Enid had spent a several days with the light siders. She had to sleep during the ‘nights’ because she was mortal in the sunlight and Lrrl’s people hated being out of the light. There was only one place that was truly protected from sunlight in the entire city, and it was that cell they used to house mind mage criminals like T’raaalie. She was currently hovering on the Dark Side of the planet trying to determine which group she should approach the flyers, the winter tribes, or the water tribes. She’d seen a lot of ice and snow lately, so she was trying to talk herself out of that one. The biggest was group were the assorted water tribes.
“What’s your opinion here Apollo?”
“The water tribes. They bridge the gap between the winter tribes and the flyers, they are the biggest and therefore the most afflicted. Finally, T’raaalie’s lover is part of those tribes.”
“I knew you were going to say that.”
“Then why did you ask?”
“Because I was hoping it would be different.”
Enid’s shoulders slumped.
“Why are you resistant to the most logical choice?”
“Because I beheaded one of their champions…that’s a really deep hole to climb out of. Diplomatically speaking. I mean if I was trying to intimidate them perfect move though. I guess if they respect strength and honor…they are the best option. So, like those explosive things they were carrying…they can’t do enough damage to harm you right?”
“Nothing I have detected thus far will even…what was that phase you used: ‘scratch my paint’”
“Very good.”
Enid banked and hit the thrusters setting a course for the biggest of the water tribe settlements. It was built in an ocean shallow on natural pillars of rock. The center was a walled fortress. As she flew over the castle Apollo’s mics picked up the rain hitting the cobbled roads and distant thunder. Also, she could hear a mournful song rising up from an assorted crowd. The heartbreak in their collective voices was so wrenching she felt a blood tear on her cheek. She felt the guilt of her actions during the battle in the pit of her stomach. She had warned them and when she was younger this wouldn’t have phased her, but now that she had a family she loved she could empathize with the loss they were experiencing. She found a parapet big enough and strong enough to land Apollo and exited into the rain.
Letting it soak her hair. She kneeled down behind a stone fortification and watched the funeral procession. She saw them place the body of the large black sauroid that had been the first to be felled by her blade. A pair of sauroids one male, one female stood at the front corners of the dais hands held uplifted. The crowd became silent and the pair began a duet of the mourning song. Enid couldn’t believe how beautiful it was the sauroids were capable of a range humans couldn’t dream of. She slid down the fortification and closed her eyes and listened to it. The rain falling around her. The song ended as beautifully as it had begun. She heard someone begin to speak. It was a woman.
“Errllin was my beautiful son. He was a champion not only to the clutches of the Black Sphere, but of the White and the Air sphere. He had a dream. A dream that one day we would live free of the sickness that kills our children and robs us of our Dull Scales. He built an army the likes of which we have never seen. He fell like he lived. Fighting for our people.”
Enid blinked slowly as she listened to this mother whose son she had slain. She remembered how it felt when she’d thought Eyre was gone. Blood tears mixed with the falling rain. How many mothers had she robbed of their children in her long life? How many times had she given someone else that dread feeling…that emptiness that could never be filled. She had no flippant remark to this, no secret cure, no joke, just the stark weight of all of her sins falling down on her.
“His victory was assured. Then the dark one appeared. Wielding powers of legend. A boundarywalker, the one who was foretold would end the blight. She stood between him and our enemies. She cried out asking us to retreat. I heard the pain in her voice. I sensed she had no wish to fight us. Yet my son, urged the army forward desperate for a cure. She shook the ground under our feet with a mere touch. As if it was made of the life giving waters around us here, in this sacred place…everyone has heard the stories of what happened next. The arrows turned against us, and now many clutch-homes will lay empty for many cycles. My son would not be swayed…and he paid the price for his…hubris. He was a great man. But he was a flawed man. I apologize for his mistakes in life. The seers told him that the battle would end thusly, and he ignored them.”
Enid sighed. This woman has suffered a loss no mother should, and she was apologizing? Enid wanted so much to speak to her. She instead stayed where she was.
“Apollo. Did you get all of that?”
“Recorded as per mission parameters.”
Enid nodded.
“I really need to figure out how to make contact, but this is certainly not the time.”
*****
Enid slipped through the streets of the water tribe’s home. The Mother of the Errllin lived in the fortress at the center, she could have just flown in on her own, or landed Apollo cloaked but she had decided to use the powers of shadow to conceal herself. It had been a long time since she was at one with the darkness but it welcomed her with open arms. She breathed in the ocean air and lept up and over the fortress walls. She wasn’t completely without tech today. The water tribe slept. The light they lived by was school of bioluminescent fish which light up the city during their day, during their night the schools dove deep enough the light was absent and the entire settlement was consumed by utter darkness. She glanced at her holo-display and followed it to the door of Errllin’s mother. She let the shadows fall away and she knocked on the door gently. She saw the door open and her eyes met the woman of whom she had caused so much grief recently. The woman’s tail swayed. Enid had expected that response to her presence. She could not blame the woman’s fear and anger.
“You have come as was foretold.”
“I am sorry.”
“My son’s arrogance is what caused his fall. You were merely the instrument of fate. As we all are, enter, lest my guards meet their ends in the same manner.”
Enid entered the room. The woman closed the door.
“I carry no weapons.”
“I know by the way you moved in the battle, you are a weapon. You are also a seer and a mind mage. A true boundarywalker as prophecy has whispered for many cycles of the white sphere.”
The woman lifted a cloth off a tank of glowing fish and the room became bright with their blue-white light.
“You are a brave woman coming here where you are bereft of your mind magic.”
“I fear you…do not understand my powers. I am much stronger in the dark then I am in the light. Stopping your army took a lot out of me in the light, in the dark I would have recovered before much of their blood soiled the ground.”
“I sense truth in your words as I sense we have identical gifts. A gift my son lacked. Please sit.”
The woman motioned her taloned hand to one of the benches common to the world. Enid sat down. The woman sat opposite to Enid.
“I sense you did not want to speak to me at all. Why is this?”
“I took your child from you. When I believed I had suffered such a loss, I did not handle it well.”
“You are older than our oldest buildings, I sense you have lost many children in your time.”
“True, but they died of old age, or it easy to imagine them alive because I left before they passed.”
“I am greatly saddened at the loss of my son, and my people’s favored prince. But my daughter has our gift, she will make a better leader one day. I wish he had listened to…everyone. You have killed many have you not?”
Enid nodded.
“Then what was a few more added to that long list?”
“I came here to make peace. What sort of peacemaker starts the process by killing several thousand people?”
“I lost many people that day. However, you warned us. You showed your power. Then you stopped our arrows yet we kept hurling more. My son and his generals made it clear there would be no peace until one side was too injured to continue. Your actions by killing my son and his personal guard so quickly ended it swiftly before more could die. If not for that, we would be burying thousand more. As would our foes.”
“That is why I have come to you. I want to make peace between you and the light siders.”
“Two miracles are not enough for you?”
“I am from a sphere far away from here, a sphere where if the ice hadn’t destroyed us, war would have wiped us out completely. We have many…new developments that can be of use to your world.”
“Like a cure for the blight.”
“Yes, I know what the problem is, in fact I know how to solve it. You need a type of grain, it is plentiful on the light side, it is what the light siders make their bread of, it keeps them free of the affliction.”
“And they will share this bounty with us? Their hated enemies.”
Enid shook her head.
“They don’t need to; You can grow your own.”
“What?”
“We have massive structures…structures that can float on water, be built on ice, on mountain sides, inside mountains. Inside light that simulates your star will allow plants to grow. We have become very good at it as it is the only way we can cultivate plants of any kind, though ours…are much larger then even your city. We can teach you.”
“And what is the cost for this…miracle?”
“Peace with the Light Siders. Our people’s leadership refuse to take sides in this conflict so they cannot assist until peace has at least been tentatively agreed to. If your people agree to talks, I can supply you with enough flour to last you until the green houses are producing your own flour.”
“How would you do that?”
“The light siders have already agreed to talks, so once you have agreed I will receive a massive shipment of water for them. They will trade the flour to us in exchange and we will provide it to you.”
“What will we have to trade?”
“Some of your fish harvest. We have a lack of access to aquatic life, there are oils that fish produce that are beneficial. Your fish also produce them. You harvest them anyway; The flour will make up the difference in your diets and your blight will start to end.”
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“You make it all sound so easy.”
Enid looked at the floor for a few moments then back to her host.
“Peace is never easy. But I ask you…would you rather send your people to die in wave after wave to acquire the thing you seek, or have them here, safely harvesting grain and baking bread?”
“And what of the Light Siders? What happens when the water shipments you send dry up?”
“We have a way to make them self-sufficient. We’re not asking you to integrate, just to stop trying to kill each other. The dark harms them, the light harms you, you have no use of the territory beyond the cure to your blight. And they seek water to cure their own suffering. We have others who can do the talks, more experience…others. After my interaction with your people, I am not the best.”
“I disagree. You are the only one for the negotiation. My people and our allied tribes respect strength, you have demonstrated yours. Return in the open in two cycles and the council of darkness will receive you Boundrywalker. I see the logic in your words, but we will need proof you can deliver what you say.”
Enid stood and bowed.
“Thank you, Honored Dull Scale. Again I am sorry for the pain I have caused you.”
Enid turned to leave. She heard the woman speak again.
“Tell me Boundrywalker. Do you have any sons?”
“Yes, but they have all passed from my sphere.”
“I am sorry for your loss as well. Until we meet again.”
Enid nodded and pulled the darkness around herself and vanished from eyesight.
*****
Enid turned on the Apollo’s running lights and approached the water tribe’s capital. She did a low-speed pass over it to announce herself to the city. Many of the inhabitants pointed up in wonder. She switched to antigrav and floated gently to the ground. She went for a more formal outfit then her Atlantean armor today. In the darkness here it was basically for show anyway. She’d chosen a white dress from Lady Sarah’s wardrobe. She hopped out of the cockpit and was met by a large contingent of armed men of all three tribes.
“I am Enid of the Aurelius Clutch, Born of the Earth Sphere here to discuss trade terms.”
Behind the men Enid saw Errllin’s mother appear. She was wearing a set of regal set of robes. She motioned for her men to sheath their weapons.
“We do not greet a peaceful visitor with weapons drawn and teeth showing. Captain your men need better discipline.”
“But my Queen…we only sought to protect the palace.”
“From the Boundarywalker that destroyed our army with a wave of her hand?”
“Come Enid of the Aurelius Clutch the council has assembled.”
Enid glanced back.
“Apollo, Please continue gathering data as outline in mission parameters.”
“Yes, Aunt Enid.”
The assembled soldiers fell over each other as he lept into the air and vanished.
“Your mount is quite loyal.”
“He is not my mount; he is my nephew.”
“Ah another one holds the reigns of your flying beast.”
“No, my nephew is the starfighter.”
“It fights stars?”
“No, it just means… he is a warship that can fight in the void. Among the stars, so star-fighter.”
“I understand now. I was afraid you would not return. The council is rather, excited with your proposal.”
“I thought they would not want to see me before them after the battle.”
“I explained the situation sufficiently I believe. Just this way.”
Enid was led into the palace proper. The difference during their day cycle was miraculous. In every single wall swam tanks of the bioluminescent fish lighting the entire palace up. She would have guess the palace was underwater if she did not know better. The dark siders seemed to put more stock in artwork and physical belongings. She was led into a throne room turned council chamber. The pillars were beacons of blue-white light. They were crafted from an opaque material that cast a soft glow over the room. The room was magical. There were eight sauroids awaiting them. Three were grey and white, three were flyers and two were of the water tribe identifiable by their black scales. The leader of each group wore regal robes similar to Errllin’s mother. Who took up her place with her councilors. Enid looked at each and met their gazes firmly.
“I am Enid of the Aurelius Clutch, Born of the Earth Sphere.”
The ice tribe leader crossed his arms and looked her up and down he was a mountain of a sauroid.
“You do not seem impressive. Pink fleshy thing.”
Enid looked at them again, her eyes narrowed slightly.
“Am I here to negotiate a trade or prove my strength?”
“Both!”
With that word a group of ten ice tribe solders charged out from behind tapestries. Enid reached out her hands and clenched her fists and they all started to scream in pain and fall to their knees. She forced their hearts to slowly stop. The Ice leader and his entourage all clutched their chest and started to scream.
“Am I strong enough yet?”
The ice tribe leader nodded furiously. Enid flicked her fingers and sent the soldiers who were going to attack her flying into the walls hitting them so hard they lost consciousness. Enid turned around.
“We’re done here. Die off from the blight for all I care. I don’t negotiate with those who attack peaceful guests.”
She heard Errllin’s mother’s voice rise up.
“Please, stop. His misguided attempt to prove his manhood does not speak with our voices.”
Enid turned back towards the council she met Errllin’s mother’s eyes. She walked up the stairs to where the council stood around a table. She shifted her eyes to the Ice tribe leader he was still holding his chest and breathing heavily. He struggled to steady himself with his other hand.
“I have very clear instructions. Any act of aggression against my person during a peaceful visit is grounds for termination of my mission. You were warned of the terms of my appearing here ahead of my coming. Why should I disobey my worlds leadership? I am the Empress of the Court of Eternal Night and I have never been so disrespected during a meeting with other leaderships.”
Enid glanced at Errllin’s mother who gave the slightest of nod.
“I will need a formal apology from the offender, if this is going to proceed.”
The ice tribe leader stood up as straight as his very real heart attack recovery allowed him to.
“It was my misjudgment. Empress. I yield to your power and apologize for my transgression.”
Enid frowned.
“It will have to do, but you’ll have to do better if I’m to agree to ship our goods to the people’s of the snow tribe. Very well.”
Enid started assembling the pieces of the holo-comm beside her giving Amee the center of the table. She could tell by the limp tail and the twitchy hands that the ruse she had arranged with Errllin’s mother had paid dividends. She had told Enid that the winter tribes would test her and that she should not treat it lightly. She tapped her wrist.
“Apollo, please let Amee know we’re ready for her.”
“Connecting now, Aunt Enid.”
Within seconds Amee’s image appeared on the Holo-Comm a little bigger then her normal five eight, now she was almost seven feet tall. All scaled appropriately. She was wearing the WTO commander and chief armor. It was used for formal occasions, but it was being worn today to project strength. Enid motioned to the projection.
“This is our people’s leader, Amee of the Jace Clutch, Born of the Earth Sphere.”
Amee bowed her head slightly. And Enid once again translated for her.
“As the Empress has stated, I represent the peoples of our many Spheres. I have sent the Empress to propose a trade agreement.”
Enid was watching the body language of their hosts. Their presentation was having its intended effects they were quite intimidated by Amee’s image.
“If you are the liege of vassals such as this.”
The leader of the winter tribes pointed at Enid.
“Why do you not take what you want by force?”
Amee quirked an eyebrow.
“That option is not off the table. However, we prefer to have allies then slave Spheres.”
The winter tribes leader narrowed his eyes and as he spoke the rest of the council save his subjects looked like they wanted to face palm.
“I don’t believe you have the ability to reach this far.”
“Show them fleet Empress.”
“Of course, Chairwoman.”
Enid tapped her watch and tapped a replay of the battle of Mars. It showed one carrier decimating a fleet of ships, and then bombarding the surface. Then she shifted the image on the holo to the fleet floating just beyond Pluto with several much larger carriers and their escorts. She switched back to Amee. All of the council’s tails were twitching nervously. The flyer leader was glaring at the winter tribe leader. Amee looked at the council again, she grinned showing her teeth. The winter tribe leader flinched reflexively. Amee spoke again.
“I trust the Empress has made clear our capabilities should you consider…betrayal.”
Errllin’s mother motioned to the hologram.
“Can this image projector show us what you propose?”
Amee nodded.
“Empress show them the drone flyover of the Ganymede Bio-domes”
Enid queued up the requested holo and Amee’s image changed to a blue-white FTL tunnel. Then the drone made entry into the atmosphere and flew over several bio-domes. Eventually it flew into one of the loading bays and over field after field of wheat. Then it flew into another and there massive stacks of tomato plants growing vertically. The drone left the second dome and flew over Ganymede’s surface showing how lifeless and barren it was eventually the video faded to black. Enid tapped her wrist again and Amee reappeared. Every single one of the council’s tails were tapping the ground. The flyer’s leader spoke first.
“You can do that here? Bring the light of the life giver to us so that we might grow this…grain that will save us?”
“Yes, and we can bring enough so that all of your tribes may share in the bounty. As the Empress has stated, our requests are small, that you must make peace with the Light side tribes and supply us with samples from your oceans and mountains. Empress give them the flour.”
Enid pulled several pounds of flour out of her pack and placed them on the stone table before her.
“You have my offer. The Empress has my full authority to negotiate.”
The flyer’s leader held up one of his taloned hands. His leathery wing hitting the edge of the table.
“Before you go Chairwoman. We seem to be tentatively in agreement with this plan of yours but we are at a disadvantage to the light siders. We would like that rectified.”
“Please explain honored Dull Scale.”
“She did a sharing with the Light Siders. We would like the same exact Sharing to be provided to each of our tribes. And the same trade.”
Enid shook her head to Amee. Who blatantly ignored Enid’s silent protest.
“I find this agreeable. Empress make it so.”
“Are you sure?”
“Its just a story what harm can it do.”
“Also there was book gifted, each tribe will require this book.”
Enid reluctantly translated the request.
“Empress, when you are transferring the green houses make sure to requisition the books.”
Enid gave a small involuntary twitch. No help for it now. Amee’d basically shook on it. Enid nodded. Amee’s image faded away. The flyer’s leader looked quite pleased with himself. As it seemed like the other two were unaware of her sharing.
“Before…I leave, I have a request. We will need to train some of you in our language. We do not want to pull people away from families and there were a pair of lovers caught in the boundary…in the midst of relations. The male half of that couple is from here. As his lover has volunteered I was hoping he would join her and they could be our first?”
Errllin’s mother’s tail twitched nervously.
“That will be impossible.”
“Why?”
“He’s been banished to the boundary. He is likely dead.”
“Likely? But not confirmed?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, I’ll see if I can track him down.”
The council’s tails twitched nervously. Errllin’s mother motioned for them to disperse. She was obviously the lead voice.
“We can reconvene later take your third of the flour and see that your most ill get access to the bread it provides.”
The council took their samples and Errllin’s mother’s aides took the Water Tribe’s share. Leaving the two women alone across the table. Enid looked at her.
“I’m sorry, I was thinking over our previous conversation, and I had a question.”
“Yes?”
“You asked if I wasn’t happy with only two miracles, what did you mean?”
“You are a Boundarywalker. Those that have mastered the shadows where light and darkness meet are once in a hundred generations, and you defeated an army single handedly.”
“I have never quite understood what was so impressive about a Boundarywalker.”
“To be a Boundarywalker you have to have survived the beasts of the shadowland. You would have had to master the art of the Mind Mage and the Seer. You are at home in the light and the darkness. No foe can stand against you.”
“Ah. Well I should track down Y’trrrrl before he becomes food for the beasts.”
“Be careful Enid of the Aurelius Clutch as you walk into shadows. You have impressed me in deed. I wish our meeting had not come at such a high cost.”
“I wish much the same thing, Honored Dull Scale.”
“Before you leave…what sharing did you give the Light Siders.”
“My story. The story of the Dark Mother.”
“And the trade?”
Enid pulled out a pendent, one of the ornate ones she brought for Light Sider VIPs. And put the pendant with the silk looped through it.
“My pendant.”
“You seemed hesitant to share it again. Are we in some way not worthy?”
“No, Vrrrl. It is I who is unworthy. On Earth someone told my story to someone else…and so on and so on, and now nine hundred of our cycles later…millions of people worship my image and follow my path. I fear what might happen here.”
“Then you are a goddess.”
“An unwilling one.”
“If your sharing gives succor to so many, perhaps it will give hope to us as well.”
Enid tapped the ruby on the pendant.
“The fact your children will live free of the blight should give you all the hope you need, Queen.”
Queen Vrrrl reached her taloned hand out and picked up the pendant and as it touched her palm she started to sway.
“You are fighting a war.”
Enid quirked her head to the side.
“A war between good and evil. I see great entities rising from the pit and tearing spheres asunder. Many lay defeated, many remain in your path. I see a great sacrifice and the hand of the creator reaching out to catch you.”
Vrrrl’s eyes were glazed over when she looked directly at Enid.
“You are the darkness and the light, the end and the beginning. You are everything. All flows through you.”
Enid blinked at her then Vrrrl’s eyes went back to normal and she shook her head. She bowed her head.
“You are the Dark Mother. The daughter of the life giver and the shadow bringer. My people must hear your sharing.”
Enid felt like puking again.