Chapter 11

Crnnch was collating and referencing reports with his analyst staff, trying to find a pattern or clues as to who or what was interfering with their conquest of this world.

“An entire squad vanished?” he quizzed.

“Yes, Adept,” the senior analyst replied. “No bodies, no equipment, no signs of anything save a lot of trampled undergrowth and a felled tree.”

“Most odd, I wonder what they stumbled upon...” he mused.

“Perhaps they were chosen as subjects for study?” an analyst queried.

“I wouldn’t have thought them worth the effort, though I suppose you must start somewhere, if that was their intent.”

“Perhaps their equipment, the sled would have a gravity vortex generator after all.” the analyst temporised.

“You may be correct. Let every patrol now be accompanied by a couple of waargs, they may give a better early warning than the squad equipment.”

“Yes, Adept.”

“Anything as to where the new enemy are based out of?”

“No, Adept. It is all very well for the Higher Adepts to tell us to search the planet, but we do not as yet know what we are looking for and have found nothing out of the ordinary save missing natives, missing magical creatures and now missing Yr’ch,” the senior analyst said nervously, as criticising the higher Yr’ch could lead to a very painful enlightening.

“In this I agree, though you had best keep such opinions to yourself when the Higher Adepts return as not even I can be that honest with them.”

“Of course, and thank you for your forbearance, Adept.”

We had surprise visitors to our encampment when Mage Benjamin and his journeyman Callum visited, ostensibly to study Betsy and see if Benjamin’s special gift could iron out some of the more troubling quirks in her personality. Because Callum was with him, we also had Arwen, who immediately went over to debrief Talshish and his Fae, including Ilzik and the Drow. Despite her young years, Arwen had been intensively educated by her mother, Queen Verenestra, in what was to be expected from the royal Fae and took her duties very seriously, hence her business first attitude.

“How are things?” I asked her once she’d finished.

“All is well, though a Mage Clarence tried to have Roxanne censured and recalled for overstepping her mission parameters,” she replied with a sunny smile that also reminded me that she wasn’t human at all, but still very lovely. (Despite her mixed parentage, Arwen was biologically completely Fae; it was only her mental abilities she inherited from her father, Mage William, who, although no great shakes as a Mage, clearly had given Arwen the abilities of a Seer.)

“I rather doubt he’d have liked the Council reaction to his meddling,” I chuckled.

“Apparently not, ended up being ‘chastised’ by Sofya for attempting to micromanage an ongoing operation from afar,” she giggled.

“Yes, he’s never quite grasped that if you aren’t there, you can’t know,” I nodded.

“Yes, he was apparently ‘shocked’ to learn you weren’t just observing.”

“He didn’t want us to come and observe in the first place. Plus, all here were not going to just stand by and watch the Orcs commit genocide.”

“I agree, John, as do Mother and Father. They let ambassador Jolint inform the Council that Mother would mobilise our army to assist if Roxanne called for them as our renewed ethos is not to stand by if sentient beings are in mortal danger.”

“How things have changed,” I murmured seeing her nod and smile in return.

“Apart from that, Callum and I are getting on well and he’s now pleased to see me often enough.”

“Pleased enough to let you visit on Loegria?”

“Not yet, but he spends more time on Tír na nÓg courting me.”

“I’m glad,”

“As am I,” she giggled.

“No misbehaving though.”

“Of course not, John,” she broke out into an outright laugh. “Not for a few years anyway, though I corrected him on seeing to his needs as he was going to stop it until we ... um ... could sort it ourselves.”

“You don’t mind?”

“Not yet, once I’m sixteen, I damned well will.”

“That’s my girl,” I chuckled.

“Oh, Imelda’s starting to show,” she added handing over a few memory crystals. “They got your messages too.”

“Now you tell me?”

“Well, you wouldn’t have been able to view them with talking to me, but as Callum is coming back, now you can,” she grinned and stood up to more or less skip over to him as I shook my head with a wry grin at the way she got to chat to me first whilst not having me being distracted.

The news was good, no mishaps and none of my Ladies irritating the others, then again it rarely happened anyway as Róisín had chosen wisely, more from the point of view of them all getting along, rather than how they interacted with me. Still, Brianna and I just sat and watched several hours of holographic images from our partners and friends and enjoyed the details as well as the company of each other.

“I miss them,” Brianna sighed at the end of our viewing.

“Me too, but this job is important too.”

“Yes, although we were only supposed to observe, it’s become apparent we need to do something about the Orcs.”

“I agree, though I’m unsure as to what.”

“Yes, we don’t want to wipe them out if we can avoid it, just keep them on their own world.”

“Population problems they have will mean that keeping them to one world is not an option, not unless the Higher Powers get involved.”

“That’s true,” she sighed.

“As it is, we may just see what they do if we destroy that quantum neural convertor that the Orcs are using to permit their Thaumaturge to influence this world.”

“Think you can do it?”

“Here, yes. Longer occupied worlds, not sure.”

“Better guarded or hidden?”

“Probably, though it may just be that the Powers will adopt them as their own as I don’t think that many of the natives will be left,” I shrugged.

“Yes, that could certainly be an issue, particularly with the powers the Orcs can throw around.”

“Agreed and we are sort of here to prevent them wiping each other out, along with the inhabitants of any other Earths too.”

“Mission impossible,” she replied with a grin.

“Something will turn up; I can’t believe we’re here for nothing. Particularly as I know Jude could sort it out if necessary.”

“Him, Marcus and the other one ... Thaddeus, could, yes.”

“Oh yes, you’ve never met Thad, have you?”

“No, he’s never been around Jude and Morgana when I’ve been there.”

“I met him at Elaine and Mariamene’s christening.”

“Yes, I was busy sorting out an attempt to breach the Loegrian shield from Kleistos and missed it,” she replied with a grimace.

“I read about that. Seriously, a tunnel?”

“Yes, we had to rescue the diggers when the machine they were using breached the sea floor from where the shield deflected it.”

“Did you ever get to the bottom as to why?”

“Espionage and possibly sabotage by kidnapping. They wanted to place observers in and around Loegrian industry and snatch their top scientists for interrogation.”

“With the MAGES group keeping an eye on them?”

“It’s only silly because they don’t believe how well we actually do keep an eye on things,” she giggled.

“So you rescued the diggers and presumably kept the tunneller?”

“Yes, it was an interesting design, if nowhere near as good as we do with our minds for Loegria and their maglev network.”

“Tried a fusion borer laser?”

“Yes, whereas we just use our minds to pulverise the rock and fuse it, they attempted to melt it and insert a plug through to form the walls.”

“So the shield deflected the laser and alerted you to where they had to be?”

“Yes, but this is about Thad.”

“He’s a really nice guy, bit darker skinned than Jude and a tad taller, but got that whole serene, laid back, nothing fazes me thing going on as Jude does,” I replied, sending her a mental image.

“Wow, surprised some of the lady Mages there didn’t make a play,”

“He kept them politely at bay somehow,” I chuckled as Brianna was spot on with her observation.

“Had to be a use of power.”

“Almost certainly, but, he left having upset no one,” I replied with a grin.

“Magic,” she giggled.

“No doubt about it,” I laughed thinking about the predatory females in the Mage ranks who would see Thad as a potential lover, if not partner.

“Wonder if there’s a special one for him as there was for Jude in Morgana?” she mused.

“If there is, she hasn’t made an appearance and Thad isn’t saying.”

“A pity, it would be nice to play matchmaker again, particularly as it’s been a while since we got you involved with Jukar,” she replied with a sly smile.

“Occasional days when I wonder why the hell I said yes on that one,” I groused playfully.

“She loves you really, John. Just has an odd way of getting your attention at times.”

“I know and the making up is intense ... for her, but I love the quiet, introspective Jukar just as much, if not more.”

“I don’t think you can change her.”

“I’ve no intention of.”

“She’ll mature in time.”

“Be amazed if she doesn’t,” I chuckled, making her laugh too.

At this point we were summoned to a group meeting by Roxanne to go over recent events and be brought up to date no doubt by Benjamin who would bring an off the record commentary from Rowenna.