“Exactly!" Christine crowed. "A philosophy, a theory, an ideal. But we could not quantize it. We could not triangulate it! We could only feel when we had somehow grown stronger!"
Elise swallowed. "And half the High Council thought it all madness. They found out about the project you were spearheading. And they destroyed our clan for it. The clans of all those involved."
Christine shook her head. “No, my love. It is true Tytus meant for our deaths, but I won him over in the end."
Val blinked. "It wasn't just the promise of improved rejuvenation?"
"No, Val. The program Solena took over was my own. Endless Online was the code name for our ultimate project. To catalyze super beings forged of two different realities, two different universes, who would be able to quantize and triangulate their own growth, their own endless potential, like no one else ever had before."
Yin gazed at the Highlord in awe. "So you're saying that your project is why we can level up?"
Christine nodded. "It is indeed, Yin Nguyen. Your souls are now infused with the potential of two worlds. Two realities. You have two points of reference where near every other creature in existence only has one. That is why when you claim the souls of your kills and all their potential, you can personally triangulate and control your growth in ways even the most potent Overlord could only dream of."
Congratulations! Hidden Quest: What is Endless? Complete! Christine, not Solena, was the founder of Endless, a secret project to transport sentients with the potential of two realities, allowing them to triangulate their growth as they forged themselves into Dominion superweapons! Experience earned!
Julia trembled, a heartbeat from collapsing. As fast as he could blink, Val dashed to her side, gripping her before she could topple. Sten's eyes widened in momentary surprise before flashing a bemused smile.
"Good reflexes, kid."
But Val had eyes only for a trembling Julia. "Julia, what's wrong?"
"That notification! Between both quests, I've leveled up again! Val, I'm holding back two levels! One was fine, I could handle it, we all knew something was coming. But this? I can't hold onto it any longer and I can't log off and I feel like I'm going to burst!" Julia gazed at Val in raw panic.
"Listen to me, it's going to be okay," Val implored, squeezing her hand. "You just need to sleep. To let the visions come. But you have to be willing to fight for it!"
Julia trembled. "Fight?"
"Yes! To be strong of will! All those you killed will try to claim your place, to become you. You must stand strong, direct how you want to forge yourself, and let nothing claim your place!"
Julia’s eyes widened. "Are you sure? That doesn't feel right. I feel strange...”
Val’s heart hammered with sudden panic. Then Christine was there, gently lifting Julia up. "Let me handle this, Val." Her smile was strange. "Not everyone was forged to be the eye of the storm. Most travel through gentler currents."
Val blinked in confusion but stepped back. Christine turned her gaze to a stunned-looking Elise.
"I know this has been a day like no other for you, Elise. And there is nothing more I want than to spend a week by your side, sharing all the stories that should have been ours, long ago. But now, as never before, a young Daughter of the Mind needs us. If we don't forge her now, she will always be porous and vulnerable, as brittle as glass."
Elise paled, gazing at Val with strange regret, before nodding. "I will, Mother. For the sake of my sister, I will. But I must warn you, I was trained by a harsh mistress."
Christine nodded. "I know. And I deeply regret it was not I that taught you. Nevertheless, that is what we need."
Julia's eyes widened. "Mom, what are you talking about?"
Christine turned to Elise. "First we will get your friends to the infirmary. Assure their stability. Then we will do what we must."
Elise immediately nodded. "Are things where they were when I left?"
Christine flashed a genuine smile. "Yes, they are."
"Good." With that Elise quickly grabbed a confused-looking Sten. "Come on. Let's get our crew to the infirmary. Then there is something I have to do."
Sten looked momentarily flustered before breaking out into a bemused smile. "Highlord business?"
Elise nodded solemnly.
And almost before Val knew it, he found himself leading a still trembling Julia to an inner courtyard, utterly free of strangers or onlookers.
"Val, what's going on?"
Val slowly shook his head, grateful only that Julia didn't seem to be in any immediate danger, for all that he could tell she was still feeling agitated and restless. "It will be okay, Julia. I know it will."
She flashed a quick grin. "That's easy for you to say. Your mother's not going to try to forge you into a psionic weapon in the span of hours."
Val lowered his head. Julia squeezed his hand. "I'm sorry," she whispered.
And before Val could say anything, Christine and Elise were there, dressed all in white, with expressions it chilled Val to see.
His grip tightened on Julia.
Christine shook her head. "You can't protect her, Val. Not from this."
Val looked Elise's way. "I know what you're planning on doing."
Elise bowed her head. "I know, Val. But Julia is different. And this is the only way."
Val's brow furrowed. "Different?"
"Yes, Val," Christine said. "My daughter is not Dauda. She lacks your unique strength, and your terrible weakness. But if we don't forge her now, before she loses any more potential, forging herself in unnecessary directions, it will be too late for us to save her."
Julia trembled.
"Daughter, please lift up your hair."
Julia's cheeks flushed with shame, but she did so, Elise's eyes widening with terrible sympathy at the chrome ports she saw.
"Blasphemy," Elise hissed. "Those aren’t battle-mech ports. Those are the marks of a drone slave. Monstrous! For anyone to dare do this to our kind..."
"The perpetrators are dead!" Christine’s eyes blazed. She clenched her fists before taking a shuddering breath.
Elise gazed straight at Val. "I know."
"None of us can erase the horrors that shaped our past. But I won’t let bitter tragedy doom Julia’s future as well. We have one chance to make her strong, Elise. One chance to shore up her defenses." Christine gazed at a softly sobbing Julia. "Are you ready, my child?"
Julia closed her eyes, nodding through her tears.
"Good. Now I want you to close your eyes and think back. Do you remember old lessons I taught you? How to make a fortress out of your mind?"
Julia's gaze was one of tearful confusion before her eyes suddenly widened. "Yes. And that scream. That special scream to shout, if anyone snuck into our house and tried to hurt me."
Christine's smile was brilliant and filled with relief. "Excellent, daughter! Now I want you to close your eyes and imagine yourself forging that castle in your mind's eye. Tall and proud with a thousand banners, walls of steel, and a moat filled with all the darkness in the night sky. Can you do that, my love?"
After endless moments, Julia gave a relieved smile. "Yes! I..." She frowned. "Wait, it's harder than it once was. I feel both stronger and weaker than when I was a kid, which is strange. Back then, I thought this was all just a game we played.”
"This is no game." Elise's quiet voice. Julia flinched.
"Is your tower formed?" her mother asked.
"Yes."
Her mother nodded. "Good. Your sister and I are going to try to knock it down."
She turned to Elise. "Gentle blows first. Mind Daggers only."
Elise frowned. "You taught her how to Castle?"
Christine nodded. "She was never fierce enough for Indomitable Will. Only putting her intensity into a defensive visualization, not her own ego, worked for her, as is true for most girls." She flashed a hard smile. "Solena was one of the few to thrive on the most violent defensive applications, and Mother Necessity alone ins
isted you follow in her footsteps. I would have chosen a different path, but what is done is done."
Elise pursed her lips. "But against Ego Crush, if a foe strikes before she's ready, it will just collapse, and so will she."
Christine's gaze hardened. "And against Mind Dagger, Ego Whip, even Psionic Blast, it is excellent. Your former teacher was simply fond of the quickest, most savage ways to break her foes and how to counter against them. Your sister's path will be different from your own."
Elise bowed her head. "Of course, Mother." She turned to a trembling Julia. "Brace yourself, sister."
And Val flinched as he could all but feel that keenly sharp dagger of the mind striking Julia's defenses, breathless with relief when it seemed to bounce off, Julia flashing a proud grin.
Christine just nodded once. "At least we know you are still capable of the art. That is more of a relief than I can say. Brace yourself, love. Your trial has just begun."
And Julia's eyes widened as her sister and mother, taking her measure, began to test her with increasingly hard blows of the mind that did not let up even when Julia paled and gasped, falling to one knee, trembling with exhaustion.
Val frowned. "Aren't you guys pushing a bit hard?"
Elise pinned him with her gaze, shaking her head. "I think you should leave, Val. I'm sorry, but this won't be pretty."
Christine's eyes blazed. She squeezed her fist, and Julia screamed.
Christine and Elise kept pushing Julia over and over again, even when she was on the ground, sobbing, begging for release. And the training had only intensified from there.
It had been all Val could do not to explode.
And he was all too painfully aware that Elise and Christine were trying to save the girl he loved, even as Julia sobbed with exhaustion before her eyes blazed with hot anger once Val played his trump card.
The recording he had salvaged from the wreckage of the veli the inquisitor had been driving. Val found himself still strangely reluctant to think too deeply about everything that had happened that night, just knowing what he had to do when he pulled his Elementium recording cube free of dimensional storage and presented it before a wide-eyed Christine and a sobbing Julia.
First Christine and Elise had glared at his interruption, their eyes slowly widening with horror once Val intuited how to get the ancient dwarven artifact to play.
"Our next job, soldier, is cleaning up loose ends. We've broken the girl in with our collar once, she won't think to fight it again. I will go in alone. Both of you will wait by the car. When I explain the situation to Christine, I'm sure she'll appreciate what a noble sacrifice she's making, donating her daughter to crushing all resistance in the south."
"You will get the best of all of them, as you always do, sir."
"Christine was a fool to teach such potent arts to an unstable child. There truly is no place for that hybrid upon Jordia, save learning discipline at my side. She will learn soon enough the joy of unquestioning obedience, leaving all other matters to her betters."
Julia choked back an exhausted sob. "Oh no. Oh no, I want to go home, mom. I don't want to be here anymore!"
Elise paled. "That was an inquisitor. He has Julia in his sights! And he would dare to collar her, like a slave or drone?"
"His name was Veri Koira," Christine explained, frowning as she glanced Val's way, the overcast day all but hiding him in the gloom. "There was an accident at Clan Charpentier. A catastrophic accident. There were no survivors."
Elise's eyes widened. "What happened?"
"The report I got implied they were working on a top-secret alloy. One technician managed to escape Carlito's service, complaining that the alloy was highly unstable and his Highlord master didn't care if his staff lived or died. Of course, the technician was caught and made an example of, but the rumor was out." Christine turned, gazing towards the horizon, and Val was sure he only imagined the faint smoky haze he spotted off in the distance. "The Charpentiers have always specialized in aeronautics and metallurgy, profiting off of lucrative Dominion contracts, even if they did have the unfortunate habit of collaring all their technicians. I suspect the bastard used the enticement of his clan's latest inventions to talk the inquisitor out of pressing charges when he was caught red-handed trying to plant fake evidence in my own lab."
Elise frowned. "Does anyone suspect?"
Christine shrugged. "Certainly his fellow inquisitors are sniffing around, but no accusations have been made. Inquisitor Koira was tragically killed while fleeing from the explosion, thrown from his vehicle once it crashed, apparently."
Elise nodded. "And now Carlito's entire clan is dead, along with the inquisitor who had been planning on putting a slave collar around my newly discovered sister’s neck, even after our enemy was the one caught planting evidence."
Christine smirked. "Precisely. Carlito never did forgive me for not promising you to him when you were hardly more than a child."
Elise grimaced. "Politics. It hasn't changed a bit."
Both shared a bitter laugh at that.
But Julia was gazing at the ancient bronze gold recorder in Val's hand, slowly raising her gold-flecked eyes to meet his own.
"You... you killed them. You killed all of them."
Christine nodded. "Of course he did, dear. Their goal was to destroy our clan. What other choice did he have?"'
"Mother's right," Elise added, "and it is best he say nothing to confirm it. That way, it is mere suspicion and not verified fact, so one less weapon for an inquisitor to pry from your brain. You do understand they were going to enslave you once more, yes? From a nightmare you could never hope to escape." Elise paled, fists clenched tightly to her side. "I would save you that agony, sister, where your body isn't even your own. I know you've suffered more than enough already."
Elise flashed a sad smile. "Sister, you now possess a terrible secret. For all that it is mere suspicion, our cruel slandering of dearest Valor whose heart was so big as to lurch out of sleep in a desperate bid to rescue his friends but hours after this tragic event, it could still be used against us. Your mind is so porous right now that an enemy could pry even that bit of unverified gossip from your thoughts. If anyone finds out? We all perish. This, Julia, is why you must train to guard your thoughts with utter zeal. To protect the ones you love."
Julia stilled, eyes widening with terror. "Oh no. Please. Don't put that on me."
Elise shook her head, pausing to drink deeply of the chilled flask Christine handed her. Val saw the faint tremble in her clawed hand, appreciating anew the strain to her once flawless features, realizing in that moment how hard Elise was pushing herself, seeking somehow to save the girl who had helped save her and closest companions, just hours before. "There is no choice, Julia. It simply is. Right now your mind is porous. Weak. But Mother says you can somehow level up like our Val can." She handed the flask to Julia, eyes filled with pity and resolve in equal measure. "For his sake, for your own, get up and train so you reforge yourself as a Highlord who can keep her secrets close, and her loved ones safe!"
Julia trembled, forcing herself to her feet. "Okay," she said, her throat scratchy and raw from screams and exhaustion. "I'm ready. Let's begin."
Slipping ever deeper into the shadows, Val forced himself to endure.
To endure the sobs and cries of his girl, to endure the mounting fury he felt, so cruelly did Christine and Elise test his beloved, even shadow tasting the hot edge of Mind Daggers, the caustic sting of Ego Whips, flinching every time Julia sobbed, collapsing to the ground once more.
But he was only human. And when the girl he loved cried out, Christine roaring at her to get stronger, to fight back, to be anything other than the weak mewling coward she was ashamed to have given birth to, it was Val alone who raced to Julia's side, too furious to maintain icy coldness anymore, loving them all too much to let bleak darkness turn to killing rage, as it would with his vilest enemies. So he did the only thing he could. Now free of the shadows and plainly visibl
e to all, Val was roaring at them to stop, caught point blank when an exhausted, overwhelmed Julia screamed a wail so piercing it sent Val flying black, crushing his very soul.
You have been critically hit by your lover's Psionic Blast! You have suffered 100 points of damage to Health, Stamina, and Psions! You have been stunned! Save vs. coma failed! You might be Shadow's master, but you will always be Light's bitch! Nighty night, Val. If it had been anyone else, you could expect to wake up with your head in a pain vat!
And as fast as the notification popped across his mind's eye, blackness had consumed him, body and soul.
12
Even though he felt himself swimming in darkness, that was okay. Val had always found the night a comfort of sorts, even if the darkness was stretching endlessly in his own mind alone.
Smiling, able to sense presences warm and familiar, his mind pricked by odd curiosity that only grew, the more he listened.
Slowly, Val came to a twilight awareness. For all that he felt lost in dream, still the voices compelled him to listen.
Julia's soft sobs. "Oh god, I hurt him, Elise. I hurt him so bad, and I just wanted it all to stop!"
He could all but feel the brilliant warmth of Elise's hug like a beacon in the darkness.
"It's alright, sister. It will be okay. Believe me, I've seen Val hurt far worse than this." She sighed. "Julia..." So much Elise wanted to say. Val could sense it, how much she ached to hold her younger sister close, like a wounded part of her own history she hoped to heal. "What you endured today... I hope you can forgive me."
Val could taste Julia's hot bitterness turn to rue. "I remember seeing your desperate gaze so clearly when Val and I came to your rescue. Even then I could feel the warmth and regard you felt for me. Your gratitude. How you would do all you could to show me, to show fate itself, that the girl who came to your rescue would not be forgotten, would know that gratitude meant something." She chuckled softly. "I could tell even when we were chatting in the velimobile, you sensed a connection between us. Gratitude and camaraderie might have turned into the best of friendships. And then you found out I was your sister... and yes, I knew. I thought it was sweet, having that secret, getting a sense of who you were as a person before revealing myself to you. And how you smiled and hugged me.”
Oblivion's Peril Page 12
