Tallus had watched the Duchy’s flagship leave from the palace’s underground dock when Far’nah took it – with the Sovereign Shadow in tow – out over the open sea, earlier that day. Though it was well-past dark by then, he could still make-out the faint, ghostly imprint of that memory in the waning light. Yet, there he continued to wait…until he heard the fluttering – and distinct call – of a particular hawk. It landed on top off the cliff-top gazebo, and turned around on its awkward, clawed feet to stare at him.
“Preen your left wing if you’re the bird I’m looking for, and you can hear me.” Tallus commented, quietly, and side-eyed the bird for the requested response. It did as bid, combing its beak through its left wing, and Tallus looked out at the dark horizon again, “If it wasn’t obvious at the meeting earlier, the Duchess has completely gotten away from me.”
The hawk squeaked a few hollow chirps.
“The last time I tried to corral her, she didn’t even blink as she refused to heed me. I’m afraid I had no choice but to go the alternative route; I’ve made myself invisible to her notice. My time here now is limited…and she is free from the constraints of decency. She will see her plans through, now. No more guardrails.”
No response came to that. The hawk simply flew off into the night, and dissolved its small mantle as it escaped sight.
.
There was little to do on that long, annoyingly-slow trip back to Sargon but daydream, think, and consider the options. Gabriel grumpily opened the ship’s flight-path map and checked to see where they actually were; barely 2/3rds of the way. He could hardly believe it.
“We’ve been flying all damn day, and we’re only this far? What’s going on?” He asked himself impatiently, and decided to call-up one of the Captains on the escort. The Dreadnought was the first to answer, and he posed to her the same question he’d just asked himself.
“Apologies, Lord Gabriel.” Captain Martell answered, “We’ve been stuck following in the wake of the Duchess’ personal ship. We’ve slowed our progress out of concern that she may think we’re following her.”
“…We’re going the same way? But…why?”
“Your guess is as good as ours, sir.”
He shook his head, “Er, sorry, I meant that for myself. How far ahead is she now?”
“She appears to have stopped at this point, sir. We’re giving her ship a wide berth right now.” She explained, “If you look at the map of where we are, you’ll see the city of Stoneface Bluffs come up. She stopped there.”
“Is there anything of significance there?”
“Not that I’m aware of, sir. It’s the governmental capitol of the eastern district, and it sits on the southernmost tip of the Exclusion Zone, but…otherwise, there’s nothing special about it.”
“…The eastern district.” Gabriel echoed, only for realization to dawn, “Thank you, Captain. That’s exactly what I needed to know.” He disconnected the call before she had a chance to answer, and instead, put out a call to his Eidolon. He quickly made his way across the cabin to look out the north-facing window, and saw the city-lights coming up some few miles away – as well as a curious blot of flashing lights at the far end of it. He immediately got dizzy for it, and sat back down again, just in time to hear the sandy accumulation of nanotech nearby, and he lifted his head, “Why do I keep doing that to myself.”
“I hope you didn’t call me to ask that?” Xanarken crossed his arms.
“Does the city Stoneface Bluffs mean anything to you?”
The Eidolon squinted his eyes in thought – the name did, in fact, ring a bell – but for a moment, he couldn’t recall exactly why, “Does it hold something to you?”
“It’s Magistrate Laurier’s home-base. I think the Duchess went to go meet with him. When she ditched the meeting, she left Oceanside, too…and I’m not back in Trazad yet because we’ve had to slow down while we headed the same way. What could she possibly want out here that she couldn’t simply call ahead for?”
Xanarken tilted his head, “Ah… Yes, now I remember. One of Rylen’s orbiters tracked the Magistrate’s mecha there after the Connington Fragment incident.”
Gabriel’s heart skipped a beat uncomfortably, “…Wait…doesn’t that mean he’s known about Aamin this whole time?”
“No.” Xanarken shook his head, and bent down to put a hand on the cabin wall as he looked out that small portal-window, “Looking down from directly above, he must not have been able to see Aamin being carried by the mech. He truly only learned about it because you mentioned it to the Emperor. Do you think the Duchess is meeting with them?”
“I think it’s suspicious that there’s enough emergency vehicles in the north of the city to be visible from here…and it would explain why Laurier himself wasn’t at Oceanside today.” Gabriel answered, and went quiet for a moment as he made certain he was sure of what he was about to say next, “…I’ve had a lot of time to think about what you were saying earlier. I…think, maybe…sometimes…some people are just too dangerous and unstable to try and deal with. I can’t stop worrying about how bad things are going to get if Far’nah keeps testing our boundaries. How many people are needlessly going to suffer because she can’t help herself. …And all those innocents aboard the Tuonela who don’t deserve to be used as a shield while Far’nah continues to openly threaten us.”
The Fourth listened carefully, and nodded, “When I made her heel at the border dispute, I told her the way I would end her reign if she didn’t leave. I warned her that the World Cloud has safeguards in place that prevent it from being inhaled by mistake. It would be a simple thing to make the Cloud ignore that directive for a minute.”
Gabriel shook his head, “Having Far’nah drop dead for no reason would be really suspicious. No one would believe it. …What if we sabotaged her ship?”
Xanarken looked on cautiously, “A critical malfunction that would cause it to go down, and take her with it.”
“Right…” Gabriel affirmed uncomfortably, “To sacrifice one life in favor of all the others.”
“Not a thing to be decided lightly, but…on this, I agree.”
“…You do?” The younger man quirked his head up, then looked aside, “I mean…I guess you would. You were leading me right to it…”
“I can take a peek at the site with the orbital that Rylen’s had parked overhead since he found the place. There’s no one just sitting at a desk back home watching it all the time; it just keeps a benign eye on things. While I’m looking…I want you to make your decision.” Xanarken advised, “You’ve made your thoughts known; the actual choice is a very different thing. It’ll be your command that this happens.”
Gabriel drew in a quick, uncertain breath, “…Okay.”
The Eidolon bowed his head, and crossed his arms. For a few minutes of unfathomably difficult silence, Gabriel watched, and waited, and thought. It was nerve-wracking enough to speak the thought aloud, but knowing it could all come to a head – and really be real – was an entirely different thing. It felt like an eternity, and yet, no time passed at all, before Xanarken returned and gave his affirmation.
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“The Duchess’ ship is parked on a landing strip not far from the facility. I’m not sure how or why, but the building appears to have been destroyed.” The Eidolon explained, “I was able to spot the Duchess and the Magistrate together nearby; it looks like they’re leaving, though. …If I go now, I could find a way to cripple the vessel before she gets there.”
Gabriel could feel his heart racing – pounding so hard in his chest, it felt as though his entire body swayed lightly with each thump. He swallowed hard, “…Do it.”
“Say it out loud, Gabe.”
A nervous bead of sweat trailed down the back of the man’s neck, “Use the nanotech of your mantle to sabotage the Duchess’ ship. Do whatever it takes to bring it down, and her with it.”
Xanarken stared for a moment, waiting for any hesitation or reconsideration, but when there wasn’t, he nodded, “Don’t slow down the ships to watch. Just keep going.”
“Okay.”
The Eidolon vanished without another second of delay. From so high up, it would take a few minutes to get that mini-cloud of microscopic machinery to the landing-yard. Once Xanarken had arrived, however, and he was able to filter his way through the closed-but-not-sealed door, it was only a matter of searching. A short while later, the visage of a benign, fluffy creature sat in wait. Far’nah’s escort was approaching quickly. The pale fur of the little feline shimmered and shifted, turning it entirely black against the long-grass beside the yard.
But, as the trio of Luminary ships started to leave the area, barely visible but for the lights on their exteriors blinking in the night sky, the unthinkable happened.
The Kitezan ship was starting to activate without its passengers. Those wide purple eyes looked on disbelief, It’s not possible. It’s leaving without her…? He looked back at the diplomatic escort, and the fact that they were nearly beyond sight. The sound of the Kitezan ship rising drew his attention back again. Engines hissed and hummed as the anti-gravity drive kicked in, and those circular panels spun ever-faster, the space beneath them starting to blur like heat-waves.
It lifted three feet off the ground before the rear drives detonated together. The midsection cracked in half. The nose was blown clear off the front of the hull. Flame billowed out in enormous gluts, and after what felt like watching it in slow motion – as fire licked at the exterior and parts of it began to break away and disintegrate – it finally detonated.
Long-grass billowed in violent waves as heat rushed out in every direction.
And Far’nah’s small motorcade came to a calm stop on the opposite end of the tarmac.
“…You were right.” She commented, seeing the rain of debris starting to come down. A few bits of it banged off the roof of the car, tapping like hail against metal and glass. The glow of the flame flickered against her skin, and she looked with gently-quivering hands to the antler-crown she held on her lap, “…They really tried to kill me…”
Regulus kept his arms crossed, eyes on the maelstrom only a hundred feet away, “It was their last opportunity. I would’ve been surprised if they didn’t take it.”
“…That they would be so obvious though.”
“Plausible deniability. The more obvious it looks, the more they can deny it was them because it was so obvious.” The Magistrate explained, “And Xanarken did threaten to kill you with his nanotech. We saw him with our own eyes in Oceanside, and the fact Lugios had his cloak on as well means we know they brought their own supply.”
“But now what? How do we prove that they did it?”
“We don’t have to.” He said simply, “The mere shadow of doubt will be enough to cast suspicion on them. Let them bear the burden of proving they didn’t. It’s already suspicious enough that the ship went down while they were passing by.”
“Then we’ll make an announcement immediately.”
“Not yet, Your Grace.” Regulus lifted a hand in pause.
“Not yet?”
“Not yet.” He said again, “There is merit in revealing the act immediately, but the event took place here, and we still need some element of privacy about our actions. Let those two fools ruminate on what’s happened, and feel the weight of that stress on their bones. We need the time to bring a transporter here to take our special guest back to Oceanside discretely anyway. Then…we’ll reveal it.”
“Would it not be equally suspicious that we don’t make a scene about it right away?”
“Not if we play into the idea that you were in such shock about the near-death experience that you needed a moment to recover first.”
She glowered at him, “I don’t want to look weak. That sounds like something a lesser woman would say.”
“This is a message that’s going to go straight to the Hadiran Accord.” He explained, “Play into their sympathies. It won’t take more than half a day for the local media to start leaking bits of footage of the sight…but the official announcement from the Duchy should be strategic. A powerful statement, made with calm, calculated, surgical precision, rather than reactionary appeals to panic. Make it seem like you ruled out every other possibility.”
Far’nah looked down slightly in thought, but then turned to look out the window again. The blaze had settled into itself by then, and smoldered like a bonfire in the night, “…Surgical precision.”
.
Gabriel paced back and forth in the cabin, and just about had a heart-attack when Xanarken reappeared. He immediately went up to the Eidolon, “Well? Is it done? Did we get her?”
Those purple eyes gazed into nothing. If it was possible for a fake man’s gaze to appear dead inside, it would be in that moment. Xanarken shook his head, “The ship started to lift-off before her motorcade even arrived. I…can’t explain why it would, except in the possibility that they may have anticipated us, and sought to use the ship as a distraction.”
The Vice’s heart sank into his feet, “…We’re fucked. We are so completely fucked.” He said grimly, and sat back into his seat, hands clutching to his head as his eyes trembled, “How could we have bungled this so badly. We should’ve waited till she was airborne and definitely on the ship…”
“Welcome to it, kid. Sometimes things go horribly wrong. Imagine my horror when Captain Rydell’s father attacked General Laurier at the capitol.” Xanarken reassured, “You are going to experience a not-insignificant number of utter disasters as an Eidolon. Your mistakes will be more evident than any other man’s, and your successes will not be celebrated because they’re expected as the bare minimum.”
“I don’t like this. …I don’t want to do this anymore. I don’t care if the demotion looks bad; you have to send me back to being a mediator.” Gabriel pleaded in his panic, feeling sick to his stomach and lightheaded all at once, “I’m not built for this…”
Xanarken went down to crouch on a knee, and reached a hand forward to set onto his adoptive son’s shoulder, “Panic is a swift teacher. You’ll learn from this moment and be stronger for it.”
“This isn’t a learning experience you should’ve saved for right now!” Gabriel barked, and swiped his arm so quickly through the mantle that it went right through, breaking it to glassy dust for the briefest of moments before it could reform, “Kitez is the last place that we can afford to make mistakes! Lives are on the line here! Far’nah could use this against us! Make up any kind of wild story that she wants, and she knows full and bloody well that to prove her wrong, we’d have to somehow prove a negative, or – even worse – reveal the truth, to somehow make it seem less awful than it actually is!”
Xanarken sighed, “It’s still an uphill battle for her to prove that we did do it. We were already going to be traveling in this direction. We could just as easily claim she staged it herself because she knew we were on-course to pass her by. This is the way we came, after all…and the only way to get back without crossing into the Exclusion Zone, which…by definition, we shouldn’t be going through.” He reached his other hand forward and clasped both of those shoulders, “Look at me, Gabe.”
The trembling Vice refused.
“Look at me.”
Reluctant eyes finally lifted, red and starting to darken with the stress.
“You can’t be afraid of what she might do. Plan for it. Create contingencies.” The Eidolon advised, “Two-thirds of your life has been lived in service to using your head. You can’t quit now because one of your schemes didn’t go to plan. It’ll hardly be the last to go all wrong. Get used to the feeling and train yourself to keep your shit together. After all…this looks suspicious enough on both sides that she may not even have the nerve to make a fuss about it.’
Gabriel tried to let the words settle, but the unnerving pit of anxiety had already taken hold, and sent adrenaline flowing through every molecule of his being.
Xanarken could tell his words weren’t reaching him, and he pushed back up to stand again, “I’m going to divert the ships north to take you back to Agartha. I’ll go to Trazad and let the Emperor know how things went.”
“…Shouldn’t I go to Trazad…?”
“You’re in no state to be making decisions right now. Hurry back to where you know no one will expect anything from you, and get your act together.”
It was like a knife had been driven through Gabriel’s back, and he dared not look up further. It was enough to see the Eidolon’s knees; he couldn’t stand the thought of seeing the look on his face, too. Gabriel just nodded weakly, and waited for the sound of the mantle to dissolve before the next worry dug its way through him.
Agartha may have been somewhere that he had no direct responsibility…but it’s where Ren was, and he had no doubt he’d have to face her instead. …And that was, in its own way, even worse.