Chapter 92

Maurice, the Maraú-Uxuí, hung suspended from a (rather thick) silken thread in full view of the Vultoqi adelshaut, though was ignored as they did not think him intelligent nor had they done more than an initial scan. His appearance as that of a giant spider, so vastly different from the other members of the Alliance, caused him to be ignored.  Using nothing but highly attuned passive scans he was currently ascertaining just what it was the Vultoqi were up to in this place. Elsewhere on the planet, others of his kind were doing similar tasks and reporting back to the host-seeker the humans knew as Galadriel. The Maraú-Uxuí had only found out by accident that the Vultoqi would ignore them, as they would with any creature they deemed to be incapable of intelligence above a certain level. Certainly it made spying on the Vultoqi a lot easier and enabled the Maraú-Uxuí to get a lot closer than the other scouts the humans could and did use.

‘This appears to be no more than a detection grid relay post,’ Galadriel stated telepathically on a channel they knew the Vultoqi adelshaut did not monitor.

‘I agree, host-seeker. They do, however, appear to be spending an inordinate amount of time upon it,’ Maurice respectfully replied.

‘Wait but a moment whilst I scan your memories.’

‘By your command, host-seeker.’

‘You are correct, Maurice,’ Galadriel commented after a few moments. ‘They are fitting some additional detection equipment to it as well as placing some form of anti-tampering device capable of killing anything approaching without the correct mental signature.’

‘That could be dangerous for our allies in approaching one inadvertently,’ Maurice replied thoughtfully.

‘Yes, Maurice. Keep observing whilst I formulate some form of matrix which will warn and protect them,’

‘By your command, host-seeker.’

Patience being a character trait of the Maraú-Uxuí, Maurice would probably have hung on his thread for several days if necessary… so long as the Vultoqi ignored him that was. He did not need to feed, nor was he encumbered by a need to move or communicate with his own kind, unlike the strange allies he worked with. Indeed, Maurice and those others of the Maraú-Uxuí who were aiding their allies were considered an odd bunch within the consensus of the clutter, as their group was called. Most Maraú-Uxuí found the humans to be loud and emotionally unstable and that was without the inherent fear many of them felt from being within close proximity to a Maraú-Uxuí. Yet Maurice found them to be fascinating, particularly those who spoke to him as an equal and without allowing their emotions to cloud their psyche. He even had deep admiration for those who were ‘creeped out’ by him, but who always spoke with respectful tones and tried not to allow their feelings to become overwhelming. One such being the Mage Róisín, the mate of one of the few humans Maurice thought of as a friend. It was fairly obvious from her mental turmoil that Róisín had ‘issues’ with the Maraú-Uxuí, yet every day when they did meet she was always polite and never avoided contact, unlike a good few others, who simply could not cope with what the Maraú-Uxuí were. On the other hand her partner, Mage John, was always pleased to see Maurice and could recognise the arachnid by sight from amongst the others. He would often discuss areas of common ground with the clutter and the host-seeker. Naturally there were a fair few areas without common ground, but, in those, John merely accepted the differences and refused to judge the Maraú-Uxuí upon them, simply defining them as ‘different’. It was John’s attitude that made the Maraú-Uxuí’s stay in the encampment far more tolerable than it would normally have been. He and the few others who were comfortable around them had gone out of their way to ensure the Maraú-Uxuí’s mental state was kept stable and that they could retreat easily into the consensus they maintained in order to keep their sanity amongst the host of humans surrounding them.

‘I have defined a way to both warn of the presence of as well as enable the approach to these relays,’ Galadriel intruded on his thoughts.

‘Do you wish me to test it?’

‘If you would, please, Maurice.’

‘By your command, host-seeker.’

It was three of the human hours later that Maurice deemed the Vultoqi to be far enough away for him to be able to begin his approach to the odd looking structure they had been working upon. The information Galadriel had given him worked admirably and she was able, through Maurice, to fully scan the device and determine just what parameters it was designed to scan for, which, not surprisingly, turned out to be humanoid life forms.

***

“Please thank your people for this information,” I requested of Galadriel when she sought out the Seer group when I was talking to Abi.

‘We are pleased to be able to contribute to the Alliance,’ she replied.

“At the moment, you are the only ones contributing, at least until we can come up with some new ways to begin our own scouting missions,” I replied with a formal bow.

‘We only manage because, as yet, they do not see us as intelligent beings.’

“Their pride and ignorance will be their undoing,” I nodded.

‘Let us hope so, Mage John.’ she used the title the Maraú-Uxuí used for all magic users, no matter their species… except for the Seers though, they called them host-seekers.

Galadriel then left to go to the Maraú-Uxuí sanctuary we maintained on the edge of our encampment surrounded by empath suppressors to give them the peace and quiet they needed to keep their small commune functional.

Abi and I took the data we’d been given to the command tent where Roxanne and Kordanta were going over various plans to try to take the fight to the Vultoqi; in particular a strike towards what they called the echtra where the patripures dwelled in their primeval paradise. This was proving to be a bit of a headache as every scenario they’d ‘gamed’ had ended in massive casualties due to the known numbers of adelshaut along with what we knew of their magical abilities, not to mention their technology.

“More detectors,” Roxanne sighed, when she looked over the data.

“Yes, though Galadriel has given us a methodology with which we can fool them,” I replied.

“Aye, though it doesn’t help us much with what we truly need to do.”

“You could try fooling them the other way as a diversion. Set up teleport and portal blockers around this echtra and draw out their forces to an area from which they will not be able to interfere with our attack,” I suggested.

“We have grave difficulty in blocking their portals, you know that, John.”

“I know a Goddess who doesn’t. She did close their portals during the incursions on the Yr’ch cities on Vultoq.”

“Aye, she did, didn’t she,” Roxanne replied with a slight gleam in her eyes, along with a broad grin from Kordanta.

“Could still be costly for the diversion teams,” he stated.

“Aye, but it may just give us the chance to get our main forces to the echtra border and get Oonagh into it along with a select team to shut down the patripures.”

“We can certainly play various scenarios based on this and come up with a plan,” Kordanta nodded his agreement.

“Aye, come up with one that traps the most adelshaut but gives the diversion teams a good chance of escape,” Roxanne murmured thoughtfully as their eyes strayed back to the map table.

“I recommend using the Mazdani and Nosferatu as bait, along with a couple of Gorgons,” I put forward. “In a spell-dampened area they’re at least the equal to an adelshaut if it goes hand-to-hand.”

“Aye, though they simply don’t have the numbers to cope with the quantity of adelshaut we need to attract.”

“We can pull them out when Athena does her party piece though,” Kordanta put forward. “We just need them to be able to hold long enough to attract the majority of the adelshaut into the field. After that, our troops can join our main diversion as we attack this echtra whilst John’s team try and sneak in.”

“We need to have a word with Athena to make sure she’ll be safe enough as well. I don’t want her endangered simply to make the plan work.”

“If I go in with your people, I can practically guarantee the Vultoqi will come in numbers,” Athena’s voice surprised us by coming out of thin air.

“Are you sure you’ll manage?” Roxanne asked aloud.

“Yes, my powers will be enough to keep me safe and I will do my best for your people,” came the reply as a ghostly form of Athena appeared, simply to give us a reference point.

“I’m sure the Yr’ch will help as well,” I added.

“They will, but I would not announce my presence, otherwise they will all wish to go and some will be needed to assist in the other endeavours.”

“Aye, you’re quite the draw,” Roxanne chuckled.

“Yes,” came a slight giggle. “But in this, I’m most definitely not the main event.”

“We’ll plan accordingly,” Kordanta nodded.

***

“How are our plans to improve portal technology going?” the senior patripure asked at a meeting of the caveatra.

“Slowly. This new enemy appear to be extremely capable of spotting any research facilities, nor do we know just how they are doing it,” the patripure in charge of research replied.

“What of our entrapment methods?”

“So far nothing, my patripure,” a senior adelshaut replied.

“Most disturbing. There must be some way of detecting them.”

“We can only detect them when they move openly against us, my patripure.”

“Then perhaps it is time to bring our full might to face them when we do. Prepare a trap; permit them to discover a research unit and draw them in to their destruction!”

“By your command, my Patripure!”

“We shall prevail!”

“WE SHALL PREVAIL! WE SHALL PREVAIL!”

***

Kate and I were attending a Council of the Wise update meeting to which Roxanne had also been summoned to go over what we knew and had planned. Yes, certain of the Council members such as Morgana and Simon knew the overall details, however the majority of the Council didn’t and they were the ones who could cause issues if they weren’t kept in the loop. Hence the various ambassadors were also invited to the meeting to keep their various Mage Councils informed as well, though in the case of the Fae, Verenestra and William also attended and were sitting next to Jolint.

“So, we have what we are calling the deceitful weapon which if used correctly will put the Vultoqi leadership into some form of somnolent state?” Mage Zola asked after a long, involved briefing by Roxanne.

“We have the basis for it yes,” Roxanne replied. “The details are being handled by the Fae along with Mage Hermes.”

“Queen Verenestra?” Mage Cixi asked in questioning tones.