Chapter 101

The Outer Realms are easy to describe. They’re grey, as in stepping into a room where the floor, ceiling and walls are all the exactly the same colour. They’re quiet too, so quiet you can hear your own heartbeat. It’s a bit like being in a sensory deprivation tank from the point of view of your regular five senses. I couldn’t even see the team that had come through with me; however, I could sense them passively by my Mage senses.

‘No wonder those Mages who explored never came back,‘ I commented mentally.

‘Yes,‘ Marnie replied. ‘I doubt they would have been out of phase and no doubt would immediately begin scanning and attracting some of the nasties in here.‘

‘If you passively scan on this bandwidth, you can get a somewhat better perspective,‘ Oonagh stated giving us the mental bandwidth. ‘It can change, but it’s always around this level.‘

Our view improved immensely, and showed what I initially thought were millions of stars, though Oonagh corrected me on that by telling us that they were the Great Powers. It was also noticeable that a good few were moving rapidly.

‘This is not a friendly place,‘ Róisín stated.

‘Not friendly at all. Though the passive spells in our armour appear to be able to create air from the extant magic here,‘ I agreed.

‘My people discovered this place shortly after we escaped the torment,‘ Oonagh informed us. ‘Several were lost until one managed to return. After that it was studied extensively and cautiously until the Daoine Sidhe understood a little of the relational positions of the Great Powers and how they were almost in a state of suspension and could, if necessary, be manipulated. Yes, they are dangerous, but so long as they ... sleep, are less dangerous than the lesser creatures here.‘

‘It is fascinating. No doubt the Seers will soon agitate to visit here,‘ Hermes chuckled.

‘They’ve already tried. Adsila was a bit miffed when we wouldn’t take her with us,‘ I replied.

‘Perhaps next time, once Oonagh here has regained the information so that we can scan safely.’

‘I’m working on it. The information is coming back,‘ Oonagh replied.

‘I don’t think a Seer should be permitted here,‘ Luka added, clearly thinking Oonagh was endangering us all.

‘I doubt we could stop them once they know it’s relatively safe,‘ Kyra chuckled.

‘Relatively, is correct. There is always the danger of emerging in the vicinity of an Old One,‘ Oonagh warned.

‘Likelihood?‘ Hermes asked.

‘Low. As you can sense, there’s a lot of room here.‘

‘Yes, though it’s difficult to gauge distance and we already know time works differently here,‘ Hermes agreed.

‘And with that, it’s time to return,‘ Marnie stated.

Oonagh simply opened a portal and drew it towards and past us and left us standing in the same position that we had walked through in. Within seconds several Mages had ported in to greet us, including Roxanne as well as Oonagh’s bodyguards who had not been allowed to join her because they could not phase.

“Just over a day,” she confirmed our inborn time sense.

“Well, we knew time works differently there,” Hermes nodded.

“Aye and next time you have permission to take a Seer with you, once Oonagh has figured out the scan bandwidths we need to use.”

“I will speak to Seer Adsila or Cirsan Arwen about it. We will have answers soon,” Oonagh replied.

“Don’t let them rush you.”

Oonagh simply nodded as we headed over to the command tent for a debriefing.

It was almost two weeks later that the group assembled again, along with Adsila, Arwen and Roxanne, to go over the scanning techniques that had been worked out.

“We had to go through Oonagh’s distant memories to come up with the basis for the scans,” Adsila stated. “But, we now have a matrix to work from as well as a method to judge distance and a means to calculate a few other linear measurements such as velocity and mass.”

“I’m surprised you let them,” I chuckled with a glance at Oonagh.

“It was most unpleasant, but I simply could not recall the baselines that I originally worked with from the experimentation that was done. Plus, I was not the original author of these equations. That was Goibhniu, whom you had killed.”

“He had it coming,” I shrugged. “But thank you anyway.”

“Thank you ... and yes, he probably did.”

“A shame the Fae did not think likewise of you,” Luka said snarkily.

“Many do, but then where would you be?” Oonagh replied indifferently, which I wasn’t sure if it was deliberate or not, just that it annoyed Luka even more as Oonagh simply didn’t give a damn about her feelings.

“A way would have been provided!”

“I’m sure. But I am here.”

“Enough, Luka,” Marnie warned. “We work with what we have, and this is what we have.”

“We do not need her anymore. She should be sent back to exile!”

“That is not your decision to make,” Arwen spoke up. “Nor is it accurate. Oonagh still has much knowledge of the Outer Realms, both factual and anecdotal. I’d far rather it was freely available to us, rather than experiment with the potential for casualties or even an early return by Sarkal that that would entail.”

“Thank you, Arwen,” Marnie nodded. “The only one currently looking to be sent back is you, Luka. I will not warn you again. Cease these outbursts.”

“That monster was directly responsible for the death of my Darren!” Luka almost sobbed out.

“That was actually Morgana and Diamantu,” I explained. “We’d placed the forts in such a position that they had to attack them as we would have blockaded their supply lines. It was also the battle that turned the war. I’m sorry about your husband, but Morgana and the Alliance Command decided to fight there and Diamantu had to defeat us. It’s a bit like blaming Simon Magus or Verenestra. Sure, they were in overall command, but they didn’t make the decisions to fight.”

“How can you be so ... friendly with that ... woman?”

“We aren’t friends, but we do have mutual respect now.”

“But your wives always invite her to your table and gossip as if ... as if nothing happened!”

“We’re discussing a business proposal,” Róisín answered. “Also, whilst Oonagh sits with us, she is not bothered by those who would seek to provoke or assault her. But, it is true, Oonagh as a person is very different from Oonagh the Queen that was. Nor were we affected by the past, as you were.”

“Aye, well this is all very well, but not relevant to the task ahead,” Roxanne interjected.

“Yes, Mage Roxanne. You’re correct,” Marnie nodded.

“That said, what next?”

“We locate a dormant Great Power, mark its location and approach via a different portal,” Adsila replied.

“Aye, I guess teleporting is out of the question,” Roxanne nodded.

“Definitely. It would be like hanging out a banner saying, ‘come and eat me’,” she replied with a grin.

“What then?”

“We scan it up close and locate a ... cavity, and set up a base to expand a new world for the Vultoqi within, though we’re still going over the details on that one as Oonagh wasn’t directly involved with it, but was aware of the details.”

“All those who were are now dust,” Oonagh added.

“It is what it is,” Roxanne nodded. “Very well, you have permission to continue. Just carry on being careful,” she added to all of us.

“Yes, Mage Roxanne,” we all replied and filed out, though I noticed both Marnie and Roxanne having a word with a sullen Mage Luka as we did.

The following day our group, plus Adsila and Arwen, portalled back into the Outer Realms. This time we were more prepared with our senses set to the frequency we needed to ‘see’ as well as attuned to each other’s senses so that we were aware where the others were.

‘Magnificent,‘ Adsila enthused mentally when she got her first glimpse of the sheer weirdness of the Realm.

‘That’s an unusual description of creepy,‘ Róisín giggled.

‘Well ... yes, a bit creepy, but quite magnificent, too.‘

‘I suspect the Seers have a new hobby, studying God’s prison on the wastelands of creation,‘ Marnie chuckled.

‘You know us so well,‘ Adsila replied with laughing overtones. ‘Shall we begin?‘

‘Please do.‘

Both Adsila and Arwen linked minds and carefully scanned whilst Oonagh prepared to pull us out if the basis for the scans from her memories proved faulty.

‘Nothing nearby ... ish,‘ Arwen eventually stated.

‘Got a direction for another portal?‘ Marnie asked as the rest of us did detailed close-up scans of the current environment.

‘Yes, there is a Power lying over there,‘ she gave us a mental direction. ‘Though it might take a little while to figure out a calculation from Draenoric.‘

‘That’s why we have Seers,‘ I mentally chuckled.

‘Yes, Uncle John,‘ she giggled, as, at a command from Marnie, Oonagh opened a portal and drew it over us.

“So, you think you have a target?” Roxanne asked about a week later after the initial debrief.

“Well, it’s a Great Power. But, we won’t know how suitable until we get a closer look,” Arwen replied.

“No responses to your scans?”

“No, though there was nothing relatively close either.”

“How close will you be getting with this portal?”

“Ermm...”

“You won’t be jumping directly inside it?”

“No, just distance, like other measurements, is skewed in the Outer Realms. Plus, a Great Power is very large so we’ll be closer, but we’re not sure how close. Just that a portal can’t open in a solid object, same as here.”

“Ah, right,” Roxanne nodded as the rest of us listened quietly, knowing that calculating a specific area in the Outer Realms was troublesome for the Seers as bits of it moved around (sort of) as well as being impossible for the rest of us, even Oonagh, who admitted that the Daoine Sidhe had done it by trial and error and lost a good few Fae into the bargain.

“So far we’ve been lucky. But, the closer you get to a Great Power, the more likely you are to run into an Old One, or Spawn of Irin as the Eminrephaimanakim (Azurans) used to call them,” Oonagh added.

“How did they manage? I mean, those things would kill and absorb anything they got close to,” I asked.

“The interior was spelled to prevent one ... hatching, plus my people were able to teach the Eminrephaimanakim a stasis spell to enable transport. Not that it worked anywhere they dropped one off.”