I explained the situation to my friends. They made some rather unflattering remarks about my intelligence and heritage but ultimately they got the point and saw things my way. They were younger and relatively unblooded compared to me, but neither of those things meant they were stupid.
I discussed the situation with them via a closed channel, suit to suit.
“I don’t like it any more than you do, but if we’re going to survive here we’re going to need friends. It’s not perfect, I know, but it’ll take us years to get anywhere if we try and do things on our own.”
“Friends? With a witch?” Carver looked dubiously at me.
“Tentative allies, then.” I exasperated.
“Fuck that. They took us prisoner! I say we shoot every last one of them.” Chen growled.
I sighed. “Chen, calm down. We’re not going to shoot them, because we are allies.”
“Funny way to start an alliance, prison cells are not comfortable!” Chen said, maintaining his angry facade a moment longer, before he started cracking up with laughter.
“Ah, who am I kidding?” He chuckled. “Beggars can’t be choosers. It’s not like we have any other friends here willing to help us out.”
“Glad you see things my way.” I sighed, relieved, but also slightly amused that I’d been taken in by Chen’s performance. He wasn’t the dumb brute that some saw him as; he had critical thinking skills and the word 'nuance' in his vocabulary. He was protective of his team and shipmates, but he wasn't actually stupid. I shuddered to think about how things would’ve gone being stuck in this situation with Marines from some of my old units. There were definitely worse people to be stranded on an alien planet with than these three.
“Larsen, you have any thoughts?”
She just swept her helmet towards Lilith. I knew she didn’t have to do that, simply shifting her eyes or using her suit sensors would’ve been enough. She wanted Lilith to notice her scrutiny.
“Not particularly.” She enunciated crisply. “I don’t trust her.”
“Good.” I responded. “Neither do I. That goes for all of you. We’re in this alliance because we need allies and we're desperate, not because these people are trustworthy.”
“Trust, but verify?” Carver remarked.
“Exactly.” I nodded to him.
"Personally, I'm still at verify, verify." Larsen said coldly.
With my little discussion with the team out of the way, I enabled my external speakers and invited Lilith to discuss things at length now that everyone was all in the same room and my team had been briefed in private.
What should have been merely a long meeting quickly turned into a protracted cultural exchange and a briefing of epic proportions. The five of us—or six if you counted Eric— went through everything from religion to military history all the way into 22nd century meme culture. I tried not to give away the ‘how’ of our technology or any cultural tidbit that might come back to bite us in the ass, but that wasn’t a straightforward prospect. It was so hard to hide cultural markers that it didn’t occur to most people to even try. After trying for the first five minutes, I concluded that was probably because it was an exercise in frustration and probably futility.
We talked for a long time, at least a couple of hours, but it was towards the end of our conversation that a lot of the key details came to light, all at once. We’d agreed to help them and they’d agreed to help us, as soon as their current crisis was over. The exact details were what I wanted to discover.
I stared, mind reeling from all that I’d been told. “So you’re telling me that the your King is missing, you have an attack being organised on your capital city, right above us, but you don’t know exactly when or how it’ll happen and you also happen to be dealing with an increased number of monsters attacking your citizens? Does that about summarise the most pressing issues of the day?” I asked dryly.
“Summarise? Not at all.” Lilith replied bitterly. “We have far more issues to deal with, those are simply the most immediate. We’re stretched too thin.” Lilith scowled.
“So… what do you want us to do about it?” Carver asked. A fair question.
“I want you to take one of these issues off the table, so to speak. Deal with it for us and we can free up some forces and send them elsewhere.”
“Any recommendations for which to tackle first? Do you have a preference?” I asked.
“While we can likely handle the monsters, the imminent attack on the city above us and the missing King are two things that I am loathe to admit we cannot handle alone, not without more forces than we currently possess and likely more time than we have.”
“I see. I suppose the attack is the more important of those two problems?”
“You would be correct in that assumption.” She confirmed. “As for the King? Well, that blasted fool simply vanished one day declaring he would be leaving to commune with the Gods so he could ‘deliver us great power and strike down the evils in this land’. I do not know what insanity has possessed him but if not for his son, the Kingdom would be a footnote by now and Ebonwreath’s defenses would resemble a pile of rancid deer droppings.”
She paused in her tirade, taking a breath and looking a mite bit shocked at her outburst.
“Apologies, it is has been… a trying few weeks.”
I nodded, familiar enough with the kind of stress she was feeling, though perhaps not quite as severe. “No apologies necessary, I know how you feel. I take it we shouldn’t make finding him a priority?”
“That is correct.” She scoffed, more at the missing King than me or my team, I gathered.
“Which job do you want us to tackle first?” I asked.
“The attack on the Capital is the more important task by far. I wish we had more information to give you there, but we only have a vague time and place for the attack. Our best estimates give us two weeks, perhaps less.”
“Two weeks? I’m assuming you want us to prepare some kind of defense and see if we can’t stop this attack entirely?”
Lilith held up a hand. “That’s not your task, not exactly. We had a few prisoners to interrogate, but two of the three were found dead in their cells not four days past and the last is on the run. Someone broke him out of his cell.” Lilith’s lips twisted in displeasure.
“His cell in this prison?”
“Yes.” She confirmed. “It seems we have a spy among us, or are facing an exceptionally skilled mage. I consider that highly unlikely though. The level of skill and luck needed to free a prisoner… no, there is no other explanation. We have a traitor among us. I am certain of it.”
Having had recent experience with traitors and spies, I felt for her. Instead of a ship of hundreds of soldiers she likely had an entire country of tens if not hundreds of thousands of civilians relying on her to keep them safe.
“How did they do it? Do you know?” Larsen asked, as curious as I was to know their methods, I’d wager.
Lilith exhaled a long slow breath. “We still don’t know how it happened exactly, but a dozen of our guards went missing. Whether they have turned against the crown or… are simply dead, I do not know. I suppose you can ask our escaped prisoner whatever you wish when you find the infernal coward.”
“What else can you tell me about him?”
“What would you like to know?”
“Well, first of all, what’s his name?”
“Davian Kirtus.”
I neglected to mention how weird of a name that was, I wasn’t the only one thinking it, I was sure. “Do you have any idea where he is? Is he dangerous?”
Lilith snorted. “He’s a disgraced Mage-Commander originally from Graywatch, a northern nation home to the scum of the Earth. Mercenaries, pirates, swords for hire and those of a similar ilk. He was hiding out in one of the poorer areas of a nearby city by the name of Blackshire.”
“So that’s a yes?” Larsen asked.
Lilith nodded. “He is dangerous. Not to the level of Eric or myself, but close enough to make little difference. He is a fully trained battle mage and by his own admission has killed dozens of men, a few of them other battle mages.”
Lilith paused, studying her table for a moment with undisguised scrutiny. All I saw was a bare wooden surface, polished to perfection but she seemed quite intent on something on its surface. She looked up at us a moment later and continued.
“We believe he is now taking shelter in or around Blackshire. It’s about a day’s ride north of here. We don’t know where he is now, of course, and he could have already moved on, but that would be where I would start.”
I considered the briefing. Not as much as I could’ve hoped for, but more than I’d expected. It would be tough, but it was probably possible to find him. If we couldn’t, we’d just end up back at the capital and mount a defense with the rest of Lilith’s army. Not ideal, but we weren’t infallible, as our recent defeats had shown.
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
The thought of those defeats left an ashen taste in my mouth and I brought my thoughts back to the present, thankful it wouldn’t show on my face, which was concealed.
“Certainly not the worst briefing I’ve had. We’ll see what can be done.” I said.
Lilith raised her hand in caution, and looked at me fiercely. “Are you certain you are up to the task? I would feel better if you had mages going with you.”
“Well, do you have any mages to send with us?” I asked, genuinely curious.
Her lips twisted in a chagrined grimace. “No. We do not. We are stretched too thin, even two or three mages are too many to pull from their posts.” She sighed. “Apologies, it was an idle musing, nothing more.” She dismissed the idea with a wave of her hand.
“Then we’ll just have to be careful.” I replied, excited despite the task ahead of us. The bizarre nature of things hadn’t quite set in yet, or rather the danger hadn’t. It felt like an adventure to me, not a bounty contract, which I suppose was closer to the mark, if not actually on it.
Lilith examined us all for a few brief moments with keen interest. “Will all of you be going? I only ask because if any of you are staying we will need to arrange a place in the city for you to live and work. I’m not even sure what you require to train or create a fighting force.”
“Two of us will stay to work on training your forces, yes, but I and Larsen,” I gestured to her with my arm,” will be tracking down Davian. Carver and Chen can give you an idea of the requirements we’ll need to begin our work and a time frame.”
“I understand, thank you. I wish you speed and good fortune.” She nodded to us.
“And to you, ma’am.”
I dropped another text-only message into the team channel. The speed of text-based communication for an implanted soldier was fast. It was far easier to think the words than type them. Usually too fast for most to process at first, but we were all more than proficient.
CPL.RILEY: Chen, keep Carver safe. He’s the only way we’re getting off this rock. We need him to build us a ship.
PFC.CARVER: A ship? Do you know how much work that’s going to be?
CPL.RILEY: Well, would you rather be stuck here forever? I’m just saying, we’re going to need you to get off this rock. Watch your backs, alright?
PFC.CHEN: Wilco. Go catch this guy so we can start building a rep with the locals, alright? I’d like free beers at every bar and a massage at every brothel.
I let out a chuckle, then addressed Lilith. She seemed so far to be very self-assured and confident, but not a completely unapproachable hard-ass like some of the officers I’d had the ‘pleasure’ of working with.
If she’d been a complete bitch that refused to be personable I would’ve probably still been stuck in a cell and never had this meeting. At least, I would have if it wasn’t for the initiative shown by my teammates. I was still a little excitable over that. I could have easily been distracted for another few moments and things would have gone very differently.
Banishing my thoughts on the mage in charge or the cancelled escape attempt, I continued my questioning.
“Would you be willing to provide us a guide, Lilith? Despite how confident I am at finding this ‘Davian’ and getting the information we need from him, we are still strangers to August.”
“A guide. I may have someone in mind.” She mused, eyes full of thoughts.
“I would appreciate someone who knows the local customs and lay of the land here.” I continued. “We’re not exactly well-acquainted with all the ways mages like yourself can ruin our day.”
“No, no I don’t suppose you are.” She said, amused. “On second though, there is one mage I can spare. I’ll have Eric join you, he can finally take a break from assisting me with special projects.” She sighed.
“Special projects?” I asked. They sounded interesting, and highly classified.
“Yes, he’s been assisting my research and looking into some things for me. I apologise but we really can’t say much more than that.”
“No, I understand completely. It’s quite alright.”
“Thank you. I hope you’ll take good care of him. The man doesn’t know how to sit down and breathe, but he can answer any questions you may have.” Her lips quirked up in an amused smile as she shot Eric a look that I interpreted as ‘victory’ or perhaps satisfaction.
Clearly, there was a story to be told, or at least, history between the two. I’d have to ask him about it later.
I turned to find Eric still in his spot by the corner of Lilith’s office. He nodded at me through a long-suffering sigh. I nodded back.
“Thank you, Lilith.” He said loudly, shooting her a look of his own that said ‘Shut the hell up’, or perhaps ‘Thanks so much’.
I cracked a smile at their wordless byplay. For captors, they’d certainly been entertaining. I suppose a sense of humor helped maintain one’s sanity in what I’d comfortably call a crisis. I’d definitely call it one if I was in their shoes.
“We should head out immediately, I take it?” I asked Lilith a moment later.
“You should, yes.” Lilith responded. “I wish you luck with your task. When this mess is over we will see what can be done about getting you home. For now… let us see that this Kingdom remains intact.”
“Understood. Good luck with these two, they can be a handful.” I waved in the direction of Chen and Carver.
“Hey!” Carver protested.
“And you with him.” Lilith said, ignoring Carver’s protest. She inclined her head towards Eric and he threw her an exasperated look. Then, she bowed to me, which I’ll admit threw me for a loop. Did I bow back? Genuflect?
I settled for sketching a quick salute in return. “I look forward to working with you. I should be able to communicate with Larsen fairly easily, if we’re close.”
That wasn’t a lie, but I didn’t specify how close ‘close’ was. Our radios had certain limitations, but I was loathe to share that kind of information with an ally I wasn’t comfortable trusting just yet.
I figured given the fresher than cut grass alliance between us keeping my cards close to my vest was not just wise, but an obligation.
Turning to Eric, I held my hand out, using it to point back the way we’d come with an open palm. “Well? Going to show us the way, Eric? I’d rather not stumble into the mountains and freeze to death because I took a wrong turn.” I finished dryly.
I assumed there were mountains somewhere on the planet, but I had no way to know where exactly without consulting the data we’d loaded into our suits. I just wanted to break the ice, though, so I didn’t bother looking anything up. By the sound of Eric's soft laughter, I'd succeeded in achieving my goal.
“Must I lead you everywhere?” He asked jokingly. Eric waved me forward as he walked back into the labyrinth of corridors and cells. I still had no idea how big this prison was, or the city above for that matter, but I suspected we would soon get a better idea.
Led deep into the prison, we arrived at a fortified circular chamber, passing through a doorway into an unassuming room. Clearly though, there had to be a purpose to it. The floor had silver patterns inlaid around it’s edges where the walls met the floor. I followed them with my eyes and catalogued them for later study.
Eyes narrowing, I voiced my suspicions to Eric. “This is the other side of the prison, right?”
“Correct. Lilith’s office is on one side, the only entrance and exit is on the other. There is no way in or out except through this gate.” He nodded to the empty room. I didn’t see a door, but looks could be deceiving.
I examined the room we were in more closely. A smooth cylindrical chamber with a raised platform in the middle, very spartan and utilitarian. Everything looked to be made of a polished granite of some kind but as I looked around the room I realised that wasn’t exactly true. An analysis of the walls revealed nothing out of the ordinary, but an analysis of the raised circle in the middle revealed something interesting.
Granite may have been the main construction material here, but the platform confused my spectroscopic analysis programs. Part of the platform was silver, but the rest of it was simply listed as ‘unknown’. I wasn’t surprised, the doors to Lilith’s office had given me an identical reading despite appearing to be made of silver at first.
“What is that platform made of?” I asked, pointing to the raised platform that dominated the room, despite its size.
“That is the gateway, it’s made of a magically charged alloy called Kerennium, which in turn is made primarily from silver and a direct application of magic. Rather than a traditional bonding of metals it’s a bonding of magic and pure silver.”
“And this Kerennium is used for?” Larsen asked.
Eric walked over and stood inside the circular platform’s perimeter. He motioned us over with a nonchalant air about him. Thankfully, it was able to easily accommodate the three of us and probably could have held at least another three or four people.
“High-intensity runic matrices, such as this gateway or perhaps a wordstone used to throw the voice of a mage great distances. Silver is a fine material for most general applications, but for anything truly complex or powerful Kerennium is the only material we’ve found in hundreds of years that is up to the task of channeling and storing the power of the Gift.”
Eric paused as he strode into the circular gateway. “Well, unless you count dragon bones, but there are doubts as to whether dragons still exist, or existed at all for that matter so most tend to say that Kerennium is the only material capable of such a feat.”
“Dragons? Like huge reptiles with massive wings and claws?” Larsen asked with undisguised eagerness.
Eric seemed to be staring straight ahead and focusing on nothing at all and I wanted to ask about that, but it could wait.
Answering her question, the mage cocked his head for a moment. “I believe so, yes. We believe they flew using magic and there is some evidence to suggest that there were dragon riders who received the Gift from dragons and that is how magic came to us. We don’t know, but it is an interesting theory, no? Whether or not dragons existed is heavily debated among our scholars, but I myself don’t think they died out when some say they did. There have been sightings in the last hundred years and they are practically immortal.”
“You wouldn’t happen to have a library where I could read up on all this, would you?” Larsen asked, plain curiosity audible to her voice.
“There is an extensive library, yes. I can take you there later.” Eric offered.
I chuckled to myself. “You fancy yourself a Dragon Rider then, Larsen? I didn’t know the Victoria ‘The Brave’ was one to believe in fairy tales.” I smirked.
“Dragons are awesome, can you blame me? And… Brave? Yeah, right.” She scoffed. “All I did was survive that death trap like the rest of you.”
“Right, but we didn’t do it by dragging one of our squadmates through three klicks of hostile territory with a bullet lodged inside us. Victoria ‘The Stubborn’ is more accurate, the way I see it.” I shook my head.
“Am I to understand she was not in the best position at the time this all happened?” Eric asked, hesitantly.
I laughed, turning to him. “The best position? No, not really. We were tasked with putting down a minor insurrection on a large moon. The colony was young, but had strong ties to rebel fighters so we expected resistance going in. There wasn’t anything especially difficult or unusual about the mission, or so we thought at first. Turns out the rebels had found an old fabricator somewhere and loaded it with military blueprints. We ended up with half a dozen walking wounded and a dozen corpses that day because they’d printed themselves a couple of old but very functional autocannons. Half the squad was cut down and it was only thanks to this glory hog that I got out alive. Thanks for the save, by the way.” I nodded to Larsen.
“I see, and you did this… often?” Eric clearly didn’t see, but that was okay. He’d learn all about us if we worked together long enough. At this point I was hoping for months, but years was probably more realistic if things didn’t go smoothly, which I rather doubted would be the case. On the bright side, those years would give me plenty of time to build trust.
“What? Put down insurrectionists?” Larsen asked. ”We did it all the time. Not everyone’s happy with how Mars declared independence. A lot of people still feel that it should remain a colony of Earth. Earth being our original homeworld. More just found something else to fight over or a reason to rebel. At this point insurrectionist is almost synonymous with terrorist a lot of the time.”
“You colonised another world?” Eric said, his rapt attention not wavering one bit as Larsen finished her sentence. He shot Larsen a shocked glance.
“Yep.” Larsen nodded. “More than once. A lot more than once. It’s no secret or anything. None of this is. It happens all the time back home.”
“You people are as incredible as you are strange.” He said, wonder in his voice. After a few moments he returned to standing and staring at nothing. I noticed after a slightly deeper level of scrutiny that he seemed to be in some kind of deep state of focus, completely immersed in something.
I cleared my throat noisily. “Not to interrupt story time, but is there a reason we’re standing here chatting and doing nothing?”
Eric didn’t move at all, acting the perfect statue, but his words were loud and clear. “Give me a few moments. The protections here are elaborate and time-consuming to get through, even for me. To connect to a public gate room isn’t an easy task, but this won’t take long.”
I looked over at Larsen and she just shrugged at me. I glanced back at Eric, still unmoving. He looked almost he was meditating, just with his eyes open. I gave him to the count of five. Nothing. I started counting down from ten. Nine. Eight. Seven-
The granite chamber blinked out of existence as bright green light washed over me.