Kayden could see why Cassius hadn’t wanted to get involved with the deep denizen.
It was Ruth who took the initiative and spoke, looking around at the Collective floating above them. “We came here seeking someone to teach us about shadow magic.”
“You see!” a voice shrieked within Kayden’s mind. It originated from a deep denizen with drooping ears and nose, his bristles were bright purple to match his eyes. “The Disunified One seeks to sell our secrets to outsiders. This is the machinations of the Academy, I tell you!”
“No,” Ruth said. “We are not with the Academy.”
He waved her off. “It matters not what you claim to be when you nescient are closed off to the Collective. How are we to know you speak the truth? We should rake their minds and find out what they have uncovered from the Disunified One.”
A few of the other deep denizens nodded in response and there were sounds of agreement in Kayden’s minds.
Rake their minds? She did not like the sound of that.
“If I may, Tagast,” the deep denizen floating above Sook said.
“You have had your say, Pali,” Tagast snarled back in response. “Your heretical views are what led to this one being cast off. If not for Alak, we would never have known of her return.” He gestured at the deep denizen with the spectral mace and black armor, floating opposite Pali.
Alak made no indication that he had been addressed. He simply stood staring down Pali.
“I serve at the pleasure of the Collective,” Pali said calmly, seeming unfazed by Tagast’s antagonism toward him. “But I would only like to say that I know of this one.” He didn’t make any indication with his physical body as to who he was referring to, but Kayden got a mental indication that it was Ruth.
“Let him speak Tagast,” a deep denizen that was smaller than the rest said. She had a soft melodic sound to her thoughts and her bristles were a gentle brown.
Another thing stood out about the deep denizen; just like their gender, it was hard to get any sense of their age since they were so childlike looking. But just like their thought conveyed a gender so did they convey an age, and she got a sense that this deep denizen was extremely old.
“You can not defend your splinter forever, Wor.” Although he still sounded angry, Tagast spoke with much more respect toward her. “He has challenged the sanctity of our institution far too much. Look at the state of his own splinter and how far she has strayed from the Collective.”
When he said splinter, it seemed to be the equivalent of child for the deep denizen. That meant Pali would be Wor’s child and Sook would be Pali’s. But it wasn’t an exact comparison. The full meaning of the concept passed through her mind before she could wrap her head around it. It might even be closer to pupil than child, but even then there was still something lacking from the meaning.
“You may be right,” she answered. “That is why I did not stand against the decision to cast her off. But Pali is not Sook. He obeys the will of the Collective, regardless of his views. It is wise to listen to those who challenge our perspective, and Pali’s forward thinking has proven instremental in protecting the interests of the Collective.”
The other deep denizen voiced their agreement in a series of what can only be described as mental umm hmms. Even Tagast was forced to concede to her.
“Let him speak,” a deep denizen with dark brown bristles said. “How else are we supposed to get to the bottom of this? Other than raking their minds, and if they are with the Academy, the Academy will not take kindly to that course of action.”
The Collective voiced their agreement and Tagast reluctantly conceded.
“Thank you,” Pali said, his deep, rich voice still completely level and humble. He rotated in place so that he was facing Kayden and Ruth, but his eyes were squarely on Ruth. “Please remove your hood.”
Ruth hesitated for only an instant before doing as he asked. When her hood fell and revealed her ears, there were gasps in Kayden’s mind. Only a few kept their composure.
“An elf,” said the deep denizen with the dark brown bristles. “Are the Vellelei making a move on Mitros?”
“A spy of the Vellelei! Seize her!” Several other voices spoke out.
A wave of calming emotion swept throughout the room which originated from Wor and was taken up by first Tagast then others until the calming sensation was coming from everywhere. When order had been restored, Wor returned the attention of the Collective to Pali.
Pali continued. “The Vellelei would not move on Mitros. Not now. What other elf is there in Mitros?”
“Nikiphero,” several voices echoed.
“Yes, Cassius’s elf pet,” Pali said. “The Collective has heard of her experiments. We have even benefitted from some of them. Sor has proven to be a valuable alchemical component in our ceremonies, no?”
“This changes nothing,” Tagast said. “We may have had better dealings with Cassius than the Academy, but he would abuse us just as much, if not more, than them if we let him get away with it. Why else would they be attempting to poach our secrets from the Disunified One.”
“If I may,” Ruth said.
All eyes turned on her. Pali nodded his permission for her to speak.
“This is all a misunderstanding. We are members of Nikiphero, yes, but we are not here at Cassius’s behest. If he knew we were here, he would be furious. We came seeking information on shadow magic, nothing else. Sook refused to teach us. She was only offering to take us to someone who might be willing.”
“Lies,” one said as another spoke. “How are we to know she speaks the truth?” And another said, “They must open their minds to the Collective.” At this last statement, there were several echoes of agreement.
“I think we can all agree,” said Wor, “That the simplest way to ensure what they say is true is for them to open their minds. There would then be no need of raking their minds and antagonizing Uptown or Nikiphero.”
There was universal agreement. It washed over Kayden in the form of a feeling of unity.
“And should we not wish to open our minds to you?” asked Ruth. “I do not like the idea of exposing myself in such a way.”
“It is not what you are imagining,” Wor said. “You nescient have such great fear when it comes to your minds. What it entails is only a surface reading of your thoughts to ensure that what you speak is true.”
“You didn’t answer me. What would happen if we refuse?”
The silence that followed was answer enough.
Ruth reached over and grabbed Kayden’s arm, placing Kayden protectively behind her.
“You forget what I am. I may not be Vellelei, but do not think that makes me weak. I will not allow anyone access to my mind. No matter the reason. We came here for a simple transaction, nothing more. Your issues with Sook have nothing to do with us. Either you agree to our bargain or you let us leave.”
There was an intense quiet interval in which Kayden knew they were having a discussion which she could not hear. At several instances Kayden felt a forceful presence fall upon her as if someone was trying to pry past her skin.
She opened herself to her aura and used it to fight the presence off. The presence would always retreat without much fight. She suspected it was more a test of her defenses than an actual attack. She didn’t know if she would be able to stop it if it were.
She opened her aura sense as well. The Collective was surrounded by a huge swirling vortex of purple. There were a few who were holding back like Wor and Pali.
Ruth was surrounded by a golden light that fought back the presence of the purple. It wasn’t an actual fight, nobody was using any actual spells. It was more a demonstration of power.
Ruth stood calmly through it all. If Kayden hadn’t turned on her aura sense she wouldn’t have even known what was going on.
The Collective’s combined force was overwhelming. There was no denying that the Collective could overcome them if they wished, but Ruth’s display of strength showed that she would take at least a few of them down with her.
Spurred on by her display, Kayden offered her own strength to the fray, using her aura to extend an area of defense. This wasn’t an ability that she was well accustomed to.
In theory, she knew everybody had a natural bubble around themselves to protect from interference from others, as she had experienced firsthand herself when using her shadow magic to kill rats. With the proper training that bubble of influence could be expanded.
All Kayden could manage at this moment was to push away the purple aura encroaching on her immediate vicinity. Her black aura now tinged slightly red since her sycophantic bond with Cassius had given her access to blood magic.
Then it ended. The purple aura of the Collective retreated back into their original hosts, and Ruth quickly followed their example. Neither side appeared as if anything had transpired.
Kayden on the other hand had fists and teeth gritted in concentration, her brow furrowed and beaded with sweat. The end of the contest of wills happened so abruptly that she was the only one left with her aura pressed outward.
She hesitantly pulled it back into herself. It snapped back around her. She felt a headache coming on from the effort.
Kayden’s eyes moved around the room, trying to track everything at once, but it was next to impossible to gain any information in that way. These were not beings who would assault her in a physical way which all of her training with Nikiphero had taught her.
Once again she could see why Cassius disliked the idea of working with them so much. She felt completely helpless. If they actually did attack, she was defenseless. Ruth might have something up her sleeve, but Kayden had nothing to combat their sort of attacks.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
“You may go,” the Collective’s voices echoed through their minds. “But Nikiphero will answer for overstepping its bounds. Relay that message to Cassius. Pali, Alak escort these humans from here.”
Pali and the deep denizen in the black armor floated over to them. They moved to lead them through the doors with the Pali taking the front and the black guard menacingly taking up the rear. Ruth pushed Kayden along ahead of her, but Kayden looked back at Sook on the floor.
“What about Sook!” she couldn’t help calling out. “What will happen to her?”
Sook was so still on the floor that she could have been dead except for the very subtle rise and fall of her chest.
“That is of no concern of yours,” the Collective said.
“But it’s only because of us that this happened to her!”
Ruth was trying to keep her moving toward the door, but she pushed back and moved away from her so she could once more face the Collective. The black guard stared her down silently, his purple eyes shining from within his helm.
“Her choices were her own. She would have been led back to us one way or another.”
“I don’t understand. Why is she in so much trouble? She didn’t tell us anything. You can’t punish her for something she didn’t do.”
“Her existence is reason enough for us to punish her. The Disunified by their nature will always be a threat to the Collective. We thought time on her own would be enough for her to see the error of her ways, but we can see now that that will not happen. It is for our benefit as well as her own that we do this.”
“How can this be for her benefit?”
Kayden didn’t care who she was talking to, they could be the most powerful beings in the entire world for all she cared. It wasn’t fair what was happening to Sook. She had to stand up for her because she could see that nobody else would.
“This splinter will be reincorporated into the Collective. Go human, your nescient mind can not comprehend our kind.”
“So you’re just going to keep her as a prisoner until she obeys you?”
“Kayden,” Ruth said with a shake of her head. “That isn’t what they meant. There is nothing that we can do here for Sook.”
With dawning realization she understood what Ruth meant. She turned to Pali who floated lazily by the door. “Don’t the two of you care about her. How can you let them execute your daughter?”
“Your ignorance reveals itself,” the Collective said with absolute disdain directed at her. “We are unified in this, Sook will return to the world of dreams. Her dangerous ideas will no longer trouble the Collective.”
“Kayden,” Ruth said. “It’s time to go.”
“No!” Kayden yelled. Her shadow dagger flashed into existence in her hand. “I won’t let you kill her!”
Alak, the black guard, raised his translucent, glowing mace, readying for a fight.
“If I may offer an explanation for this troubled creature,” Pali said.
The Collective gave its ascent.
Kayden kept her eyes trained on the black guard. But didn’t make any move as Pali spoke.
“You have made assumptions that do not apply here,” he said. “You compare us to your own kind. You use the words child and kill. But Sook is neither my child nor are we going to kill her. She is a splinter of me, as I am a splinter of Wor, as Wor is a splinter of the Collective. We are one and the same. She is an aspect of myself as I am of the Collective. We could no more kill her than ourselves. She was an experiment in which I hoped to see something flourish--in which I still believe something may--but she has grown too radical which is a danger to the unity of the whole, and so she will be returned back to her origin; me. Perhaps at a later time, she will be allowed to splinter off once again, but it will not be the same version as the one you see here.”
All of this was too much for her to wrap her mind around. Was he saying that he had created Sook? The image she got from Pali’s explanation was as if she were a projection of himself, a piece that was allowed to grow into a separate being. It didn’t make sense to her.
But that didn’t change anything. Even if she wouldn’t die as he claimed, in her gut it still felt wrong. By his own admission, she wouldn’t be the same, and wasn’t that the same thing as death?
“Lower your weapon, nescient,” the black knight spoke in her mind for the first time. His voice was young and full of venom.
“Alak,” Pali admonished. “Can’t you see the creature is scared.”
“I care not. She has brandished a weapon before the Collective. If she does not sheath it and leave then I will be forced to take action.”
“Kayden,” Ruth said gently but firmly. “We have to go. Sook’s fate isn’t our responsibility.”
“No!” She turned to Ruth. “It isn’t right. I don’t care what they say. Sook is her own person. She has a right to be herself. And they're trying to take that from her.”
She turned back to face down the black knight
Base of the skull, neck, armpit, chest, right side, groin, back of the knee. She carefully recited each of the kill spots in her head. But she wasn’t sure if deep denizens had physiognomy like humans. He had to at least have a heart.
Kayden couldn’t see his mouth because of the helmet, but she sensed that he was smiling, either from her own intuition or something he had mentally projected at her, she wasn’t sure. He was itching for a fight. He raised his mace up toward a defensive position but before he could make a move, Pali spoke again.
“You would throw your life away for Sook’s benefit?”
Kayden fell into her own defensive position without looking at Pali. Darkness billowed up around her. She hadn’t yet had a chance to test her new hypothermic ability in an actual fight yet, but she had a feeling she would need every trick she could muster to fight Alak.
“I don’t know Sook very well,” Kayden said. “But that doesn’t matter to me.”
Pali addressed the Collective. “I have a proposition before matters needlessly spiral further out of control, and potentially start a conflict with Nikiphero. What if Sook should be excised instead of reincorporated?”
Gasps of shock and outrage enveloped Kayden’s mind. The Collective’s unity broke apart as they all voiced their opinion on this suggestion.
“Never would I--”
“A fate crueler than befits the crime!”
“Only in the most extreme circumstances--”
“Silence!” Tagast’s voice swept over them, bringing silence with it. “Explain yourself Pali. Before these two arrived, you were defending your splinter, now you would have her excised from the Collective. I have spoken against you more than anyone, but even I would never go as far as that.”
“Yes, allow me to explain my reasoning. I have not come to this decision lightly, but this human has helped me see it from her perspective. To us, reincorporation is a common enough conception, but to the nescient, it is alien and wrong. From that perspective, to be excised would be the better alternative. And I believe Sook’s view would be more inline with this human’s than our own.”
One of the Collective spoke out, the one with dark brown bristles. “She is a part of you, to excise her is to excise a part of yourself! None of us would go so far as to suggest something so harsh! To suggest it yourself--” The deep denizen seemed on the verge of fainting at the thought.
“I only come to suggest it as a last resort. Should she be excised that would resolve everyone’s concerns.”
“What of yourself!? Do you not have concerns for the pain such a decision would cause you!?”
“It is something I would be willing to take upon myself for the greater good. If she were excised, she would be of no threat to the Collective, no matter who she allied with. And she would be able to continue her pursuits which is why I splintered her off to begin with. Uptown's power grows with each passing day, and I fear that if I am forced to reincorporate her then we will lose the advantage which Sook offers us.”
“Yes,” Tagast broke in. “You have spoken at length of your concern with Uptown’s metal machines, but how would exercising Sook help defend us against them?”
“These machines are not affected easily by our mind magic. Should they develop further we would be even more at the mercy of Uptown than we already are. My extreme reaction is caused at this extreme threat. Sook has made strides with these machines more than anyone else in the Collective or perhaps even all of Cliffside. To lose that even for a short time until I am able to splinter off a new version of her would put us miles behind Uptown. If excising her ensures that doesn’t happen, then it is a sacrifice I am willing to make in order to protect the Collective.”
“Surely, she would turn to Uptown if we were to excise her,” Tagast said. “Does that not defeat the purpose? She would be working with the enemy, not against them.”
“I will keep her under my care. She will need it when she is excised. And whatever problems she has with the Collective, she holds no such grudge against myself. Even if she did, and she betrayed us to Uptown, her additions to their ranks would not benefit them overly much. She would be one brilliant inventor among many. As I have already said, the development of these machines is an inevitability regardless of who is at the helm. What I fear is that that helm will be completely controlled by Uptown. If that should happen, nobody would be able to contest them. But if this knowledge of the machines could be democratized then Uptown would lose that advantage.”
“Hmm,” Tagast said. “An intriguing thought. I agree that it is better that everyone should have access to this advantage rather than only our enemy. Still, I do not like the thought of one of our own, even an Excised, potentially falling into the hands of Uptown. If we should go this route, I would require a compulsion be placed on her as an assurance.”
“How can you amuse this idea, Tagast?” the deep denizen with dark brown bristles said. “It is abhorrent.”
“It solves all of our problems,” he answered simply. “The more I think about it, the more I agree with this course of action. Yes, excising Sook could serve the Collective very well.”
“I understand the wish to place a compulsion upon Sook to protect the Collective,” Pali said. “However, I would ask that it would not infringe upon her core identity. Otherwise it defeats the point of this course of action.”
“Your concerns are understandable,” Tagast said. “We would only require that she be bound to share her discoveries indiscriminately. That should make it impossible for her to be used by Uptown. In fact, I find the idea of them working with her under that compulsion amusing.”
“I would agree to that condition only if Sook herself also agreed to it.”
“This is ridiculous,” dark brown bristles interjected. “The two of you are speaking as if the decision is made. I can not condone such an act no matter the conditions. To think of what damage would be done to the poor girl. No, I can not be unified with this.”
“What of the rest of you?” Pali asked.
A female deep denizen spoke. “I must say that I agree with Lexington. But Sook is your splinter, Pali, I will leave it to your discretion.”
Each of them went around the room. It was split with Tagast and the female for the decision and Lexington and two others against. The last to voice her opinion was Wor. She took her time in speaking.
“Are you sure about this?” she asked Pali, softly.
He nodded his head once.
“Then I would vote in favor of my splinter’s decision.”
“We are disunified,” Lexington said, satisfied. “The motion has failed.”
“Before judgment is passed,” Wor said. “Shouldn’t we ask Sook’s opinion on the matter? She should be the one to decide.”
“Why bother,” Lexington said. “Nobody would be mad enough to excise themselves.”
“Then would we all be unified on the matter if she should agree to this course of action?” She addressed this to everyone, and slowly they each nodded.
Lexington was the last to concede. “If she is mad enough to choose excision then yes I will agree to the decision.”
“Then we are unified,” they spoke as one. “Alak wake the girl.”
Alak had remained firmly in place in front of Kayden throughout the discourse. Ready to attack at a moment's notice. Kayden had similarly stood ready to defend herself if he did.
At the command of the Collective, he did not hesitate in turning his back on Kayden and floating over to the motionless Sook. He gently lowered the mace until it barely tapped her forehead.
Kayden was about to interfere, not trusting the black knight not to attack her, but she paused when he pulled away and Sook’s eyes flickered open.
She took a moment to become fully cognizant, then her eyes landed upon Alak and they widened. She launched herself into the air. A javelin of similar purple energy to Alak’s mace appeared in her hand. However her weapon was nowhere near as solidly defined. It flickered, unstable.
“I won’t let you take me back,” she growled.
Alak’s laughter echoed through everyone’s minds. “Calm yourself little sister. You have long since lost the battle.” His eyes turned toward the Collective.
Her’s followed his and her javelin vanished. “Oh.”
Little sister? Did that mean Alak was also a splinter of Pali. Why would Pali have splintered him if Alak would take the side of the Collective over that of himself? The more she learned about the deep denizen, the harder she found them to understand.
“Sook, you have been brought before the Collective to answer for your disunity,” they spoke. “We are of the mind to reincorporate you.”
Sook’s fists clenched at her side and her head hung low in resignation.
“However, your antecedent, Pali, has offered an alternative.”
Her head shot up.
“You would be allowed to retain your individuality upon two conditions. First, a compulsion will be placed upon you that requires you to share all of your discoveries freely. Secondly, you will be excised; your mind castrated, exiled from the Collective never to return, not even in death will you find salvation in the world of dreams. We would wish this fate on no one, thus the choice has been left to you alone. What will it be? Will you allow your obstinance to be your damnation?”