> “No one can stop the youth from dancing, but the players can guide the steps.”
>
> - Aesvain saying.
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“Are they clear?” Mark asked, looking over at Arjun. The older man popped back through the doorway to the gateway room, weaving his way between teams of Cereinem and Idhytsen struggling to move bundles of food, supplies and other essentials. “We’re coming up on our window.”
Arjun nodded, walking quickly back to the gateway. “I’m not sure how far away is reasonable,” he said. “But assuming a range based on the apparent spacing of the draam je qaraivat they should be far enough out.” He sighed, shrugging. “It isn’t as though Eryha’s warning was very specific. She just said that Jesse should avoid drawing too close to Maja. We have no idea what she’s actually capable of seeing - or hearing, for that matter.”
Mark nodded, looking grim. “That’s been bothering me,” he admitted. “Hell, this whole thing bothers me. You know I haven’t been on Team Maja from the start, and I’m all for keeping our eye on her - but planning to move against her while we pretend like nothing’s wrong? While we’re actively looking to make use of her home to shelter all these people, not to mention the ones that are already there?” He swept his arm over the milling crowd, then dropped it and shook his head. “I’m sorry, but that’s pretty cold.”
“You’re not wrong,” Arjun said, grimacing. “And I don’t like it either, when you phrase it like that. It’s poor repayment for all that she’s done for us - but that assumes that any of it was done for us.” He looked towards the gateway, the cold stone arch looming effortlessly over the room. It had a quality that prevented one’s attention from sliding off of it, perennially making itself felt even when out of sight.
“Taking what Jesse said into account, what we read concerning Tija, and perhaps especially what Cosvamo said - we can’t make the mistake of treating Maja like she’s a human. I doubt she holds any particular fondness for us, past our immediate utility. If she decides our risk outweighs her benefit-” Arjun let his eyes drop, then rubbed a hand across them tiredly. “There are so many things we don’t know. I think the only one who really understood the stakes was Cosvamo, and he didn’t seem inclined to read us in on the situation.”
Mark snorted. “That’s a nice way of putting it,” he said. “But you’re right, he seemed to think that whatever Jesse’s got going on is dangerous - really dangerous, and not just for Jesse. I figure that goes for Jackie now, too. If Maja’s trying to get her hands on the magical equivalent of rogue nukes, it kinda puts a different spin on everything she’s done so far.” He bit his lip, then looked up toward the exit. “I’ll tell you one thing, though - Jesse’s mind is made up.”
“Is it?” Arjun asked, looking mildly surprised. “He’s been circumspect about all of this, at least when I’ve been around. Given his unique circumstances I’d have thought his feelings on the matter would be more complex.”
“Nah, Jesse and Jackie were both pretty quick to flip their opinion of Maja around,” Mark said. “I chatted with both of them before they went away with Sjogydhu, just to try and feel them out.” He met Arjun’s eyes, and his face was grim in the red coin-light. “They’re the ones going on a road trip with the man who tried to kill us a bit ago, and they told me to be careful. They’re both convinced she’s a land-mine.”
Arjun furrowed his brow, looking at the Cereinem families around him. “Should we reconsider bringing everyone through?” he asked softly. “That both of them agree is concerning, considering they’ve had the most experience with scripted entities - and in very different contexts. If the danger is that great…”
“I know,” Mark said, looking unhappy. “And so does Tesvaji, but he insists on going. I don’t like using Gusje’s family as a screen, but I can’t pick any holes in his logic - what Maja wants out of us is opportunities more than anything, and the best way to keep her quiet and on our side is to give her what she wants.”
He pursed his lips. “Actually, I’d be worried if we tried to come back without them.”
Arjun snapped his head up, eyes widening at Mark’s implication. “You think she sent us here for them?” he asked.
“I’m not sure,” Mark said, scratching his chin. “Like you said, we don’t know how much detail she can see at long range.” He looked at the crates of charge crystals and assorted debris they had salvaged from around town, supplemented by the caches that the Idhytsen scavengers had hoarded. In the center of the pile stood two mammoth pillars of crystal that they had dredged up from the ruins of a coastal power generator, larger by far than any of the crystals they had found in the warehouse. Two more just like it sat in Sjogydhu’s chariot, ready for transport to the scriptsmiths in Ce Raedhil when they returned.
“She said she wanted us to find more or less what we did - a bunch of old junk around town, with a heavy focus on power generation and storage. That helps us out a bit, but mostly it’s good for the Sjocelym. For Jackie, too, even if we didn’t know that when we set out.” He sighed and looked back towards the gate. “But I’m not sure it justified the trip on its own. The one thing that Maja needs to have more than anything, though, is people with access to her systems. She was locked up for thousands of years before we stumbled across her, and if I were her I’d be damned nervous with both Jesse and Gusje in harm’s way. If we came back and conveniently left all the people who had a link to her behind…”
Arjun nodded. “It would look like we were keeping them away on purpose, because we’re afraid that she’ll use them to some nefarious end.”
“And she’d be right,” Mark chuckled. “But if we let them all come back, it makes Maja feel safer. She’s not going to get stuck for another thousand years without any Caretakers if there’s a whole damn village of them at her doorstep.”
“Do we have to worry about those nefarious ends, you think?” Arjun murmured. “Not from Tesvaji, I would wager, but I don’t know the rest of the Cereinem well enough to say.” He cracked a grin. “Not that I have much standing to label any of them impetuous, given the age difference, but Zha and the other children are just as young as they appear - and their access in Maja’s eyes should be the same as any other Cereinem’s.”
Mark looked out at the crowd until he found Gusje’s younger sister, standing quietly by her father’s side. She noticed him and flashed a gap-toothed grin back, which he mirrored. “You’re not wrong,” he muttered. “But like I said, Tesvaji knows the risks. If Jesse and Jackie feel that strongly about Maja, you can bet Gusje has had a talk with her folks as well.”
“Undoubtedly,” Arjun sighed. “But it still doesn’t stop me from worrying.”
Mark’s watch chose that moment to sound a strident beep, drawing curious stares from the crowd around him. He stilled the alarm and grimaced at the display before clapping Arjun on the shoulder with a somewhat forced smile. “Well, you can worry all you like,” he murmured, “but once the gate’s open keep it to yourself. You never know who might be listening - or how much English they might have figured out.”
Arjun nodded and stepped back as Mark picked up the weighty keystone. The return crystal they had brought was still shining brightly from its place in the ornate device, and the eyes of everyone near watched him lower it into its socket. He moved to the side of the arch and eyed the activation toggle. The watch continued to count silently - two minutes until the window, now.
“All right,” he called out, looking over the suddenly attentive faces of those assembled. It was quite dark now save for the little knots of light from qim that lit up faces in their twos and threes. “This is going to be a little scary - and bright. I’d tell you not to look at it, but it’s cool enough that you probably should at least once, so…” He trailed off lamely, seeing the extra flash of white as Tesvaji bared his teeth in a grin.
The chief bent down to pick up a box, curiously small in his arms. As he walked closer Mark could see that it was wooden, and ornately carved. “I think most will look even if I say not to,” Tesvaji said. “If only because you yourself still seem to doubt it will work.”
A ripple of laughter ran through the crowd, bleeding off some of the mounting tension that had accumulated. Mark shook his head with a grin. “I admit I’m still getting my head around it,” he said. “But when this thing opens up it’ll be a pretty convincing demonstration.” His face soured, and he shot a furtive look back. “If it opens. Not that I doubt Jyte or anything, but mistakes happen…”
His watch beeped again, and he shook his head. “Only one way to find out.” His fingers found the activation toggle, and he depressed it with a sharp movement. Rumbling vibrations seeped through the stone below the arch. The crowd murmured and shifted as one, taking a collective step back as Tesvaji fixed his eyes on the murmuring stone.
Mark shifted to walk in front of him, smiling down at his questioning look. “If I know Jyte,” he said, raising his voice over the din, “it’ll be better if the first face he sees is familiar.”
The noise reached a peak, and cries of alarm rang out from the Cereinem as the gateway activated with its customary flash. Mark lowered his hand and saw a rank of Aesvain halberds extended point-first towards the gate, recognition filtering into their wielders’ eyes as he took a step forward and waved.
Jyte laughed and took a step towards the gate on his end, and the rest of his men lowered their pikes. “You’ve taken long enough!” he shouted. “We were beginning to think you’d forgotten about us.” The humor on his face tempered somewhat as he looked around at the darkened room beyond, seeing the assembled faces for the first time. He said nothing, but lifted his eyebrow as he met Mark’s gaze.
“Old friends,” Mark said, picking up one of the waiting crates and waving the rest forward. “And family of your esamadhe.”
Jyte blinked in surprise, then shook his head, stepping aside to let them walk through with their burdens. “That sounds like an interesting story,” he said quietly, falling into step beside Mark as he set his supplies down with a grunt. “And a happy coincidence.”
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“It really is, isn’t it?” Mark asked, giving him a tight-lipped grin and holding his gaze for a moment. “But whatever the circumstances, they’re all friends and it’s good that they’re here.”
The Aesvain captain gave him a long, evaluating look before nodding fractionally. “I’ve never had cause to regret a friend,” he said. “And any family of our esamadhe is mine as well.”
“That is good to hear,” Tesvaji rumbled, setting down the box he was carrying with reverent care before straightening up to take Jyte’s measure. The two men stood motionlessly, a severe contrast in forms - Jyte stocky and fiercely armored, Tesvaji looming and bare-chested. The air seemed to thicken between them, and Mark’s expression turned a bit brittle before Tesvaji finally grinned and held his arm out.
“Aej, Aesvain,” he said. “Call me Moga.”
Mark blinked, but Jyte’s face split into a real smile as he clasped arms with the Cereinem chief. “Call me Jyte,” he said, returning the Aesvain-style greeting. “Seems I’m not the first of us you’ve met - or did Ajehet get to you? If he did, he picked the name well.”
Tesvaji shook his head, letting his arm drop. “I traveled for a while in my youth, before I was captured by an evil woman,” he said, shooting Jyte a conspiratorial glance. Saneji rolled her eyes behind him, setting down her own bundle next to a speechless Gusje. Jyte’s eyes flicked to the side before he burst into a sharp guffaw, and the two men went to help continue the transfer of supplies while Mark stood by with a bewildered look and Jyte’s pike in his hands.
“Father never told me he had met any Aesvain,” Gusje said, sounding mildly shocked. “Much less that they named him as one of their own!”
Saneji smiled, watching the two men depart. “Your father was quite the wanderer in his younger days,” she said fondly. “I sometimes think even he forgets about some of the stories. That one, though…” She trailed off, her smile gaining a bit of a wicked edge. “Well, there is propriety to consider, so I doubt he would have shared that particular tale.”
Gusje’s eyes flicked between her father’s receding back and her mother’s amused regard. “Propriety?” she asked dazedly.
“Of course,” Saneji said. “I actually have my own name from that little episode, and although his is very suited to him I always thought mine was a much more imaginative one than your father’s.”
She looped an arm around her stunned daughter’s shoulders and steered her away from the press, talking in quietly amused tones. Mark looked at Jyte’s halberd for a moment before handing it to a convenient Aesvain and heading back for another crate of supplies.
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Jackie cracked a window and let her fingers trail through the night air. The king’s carriage was an even smoother ride than the truck had been, at least over the gently sloping dunes that surrounded the now-deserted ruins of Idhytse. Its spacious cabin was cluttered with boxes and hastily wrapped pillars of crystal, but even so there was enough space for her and Jesse both to rest comfortably. Sjogydhu had retreated to the solitude of the driver’s cab after they had retrieved the keystone, and much like the horse-drawn carriages of old a fixed barrier between the cab and the passenger area kept him almost entirely secluded from them.
She looked at the keystone’s crystal, now dim, although a few faint wisps of light still drifted within it. Her fingers itched to pluck it out, but she resisted the temptation to engage in such potentially destructive fidgeting. Instead she craned her head to look out at the darkened sand around them and wondered if they were making a mistake.
“I wonder if we’re making a mistake,” Jesse said quietly, bringing a smile to her lips. She considered for a moment if Sjogydhu could overhear, but as they were talking in English anyway...
“Are you worried about heading back into Sjocelym territory with our friendly chauffeur,” she asked, “or are you talking about the issue with your in-laws?” She raised an eyebrow, and saw Jesse smile in response.
“Yeah, pretty much,” he said, shaking his head. “Although I don’t think we’ll get much trouble from the Sjocelym. Everything I learn about the vinesavaim makes me that much more worried, and Vumo probably knows a heck of a lot more than we do even now. He definitely knows enough that he should be looking to keep assets on his side rather than trying to play games.”
He paused, frowning. “Although Cosvamo didn’t seem too confident in him either,” he admitted. “He said I should ‘save the primitives from the incompetence of their leaders’ and all that, and so far Vumo seems to be the one heading up the response on their side.”
“Christ, what an asshole,” Jackie muttered. “He’s got a point, though. Vumo may talk a good game about defending Tinem Sjocel, but I don’t believe for a minute that he actually cares about the people. He just doesn’t want to lose.”
Jesse frowned, nodding slowly. “Maybe,” he conceded, “but I don’t think he’s just in it for himself.” He looked at Jackie, the corner of his mouth ticking up before settling into a troubled frown. “I don’t think he’s a particularly nice guy either, but he does have a few things that he cares about. He asked me once to tell him if I ever found out any details about Goresje’s death.”
“The old king?” Jackie asked, furrowing her brow. “The one that made your sword?” She glanced at the scabbarded blade for a moment. “Well, he’s probably not going to be very happy with Maja, given what Eryha told you back in Idhytse. I know he killed himself, but it sounds to me like she was the one that set it all in motion.”
“Very much so,” Jesse said. “She was light on the details but it sounded like neither Maja nor Eryha were very gentle with him. Afterwards he was-” He broke off, looking uncomfortable. “You probably understand even more than I do.”
Jackie’s face darkened, and she rubbed her arm. They sat in the darkened carriage and listened to the gentle creak of its passage until Jackie looked up. “Are you going to tell him?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” Jesse said. “On the one hand it seems like the decent thing to do, and if we’re going to eventually find ourselves opposed to Maja - it would be convenient if the Sjocelym didn’t murder us for blasphemy.” Jackie smirked, and he shook his head. “On the other hand, it feels like another tipping point to me.”
He held up his right hand, letting his left rest on the hilt of his sword. In Jesse’s eyes the world lit up with sparking filigree, traced over his bones and thundering through the axles of the carriage below them. Small embers smoldered from Jackie’s hands and a hundred small conveniences tucked away throughout the carriage. He studied the tracery on his own fingers for a moment before letting it drop away, folding his hands back into his lap.
“Eryha did something when we talked, expanded what Jes can see. The tipping points are less - compulsive, or at least less urgent. It doesn’t feel wrong to tell Vumo about what really happened to Goresje, but it does still feel like a decision we can’t walk back.” He took a breath, then looked up at Jackie. “It feels dangerous.”
Jackie shook her head. “That’s a good reason to wait until we know what’s going on,” she said. “For right now we need Maja, and I’m not getting too many warm fuzzy feelings about Vumo either. Probably best to listen to your gut where he’s concerned, especially now that we know more about the sword.”
“You’re right,” Jesse said. “It bothers me, though. For all that we know more than we did, he lived through it. I think we’re eventually going to have to trade information.”
“We might,” Jackie said, stretching out on a nearby duvet. “But that sounds like a problem for Tomorrow Us.”
Despite himself, Jesse smiled. “They’re always so unlucky,” he murmured, provoking a snort of laughter from across the carriage.
“I’ll keep rooting for them,” she chuckled. “But for now, sleep. I can’t deal with any more mystical bullshit, and I don’t think they’re going to let us keep these cushions.”
Jesse made a soft noise of agreement as she stretched out, and within minutes her breathing became soft and regular. Jesse laid back against his own cushion and felt the slight rocking of the carriage, but felt no particular call to sleep. Instead he let his fingers trail once more over the hilt of Goresje’s sword, watching the ceiling of the carriage come alive with a tapestry of light.
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“All right, kid, what do we got?” Mark asked, plopping down on the stone bench beside Tasja. The boy looked weary, with dark circles under his eyes, but his eyes sparkled as he walked between the rows of devices and crates that were lined up in front of the gateway. The keystone had been replaced, albeit without a crystal installed - they were not the ones who were opening the connection, this time. More supplies were due from Ce Raedhil, and though Sjogydhu was likely not back at the walls yet Mark expected that Vumo would be around to ask for his previously-unidentified treasures back.
“Mostly nothing,” Tasja admitted, sweeping his arm across a large section of the pile. “The scriptsmiths seem to have sent us things that are powerful, in one sense or another, but that doesn’t mean they actually do anything.” He stalked over to one messily-repacked crate and picked up a small cube even as Mark winced.
“Is that smart?” Mark asked. “Doesn’t some of this kill you if you touch it?”
“Nothing in this pile,” Tasja said dismissively. “This is just a conduit. It receives heat energy, outputs heat energy a handspan away at a right angle. Useful, but not by itself.” He tossed it back in the pile, then picked up a thin metal rod. “This is just broken. If we had ten more of these we could use them to locate strong sources of ruud within a short distance. Again, useless on its own.”
He paced over to a smaller array of containers, smiling even as he placed his feet more carefully. “These, though - these are all really interesting. They’re just like some of the jeqiva back in Sjan Saal, treasures that can perform a specific function - just not an obvious one, or they wouldn’t have needed our help.” He looked momentarily abashed. “Well, Maja’s help. If I’m being honest, we mostly just took notes.”
“Uh-huh,” Mark said, looking sidelong at the smaller cache of treasures. “Anything particularly good?”
Tasja scratched his head. “Well, they’re all a bit odd,” he admitted. “Like I said, they have functions that are a little less than obvious. Temperature equalizers, detection equipment, things like that. The Stone of Auje is actually just a very powerful energy sink that’s been taken out of its-” He paused, checking his notes. “-limiter frame, Maja said. All sorts of things you could do with that, as long as you don’t make the mistake of touching it.”
“Neat,” Mark said, shifting slightly away from the sinister-looking casket that held the stone. He fixed Tasja with a look. “Anything in here that we should take a, ah, special interest in?”
Tasja looked at a small, leather-wrapped bundle in the smaller pile, laid aside from the rest. “This one,” he said, picking it up and handing it to Mark. “It’s a small glass lens, about the size of a twinplate. Maja said that with the right energy inputs it can project a thin ray of focused light that is useful as a tool - or as a weapon.”
Mark turned the bundle over in his hands with thinly-disguised glee. “Now that’s what I’m talking about!” he said, gently taking the lens from the wrappings. It was slightly convex and iridescent across its surface, set in a thin brass frame that gripped the edges and held mounting points for whatever apparatus it had originally been placed in. “Can we leave this one out of the notes?”
Tasja winced, and Mark looked at him with a serious expression. “Problem?” he asked.
“I did draw up a separate version of the notes that doesn’t mention it,” Tasja said. “We could leave it to the side if you like. But when we were looking at it-” He gestured to the rest of the devices. “For all the rest of this stuff Maja gave us a brief description of what it was and any really important details like if it was safe to touch. But for this one she actually took her time looking at it.”
He gave Mark a significant look. “She said it was surprising that the Sjocelym would include this, since they were present in great numbers in Ce Raedhil and their proper use should be well-documented.”
“Well, that’s just disturbing for a variety of reasons,” Mark said, wrinkling his nose and carefully wrapping the lens back in its covering. “For one, Sjogydhu’s little toy is bad enough on its own, although I can see how a bigger version would be handy up in Idran Saal. But aside from that…” He looked out over the cache and frowned. “I’d bet there’s a few of the more tempting items in this haul where they’ve already got a pretty good idea what they do. They were just tossing them in here to see if they got the whole manifest back.”
“That’s not very trusting of them,” Tasja said, making a face. “Of course, you were just thinking about taking it so they may have had a point.”
The gateway began to rumble, jarring the nearby squad of halberdiers into action as they formed a loose formation in front of the opening. Mark was pretty sure that the supply run would be as uneventful as the last, but there was no point in taking chances. He grinned and clapped Tasja on the shoulder.
“Nah, we’ll give them all their goodies back this time,” Mark chuckled, turning to face the gateway. “For one, we still need their food. But now that they’ve given us a peek at toys like that, there’s no way I’d tip our hand by stealing just one of them.”