first rescued in an alley on an unknown world. Somehow, she seemed more solid now. The threads that flickered around her wound tight and under tension. She followed the princess into the back area toward Sarai’s quarters.
Sarai watched until they were out of sight around a corner and looked back to her older sister. “Rye, that’s not their fault.”
Ryelle pointed a finger. “Sister, I do not agree. My wishes in this matter were ignored. Their leaving created the opportunity for the situation to arise. I surely hope there is no trace for Mother to follow back here.”
Ryelle focused on the Kriar woman. “Are you certain?”
The elder creature narrowed her eyes. She pressed her lips to a line.
“There’s nothing really to be done for a strong divination,” Ziedra offered with a shrug. “Knowing something about magic though, I can back up Lady Dulcere’s statement. That travel power of hers is very clean, as traceless as can be reasonably accomplished—especially given the circumstances under which it was used.”
Ryelle growled. The eldest princess thrust her hands behind her back. “I am much displeased with this. More trouble with absolutely nothing to show for it.”
“Rye, in a way, the encounter gives us some confirmation…”
“Speculation only, little sister!” Ryelle burst out. “You are not the only one concerned about our sire and dama. Speculation is the enemy. It is not what we know, it what the citizens and gentry surmise…”
“Arminwen,” Senalloy said in a soothing tone. “Not to worry. We still have considerable resources here—and ways to complete an investigation without stepping foot out of these chambers.”
“What?” Ryelle demanded. “You mean no-one had to leave to—to—”
Senalloy held up her hands. “Peace. I took the liberty of tying a trace filament to them. They needed to thread their way through your mother’s wards for that to be effective. So their effort was not wasted. They pulled that sense magic through a large portion of the citadel. It should be possible to view adjacent areas anywhere along that path.”
“Oooh,” Ziedra said, dark eyes round. “That’s a nice bit of magic, I never even saw you do it.”
Senalloy’s voice lowered. “If you did, it would be much less useful.”
“Yes,” Sarai said. “I’m curious as to why you failed to mention it.”
The Baronian woman shrugged. “Habit in my line of work.”
“Another sneak,” Sarai murmured, glancing at Wren. “Just what we need.”
The blonde savant frowned.
“The biggest problem is we don’t know what we are looking for,” Bannor said.
“Actually, we do,” Euriel offered. “Somebody or something that doesn’t belong.”
Vanidaar, Wren’s father rose from his sitting place on the couches. The red-haired man had always been something of an enigma to Bannor, an oddity his nola never seemed to be able to unravel. All he really knew of the gentleman was that he was a savant, that he was a powerful battle-mage, that he cared deeply for his family, and that he had strong sense of honor and courage. The few times Bannor had heard him speak at any length, it was obvious the man was quite intelligent and insightful. Running a hand through his hair, Vanidaar stepped closer to the Baronian mage.
“Lady Senalloy, a question.”
The silver haired woman nodded in response.
&nb
sp; “This scrying of yours,” the man continued. “Can it be linked with bindings, bound to other magicks—perhaps those which filter and detect life essence?”
Senalloy pressed a long-nailed finger to her lips obviously considering the question. After a moment, she dipped her head brow furrowing. “I assume a coven binding, so that someone else could tap into it?”
“Precisely, milady, we have several strong mages here,” he nodded to his wife, Ziedra, and Radian. “And those with special senses. Where adventures afoot failed, a fine eye might prevail.”
The woman brushed at her silvery hair and glanced at Euriel. She raised an eyebrow. “Aye. An excellent thought. I will need a suitable focus, however, someplace to channel that magick.”
All the mage stuff usually gave Bannor a headache, it just a bunch of strange rituals and odd disciplines. “You mean like a crystal ball or something.” He laughed. “Or a magic mirror.”
Euriel straightened and pointed a finger. “Good thought. There are many enchantment quality mirrors hereabouts.” She turned to his fiancé. “Sarai, is there a mirror you would allow us to use?”
His wife-to-be seemed stunned for a moment. “Just any mirror?”
“Best size would be no smaller than, oh,” Euriel held up her hands a shoulder width apart. “And good quality, but that’s unlikely to be a problem.”
“Yesss…” Sarai drew the word out. She looked back toward her chambers. “Ah.” She waved to one of the maids. “Delee, fetch the dressing mirror from the Morlind guest suite.”
The maid dipped her head and rushed off to do Sarai’s bidding.
She looked back to Euriel. “And you can turn an ordinary mirror into a viewing glass? I thought such scrying devices took a great deal of enchanting.”
“There are short-cuts,” Vanidaar said.
“And spells that are out of the reach of many mages,” Senalloy added.
Ziedra rubbed her hands together. “New magic, I love it. Radian’s parents are far too stingy with their magic.”
Reality's Plaything 3: Eternal's Agenda Page 27
