Chosen of Chaos (Eve of Destruction Book 1)

by Benjamin Medrano

  “I… will try to keep that in mind,” Elric replied, but Evelyn could tell that he didn’t really believe her. She found it amusing, in a dark sort of way.

  “Either way, that’s the simpler task, as far as I’m concerned. If you just want me to move the ley line, I can do so. It’s fortunate that the planet isn’t heavily inhabited. That sort of thing can have side effects.” Evelyn said, thinking about how to go about it. She’d probably take the brute force method, honestly. The other methods took longer, and she tended not to have the patience for that.

  “Um, what sort of side effects?” Doris asked, looking nervous now.

  “Screwing up enchantments, triggering earthquakes, and things like that.” Evelyn said, shrugging easily. “Fortunately, Valath isn’t tectonically active, it doesn’t have centuries of carefully laid enchantments, or anything of that sort. The worst you’ll likely get is more weather like you’ve already got, at least for a few days. That’ll take… an hour or two, depending on some variables. I haven’t flexed my magic in quite that way in a while.”

  “…you make it sound simple, Evelyn. The amount of magical strength moving a ley line takes is… non-trivial. I believe most would ask multiple archmagi to do so, and not that quickly,” Vaneryth said quietly, while the two scientists stared at Evelyn, then the angel.

  “Yes, but they’d be moving it slowly, so that they wouldn’t have those side effects,” Evelyn replied, smirking slightly. “However, I’m not planning to be out in that weather for a few days. I’m a freak of nature, I’ve said it before, and I will again. I have the strength to shove it into a new channel, and I’ll do it.”

  The angel just inclined her head, and the two scientists looked at one another uncertainly, then gestured for them to follow as Elric replied, “Well… if you’re certain, then that will work for us. We aren’t on the main ley line, but one of its tributaries, so that shouldn’t move, right?”

  “That’s correct,” Evelyn said, following him down the hall, then through a door into a room which had a circular holographic projector in the middle. It was cramped, much like the rest of the base, and Evelyn suspected that was likely typical through the entire building.

  Elric touched a key and a hologram sprang to life, one that was more detailed than Evelyn had expected, as it showed a topographical map, with a red dot showing where they were, as well as a green one for the shuttle outside, then the icy mountains and valleys which surrounded them. A second press of the button caused the image to zoom outward, showing a hemisphere of the planet, and a web of light blue lines sprang into existence, one of them much brighter than the others.

  “This is the ley line network. As you can see, the big line is about eighty kilometers to our west. The bootleggers are approximately two hundred kilometers away, and they ignore us for the most part,” Elric explained, gesturing at the brighter line. “As far as I know, they don’t have any way of monitoring us, so if you move the ley line, they won’t have any clue what happened, possibly not for days. I don’t know how their equipment works.”

  “Hm. That means this line is the one which runs through your facility, no?” Evelyn asked, pointing at the one which looked like it matched the base’s location.

  “Yes, it is,” Doris confirmed from where she was standing opposite Evelyn, watching her warily.

  “With the angles involved… this line will shift if I move the primary line. It needs to be anchored.” Evelyn decided after a moment, her eyes narrowing, and she looked at Ilyra. “Lyra, how much magical training do you have?”

  “Lyra?” Ilyra asked, blinking a couple of times as she ignored the question.

  “It’s a nickname. I think it’s better than Illy, and it’s easier to say,” Evelyn replied patiently.

  “Oh, I… I like it,” Ilyra said, blushing a little. “As for my training, my training course says that I’m slightly above graduate status? What does that mean, anyway?”

  “Think of it like school. Elementary, intermediate, high school. You’re at the entry point to college-grade,” Evelyn said, nodding in satisfaction. “I was afraid you wouldn’t be that far along, based on what you said.”

  “I got some magical training, it wasn’t that frowned on. I just… didn’t get to study a lot of things from elsewhere,” Ilyra explained, her cheeks flushing a little more as she glanced at the two scientists, obviously having almost have talked about being from Brightdawn.

  “Mm, good. I don’t think you could hold an anchor quite on your own, though… Vaneryth? I have to come up with a nickname for you, too…” Evelyn murmured.

  “I believe that I’m approximately equal to Ilyra,” the angel said, folding her hands in front of her as she hesitated, then admitted. “Perhaps somewhat less powerful. As I said, I was stripped of a great deal of my power when I was sent back. I am rather skilled with it, however. May I ask what you’re intending? And… are nicknames normal with you? I noticed that Fya’s name is abbreviated as well.”

  “In her case, her name is a source of power over her, and most mortals can’t pronounce it, so she suggested the shortened version,” Evelyn replied absently, running through calculations in her head, then nodded. “As for what I’m asking, you’d be creating a small, temporary node in the middle of the ley line. Much like a spike holding a cable in place, when I shove the main line, the local line will try to move, but the spike will hold it in place until after I’m done. The two of you should have the power to hold it in place with ample strength to spare. We’re far enough from the main channel that the force will have weakened by the time it reaches here.”

  All of the others were staring at her, and Evelyn raised an eyebrow at them curiously, waiting for the inevitable question. She knew they were going to ask something.

  “I didn’t realize you knew so much about magic. Even if you’re incredibly powerful, you aren’t that old,” Elric said at last, and Evelyn resisted the urge to snort.

  “Magical strength is absolutely nothing without the knowledge to use it,” Evelyn told him calmly, fixing her eyes on his own. “Many people seem to forget that. I’ve told people before, I am a freak of nature. My strength and power isn’t the only thing that defies explanation, my ability to absorb knowledge where magic is concerned is the same. I’ve learned an immense amount about magic, and to be quite honest, this is basic metaphysics, at least when it comes to collegiate courses.”

  “I… well, I’m certain you’re correct about that,” Elric said, swallowing hard and looking away. “Um, how difficult is this… anchoring?”

  “Not difficult. I can teach them how to do it in about five minutes,” Evelyn said, shrugging and looking at them. “Are you willing to do the job? I could do it, but I’d have to hold it until I was in position, and that wouldn’t be pleasant.”

  “Of course!” Ilyra said, her eyes sparkling.

  Vaneryth nodded, smiling slightly as she spoke. “It would be my honor to help bring new life into the universe, however indirectly.”

  “Excellent. Now, the other matter, the poachers,” Evelyn said, turning back to the scientists as her smile vanished. “Where are they, how many of them are there, and how well-equipped are they?”

  “Shit,” Doris muttered. “You’re going to kill them all, aren’t you?”

  “I’ll let them know that they need to leave. I’ll even tell them who I am,” Evelyn replied, folding her hands behind her back. “When they try to blow me off, or kill me, I suspect the latter, then things will go very poorly for them. I’m not going to hold back against someone who tries to hurt me.”

  Evelyn paused for just an instant, then added. “Ah! But just in case you’re worried, Xalryx asked me not to do anything to endanger the biosphere or environment. Don’t worry, it’ll be fine afterward. Promise.”

  “I… don’t even want to know why she told you that,” Elric said, swallowing hard. “Doris is the one who’s done more looking into the poachers.”

  “Yeah, well… they’re some nasty customers. M
aybe even a bit nasty for you,” Doris replied, looking at Evelyn warily.

  “I doubt that,” Evelyn said calmly, and Vaneryth laughed.

  “If they’re a little much for her, I wouldn’t want to be on the same planet as them,” the angel said, smiling tautly.

  “Fine, your funeral,” Doris said, scowling, then hit a button on the holographic projector, causing it to zoom in again, then a purple icon about twenty kilometers away appeared. “They’ve holed up in an ice cave here, with their ship in the lee of it. The ship’s some sort of ex-military frigate or something of the sort, and they use a pair of air-skimmers to hunt drakes. Best I can tell they’re a former military outfit, and there’s about thirty of them, with lots of guns and nice armor. If they weren’t, they’d have frozen solid inside a week, and they’ve been here going on five months.”

  “Hm, interesting. Maybe they’ll be smart enough to leave,” Evelyn murmured, considering for a moment, then shrugged. “I suppose it doesn’t matter much, though. I’ll be leaving Lyra and Ryth in your hands while I go prepare to move the ley line. Let’s just teach them the spell, and we can get started.”

  “Wait, already? I thought you’d be waiting until tomorrow at the earliest!” Elric protested. “I prepped a couple of rooms and everything!”

  Evelyn paused, meeting his gaze for a moment, then asked patiently. “Do you really want me to stay here overnight?”

  “Err… not really?” he replied questioningly, shifting from one foot to the other. “I just already moved a pile of boxes to clear the rooms, and it’s a good forty kilometers to the ley line at its closest approach… plus the skimmer is already out trying to hunt down the antennae…”

  “Doesn’t matter to me. I’ll just fly there myself. I could teleport, but that’d take a lot of mana, and trying to teleport off topographical maps is always tricky. I put myself in the ocean once doing that,” Evelyn said, shrugging and turning away as she focused on her two… assistants? She needed to come up with a term for them. “Come on, time for you two to learn a bit of magic.”

  Ilyra nodded eagerly, and Evelyn couldn’t help a smile. She remembered when she’d been that enthusiastic.

  It’d been such a long time. Evelyn didn’t like feeling old, not when she was barely past fifty.

  Chapter 30

  Ilyra watched as Evelyn took flight. Well, not in person, of course. She watched through one of the ice-encrusted cameras that kept an eye on the exterior of the science facility. It was odd watching Evelyn just… take off into the air, wearing her black and red armor, helmet and all. She vanished in seconds, even though Ilyra tried to keep track of her, then she sighed.

  “She’s gone,” Ilyra announced, slightly disappointed.

  “Oh, thank the gods,” Doris said, almost slumping over. “How can you work for someone like that?”

  “She’s nice!” Ilyra protested, turning to the scientist in protest. “She saved us from an absolutely horrid fate, and gave us money if we wanted to leave, or jobs if we didn’t.”

  “She’s a mass murderer,” Doris countered. “Do you have any idea how many people were killed when she took over Peldra? Thousands died!”

  “Mass murderer implies she killed civilians” Vaneryth interjected just as Ilyra opened her mouth. “According to the records I’ve accessed, less than two hundred civilians were killed during the war to conquer Peldra, and her forces appear to be responsible for approximately eighty more civilian deaths over the course of her rule of the country. The ones in the records indicate that the killers she had personal knowledge of were executed after being tried for their crimes. I cannot consider her a mass murderer, as those numbers appear to be low compared to other regime changes.”

  Doris looked like she was about to retort when Elric cleared his throat and gave her a stern look. Doris’s mouth snapped shut and she looked to the side, growling softly.

  “Enough, Doris. Lady Xalryx hired her, and that’s all there is to it,” Elric said, frowning at her, then looked at Ilyra and Vaneryth for a second before shaking his head. “Though I have to say, the two of you seem too nice to be caught up with someone with her reputation. It’s surprising.”

  “In all honesty, I wouldn’t be here if I hadn’t made a few… major mistakes,” Vaneryth said, blushing as she looked to the side, clearing her throat uncomfortably. “I was sent back, with the understanding that I needed to learn from them. When I did, Evelyn simply sighed and asked me what I could contribute.”

  “Yeah, and that doesn’t even include what she…” Ilyra began, then paused, frowning as she considered, then shook her head, feeling embarrassed. “No, I shouldn’t talk about that. She’s been really, really nice to all of us she rescued. Even the ones who weren’t very nice.”

  “Huh,” Elric said, looking at Ilyra thoughtfully, then glanced at the sensor screen and grunted. “Well, looks like we’ve got about two hours until she reaches the ley line, so… is there anything you want? We don’t have the best food here, but we could get you something warm, show you around, or something of the sort.”

  “Actually, I was wondering… why do people poach the ice drakes? I’ve never heard of it happening on other planets, and when I did searches, they’re pretty common,” Ilyra said, leaning forward as she asked the question she’d been thinking about since she heard about the job and did her research. There were hundreds of worlds with ice drakes, and most of them were hunted because they were ill-tempered predators, not poached.

  “Ah, of course. You haven’t seen them. I’d show you an adult, but we don’t have any on-site at the moment,” Elric said, giving a rueful smile. “You see, it’s their scales. You’ve seen the colors outside, yes? Imagine a predator that evolved to blend in with that sort of background. The ice drakes here have nearly translucent scales that glow with a variety of colors. Unfortunately, their very rarity makes them quite valuable, particularly for those who still like making armor or clothing out of that sort of thing.”

  “It’s some sort of status symbol in the core worlds, these days,” Doris said, practically spitting out her words as she scowled, pacing back and forth as much as she could in the room. “Damned idiots don’t think about the price. They don’t care what the price is, if they can get some pretty scales. Hell, some of them don’t care if they wipe out every last one of them, it’ll just make the scales rarer, like happened with the fruit for that damned immortality ritual someone found last century.”

  “Oh,” Ilyra said, frowning a little as she thought, then asked. “Then… if they’re so rare, why aren’t the dragons protecting them more? I thought that they were all about making as much money as they could manage.”

  “Yes, but drakes are… a bit of a sore spot where dragons are concerned,” Elric said, looking distinctly uncomfortable. “If they were completely animalistic, that’d be one thing, but they aren’t. Dragons see them as degenerate cousins after a fashion, which has led to there being multiple factions where they’re concerned. One of them wishes to uplift drakes and bring them up to the level of their own kind. Another faction wants to leave them to live or die on their own merits, and the last, smallest faction, wishes to help them survive to evolve on their own, if they’re able to. The deadlock between the first two factions has left the last to do their work, but…”

  “But they don’t have the funds to do the job as well as they’d like,” Doris said sourly. “Lady Xalryx paid for you to show up out of her personal funds, likely as not. It’s a damned shame.”

  “Huh. Well… I think the best thing is for us to go set up the spell. I want to make sure I can get it right,” Ilyra said, looking at Vaneryth nervously. “What do you think?”

  “I think that’s an excellent idea.” Vaneryth agreed, smiling slightly. “This should be interesting. I’ve only experienced a ley line moving once in my life. It was… educational.”

  “Um, educational how?” Ilyra asked, frowning.

  “Oh, you’ll find out,” Vaneryth said, grinning slightly. �
��It’ll be good for you, you’ll see.”

  Ilyra looked at the angel dubiously, and Doris spoke softly. “You know… I think I’m going to make sure everything that could fall into the egg chamber is secure. Just to be safe.”

  There was something glorious about flying alone in the snow, Evelyn thought. Oh, it took concentration, but the icy winds barely bothered her, and the mana drain was minor, at least for her. Of course, if she didn’t have her implants and the beacon of Daggerhound in orbit, she’d likely have lost her sense of direction, considering the way the flakes of swirling white extended into the endless distance in every direction.

  It left her entirely alone, though. That was something Evelyn rarely got to experience, ever since Fya had come into her life. Solitude and time to think properly… it was something she missed at times. It wasn’t as good as if she were in space or the astral… but if she tried that, people would panic.

  “I’m a pushover,” Evelyn murmured to herself, after making certain no one could overhear her, of course. She didn’t want anyone to think that she would hesitate to crush them, since what she considered being a pushover and what others thought were likely different. Entirely different, as it happened.

  A gust tried to force Evelyn off-course, but she corrected for it almost effortlessly. Sometimes she wondered what it was like to be vulnerable like other people. Truly vulnerable, as she’d never felt that way. Even when she’d been hunted in the woods, her strength and speed had made the contest unfair. Without them… she’d have died, she knew. How would that have changed the universe, she sometimes wondered.

  Would Vania have kept her throne? There were so many people who wanted to overthrow her family… Evelyn had simply been the final catalyst. Not that the battle would have been easy for them. She’d crushed the most potent resistance and kept the different factions of rebels from fighting among themselves. It would’ve been very different, she decided after a few minutes. No one would have been in charge, and more people would have caused the rebellion to crack.