Chapter 26

“What if there weren’t any prospective swarm knights? Or you weren’t able to get close to one of them?” I asked out of curiosity.

“My father told me a secret. He created a portal to Earth. That way he could travel back and forth in order to study technology. We can use the portal to get to Earth. However, since the swarm lords are already watching the planet they will be able to trace the location of the portal once it opens. Which means it will be a one way trip. They shouldn’t have enough resources on Earth to find us once we are there. However, we will probably only have an hour or two to get away from the portal once we arrive.” Faye explained.

“That should work. How do we get to the portal?” I asked.

“I can create a planetary portal to get us out of here. It will trigger some alarms but sneaking out of the castle is probably a bigger risk right now. We should get dressed and pack some clothes. Is there anything that you need to grab?” Faye asked.

“Just my nano and micro core factory cubes. I don’t even need to grab most of my clothes. None of it is going to fit in on Earth.” I answered. Most of the clothes wouldn’t even fit into a renaissance fair. From what I had seen when meeting the queen, what I had was considerably less fancy than most swarm lords. It seemed that most of them liked to use magic enchantments in their clothing in order to show off.

I put on some clothes and then helped Faye pack her clothing. Most of it wouldn’t fit in on Earth either. Mostly because the idea of what a maid serving a swarm lord should wear wasn’t exactly decent for wearing in public. Nobody would call the police but it would definitely get some attention. Still it was better than packing nothing.

Once we got to Earth we would need to do some shopping. Which made me wish my wallet and phone had been transported off of Earth with me. Unfortunately they were on my dresser when I had put the VR helmet on.

“What about your core factories?” I asked Faye. I had just thought about the fact that I had never seen her with a core factory.

“Once you link to a core factory you can use it from anywhere. Most swarm lords eventually find a place to store their core factories and then keep them closely guarded. The galactic swarm bank also has a service where you can store swarm cubes with them. Eventually you will want to do both. They can still be destroyed and it’s never good to have all your cubes in one place.” Faye said.

A few seconds later I nearly staggered back as there were hundreds of small flashes. When I managed to look I saw what looked like thousands of nano cubes. They barely fit inside the room. They seemed to melt together into a familiar looking arch. The next thing I knew I was looking at a portal.

The portal flashed to life. The other side was the road we had arrived on. I recognized it as being near the portals we had come to the planet through. We hurried through and then rushed to one of the portals.

“We have an emergency on one of my lord’s planets. We need to use this portal immediately.” Faye said to one of the guards.

They hesitated for a moment but eventually let us through when they saw the micro core factory I was carrying. None of them were willing to stop someone that was at least a swarm baron. Although I was sure they would report the incident to their commanders.

This continued as we journeyed through half a dozen portals. Eventually Faye led me away from one of the portals and into a copse of trees that was just enough to conceal us if someone was watching from the road. Holding up a hand she created another portal. It looked like the other side came out into a dark cave.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

After stepping through Faye held up her hand. A ball of light appeared. “Before I became a swarm lord I studied a bit of magic. It comes in useful in situations like this. Most of the older swarm lords also practice magic, mostly out of boredom.” She said.

The light she was holding was enough that I could finally see everything in the cave. There was a slightly larger portal on one side of the cave. On the other side of the cave I saw something that really shocked me. There was shelf after shelf filled with core factories. All of them had green lights meaning that they hadn’t been activated by anybody.

“This was one of the locations where my father stored unused cubes. There are even two tiny core factories. Using them we can see what the talent level of your family members are. Once I open the portal we will need to move quickly and get them through the portal. From what my father said there is a vehicle on the other side they can be put in. I assume you know how to drive?” Faye asked.

I nodded. “Hopefully it’s not a semi truck. I’ve never driven one of those.” Looking at the cubes I suspected that it wouldn’t be. There were a lot of cubes, but not enough to fill an entire semi. Although, there were more than would fit inside a car or van.

We quickly moved the cubes next to the portal. I tried to count but quickly lost track. There were at least a thousand nano cubes and a few hundred micro cubes. I made sure the two tiny core factories were the closest to the portal. Each of those were more valuable than all the other core factories combined.

Faye walked up next to the portal. “As soon as I open the portal the swarm lords are going to start tracing the origin. Are you ready?” She asked me.

I picked up an armful of cubes and nodded. Faye touched the side of the portal and it came to life. The other side actually had a bit of light. It looked like the portal came out in a warehouse of some type. I hurried through the portal carrying all the cubes and then looked around. With a sigh of relief I saw half a dozen vans lined up near a large door that exited the warehouse.

Hurrying over to the vans I managed to get the back doors of one open and basically tossed the cubes inside. Stacking them nicely would let us fit more, but would also take far more time. Turning around I saw Faye behind me with another arm load of core factories. As I ran back to the portal she also threw them into the van.

What followed was five minutes of us scrambling back and forth between the portal and one of the vans loading it up with core factories. I was running towards the portal when what I had been dreading happened. At that exact moment I was on the Earth side and Faye was on the other side grabbing more core factories.

Behind her the portal she had made came to life. I looked on in shock as a familiar man stepped through. The last thing I had been expecting was that swarm king Josh himself would be the one tracking us. The only positive thing was that he didn’t immediately attack.

Faye turned around and I could see her tense up as she saw the king. For a moment Josh looked confused and then he laughed. “Duchess Faye. I didn’t expect I’d see you again after you left the galaxy.” He said.

I was still running towards the portal. It was kind of foolish since realistically there was nothing I could do to the king. I wasn’t about to let the woman I loved die without doing something though.

I was just a few dozen feet away when Faye raised her hand in a clear signal for me to stop. I hesitated for a moment and then the king raised his hand and pointed it at Faye. I saw familiar looking sparks appear between them. In a panic I started moving forward again.

Then the portal flickered and Faye screamed and fell down. I was still a dozen feet away when the portal disappeared entirely. The archway was still there but there wasn’t any portal inside.

For a few seconds I stood there frozen and tried to process what had just happened. Grief hit me as I realized that king Josh had just killed the woman I loved. Part of me felt like giving up. That nothing truly mattered if she was dead. Another part though was filled with rage. If it was the last thing I did I was going to get revenge.

Which meant that I couldn’t just stand there. If I got captured it would be nearly impossible to get revenge. I needed to get out of the warehouse. Then I needed to find an arch swarm king that was willing to kill king Josh for me. Perhaps if I was truly lucky I’d end up being an arch swarm king myself. Then I could look him in the eyes and kill him myself.