Chapter 45

“So it was Beog?” Roxanne asked Athena when she attended a hurriedly called meeting of the advisory groups.

“Yes, but he found nothing, the presence of the Orbs ensured that,” Athena replied thoughtfully.

“So, no looking back in time at various incidents to find out the who and the what?” I asked.

“No, John. Because they are attuned directly to his ... quantum signature access they blind him to various ... senses and use of some Higher Power abilities,” Athena tried to explain what was, to us, a complex process, either that or she was coming up against the boundaries of what the Higher Powers wanted us to know.

“Like a powerful light source directly behind an object, illuminating all around you, but making it impossible to look behind it?”

“Yes, sort of. I can explain it to the Seers in more complex forms, but as analogies go, yes, pretty much like that,” she nodded.

“Nice to know he’s limited,” Roxanne added.

“He won’t be on Draenoric,” Athena warned. “Plus, you still wouldn’t want to meet him as he is now, trust me on this.”

“Aye, kind of figured that and it makes it another reason we won’t go looking for trouble yet, not until we can level the playing field for you,” Roxanne nodded.

“Even when we’ve dealt with the outer worlds, we’ll still have to be careful; fights between Powers rarely end well for humanity and others.”

“We’ll figure something out, we’ll have to. In the meantime, I’d like you all to work on various strategies to embarrass, humiliate or generally annoy the religious hierarchy of the Orc regime,” Roxanne ordered.

“The Inquisitor in particular?” Xi asked.

“If possible, though I suspect he’ll be on his guard for a while.”

“What of the Seeker?” Naimh asked.

“Order still stands to keep out of his way. He might be at odds with the Inquisitor, but that doesn’t make him trustworthy, particularly as we know via the Seers that the Inquisitor has one eye on him at all times when they’re on the same Earth.”

“Yes, Roxanne,” came a few assents from around the table.

“Arch, Jemima, permission has been granted for you to bring Joshua to the Loegrian side base, but not the Orc side. Apparently Morgana swung it for you, so thank her, not me,” Roxanne chuckled as both Arch and Jemima beamed at being able to see their son on a more regular basis, rather than once a month when they had a week’s break.

“I suspect Morgana talked to Simon about it,” Jemima added.

“Probably, but for those of you with families here or kids you’d like to see, permission is now granted to bring them here so long as they don’t interfere with your duties and they don’t mind being memory locked as to talking about here with anyone not in the know,” Roxanne further explained.

At this moment all the eyes of the Seers turned to me, Abi and Brianna.

“John, Brianna, it’s time. Imelda has started labour,” Abi announced.

“It’s been six months already?” I murmured.

“Aye, so what are you all still doing here?” Roxanne chuckled.

As we were Loegrian side, we didn’t need a hidden portal to move up the stream and went straight to Rowenna’s medical centre and hence to Kurukshetra and finally home.

We were greeted joyfully by Róisín, Jukar and Mark as they led us up to a comfortable looking Imelda who was nesting, for want of a better word, in a mass of cushions. Also present were Morgana, Jude, Ketty, Niras, Dorry and Pierre as well as a now showing Rowenna and Benjamin. Other guests were expected shortly, though Imelda only wanted my wives and me, along with Rowenna, there for the birth.

“How long?” I asked after the various greetings.

“A while, contractions are twenty minutes apart and she’s barely dilated,” Rowenna, who was scanning, replied.

“Not nearly quick enough,” muttered Imelda. “This last month I’ve felt like a beached whale while most of you were off having fun.”

“Hey, you insisted,” Brianna giggled. “I was perfectly prepared to take one for the team.”

“Wish you had now,” Imelda laughed then grimaced as a contraction hit. “Definitely getting stronger.”

“You’re doing fine,” Rowenna confirmed.

“I know, you aren’t the only one scanning here,” Imelda chuckled, making us all smile, as, until five years ago, medic Mages had hardly any information on pregnancies and birth. Then again with our healing powers, complications were few and more down to having to physically manage the birth as teleporting the baby out was forbidden, except as a very last resort.

More guests kept turning up and giving greetings as Morgana and Jude took over the roles of host and hostess and a gentle murmur of conversation washed over us in the background.

“Got permission for you all to come to the Loegrian side site when you’re ready,” I announced.

“Woohoo!” Róisín cheered gleefully. “You get to babysit Mark.”

“Not that much of a nightlife,” I chuckled.

“It’ll just be nice to be a whole family again,” Jukar said quietly. “We’ve missed you all.”

“Yes, it will,” I replied, seeing the nods off the others.

Five hours later I was holding my beautiful daughter, Maria, looking at her perfect form in awe as Rowenna and Imelda went about ‘repairing’ the minor physical issues to my wife the birth had caused.

“We’re ready,” Rowenna stated as Imelda got up, fully recovered, looking perfectly un-pregnant in her original shape.

“My ladies?” I murmured as they clustered around and I handed Maria to Imelda as we set off through the bedroom door to announce her to the world.

There was a sprinkling of applause as we approached the group of friends as they all clustered round to congratulate Imelda and greet Maria. Roxanne had even released Arch and Jemima from our mission to attend.

“So, the Council approved Roxanne’s request to permit families to the secure site, my Mage?” I rhetorically asked Morgana.

“Yes, John. It has become obvious the mission is extending beyond its original parameters and timeframe and we don’t want to cause hardship to the people out there.”

“No objections?” I asked, knowing how cantankerous the Council members could be at times if they were angling for something they wanted approved as well.

“Just the usual niggles about straying from the guidelines and provoking the Orcs into doing something rash. Though how much more rash than sterilising a world they couldn’t define,” she replied with a wry smile.

“Apparently they manage to get Beog interested.”

“Yes, I read the report and Athena’s postscript. Seems he’s a bit hamstrung on his conquered planets ... though still incredibly dangerous.”

“Yes, though we were reassured by Athena that he won’t be able to get to our side world. She can prevent that, and the other Higher Powers there won’t permit it either after she finally had a word with them.”

“She does get nervous talking about them,” Morgana nodded.

“Apparently there are a lot more of them than we suspected; some deliberately don’t show themselves to us ... or anyone unless they need to,” I shrugged.

“Another interesting piece of data to add to the tangled web of information we have on them, a lot of it confusing and contradictory,” she chuckled as Jude came across to bless Maria.

After the blessing the party continued into the night and, other than giving Morgana permission to continue the combat training for Hermes, Ketty, Niras and Dorry at our villa, wound down quite late, despite there being some packing to do before our trip to the main base.

Still, the following morning we all, including the children, portalled to Kurukshetra, then Loegria, pausing only to say hi to a few friends there and hence onwards to our main base.

Crnnch sat in silence as the Inquisitor more or less ranted on about the need to protect religious sites at the priority of anything else. He remained silent, despite knowing what Archimandrites Brnnt and Karkol had reported to him, that Beog seemed uninterested in anything going on in the outer worlds other than looking (and presumably failing) to find the enemy, whose pinprick attacks continued relentlessly.

“So, holy Inquisitor, how do you wish us to go about this?” Crnnch finally broke in when the Inquisitor drew breath. “There are more temples than I have staff and this enemy have good intelligence in that they appear to know where our forces are clustered. Something we have yet to ascertain how.”

“You are the supreme military commander on the planet, you can order the military horde to intervene,” the Inquisitor hissed.

“Whilst technically true, such a move would be unprecedented; it would also likely draw criticism from the Beoghra who monitor the activities of the Seekers as they suspect any unnecessary use of power. If there were a direct threat, I could. Until there is, I cannot.”

“Beog’s name is under threat!”

“Then get the Beoghra to order the Senior Adept to intervene.”

“That will take too much time.”

Crnnch carefully hid a smile. It would not do for the Inquisitor, or indeed his own staff, to know that the Beoghra had already refused such a request and that the Inquisitor was merely trying to secure his survival as he’d lost a tremendous amount of face with them in the incidents where he lost his females and at Beog’s temple of the footfall, despite there having been no way of knowing or preventing such incidents, or predict them.

“You should have found them by now!” the inquisitor snarled.

“You have seen all the evidence we have; you have seen the reports of our forces meeting theirs in the field. So where, holy Inquisitor, do you suggest I could have found them?” Crnnch asked mildly. “I am by no means even certain that Vultoq is their main target. The attacks are too random, too scattered and without purpose, save recently in their attempts to humiliate the Beoghra. Nor is there any evidence of them seeking out the Orbs of Beog here.”

“There is no evidence elsewhere, because they are attacking here!”

“And we are concentrating on Vultoq, but resources are limited and we are here to investigate, not defend,” Crnnch hit back, still keeping his tones mild.

“Pah! You are useless and I will report this back to the Beoghra!” the Inquisitor stormed before marching out.

“No you won’t,” Crnnch sighed in low tones. “Your job is far more on the line than mine.”

“Your orders, Seeker?” Slaarg asked politely, his staff relaxing now the Inquisitor was gone, though Crnnch still suspected they were being monitored.

“Ignore the pin prick attacks; they waste too much time and resources. Concentrate your efforts on any major attacks, particularly on temple properties, those I suspect may be part of their overall plans. Let the militia and the military horde deal with the horde riots as they will.”

“At your command, Seeker,” they all responded and left, leaving Crnnch to meditate on just who this enemy were and how he could arrange a meeting without the Inquisitor spying on him.