Remnants

by Honor Raconteur

  It took only a few hours to get on the ferry, then the rest of the day before we reached Estok. The winter weather made the water choppy, the skies staying a turbulent, cloudy grey, but no storms hit us so it was a pleasant enough trip going down. I stood behind the glass dome to stay warm, watching the horizon. Estok came into view, looking peaceful as usual, although I spied a few new docks under construction along the shore. Expanding, were they?

  The following day was much of the same dreariness. We got in late enough that evening that none of us felt any desire to do anything but find a hot meal and a comfortable hotel. I slept somewhat fitfully that night, but fortunately had no nightmares. Bannen worried terribly when they struck, and I knew he felt helpless, but there was nothing that either of us could do about it. The only thing that made the dreams fade was him, being able to latch onto him, hear his heartbeat, feel him breathe. As long as he was with me, I could bear with losing some sleep now and again.

  The dining room in the hotel offered a complimentary breakfast, so I went down ahead of Bannen to take advantage of it. Ordering a waffle, I sat at the bar, sipping at hot green tea with considerable relish. I hadn’t known about green tea until Bannen, and after his introduction, I’d quickly become addicted to it. Heaberlin sat close enough to Z’gher that they offered it on their buffet menu.

  “Morning,” Chi greeted, sitting next to me. He had his own cup in hand, one of black coffee, and ordered from the waiter nearby: “Maple flapjacks with blueberries.”

  “Right away, Agent.”

  “Morning,” I greeted in return. A hint of shadow lay under Chi’s eyes, suggesting he found sleep elusive these days as well. None of us spoke much about it, but we were all terrified of what Toh’sellor would do, how much damage it would wreak before we found it again. Sympathetic, I asked, “Long night?”

  “Bed was too short for Vee, so she ended up on the floor. It’s amazing how quickly you grow used to sleeping next to someone else,” he grumbled good naturedly. “Especially Vee. She’s like a personal space heater. I felt cold most of the night, even with three blankets on top of me.”

  Oh. So it hadn’t been nightmares. Relieved, I went with the flow, nodding agreement. “I know what you mean. The first week of sleeping next to Bannen was a little strange, almost distracting, then I got used to it. Now I can’t fall asleep unless he’s next to me. Human bodies are so adaptable it’s almost scary.”

  “Aren’t they just. It doesn’t seem to me that you slept all that well, past few days,” he observed in a careful tone, worried more than accusatory.

  I shrugged and looked away from him toward the open bar and all the people sitting along it. This early in the morning, most of the room was unoccupied, the chatter from the few people here low and muted. “I haven’t been. But it’s getting better, due to Vee’s advice. At least I do sleep some every night.”

  “Ah. Yay for improvement, then.” Chi, who’s made of kittens and rainbows and everything beautiful in the world, didn’t ask any more questions. Instead, he changed the topic. “So I thought I’d go in with you two today, see if they need my opinion or not. If not, I’ll find something else to do.”

  I gave him a silent thank you with my smile. “That’s fine. Dah’lil wants to check up on the corpses, I know, make sure that everything is sorted there. Vee?”

  “She said she’d write the reports for both of us, as we can’t put that off any longer, and then join the meeting later if they need her to.”

  “Gotcha. Dah’lil gave me a list of who all is on the committee. It’s basically seven people: most of the architects, three government officials who are in charge of budget, and one of the big wigs from the MISD. I didn’t recognize most of the names aside from Fairfax—”

  “Wait, President Fairfax herself is here?” Chi cut in incredulously, then let out a low whistle. “Wow. Actually, that makes sense, to have her represent the MISD in these talks.”

  Toh’sellor was definitely the biggest task the MISD ever assumed responsibility for. I couldn’t imagine that President Fairfax would allow anyone else to be part of these talks, all things considered. “I thought so. I’ve never met her, but Director Salvatore sent word ahead that I’m coming, and assured me President Fairfax is delighted I’ll be present for the meeting today.”

  “I’m sure she is. I’ve only met her once before. She’s a sensible, no-nonsense sort but approachable enough. She prefers bluntness,” Chi counselled as our breakfast arrived, the waiter setting the hot plates in front of us. “Speak your mind with her.”

  Reaching for the glass container of maple syrup, I stated confidently, “That I can do.”

  Hopefully. Hopefully I could do that.

  The meeting place was not in a grand building as I’d half-suspected. Instead, they’d taken a conference room in the top floor of one of the major hotels in Heaberlin, a three-story brick structure almost as old as the city itself. An agent waited at the front of the hotel, near the doors, and directed us on where to go. Following his directions, we walked up the curving main staircase to a smaller staircase at the end of the hallway, and the straight up to the top floor. A series of conference rooms were available, denoted by small placards near the doors, and we found the Magnolia Conference Room without any trouble.

  I didn’t know the protocol here. Should I knock? Just walk in?

  As I hesitated, Chi took the decision out of my hands and opened the door, waltzing through like he owned the place. Following his lead, I followed him inside, taking in the area as I moved. A square table took up half of the room, comfortably padded chairs surrounding it. Two blackboards stood side-by-side on the far end, filled with drawings of a pentagram’s structure, math I knew very well on the far left board, and a few pages held to the board with round magnets. A sideboard near the door offered a variety of beverages, cookies, and sliced fruit, which I was sure I’d need at some point.

  The committee members were already more or less present. I counted five heads, so two had yet to arrive. I could only discern one person on sight, as the blue uniform was a dead giveaway. She sat at the head, her platinum white hair cut to shoulder length and draping elegantly off to one side, eyebrows and eyes dark. She reminded me strangely of Master Mary, but whether it was because of the similarity in general build, I wasn’t sure. Perhaps it was the impression of personality more than any superficial resemblance.

  Standing, she offered a hand to Chi with a genuine smile. “Agent Franlocke, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, President,” Chi responded, taking her hand in a firm grip. “You have a good memory. I don’t believe you’ve met our two newest agents? This is Renata and Bannen Hach.”

  “I know them only through reputation,” President Fairfax agreed and moved to grip my hand, her eyes locked with mine. “Agent Hach, I’m very glad you’ve come. When I was alerted that you’d signed on with us, I admit I threw a minor party, as our organization can only benefit from having you.”

  “Thank you,” I responded with a smile up at her. I liked the first impression I received from her.

  “Agent Hach,” she greeted Bannen, again with a firm handshake. “I’m afraid that’s going to get confusing quickly. Can I use first names with you?”

  “Please do,” Bannen invited with that smile he uses to charm people. “Rena’s still getting used to her married name anyway; she doesn’t always remember she’s a Hach.”

  “Understandable,” Fairfax assured me with a warm smile. “You’ve only been married a month, after all. Let me introduce you to the rest of the committee.”

  The other men and women in the room looked confused by our entrance, but politely responded as Fairfax introduced us. I put names to faces as we went around the table. Garner was the one with the salt and pepper hair and beard, a world-famous architect who’d designed everything from capital buildings to a treasury vault. The trim man with the very close-cropped blond hair and highbrow was another architect, Doubleday. The woman sitti
ng next to him that looked old enough to be my mother with a heart-shaped face and kind smile was the third architect, Lofland.

  The sole Llasian in the room was the government official from Sira, Ainsworth, looking very official and doubtful about our abrupt entrance. She kept pushing her wiry black curls out of her eyes with a casual brush of her fingers.

  As Fairfax finished the introductions, the last two men entered—a government official from Z’gher and another from Turransky. Aside from the almond-shaped eyes and skin tone, the Z’gheran official didn’t look at all like the rest of his countrymen. He didn’t even wear the braids—he’d pulled his long hair up into a sleek bun at the top of his head instead—although he did wear the traditional style of clothes. So this was Ohashi, eh? The official from Turransky had light, nearly silvery-white hair, olive skin, and a pleasant-looking face. He didn’t say a word to us, just bowed, but I assumed him to be Capek.

  Out of everyone, Ohashi seemed the most welcoming, as he greeted us properly with a bow and invited us to take a seat. I did so, taking a chair next to Fairfax, as that seemed the proper thing to do. The boys sat next to me, Ohashi on Fairfax’s right so that he was directly across from me.

  “Well, now that we’re all here, let’s begin,” Fairfax suggested brightly.

  Garner lifted a hand in a staying motion. “I’m sorry, President Fairfax, I’m still confused on why these three are here?”

  “Ah, you might be confused, as her name has recently changed,” Fairfax responded with a diplomatic smile. “This is the Void Mage, Renata Rocci.”

  Garner’s brown eyes widened and snapped to me. I gave him a little wave of the fingers, not sure what else to do, and feeling lame about just sitting there.

  “Bannen Hach is not only her husband, but her familiar,” Fairfax continued in that neutral tone, smile firmly in place. “And Agent Franklocke was instrumental in the fight to get Agents Hach close enough to Toh’sellor to finish it off. So you see, these three are experts on Toh’sellor.”

  “Then I’m very glad to have you here,” Ainsworth declared. “Agent Hach—ah, that is, Agent Renata Hach—”

  “Rena’s fine,” I assured her. That really would get confusing quickly.

  She gave me a nod in thanks.

  Capek lifted a staying hand and in a soft voice asked, “Forgive me, but I do not understand why our Void Mage has only now been invited to this meeting. Surely we would have benefited from her presence before now.”

  ‘Our’ Void Mage? Since when did Turransky claim me? Fairfax lifted a brow at me, asking one of us to take it, and I cleared my throat and gave him a smile. “We were both badly wounded after the battle with Toh’sellor, and then after we recovered, completely crazy with our wedding. In fact, we only recently joined the MISD. Before this point, it wasn’t really possible to call me in.”

  His forehead wrinkled up in a frown. He clearly didn’t like this answer. “Would you not have come before joining the MISD?”

  “Yes,” I admitted frankly, “but no one else seemed to realize that, because no one asked me to until recently.”

  Fairfax waited a beat to see if there were any other questions or statements to be had, but when no one else spoke, she continued her question. “We’ve already established several parameters for the building, and narrowed the choice in possible locations. Before we proceed to catch you up, I’d like to have a few facts verified before we pick up our discussion from yesterday. You’re intimately acquainted with Toh’sellor’s force and physical structure?”

  “Yes, but allow me to clarify something. Toh’sellor doesn’t have a physical structure.”

  Lifting a finger to draw attention to herself, Lofland inquired, “Explain that. The reports that we have said that its physical structure was huge before you battled him.”

  Shaking my head, I tried to figure out how to put this in layman’s terms. “Toh’sellor itself is energy. Very chaotic energy that doesn’t subscribe to the same rules of the world as we know them. It isn’t gas, light, matter, or anything like it. What it does is take the matter around itself to form defenses. What I destroyed were its defenses. I literally whittled it down to its original form.”

  Ohashi’s eyes narrowed to mere slits. “I understand from the reports that no magician has been able to destroy it outright. Is that because you haven’t been able to understand its true nature?”

  “That’s why,” I agreed, the twinge of that failure still putting a bitter taste into my mouth. “Magus Trammel and I have been studying Toh’sellor, trying to find some means of destroying it outright, but unless we can figure out some structure to its chaos, I’m afraid it won’t happen.”

  “We have the very best minds working that problem,” Fairfax declared with a reassuring dip of the head toward me. “My agents have made Toh’sellor more manageable, at least, but we need a safe place to contain it until we finally find a method of destroying it outright. Renata, you say that this thing is energy. The numbers on the board that we have on it, are they accurate?”

  “Can I study those for a moment?” I asked. I dearly didn’t wish to just give a blasé answer and then turn out to be wrong later.

  Fairfax waved me on and I went directly to the board, my eyes roving over them as I moved. They did seem accurate, at least they matched what I’d initially reported, but I had more to offer. Taking up the chalk lying at the base of the board, I added several lines of notes to the end and one correction, explaining as I wrote: “These are actually Trammel’s findings. I don’t think the report has quite caught up with you yet. I discovered at my last examination of Toh’sellor that it can still draw some matter to it even through our shields, but only the tiniest particles. It had collected a few grains of sand in the past six months.”

  “Then whatever structure we make should be made of what material?” Doubleday inquired, pen poised to take notes.

  “As manmade as possible,” I instructed, finishing off the last of the equation before replacing the chalk. “Toh’sellor works best with natural energy. We saw this several times, as it would always use living creatures first, then plants, and only buildings as a very last resort.”

  All of the architects made notes on that as I moved back to my chair. Fairfax looked entirely too pleased, like the cat with a new dish of cream, and I had the feeling that she’d wanted me here on the committee from the beginning. I certainly felt better now that I was here. I’d half-feared that they wouldn’t hear me, wouldn’t allow me to give my opinion, but that wasn’t the case at all. Fortunately.

  “From a security standpoint,” Bannen added to them, “please make the ceilings as short as possible.”

  “Sarding gods, yes,” Chi seconded this fervently. “And with high vantage points.”

  Fairfax’s eyes sharpened on them. “Why?”

  “One of the things we noticed was that the more room Toh’sellor had to work with, the taller and larger the minions grew,” Bannen explained. “The old minions that Toh’sellor had in Z’gher were three stories tall, at least.”

  “And we had to approach them on the ground, as there was literally nothing to use for cover or as higher ground,” Chi added with a scowl of remembered frustration. “The easiest way to tackle Toh’sellor’s minions is to send a sniper up high. Getting in close with hand-to-hand combat is the worst way imaginable in dealing with them. Plus, if we’d had a high enough vantage, we could have easily taken Rena up that route and avoided half of the conflict on the ground. If she’s got clear line of sight, at a close enough range, then she can destroy anything.”

  “How close?” Lofland inquired, almost demanded, of me. “How close do you need to be?”

  “No further than fifty feet,” I responded factually. “As you can see, Toh’sellor’s natural form is roughly six feet tall. We don’t approach closer than ten feet from it unless we’re under heavy shielding. I suggest fifteen feet on all sides of it for clearance.”

  “So a thirty-fo
ot diameter,” Garner noted, leaving his seat to scribble things on the board next to the pentagram’s blueprint already drawn there. “With a route along the top so that you can approach without becoming entangled with its energy or minions. To approach from the inside of the room or the outside?”

  “Yes,” Bannen answered with a crooked smile. “Just in case.”

  Garner made more notes. “We’ll need to do some interior redesign, then. Agents, I’m glad you came to speak with us. You’re offering better insight than those dry-as-dust reports.”

  I was heartily glad of that as well. “Mr. Garner, would you mind terribly showing us what you’ve designed so far and walking us through them? I have no idea what type of building you’ve drawn up except the single drawing on the board.”

  Lofland reached for a rolled-up set of plans from nearby and put them squarely in the center of the table. “Help me hold the ends down? And by all means, let’s walk you through it. I want to hear about possible problems now and not later. Much cheaper to erase lines than walls.”

  I couldn’t agree more, but that wasn’t why I’d suggested it. If there were going to be security issues with this building, I wanted the boys to point it out now, instead of us dealing with it when it was too late and the building be literally set in mortar and stone.

  We stood and bent over the table, listening avidly as the architects walked us through their plans. It turned out to be a very long, thankfully productive, day.

  We ended the meeting on a high note, better than I hoped, as committees did not always agree. On anything. President Fairfax pulled all three of us aside as people filed out, speaking more to Rena than Chi and me.

  “Renata,” Fairfax seemed incapable of using nicknames, “you stated earlier that you’re not a barrier expert, which was why you wouldn’t express much of an opinion on that. Who do you recommend we consult with?”