Chapter 39

‘Right, Ilzik, mission is a go.‘ I sent out the order mentally to the Drow surrounding the complex held by Adept Pugard.

‘Infiltration beginning, ‘ came the reply.

“Lot of guards,” Clara murmured as she observed through some enhanced Loegrian binoculars.

“Yes, but all out of sight of the main holding,” I replied, observing the display Tirus had set up for me.

“True, this guy clearly has aspirations of grandeur, not security.”

“Nice grounds though. He clearly has aesthetics,” I chuckled.

“Yes, also true. Won’t save him though.”

“Indeed.”

‘Seer wards placed, heading out, ‘ Ilzik sent out.

‘All quiet here, ‘ I replied.

“Fog bank is rolling in,” Tirus confirmed.

‘We’re clear, ‘ from Ilzik.

Adept Pugard stepped out of his dwelling with his aides and analysts and sighed. The view, which he appreciated, was, as ever at this time, cloaked in fog. Two of his bodyguards had moved silently to his side as he set off to the landing strip and his, no doubt, waiting sled ... as well as a small group of ugly grunts who were meant to protect him.

“Beog’s protection be upon you, Adept,” they all murmured once he stopped in front of them, following protocol to the letter as he insisted. No intermingling with lesser ranks for the likes of Pugard, he had his eyes set on the post of Higher Adept and a transfer to Draenoric.

“May he strengthen your arm,” he replied, giving the sign of Beog, perfunctorily watching them disperse to the two waiting guard sleds.

“The Seeker has just made it known he desires the report on how our grunts performed in Pock after they relieved the Militia,” his senior analyst informed him, making Pugard frown as they boarded the luxury sled he’d had adapted for his personal use.

“Ensure he has the full report this time, including all information or suspicions on our part,” he replied, wincing mentally at the memory of the scathing personal abuse he’d received (fortunately in private) from the Seeker’s last visit for sending an abridged version of a report.

“At once, Adept.”

“Let us go. We have the rebuilding of the various bridges to tender for and it’s my desire that this security division gains the Archimandrite’s share of the contracts.”

“We believe we have undercut all but one of the security divisions and are manoeuvring to discredit that one on the grounds of poor quality due to incessant horde disputes.”

“Good. We won’t get them all, but we should always aim to get the majority,” Pugard replied as he sat back. The sled rose into the air.

Soon he felt the slight breeze of a forward motion that barely penetrated the weather shielding he’d had installed as the sled headed towards his headquarters in the city of Tharn in the coastal eastern landmass of the smaller continent.

It was at this point he realised that something had gone terribly wrong.

“Gotcha!” I murmured as I watched the Orc sled suddenly appear in the clear skies of our Loegrian side base. “All yours, Athena.”

“Bringing it down in that clearing. You can tell the Seers to go to work caging and disarming them, they can’t summon help and I rather doubt they or the ones back on Vultoq will ever know how it was done,” she replied with a cheery grin, having brought the sled down so we didn’t have the inconvenience of trying to teleport nearly twenty Orcs and compensate for the speed difference in caging them, something the Seers could have done, but appreciated Athena’s efforts on their behalf.

‘We have them, John, ‘ Adsila sent. ‘Locking controls on the sled to autopilot and ready to go back now.‘

“Athena?” I asked.

“Up, up in the air it goes, course has been set correctly by the Seers and through it goes, right back between the guarding sleds and still in thick fog,” she chuckled.

“Let’s see them try and figure that one out,” I grinned. “Do you want to examine them to see if any can be salvaged?”

“Yes please, John.”

There was a flicker and the Drow as well as Tirus joined us, having been brought back from Vultoq by the Seers.

“We kept up the false radio signal, they never realised they’d just lost a sled for a minute,” Tirus reported with a grin.

“Good, they don’t use radar or its equivalents here as the energy beams they use for power transmission interfere with them too much,” I replied.

“I also don’t think they get many kidnapping attempts from sleds ... or hijacks either,” Athena noted with a smile.

“True,” I nodded. “Now let’s go see what we’ve bagged,” I added opening a portal back to the main base and our ‘zoo’.

The Orcs had been separated for our initial investigation and interrogation and were clearly not happy bunnies. Most of our zoo’s inhabitants were kept very happy and content by the use of weave magic in which they believed they were where they were supposed to be, doing what they were supposed to do. It was a complicated set of spells maintained by Mages Xi, Kyra and Serena, with the occasional bit of help from our Seers. We did have Athena over when checking out prisoners now, once the Higher Powers intimated that the various clones they used had no ‘soul’. She had pointed them out and disposed of them humanely when the medic Mages got a bit squeamish. Something she had few qualms about as she worked to a completely different set of values to humanity in general.

“They all have souls, however three of these analysts are what the ‘God squad’ would consider to be irredeemable,” she indicated. “The rest are in the balance as they haven’t been terribly naughty as yet, including the Adept.”

“Don’t suppose you could clue me in as to why?” I asked.

“Nope, you wouldn’t survive the telling of,” she replied with a slight smile.

“Seriously?”

“Very. Heaven’s agents will go to extreme lengths to protect their secrets and I rather like you, John, and don’t want the current Higher Power who is over-watching this encampment to strike you down,” she replied earnestly.

“OK, I’ll drop it,” I chuckled nervously, glancing around to try and spot the Higher Power.

“You can’t see her if she doesn’t want you to see her,” Athena added with a grin.

“Right,” I sighed, memorising the input to add to our knowledge of the Higher Powers.

“This one’s interesting though,” she indicated the Adept.

“Well, you can have him once we’re done with him,” I shrugged.

“Thank you,” she replied with an enigmatic smile.

Pugard had the feeling he was being watched, though as the walls of his cell were opaque as well as sound deadening, it was only a feeling. He was still somewhat astounded by the ... ambush, though he or his party, wherever they were, had not seen a single enemy. Yet the feeling would not go away and he kept his guard up with regards to his training on protecting his mind from psionic attacks.

As for his captors, he was extremely nervous of their powers. Suddenly his sled had been ... elsewhere, then it landed and then he was in a cell, with no idea how they’d done it, except perhaps by psionic power, something he knew very little about, it being in the realm of the servants of Beog, not mere mortals like him.

Finally, the wall to the front of him cleared and he faced his enemy for the first time, only to feel somewhat let down as they were clearly no physical match for him judging by their Yr’ch-like appearance, if on a smaller scale, like younglings. That was until ‘she’ stepped forward and wiped away all his surmissions as to just what this enemy was.

“Greetings, Adept Pugard,” she said in purest Yr’chan, in a voice that almost glowed in its beauty.

“Greetings... ?”

“Ar-Thenna.”

“Greetings, Ar-Thenna. Are you a goddess?” stumbled out of a suddenly dry mouth and confused brain.

“I am.”

“Why are you here?”

“To lead the Yr’ch back to their true destiny.”

“How can I help?”

“They have seized an Adept and his staff?” Crnnch asked in incredulous tones of Adept Chut, the military base leader.

“So it would appear. Adept Pugard was well known to be lax with his security and flew in from a luxury dwelling outside the city of Tharn. Not a true Yr’ch, though effective in gaining trade credits and undermining his peers,” Chut replied with a faint sneer.

“So, his sled lifted up into the fog and when it emerged he and his staff were no longer on board?”

“No Seeker. Their absence was not noticed until after the sled landed on autopilot,” Chut corrected him.

“This is ... disturbing.”

“No breaks in contact, no calls for help. Though no visuals due to the fog. We examined the sled thoroughly, no bio traces of any enemy and no damage.”

“Why was Pugard so lax in his security?”

“He was somewhat ... effete, if brilliant. Did not like to associate with his peers and thought his guards to be somewhat below him in his need for company of his ‘intellectual’ standing. Frankly this Yr’ch was a disgrace to our race though effective in killing or neutralising anyone who came against him,” Chut explained.

Crnnch inwardly frowned at Chut’s description, clearly Pugard was not lax in security if he could keep the other Adepts and various underlings at bay. After all, a sled, unless it was on a ground attack mission, was not easy to bring down ... or kidnap Yr’ch from either come to that.

“My staff and I will continue this investigation, though I doubt we will gain any more information than you have provided us with, Adept Chut,” Crnnch finally replied by way of dismissal.

“How could they do this?” Slaarg asked once Chut had signed off.

“Psionic races use teleportation, though from the speed the sled would have been travelling at, this would seem to be unlikely, plus a portal without a frame ... which the techno-Yr’ch still tell me is impossible, would have taken the sled too,” Crnnch replied.

“They obviously chose the fog to hide how they did it,” Kurl posited.

“Indeed,” Crnnch nodded. “Which suggests they cannot do miracles, just the impossible.”

“I will arrange for transportalling to Tharn, Seeker,” Fumel responded.

“Good, we will continue the investigation there.”