COLIN POV

"She's got a fortress," Sage reported as she sent back images with Coyote's help. She was mounted on her dragon, whom she had named Mr. Smokey, above our heads. I was at the forefront of the invasion fleet. We had everyone with us: all of the surviving allied minds, myself, Rok'gar, every unit we could scrape together. We'd left a few defensive structures to defend our island from opportunists. I could always teleport back there if an emergency came up. But we were all in against Victoria.

"Don't get near it," I admonished. "She may have anti-air weaponry. And we know she has that other dragon.”

“Which if she's smart, she'll be keeping back so she doesn't lose it," Sage pointed out. "Lots of beach defenses, but I don't think she's rebuilt enough of her army. They're hiding behind the walls of her keep."

"Good. If we can land without having to re-fight Normandy, so much the better," I said. I could see her island now. The Wash was all around us. I tried to ignore the hungry feeling I got from it, that if I just trailed my fingers over the edge of our boat, I would be dissolved.

"You could touch the Wash without too much damage," Gambler told me. "I'm protecting you. But don't. It takes willpower and I'm going to need that."

"Not even a temptation," I assured him as the beach defenses started up. They fired arrows and streaks of light at us. I'd picked up a trick from our last battle and had shields ready to go. I activated them quickly in the path of the missiles and knocked them down.

"Oh, I see," Sage shouted down. "She's got those bunker things on the beach. Only about 12 total." She sent the locations back. They were distributed pretty evenly. I thought we'd be able to focus our attention on a couple and make a hole.

I gave orders, having my boat and Rok’gar’s take the lead. Unlike Victoria's fleet, we weren't bothering to stand off. We drove right into the beach, using shields to keep the fire off us, and I leapt ashore along with my units. The rest of the fleet followed close on our heels. We came down.

I raced up the shore with my people. The purple, glowing slabs underfoot made good footing as we raced for the nearest of the bunkers. I could see weapons sticking out of the squat round fortifications. Then the machine gun fire started.

Machine guns? Victoria had attacked us with grenadiers. Had her mysterious Dominator allies equipped her to take us on? I shouted warnings, but we were ready. Rok'gar had squads of combat engineers under his command. We had them advance under cover from some shielder units we had made.

They raced forward, throwing grenades in through the narrow slots of the bunker windows. The grenades exploded and the guns inside fell silent. The engineers raced around to the back, and a moment later, they blasted the doors open, seized the machine guns, and raced out. Combat engineers had a buff to using captured weapons. I was happy to let them use it.

We cleaned up the bunkers to our east and west before bringing the rest of our forces on shore.

After that, honestly, I think Victoria gave up. She sent out units to face us, but we easily defeated them. She did not send out her dragon. Finally, a group of musketeers waving a white flag appeared on the drawbridge of her castle. It was a square, blocky affair with crenelations and towers at each corner, and a medieval-style moat and drawbridge. There was no water in the moat. The units stood there and waved.

"Hang on," I said, and sent in a diplomat to speak. As soon as contact was established, Gambler and Victoria were able to relay words. I decided to take the lead.

"Who are you working with?" I demanded.

"Powers beyond anything we can imagine. I am willing to speak to them on your behalf if you wish to ally with us."

"Not a chance," I snapped. "We know who your allies are, and we're coming after them."

"They own the top level," Victoria said. “There’s nothing more you can do. Why don’t we talk face-fo-face?”

The diplomat arranged safe passage for me, Sage, and Rok'gar. I was hesitant, but Gambler said he'd have our backs. We entered her fortress, Sage having carefully put her Mr. Smokey dragon back into storage where she could bring him out should we face a threat. The soldiers escorted us through the castle courtyard into the keep, where the castle was waiting. It wasn't that imposing, just a two-story tall manor house with a great hall where Victoria waited for us.

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She sat on a throne at the end of the hall, dressed in black, a heavyset middle-aged woman with a black head covering and a circlet atop it. Now she leaned forward, pointing at us. I was happy she was skipping the pleasantries.

"You think I do not understand empire? You think I do not know what it means to rule? We cannot fight these. We can only make common cause with them."

I raised my eyes to meet hers. She didn't seem to like that, but I didn't care.

"I've fought these before, and won," I snarled. "I'm not going to bow down to them now. I'm offering you a choice. Join our alliance against them, tell us everything you know, or be destroyed."

She sneered. "You offer me a choice between destruction and destruction." Then she seemed to slump in on herself, looking tired. "I will not fight against them. But if I am to die anyway, I might as well tell you what you want to know. Perhaps you will find a way that I did not. I had a connection to a fragment on the next level. She thought she could help me ascend and protect me, but when I did, I found she had been taken by the Dominators. They are nearly done up on that level, and ready to seek new territory.”

That was bad news for us. It meant we needed to accelerate our timeline.

“What’s the situation like up there?”

“There is war between them. They have not decided yet how to divide the spoils, and they are all posturing for the lion’s share. One of the Dominators offered to support me while I consolidated everything in my vicinity. He said it would be valuable to him later."

"Wait," Gambler said. "You have access to the third level without having ascended?"

"Thanks to my friend, yes."

"We could make use of that," Gambler told me.

"How so?"

"Not now." I got his meaning. The enemy fragment might report to its Dominator controllers.

I sighed. "Well, we can't trust you, and we can't leave you alive. We need your resources." Fighting a fair fight was one thing, but destroying an enemy afterward left a bad taste in my mouth. Still, there was not much I could do.

Victoria rose from her throne. She held out a hand. "Wait. I will submit and allow your creation to look into my mind and learn what I know."

"Is that safe?" I asked Gambler.

"Is any of this?" he asked rhetorically.

“You may enter,” Victoria said, and stood stiffly for a moment before collapsing back onto her throne.

Gambler seemed to be thinking over what he’d learned. "Interesting. That was useful. I will share what I know later."

All around us, Victoria’s castle was fading, the stone melting away to thin air. She stretched out a hand. "You have beaten me. So it always is. The strong take from the weak. There is nothing left. After all this time, I go." A moment later, she was gone.

"What happens to them?" Sage asked, staring at Victoria's empty throne. "The fragments we destroy or absorb?”

"The ones I have absorbed are part of me now," Gambler said.

"If that's so, why haven't we noticed a change in your personality?" Sage challenged.

"The portion of me that you are dealing with has chosen to remain unchanged. The rest of my gestalt changes with every new input. Even that brush with Victoria has altered us. We are all just part of a greater whole."

I wasn't sure that I liked that answer much, but I'd been dealing with reality engines long enough to know that human likes and dislikes rarely came into it.

"How long will it take you to annex this island?" I asked, wearily.

"A few hours."

"Good, 'cause I don't really want to use those ships again." I sat down on the steps beside Victoria's throne. Sage sat with me while Rok'gar plopped himself down right in her chair. I grinned up at him.

"Quite a story you'll have to tell your father, hmm?"

"He will only believe it because he has so much experience with you humans already," Rok'gar said.

"What's next, Gambler?"

"What's next is all of you need a break."

I shrugged. “You can put us to sleep if we really need it.”

"No, you've been working too hard. The strain is getting to you. I believe we are in a stable posturing for now. Take a break. I need time to consider our next move.”

I looked around. "What, is she hiding a spa treatment around here somewhere?"

"Check that door," Gambler said.

I got up and opened the door behind the throne. It led out onto an inner courtyard. Rok’gar and Sage followed me. The inner courtyard was a garden filled with pleasant flowers, sweet smells of summer, bees buzzed around. The walls around made it feel sheltered, not hemmed in. There was a fountain in the middle, big enough for one of those ridiculous scenes you see in movies sometimes where people will leap into fountains and splash around. Sage sat on the edge, trailing her fingers in the cool water.

"Did she make this, or did you?" she said to Gambler.

"It didn’t take of a lot of ethereum, did it?" I challenged.

"No. Victoria had the gardens already. I merely called it up out of an agglomeration of your memories and adapted what she had. Take some time. Relax."

I spotted a tall tree over in one corner. A hammock slung from its branches. Inviting wasn't even the word. I headed for it, but Rok'gar got there ahead of me and slung his huge body in. The tree branch sagged under him, and the hammock bent almost to the ground.

"You're going to break it."

"Then Gambler can fix it," he told me. He gave me a grin that was so wide it might almost be a leer. "Go spend time with Sage. Somewhere I can't hear the two of you."

I turned my back on him, pretending I hadn't heard, and walked very stiffly back to where Sage was sitting.

"Care to tour the garden with me?"

She rose and gave me her arm, smiling at me. "That sounds like a perfect way to kill an afternoon," she said.