It was a bright and beautiful morning in Oceanside, and Duchess Far’nah in a very optimistic mood. Every single one of her Magistrates was present at that meeting table in the throne room, and Mardu – trying to look small and inconsequential – sat silently on his side of the raised landing.
“I’m pleased to report that the Luminaries have accepted the bit, and we are bringing them into barn as I speak.” The Duchess declared, “I’m told their progress proceeds apace; their ships have just entered into our territory and they should be here by mid-afternoon.”
Three of the dozen-or-so Magistrates were looking a bit nervous, and one tugged at the collar of his uniform where the heat of his nerves was starting to make him sweat.
Far’nah took no notice of it, and made her way down the two-step ledge so she could walk into the center of that Stonehenge-looking pergola, “The Vindicator’s control-systems are all working as expected, and within the hour, we will be conducting one final test. If all goes according to plan, we will finally have our means of forcing the Council – and by extension, the Hadiran Accord - to give Kitez its due recognition as a formal state, and as a result, the Accord’s guarantee of autonomy. We will never betray our people to the Council’s tyranny. We will never submit to the Eidolon and their freakish need to dominate every corner of this world. We have as much a right to exist independently as they do.”
The most anxious of those Magistrates turned his light on to be heard, and Far’nah hesitated at the sight of him, but gestured at him to allow his voice to be heard on the floor. He swallowed a hard knot in his throat and stood, “…Your Grace, with all due respect, it would be one thing if you only had the ship to use as a bargaining chip, but…we’re finding out that you have all of the original passengers aboard as well. You cannot possibly hope to win the day if you’re keeping hostages.”
Her eyes narrowed slightly, “There are some 70,000 souls aboard that ship. What would you have me do with all of them? Wake them up and put them into internment camps? They are refugees, who would need resources and homes and education…if they remain in cryo-sleep, they require nothing, and notice less.”
“So, you’re saying this is better.”
“Of course it is.” She held her arms out, “We can wake them up later, in waves, and integrate them into Kitez slowly so the system isn’t overwhelmed.”
That same Magistrate could feel a shiver down his spine, and his arms trembled at his sides, “Your Grace…we understand that you have been working on this project for more than a decade. Why did you not start waking them up as soon as you found them? The ship could have been long-emptied by now…its people added to ours, and the vessel fit for purpose. I’m afraid I cannot support this plan, with the ship in this state.”
The Duchess narrowed her eyes slightly, and looked around the ring, “Do any others have this sentiment?” No one spoke at first, “Well? Anyone? Speak now or be consigned to history as supporters.”
“…I dissent.” Someone finally spoke; she rose from her seat, next to Regulus, “I agree with the Honorable Judge Francis Aurelius. If the ship had no unwitting passengers, this would be a different discussion. When the Council finds out what you’ve done-“
“What I’ve done.” Far’nah stopped the sentence, and turned towards the woman, “What exactly have I done, Magistrate Haiyane?”
The Magistrate looked on sternly, and held her ground, “You have made us a terrorist state. …You still have time to turn this around. When the Eidolon of the Fourth arrives, you can turn over the ship to their care as a gesture of good faith. Make them believe they thought the worst and give them a pleasant surprise instead. That may do more to bring Kitez into good standing with the Accord, than this half-baked plan to threaten them with the summary execution of these unwilling participants.”
“I have no plans to harm the passengers.” Far’nah corrected, offended, “They may still be aboard, but I am no monster. If any harm comes to them, it will be the Council’s doing, and no one else’s.”
A third Magistrate rose then, his light coming on like the two prior, “Your Grace, this is lunacy. You speak of this project as if it’s a passive actor in your game, but we all see it for what it is. A veiled threat of invasion against Council territory with a weapon you think they wouldn’t dream of fighting back against.”
“Who said anything about pushing out of Kitez?”
That Magistrate looked on with trepidation, but then made up his mind. He pulled off his cloak and threw it down, “I will no longer be a part of this.”
The other two followed soon after; Mardu looked on with horror, but said nothing. Far’nah was just impatient, and watched them go. As soon as the trio had arrived at the exit to the main hall, they found the guards unwilling to open the way. Demands went out for the door to be opened, and went unheeded. Then the order went out.
“Arrest them.”
The guards moved swiftly then, and Far’nah turned towards the spectacle, a look of callous indifference on her face as the three were manhandled into restraints. Their protests were screamed into that massive room, until their voices faded to empty echoes, and ultimately to silence. Nervous glances went around the table, but a number of them – more than half of the original – were eager. Regulus was stoney, but watched carefully anyway.
“Are there any others who cannot support this lunacy?” Far’nah wondered, and looked at each of those faces, one at a time, until she finally came to look directly at her husband, “Anyone.”
He hiccupped a breath, but shook his head, “Y-you have my f-full support. You always h-have.”
She didn’t entirely believe it, but she accepted the words anyway, for the moment, “Those of you who have stayed are about to witness a paradigm shift on Hadira. Kitez will no longer be a footnote. We will be respected as a world power…and we will be afforded the independence and acknowledgement we have always deserved.”
.
“Your Grace, this is a bad idea.” Tallus pleaded as he chased after the adamant woman, “The Council has always given Kitez a wide berth and only ever intruded when threats within became threats without. You cannot seek to provoke them like this…”
“Magistrate Oberoi, you’re either with me or you’re against me.” Far’nah retorted, pulling on a regal long-coat from her ample options, “Please do not tell me you side with the others, after all of your prior assurances of loyalty.”
“I am loyal, but this is going too far.” He answered, and hastily approached to pull her hands forward with his own. He looked her squarely in the eyes, “You will bring the ire of the entire Sixth Wing down upon us if this goes badly…and then we’ll need the First to pick up the pieces, because there won’t be enough of us left to do it ourselves.”
“It won’t go badly.” She insisted. She pulled her hands back to lift her hair up, and let it fall behind her back, “If there’s anything about the Council that’s been logic-defyingly predictable this entire time, it’s that Rylen is loud but toothless, and Xanarken has the final say. There has never been a time where a nation that simply refuses them has ever been attacked. Even in the histories, when colonies resisted the fascism of the Council, no one was ever invaded without firing the first shot themselves. My intent with the Vindicator is a deterrent.”
Tallus looked increasingly frustrated, and finally let that irritation spill over. He grabbed the woman roughly by her shoulders, eyes flaring malignantly, “You will cease this brow-beating and offer the Eidolon a peaceful transfer of colonists into their custody. You will do this in exchange for the recognition you crave. You will not present the Vindicator to the Fourth as a vessel of mass-kidnapping.”
She stared back in surprise, but his commands for submission were no longer heeded. She ripped herself free from his grip, “I’ve waited too long for this moment to have you try to stop me now.”
Tallus’ expression shifted, I can’t change her mind. She’s completely convinced of her own path. …This fanaticism is beyond my ability to curtail anymore. He kept that aurora-like connection to her gaze for a moment longer though, and decided to change tack, “Then forget about me. Forget everything I’ve ever said to you, except this one, final thing…”
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“…Yes…” She said, the daze finally taking-hold.
“You will leave me to my own devices. If you see me, you won’t care; if you hear me, you won’t take heed. Every action I take will be beneath your notice; even the utterance of my name in your presence will sound like the mention of a stranger’s.”
She looked on with surprise, eyes widened for a moment; her irises dimly glowed with the magnetic lure of the miasma pouring into them, “…I…will miss you…”
Those eyes blinked, and when she ‘came to,’ the room was – except for herself – empty.
Far’nah looked around in confusion, “…What…was I doing?” She noticed the sleeves of her jacket, and realization struck, “Ah…right, I was getting ready. Regulus was going to do that shield-test.”
.
Arriving in Agartha felt like a sentence, but Ren kept her head up, and tried not to let it show that her new assignment – temporary or not – made her miserable. There was a bit more fanfare on their docking than there had been when they left Trazad, but she supposed there had to be, since the Council actually had time to prepare for it. Rylen and Xanarken were both there to greet the Prince, and with all that pomp and ceremony going on, Ren knew she had a moment to step away.
Or fly, as the case may be. She shoved as much of her hair into the collar of her flight-suit as she could before sticking her head into her helmet, and quietly hopped off the edge of the disembarking-bridge. That high up in the city, it was a freefall for quite a ways, and Ren tilted nose-first into the drop, leveling-out her glide – wings stretched out far – only a few hundred feet above the ground. She sent out a call to the only person she wanted to see in that moment, “…Hey, I need you. Can you come find me?”
“Coming.” Furion answered.
Ren went all the way to where the Aegis was lingering on the outskirts of that massive metropolis. She touched-down on its roof, and pulled her helmet off again, letting the biting wind lash at her cheeks. Her long black hair ripped free rather quickly, and she waited…and waited…
Armored feet finally touched down a few minutes later, and Furion approached, setting a hand down onto the roof of his SkyFortress as he moved to sit beside her, “I didn’t think this detail would be as upsetting as it apparently is.”
“It’s not that…” Ren answered, and rubbed her eyes against her gloved fingers, “…I… I guess it’s just hitting me now that he’s really gone.”
Furion quirked a brow briefly, put then pulled his own helmet off, and hooked it onto the upper joint of his wing so it wouldn’t blow away, “No one is gone, we’re just…doing different things.” He started, and reached an arm across the back of her shoulders to pull her into a lean against him, “You never had reason to see him before because you didn’t know him. But, now you do, so you can always make the time.”
“Gabe’s an Eidolon now though.” She snuffled, and rubbed her nose on the back of her thumb, “He’s practically been sacrificed to the machine that is the Luminary Council. Even if I have time off, I don’t…know that he ever will. I don’t know what to do…”
“You had a chance to say goodbye though, didn’t you? You knew it was coming, even if it happened a few days sooner than expected.”
“Yeah, but…” She could feel the sting in her eyes, worse for the cold of the altitude. The pain caught in her throat, and it hurt to speak, “I told myself I wouldn’t kiss him at the end and then I did anyway… I probably messed-up his whole mission to Oceanside. I’m so stupid…”
Furion made a face, but twisted in his place to lift his other arm around the woman’s head, “It’s frustrating sometimes how you can’t help yourself.”
“S-sorry…”
“I accepted a long time ago that your heart operates differently from mine.” He said, gently petting her hair, cheek against her crown, “It was hard at first, I can’t lie…but when I stopped fighting it, it was easier to make peace with the idea. I just wish there was more that I could do when you find yourself attached to someone you can’t do anything for.”
Ren could feel her breath catching in her chest, and she turned on her knees so she could sit on the man’s leg, and bury her face against his neck, “I hate this… He’s going to be everywhere except with me… I’ll see his face everywhere and he’ll never see mine…”
Furion could offer no words to make the hurt better, so he just stayed there and let her finish in her own time.
.
It was nearly noon by then, and that Kitezan flagship once-again went out over the ocean. This time, however, it had the Sovereign Shadow in tow. The Vindicator had parked itself around a hundred feet above the water’s surface – even from that distance, its anti-gravity drives flattened the water beneath it, and waves drifted out to either side. Once they were close enough for the gargantuan vessel to take up most of the sky, Regulus veered upward, and raised his machina up over the wide nose at the front of the ship.
That deep blue coloring on the Sovereign Shadow’s exterior glowed under the unimpeded sunlight, and as it crested, it paused, and was set to hover in place. The top of it hissed and clicked, then opened, and the Magistrate himself stood up from within. From a compartment behind his seat, he withdrew the one nanotech containment-orb that he was able to find, and set it against the lip of the opening. As he leaned on it, he lifted a finger to the curved audio-piece wrapped around his ear, “Ready when you are, Your Grace.”
The flagship lifted high as well, but kept a safe distance, “You’re on screen. Go ahead.”
Regulus nodded and grabbed the sphere with both hands, turned 90 degrees to the left…and let it fall. Swiftly it descended, until it all-but bounced off an invisible barrier some 10ft up from the top of the ship. It crackled and bounced – the nanotech inside it fighting ferociously against the energy repelling it – until it finally went still, as if hovering in place.
All eyes gaped at it, “…Does that mean it stopped the nanotech or the whole container?” Far’nah wondered incredulously.
Regulus closed his eyes for a moment – focusing – and the mech started to hover downward. He switched channels on his ear-piece, “Bridge-command, confirm that the main shield is down.”
“It’s off, sir.” The hapless captive answered.
With a nod, Regulus slipped back inside the machine, and the top folded back into itself. Without hesitation, it leaned forward, and went underneath the pod, then around and over and back down again from several angles. Without fail, nothing happened to him or the Sovereign Shadow. Finally, the smaller arms coming out the bottom of the weapon’s ‘chest’ reached forward, and clasped the pod within its multiple clawed fingers. For a moment, Regulus simply held it there, seeing if anything would react to the pressure, but again, nothing did. He then shoved the pod forward, and it skidded across the ship’s aura as if a magnet repelled it at an exacting distance, even ‘jumping’ when it passed over a lip in the hull. He hovered underneath the pod then, barely fitting into the space under it, and opened the hatch again. Hands came out from within, and clasped the container from below. Regulus could literally hoist himself up with a bit of effort, and the pod never wavered. In the end, as he sat back down within the mech, he hovered directly up and let the container lift on his lap as he passed vertically, “I think it’s safe to say that it repels nanotech. I could feel it hooking to the interior, not the exterior.”
“What a delightful confirmation.” Far’nah clapped her hands together, “Just imagine the Luminaries coming at it, only to bash themselves against an invisible force, like a bug against glass. Especially those Fafnir Knights… The son of the beast who attacked you would come at this thing full-tilt and simply bounce off of it, the nanotech he brought with him to help him fight suddenly making his eyes pop and he falls from the sky like a dead bird.”
Her new enthusiasm for barbarism unsettled a handful of the ship’s other guests – including two Magistrates who had, up to then, at least supported keeping Kitez out of the Council’s clutches. They looked worriedly at one another, but said nothing.
“Let’s move this thing closer to the city. I want it parked above the harbor, where the Fourth can see it with his own eyes.”
“Yes, Your Grace.” The bridge answered, and a Kitezan Admiral issued the order, “We’re moving out.”
Regulus closed the top of the mech, and veered it around to join the flagship in watching the Vindicator begin to drift forward. As it passed by though, a different communication request came through to him, and he accepted curiously, “This is Laurier, go ahead.”
“Sir, sorry to interrupt…we have an emergency at base.”
“What kind of emergency?”
“…It’s gone, sir.”
“Gone?” He echoed, “Since when? What happened?”
“We’re not sure, sir. Late last night, after the facility closed, it just suddenly exploded. We’ve contained the blaze, but…oh, sir, it’s a disaster.”
“Why wasn’t I notified sooner?” Regulus growled in frustration, “I should have been contacted immediately.”
“Apologies, sir…we didn’t know until this morning. The local authorities were focused only on the effort to put out the fires. None of the rest of us knew until we tried to come to work. I wanted to be sure we had exhausted every effort to find an explanation before we contacted you about it. Sir…”
The Magistrate stared ahead blankly for a moment, but then shook his head, “…Very well. Continue with the effort. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
.
Mardu sat in that gazebo overlooking the bay again, eyes fixed on the horizon. He knew the Vindicator was too far out to see from there, but he still found himself imagining it, getting larger and larger as it approached until it covered the entire palace and the nearby grounds under its oppressive shadow.
“Your Grace?”
He turned in his seat, and spotted the masked man approach from the rear paths, “…She’s done it… It’s out of the water now. They’re…testing it, before the Fourth arrives.”
Latheroux nodded and stepped slowly closer. He looked around briefly to check for the proximity of nearby guards, but affirmed to himself that none were close enough to hear quiet conversation, and moved in under the gazebo’s roof, “When those ships arrive, you should be careful to continue your outward support for the Duchess’ maneuvers.”
“I know…”
“And speak only to Gabriel.”
Mardu gave a look of confusion, “What? Not Lord Xanarken?”
Latheroux shook his head, “The times are changing. Lord Xanarken is no longer the only Eidolon in the Fourth Wing. He has elevated his High Negotiator to be his equal, and it is Gabriel alone who carries the Luminary’s authority in Kitez and Sargon. If Lord Xanarken even comes, it would be useless to speak to him. Lord Gabriel is the final arbiter now.”
“…I…see.” Mardu turned around again, and looked out at the water, “…Another Eidolon…”
“Are you certain you want to flee?” The masked dissident asked again, coming around the man’s right side.
“…Yes.”
“Then I’ll do whatever I can.”