Confidence. Confidence is key. It’s how you pick up women at a bar, sell someone a car, and even convince them to go to the doctor. But confidence is more than just knowing what you’re doing, it’s believing that you’re right, that you know the actions you’re taking possess something inherently valuable. Confidence gives you weight, and if you have enough of it, people get out of the way. But confidence also makes people notice you, makes you stick out, and since discretion is the better part of valor, well.
So I did my best to not look confident, and then mixed that up with a bit of flesh sorcery panache so that I wouldn’t be recognized. A quick deep tan plus some reshaping of the cheekbones with a tiny brow restructure to make myself look much older and my own damn brother wouldn’t recognize me. Making sure Gungnir was a small knife in my boot and my armor was a dull shade of brown, a marked change from black and silver, I started walking towards Miami.
The walls were even more awe inspiring from down here now that I could get a proper look. This couldn’t have been built by dumb machines and nanobots, there’s just no way. The amount of raw power coming off of it was simply too much for even me to do, let alone the criss-crossing lines of runes on every house-sized block. Dark whorls of obsidian were clearly visible streaking throughout what could only have been some kind of glass-like stone. No person built this, this was made by an elemental.
[You’re not too far off,] Kraken said, answering my thoughts. [Some archmage probably got paid some big bucks to pop in through the gate, work his magic and haul ass away again. Probably made some serious money too.]
[The Centauri have archmages?] I said, careful to make sure that my facial expression stayed the way it was supposed to so that I gave nothing away as I held a completely internal conversation.
[Yes, but not many,] he answered. [Some other human dominion probably sent one over. The Centauri aren’t the only human based empire, simply the largest. Academy archmages are actually a tiny bit more common than you’d think and they’re always jonesing for money to fund their research projects. Bet the witches gave him somethin’ good.]
Continuing to walk towards the city, I did my best to hold back a laugh. [Did that sound dirty for a reason?]
[Oh yeah, witches man. Uber powerful, not only do they know the secrets of wytchfire, but they are not afraid to use it. Sex to them is a weapon, a tool. They’re masters of manipulation and political power and intrigue get them excited. Pretty much any queen or hot maid is either a witch or a prospective one.]
[And the difference between a witch and a wizard again, other than the sex?]
Kraken’s exasperation was clear. [It’s not about the sex. You know what wizards are. Witches tend to be several steps beyond that. One key trait of most witch covens is that they have a shared pool of ancestral knowledge. They can actually pass down techniques, spells, knowledge, anything they know is imprinted on their soul and can be given to descendants, blood or otherwise.]
[That’s not fucking fair!]
[Look who’s talkin’.]
[Focus! They can easily see you now!]
Generational knowledge functions in a similar way that compound interest used to make retirement accounts so attractive. Having lives that were limited to roughly eighty years is such a limiting factor on the productivity and creativity of humanity, but if you could break through that barrier then there’s no telling what could be accomplished. And if you can’t find a way to live forever, then passing on literal memories and skills would be the next best thing, and compounding that over and over could in fact give a person, a witch, multiple lifetimes or generations of skill and knowledge that a normal magic user simply couldn’t compare to. I bet one of them or even more than one of them probably have the answer to magic batteries locked away in one of their memories and don’t even know it!
Recentering my mind from the distracting mental tangents as I was within a football field of the entrance to the city, I began coaxing my consciousness sorcery to extrude outwardly from me, subtly influencing the area around to make people view me as less of a threat. My goal of entering that city peacefully hinged on trying something brand spanking new. Ten well-armed soldiers stood at the opening of the tunnel, their guard hounds behind them sleeping. Even from here I could see bony spikes sticking out of their spines and shoulders.
Not having planned for the dogs, I grasped at my flesh sorcery, forcing my sweat glands to temporarily give off the scent of someone way younger, weaker. Assuming that Centauri hounds work similarly to Earth dogs, not only would this change put them at ease but it might even make them completely disregard me.
“Ho to the gate!” I called, slowing my walk as I approached. Four soldiers kept their hands on their weapons as the rest of them kept lounging. Two were petting the dogs. “It’s true, it’s really true! A city, here!”
[Yup, Johnny and Reeanth aren’t out here to greet you. I knew we should’ve sent them a message.] Kraken whispered, even though nobody could eavesdrop on our mental link.
[I know! I know, but we might be able to make contact with them in the city. Just gonna take a bit of time.]
The Centauri closest to me said something garbled and then his buddy smacked him on the arm. Reaching up to his helmet near his ear, the first one touched a rune that glowed softly. Looking back at me, he tried again, this time clear English came out. “Stay where you are! Corporal, search him!”
Two soldiers stood to the lead man’s left and right, their rifles pointed at my feet as the Corporal snapped his fingers at a hound. Walking up to me, the hound followed at his heels. “Hands out to the side, spread your feet!” It was weird to see his mouth move while his helmet clearly produced different syllables.
[Translation spell built into the helmet. It has an auto-detect function built in and as long as the language is there it will go ahead and translate. Pretty useful for occupying the area.]
Keeping my face perfectly still as I complied, different scenarios kept playing out in my head. Assaulting the city head on did not appeal to me but that’s what kept coming up. The smartest option that presented itself was succeeding at convincing them that I was a harmless individual, one not worthy of notice. The large canine languidly sniffed at my boot as his handler began patting me down. Giving a snuff at my boot, the spiky hound turned around and rejoined his pack, curling up near the wall.
“What’s your business here?” Looking at the one guy with the translation spell capability, I carefully worked a small tremor into my demeanour, further creating the impression that I was frail, weak, at least enough to not be considered a threat to anyone.
“The city! I haven’t seen one in so long? Are there people there? Humans, anything?” I begged, my knees knocking together. “There’s monsters out there!”
[You’re too good at this.]
[Fuck off Squid!] I shot back at Kraken, making sure that my face didn’t betray my internal dialogue.
“We know there are monsters out there, that’s why we built this city,” he growled. “Most of the refugees were gathered a long time ago. How’d you manage to survive for so long?”
“The birds!” I gasped out, right as one of the soldiers searching me pushed way too hard on my gut. “They talk to me, letting me know when anything is near!”
All of the soldiers froze, then slowly backed off. One of them near the sleeping hounds yelled something I couldn’t understand then threw a small device to the lead soldier. Taking her helmet off, a lush mane of blonde hair framed the most aesthetically pleasing face an artist could design. Miss Gorgeous caught it and pointed it at me while muttering something about ‘damn sorcerers’, a small but insistent beeping sound grew louder. Touching the side of her helmet, she activated her own translation spell.
“Show us your true face shapeshifter,” she said, her voice way too warm for how imperiously cold she was acting. Every soldier had their shields out and planted at her words, their rifles pointed directly at my face. None of the hounds had moved a muscle though, still content to sleep in a humongous pile near the entrance to the city. “I don’t ask twice and we haven’t had a lot of action lately so I suggest you get to it.”
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[That’s an aura scanner.] Kraken clarified. [One of your brother’s friends must’ve scanned you at some point last time you were here. Unless you know how to intrinsically change how your soul gives off power, fooling that device is not possible for you. I thought those were outlawed a long time ago, too many royals kept sneaking around on their wives and blaming it on shapeshifters or facethieves.]
Keeping my body still, I allowed my flesh sorcery to slowly put my face back to normalcy. “Well, if it isn’t the sorcerer Nathaniel Jones, brother of Lieutenant Andrew Jones, wanted for the murder of Captain Casparai of the Mauraders, 2nd Legion of the Reclamation fleet. Arrest him.” Oh how I wanted to wipe the haughty look right off her face even though she had at least a good two and a half feet of height on me. Fuckin’ Centauri genetics.
It was moments like these that made me happy to have a functioning sense of cautionary paranoia. The entire time this conversation was going on, I had several planttrop seeds hidden in slots near the bottom of my boots that popped out and were growing insanely fast due to the amount of power I was pumping into them. With my nature sorcery, under the helpful guiding influence of Kraken, the roots extended underneath each and every soldier, ready to spring just in case things went south because my life could never be easy. If I was wrong, I’d simply be out a couple plant seeds which means nothing because I have several dozen on me. If I was right, then avoiding sudden violence and a whole lot of bloodshed was within the realm of possibility.
Every soldier pointed their rifle at me, their bodies tense, ready in case I moved one muscle in a way they didn’t like. Letting a smirk tease out on my face, I activated the planttrops, thorny vines exploding out of the earth knocking away weapons and shields. The thorns didn’t pierce their armor but they did poke painfully into the joints ensuring minimal struggling. Still, the wolves stayed in their sleepy snuggle pack over by the city entrance. [It’s not weird dude,] Kraken said as I glanced over towards the hounds. [Animals are much easier to influence than people, should have thought about that. They don’t have the same nanotech implants that the Centauri do.]
Shaking my head at the oversight and tucking it away for later, I put my arms down and sighed. “I’m not going to kill you, relax. This whole thing,” I said, gesturing at the vines currently constricting the soldiers. “This whole thing is for your safety not mine. I just want to visit my brother, take a look at my goddamn tree, and maybe do some shopping. Looked like a whole damn city in there.”
The vines relaxed their grip on each soldier as I put them to sleep one by one, ensuring that their unconscious state would last at least for the next eight hours. Trying to unlock their brain would result in a total system failure just like Casparai when I ripped the information out of his mind, which is part of the reason why I seem to be persona non grata around here. Using Kraken, as he has a much gentler touch than I, I had him scan the surface level thoughts and recent memories of the city, seeing if he could grab snippets of info without causing any harm. Once everyone except the wolves were asleep, I used my mind sorcery to make sure that the spiny wolf pack thought of me as one of their own.
Kraken manipulated the vines to hold some of the soldiers up so that it would look from the top of the wall that they were still standing guard. The others were put next to the wolves and sitting up next to the wall itself.
[So, plan B? Operation Mole Scout?]
Sighing with frustration at Kraken’s suggestion even though I knew that most plans don’t survive first contact, I double and triple checked each soldier to make sure they were out and that the wolves didn’t care. Gathering a bit of power, I sank into the earth and slowly swam through the stone and dirt under the city. Kraken carefully extended his magic senses looking for my brother as my full attention was on moving as quietly as possible without getting noticed, not that my magic made physical sound but I was doing my best to keep my aura, my magical signature as muted as possible. Not knowing about that damn scanner fucked with my head as I was sure that my first plan was flawless. The task itself wasn’t impossible but very difficult, like being forced to think your way through an action by forcing every muscle individually to do what you want instead of muscle memory just doing it for you. Aura control is going to take some serious practice.
[You don’t need to go to the center of the city, the gate’s there. Move around the inner city part. The Centauri like to disguise their buildings as normal shops or residences so spies have a harder time finding important targets. If you haven’t noticed, not only is everything symmetrical, but damn near identical.]
Not saying anything as he could feel my agreement with his assessment, I moved clockwise under the city.
[It sure is something, civilization that is. We got Centauri humans, native humans, more than a few Aelves and some Fae, a small contingent of Orkaane over here . . . oh shit! Go deep, go deep!]
Trusting my familiar, I dove from my current depth of thirty yards under the city to over three hundred, where I sat as I shaped stone above me to be a thick, solid plate of reinforced granite. [What was that?] I said, doing my best not to let my tension show in my mental voice. [What happened?]
[There was a whole bunch of witches arguing up there with some team of research wizards. And your brother was smack dab in the middle of it. Still no sign of the Dummy Duo though.]
[If we can’t be near it, is there a chance we could listen in on it?] I asked, knowing that lack of information has been my Achilles heel. [Think about what we could learn!]
[I thought we were interested in NOT DYING!] Kraken shot back. [That’s not the JV team up there, is that the right saying?]
[Close enough.] I replied, thinking it over. If they could sense something coming up through the ground then that would definitely be cause for alarm, infiltrating the city itself actually wouldn’t be. The guards figured me out due to their scanner but if I popped up in an alley or correctly timed coming out of the soil so that I was hidden by a corner or a building shadow then I could be just another pedestrian on the street. The disadvantage to that though was the fact that the meeting was probably shielded from the sides and above to prevent people like me from eavesdropping but who in their right mind would shield the floor? That in and of itself was a good enough reason to try and get close from below as opposed to trying to sneak a listen through a door or window crack.
[Or we could just wait till nightfall when everyone’s asleep?] Kraken suggested.
[Nah, the convoys I sent will probably be here by then and who knows when the next guard rotation outside the city is,] I answered. [We’re on a time crunch here.]
Kraken sighed, which since this was mental communication, it came off as really loud and obnoxious as if he were about to undertake some monumental task. [Fine. I’ll do my spirit thing and just phase through the floor to listen in.]
Holy shit! I’ve got some serious tunnel vision. Kraken is a spirit familiar. The damn squid is basically a ghost when he wants to be. As my eyes bugged out of their sockets, my mind swirling with the possibilities, Kraken exited Gungnir and phased up through the solid rock, stopping just short of our estimation of how sensitive the magical senses in that room were.
[Ack! Hold on, so many damn languages to translate for you, slow fleshling, only knowing one damn dialect. Ok, here we go.]
“Shut your mouth manling! Still barely wet from your wretched mother’s womb and still mewling! How ever did my cousin deal with it? Pathetic.” A voice far too old for a body that hot was disgusting to hear, an abomination all its own. The blonde woman wielded her charms like knives, putting her feet up on the table while adjusting her cleavage, sparks of mana zigzagging down her hair as her molten red eyes tried to bore holes through the men in front of her.
“Then how else do you propose we deal with Hell’s invasion of Europe? Or of the Oni repossession of Asia while more than a few Drakes and Wyrms stake their claims in the mountain ranges across this world?” My brother’s staunch refusal to back down in this contest of wills spoke well of him, even if we were at odds. “The North American continent is the safest place to have a beachhead, and with the gate here in the city we can strike from anywhere at any time! You couldn’t ask for a better strategic setup!”
Santa’s muscular cousin leaned forward on the table, his black armor out of place with his joyous smile. The man was more barrel than bowl full of jelly but his scarred hands spoke of many battles that he’d raged his way through. “She’s not wrong lad. She’s just uptight. Witches work like the Fae, all about their deals and games and promises.”
The tension ratcheted up several notches as an evil smile graced her lips. “Do not be deceived. I am not my cousin Morai. It will take more than a few men to divert me from my path.” Standing up, the woman slammed her palms on the table, greenish-white flames billowing up and then suddenly vanishing. “I command wytchfire in all its forms! The corpses in the north and south will flee from me and even Hell’s legions run from my wrath!”
“Hehehehe!” The big man chuckled. “I am no mere man! I am Rolf, here for the hunting! New realms are full of danger and fun! My men guard this area as a courtesy to you, wench.”
Not taking a step back even though he thought it might be the safest thing, Andy looked the woman in the eye. “Yes, I know the witch Morai allowed this settlement to be built with the promise of protection, but we owe you nothing! Rolf was the one who contacted the mages to build the wall. Rolf was the one to have contacts in the Portal Corps that allowed the assimilation of the World Tree for the gate. What do you offer except more bonds and misery? Do you pledge anything but? No one here is afraid of you Sybella.”
Not backing down, Sybella leaned forward, her words dripping with scorn. “None of you are needed alive, manling. The great Alpha Centauri empire would not care if one little contingent went missing in a colonization effort, and they’d certainly give me much more to ‘protect’ them. And the Hounds of Polaris care not for your cause either, Rolf himself will tell you that.”
The big man shrugged. “Maybe, then again, maybe not. He might be small but he did save my life several times against the soldiers of the Hive. If not for his quick thinking, we would have lost many more to their brain worm sleepers.”
“My division head, Major Colonel Septinel, gave the go ahead for the uplifted humans, we natives, to retake Earth. We’ll be coming back and when we’re all here, nothing will stop us.”
Sitting back down, Sybella let out a belly laugh, making a great show of wiping a tear from her eye. “You think your commander cares about retaking Earth? He’s just hoping you all will fuck like rabbits so he can get more humans for his armies! Oh that’s rich! You thought he cared for your cause!”
Tearing my mind free of the argument, I banked my anger so that it burned low and slow. He might be a dick right now, but no one fucks with my brother other than me. That’s my job.
[Don’t do it. Just wait a few more minutes, lemme get some more info that might save our bacon later.] Wisely listening to Kraken, I focused inward, mentally forcing myself to envision my anger as a fire, allowing it to burn but only how I wanted it to burn. It needed to be ready, the banked fire of a blacksmith’s forge right before he starts for the day, the potential for a wildfire at any moment but simply waiting.
Regaining my composure, I forced myself to wait. And wait I did, for at least two hours I sat there, pondering, thinking of a plan, prodding my uncooperative brain to conceive of anything to help me. As I sat there in my state of grumpy half meditation, I felt a shiver run through me. One of my background mental processes that I had set to low level scanning picked up that Reeanth was somewhere near.