by Peter John
Later that evening, we were left alone to rest and recover after a hearty meal. Both Raúl and I made straight for our bunks. The fresh air, high in this escarpment, and the busy day had us both exhausted and drained. We needed the sleep desperately.
Unfortunately, this was when J.B. visited us and he had someone with him I certainly wasn’t expecting.
The knock on the outside wall of our hut elicited a groan from me. I had healed Raúl with my rejuvenation spell, but he could not do likewise for me. This left me even more drained and depleted than I had been and I was grumpily resigned to the fact that I needed to “acquire” more healing herbs with more lasting effects on the morrow. In the meantime I had just curled up on my pallet and slipped into the place between worlds that sleep is so famous for. The dark oblivion of peace and respite to give my body a chance to heal and recuperate. The knocking resumed and I groggily shouted “Go away!”
When J.B. entered, he seemed far too excited for my mood.
“J.B. you are not welcome” I intoned ominously looking at the doorway. I was still curled up on my sleeping pallet and Raúl’s loud snores seemed to corroborate my statement wholeheartedly.
“Petros, it is imperative we speak. Please, I have someone here who you should meet.”
“imperative? What kind of word is that? Are you British? Actually, I wouldn’t be surprised, you have that demeanor.” I mocked lightly as I crawled out of bed to see whom he had brought with.
“British? what is that?” he inquired, his face deadpan and emotionless as if he were the Prince Charles of Wales himself.
“Nevermind, who is here? and can you heal me? I desperately need it.”
He motioned me to come out the door to the patio, and I went leaving Raúl to his slumber.
I walked out, and found to my disbelief a Scalar male standing in the torchlight, all four arms and three eyes of him patiently waiting for an introduction. He wore a sarong around his waist and his torso was bare, showing the very pronounced musculature of his race. Look at them guns! I thought but did not voice it. He seemed to scowl but with that third eye in the center of his forehead it made me kind of outstared and I felt compelled to look away. I did not know they were also here on Illuminous and was a little taken aback. To date, the only Scalar I had met were simulated creatures and besides the two kids we had rescued, they were all infected with the zombie flu and I had had to hack them to death or undeath, depending on how you looked at it.
After introductions, J.B. bless his soul healed me, and I felt well for the first time that day.
“I will never drink again” was echoing in the back of my thoughts and then I remembered it was one of the three great lies as J.B. brought out some cups and a jug and poured us a round. This drink was tart and sharp, nothing like the fruity punch I had had the night before and I downed it grimacing at the familiar burn. I declined a second round and waited expectantly at what we were meeting for. At this point in our preparations for the rescue mission, Major Gladstone had told me explicitly that we were to have no contact with the local Scalar under any circumstances, and that order was from up high in the Absinthe command structures. The decision to heal those kids at the house had been made spontaneously, and I felt it was a normal reaction by any sane person. I doubted Stone would have let us just abandon those kids, even if they were in the simulation. We had to show our human side after all.
“I believe you are going to be active in our world human Petros” said the strangely accented Scalar who had introduced himself as Shavestri. If I had to put a likeness to how he spoke, I would say he had an Indian accent. It was then that the penny dropped, and I gasped inwardly. How had I been so foolish. Shiva is an Indian god, one of the big three of their holy Triumvirate. The breaker of worlds and destroyer. I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of it before. Did this have anything to do with the Scalar? It was so nearly a perfect match it couldn’t be a coincidence. Shavestri had four arms and three eyes as did Shiva. The middle eye was supposed to see into the soul. His skin was a grayish hue though and not blue as in the pictures I had seen of the Hindu God. Before my thoughts could divert me further, I was brought back to the present by J.B. answering for me.
“Yes, the human warriors will attempt a rescue at the prison, not two nights hence. They have someone of value there and so do we. I expect that your resistance will be able to create a diversion as we discussed?”
“It is so, it is so, but telling me please, when will you be able to send help? You know it has been fifty cycles since you last sought us out. We do not fare well against the Reapers. Every day they take more life, capture more land. It is a slow and painful cancer upon our homeland. I have personally and much to my serious distaste, had to kill kin that have been consumed and changed by those Devourers. Many of us cry at their foul stench upon the winds and their unstoppable consumption of our lands.”
“Forgive me Shav, I am still new to this whole situation. I am also not the one in command. You should plan this with Major Gladstone. He will lead our team. Even Raúl probably knows more than me. Let me wake him up and he can join us.”
J.B. interrupted Shavestri’s reply, “Petros, you will lead this other mission. Leave your comrade to sleep. I have enchanted him so he sleeps soundly. That is why we are meeting. Major Gladstone’s mission is important of course, but Prince Horatio assures me you are more than capable to rescue Princess Adrianne. You are to rescue her and deliver her to Shavestri here. Let me show you.”
J.B. didn’t notice or perhaps chose not to notice my raised eyebrows. He delved into his robe and removed a fairly detailed map showing contours and positions of the area we would infiltrate to rescue our missing Prodigy.
“Here is the farmhouse where you were teleported from. Where Shavestri’s team will meet you is five gallops to the south. Before you ask, a gallop is a measurement of how far a Grist can gallop at full sprint in a regulated count to one hundred.” Journeyman Robert looked up and saw my puzzled expression hadn’t changed. “Oh forgive me, you humans use Kilometers as your unit of measurement. Let me think…. Okay, about four point seven kilometers. Do you follow?”
“Well, sure I do J.B., although I am curious what a Grist is?”
“One of our companion bearers. You must have seen them standing guard the last time you entered Illuminous? We passed several on our way out of the Tree City.”
“The horse-lion creatures are called Grists? That's a cool name. When can I ride one?”
“I fear we are getting off topic. How is it you are a leader in your world? You seldom take anything seriously and your attention span is more fleeting than a magical wisp in winter.” His waspish retort was an indication of the seriousness of our meeting.
I smiled wryly; He was not the first to have said my attention was fleeting in my life. Despite the authoritarian lifestyle I had lived in, I had always chased the threads of thought my mind contrived to conjure as much as possible. The subconscious had a way of seeking things that built into credible intelligence if you followed those threads.
“Sorry J.B. you must understand that everything I am doing here with you and the Absinthe or Ancients or Orcs and especially the Scalar is very new to me. I am learning as fast as possible and while my leadership skills are not really for me to determine or quantify, don’t mistake my curiosity or lack of linear thinking as a sign of anything detrimental to our mission. I have survived many bad situations because of those exact traits and I am not changing now.”
J.B. nodded thoughtfully.
“Fair enough, now shall we get back to the leaves on this branch?”
I smiled. I loved this guys idioms, always so apt and to the point. He continued. The Scalar had a slight smile on his face too but drew his face back into a grimace when I noticed.
“Your infiltration will center on the Science complex. The caves extend from within it at the end of the valley. From your team's previous reconnaissance there are roughly two hundred Devourers and possibly two Reaper
Officers. The vehicle that has been sent to retrieve the prisoners should arrive within the next five days. As you should know by now, the Reapers use air and spacecraft and have not yet learned the node travel that you will use to infiltrate that region.”
J.B. Looked at Shavestri and the Scalar moved in and took over the briefing.
“We know the complex extends at least seven levels below ground and that Princess Adrianne is kept at the very lowest level to prevent her signature magical essence from being identified clearly. Your fellow Prodigy will be held in one of the three levels above ground and since he has been there longer, will probably be in a terrible state. You will need to make sure that you can heal him, otherwise he will not survive the rescue. Also consider this, that parts of him may have been cut off and are being kept cryogenically alive in case he escapes. They do this so that they can feed the body part to a Devourer and the escaped prisoner will be changed, no matter where he is. For this reason alone, the security will be lax.”
“We don’t think the Princess has been interrogated yet, as she is a prize worthy of one of the Reaper Lords. The Reaper Officers will know that and will protect her from their own minions and anyone else trying to rescue her. Destroy them and the entire complex to destroy any evidence of your team’s involvement. Our own team will leave explosives here and here…” He showed several points along the periphery of the complex on the map, “…and you will have to choose which ones are easiest to get during your insertion phase.”
I held up my hand to interrupt. “So does Major Stone know about the explosives? What type of explosives are they? What detonators will they have and while we have trained for insertion, there is precious little information about the site itself? Do you have blueprints?” I looked up at Shavestri and it was his turn to hold a quizzical look. With three eyes, it was mesmerizing looking him in the face. It reminded me of those optical illusions that tricked your eyes into wanting to see something that wasn’t there. I kept blinking to get my eyes to focus correctly.
“If you mean the building structural plans, then we have something like that, although I do not have them here with me. My people built it primarily as an educational and scientific research station. We used it to explore and research the cavern depths and the various geological formations unique to that mountain range. I can leave copies at the explosive drop points if that will help.” he replied.
“The explosives are a Trillin base chemical, with a 100 count detonator. You only need to press the button, and after a count of 99 they will detonate. Each of the packages will contain enough explosives to level the building and collapse most of the cavern structures within, as well as most of the hillside the structure is built on. You will have to place the explosives on the lowest levels at the structural base within the caverns. I can have those indicated on the… blueprint as you called it.”
I stared at them both incredulously. Gritting my teeth and holding my exasperation in-check I tried to get across to these two aliens what I was thinking, because while this was exciting and new for me, it was seeming less and less likely that it would succeed.
“This mission is less than ideal. It will all go to hell if we don’t have those plans and if it’s as complicated as you describe, I would prefer the blueprints sooner. Major Stone told me it was a three-story complex with a maximum of ten rooms only and mentioned nothing about caves. I take it the building is constructed against these caves you mention?”
“Yes, the building covers the cave entrance which lead to the deeper floors. The three-level complex is built above them.” explained Shavestri
“Excuse my French, but how the fuck are we supposed to pull this off? We are six people with swords and clubs, without projectile weapons and while we have magic, it’s new to me and limited in the others of our team. I’m getting a bad feeling about this and I really don’t like keeping anything from the chain of command. You would need a full company of troops with modern weapons and air support to crack this nut.” I stated with exasperation and a growing sense of unease. I was used to compiling and presenting full briefings once the intel had been assimilated, and the operators I presented to would be howling in indignation if I presented nothing less than full intelligence. This was anything but a full briefing and the intelligence summation rounded to a big fat zero.
“How do you expect me to keep this secret from the other team members? They will need to help me in every way they can to get this close to even remotely successful.”
“Unfortunately, Petros, we have only you. Prince Horatio assures me…”
“Prince Horatio can go to hell in a hand-basket!” I raised my voice. “He’s not the one putting his arse on the line…, and you guys have loads of troops and ability. Why aren’t you going?”
J.B.’s stoic face didn’t flinch, in fact, it got sterner.
“Prince Horatio assures me you have the ability. With the additional training you will receive here over the next day, he is confident that you can pull off the raid. You need not kill everyone you meet and with the Dark spells you will learn, it should be relatively easy to sneak in and out with ample time to spare. Do not give up before you have even attempted the rescue.”
His face pinched as a painful thought came to him. “Our King is bedridden, he ails Petros. His life is meaningless without his daughter. Please do not give up. You really are our last hope.”
I wanted to walk away then; it was the strongest feeling, and I might have, if not for Shavestri.
“Colonel Petros, we have faced down the Reapers for over 100 years. As they encroach across our land, our world is being consumed. We have lost and never once gained back anything they have taken. In some places, we have held our ground. This would be the first tangible blow we give to them in taking something back from them. The first time we walk away with a win. You will free your comrade with our help and free the Princess, and perhaps in the process even if you don’t free the other prisoners there, those who are my poor brethren, you will at least free them in spirit and their age of torture will be lessened. For that alone, your men will be honored above all others by my people.”
“You have many people in the place?” I asked, caught up in his pain and knowing if it was me, I would not rest until I had them all free.
“We do not know how many, because it is very hard to know if someone has been turned or taken. When they are turned into a Devourer, it is very hard to tell who they once were, unless from clothing, or perhaps some unique feature.”
“Have you seen the Devourers? They injure themselves to find food; they don’t care about anything unless under the control of an officer. Who they have in that jail is really unknown, but whoever is left in there deserves to die with some semblance of honor. The explosives will completely destroy that place and destroy them too. They won’t be turned into devourers. It is a blessing. ”
“Look, I will help you both as best as I can. For what it's worth, I will do my best to extract anyone and everyone that has a reasonable chance at escape. What I don’t understand is why you aren’t going through the correct channels, using the Ancients and working with the rest of my squad.”
“The Ancients have written off Princess Adrianne as an unavoidable loss.” said J.B. “They believe that returning her to us, will upset the Reapers and cause them to be much more aggressive and active. They fear that by freeing her, their own complicit overtures in aiding us and yourselves will become widely known and cause a ripple effect that might lead the Reapers to our world and the discovery of planar travel. The Ancients political structure is opposed to direct intervention and the Reaper Lords use the threat of annihilation on the Ancients should they change this outlook. If the Reapers gain the knowledge that there is an inner faction of Ancients, the ones you call the Absinthe, working towards their destruction, then they will take direct action against the Ancients. It will cause chaos and widespread destruction and may wipe out our benefactors.
“You not saying anything that encourag
es the path we are choosing,” I said forlornly. “Are we not dooming ourselves and them in this one act of kindness? Is it really worth it?”
“This one act of kindness, as you put it, will restore our nations’ monarch to full faculty, additionally it will give the Scalar people a hope that the foe can be beaten after a hundred years of persecution and untold numbers of casualties. Last but not least, it will rip out the root of a relentless enemy. If the raid goes off as expected, then you will be wiping all evidence of the human presence in the explosion anyway. The presence of the Scalar raiding party will give credence to the idea that they were the ones to mount the raid. Perhaps it is they who will reap the harvest of the Reapers displeasure. The less anyone knows about it, the better.” I saw Shav nodding in agreement.
“You still have not explained why you don’t send your own warriors to do this? Your troops, combined with the Orcs and whoever else lives in this land could probably make short work of these Devourers.”
“On this world, we would make a strong standing because we are tied to the land and the Illuminous Lodestones. However, on a different world, we are too far from our source of power to be much use. Humans are the only species in existence who can tap into any planets magical energies without serious inhibition to their latent magical ability. Additionally our auras, I mean all the races of Illuminous will shine extremely brightly to the Devourers senses and so it is almost impossible for us to hide from them or surprise them.”
