Chapter 103

It was a pretty sombre group that returned to Draenoric. The trial had not been particularly pleasant ... although necessary. It had been clear that Luka was a most unhappy woman, rather than a devious criminal with murderous intent. I know it affected Marnie badly to see her friend exposed like that, though she was grateful that at least she’d be getting the psychological treatment she so badly needed. Oonagh outwardly remained as enigmatic as ever, though I knew the events around the trial had exposed both her core emotions and the dreadful loneliness that surrounded her and that latter she feared terribly. The one bright point for her was meeting Emily, Rowenna’s infant daughter, who had taken an immense liking to the former queen. The child was gurgling happily and giving smiles as Oonagh held her and talked to her softly ... once she’d been told what to do. Apparently it was the first time she’d ever held an infant or interacted with one.

We had been greeted by Athena and Roxanne, the latter had not been at the trial but had been busy helping the Yr’ch as Mage construction methods (magic) were being used to remove ruined buildings, create greensward and build sturdy dwellings for the surviving Yr’ch, who were followers of Athena. The new society was expanding; they were currently experimenting with sailing vessels to a few outposts they had set up where certain resources (foodstuffs mainly) were easily available. The technical members of their remaining society were settled around Chakra’s dwelling and were working and experimenting on the high tech that had survived. At the moment this was mostly to do with medication, though it was intended that the Yr’ch returned to space at some stage to move the orbital weapon platforms back into a higher and safer orbit.

Athena herself appeared less and less around the Yr’ch as she began her slide into obscurity, though she would come and see us at the encampment we were using to probe the Outer Realms as there were still two great tasks left to accomplish – the transfer of the Vultoqi and dealing with Sarkal.

“So, he won’t just wither and die off, as you did?” I asked Athena.

“No, he’s ... different ... older ... tied to a Power that created the universes, but who was neither the Almighty nor the Enemy, a separate Power,” she explained ... sort of, as there were any number of things about the various Powers that we weren’t allowed to know.

“And hence, statistically there’s a chance he could still find and free the Vultoqi?” Marnie asked.

“Yes. He’d need another race to do it for him, but yes.”

“So, how do we kill him then?” Roxanne asked. “I’m pretty sure as Mages we’re outclassed by any Power.”

“Removing the Vultoqi will weaken him; my hope then is that I’ll be able to take him out...” Athena admitted.

“Are you sure you can do this?”

“No.”

“Can we help?”

“I don’t know, but your Null weapons will be somewhat effective in keeping him distracted ... I hope.”

“Other Powers not being helpful?” I asked.

“No, this is a destiny thing, my destiny that is.”

“Ahhh...”

“We’ll help you all we can,” Roxanne promised, getting nods off us all. “But first things first, let’s get the Vultoqi out of here as soon as possible.”

“Yes, Mage Roxanne,” we responded and headed off to the briefing tent where we’d be brought up to date on what progress had been made on the various aspects of the transfer.

“Ready?” Roxanne asked as we stood, each of us carrying part of the equipment needed to set up the permanently linked portal that would enable those who couldn’t phase access to the Great Power in the Outer Realms.

“Yes, Mage Roxanne,” Marnie, who was nominally in charge, replied.

“Then, you may begin. Good luck.”

Adsila and Arwen turned and opened a portal to a very precise point in the Outer Realms, something that had taken nearly a week of calculations by the Seer group. We then all moved through as Roxanne took over maintaining the portal’s existence long enough for us all to get inside the Power.

“Cramped,” I murmured.

“Smelly too,” Róisín giggled.

“Let’s get busy,” Marnie ordered as we all began assembling the frame we’d brought that would create the permanently linked portal and bring through some help to slowly expand the interior using the extant power of the Great Power.

Hermes and Kyra finally locked the last section into place, which enabled Adsila to activate the wards we’d carved into it, thus opening the portal. Arwen then portalled herself back to Draenoric and energised this portal’s twin which caused ours to flare into the violet lambent light of full, linked activation. Arwen then stepped back through to us, bringing Jemima and Lagertha with her. The four Seers then exuded what I can only describe as a pressure to expand the interior to three times the floor area. This enabled several more pieces of portal to be sent through to be assembled to give a permanent way out for us.

It didn’t take too long to assemble them and get them working while the Seers continued to slowly expand the interior for us. Oonagh then cast a subtle spell over the ... call it a ceiling, and it began to give off a soft glow using the power of the Great Power to keep it illuminated.

“Won’t it notice the use of power?” I asked.

“No, it’s more or less dormant. Even its feeding is more of a reaction to powerful magical sources than anything else. So long as we do not trip a certain threshold, it will not notice us. Problem being that I do not know what the threshold is, so please err on the side of caution,” she replied seriously.

“Are you OK; you got pretty upset on Earth in the Council?” I asked, broaching the matter for the first time in the relative privacy of the Great Power.

Oonagh stared at me in silence for almost a minute, before a single tear rolled down her face.

“I have conditioned myself to accept that I can trust no one ... or thought I had. I ruled through fear. I was prepared to kill anyone whom I saw as a threat ... and I did, and they all knew it. But this also meant I was terribly alone, though this is manageable if those around you fear and respect you. But these last few months have been different; I have found companions, whom I have come to respect, even as they respect me. Even Mage Roxanne, who, though she doesn’t particularly like me, trained me and continues to train me.”

“Roxanne respects your ability with the sword and approves of your efforts to help us. Liking will probably come later. She still has reservations over your past,” I shrugged.

“Yes, who wouldn’t,” Oonagh nodded.

“Well, I don’t. Neither do my wives. I don’t think Marnie, Hermes or Kyra do either, and neither does Arch nor Jemima, come to that. Plus, that’s not counting the rest of Team John ... oh, and Arwen too,” I grinned.

“But you must, surely?”

“We’re judging you by what we know of you personally now, not your past.”

“Oh...”

“You need never be lonely again; we can visit you when you need company. I think even Rowenna could be persuaded to visit with Emily occasionally,” I replied.

“I like Emily. She was so ... accepting of me. And her smile just made me want to hug her so much and made me wish for a child of my own,” she confessed.

“Well, Dhunvael is interested in you in that way,” I chuckled.

“I know. Now that the Fae have left I hope we can soon talk on a more ... personal level,” she replied shyly, a new emotion for her, I suspect.

“At least you’ll finally have someone, assuming it works out, that is,” I nodded.

“Yes, an equal, I hope. I am determined that any partner must be so. I spoke to Arwen about this not so long ago and she agreed that it would be best.”

“She’s very smart.”

“Yes, and very much enjoys the teasing of Callum, along with her father and mother. Something I had never witnessed before. Yet it is obvious she loves him so much and treats him as her equal when they are together ... even if he isn’t, not really. That is, he is not a ... a Seer, not that he is human,” she stumbled slightly. Oonagh had, it seemed, got over her original opinion of Callum and Arwen and now accepted them, deciding that their relationship was none of her business.

“I knew what you meant.”

“I have to be careful with words. My past means I have to be precise otherwise some would misconstrue them ... deliberately so, according to Arwen.”

“Yes, Morgana had similar issues in her life when her main enemies were in the Council and not the Coalition or the Sidhe.”

“I have spoken to Mage Hermes of this; he said something similar and even that he was one.”

“People change, friend Oonagh,” I replied and gave her a formal bow.

“So I am gathering, friend John,” she replied shedding another tear as I moved to give her a hug, which was willingly reciprocated.

Expanding the interior of the Great Power was taking time, but it wasn’t something we dared to rush. Team John, including our Drow scouts, were busy removing the ... spores we called them, of the Old One. The expansion team were finding them using the stasis method recommended by Oonagh. Adsila then portalled them outside where they bloomed (so to speak) and were immediately re-absorbed by the Greater Power, unless they got very lucky.

The current discussions regarding the interior were whether to create a true world-like interior as the Daoine Sidhe had done with Azurana or just to hollow out a chamber and put them in it. Oonagh was in the create a ‘real world’ camp on the grounds that if the patripure did awake, there would be less to disturb them in this sort of environment. The other point was led by Hermes who felt (with some justification) that the transference was likely to awaken them anyway and we were running out of time. The discussions though were polite and no voices were raised. Currently Roxanne was keeping both options open, conferring with Athena and preparing for a transference at short notice once the chamber we’d expanded had reached the right size. For this we had a large ... team or possibly gestalt, though according to Abi they weren’t all connected at the same time, of various Seers from the worlds in the Alliance including the Rutasi Oraculê, the Veda Hive Minds and the Maraú-Uxuí Host Seekers. This group had prepared the transference ‘spell’ and, along with Una and the Psiontial gestalt, had figured out an early warning system of the approach of a hostile Power. That would hopefully give them the time to transfer the Vultoqi out before Sarkal could awaken them.

This also meant we had a large Seer presence in the Great Power to study the ... creature and the environment, as well as help expand it using fixed criteria that Seer Simone had constructed from her time scanning the Great Power that had housed Azurana.

I’m pretty sure there was a lot of information swapping amongst the Seer groups as well, as was Roxanne. There was precious little we could do about it ... even assuming we wanted to, Seers tended to work to a different set of rules and values from the rest of us.

Adsila and I were currently working on raising the roof of the chamber we were creating, me doing the grunt work as I saw it, she doing the fiddly bits like creating artificial clouds and a diurnal cycle and not, as Oonagh had done, creating a psychotic trap spell designed to weed out those with no magical power at all. In the end, the Azurans had figured a way around it by simply not looking up.

“Wonder if they even notice the sky or stars?” I thought out loud.

“I don’t know, John,” Adsila replied. “What knowledge we have from the one we captured shows no indicators one way or another.”

“Wonder how Sarkal intended to get them hopping from one world to another in the same universe then?”

“Hmmm, not sure, but I’m sure he would have got around to it sooner or later.”