Author's note: There will be some hack and slash peppered here and throughout the rest of the story. I'm skimping on the gore factor simply because it's not what most people are coming to the story, but it's still relevant to the story so it warrants inclusion.
Also, there's no sex to be had in this chapter.
*****
The word had reached Mareth in the middle of the night with his page shaking him gently with the message, "Lystra says it will be ready soon." He didn't know what the message meant, but it didn't matter. It was only his job to deliver it.
The king bolted from bed, the need for sleep gone, and commanded the page to tell his entourage to get ready to ride. Dressing quickly, he was riding out to the site almost as rapidly as his horse would carry him. In fact, he had dressed lightly for fear that it might slow him down. He hadn't strayed far from the site almost since it was discovered, and certainly not since discovering the truth of it and that there was a chance that he could make it work. Now, if Lystra was to be believed, the moment was close at hand.
He spent the ride contemplating the feeling of the world at his feet. Once Erette fell the rest would follow and he would lay the groundwork for a dynasty that would last a thousand years. He was riding such a high he thought he might never have to sleep again.
He dismounted almost before his horse came to a stop in front of the molded, concealed stone and metal that led deep underground. One guard hustled to get ahead of him, barely managing to get through the door before him while the other followed him. Stairs led to ladders and on again until he reached the control room to see Lystra at the control panel with Drax behind her and off to the side with a smile where she ushered him forward.
The guards remained outside and his words came in as much of a rush as his body. "It works? It's ready to test?" Part of him didn't even want to do that. Part of him wanted to bathe his enemies in righteous fire at a moment's notice, but he was no fool. He didn't want to scorch the world unless he had to and he certainly didn't want to risk harming himself. Besides, a test had the virtue of maybe bringing the kingdoms to heel by itself.
If not, examples were good things to make.
"It works," Lystra said, her exuberance nearly matching her father's. She tapped several more of the switches that were marked, and they responded to contact, but they seemed to be inside the translucent material. With a few hand gestures she could change what she was looking at and what she controlled.
He shook his head.
Remarkable.
"It's responding well. There are a few more tests to run to be certain that it can and will target properly and that it can be linked to you somewhere other than here." There was pride and relief in her voice and she looked up at her father's happy expression and she thrilled at being the cause of it. It is capable of responding to simulations fed into it, and then we can judge whether or not all the pieces of it are working in concert as designed."
She keyed in more commands and most of the text that scrolled was electric blue with several yellow columns of numbers and words. "Then we have to make certain that it will respond to being controlled remotely as you wish rather than solely from here. But...I think we are almost there."
"Test in a few days?" He hoped he didn't sound too much like an anxious child.
She opened her mouth and the silence from it as she weighed her words had him on edge. "Barring some sudden problem from nowhere, I would say yes."
The joy that burst from him was real. He picked her up from her chair and did his best to squeeze the life from her. Kissing her cheek, he held his arms straight, hands squeezing her shoulders. His eyes were all warmth and his voice all praise. "I knew you could do it. Even when you doubted you, I did not truly. I knew you would perservere and conquer My daughter is brilliant. Because of you our people have a chance to end the conflict once and for all."
She wiped tears quickly from her eyes. It seemed like she had been working to that end all of her life. "That's all I ever wanted, Father."
He hugged her again and she let tears flow while he spoke soothingly to her. Glancing at Drax before closing his eyes to imagine what would come he told her his truth. "I love you, girl. With your help, a new, peaceful world will dawn for all of us."
"Forever."
***
Nelina Jaye stood and watched. It taught her as much as doing, and sometimes more. Her mother had made her first lessons in Court dynamics just having her watch the looks, and listen to the words whispered, and note who danced with whom or who stopped dancing with whom, and then ask "Why?" She forced Nelina to use her wits and knit the pieces together herself to get the picture. Maia would fill in the blanks when she was right, or lead her to what right was when she was wrong. Her mother gave her the tools to make her own judgments and then let her do it.
She took those same tools to the service where they served her well. Neral understood it and her other superiors nearest Neral's level appreciated that she only asked questions when something was truly unclear and was otherwise content to stay out of the way and observe. That's what she was doing now, but she admitted that it was more difficult now than usual. She wanted to chase the scum down and fight them and bring them to justice. Whether that meant an Erette prison or them hanging by their necks as an example to others, so be it. Bandits rolling in to steal the toil of others rather than working for it turned her stomach.
The possibility that this was a preamble to war made a bit more sense to her. It was still vile, of course, but it was more understandable somehow. It was soldiers doing their duty, even if misguided and fundamentally wrong. She could respect that sliver of it at least and for that alone, she thought it was so. What was bothering her more at the moment was the fact that they had stopped moving. The company was now in striking distance of the same villages that the bandits were hitting.
The people broken by those bandit raids had been coming before them in a steady stream for days now. The wounded and burned out met them on the main roads with the horses and animals they could save and their bodies carrying the evidence of the atrocities committed against them. The fact that they would bear those wounds long after the healers in the company tended to them was in their eyes.
Also in those eyes she saw hope and gratitude at the sight of General Jaye and a full company of the best the kingdom had to offer and that filled her with pride. She wanted to live up to what they thought she would be. She helped where she could lesser wounds but often just by being a listening ear. Many simply needed to hear someone tell them that it was going to be all right. She watched Neral down with them, helping where she could on the road and helping look through the villages for other survivors. She was above no one and deferred to those under her with more expertise than she in rescue or healing.
Patrols of these reaches met them too and reported directly to General Jaye, who listened intently to their stories along with Colonel Ynesa Dion, a soldier's soldier with close set, oval with eyes and fair skin. She seemed to defy age, her hair, deep black, fell past her neck. Nelina knew the Colonel had risen after a similar call to arms some years ago had taken the life of Devine Kress. Neral still spoke well of Kress and her voice never lost a hint of emptiness and deep sadness when she was the topic, as though it were all recent and raw. That Kress gave her life to get the rest of the group where they needed to be was all she would say and details weren't any of Nelina's business so she never pressed.
The border garrisons had been run ragged and spread thin and it showed on the weary faces as their leaders gathered at the clearing under a sky as gray as the collective mood. Neral knelt on one knee as she studied the map on the grass looking for patterns. Dion traced her finger along the river and noting where the pins had been placed. "They're not doubling back anymore."
"It didn't take long for the people or us to figure out they were doubling back to see what damage they could do," Major Ott responded. "So we did the same as best we could to keep people out of harm's way."
