Morwen gripped her hands behind her back tightly as the Theferis raced through the gateway in the Umbral Plane and emerged in real space in the shadow of New Eden’s only moon. Trepidation swept through Morwen like a tsunami. She wasn’t an anxious type normally. However, over the years of combat and training, she’d learn to mask her pre-combat nerves by keeping her hands busy. Usually by gripping the spell controls, or a stave.
Now she lacked one, and gripping the controls felt… superfluous when she only needed her willpower. She turned to regard Rozien who floated next to her watching the main spell screen. Sensing her attention on him he turned to face with a questioning expression.
“Yes?”
“I was curious. Are you capable of shape changing?”
“It’s a spell I know, yes. Would you like me to alter my form?”
“If you would. Perhaps something like a spell stave?”
Rozien’s face scrunched in thought, contorting the letters that made up the font of his title. Finally, he glanced up and bobbed in place. “I believe I can. One moment.”
Several ritual diagrams drew themselves out of raw magic in the air, locking him in a place like a magical gyroscope. Then the rings spun. The entire process fascinated Morwen because, as far as she knew, he had no hands to cast with. He was more like a spell weapon than anything else. A moment later, there was a bright flash of light. Then that’s all he was.
“Tadaaaa. So. How do I look?”
Morwen regarded his new form for a long moment. He’d become a golden spell stave. One portion of his haft had leather wrapping. Runes etched a ring above the hand grip. At the top, three diamond cut sapphires floated in a lazy orbit of each other. They pulsed gently with light as he spoke.
“Like a legendary spell stave. Thank you. May I?”
“Oh, uh, please?”
Morwen reached out to grasp the gently floating weapon, holding it with both hands. She twirled it once, twice, and gave a few lunging thrusts with it from muscle memory. She twirled it again and tapped the base against the deck plate authoritatively. She flinched at how loud it was.
“Like that? I infused the impact with magic.” Rozien said with a note of glee.
She fought the wry grin that wanted to curl the corner of her lips. Schooling her features as neutral as she could manage, she cleared her throat to speak. “It was rather effective.”
“You’re just saying that to protect your hard ass reputation, aren’t you?”
“Yes.”
There was a moment of silence as the pair chuckled mentally. Unwilling to let their amusement slip outwards. Lest it tempt disaster. A beat later, Morwen held Rozien out like a sword and made a slashing gesture, cleaving a wound in the Umbral plane that led into the Astral. The Theferis slowly crossed realms.
She tapped Rozien against the deck again, her anxiety relieved, and confidence restored. She surveyed the ship’s initial sweep with its sensors. It picked up lots of small debris clusters near the station. Nothing concentrated enough to equate to a Sauridius cruiser, but the spread and density patterns could mean a cluster of destroyed fighters. Maybe a few short handed squadrons.
At the heart of it all was the Indra. Morwen’s stomach twisted with knots. The situation suddenly got extremely complicated. She felt a migraine threatening to set in, pinching the bridge of her nose to relieve the pressure.
“The Indra…it’s here?” Rozien asked, confused. “Did Amara see something and come here before us?”
Morwen didn’t know. That thread of the web had been obscured to her. She tried not to dwell on its secrecy and the danger that implied.
“I don’t know. But it seems we’ll find out shortly.”
Morwen maneuvered the Theferis in slowly, respecting the Brotherhood’s air space and following their traffic protocols. She didn’t want to spark off an incident now. Not when they needed a united front against Sauridius if they wanted to prevent his rise.
“Rozien, send the station a standard greeting hail. Let them know we’re here to provide overwatch against potential Sauridius assault.”
The slowly orbiting sapphires pulsed silently for several moments like a visual morse code message being sent before Rozien finally spoke. “Message sent Captain.”
“Morwen.” she said hesitantly. “Please, just call me Morwen from now on. Thank you.”
The sapphires blinked a few more times contemplatively before Rozien finally said he understood. The pair waited in contented silence as the station administration on OrbCommOne tried to make sense of the heaping pile of excrement that had suddenly been delivered to the administrator’s doorstep.
Station Administrator Jelco Tax sighed heavily as he sat back into the only comfortable chair in the CiC. His. His entire service career had gone relatively unremarkable. He came to work. Did his job. And he did it well. Most of his mistakes were barely noteworthy, and he was proficient in his skill set.
He practically wrote the book on stellar traffic management and docking pylon utilization. And yet here he was stuck with two magician ships and a metric butt ton of debris from several squadrons of dead over zealous fighters. They’d shot the hell out of his station, but thankfully, the asylum seekers dealt with the problem themselves, requiring minimal involvement on his part. He could explain away the mac rounds and missiles as token engagement, if only to bring the scenario to a swifter resolution.
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That just left the problem of what to do with the Indra and its occupants seeking asylum and offering to give the Brotherhood what he could only think of as magical weapons of mass destruction, and a Mage Fed Ship saying it’s here to help protect them.
“I chose the absolute worst time to quit coffee.” He grouched.
“Cold turkey?” A sensor tech asked.
He nodded. Slowly. His blood felt like syrup being pushed through his veins. Or concrete more like. But he was due to retire, and soon wouldn’t need the stimulant any longer. Or so he’d thought.
Glancing back up at the primary command screen, he could see tactical specs on both ships. One was a corvette sized vessel sporting 4 cannons. He’d watched tear apart the fighters. The bigger one further away sported multiple turret batteries, and one massive spell cannon that seemed to run the length of the ship from stem to stern.
From a manufacturing stand point alone its construction bordered on a miracle, but the threat it presented was a thousand times magnified. The only reason he’d stayed at his post was the fact that A. the Valkryie of Tohruun was its commander, and B. she’d stated they’d come to protect the capital from Sauridius assault.
“I knew I should have retired early…” Jelco grumbled.
The messy business with the fighters had resolved itself, but had left him with two large elephants in the room. What to do about the two ships? If the big ship was from the Mage Federation, they would no doubt want those running and seeking asylum. But accepting the asylum seekers meant getting their magi-nukes, which he had to assume functioned as their name implied. That alone would be a boon worth pissing off the pointy-eared elves. Especially considering how little they ever contributed back to the Brotherhood.
The bigger ship sent a message requesting permission to open a channel with itself, the station, and a leader from the capital world of the Mage Federation. Jelco again cursed under his breath. He glanced over at his communications officer and gave her a nod.
“If they want a communications circus, far be it from me to tell them no.”
She nodded and coordinated with the bigger ship. After a few more minutes, his comms officer put it up on the main command display screen. Captain Morwen of the Mage Federation running the Theferis, an unknown make spell ship, appeared in an inset box on the left. Arch Priest Erlaut, newly appointed as if he’d recalled right from the intel reports, appeared on the right.
“Ladies and gentlemen, let’s get to it then. Captain Morwen, what did you want?”
“I wanted to see if the Federation would honor its agreement to support the Brotherhood when needed. I wanted to give the Arch Priest a chance to answer for himself before you. I’m not an official spokesperson, and until recently, I wasn’t even an active commanding officer. I’m not even sure I still am.”
“Morwen!” Erlaut snapped before reeling himself back in and recomposing himself. A deep breath later, Erlaut’s mask came back, but everyone saw the cracks. Something in Erlaut was coming undone, but no one could quite put a finger on it.
“Forgive me. This latest bout of campaigns by the Sauridius are concerning to be true. However, given that the bulk of their focus has been directed at Eryn of late the Federation believes its most effective posturing of forces will be to bunker down and wait for the impending assault on Eryn.”
Jelco’s brow twitched in disbelief. “Excuse me for interrupting. You expect us to just sit back and breathe easy after we’ve been dying for your war for the last 60 years?”
“We all have our roles to play.”
Jelco rose, tugging his dark navy blue jacket straight as he did so. “Thank you, Arch Priest, for reminding me of that. While the Brotherhood finds it regrettable that our staunch allies have abandoned us in a dark hour, we will not forget .”
Erlaut’s eyes narrowed. “You seek to threaten me? Morwen, what is the meaning of this?”
“Quite the contrary Arch Priest. The Brotherhood has endured loss after loss with naught to show for it. Our people are bloodied. Our fathers and sons come home dead or harry us at the gates. My people are tired of propping your Federation up on the backs of our dead. You’re within your right to deny reinforcements. Should you choose to do so. But do not expect us to look upon that act favorably.”
Morwen sighed, rubbing her temples as her headache compressed on her skull. She thought if she pinned the two of them together they’d see the reason to support each other, not dig in like obstinate children and pout.
Erlaut glowered at both Morwen and the administrator himself. The connection then cut itself. Morwen sighed. “Forgive me Administrator. I had hoped that he might see the value of supporting the alliance when I forced his attention away from his paranoia. It turned out to have quite the inverse effect. I pray it doesn’t impact your opinion of the Federation and the need for a unified sector.”
Jelco shook his head. He wasn’t an unreasonable man. He understood the pressure the Arch Priest was under. Even the sentiment of wanting to protect his home. He just lacked the luxury of the capability to do so. Until now, at least. His attention turned to the Indra on the other screen. Its crew had waited patiently for him to consider their proposal and get back to them. Then the Theferis had arrived and its captain forcing him into a meaningless conversation with Federation leadership.
First things first, though. “Captain Morwen. I would like to take you up on your offer to watch our skies. These are troubling times and we’ve seen our defenses fail twice in a few hours.”
“Yes. I’m seeing that. Speaking of, I’d like to request the Indra be brought back to the Theferis.”
And there it was. That same old Federation bossiness. They thought they could just order anyone around, like they were the gods of the sector. Well, not anymore.
“No.”
“No?”
“No. They have submitted a request for asylum with the Brotherhood. And we are seriously entertaining their proposal.”
Morwen blinked. “Oh. I see. Well then. I trust you’ll handle the situation as you see fit. Unless you require anything else of me, myself and my ship will maintain over watch of your system and world.”
“My thanks to the Valkyrie of Tohruun. I had friends on that colony when it fell. I’ve never been a fan of you mages in the Federation or our Alliance with you. But you’ve been one of the better ones. I’m glad to see their stain hasn’t ruined you.”