With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)

[Mr Zoat]

3rd Sigmarzeit 2512
Mid Morning

Lady Richilde pauses to examine a species of tree that I doubt that she's seen before.

"What is this?

"A cocoa tree. Native to Lustria."

She takes hold of one of the browning leaves and examines it.

"Is it diseased?"

"No, it just needs damper conditions and warmer temperatures than we usually get here." I sigh. "I knew that the yield would be lower than they get in Lustria, but I didn't think that they'd do this badly. I could probably build a greenhouse, but that seems a bit… Profligate, for a luxury product."

"What is its fruit?"

"Cocoa beans, which can be used to make a substance called chocolate. The dried bean can be used to make a hot drink, but it's the solid I was hoping to recreate."

"A drink? We import coffee beans from Araby. Are the two related?"

"No, though I see why you'd think that. And you're getting ripped off. They're roasting the beans before shipping so you can't plant them to grow them somewhere else, and that ruins the flavour. If you like coffee, I'll grab you a bag from the source and you can taste the difference."

"I doubt that trees planted in the Empire would do much better than these; we are further north. Have you tried opening relations with the various colonies on the Lustrian coast?"

"I wouldn't do that without coming to terms with the lizardmen first. I'd just get innocent farmers killed otherwise."

My skink priest contact Xhokiwoki was perfectly happy to provide me with examples of Lustrian fruit and vegetables, but last time I asked they told me that the Mage-Priests hadn't seen fit to speak about my situation. Whether that means they don't know, don't care or weren't paying attention when he tried to raise the matter, I don't know. And the Mage-Priests' view that the Old ones put humans in the Old World to stay there means that they almost certainly aren't just going to accept human farming colonies even if the colonies were prepared to pay them tribute.

Being carnivores, lizardmen don't have much in the way of arable farming and have no real interest in getting more. They don't want food, gold or labour. I pay for what I buy by returning stolen lizardman relics, but there's a limit to how much outstanding stuff there is.

She turns away from the probably-dying plant to look out across the fields being cleared by the labour of both local peasants and beastwomen. Yes, I could do it faster, but I need something that can be replicated.

"Have you considered growing them elsewhere?"

"Nehekhara is too dry. The only real alternatives would be Cathay or Ind, and I don't have any contacts in either country yet." I wave my right hand at the land being cleared. "This is all going to be conventional local crops. And I still have to worry that something is going to go wrong."

"Why? The soil in newly cleared land should be fertile and free of disease."

"We're basically in the Bretonnian version of Sylvania here. Slightly fewer zombies, slightly more mutants. I've cleared up as much residual Dhar as I can -and Loremasters of the Tower of Hoeth checked my work- but I do not want anything infecting people via the food supply."

She looks a little disturbed by that, and tries to brush dried leaf off her left hand.

I shake my head. "How often do you eat food that's been checked for Dhar contamination by a Loremaster? Do you have any idea how many cults I ferreted out in Altdorf?"

It wasn't all that hard. Scan for Dhar concentrations, then check with the Light or Amethyst College and then send in the Witch Hunters. The cults generally relied on secrecy amongst their members to avoid detection rather than magic defences, so I've been an out-of-context problem for them.

She nods, a little relieved. "Seventeen, and I take your point. Any of them could have attempted to sneak a potion of some sort into our food as they did with Uncle Karl, or cause some other grief."

We spend a few moments watching wheat seeds being sown.

"You mentioned the country of Holland on your world. Is there any part of your world that is similar to the Empire?"

"Oh, yes. You're closest to the Holy Roman Empire, but with a more sophisticated level of technology than they ever achieved. They had the same elected monarchy, just… More poorly organised. And of course they were monotheistic."

"Worshipping a single god is a little unusual-."

"No, they only believed that a single god exists. The two largest religions of my homeworld both shared that belief. The sort of pantheism that the Empire has would be… Plenty of places used to be like that, but the monotheistic religions converted most of them."

As far as I've been able to tell, monotheism isn't a thing on this planet. She's clearly having a little trouble with the idea. Even die-hard Ulricians want to be interred in a Garden of Morr when they die, and even a faithful follower of Sigmar would want a priest of Taal to bless their hunting before going to a priest of their main deity. It's a major difference between the Empire and Europe, and if I were a better historian I might be able to tell what changes it had made to their social development. I think that literacy rates are worse, but I don't know that for certain. Since they were never conquered by Tilea I imagine that Reikspiel is more like pre-Roman German than modern German… But it all sounds German to me.

"What other nations do you recognise?"

"Bretonnia is most similar to a country called France, which is south of my own home country. Estalia is almost indistinguishable from Spain. Tilea is Italy, though at its peak Italy conquered our version of Estalia, Bretonnia and the Empire. That's why I went there to find a manager for the road project; they were really good at roads. Once their empire fell apart it was over a thousand years before we started building roads as well as they did, and they're still respected for their cultural achievements. Kislev is Russia, the Hobgoblin Khanate is Mongolia… Only Mongolia is a human nation. Cathay is China, Ind India, Lustria is the continent of South America, a mixture of the Inca and Mayan civilisations. No Ulthuan, and with no Ulthuan we don't have a Naggaroth."

"And your home country?"

I wince.

"Ah… Well… The closest is… Albion."

"Albion?"

"They're about on a level with what we were two thousand years ago, before being conquered and civilised by our Tileans."

She looks decidedly uncertain.

"I suppose that they are better civilised that the people of Albion-."

"Look. You know the standing stone network that I'm incorporating into the road network?" She nods. "The people of Albion have a similar system in the Ogham Stones. It drains Dhar from the world while wrecking their own island. They literally can't build a better civilisation than they have now, and they did that to themselves for the benefit of the rest of the world. I realise that their society isn't very sophisticated, but they limited themselves for altruistic reasons and every generation born there has chosen to leave the Stones in place rather than tear them up to get some decent weather."

She nods, the disdain leaving her face. "Then you are right; we owe them for their sacrifice."

"No, what we should do is get elf or Nehekharan specialists in and replace the Ogham Stones with ones that don't wreck the entire country. But there aren't all that many people on Albion compared with the number of people in the Empire, so I can't afford to prioritise it. Or we could just get the polar gates closed and it would fix itself." I shake my head. "There isn't really anything of my culture there; they're more like how we used to be. It's like comparing pre-Sigmar humanity with the Empire. But-."

Winds howl around us, the sound deafening and the dust blinding! Shield up! A moment later it falls silent again-. Aranei is standing in the field, staring imperiously down at Lady Richilde.

"And who are you?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

17th February 2013
14:12 GMT

"…should be here."

Mercury looks around at the surrounding landscape as we step out of the fairy ring, frowning discontentedly.

To be fair, it does remind me a lot more of the landforms of Sussex, with chalky hillsides and short-cropped grass. I can see herds of sheep grazing, guarded by dogs and simply-dressed shepherds. It's not Cornwall, though…. It might be how Cornwall was a few thousand years ago when the nature of this place would have been defined? I can't see Mr. Marrack Very Senior, or any overt sign of his magic.

"Why isn't he here?"

Mitchell looks over to the closest shepherd, who has glanced up at us with no real expression of concern. "I could go ask someone?"

Robert shakes his head. "This isn't the biggest afterlife, but… They don't-. There's no infrastructure. No newspapers or cameras. Great Granddad could be anywhere and they wouldn't know about it, even if they've heard of him, which they might not have done."

Richard steps in front of the frustratedly-pacing Mercury.

"What do you mean, 'he should be here'?"

"Here!" She points at the ground. "Everything says this is where he was. He should-"

The hillside opposite us disappears. Instead I see a.. wall of rock and earth, small tufts of grass growing in patches, as if the earth had just shot upwards-. It's moving-?

I raise a construct barrier at the same moment as Mitchell fires heat vision and M'gann fires a telekinetic wave, a giant rock… Limb? Slamming into our position! My shield is knocked back slightly, then M'gann's eyes glow brighter and shoves the arm away trailing molten magma from where Mitchell hit it!

And that gives us a slightly better view of-.

"Is that a f-?"

"Yeah, mate."

There's a face, not so much carved from rock as rock just sort of broke in a vaguely face-like shape. Now that my brain has adjusted for scale I can see the shape of its humanoid body, and-. It's not paying us attention-.

"Yield, Brannan."

A grey fist of granite erupts from the ground and punches the fomorian in the ankle, soil spraying away and staggering it.

"I have no desire to kill you-"

'Brannan' sights something and brings his hands around in a slap, clouds of dirt erupting from the point of impact!

"-but your rampage ends here!"

Two hands fall to the ground, Brannan staggering a step back and staring at his wrist stumps.

"Hey, that's Great Granddad!"

Kon assesses the state of the fomorian. "Does he need help? Or the giant?"

M'gann lowers her right hand, eyes still glowing. Then she winces, the glow cutting out. "Anti-Life. He's been exposed to it. Somehow." She shakes her head, grimacing. "It's.. controlling him."

"Cornwall, do you know any mind-effect spells?"

"Couple? Not good ones."

I know the spells he means. They're variants on the ones used to confuse travellers in swamps and lead them off course. Usually they wouldn't do much in combat, but they should do what we need here.

Brannan shoves his wrist stumps down, boring into the ground before pulling them out-. With new hands on the ends. He waves them upwards, soil exploding and filling the air!

"Kon, he's doing an Antaeus."

Kon nods. "Match, you get the right leg!"

Mitchell is slightly slow off the mark, but as Kon zooms forward into the air he takes off after him.

Richard nods. "The giant who regained his full strength whenever he touched the earth. So they lift him and what?"

Robert rises into the air, though that's more to get a better angle than because he plans on getting closer. He gestures with his right hand and the air flows, giving him a corridor of clear air to the fomorian's face. Three glowing balls of light fly out of his left hand a moment later, shooting towards the fomorian's face and flying circles around it.

And I reach out, feeling where the malevolent black is constraining its natural desire flows. I can push against that, but unless I want to cause permanent damage to Brannan's mental networks I can't destroy them by myself.

"Miss Martian, please make him relive emotive parts of his own history."

"I don't know if-." Her eyes glow. "Okay, he's distracted, I can do it."

With Robert preventing him from focusing and M'gann triggering-. Yes, I see. Strengthen that link, nothing there, nothing there… That one, that impulse-. Back off a little because I don't want the orange light to overwhelm everything else.

"You are ensorcelled, Brannan!"

A bellow of air tears through the dust cloud, dispersing it and sand-blasting our position. Richard turns his head aside to spit out a mouthful of dirt.

"Stand down, or-!"

I see the moment that Graham Marrack notices that Brannan is rising into the air and not actively resisting any longer, then the slight change in his profile as he turns his head to glance at us.

Push here push here push here, and…

"Lady Metis, I ask that you aid this confused man in regaining his reason."

He's off the ground and he's not fighting back, but that doesn't mean much if we can't get the Anti-Life out of him and none of us can-.

Graham Marrack holds up his right arm, grey light forming a mist spear-.

"Captain, that's-."

He throws, the spear boring into Brannan's chest and vanishing inside his carapace! What? Why did he-?

"Oh." Richard sounds.. relieved? Why-? "It's fine, Oh El. It's a spell for destroying magic bound to someone or something. I've seen Zatara use it."

Mitchell pulls away and the leg he was supporting crumbles and falls apart. Kon looks confused as his leg collapses on him. The earth form clearly wasn't a golem or conjured elemental, so where-?

I fly through the air, construct shield projecting me from falling clods of earth and I grab a humanoid form from the centre of the mass and pull him free before turning and flying out. Setting him down next to Richard-.

Richard already has a healing potion out and carefully pours it into the unconscious man's mouth. He looks battered and his wrists in particular are inflamed. Feedback from the earth body? Nothing needs immediate attention-.

"Great Grandson." Graham Marrack floats down towards us, Robert backing up slightly as he approaches. "What are you doing here?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

17th February 2013
14:16 GMT

Robert looks his great grandfather over. He isn't wearing the uniform which he wore in life. Rather, he's dressed more like a druid, and one whose magic wasn't quite up to keeping all of the airborne dirt off the material. The stern patrician glare is everything his shade promised it would be, and only softens a tiny degree when he realises why his great grandson is hesitating to respond.

"I am uninjured." He looks over to the recumbent Brannan. "And Brannan will live. Good. Now answer my question."

Robert briefly looks at me, and I give him a shallow nod. He returns his attention to his great grandfather.

"We're trying to get to Erebos. Only Themyscira disappeared, so we can't get in that way."

"When I said that our line comes here, boy, I did not merely mean that the Christian Heaven is barred to us."

"No, no, I know. But we need to talk to Melinoë, because we need someone who's good at manipulating fear so we can give them a yellow power ring so we can get rid of the Anti-Life."

"And this 'yellow power ring' is in some way fear-related."

I nod. "The strength of the constructs is based on the user's command of fear. As you can understand, few heroes could function as wielders."

"Do you mean that they must engender fear, or understand it on a philosophical level?"

"Ideally, both. My first choice bearer was a man who made criminals afraid of him in order to suppress crime in a lawless city. Unfortunately, he's no longer an option."

"There are many fearsome men in Otherworld, though I doubt that they would suit your purpose. As for passage to Erebos, there are places I could take you where… Robert and I could open a gateway. Unfortunately, I cannot afford the time away from Cernunnos's keep to perform either function."

"What's the problem? I noticed that Brannan was infected by the Anti-Life."

"And he is not alone. Otherworld is invaded by the living and those they have turned with their sorcery. The remedy is obvious."

I nod. "We stop the invasion, you send us on our way."

He nods.

"Great Grandfather, I was wondering. Are any..? Are there any more of us here?"

"Yes. Our entire family, going back to the first of our line. Fifteen centuries worth of wizards of Cornwall, all spread about to deal with those bound to this… Anti-Life. What is it?"

"Supposedly, it's proof that life is inherently meaningless, self-defeating and self-destructive. The infected are prone to obedience and joyful fatalism."

"It afflicts fools and wastrels, then."

"It takes a rare wisdom to simply ignore it." Behind me, Richard makes a quiet choking sound. Jealous, probably. "But you can assume that it also weakens the resolve of the afflicted, like we confused Brannan's mind to aid in removing it."

"I will be certain to add such spells to my order of battle." With a slight gust of wind he rises back into the air. "With me, and bring Brannan with you. His family will want to know that he is well."

I nod. "Robin, are you-?" He taps his kinetic belt and flies after Mr. Marrack. "Good thinking. Mercury?"

She sticks her head… Out of my shadow. "Fine! I'll come out when you get there."

She ducks back down, my shadow rippling as she does so. I can't feel anything, but I can't help but feel a little disturbed. And from the look on M'gann's face, she feels the same way. I shrug, and we take off after Mr. Marrack with Brannan supported by a stretcher construct.

Brannan's collapse dumped tonnes of soil all over the place, but the shepherds and sheep managed to get out of the area before they risked getting entombed. But the stone-paved road is buried under a pile of dirt that will take a long time to move by hand, so I form a shovel construct and dump it on to the verge. If this was Erebos I'd leave it like that because the shades would have eternity to shovel it, but since in Otherworld they only have a normal lifespan I should probably… I use a series of crane grab bucket constructs to roughly fill in the holes the fight causes before heading after my team.

"…first actually like?"

Robert looks enthusiastic to be learning about his ancestors directly. His great grandfather on the other hand seems even less enthusiastic than normal.

"He died young, and like all of the oldest of us has spent more time here than alive. He knows little of modernity, and his magic is such that he is hardly human any longer. He serves our line more as an oracle than a magician."

"And… Grand-."

"My son is here, yes. There is a library on an island to the west of here. He is there if you wish to pay your respects."

"And your dad?"

"Boy, which part of 'all' did you not understand?"

"I haven't-. We're not a big family, and then there's all these people here who are. Granddad and Dad didn't take this seriously, so-."

Mr. Marrack's face relaxes a little. "You see our continuity as something to be proud of; a worthy history of service."

"Something bigger than myself, yeah. It's like I'm where I'm meant to be, you know?"

"I do. Indeed, I do."

And he sounds less displeased than normal when he says it.

"Ah, Captain Cornwall?"

Richard hesitates as we pass over a slightly more densely populated area. But only slightly. There are plenty of homes but not all that many people to live in them. Since Otherworld is a stop-off before reincarnation and since very few people subscribe to Celtic beliefs in the world of the living there probably aren't that many returnees any longer. Honestly, I'm not all that clear where the people they have are coming from. Wicca is probably close enough to the original Celtic practices to send people here, but that's… About it, really. All the old Celtic areas are happily Christian now.

"Yes? What is it?"

"Is that the right thing to call you? I mean, would it get confusing if your whole family calls themselves that."

"No, I was the first man in our line to call myself that. My son does not use the title and my grandson is still alive. My own father answers to 'Sir Samuel', though I doubt that you'll have cause to use it."

Richard nods, then pointedly looks down. "Where is everyone? On Earth, the Anti-Life broadcasters can just-."

"They have not been abducted. Not in numbers, at least. Few souls come to Otherworld, and fewer still stay."

"And you do? I thought people just lived in Otherworld until they died and then got reincarnated."

"Usually, that is the case. But our magic binds us here. I may travel to another realm of the dead, with effort. But spending more than brief moments in the land of the living is beyond me, and I shall never be reborn there."

Richard nods, while Captain Cornwall returns his gaze to the horizon.

"Now, look there: Cernunnos's hall. Our destination."

 

[Mr Zoat]

17th February 2013
14:20 GMT

'Hall' is right. The main building itself looks like an Iron Age longhouse, only better in the same way that Themysciran buildings are better than their actual Iron Age equivalents. Cernunnos has had thousands of years to work on the place after all, with all the skill and magic that he could bring to bear. But continuing the godly tradition of primitivism it's wood and stone and slate; no bricks or roofing tiles. And continuing the tradition of the Iron Age it's smaller than most modern primary schools.

The settlement around it continues the 'abandoned' theme of the villages nearby, except for a group of slightly oversized people sharing Brannan's build and… Yes, those are elves, wearing a glamour of ridiculous leaf-themed armour and generally looking like they've been heavily photoshopped. They'd probably look like beings of unearthly beauty to an Iron Age people, but between improved diets, makeup and the people I spend time with being at the end of the bell curve of attractiveness anyway-

M'gann glances at me with a smile.

-it doesn't really hit as hard. Plus, if I remember Sandman correctly they're all pretty plain under the illusion.

**What? You are.**

**I'm a shapeshifter who copied a human girl she saw on TV.**

**[The systems of emotions and desires I see in the people around me.]**

M'gann dips in the air in surprise, getting a concerned look from Kon before she stabilises.

**Is that what we look like to you?**

**Unless I make an effort to ignore it. Though in point of fact, I've learned enough about Martian desires to know-**

She goes pink.

**-that you're not exactly hard on the eyes in your default form either.**

**We.. can shapeshift away the parts we don't like easier.**

"I will warn you, be careful with the elves." Mr. Marrack has lost whatever mildness his tone had before. "They are deceitful and capricious. Watch your manners and watch your words."

A round of nods and he leads the way down towards the great hall. As we land, an oversized man and women rush over to where I place the stretcher construct, the woman checking on Brannan and the man looking towards us -Mr. Marrak in particular- for an explanation.

"We were able to free him of the spell. He should awaken presently."

The man breathes a sigh of relief. "Thank you, Captain. I thought that we had lost him."

"We recovered him. I have not found the rest, and will not rest until I do."

"You have my people's gratitude." He looks around our group. "All of you do." His eyes rest on Robert's white-cross-on-black-background, his head nodding in acknowledgement.

"Has there been any further sign of the one who did that to him?"

The man shakes his head. "No sign. The ground does not remember their passing, nor the air remember their breaths. And more mundane searches showed nothing either." He turns his head towards the woman. "Eadgyth, is the boy well?"

"Better than he has any right to be. He fought holding naught back, surging his magic freely. He should be tired to the bone, but he breathes easily."

I nod. "We used a minor restorative potion on him. Hopefully, we'll be able to question him about what happened."

"Aye." Brannan pulls himself into a sitting position, wincing as he does so. "That you can. That-. Voice. It was telling me-."

"That your life was inevitably self-destructive?"

His eyes dart around as he tries to get his head around what happened to him. "It sounded like it made sense."

Richard nods. "I know what you mean. I got hit a few weeks ago and it was… Like nothing had any.. real.. meaning."

"It had meaning. Whatever he told me-."

He winces again, and Richard's eyes narrow.

"Mannheim."

Brannan nods, slowly.

Robert frowns. "Great granddad, have they been building any… They look like radio towers, only the closer you get, the louder the Anti-Life is in your head."

"No. I have seen nothing like that. Otherworld may look like Earth, but the rules by which it operates are subtly different. I don't think that they could simply bring their transmitters here and expect them to function in the same way."

"Are you sure?" His grandfather's face hardens. "I-I mean, they've been putting them in standing stone circles on Earth. I don't think they'd do that if they weren't getting something out of it."

"No. I don't suppose that they would. There are connections from Otherworld to Earth, which the fae may use to travel or project their magics. But it is not a simple matter to use them in the manner you describe. Do they have a highly skilled magician would could manage the connection?"

Richard shakes his head. "Not as far as we know."

"One of the fae?"

…

Richard and I look at each other, coming to the realisation at the same time.

"Speak."

"No. Not a fae, exactly. But there's a good chance that they could have picked up… They call themselves 'sheeda'."

"I care not for the court they hail from."

"No, they're-. They're from the far future. Humans with.. bits of other things added on. I don't know if fae was part of the makeup, but they definitely had a… Dark fairy aesthetic. Robert, where was Britain keeping their sheeda prisoners?"

"We were keeping them in a prison camp on Salisbury Plain. Then they got moved somewhere else." He shakes his head. "Dunno where."

"The same sort of 'dunno' like where the conspicuously absent government superhero team were based?"

"I-. Maybe? Granddad, do you-?"

"Castle Baaleskein. The former owner was a minor magician, and he stated that he intended to leave it to the government to serve as a base of operations for supernatural operatives. It had the facilities to house a great many prisoners, though in my day it never had more than a handful. While its owner was there it was almost inviolable, but without him I could see it being breached by an intelligent foe."

"Alright then. Working theory is that sheeda have enough elf in them to use the fae-friendly connection points. How do we stop them?"

Horns ring out in a cheerful and grandiose fanfare as the elves march prance towards us, their blonde-haired leader grinning with a pompous smugness that looks weirdly out of place outside of a melodrama. It doesn't even annoy me, it's just too-.

Kon leans towards me. "Is that guy for real?"

It's too ridiculous-looking.

"Provisionally, yes."

An elven herald darts ahead and pulls out a scroll.

"Hail Lord Cluracan, sublime in grace and subtle in mien. Hail the ambassador of the Court of the Faerie!"

Their leader -Lord Cluracan, presumably- steps forward and takes a bow.

I clap, and after a moment so does the rest of my team.

He doesn't appear to get the joke.

 

[Mr Zoat]

17th February 2013
14:24 GMT

He bows like an actor receiving a standing ovation, hair cascading over his face in a perfectly even wave, then moving back into place as he stands upright. His eyes move-.

Ring, did he just see me and decide to make himself look taller?

This ring cannot evaluate subject motives. Apparent height shifted after subject looked at Lantern.

So, yes.

Correlation does not prove causation.

"Hail, friends." He throws his arms out in a pitch perfect piece of overacting. "I understand that you have a grievous need of our guidance and leadership, to prevent your people being preyed upon by a dastardly dark god." He shrinks his smile to something a little less risible and he makes eye contact with me. "But where are your manners. Won't you give me your name, stranger?"

I don't roll my eyes, but I do close them for a moment.

"In the interests of avoiding having the Ophidian eat you, no. Instead, I will tell you what it is and give you a creative commons license to use it as necessary in conversation or documentation."

Lord Cluracan sweeps past me and smiles at Mitchell.

"If that one intends to be oafish, might I ask for your name instead?"

Mitchell shrugs. "We all know that joke. We think you're asking us to tell you what our name is, then suddenly we can't remember our own name because you own it. Everyone who knows anything about fairies knows that. Why do you even ask? It's like the Sphinx's Riddle." Lord Cluracan appears to have spaced out slightly. "I guess if you asked enough people you'd probably find someone who hasn't heard it eventually, but I'm pretty sure Captain Cornwall would have jumped in if we were going to say something we shouldn't."

Stone cold.

"Yes, well done!" The smile is back, and the other elves… Appear not to have changed their expressions. Are they actually here? I mean, I heard the sound, but it's perfectly possible to feign any sensory input using a glamour. "It is nice to see that humans are still learning the old lore."

"I mean, I'm not human, but okay."

Ring, did you hear the trumpets a moment ago?

Logs indicate 'yes'.

Hm. But you have processing capacity. It's perfectly possible that you're affected as well. Scan for ground pressure under their feet.

Within predicted parameters.

And the impressions for the steps they've already taken?

Not found.

Hah!

Mr. Marrack appears to decide that he's had enough tomfoolery. "Do you know where they are operating? It is imperative that we find this… Mannheim, and stop him as swiftly as possible."

"It may be that I do." He affects an expression of what I think is supposed to be mock-offence, except that he's trying to convey that he is offended. Another exaggeration. "But I'm feeling a little put-upon at the moment."

Now, I don't know for certain that the other elves don't exist. They might be disguising their own tracks. It would hardly be surprising for a diplomatic envoy to be accompanied by elite special forces. So how do I test it? Seeing their desires isn't reliable because my vision is already being spoofed. Enkindling their desires won't do anything because they don't have any. Stabbing them in the foot while Cluracan is distracted might work, but equally he might sense it and have them respond appropriately.

"Then grow up. You are just as vulnerable to his attacks as we are." Mr. Marrack glances at me. "Or more so. And if what these heroes say is true, they are blocking off your access to Earth. That means little to a dead man like me, but for your people I imagine that would be inconvenient."

Cluracan rolls his neck, raising his arms in a gesture of appeal. "Do I look inconvenienced? I come here out of the goodness of my heart, bearing information which you want… And you have the temerity to mock me!"

He places his right hand on his chest, making eye contact with… M'gann, this time.

"Me."

"Captain Cornwall, does-"

My shadow extends away from me in a way not explicable by the light sources around me.

"-this land have any sort of-"

When it reaches the middle of the pack of elves, Mercury pulls herself out.

"-built-in concept of guest-rights-"

She reaches up and flicks the elf in the back, causing him to… Turn into elven confetti and float away.

"-which-. Never mind."

"Inside the hall, Cernunnos would enforce the peace. But we are outside. Still, I insist that-."

Cluracan glare at me, pointing aggressively with his right hand. "Guaaaaards!"

Mercury pops another as he marches past her while the rest draw their swords and form ranks. Cluracan looks rather pleased with their display.

"And what do you think of that?"

Richard blinks. "Who did they take?"

Cluracan frowns faintly. "I don't concern myself with learning-."

"Who did they take from you? I don't know who you think we are, but we're superheroes. It's our job to deal with situations like this. We don't want anything from you. Whoever it is, we'll rescue them when we rescue everyone else they've taken. And we'll try doing that whether you help us or not, but you helping out would make it a whole lot faster."

Cluracan's eyes widen, his expression.. actually looking like a real expression for the first time since I first saw him.

"I-ah… What.. gave me away?"

"You were over-acting, badly. I-" He glances at me. "-don't know why no one else noticed."

"I haven't met an elf before. It seemed credible to me that they might actually behave like that."

Kon shrugs. "I just thought he was an idiot."

Mercury skips along behind the shield wall, poking glamour-crafted soldiers into confetti. Cluracan finally notices, half-turning to see what she's doing.

"Lord Cluracan." Mr. Marrack still sounds stern, but there's a slight suggestion of compassion. "We do not ask anything in return. Tell us what you know, and we will-."

"My sister. My sister vanished, and the King and Queen don't care. Not for low-born like us."

"So not a lord?"

"For my birthday several centuries ago they made me lord of an unusually large toadstool."

Richard nods. "We all know people who've been taken. We wanna help."

"A-alright then. I'll tell you what I know."

Mr. Marrack nods. "I believe that Cernunnos will want to hear this from you directly."

 

[Mr Zoat]

17th February 2013
14:28 GMT

"Come, friends, and be welcome!"

Cernunnos's physical form immediately puts me in mind of a faun, only… Grown up. He's clearly larger, his horns are more developed and he seems calmer than the fauns in the stories Diana told me. I know that Olympians tend to be stronger than the gods of other places due to leeching power from titans, but I'm never sure what than means in raw numbers terms. Or how material or magical Otherworld is in relation to Olympus.

My own weak sense of such things suggests that he's more… Here, than other things, that at least in part there's more to him than what I'm seeing. But I don't know how significant that is. Could he ignore the Anti-Life simply as a consequence of his power? Or is he a faun who paid attention at magic school? As the others move to take their seats around the hall I palm a rune stone and-.

"If you want to have a cock-measuring contest, Lantern, I can just stand up."

He's wearing a kilt… Ah…

Mr. Marrack frowns at me. "Put that away, fool."

I put it away.

Not wholly unlike a faun, then. But that cup he's carrying is filled with water. He's a god of the wilds and wildlife, but… From a time when hunting and gathering were common ways to get food, when the wild was right next door. But I did a me because I don't have anything he wants and I didn't think that he had anything I could want.

I take a seat, and decide to let people more familiar with the situation than me take the lead.

"I see that Brannan has recovered his wits. Good work, Graham. Did he remember anything?"

"Only the feeling of despair that characterises the spell. But it seems that Lord Cluracan may know a little more."

"It was a most memorable toadstool." Cluracan shifts awkwardly. "Come, come." Cernunnos gestures to the space in the middle of the seats. "Say your piece."

"Thank you, oh horned one."

Cluracan.. walks into the centre of the room, and I blink as my brain tries to tell me something about-. I think he's nervous enough that his glamour of a man striding confidently is only partially covering it, but I can't be sure without actively intervening. Our host doesn't seem bothered by it.

"We were... Ah, my sister and I… It…"

"Do not fear, Cluracan. On a matter like this, we can avoid word of any adjacent misdeeds reaching the ears of your king and queen."

"We were facilitating a trade between certain parties. Parties we had both dealt with before. There was, ah… Something different about one of the parties, but since it had no effect on the transaction, we…" He exhales. "I didn't enquire further."

Mr. Marrack narrows his eyes suspiciously. "What sort of trade?"

"Nothing grossly immoral! Some things are less valuable in one place than another. The corporeal world has a great deal of corporeal matter, the worlds of concepts and forms more… Abstract goods. And there's demand for each in each and we can easily relay them."

I'm not sure how to feel about that. I can respect them for their entrepreneurship, but at the same time the sorts of things an elf would trade could be things that would be highly illegal in the human world if we knew that it was possible to trade in them. The Dream City has a roaring trade in dreams and inspiration, and I saw first hand some of the monstrous techniques people there are willing to go to in order to get their hit a little more cheaply.

I certainly don't trust an elf when he says that something isn't grossly immoral. While I don't think he'd say it if it was grossly immoral according to his morals, those aren't human morals.

"Who were they?"

"Their..? Names..?"

"Human? Elemental? God? What realm were you trading in?"

"Earth. They were all-. I mean to say, I think they were human." He points at Mitchell. "I honestly thought that he was human."

"What were they buying?"

"Dreams of misery and despair, which isn't that unusual! People use things like that on their enemies all the time. And…"

Mr. Marrack slams his fist against his arm rest. "I swear on my line, that if you don't start volunteering the information we need to rescue your own blood, then-."

"The bones of false martyrs, some samples of soil from various places… A final scream or two…" He shrugs, shaking his head. "We didn't have to source any of it ourselves… There may be a thing or two which I'm forgetting, I didn't think anything of any of it at the time!"

"Is that normal?"

"Normal for a group of wizards living in an ancient castle on a blasted heath? In this day and age? It didn't strike me as strange."

Mr. Marrack leans forwards. "What was the name of the castle?"

"Nnnnnnammmmme..? Ahh…" Cluracan inflates his cheeks as he tries to remember. "Baal…? Something."

"Baaleskein?"

"Yes! Yes."

"Baalfield."

"That too!"

Mr. Marrack frowns at me.

"He doesn't remember it well enough for us to reach a firm conclusion. Always check a theory with counterexamples."

"When was your sister taken?"

"We had just completed our transaction, and they offered us a little something to drink, and I palmed it and took it with me, and… We were on our way home when-."

"On Earth or in Otherworld?"

"Otherworld. When we were ambushed by giant flies of all things. I made an appeal to the treaty between our rulers and the Queen of Insects but they didn't pay a blind bit of notice. It was all I could do to escape myself!"

Mr. Marrack nods. "We will need the names of your contacts on both sides, and to be taken to the precise route you took. And we will need to follow up with the fomorians as well."

I nod. "Robin, you take the Earth side. I'll take the deep arcane side. Cornwall Boy, the fomorians." The other three don't have directly applicable skills, but… "Miss Martian, go with Cornwall. Match, Robin. Superboy, you're with me."

He's still carrying Helios's blessing and Nth Metal armour, both of which should help out. Miss Martian can detect Anti-Life infections easily, and it'll be a little more gentle to her to have her do that in a place that isn't overwhelmed with the stuff.

Brannan's father nods. "We'll introduce you to our people, though I don't know how much good it will do."

M'gann nods sympathetically. "We've dealt with things like this before. At the very least I can detect them before they can take anyone else."

"I will accompany the Lantern." Cernunnos doesn't stand, but he does smile at me. "It has been some time since I have headed deeper into magic. It will do me good."

"And I will keep an eye on my great grandson. Cluracan? Take us to where you were attacked."

 

[Mr Zoat]

3rd Sigmarzeit 2512
Afternoon

"Hng."

Master Architect Buri dislikes it when I present him with a plan out of thin air. And I've learned not to refer to it as a 'rough draft' or request 'his first impressions'. He hasn't written anything in his Notebook of Grudges that I couldn't immediately make amends for, but I don't like antagonising allies and I suspect that it's been a close run thing a few times.

"As you can see, it's close to the design for the improvements to my manor, with added rooms for her staff."

And don't ask him to 'suggest a site'. There are right sites and wrong sites, and he can tell me which is which and if I ignore him then it's Going In The Book.

"Are you magicing it up, or are you going to building it properly?"

He's not actually glowering at me, it's just that dwarfs have naturally glowery faces.

Now that's a tricky one. Dwarfs don't actually mind their allies using magic, even if they have no truck with it themselves. But Buri of Clan Ullek is here to do things the proper dwarf way, and that means not creating things with magic or Old One technology.

But. Using it as a tool is fine, so long as all of the pieces are properly constructed and put together. And since the Controllers are my liege-lords, flat out rejecting their tools is forbidden as well. So I can build it using the ring, or I can hire the dwarfs to build it, but if I'm going to create it from nothing then I shouldn't have involved him in that undwarfish nonsense.

I only need to be told once.

"I was intending to retain your services to build it while I transport the materials here according to your specifications."

Which is fine, as long as they're exactly to specification. I'm not supposed to create them through energy to matter conversion, but he hasn't asked and as far as I know there's no way for him to check. So peace is maintained another day, and if I provide substandard materials then that's my problem.

Contractually.

"Hm. After our current slate, or do you want me to move things around?"

"I regret the inconvenience, but the lodgings of the ambassador takes precedence over anything that can be paused without setting it back."

"So nothing, then."

And it took a while, but I've got to the point where I can tell the difference between a nothing-nothing, and a technically-nothing-but-we-can-move-a-few-projects-without-ruining-things-why-can't-you-be-better-organised-human, and that was the second.

"Thank you, Master Architect, I shall leave the issue and any improvements you feel necessary in your capable hands."

"Mm."

He's no longer looking at me, but he's got his drafting tools out and a sheet of parchment to draw a copy on. There'll be changes as needed based on where he intends to site it, but I've been paying attention and the ring's AI has been paying better attention; my draft is faultless for what it is.

Dwarfs are all for formal greetings, but leave-taking is much more informal. I've given him the job, he's accepted it, I can get lost now. So I leave his workshop and hope that Aranei hasn't done anything regrettable. Because when I edited her mind to remove her thoughtless malevolence I didn't try to make her incapable of violence. This is a violent world and people need to be able to defend themselves. Which means that she's still capable of deciding to kill someone on an individual basis.

But all there is outside is a slightly relieved-looking Lady Richilde, who favours me with a strained smile. "Have you agreed a contract?"

"It's covered by our existing contract, but you're being prioritised. Going by past experience, he'll have a list of materials by the end of the day, I'll pick things up and he'll get started tomorrow."

"And will you return me to Altdorf until the work is complete?"

"Ah. I can. But I assumed that you'd want to spend at least a day or so. I was planning to put you up in my manor."

"Your manor?"

I shrug. "I know it's not a palace, but it's perfectly habitable."

"Does your sorceress also reside there?"

"Yes. What did she… Say?"

"Nothing at all. I have had dealings with elves before, and there is a look they have when they decide that anything human is beneath them. She had the look of one who was insulted by my presence."

I smile, relieved. "Oh good. I was worried she was angry."

"You do not think that she is angry."

"There's a difference between being angry and being insulted. She was insulted when one of the beastwoman got her a cup of water but she wasn't angry about it."

"I misspoke. She is angry that I am here."

"Yeah, I… Thought so."

She looks at me expectantly. I look blank.

"Sir Paolo, why is a woman I have never met angry that I exist?"

"Okay, so, when I first got here, a ship of Dark Elf reavers were attacking the village. I stopped them, and offered them a choice between death and having me alter their minds to cure them of their evil. She chose the second, but I didn't fully understand some of the behavioural changes that would occur. To put it simply, she treats me as her patron, someone who she has to please in order to maintain her lifestyle."

Realisation dawns. "So she is your mistress."

"Well, where I'm from, she would only be my mistress if I was married to someone else. And while she's working under the assumption that I'm.. her social superior, so I'm going to eventually tire of her and move onto someone else, because that's how things work for Dark Elves."

"Do you intend to stay with her, then?"

"Oh, God no. I was clear about that from the start, but it's not about trading up for social reasons. It's because she's still a dreadful person held in check by the compulsions I gave her." I exhale. "But that's not how she sees it, and I suspect that she might have interpreted your presence here as an attempt by your uncle to…" Ah. How do I put-?

"To whore me out to win your alliance?"

"I was.. going to put it as 'form a marriage alliance'. I don't really know how things like that work, but… A knight who earns glory on the field of battle could reasonably expect a beneficial marriage as a reward. I have permanently killed a Greater Daemon, and a horde of lesser daemons and beastmen and orcs. And I have no family. I could see how she could reach such a conclusion."

"That is true. But I assure you that my uncle cannot arrange my marriage without the consent of my parents, and none of them have mentioned any such plan to me."

"But is that how it works?"

She considers for a moment. "Are you familiar with the writings of Prince Aleksandr Kloszowski?"

I briefly considered him as a potential successor, but after I checked it turned out that the man was far too self-absorbed for that to be a good idea. Maybe if I could train him with a second ring?

"Somewhat. He's a revolutionary Leveller, isn't he?"

"He writes about the failings of the Empire's rulers and the suffering of the poor. I don't believe that he has any actual idea as to what could be done to improve things. But one thing that rings true is that there is little room in our society for someone to advance themselves. A man born a farmer's son will become a farmer."

"Common men who join the army and perform superlatively can get knighted. In Bretonnia, if-."

She shakes her head. "How many ploughmen who complete their deed of errantry become dukes?"

"A duke will always have relatives to inherit his seat. It would never come up. Not unless there had been a huge slaughter."

"The great and the good of the Empire would tolerate a common soldier being knighted. And perhaps married to a third daughter of a minor baron. That is all. Anything else is a tale of the ballads. Tragic ballads, for the most part. While there is sense in what you say, the idea that someone who is not bound to them by blood could achieve enough to possibly justify so high a marriage is not something they would see as an opportunity."

"A threat. I could just upend the whole system."

"My uncle did ask me to learn your character. I would not be surprised if he implied to concerned notables that he was considering offering you my hand, but it is not…

She considers how to put it. I smile.

"It's not a serious offer, it's an idiot management technique."

"Just so. Regardless of your merit, that is all that it is."

Ring, monitor her response. "That's probably for the best." I gesture towards the pavement, and we begin our walk towards my manor. "I doubt that my betrothed would be best pleased, otherwise."

Ah.

 

[Mr Zoat]

17th February 2013
14:38 GMT

"Is the young lady going to show herself?"

I'm flying at speed and Kon is flying alongside me, but Cernunnos is keeping pace by running. That's not possible according to basic physics; his legs are moving in a relatively normal running pose, but the level of force he'd need to use moving like that would send him into the air and leave craters in the ground.

"No. You're standing up."

"Hah!"

That feeling that there's more to him is stronger here, probably because he's exerting himself magically. The land around us varies between woodland and open fields. They look like they're used for farming, but the few buildings we see look dilapidated and deserted.

"Are we going into the Dream?"

"I doubt it. There are few pathways into the Dream that can be travelled on foot. No, I see the path the elves trod. They sought to hide their route."

"Do you know a way into the Dream? We're trying to get there."

"Drink wine and then sleep. Or do you need to enter physically?"

"Physically. We need to get there so that we can go into Erebos by the back door. We want to talk to Melinoë, and I want to know what happened to Themyscira."

"There is no direct route, I'm afraid. If you can travel to the lands of the Sumerian gods, there may be a route that they use."

"How come?"

"Even the Dream Lord could not move an entire nation into his realm without leaving echoes. The Sumerian gods use that connection to sustain themselves, and they are not above leasing it for the use of others when if profits them."

"Why do they need to do that?"

"Our spheres decay without something to bind us to the material world. Or if we can use titanic levels of power to sustain them. I don't have that power, and neither do they."

So… Why..?

"Is it the Cornwalls? Are they what keeps Otherworld alive?"

"No. That helps, but it isn't enough power. Likewise with the small groups of people who still worship me. We are sustained by a great piece of-"

"King Kon-Sten-Tyn."

"-enchantment. Yes." He flashes me an inquisitive glance. "How do you know of it?"

"I'm friends with his current heir. Who I can only assume is descended from a daughter. He did something to corrupt the establishment of the Christian religion in England, didn't he?"

"Yes. Basically. It was more to ensure that they could not forget about what came before than anything direct, and the ley line network provides us power as well, but without his work we would probably have faded by now."

"Mercury doesn't like the standing stones. She thinks that they distort the natural flow of energy."

"Usually I'd advocate for the natural state of things. But earthquakes and volcanoes aren't good for humans, and those are what happens when geomantic power runs wild."

His eyes dip to the trail that he's somehow following.

"As I thought. Dorset."

"What's special about Dorset?"

"It's where cats first entered Britain. Good hunters, cats."

"And why is that important?"

"I'm not so good with domesticated animals as I am with wild ones. Dogs, eugh. Give me honest wolves instead."

"Why is it important that's where cats entered Britain?"

"There's no British cat god. Cats were brought here by Phoenicians, who brought the Kahndaqi cat goddess with them when they came. And thanks to all of the cats in Britain, there's still a weak link to her realm. It's a good place to get from one realm to another, if you don't mind the risks."

"And what risks are those?"

"Bubastis is a decaying realm. All the glory it once held is reduced to ruins and vague traces of power. And not all of its people like being dead."

Kon and I exchange a glance.

"So… When was the last time you were there?"

"Some time ago. It's hard to keep track here."

"And how much worship would a place like that need in order to regain something of itself?"

"This is like the time that Graham explained what trains are. Has something happened that would have revitalised Bubastis?"

I nod. "Teth Adom returned to life. He rules modern Kahndaq, and he openly worships its old pantheon. I wouldn't say… That the people have abandoned Islam, but… The old religion is… On their minds more than it used to be."

"That… Might change the situation."

"Ah, Paul? I… Went on the internet one time, and…" Kon looks away awkwardly. "You said the Japanese pantheon was recruiting. Do you think they'd have gone for… Bast?"

"They were mostly interested in new focuses of power rather than other old pantheons. Why..?"

"Catgirls." / "Catgirls."

"Bast isn't a kitten."

"The Japanese just use depictions of women with feline features as… Um. Ah. I'm not totally sure why, but they use them a lot. The Japanese pantheon might capitalise on that by offering Bast a position. Maybe."

"Humans with animal features." He grins. "That will never catch on. Ah!"

I point ahead to.. a partially collapsed keep. At the speed we're going we're on it in seconds, slowing down to a stop just outside what's left of the outer wall.

"Here?"

"Look for a cat icon. That will mark the entry point."

Kon and I nod, then the three of us proceed inside. There are signs of fires having been lit in the not too distant past, blacked embers on the floor up against several walls. Some footprints, mostly humanoid, but… I don't know, those could just be scuff marks. I'm not a tracker. But I can just wave my hand and release my construct lanterns to find a cat statue.

"What should we expect when we get there? You said it was more primal?"

"Yes. You will become less your material self and more your arcane self."

Kon glances at me, and I shrug. I coped with being a spirit snake in the Silver City, I can cope in Cat City.

"Is that dangerous?"

"It may be strange and disorienting for you. That may be dangerous. The experience itself shouldn't be."

I get a flicker of sensation from one of my construct lanterns. A heavily corroded cat statue about twenty centimetres tall tucked out of the way on the first floor.

"Found it. Let's go."

 

[Mr Zoat]

17th February 2013
14:44 GMT

Cernunnos stands in front of the statue, me on his left and Kon on his right.

"So how does it work?"

"You step into the portal that is a part of the statue." Cernunnos smirks at him. "Can't you see it?"

"Do we need to see it?"

"I can take you through without you doing so, but then you wouldn't know how to leave without me. And exposure to the primal world on the other end might not be safe if you cannot manage this simple feat of arcane control."

I narrow my eyes slightly as I unfocus on my meat-body and allow it to fade into the background a little. Like this I can see it plainly: the hole in the statue translating one state to another. At the far end will be a marker representing this side, the two twisting things around to make themselves into a bridge.

"Oh? A demi-god, are you?"

"Demi-embodiment would be more accurate. Do I just..? Shift through it?"

"We almost certainly perceive it differently. Do whatever makes sense to you."

"Ah..?" Kon's kneeling down to get a closer look at the statue. "Little help?"

"Kon, you've used Helios's power before."

"I glow. And that's something he does. I don't need to understand anything to do it."

"But you feel something when you pray and the power activates, right?"

"Ah… I think so?"

"Okay. Close your eyes and… Try and feel that feeling right now. Feel the power Helios gave you inside you, feel how it's connected to you."

He glances at me uncertainly, but closes his eyes and concentrates anyway. The faint corona of sunlight radiating from his body intensifies slightly.

"I dunno."

"Alright. How about when we went to the sun to ask him for a favour?"

"I wasn't really focusing on what if felt like. I was just hoping it wasn't going to feel like being on fire."

"Okay, well, just try feeling the light around you. Did Angelika cover that when she was teaching you kryptonian martial arts?"

"Yeah, I just hadn't applied it to…" He breathes in slowly, eyes closed. Then something… Shifts in the air around him, the air glowing brighter as he opens his white-glowing eyes. "I think I got it."

The interior of his mouth glows white as he says it.

"Okay, now how about the statue? Can you-?"

"Huh. It's like a… Three D funhouse mirror. The lights getting reflected and.. kinda… Twisted around."

"Can you get through?"

"I think so."

"Are you both ready?"

I raise my eyebrows at Kon, who nods. I nod in reply. "Yep. Who wants to go first?"

"It should be me. You may need a steadying hand when you reach Bast's city."

I hold out my right hand to the statue, and he-.

He strides forward without.. going anywhere. It's a little like he's running into a gale force wind, but he's getting smaller and… Not? Space isn't bending around him but that's the best comparison I can think of. Then he throws.. a spear at the statue, but he flies with it into the portal.

Kon and I stare at the statue for a moment. Then he raises his right fist and wiggles it up and down once, twice, and-.

My paper covers his rock.

"So does that mean I get to pick..?"

"You can go first. I.. might need a while."

I push further into the incorporeal, body vanishing as I become a snake of orange light. Light vanishes from my perception and is replaced by layers of drives and impulses based around the objects which I perceive in relief. But not the statue, that's it's own thing and… Not? Regardless, my own desire squirms me forward and through and…

And I'm buoyed along by my own desire following the trail of the elves desires and the desires of the many many people who have travelled this route before. A little surprising how many people have used it before.

And then I'm through, and…

Oh my.

Okay, so there's a night sky. It's a little short on stars and I think there are people up there, or impressions of people of something. I can see tiny whiffs of orange but that doesn't appear to… It's only a tight network crowding everything out immediately around me. Like I define that space, but for everything further away that's just one part of what it is. Like I can't define other people's thing but my thing defines my local area.

"What do you think, Lantern?"

There's a circle of wolves and deer running around a forest and horns and hunting…

I… I don't think I was ready for this.

I look away and there are statues, Egyptian statues-. Kahndaqi statues. Most of them are weathered and damaged, but… In a few places it's like an ultra-modern veneer in metal or terracotta has been added over the top. I can't see anyone-. Or anything that could be a person other than Cernunnos. And I'm very glad for that.

"I prefer the material plane."

"There are parts that are a little less raw. This is supposed to turn aside those who don't belong."

"Elves can cope with this?"

"They can pretend really hard. They didn't see what you're seeing."

"Can you track things here?"

"Can't you?"

I look, and in my immediate vicinity I can see the material desires that belonged to them leaving a trail across the still sand. No wind here, I notice. The trail ends when it gets too far away from me, so I'm going to have to follow every step.

"Yes. Should we expect company?"

"Your friend should be through in a moment. Bast herself will not come to see us, not in her domain. One of the few-."

Then the sun comes through the gateway, and I can't see anything else.

 

[Mr Zoat]

17th February 2013
14:48 GMT

Blinding, blinding bright! It's the sun and the light and burning! I can feel my face melting-!

Back up, back up, back away until my 'zone' and his aren't overlapping any longer!

"What-?"

Two beams of fire strafe the landscape, melting statues and-. Block! Shield!

"Kon, turn it down!"

"I don't know how!"

The beam of sunfire slams into my shield and starts melting it, orange light… Dripping..? Onto the sandy ground.

"Try pushing the feeling away a little!"

Lord Aker, I pray to you, in the name of Teth Adom, please help my teammate turn down his sun.

"I-! Ah. I think-."

The beam cuts out, and I breathe a sigh of relief as Kon does the-.

"Aagh!"

Flames roar out in all directions as his aura expands! I strengthen my shield as the ground melts into glass, the superheated pseudo-air pushing me back! I see the ground beneath the statues sag and cause them to tilt towards him as the flames cut out, and beneath them I get a momentary glimpse of a Kon-shaped mass of brilliant white sun fire.

"Kon, try to-!"

"Ah, a new sun."

I half-turn to see a pair of male lions approaching us. They look identical to each other and move in synchronicity with the same gait. But more than the feline outline I see yesterday and tomorrow, and… They're either Aker's body or his servants.

Duaj looks at me. "He's making quite a mess. Bast will not be impressed."

"Then we will make our apologies when we see her. Please, help him."

Sefer tilts his head to the right a little. "They can hardly repay us if they're dead."

"Aghwgh!"

Kon flares again, waves of flames shooting into the sky! The moment they dim, Kon curling up on himself in the foetal position in the middle of a glass pit, they dash forwards, stopping on either side of Kon and-.

And the sun goes down. It's still there, but it's… Only weakly visible. Kon looks left and right, smiling at them.

"Ah, thanks."

Duaj looks away dismissively. "You are in our debt. And Bast will want those statues rebuilt. This place is precious to her."

Ah, yes. The newer parts of the statues have survived just fine, but the older parts are wrecked. Several are partially submerged in the cooling glass while others are broken and thrown back. Some of the oldest have exploded, sending red hot stone fragments in all directions.

"Oh."

Except… No. The statues are… Echoes of monuments in the real world, magic energy forced into shape by the echoes of the devotion of mortal worshippers. I move closer, encompassing one pile of rubble in my domain bubble. Yes, I can see the strands of desire that were binding it together. With a little effort…

It doesn't move back into position. The statue parts don't melt down and flow back into each other. Instead, the pieces are pieces one moment and whole the next. Large pieces one moment and a restored statue a moment later. Can't do anything about the sand, as that doesn't have any particular desire-associations. But the first statue, the second… I go down the line of Kon's swath of destruction, pulling them out of the glass and making them…

The ones I restore don't maintain the damage they had when I first got here. Curious, and something which means that Bast shouldn't have any grounds for faulting me.

When they're all back in place I turn to the lions.

"Good enough?"

Sefer tosses his mane. "Good enough for us."

Duaj regards me levelly. "Whether it's good enough for Bast is another matter."

"Cernunnos, in your-"

I look around and can't see him. Kon's burning… Sunset orange… Huh, we nearly match. Walks over, keeping just far enough away that we don't overlap again. He looks around too. Then I try detecting the trail of his desires-. Yeah, Cernunnos isn't a big god. I guess that the sort of power someone like Helios can throw around would actually be a threat to him. But his trail goes there and then…

Cernunnos emerges from his own domain, shining with the concept of 'burrowing' and 'hiding'. He looks at Kon warily, then nods at the lions.

"-opinion, how irritated will Bast be?"

He takes a moment to check what we've done with the place.

"I doubt that she will be angry at all. You've made the place more whole. She might ask you to repeat what you did in other places."

I don't mind fixing the place up a little. I'd do that just to thank them for sponsoring Adom. I turn to the lions.

"Please take us to her."

They look at each other and then turn and head off down an avenue lined with statues. We fall in behind them, Cernunnos keeping his distance slightly while I perform a visual check on Kon.

"Are you feeling alright?"

"I feel.. weaker, but that's probably a good thing."

"What happened?"

"I just thought more was good? And then I didn't know how to turn it off." He raises his right arm slightly, looking at it. "But I couldn't-. It wasn't too much exactly, it was just-. I didn't know what to do with it. Did you get hurt?"

I shake my head, which is a much bigger motion for a snake. "No, that was fine. Do you have time for extra magic-related training?"

"Not right now. And after we deal with the Anti-Life I'm gunna have classes to catch up on."

"Fair enough. But this is probably something we should include in future training schemes. You never know when you're going to have to enter the realm of the gods."

He nods, and in the distance I can see the outer wall of the city we're approaching. Duaj turns his head towards me.

"Welcome to Bubastis. Try not to make a mess."

I consider my history to date.

"No guarantees."

 

[Mr Zoat]

4th Sigmarzeit 2512
Early morning

"You just want a jug?"

My early morning visit to Yousuf's coffee house in Zandri has attracted a small crowd. I've been here a few times, but not enough to be known above the level of rumour. Being so far from the polar gates, Arabyan magicians making use of bound elementals are a common enough sight, but they don't usually glow orange and they certainly don't have my complexion.

Yousuf just takes it in his stride as I nod, and starts pouring freshly brewed coffee into a jug. The crowd on the other hand are keeping back a little, just in case.

"How are things going with the honoured dead?"

"Pretty good, thank you for asking. The canal continues to widen, though it'll probably be a couple of months before you see a significant increase in shipping here."

"That will be nice. Do they drink coffee?"

"The Tomb Kings? Ah, not yet, but we're working on giving them a sense of taste. At the moment, the best we can do is have someone else drink for them and transfer the sensation over to them with magic."

"Is this for them?"

"No, we've been limiting them to relatively tasteless food. Crackers, ship's biscuits, things like that. It's been such a long time that anything with actual flavour might… Have regrettable results. But so soon as we know it's safe, I'll bring a few guests here."

"Thank you, sir. I've never served a dead customer before." He turns towards the kitchen area. "Zurafa!"

"I have them, father!"

A young woman emerges, a small bag of coffee beans under each arm. She then lays them on the counter next to the lidded jug.

"Excellent, thank you."

As this is a port city which pays host to travellers from just about everywhere, just about every currency is accepted locally. Old World currencies haven't undergone decimalisation, and the Empire has a weird conversion of 12 pennies to 1 shilling, and then 20 shillings to 1 crown. A peasant earns about a crown a month before taxes or expenses, which puts an interesting spin on the earnings of an adventurer in Warhammer Quest where a single goblin spearman paid out 20 gold if you killed it and even a mid-level magic item would be twenty times that.

Nice work if you can survive doing it.

I put down two silvers for the counter and slide them over. Yousuf picks them up and taps them against each other, listening to the sound they make. Then he smiles, sliding them into his apron.

"Thank you, sir! Come again soon!"

I smile back, grasping the bags and jug with construct hands and walking towards the exit. Everyone gives the crazy foreign wizard plenty of space as I exit the building and then fly upwards. There aren't many flying monsters in this part of the world -it's far too hot- but the local sultan employs a small number of carpet riders and most viziers maintain a powerful bound spirit in case of emergencies. None of them have taken a special interest in me before, but it's always worth keeping an eye out in case things change.

And now, north.

A little later

"Good morning, Esteban."

Esteban nods calmly as I appear at the gate to his farm, gesturing to the bag of oranges and jug of milk leaning against the wall with his walking stick. He's long since handed off running the orange grove to his son, but he seems to find my visits amusing. I get another nod as I float one of the coffee sacks over to his chair, and take the oranges in their place.

"Same time next week."

Another nod, and then homeward bound, cooling the milk and cleaning the fruit as I go. The sack of oranges go next to the juicing machine. Dwarfs don't actually need a plan approved by the Guildmasters for everything. For mechanical devices, it's enough that the general principles are approved and no part of what they're making is disapproved. A simple hopper and mechanical crusher was basically just a smaller version of what they use for crushing ore in the mountains, and so didn't present a challenge at all. My coffee paraphernalia… Well, if anyone likes the drink then I'll buy something.

Coffee on the table with ceramic mugs, pitcher of water, bread… Is done, so I take that out of the oven. Bowls of dried fruit, nuts and honey join them, and… Well, there are eggs and bacon in the cold room. No sense in getting it out unless someone wants it. The Empire is a few centuries away from developing the microwave or freezer, but dwarfs aren't foolish enough to try burning wood or coal underground for any purpose where it's not strictly required and I purchased a rune oven early on.

"Good morning, Sir Paol!" Sir Mallobaude strides in, his hair still wet from his post morning exercise shower. "Ah, peasant fare again! Martrud of Montfort surely smiles upon us from the Lady's realm!"

"You're welcome to get something else if you want it."

I walk over to the porridge pot and ladle out a scoop. Setting it down on the table and turn my attention to the juicer. "Orange juice?"

He frowns as he lifts the lid on the coffee pot and takes a sniff. "Ah. You think that we should drink poison, to train our bodies to resist it. Wise indeed."

"It's called coffee. It's from Araby. I assure you, it's not poisonous."

"What is not-?" Lady Richilde walks in from the direction of the guest room, stopping as she sees Sir Mallobaude. "Poisonous?"

"Fresh coffee, direct from Araby. There's milk and honey if you want to dilute it." I pull three oranges out of the sack and load them into the hopper. "Orange juice?"

She's still staring at Sir Mallobaude. Right, no tabard.

"Sorry, it's usually-" I deposit a smock on him from subspace. "-just the three of us."

"Will Lady Aranei be joining us?"

"No, she's abjuring my bed at present."

Sir Mallobaude shakes his head. "You give that filly too much rein. I tell you, she wanted you to demonstrate the strength of your ardour after she felt threatened by the presence of Lady Richilde. Letting her leave indicates a truly heartless callousness."

I crank the orange-crushing handle, feeding the oranges into the mechanism as the juice begins to flow through the spigot and into my glass. Lady Richilde watches the process curiously, clearly finding it more interesting than Mallobaude's chest now that it's covered by a layer of wool. The gearing makes it easy to use but slow to fill a glass, the skins of the oranges making quiet plopping sounds as they fall into the pig swill hopper.

"I don't like treating people like petulant children, even if they're behaving like petulant children. Lady-."

"Sir Paol the Heartless, the bards shall name you! Lady Richilde, you know the minds of women better than he, tell him that I speak the truth!"

Lady Richilde pours herself a mug of coffee, takes a small test-sip and then adds a small spoonful of honey. "Were I in his place, I would be more concerned for the feelings of my betrothed."

Glass filled, I cease cranking the machine and wait for the last of the juice to run out.

"In Queen Khalida's country, it would be perfectly normal for a nobleman to have several concubines. And possibly even junior wives, if the situation warranted it."

I don't think the fact that the same technique that has allowed her to taste for the first time in millennia can also be used to share other sensations is really a topic for the breakfast table.

"Where is her country?"

"Nehekhara. She rules the city of Lybaras."

"That's where you began the canal. Your betrothal gift?"

"Not how I originally intended it. I thought she'd be interested in a ceremonial marriage with.. a suitably armigerous second son. But it seems that I was the outstanding candidate. Oh and.. we're… Ah, I'm not a skeleton fetishist, we're-."

Her face falls. "I had assumed it was a ceremonial…"

"We're planning to restore them to life, but no. Not ceremonial."

"I think it might be best if we spend the day going through all of your plans, so that I can properly… Summarise them for my uncle."

"Sure thing. Orange juice?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

17th February 2013
14:50 GMT

"I do indeed come from the most perfect city of dreams, sir." The merchant smiles in a punter-friendly manner, though it's not completely disingenuous. Dream-Baghdad's people do genuinely love their city and respect their Caliph. "Have you visited before?"

"Yes. Once the present difficulty in the material world is dealt with, I will be returning to the court of the most wise Caliph as he directed, to tell him of my journey through a dream storm."

"Through a storm? That is a thing that all men know is impossible."

"It was certainly difficult. Would it be possible for you to relay a message to the palace for me? I wish to apologise for the delay, but as I said, the matters of the material world have required a great deal of my attention."

"I would like to boast of my close friendship with the greatest of kings, but the truth is that I am a simple merchant. I have no way of gaining entrance to the palace. The guards would simply turn me away."

I pull a small quantity of sand up from the ground and melt it into glass, including a structural irregularity in the shape of an orange sigil in the centre.

"Please, show that to the guards. If they don't let you in, you can keep it as a memento."

His smile fades a little as I threaten to draw him into a situation far above his preferred risk threshold. But after a moment he starts to picture the potential advantages.

"And you want nothing else?"

"I want many things. Everything, really. But today I only seek two things: a message sent to the Caliph and news of an abducted elf."

"Ah. Well. I am sorry sir, but I have never had cause to have dealings with an elf."

"In order to skip a potential waste of time, I am obviously happy to pay for accurate information. There is no need to talk around the subject."

"And I would be happy to take your money sir, but few elves make the journey here and none at all come to my stall."

"Would you be interested in establishing a trading relationship with them?

"No, but if you have a contact then I have a contact."

I nod as best my serpentine head can manage. "I will seek you out in Dream Baghdad once my business here is concluded."

"I will see you there. Good day to you, sir."

I turn away, leaving the glass cube in his care. The market here is nothing like as large or chaotic as the one in Baghdad, and my avarice sense quickly demonstrates why. This place serves as more of a through-road than a place for casual purchases. With no real resident population people trade with their contacts in private sales. If you want something then you arrange a purchase in advance. The stalls are mostly displaying examples of wares, acting as a lure for people who want something else. There are things here that I'm sure even the better educated Atlantean magicians would like to be able to purchase, so I'll be sure to put Queen Mera in contact once this is over.

"...anything older."

Kon is conversing with someone who looks like a relatively normal man aside from the hole in his chest over where his heart should be.

"'Older'? My friend, Martian materials are uncommon enough here, and you want something older than this?"

He holds up… It looks a little like M'gann's kuru pendant, though the design is more simple.

"You won't find that anywhere. Search all of the realms you want."

"I will! Thank you."

Kon steps away from the stall and heads towards me. He shrugs as we make eye contact. "I was hoping I could get something from before the Guardians did… Y'know."

"Honestly, I'm not sure that would be a good idea. While I don't approve of everything the Guardians did, excising those memories allowed Martian civilisation to exist."

"Right, but…" We turn and walk up the main boulevard towards Bast's… Temple? Palace? Cernunnos felt that giving her a little warning might be for the best. "There could be all kinds of things about what martians can do that they don't know anymore." He raises his left eyebrow. "And since when do you want to lose information? Or give up a way to make M'gann more powerful?"

"Since there's no real way to test whether or not experiencing a Burning Martian's dream will turn a modern martian into one."

He frowns thoughtfully, then shakes his head. "I don't see how that could happen. The only minds they had to communicate with back then were other Burning Martians. Modern martians know what it's like to not be monsters."

"I suspect that you're right but I don't know that you're right. And without a way to test it…"

"If that did happen, could we undo it? I mean, the Guardians did it in the first place."

"There aren't enough Guardians left for them to be willing to send someone to oversee an experiment like that. As for a Lantern… Maybe? I wouldn't want to take the chance on one of the local ones, myself included."

He nods, clearly dissatisfied, as we reach the end of the thoroughfare and begin walking up the steps to the entryway. The walls around us are covered with Kahndaqi hieroglyphic depictions of both Bast and mortal cats-. No, wait. That one is Sekhmet. I load a copy of everything I see onto my ring's database. I'm sure that if I knew more about their theology that the story on display here -accurate or otherwise- would be quite informative, but given the huge span of time Bast was worshipped for I don't know which particular form of the mythology it is referring to.

"Do we really need to talk to Bast about our mission? I don't think she can really help us."

"This is her realm, and we know they came here. Even if she can't help with our main objective, there's a good chance she can give us useful information."

"Anything we couldn't get by asking around the market?"

"Maybe. It will be quicker and more honest, though."

"If she decides to help."

"I'm fairly-."

A blur lands in front of me, grabs me with ferocity and bloodlust and leaps back up, pulling me along with-. It? No, her, that's-.

Sekhmet tosses me so that I roll across the brick platform at the front of the palace proper, coming to a halt about half way across as she glares at me, teeth bared.

"Do you think I am a whore, Lantern?"

Unlike the housecat-looking Bast, Sekhmet definitely has a more lion look. Those are big teeth she's showing me.

I opt to stay down.

"No, oh goddess. I have never thought of you as such a thing."

"And yet you saw fit to offer me to the Olympians."

"They are the gods I worship. You may consider the fact that I want you included among their number as a sign of my admiration. I didn't consider Zeus worthy."

She growls, but given that her teeth mostly disappear afterwards I think it was a 'marking territory' growl rather than an 'I'm about to tear your throat out' growl.

"And you were not just trying to make a cat joke?"

…

 

[Mr Zoat]

17th February 2013
14:54 GMT

Sehkmet is a goddess of war and violence, ruthless in defence of her cubs and people. She's also a goddess of healing, because if you get on her bad side you're going to need it.

On the other hand lying to a goddess isn't a particularly good idea either. And I've just spotted Cernunnos behind her and the deer-man appears to want me to avoid angering the lioness-woman. Yes, obviously, but how?

"I find that adding a little humour makes the central point-"

Her eyes glow and then she's there, claws slashing as commerce is continued by other means!

A-ow!

Guh-! I've been knocked back into a semi-human-. My head is still snake-shaped, but the rest of my body-.

"What are you doing?"

Kon's crested the stairs and is taking a stance. I try shaking my head, but his eyes have gone up to sun-on-the-horizon.

"A little humour makes the central point more memorable, but if I have offended you-"

Does this type of snake have the ability to spray venom? No? Okay, change what type of snake I am, load the venom glands and try and tempt her closer.

"-then I am sorry. The fault is purely mine. Please tell me what I must do to make amends."

She ignores Kon to glare at me, clearly still unhappy.

"The people of Kahndaq are-."

Claws in the chest!

"They don't worship me any-"

And spray! Get as much as possible in her mouth and up her no-

Agh! A slash wound, but she was too distracted to give it her all.

-se!

Ah, I've got a small amount of ambrosia left over as a gift from Hephaestaean, put it in a pressurised tube and squirt it down her throat and then back the heck off because I'm not actually sure this is going to-

Sekhmet hisses, wiping her muzzle with her teeth showing!

-work come on come on!

She shakes her head, blinking and staggering a pace as the alcohol reaches whatever passes for her bloodstream.

"I will not forget this."

Then her facial structure begins to change, cheeks widening and muzzle flattening and fur changing from dirt yellow to dark grey. She blinks for a moment, then rearranges her robe to adjust it to her more feminine frame.

She makes a lapping motion as she tastes the high strength alcohol I just sprayed her with, then appears to become aware of me.

"I know you. You're Adom's friend, the Orange Lantern."

"Yes, divinity."

I bow politely-. Then find myself snake-tongue-first in cat boob.

"And you are the one to whom we owe this restoration of our estates!"

I retract my tongue, but not before tasting her health and vitality. There's a sense of retreating tiredness, and injury recently healed-.

And a finger on my forehead pushes me back.

"I think that you have tasted enough of my teats."

From slightly further away, yes, I see that new and vital fur is growing over patchy older fur, new meat and fat pushing shrunken skin back to healthy dimensions.

"I am glad to see that you're well. I wasn't sure exactly what effect restoring Adom would have on the domain of the Kahndaqi gods, but it looks like a positive one."

"It has been." She looks out towards the rest of the city. "We have not quite been fully restored as yet, but as more people reach out to their older gods, that will come in time."

The advantage of modern communications technology. She doesn't need to displace Allah from Kahndaq. A few worshippers here and there will be plenty to keep her in good condition.

"I had a few ideas about speeding that up, but I'm afraid that I have more urgent business to attend to at the moment."

"Even when this place was nothing but ruins, I still had eyes everywhere. And now there is so much more to see." She turns back around as Kon strolls over to stand besides me, checking my wounds as he does so. "What is this business?"

"Can we get to Erebos from here?"

Bast turns to look at Kon. "Nephthys has not fully reawakened, and I don't think that the other gods with authority over the dead could take you there. Is it passage between the realms that you seek?"

"No, that would just let us skip a stage. We need to know about a couple of elves who came here while acting as couriers. If you can tell us who they were buying from or transporting goods to that would help a great deal."

"Why should I share their private affairs with you?"

"Because the male elf -Cluracan- was lucky to escape the people who successfully abducted his sister Nuala, and he's asked us to free her. Our only interest is in securing her safety."

"And not in the undoubtably underhanded dealings of the merchants? They are my city's lifeblood."

"In your realm, the trade laws are what you make them. The material world is in such disarray that enforcing any particular law at this point is impossible. Unless they are trading with people infected with the Anti-Life, in which case I will attempt to persuade you to authorise me to kill them."

I pointedly look towards the city.

"After a certain point, I suspect that your city's recovery will be made easier by trade treaties with other realms, rather than enabling single individuals to sneak in and out. I would be most happy to act as your emissary, or to guide your emissary to receptive ears."

"I have already had an offer on that subject."

"From the Japanese? I half-expected that. My advice would be to turn down direct inclusion now that you've got another option, but be open to cooperation. And make sure that the other gods are prepared to transfer power to Amon if anything happens to Adom, because at the moment he is your brand and this could all reverse if he dies."

"That's a sensible idea, but I wasn't referring to them. It seems that the pantheon of the Aztecs have undergone a similar rebirth to the pantheon of Kahndaq. Do you know anything about that?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

17th February 2013
14:58 GMT

Aztec… No? I mean, I wouldn't be astonished to learn that some of the Sons of Dawn picked up… Parts of their religion, but I can't see Hugo bringing back the more murderous parts of the religion. Most of his people have Euanthe as the most prominent deity, with various elemental beings becoming background figures. Some of those are loosely related to figures from old South American religions, but I don't… Think there's anything that could cause a change like this.

"That's news to me, oh Bast. Ah."

I mean, there's… Aztek, but I haven't seen any sign of him around. His secret society might still be active, but they're secret. And so far as I remember they don't really do anything like the old version of the religion. It's a little difficult to cut peoples' hearts out heroically.

"May I ask how they managed that?"

"No, but Tlazolteotl hasn't looked as good as she does now for… Longer than I can remember."

Something like that couldn't happen without Zauriel noticing, right? I mean, I wouldn't mind if people switched to worshipping the Aztec gods as long as everybody's hearts remained where they are…

"What did she ask of you?"

"That I visit her realm with a few friends. A peaceful visit between pantheons squeezed out by monotheism."

"I don't know enough about the Aztecs to suggest anything. Though I am a little surprised by the timing. I don't think there's been any sort of resurgence in their worship on Earth."

"Then perhaps I should see for myself. Now that I have the power to have choices again, I enjoy using it."

"Uh, Sekhmet seemed annoyed about my suggestion that she replace Ares in the Olympian pantheon."

Bast blinks. "Did she say why?"

"She thought that I was trying to prostitute her and that I was making inappropriate cat jokes."

"I think that she's still annoyed about not getting to offer her power to Teth Adom. Granting him her stamina, strength or speed would have been a great advantage to us both."

"How do I calm her down?"

"You do what you did. I am her when calm. But perhaps a gift would not go amiss, delivered by messenger just in case."

"Thank you. I'll do-."

"Ah." Kon takes a half-step towards her. "So, Nuala? Are you okay with us questioning people?"

Bast considers him for a moment, tail waving back and forth.

"The covenant between man and cat is long since broken. But cat-spirits of all kinds come to my city, and they know where their dishes are filled. And they share what they see."

"And are you going to share with us?"

Her eyes narrow slightly, her left ear flicking. "They don't have cats on Krypton, do they?"

Kon thinks for a moment. "I mean, not any more."

Her ears flap, and she looks towards the steps. "And speaking of broken covenants…"

A large black cat walks up the steps, calmly looking us over before turning its attention to Bast. "I did what you asked."

"You did what I paid you for and used it as an excuse to entertain yourself. But if you want to stay in my realm, then you will take them to the ones the elves spoke to."

The panther's tail jerks from side to side. "Perhaps I don't."

"Oh goddess, is this creature annoying you? Because a little orange light makes all creatures more obedient."

The panther bears its teeth and crouches slightly.

"Oh don't even. You threw your weight around when you could, and now someone else is doing the same you're acting like it's inherently unreasonable. You can deal it but not take it."

Kon shakes his head, turning to Bast. "Have you ever considered getting a dog? Loyalty's, like, their defining trait. I got a wolf, and she's great."

"Those appear to be your choices." Bast walks right up to the panther, forcing it to crane its neck to maintain eye contact. "Do as I ask, be controlled, or be replaced. You may choose as you like. Now."

The panther holds out for a moment, then cringes, tail going down and teeth being once more covered by gums.

"I will obey."

"Good." Bast's eyes flash and the panther twitches, blinking rapidly. "My agents have shown you where to go. Take them there, guide them, and make it clear that anyone who doesn't answer promptly will earn my ire."

"I will."

Bast turns back to us, head held high. "You two are interesting mortals. I expect to see you again when this is over."

Kon and I bow politely, then walk over to where the clearly unhappy panther is waiting for us. Cernunnos joins us a moment later as Bast returns to her recliner and starts licking her right hand.

"I'm sorry. Sekhmet was out when I arrived. She said that I smelled too much like food to talk to."

"Not a problem."

I consider making a 'pussycat' comment, but decide against it.

"Do you know what triggers the transformation in the other direction? I'd like to avoid it."

"She can trigger it voluntarily. The only other thing that I've seen trigger it is the scent of fresh blood."

"Don't bleed." I nod. "Good plan."

"Hey, ah…" Kon walks closer to the panther, which ignores him. "I'm Superboy."

"I don't care. I do this on sufferance." The panther turns away from the main thoroughfare and into a smaller alley. "The elves have spoken to many people, and as Bast has shown them to me so I will show them to you."

"Thanks. Look, I think we got off on the wrong foot. Orange Lantern can get a bit…" He glances back at me. "Demanding when he gets stressed. Can we pay you back for this?"

"I've never eaten a member of your species before. Leave me your arm when you go, and I will be content."

Kon glances at me. Hm. Well, I can't easily cut his arm off or replace it, but I can synthesise a new arm and leave that. I nod.

"Sure. I can do something like that. So who are we going to see?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

4th Sigmarzeit 2512
Morning

Lady Richilde frowns. "…a vampire?"

Sir Mallobaude nods. "As a Questing Knight, I should slay him. But Sir Paol recounted to me the history of Count Vlad von Carstein and I realised that as his peasants lack a human knight to protect them, he is their only defence against the mutants and monsters common in this Dukedom."

The look she gives me is significantly less friendly. "Von Carstein? Who tried to conquer the Empire and turn it into another Land of the Dead?"

"Ah-."

"As it was recounted to me, the peasants of Sylvania paid him and his family a tithe of blood in place of their crops. It disturbed me to think of it, but upon reflection… How different is that to what we Bretonni do?"

"Unless you drink blood, it is quite different."

"We take the majority of the produce of their labour in return for our protection. Under a vampire a peasant may die of blood loss, it is true. But if a peasant does not have enough to eat, is his body not weakened? Is he not more susceptible to disease? Is his capacity to labour not reduced?"

"Vampires slay their peasants on a whim."

Mallobaude's face shifts to a more sombre expression. "And if you believe that knights do not, I could recount those incidents that I myself have witnessed. Oh, they do not eat them, but there are trivial acts which knights consider to impinge upon their honour that can result in a peasant being cut down. And not a soul will speak against it." He shakes his head. "Ultimately, it is the behaviour of the man that I will judge, and while there are many knights more noble than Sir Gwilym, there are all too many less."

Sir Gwilym was the chap who tried to talk Mallobaude around to the dark side when we first met. He's actually my closest neighbour, and… Yeah, he's not worse than the majority of local rulers. Which is an issue, because while I suspect that followers of the Chaos Gods are being rallied against men all over the world, he's right there. And there are more than enough unhallowed corpses in the area for him to put together a decent sized army if he wanted to.

As far as I can tell he's a Blood Dragon but not a member of the Order of the Blood Dragon, a descendant of Abhorash but not of Walach Harkon... But how closely he follows that ideal is debatable to say the least. Abhorash would have wanted him to go on a tour of the highest concentrations of monsters in the world in order to master his blade and himself, while he mostly just lives like a normal aristocrat. He is willing to talk to people he considers to be in his social class, which is why he merely responded to my persuasion of Mallobaude with ill grace and an invitation to visit him if he changes his mind rather than going into a frenzy.

Lady Richilde takes a moment to gather her thoughts before turning to me.

"And do your plans include reuniting the Duchy of Mousillon under Sir Mallobaude?"

Mallobaude shakes his head. "By the Bretonnian Laws of Chivalry I am a Questing Knight. I cannot claim a seat until I drink from the grail, and… That seems unlikely to occur. While I consider my deeds here to be virtuous, they are not the sort which the Lady rewards."

She frowns. "Have you abandoned your quest?"

"I… Did, but…" He sighs. "I… I misunderstood.. certain things about my faith. I was despondent when I came here, and not… Clear of thought. Having had time to reflect… Upon my faith and vows, it may be that when I am no longer needed here I will continue my quest."

I reach over and pat him on the arm. "Granting him the Duchy would be a matter for the king, though I'm not aware of any heirs of the former duke's line."

He shakes his head. "If I became duke, I would have to see to the appointment of a new Knight of the Realm to this village. Unless you wanted to take the Knight's Oath."

"Honestly, I'd be happy to hand over local administration, but I fear that we're getting off-topic. Lady Richilde, I think that's about all of it. Was there something that particularly concerned you?"

"Yes. Vampirism."

"I assure you that I'm not a vampire. Queen Khalida was killed by Queen Nerferata, and she hates all of vampire-kind. My point is that a vampire should be judged by the same metric as anyone else."

"No, though I am glad of it. I am asking because I do not see how a man could do all that you say that you want to do within a mortal lifespan."

I nod. "Not see it all to completion, certainly. I mean, if everything goes really well and everyone pulls together, I think the Empire's road network could be completed before my fiftieth birthday." I huff-laugh. "So maybe eight times that, optimistically. Wait, did you think I was planning on becoming a vampire so I could see it all happen?"

"I was considering it."

"Oh, no. No. The ring responds to my desires."

"It can make you immortal?"

"Do you see a single scuff, notch or other flaw in the door? Any gap between the tiles, the bricks or the flagstones?"

She frowns, looking around. "No?"

"No stains on the countertop?"

She gives her head a little shake. "I don't understand the point you are trying to make."

"I abhor decay. In civilisation, yes, but also in my environment and my person. I abhor things getting worse. I'm not doing this because I'm a moral person who has decided that it's the best use of his abilities in a 'with great power comes great responsibility' sort of way. I do it because… Have you ever seen a Herdstone?"

"No, but I have heard descriptions."

"It's viscerally disgusting. The first time I saw one I was filled with the certainly that things like that Should Not Exist. So they don't. Same thing with my body decaying. I can fix injuries to my body by my own revulsion at the thought of being damaged. So… Yeah. Daemon Princes and vampires are more immortal than me, but I don't have to worry about ageing to death."

Mallobaude looks at me quizzically. "I know that daemons who are physically destroyed return to the hell-realm that spawned them, but what mean you when you say that vampires are immortal? Any number of vampires have been slain in Bretonnia alone."

"Ah. Temporarily. You see, a normal person is connected to their own presence in the…" Not 'the warp', they wouldn't be familiar with the term. "The realm of magic. Their soul. It's connected to their body until they die, at which point it's cast loose. If they've made the appropriate preparations then it will be picked up by their god, and if they haven't then it'll just drift until a daemon consumes it. With me so far?"

Two nods.

"Part of the process of becoming a vampire causes the soul to be brought into the physical world and merged with their body. That's why vampires can't undergo Chaos-based mutation or be marked by the Gods of Chaos. But it also means that they can't ever enter an afterlife. Instead, when their body is destroyed, their soul is bound to their remains and gradually soaks up dhar until it can repair their body and… Then they're ready to go again. It's why I dump the bodies of the vampires I kill on Mannslieb, and why witch hunters who've got the time burn their bodies and mix the ashes with silver and quicklime before spreading it over a wide area. It's why other vampires put the bodies of their fallen in Black Coaches: so they can absorb power from death as they go and speed up their resurrection."

Lady Richilde's eyes widen. "Then every vampire… Even Vlad von Carstein and his accursed heir Mannfred-."

"Oh, Mannfred's already back. One of the reasons why I'm staying away from Sylvania is that he's one of the few people on the planet who could kill me."

At least until my armour's ready. Master Runes are not to be rushed. And assuming that I have time with everything else, because stabilising Sylvania is going to be a long term task. There's a smaller chance of him finding out about me than Malekith, so I'm not prioritising him.

"He's back?"

"Yes, but he's trying to unify Sylvania at the moment so it's not urgent. And if we get the roads set up we could reduce his access to dhar to the point where he can't raise an entire army. So what do I need to do to win the support of the Electors?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

17th February 2013
16:36 GMT

The clay man with the unusually large head and eyes nods slowly.

"Yes, they came here. They purchased a few drops of divine blood from me."

I nod. "What sort of things can that be used for?"

As far as I can tell the majority of his body is made of unfired clay, with fired plates positioned like armour on his larger surfaces. His body is blockier and squarer in proportions than a living human, as if he was some sort of prototype for humans when our shared creator didn't quite know what he was going for.

"It is a powerful way to invoke the power or presence of that god. It has uses in any one of a million magics."

He gestures to a table of alchemical equipment with a sweeping gesture of his right arm, small cracks visible at the joints. The cracks are emphasised in several places by the fact that they're bleeding.

Cernunnos frowns at it.

"These are just a few of the ones I know."

Kon nods. "Did they say which ones they wanted it for?"

The clay man looks at the panther for a moment before returning his attention to us. Yes, he's only talking to us because Bast has okayed it, but I doubt that he's more loyal to one customer than he is to himself.

"Travel. A god of travellers."

"Which god?"

The clay man shakes his head. "An old, forgotten god, nearly faded from existence, little more than a bundle of ideas. Active gods are not so easy to take things from."

"Ghoulish."

"It's an existence."

"Were there any other elves around? White skin, riding insects?"

"Not that I saw." The clay man brings his right hand to his chin in the classical thinker pose. "Though I do remember seeing some large beetles in the area. I didn't think anything of it at the time. Beetle-themes are common amongst Kahndaqi gods, so it may be nothing."

It may have been, if several other interviewees hadn't mentioned it as well, while other merchants who we spoke to didn't.

"Thank you. I believe that's everything we need. Is there anything that we can do to repay you for your help?"

"Oh." He sounds surprised. "I thought that I was answering you under threat of expulsion."

"You are, but I might want to come back here at some point and I'd rather have better relations with people."

"That is wise. There is one thing I would like from you."

"Yes?"

"I am pursuing a project of self-improvement. I believe that your patron's blood would add colour to my life. I ask only for a small amount, and it will be purely for personal use."

"I don't know how to get blood from the Ophidian. But if you'll draw a contract with a personal use limitation you can have a few drops of mine."

"You are not a font of primordial power."

I reach inside and feel the lines and flows. Shapes corresponding to the tattoos on my body and to the power they were designed to evoke appear on my outer surface. And some I don't remember getting or can't identify. That's… I suppose that's working as intended, but it might be worth getting a check-up once this is over anyway.

The clay man's eyes widen further "Oh."

"Acceptable?"

He nods. "I will write the contract and seal it with appropriate blood." He walks over to his counter and takes up a piece of parchment and… He squeezes his right forefinger into a point, the very tip extruding blood as a pen extrudes ink.

I let my tattoos fade as his finger scratches out the terms and conditions. Kon walks over to me with a frown on his face.

"Giving someone your blood?"

"Not a good idea generally, but the contract will be bound with both our blood. The penalties for using it outside the agreed terms will be nasty."

The clay man nods. "My reserves boiling and baking my core from within?"

"I was thinking more along the lines of your reserves denaturing."

"How merciful." He scratches some more, then jabs his finger. "There." He walks over with the contract, and… Yes, plain language, and a quick ring analysis suggests that there isn't anything I'm missing other than the lack of an obvious explanation as to what the personal use is.

But that's his business. I open my snake-mouth and extend my fangs, then raise my right hand and prick the end of my middle finger. One spot of blood goes in the indicated spot on the contract, and-

"Here." He points to his forehead, the hard brow plate merging with the rest of his soft head clay.

I nod and reach out, resting my finger in a shallow divot on his forehead for a moment before pulling it away. The red-orange of my blood marks the centre point for a moment before the clay oozes up to envelop it.

"Aah. Thank you." His eyes shine a weak orange. "You are welcome to return to my shop again. I wish you the best of fortune with your elf-hunt."

"Thank you." I nod, and then lead the way out of the shop.

We convene in a huddle outside.

"Beetles. Cluracan said his sister was taken by insects, and insects were following them."

Kon and I nod.

"Who around here keeps track of insects?"

"They're probably Khepri's thing, and…" Some parts of Ancient Kahndaqi mythology are a little… Confused. "He and Atum are… Related, somehow, and so he'll probably speak to me."

"What about the god-blood? The blood of a god of travellers could be used to access places and bypass guards, but I don't think there's anything particularly terrible it could be used for."

"I'm sure that Mannheim's come up with something. There are all sorts of places we don't want him to get."

Kon nods. "Like the Tower of Fate?"

"Among other places. Ms. Panther, where is Atum's court?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

4th Sigmarzeit 2512
Late Morning

"…revolver design doesn't jam, but the automatic and semi-automatic pistol are more popular due to the greater magazine size."

I'm not a gun expert or an American, but I've been able to dredge up enough about gun design to interest a small number of engineers and the Imperial Gunnery School in Nuln. From above I could still make out the damage caused during the attack by the Chaos Lord Tamurkhan two years ago. I've also seen that they've made fairly significant efforts to improve public health, because they know perfectly well that Nurgle doesn't lose just because his war leader dies. Every germ in the world will be his herald and champion given the chance, and Elector Countess Emmanuelle von Liebwitz did not want to lose the peace.

"The great advantage of the cartridge design is that the time-consuming business of loading powder and shot are handled well before the battle starts, leaving the soldier with the simple job of removing one twelve-shot magazine and inserting another one." I have the construct demonstrate, though I can only remember roughly what it looks like myself. Not a lot of guns in suburban Britain. "Even having to slot in individual rounds in a revolver is far faster than using a powder horn."

My audience has grown from the small number of relatively junior engineers who came to listen mostly as an excuse to bunk off work to a larger group including a few more senior men. And they're actually listening rather than just scoffing.

"Now, for long arms, this is the most popular option just about everywhere."

An image of the AK-47 floats at the front of the lecture hall. Thanks to Jeremy Clarkson I do actually know a little about how this one works, though I've never personally seen one.

"Thirty round magazine, and there's a switch on the side to change from single shot to full automatic. The recoil from one shot resets the mechanism to the ready position and ejects the rear part of the round to clear the barrel. Anyone here left handed?"

A slight hesitation, then a couple of left hands go up.

"Do you see the problem?"

"Heh."

One of the senior engineers nods, smiling to himself.

I nod to him. "The problem with the ejection system is that while it throws the spent cartridge free if you're right handed, if you're left handed it ejects it right into your eye."

The sinister members of the audience smile awkwardly.

"Which isn't great, but the aim when they made this was to make it as mechanically simply as possible. A variable ejection mechanism would have been too complicated. Now, as for larger guns-"

I generate an image of a field gun from… World War Two, I think?

"-you can see similar principles maintained. The shells are made in a factory so that the crew can load and fire them faster. The gun has a mechanism for absorbing the recoil, and there are hand cranks for altering the angle and elevation built into the mechanism. Note also the armoured shield for the crew to duck behind and the spades anchoring the gun in place."

A senior engineer points at the image. "What are those wheels?"

"While thin wheels allow better speed over cobble stones, fat wheels of hardened rubber prevent the gun sinking in the mud while also letting them grip uneven ground better."

He frowns. "Rubber?"

I take a rubber ball I acquired in Lustria out of subspace and toss it to him. He reaches out to catch it, then starts in surprise as it bounces over his hand and into the row behind him.

"It compresses and bounces back. Where I'm from we use those as children's toys."

The junior engineer who fielded it bounces it twice, then notices his senior glaring at him and hands it over.

"Of course, heavier versions of the automatic rifle are also used at shorter ranges."

I don't know machine guns well, but I did see a picture of a Maxim gun at some point so I generate an image of that and add one of a Gatling gun.

"These feed rounds in on a belt, which also carries away spent cases. More advanced versions include a water-based system for cooling the barrel, because continuous firing like this causes it to get extremely hot."

That's nothing they don't know, but they're used to thinking of it in terms of warping the interior of the barrel if a cannon fires for hours, or making the impurities of the metal in the barrel cause an explosive misfire. Not in terms of the barrel setting fire to the people operating it.

I'm really not sure how much of what I'm saying is something that they can put into use. The revolver looks a little like Von Meinkopt's Micro-Mainspring of Multitudinous Precipitation of Pernicious Lead, aka the repeater pistol, but that still needs to have powder and shot loaded each time. But they understand the revolving mechanism. The round on the other hand with bullet and cartridge integrated into a single piece of metal is a genuinely new concept but it's one they can grasp. The British Empire started using the Maxim gun in the… Late nineteenth century? But the Empire isn't that far behind in its more advanced places.

I don't know. Maybe they can make it now, and maybe it's something that they can work towards while I check out whatever steam tanks they've got in the workshops. With a little applied ring power I've dredged up memories of how the early steam engine worked, so assuming that they're at least a little like traction engines I can probably talk the engineers through building them.

The door at the rear of the lecture theatre opens, and a few guards, Richilde and… A woman in her… Middle years wearing an excess of makeup and an open-fronted skirt. A prostitute, presumably, perhaps here to service senior engineers during their lunch break? I'd have thought that they'd pop out for that sort of thing, but perhaps they find the cost of delivery is worth it for the time they save?

Richilde beckons me as the prostitute walks to the edge of the upper deck and looks down at the engineers who… Are frantically muttering to one another, drawing diagrams or playing with my rubber ball. "If you gentlemen will excuse me, urgent business calls. I will be available for the rest of the day should you need me."

I dismiss my constructs and fly up-. She didn't get a local prostitute for me, did she? Or a courtesan? I know… In some places those are held in high regard, but I really-.

"Sir Paolo, may I present Grand Countess Emmanuelle von Liebwitz."

…

Seriously? Someone as rich as her should be able to pay someone to attach a drawstring to her skirt. Or advise her that a woman her age shouldn't show that much upper thigh in public. But I float in front of the railing she's leaning against and bow politely.

"Countess. A pleasure to meet you."

And your horribly horribly ill-advised dress.

"A new generation of firearms, Sir Paolo. I was under the impression that the Bretonni considered such weapons dishonourable."

"Knights of the Lady forswear the use of all ranged weapons, my lady. Fortunately, I have taken no such oath. Otherwise I wouldn't-" I wave my left hand. "-be able to fly."

"My engineers seem quite taken with your ideas."

"I don't know if they'll actually help, or if they'll just tear apart their workshops trying to build them."

She looks away, exhaling sharply. "'Tear apart their workshops'? It must be Bezahltag already. No, don't concern yourself with that. Concern yourself with explaining why you expect me to replace my province's entire road network."

"I would be happy to."

 

[Mr Zoat]

4th Sigmarzeit 2512
Late Morning

"It's that simple?"

I glance at Richilde, but she's keeping her face blank.

"Countess?"

"The roads, man." She gestures to the map on the table between us, which has gotten me a few mildly dirty looks from the… I want to say 'restaurant', but I'm not sure that 'club' wouldn't be a better description. It's very clearly situated near to the expensive part of the city, is richly decorated and doesn't exactly appear to be interested in a high density of clients. "You're saying that if we do this we can stop worrying about the forces of Chaos entirely?"

"I realise that it's a big-."

"If I hadn't seen the Tower of Hoeth's seal on the document I'd have had you thrown in the river like every other charlatan. Which of the Loremasters did you convince to put their seal to this?"

I like to think that Karl-Franz's seal on it also had an impact, given that he's the reason that she's an Elector Count over other claimants.

"High Loremaster Teclis."

For a moment her mildly curdled expression turns into something… Else. Uncertainty? Disquiet? But it's gone a moment later.

"Though I should emphasise that it's not just building the roads. The roads have to run along lines of hysh flows, and we have to build monuments at the intersections. And the effect isn't total and.. requires quite a large section to be completed before there'll be an overt effect. Ah, other than the.. normal benefits to travel from better roads."

She reviews the map of her province once more. "You've left several towns out of the network."

"If they're excluded, it's because they're not in geomantically significant locations. The road network can be extended to them, there just isn't any sort of magical benefit to it."

"Who made these calculations?"

"My point of contact with the Light College is Master Alric, though I've also have the work checked by the High Loremaster." And Djubti, High Liche Priest of Lybaras, but I feel that mentioning his involvement would be needlessly distracting. "Short of having a slann or an old one go over it, it's as good as it can be made."

"Slann? The toad-men?"

"They actually look more like fat lizards than toads."

The slann models from 5th edition looked like toads, and I remember the Drachenfels point of view part of the novel Drachenfels where he remembered the arrival of 'the toad men who came from the stars'. The oldest records the lizardmen were willing to let me see seemed to indicate that the old ones were somewhat toad-like in appearance, but the images could equally have been some sort of extinct servitor species or a different model of slann.

"Have you met one?"

"No. I was at the opposite end of a large room while a skink priest asked if I could petition it. It didn't respond, but I did get a good look at what it looked like."

I didn't try scanning it, because we were inside a warded building and the Temple Guard surrounding me were loaded with enchanted equipment. I couldn't take the risk that someone would object violently.

"What good would this do to me?"

"If it were fully implemented?" She just looks at me. "There would be no residual built-ups of dhar in the region. Necromancy and Chaos magic would be weaker and harder to use, mutation less common and certain types of innately magical monster would try to avoid the area affected. It would be more difficult for daemons to manifest and they would need more power to remain materialised. Hysh-based magic-."

"I wasn't asking what good it would do. I asked what good it would do for me."

Oh dear. "You personally would receive all of those benefits. You had a Chaos warlord-."

"Yes, I remember it well. The maggot did not need dark magic from my state; he brought it with him."

She's glaring, but I don't think I've entirely lost her yet.

"My intent is to ultimately extend the network to all parts of the world, but in the mean time it would also weaken dark magic in the entirety of the world, though the.. strength of the effect would be reduced by distance. I can't guarantee that building the network in your state would prevent attacks by Chaos worshippers. In fact I imagine that in the short term the Chaos Gods will incentivise their followers to attack places using it."

"So you want me to pay millions of crowns and devote our entire stone supply and most of my labourers in order to mark my state and my people out as targets."

"With the greatest respect, Countess, you're already a target."

"More of a target. You want me to go from being a target of a warlord once a century when one of the accursed scum managed to conquer the rest to being the only thing they target!"

I frown. "And… Small attacks are.. worse..? You'll have enough roads to move horsemen to counter their warbands wherever they are, and attacks like that wouldn't ever be able to threaten Nuln itself. Or even a walled town, really. And you certainly won't be the only target since I intend to prevail upon all Elector Counts to follow this plan."

Her eyes narrow. "Who has consented to this?"

"So far, just his imperial majesty, but I intend to try to visit everyone this week."

"One man."

"He does rather set the tone."

"He'll be swarmed by beast-tribes from the Reikwald before it's halfway complete."

Oh! Oh. Slow communications surprises me again.

"Not likely, Countess. They're all dead."

She blinks. "What?"

"How do you think I got him to agree to this? I sought out and destroyed every single tribe. Destroyed every Herdstone. Took a while, and I had to take his least popular minister along as a witness, but I got it done."

She frowns again, in puzzlement rather than irritation. "How?"

"I'm quite good at killing. Sorry, I realise that I should have led with that. I'm not used to information travelling so slowly and just assumed that you knew."

"You killed all of them?"

"Well, all the males. Female beastmen are fairly docile, so I moved them to land marked for farm development and set them to work instead. No problems so far. And I… Can't completely guarantee that a few human-looking ones didn't manage to flee. But they're not in the area any more."

"Are you willing to extend your services to me as well?"

I shrug. "I'm willing to extend them to anyone. If it worships Chaos, it's my enemy. If you know where my enemies are, I'll thank you for the information and then deal with the matter. If you want some particular group culled, just name them."

"And you can find them?"

"If you can provide a physical description and their approximate location, yes. Though it might have to wait until after this week. If I'm trying to get rushed meetings with the Electors, I can't guarantee exactly when I'll be available."

"We've had an upsurge of ratmen sightings since the invasion. I want them dead."

"The local warren or the entire species?"

She looks at my face for a few moments.

"Ideally, the latter, though I'll take it as a show of good faith if you manage the former."

"The species is on my long list, but I can handle the local warren…" Hm. "Actually, if you pull back your guards and ignore… Exactly how I do it, I can get started today."

She gives me a flat look. "What will I be ignoring?"

"Wide scale… Automata usage? Ill-educated people might say they're daemons or something… That's why I'm concerned. But they're very good at killing what I tell them to kill."

"That will be acceptable. But I want to see these 'automata' for myself first."

"Certainly, Countess. Shall we go now, or would you like time to prepare?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

17th February 2013
16:47 GMT

The city of Bubastis is well behind us as we head towards the rising sun. Which is a direction in its own right. We just keep going in one direction and the sun will just sort of appear. I was sceptical, but several different merchants confirmed it so…

Okay, I guess.

The angle of the shadows from the statues lining the route are a rough indicator that we're going in the right direction, as it changes the closer we get. And if we went in the other direction we could reach the setting sun, and a third direction for the sun at its zenith. I thought that the passage of the sun in Kahndaqi mythology-.

"Oh."

Kon glances at me as he hikes across the sands. "What?"

"I just remembered how Kahndaqi mythology says that the universe was created."

"Oh? How? Is it made from the parts of an older type of god?"

I mean… Technically.

"It was wanked into existence."

He blinks, mildly stunned. "What?"

"It's a fairly self-explanatory description. Ra 'took himself in hand', caught his own semen, took it into his mouth and then-"

Kon gurns in disgust. "Aw."

"-he spat it out." I smile. "It was funny, because when I was in secondary school, we read about creation myths in English. But the sheet we got on Kahndaq didn't actually have the creation myth on it. I wondered why at the time, and it wasn't for years that I heard what the actual myth was."

"Are you sure it's… Literal? It's not just a metaphor for creating life?"

"No, but Adom said that they didn't literally believe that their gods have animal heads and we're currently two for two."

"What's wrong with having an animal head?"

"Nothing. Adom just said that it was more of a metaphor."

Cernunnos nods pointedly. Okay, yes, that isn't necessarily a difference here-.

There's a.. structure ahead of us. The statues are petering out, and the sand path flattened down by the march of other devotees sort of stops a good distance from the structure which looks a little like a stepped pyramid with the top cut off. The hieroglyphics big enough to see from this distance depict the journey of the sun from the underworld into the sky…

Ah.

"I don't think we should get any closer."

"Why not?"

"I think that's the hole which-."

And there's the sun! Blinking and looking away, I can see the shadows cast by a huge beetle as the fiery orb is hefted into the sky. I see a hand setting it in the back of a chariot… But the chariot isn't here, it's elsewhere, and the charioteer is completely invisible. And the sun's moving but it's also still here in… Some sense or other, because it's a core part of the identity of the god we're here to see.

Bloody bright!

"Lord Khepri, thank you for seeing us."

Kon, unsurprisingly, is untroubled by the sun being right there.

"Why do you seek me?"

His voice is pretty normal. It doesn't sound like burning, which is something I'm grateful for. It also doesn't sound like he's speaking through mandibles, which…

I try peering through the blinding light, and… I think there's the shape of a man in there as well as the shape of a beetle?

"We were hoping that you could tell us where the sheeda beetles were. They're really big beetles from the future, and they kidnapped someone we're looking for."

"I'm the god of morning, creation and new life. I may be a beetle but I'm not the God of Beetles."

"Oh. Ah, sorry. Do you know where-?"

"Coincidentally, I do know where they are, as they flew out of and into this gateway to the underworld and I saw them go."

"Great, thanks! Can we use it?"

"Do you really think that you can survive the wrath of Apep, his primordial antagonism for all ordered matter? All life?"

"Probably. I mean, sheeda insects are tough for giant insects, but we're all a lot tougher."

"I'm not sure that we're all a lot tougher."

"Can Apep leave the darkness?"

"Not until all light dies."

"So we wouldn't be endangering anyone else?"

"Apep has never shown signs of great intelligence. I don't think that it could learn from you, and if other beings are travelling this route anyway then it is too late to worry about that." Shadows shift as the sun is lifted a little further. "But you should know that I cannot recover your soul if you die. You will be utterly unmade, a state only fit for the greatest sinners."

I go to head up the structure's steps, but… Maybe I'm becoming blasé about things like this. This is hardly the only way we could continue the investigation. We could try baiting them back, or follow up one of the other prongs of the investigation.

Kon's already half way up the steps. Not just me, then.

"A moment."

"If you're worried about-."

His body swells with muscle and his horns shift shape from a stag's antlers to a bull's horns, and an eagle's wings sprout from his back.

"That should help." He starts forward. "Do your hunts always go like this?"

"It varies."

It's interesting. As I join them in the journey towards the top of the ziggurat I'm shielding my eyes against the sun but I don't feel particularly hot. I suppose a land that never knew snow didn't have the same positive association with the sun's heat that they did with the light.

"Ah, Superboy?" Kon glances back as we approach the summit. "There are other approaches we could take to this."

"The sheeda are flying through a place of primordial chaos with no trouble. It's like you and those aliens: bad people don't stop doing bad things just because we're fighting Anti-Life. I think we should do this."

"Alright." I look down at the… Hole to the dark place. It's completely dark. No sight, no scans. "I agree. Everyone ready?"

Two nods, and we leap into the void.

 

[Mr Zoat]

17th February 2013
16:51 GMT

Black sands in a black desert under a black sky, illuminated only by the light of my ring and Kon's built-in sun. Why? Don't know. The Ancient Kahndaqi didn't really have a concept of Hell. The ultimate punishment in their religion was annihilation, not eternal torture. That's what I condemned Theodore Adam to when I convinced the Kahndaqi gods that his soul wasn't up to snuff. Now, I'd pick Hell, because I think I could eventually get out of it, but I can… I'm intellectually aware that some people would choose differently.

While we can all fly here, we're staying relatively low because…

"I'm staying low because I don't want to be seen from further away. What's your excuse?"

Kon nods his head at the sky. "In case there's something up there. If there is, we're an obvious target."

"Because I can see where the beetles flew."

"You can?"

I can see giant beetle footprints and chariot wheel ruts, but none of the scuffs look like small beetle footprints, and I'd be surprised if they weren't flying. Ring, analysis?

Images flash across my visual field as the ring tries to make sense of the shapes on the sand.

Results unclear.

"I'm a God of Hunting. There are faint disturbances in the air and impressions in the sand, and that's enough for my magic to work."

"Alright then. Which way?"

He flaps his wings, accelerating forwards. Kon and I match his pace.

"Do either of you know what Apep looks like?"

"Giant snake, but that could be a snake, a person with a snake for a head, or a metaphor."

"I've never seen him. If it helps, there are no giant snake tracks near here."

"I guess he's pretty powerful?"

"He's never managed to stop the sun once with over a million attempts."

"Yeah, but that's part of the story. There could be something about his nature that means that he can't actually stop the sun, but is great at doing other stuff."

"What sort of range can those flies manage undirected?"

"No idea. Honestly, I'm surprised that they can follow complex instructions without a rider. Superboy, did I miss an intelligence briefing?"

"No, they never showed that kind of intelligence."

"Magic? Possession? Cybernetics?"

"Sheeda don't use cybernetics, and-" Kon frowns. "-I don't think Britain has cybernetic brain implants designed for giant beetles."

No, I don't suppose they could have designed something for an entirely new species that quickly. And if they did, they still wouldn't have a reason to use giant beetles like that over a robot or an augmented soldier that could behave intelligently.

"I won't be able to tell if someone's inside the beetle until I can see it with my own eyes."

"I guess-." Kon dims, then looks down at himself in concern. Looking down, I can see that we're turning away from the sun's tracks.

"Are you alright?"

"I think so." He maintains pace, but looks with a degree of concern at his right forearm. "I guess the sun kinda… Can't exist in other places."

"If you feel like you're about to not exist, head back to the entrance and make your way back to Otherworld."

He nods. "I don't feel that different. It's just the light that's faded." He looks up at me and shrugs. "The other end is at sunset, right? It's not like the beetles want to come out the other side."

"No, I suppose-."

Life?

What was that? I heard something-.

"What?"

I've stopped in the air, staring in the direction I thought I heard… Something.

"Did you not hear that?"

"No?" Cernunnos is pulling ahead, and Kon looks from him back to me. "We probably shouldn't get-"

"No, you're right." I start flying again.

"-distracted." He flies after Cernunnos alongside me. "Hey, is Mercury still with you?"

Ah. "Don't know. Mercury?"

There's no response. Kon looks back towards the entrance.

"Oh no! Anyway-."

Life?

"Seriously, can you not hear that?"

"No. What is it?"

"It's saying 'Life?', but there's a resonance to it…" I accelerate, catching up with Cernunnos a moment later. "Any idea how far we're going?"

"They got closer to the ground. I think we're nearly there."

I generate construct armour, which… Goes awkwardly with my elongated neck. Kon's dimmed, but he's still all there. Okay, now we-.

Crunch!

A sheeda beetle slams into me, mandibles clamping onto my armour and squeezing as the beetle tries to push me into the sand! Cernunnos dodges the one that aimed at him while Kon counters with a punch that shatters its head and sends it tumbling to the ground.

"Push on!"

My head darts out and I bite the beetle, fangs piercing the weaker armour plates of its head and stabbing it in the brain! I pull back my head and twist, kicking off the corpse as it falls and flying after Cernunnos. "How close-?"

And then I spot it: two stone pillars behind an altar of some sort. The altar is made of light grey stone, with discoloured patches which suggest it's had blood spilled on it. The two pillars are decorated in the Aztec style and certainly shouldn't be here. If it's a portal then it looks like its inactive.

Life.

"The thing I heard, it's getting closer!"

Cernunnos lands next to the altar, biting his left hand and slamming the wound onto the stone surface. The gateway shimmers to life almost immediately.

"I heard it too!"

The beetle that attacked him makes another lunge, only for Kon to punch it in the thorax and send it flying. It flies about a kilometre-. And then sort of fades into a white cloud before vanishing. Kon and I stare at the point it disappeared-.

"Life."

"Through!"

The three of us fly between the pillars, and-.

Is… That… Themyscira?

 

[Mr Zoat]

4th Sigmarzeit 2512
Afternoon

"Not so docile, it seems."

I nod to the Countess. "No, it seems not. But I wanted to be sure."

The giant… Rat… Blob.. thing.. that's the only thing in the Nuln warrens that scanned as 'female', lies dead, a construct spear piercing it through the throat and out through its spine. It's about three meters long, with proportions halfway between a normal rat and a normal male skaven. I'd sort of assumed that this sort of thing was a specialised breeder variety, and its.. large womb, distended abdomen and eight warpstone-enhanced ovaries seem to lend a degree of credence to that idea. But I'd also assumed that such breeders were a Clan Moulder product rather than a natural part of their species, and that as such there would have to be at least some regular females as well.

Does the Curse of the Horned One spell turn women it hits into men? Or do females just not occur naturally amongst skaven and they have to breed with giant rats in the same way that beastmen can breed with livestock?

I moue as.. tiny hairless skaven infants start clawing and biting their way out of its vagina.

"Burn this abomination."

"Ah. I'm actually not very good at burning things."

I point, and the construct plaguebearers on perimeter duty step in and start stabbing. It's unedifying, but those are male skaven infants. There's a limit to how many Creatures of Chaos I can attempt to rehabilitate without spreading myself too thin.

A way behind us, I hear Richilde and one of the Countess's younger Greatswords keeping each other company in their ersatz vomitorium. The other Greatswords bear oddly-shaped scars which I've noticed amongst those who've survived one of the more unpleasant poxes, and I imagine that they got that surviving the aftermath of Tamurkhan's attack. After fending off an army of Nurgle-worshippers a giant mutant rat appears not to impress them. I haven't seen any sign of Nurgle's Rot in them, which is good because I don't have any idea how to remove a disease that infects the soul.

"Besides, I've removed the diseases from its body. It could be a fascinating object of study for your anatomists."

"Gruuubeeeeeer!"

The Greatsword with a beard down to the middle of his cuirass nods. "Countess?"

"Have the men clear the closest square and acquire firewood. I will have this… Thing and the others of its kin we recover burned where my subjects can bear witness."

"I'll see to it directly, Countess."

I feel it as my construct lanterns begin to return.

"All done, Countess. It might be worth filling in the passages, but the warren is uninhabited."

"And Gruber, find some volunteers from the dungeons." She looks my way. "Dungeon-delving is work for a not-yet-Free Company. They're far cheaper than adventurers."

"Yes, Countess. Will there be anything else-?"

"Get on with it, man." As he bows and then leaves she walks over to the skaven and prods it with the handle of her dagger. "Well, you've done it. You'll have my support in the Prime Estates, and I suppose that a more limited road-building program might be wise in any case."

"Thank you, Countess. I'll notify the Light College, so that their representative can liaise with your architect."

One down…

4th Sigmarzeit 2512
Later Afternoon

Graf Boris Todbringer peers at the severed, one-eyed head.

"No. Not him."

Since her brother is shortly to be marrying his daughter, Richilde thought that talking him around would be a straightforward business. I offered to restore his eye, but he wasn't keen on having his body unnaturally altered. Which isn't unreasonable, but…

I sigh as I toss the head onto the pile. "With the greatest respect, Graf, there are a lot of one-eyed beastmen in the Drakwald. Did he have any other distinguishing features?"

"He carried a whip and a sword."

But this is getting to be.

Ring?

Scanning. Scan complete. Matches available.

Just about every charioteer has a whip. Swords are even more common.

"Four horns or two?"

"Four."

Scanning. Scan complete. Matches available.

"Two big ones straight up and two small curved ones?"

He nods. "Yes."

"Excuse me."

I rocket away from Middenheim, heading for the Drakwald again. Target locked. Beastmen became their own army after I stopped being interested in Warhammer and I've got no idea if the beastlord I'm about to kill is at all important. But if it makes Todbringer happy…

There.

I raise my left hand, aiming at the large beastman standing next to the.. mutant dog thing. And fire! The beastlord is knocked back, his armour holding out against my shot surprisingly well. Fortunately it doesn't appear to include a gorget, so his neck disintegrates and I grab the trophy as the beastmen around him begin braying in alarm.

Hopefully, that's another one down.

4th Sigmarzeit 2512
Early Evening

"A… Head? A head! You got one-eye a one eyed head!"

Richilde and I nervously glance at each other as Elector Count Marius Leitdorf… Starts getting excited. His couriers appear used to it, in the manner of psychiatric orderlies who no longer start at sudden exclamations from their patients. His horse -which is standing nearby, in this second story room in the middle of his castle- snorts quietly.

"I am.. happy to get a head for you, your highness."

"Yes! I want to eat it!"

"I can cook as well?"

He lunges at me. "No!" He grabs me by the jacket, staring wide-eyes into my eyes. "I will eat it raw. Raaaaaaaw."

Probably… Best I make sure that it's completely clean, because if there's anyone who has the will to eat an entire head raw and the rank to ignore anyone who tries to stop him, it's Marius Leitdorf.

"Whose head, your highness!"

"Mine!"

…

Another glance shared with Richilde. "You want to eat your own head, your highness?"

"It seems about as reasonable as paving over the realm of Chaos." He releases his hold, then flaps his right hand at me. "Get on with it."

Hm. Well, actually…

I envelop his head in an orange glow. If I remove it piece by piece and replace it with a copy… I'll have to fake doing that to his brain, obviously, but that should be well within my abilities.

"Would your highness like a mirror?" I numb his nerves and then detach a portion of his neck while using constructs to maintain blood and air flow. "You may find this educational to watch."

He grins even more broadly, before pointing at a flunky as I slot the removed portion of his neck into a construct head mould.

"MIRROR!"

 

[Mr Zoat]

9th Sigmarzeit 2512
Evening

I flop back onto the sofa.

"Jesus Christ how is the Empire still functioning?"

Lady Richilde checks for observers, and then flops down next to me.

"Hard work by my uncle."

"Really?"

"He is a highly capable negotiator and diplomat." She sighs. "Though habit probably plays a part. And having an elected monarch."

"The one thing worse than those people in charge of an electoral province is them being in charge of all of them. It's actually quite an eye-opener for me. My home country is a democracy, so I've spent my whole life seeing the worst excesses of democracy, and after a while you can't help but think: 'were things really so bad before we could elect our leaders?'. And now I know."

"I did not think that Graf Todbringer was so bad."

"And I respect your loyalty to your brother's soon-to-be family. Did you not see how vacant he looked? He basically let his courtiers do all the talking until I got him onto the subject of beastmen."

"That is a valid technique. Sometimes it is better not to let people know what you think."

"For a dedicated Ulrician? I'm not playing to stereotypes here, but don't they value directness and assertiveness even more than Sigmarites, who aren't exactly shy and retiring themselves?"

"He has a lot on his mind."

"Like what?"

"His heir is unwell."

I open my eyes and turn my head towards her. "He could have led with that. There's no mortal disease that I can't cure."

"No, not a.. disease. He was born with… Difficulties."

Ah. I think I can work out what she's talking about.

"Has anything I've said to you given you cause to believe that I understand circuitous speech? Do you mean that he's a mutant, or has-"

"No! No. Not that."

"-some sort of deformity?"

"He has… Troubles of the mind."

"Oh."

"Are you unable to correct those? I was concerned that you might have tried that with Count Marius, and then he was… Much the same as he ever is. Perhaps a little more exuberant."

"All he wanted was a head. That was weird, yes, but not all that difficult."

She finally turns her head towards me, frowning. "I cannot understand how you did it."

I shrug. "The human body is made of matter. The ring can reshape matter. For mundane purposes there's nothing really special about a… Neck. I can take a piece of wood, reshape its material to match a section of his neck and then replace it."

"With wood?"

"It wouldn't be wood after I changed it, that's what I'm saying. In material terms it would be exactly the same as human flesh." I shrug. "In my world, our chirurgeons can remove failing organs from a person's body and replace them. It's not a completely safe procedure, but the majority of people who undergo it survive."

"Where do the organs come from?"

"People will them to medicine. The chirurgery needs to be carried out quickly, so people carry cards with them indicating that if they get injured and can't be saved they want their organs removed and used to heal the sick and injured."

"That is… Disturbing. I… Understand that it is intended as a final act of generosity… But taking parts out and putting them in someone else… I cannot help but think of necromancy or the foul deeds of Nurgle-worshippers."

"Dead organs aren't any good. And wouldn't Nurgle worshippers implant failing organs rather than healthy ones?"

"But if the person they're taken from is dead, how are the organs not dead?"

"It takes a while for the body to decay after death. Reducing the temperature extends that further. You still don't have more than a day or so..."

"But what of the mind? The brain?"

"Oh, we can't transplant those."

"No, with Count Marius-. The head was not alive, surely?"

"No, no. I left his brain in his head and created a copy for the head." I frown. That's not a great sentence, but I think that she understands. "It didn't have any… Activity. Ah, honestly, given the complexity of the human brain I doubt that I could create one. I don't know enough about how it records memories."

She lays there, giving her attention to the ceiling.

"Who is Jesus Christ?"

"Hm?"

"You said 'Jesus Christ' as an exclamation. Is that the name of the god of your people?"

"Ah. Sort of. He's the.. prophet whose teachings the main religion of my home country is based on. I'm not actually… A practitioner, I just got a bit… Frustrated."

"At least the Elder of the Moot asked for something practical."

"Yeah. I'll have to pop back and see how they get on with greenhouses. I could build them here but I didn't think it was worth it."

The Moot may be a tiny area, but we need a road built there anyway, which means that we needed to deal with him as well as the ten Elector Counts. And the Moot's existing roads are so terrible that wagoners charge extra if they're employed to travel there, so I'm not holding out much hope that they'll be able to do the work themselves.

But everyone agreed. Everyone agreed, and if this was anything to go by work will start in a year or two. Or three.

"Does the Empire just not do infrastructure projects?"

"Not on this scale. It will be a first."

"If it works. And we've still got to talk to the Tzar. Have you met him?"

"No. I thought that you had."

"Yes, I went daemon-hunting and we sort of bumped into each other, but he's been doing a lot of reforming Kislevite society and I'm not sure that he's got the cash for a major road-building program as well. And I don't know how the Ice Witches will feel about the imposition of hysh on their land, which is going to be a big issue because the Crown Princess is one and if she doesn't like it then it's not going to happen."

"I will speak to our ambassador and the ambassador of the Tzar concerning the…" She yawns, covering her mouth with her right hand. "Excuse me. Concerning how best to convince him."

"Yeah, that sounds like a plan."

I flop a little further. It was difficult getting a piece of furniture like this made, and the material it's cushioned with will need replacing well before the modern equivalent, but in the mean.. time…

"…with your clothes on?"

Whu-?

10th Sigmarzeit 2512
Morning

I blink at Aranei as-. Richilde stirs next to me and then jerks upright!

Aranei shakes her head. "If I must tolerate a human as a co-consort, you should at least do the job properly. Remove your clothes, and I will begin your instruction."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Break Time

17th February 2013
16:51 GMT

Focus.

Physical check? Human head back. Kon's a living kryptonian/human/genomorph again and Cernunnos is still himself as well. The gate here looks the same as the one in Duat, and the sacrificial altar-. Yes, there it is-.

"Human." The sheeda man standing next to the altar-. There's a hole in his chest, showing his lungs as they move with his breathing while also showing that his heart is entirely absent. "I know you."

We're on a stony cliff overlooking the ocean, and just visible out to sea is the familiar shape of the island of Themyscira. It's nothing like this close to a larger land mass in reality, so wherever we've ended up has moved it.

Get to that later.

"While I have no idea who you are at all."

"They told us, when you killed the queen. That was the last of our hope."

Kon and Cernunnos spread out slightly to the left and right. Kon's not giving the sheeda all of his attention as he listens for other threats.

"You don't need to raid the past any longer-."

"We can't!" He bares his teeth, which are surprisingly pointy. "Our future is no longer our future! I left my whole family behind and I will never see them again!"

Oh. Right, yeah. Their future still exists, but unless things go very badly wrong that's not our future any more.

Kon shrugs. "Your future was kinda evil."

"We had a life whose greatness you will never comprehend and you condemned it to death by your refusal to know your place! You are fit only to be chattel! CHATTEL!"

He expectorates the word, clearly losing whatever self-possession he had. Interesting that he doesn't appear to be Anti-Life controlled, particularly given that I don't think it would be all that difficult to turn him. Unless… Would the sheeda be resistant?

"You were making an almost sympathetic point until you said that. So, ah, you're under arrest."

He draws a knife with his right hand. Obsidian. Fits the Aztec look of the portals but I'm not sure-.

He pricks his left thumb and presses it against the altar, the red stains immediately changing colour to match the black of his blood.

"And now you are trapped, and your hearts will be offered up to the goddess who will give me the revenge I long for!"

He smiles beatifically, and there's a quiet sighing noise as the portal behind us closes.

"Okay, so, we're looking for a female elf? We have reason to believe that you were involved in her abduction."

"Stupid creature, do you not understand what I've done?"

"Yes, you've closed the portal to Duat, 'trapping' us. But we already know that there's a portal to Otherworld somewhere around here, and that-"

I point to where the island of Themyscira sits in the ocean.

"-is home for me and Superboy. So, ah, honestly? This is better for us than finishing the original investigation." Kon frowns at me. "Which we're still going to complete, but… You've been a real help, which is why I'm not branding you and compelling you to answer my questions. So, please: what's this all-"

"Hahahaha-."

The rocks and sands at the bottom of the cliff erupt upwards as a colossal creature leaps up from under the ground! Kon, Cernunnos and I leap off the ground and into the air as a vast hand slaps down onto the altar, sheeda and inactive portal and obliterates them, along with most of the cliff. The huge creature responsible stares up at us, head locked onto-.

Ugh-.

What? The.. sky is a flat surface about a hundred metres off the ground. No escape that way, and I don't think that breaking the structure of the local universe would have good results.

The giant creature resembles a cross between a human and a toad. The head is mostly human, but broader and having a wider mouth. The ears are larger as well, and have bulky earrings hanging from them. A decorative headdress made of what I think is some sort of woven material sits on her head, more like a tiara than the stereotypical feathered headdress. Her torso is unusually broad like her head, and has the same hole in the chest showing that her heart has been removed as the sheeda had. Her hands put me in mind of a sloth: short fingers with long claws. She wears a skirt in the Aztec style while her legs are disproportionally short, or are jointed in a non-standard way, and her skin is covered in scales. Her bare feet have the same claw-heavy structure as her hands, and they're digging into the ground.

"You know who that is?"

I shake my head. "None of my records on Aztec deities include up-to-date photographs. Cernunnos?"

"I avoid gods with a taste for human hearts."

"Looks more like someone has a taste for hers. Which Aztec god is it who eats hearts?"

"All of them except Quetzalcoatl."

He frowns as the Aztec goddess turns to face us.

"Huh. Guess we got lucky. Do you think that sheeda was controlling her?"

"He didn't have a heart either. I suspect we'll only find the one in charge when we find where the hearts have gone."

"She's not getting in the water. Do we need-?"

The sea beneath us erupts and we all evade as spires of rock shoot up towards us! I see the shockwave as they thrust the air aside before slamming into the sky-roof-. Dodge again! Her feet are squeezing into the sand and-.

"Waghaaaaaagh!"

I throw up! Everything I ate jumps out of my mouth and my stomach tries to follow it-.

In the corner of my eye I see the Aztec goddess's head split in two, a new mouth appearing between the left and right sides as it fully opens and her tongue extending up from her neck!

"Grughaaaaaagh!"

The world dims and my head-. I feel something hit my left side, but it's… Distant. I'm.. moving..?

Ah…

Not chemicals. Not shortness of oxygen. Probably not telepathy-. Magic. Tattoos and wards have a maximum absorption rate-.

"Feed me!"

Rockrockrock!

I form rock drill constructs and fly, smashing my way free from the spines that threaten to crush me! A glance shows that the other two are doing better, but-.

But while we've been dodging the giant heartless woman has been making a bridge for herself.

 

[Mr Zoat]

17th February 2013
16:54 GMT

"No."

I fire a beam of orange light at the giant woman, but it… Sort of bends, twisting into the hole in her chest and… Doing nothing.

Kon goes to work punching rock spurs, breaking them to dust before they can hit us or limit our manoeuvrability. Four shatter to detritus before he risks glancing at me.

"You okay?"

"Did you feel that?"

"What, the rock?"

"The scream."

"I heard the scream. Did it do something else?"

"Did to me."

And I've prepared. I'm as warded as a person can get, and Kon didn't even notice an attack. And it sucked up my orange light but doesn't appear to be using it.

"Are we gunna attack it?"

"Heat vision. I'll shield the island if needed."

I guess I can write off another clone. They're probably using its heart as a… Conceptual link? Sympathetic link? Though if the sheeda man was still walking around-.

"I'll need a few seconds."

I nod, forming a sphere around us. Rock spines fly at the stationary target, and the moment before they hit I add crumbler field generators to the exterior. Won't necessarily work if the rock is inherently magical-.

We're in the realm of the gods and not the material-!

The rock hits and my sphere begins to deform as I hook up my construct to my tattoos and hope that's enough as I apply the concept of hunger to the matter disruption constructs. The change is immediate, rock-and-the-idea-of-rock decaying to dust.

"I'm ready!"

I glance at Kon's eyes, which are glowing painfully brightly, and then drop the construct.

Wwwwkkkkkkkkk!

Water and rock alike are vaporised by sun-plasma and the world around me is darkened as my ring cuts down the incoming light in order to preserve my sight. Kon cuts out a moment-.

Dust howls around us, merging with boiling steam that Kon's attack created to create an instant electrical storm cloud. With the dust and impure steam creating intermittent channels to the ground, we're both struck repeatedly by small discharges.

"DID I GET HER!?"

I fly up-. There's the roof. I generate a crumbler wall and push it downwards, clearing-.

No, that's not-.

The dust swirls around my construct and flies at us! It rapidly coats the exterior of my armour and my sensors feel it worrying at every joint and edge like a sander. Empathic vision shows me Kon flying left and down, trying to get out of the particulate cloud. My armour is rated as being capable of surviving this, but if whatever force is animating this can understand that a kinetic belt-.

No, wait, that probably wouldn't-. He's taking it on his skin?

Earth control. The creature can control earth without needing it to be attached to the Earth.

Booster constructs and-. Force the earth crust off my armour over enough of an area to actually let me make constructs, then make booster constructs and fly backwards, crumbler… Crumbler barricade, and add a crumbler layer to my armour and hook it up to my tattoos. That should keep me safe, and Kon-.

About a mile away to my right I see Kon fly out of the steaming water, most of the earth cleaned off. His kryptonian overalls look a bit abraded, but they're quite a lot tougher than Earth clothes. Cernunnos… Is flying for Themyscira at best possible speed. And the giant woman… She's pulling herself back to her feet back on the mainland, the front of her chest largely burned off. In a few places her body fat burns as it runs down her skirt and legs, but as far as I can see she isn't showing any sign of pain.

Okay, my usual attack constructs aren't reliable in this situation. Kon gave her both barrels and she doesn't look all that hurt. I'd guess that destroying either her heart or whoever has it would kill her, but I don't know where it is or who has it. I don't know enough about Aztec mythology to beat her with cunning. That leaves… Brute force and...

Would the act of giving her a new heart fix… Whatever's happening here?

How would I even-? I can guess based on her physical dimensions what the heart should roughly look like if it were a purely material thing, but it's not, and I'm not a magician. Construct heart? I mean, I might be able to make it work…

There's something rippling under the-.

I boost towards Themyscira hard, because Kon made a giant shockwave which is travelling through the water and that's going to explode upwards once it hits the shallows. This is why I don't like physics!

Except we're not in the material-. No, not risking it.

Get ahead of the wave and… Send it around the island? No, that's still going to wreck the shoreline. Sonic cannons to counteract it. Yes, it'll make the water explode but there isn't anything here to hurt except a few fish. Wave is now-. Too close to the island, and I'm glad it was just from vapour expansion backlash because otherwise I wouldn't have been in position in time.

The boom-slap as the water Kon cleaved in two slaps back together reaches me just as I deploy the sonic cannons into the water. Takes a bit more effort than normal, but that's probably because this water isn't exactly water, and fire.

Plume as expected, and the shockwave is slightly weakened right here but most of it's still going.

"Can you stop it?"

Heh.

"I'm an Orange Lantern." I boost harder and generate a bigger sonic cannon. "I can do anything I-"

Into the water and fire!

"-want."

The world turns white with foam and the shockwave weakens-

Turn it up!

-and then reverses as the water briefly forms a gully from the conflicting pressure waves.

And stop. Check surroundings. Themyscira is-. Soldiers in gold are fighting on the beach, against-. Aztecs. Aztecs with holes in their chests where their hearts used to be. But it looks like they're holding, if only because you can't pierce orichalcum with obsidian. The big woman is more important.

"Cernunnos, could you make a heart live?"

"Fill a dead heart with life? Yes, I can do that, briefly. Do you have a heart?"

"Excellent. Plan is, I make a heart and shove it in her chest, you make it live and hopefully that throws off whatever spell she's under."

"What if she just hates you?"

"Then I kill-"

I see the speck that is Kon dive down at her, presumably hoping to repeat his prior trick and break her hold on the earth by separating her from it. The moment he gets a grip on her foot the ground erupts upwards and glows red hot!

"-her go!"

 

[Mr Zoat]

17th February 2013
16:56 GMT

Molten rock starts at 700o​C. Kon can take brief contact from material of that temperature without any problem. Longer contact is uncomfortable but not particularly dangerous itself, otherwise he'd burn out his eyes whenever he used heat vision. The problem is that he has no innate flying ability and his kinetic belt can't take that sort of temperature. If it gets damaged then the only way for him to get out would be to wade to the edge of the magma field and climb out. And he can get by on less oxygen than a human but he still needs to breathe.

Frog hearts are structured quite differently to human hearts. Three chambers rather than four, and no separation between oxygenated and deoxygenated blood. It's a poor design, like human eyes compared to the superior squid eyes and it means that I don't really know what sort of heart that woman is supposed to have. But assuming that this is mostly magic anyway, that we build our gods and monsters in our own image and that I'd probably want fully oxygenated blood given the choice, I'm going to go with a mostly-human design.

She stamps on the magma patch.

She can take the heart she gets. My boosters blaze and-. And I've left Cernunnos behind.

"Sorry!"

I grab him with a construct X-15 and accelerate it to match my speed, wincing slightly as I realise that I'm going to have to thank Lantern Jordan for that one. Okay, optic scans of the woman's interior show the location of the veins and arteries that would be connected to her heart so I can roughly guess the size, so that there, that there, and then the runes for health and life and… Blood? And earth. Overall configuration… Since I don't know what her natural mana flows are like I can only guess 'human but bigger'.

I move the heart to the canopy.

"Alright, it's done."

He uses his right thumb claw to cut the tips of his right index and middle fingers and then reaches up. I pop the construct canopy and he presses his hand into the flesh of the synthetic heart, his blood staining the closest 'blood' rune.

I can dimly feel it as something changes, and given that we're nearly in heart-insertion range I hope-.

The woman turns her head our way and I generate a crumbler ram and hope that-.

A rock spike erupts from the ocean and I block it with the ram. Another follows but we're already past it.

"Ready?"

"Yes."

I dismiss the X-15 construct, expand the crumbler ram and position the heart behind the head. Rotate the heart so that it's the right way around and lunge. The woman lowers her posture slightly and swings her fore claws at my construct. Dodge down, accelerate slightly and her claws just clip the rear of the construct. Dismiss, shove the heart into her chest and bind her flesh to it-.

Warning: power expended.

My rings blinks out and I start falling.

What?

No, I mean obviously I know what, I-. Her chest drains my guuuh!

Armour's flight system failed, but the armour itself stopped me from braining myself on the shore.

Ah.

I need to run because this armour isn't magma-proof.

But it does have power assistance, so I thrust my legs out and just avoid one of her leg-claws slicing through me! I try to get my legs under me but can't quite manage it, instead getting my left knee under my chest while my right leg is still stretched out. I bounce, twisting to the side and grabbing at the ground with my hands because she's swinging again!

"Any of your animal-"

The leg comes down in front of me and I-

"-parts burrowing?"

-slam face-first into her ankle.

U-gh.

Need to work on this armour.

Okay, use the sudden obstacle to lever myself upright-. She's lifting and there aren't any handholds but with her limb arrangement she can't stamp on me with her other leg when its that close. Drop to the ground. Is there any cover at all, and where's Kon?

Glowing ground was over that way but I need to run and jink!

I stagger sideways as her foot comes down again, but the ground seems to have stopped glowing which means-.

Semi-solid rock explodes outwards as Kon bursts through the surface!

Back to running!

"Out of power! Help!"

"Huh-?"

Kon looks down at me as I head for the cliff face, then the monster woman backhands him into the sea-.

Ah, hits him anyway? Oh, he managed to grab on, but I don't think she's noticed.

"Cernunnos, is the heart working?!"

He's flying as high as the sky extends overhead, careful to maintain enough space to dodge.

"It does not beat!"

Oh, of course.

"Kon! Get her heart beating!"

"How?!"

"Get in her chest and push it!"

I make momentary eye contact with him over her thumb claw, and he doesn't look convinced. But as long as she's distracted I can try recharging and not just running away and trying not to die. She finally spots him and brings her hands together in a huge clap, but Kon's had time to brace himself and is just about able to catch the incoming limb. Again, there's no pain reaction from her, but if she-.

She lifts the higher hand away and he holds on for a moment, then pushes off towards her exposed ribs. And I've lost sight of him, but now I've got the cliffs to my back I've just got to hope that she was having so much fun trying to stamp on me that she doesn't drop me in magma. Face her, and be prepared to dodge.

No, Kon's got her attention. She's trying to claw at her own chest, but her claws are thrown back as Kon punches them away. Okay, let's just hope that I didn't have to transmute some blood for her as well.

Now, recharging. I take a look at my rings… Right ring, Larfleeze's ring, the first ring, looks completely fine. If anything I'd say that it's glowing more brightly than usual. Left ring, Hinon's ring, is… Dull. Faded, and almost translucent. Almost like it's not really there. Makes sense. Hinon's ring is new and created by a race of materialists, while Larfleeze's ring has been exposed to the Ophidian for millions of years.

Lantern.

Nothing. Looks like subspace isn't available in this place. Darn. There are other things I could do, but they all require more attention than I can-

"AAaagh! What did you DO!?"

-spare.

Kon throws himself free and the woman folds her arms over the hole in her chest. Her head-mouth snaps closed and she looks around… There's a certain intelligence in her gaze that wasn't there before.

"Human! Explain or I will kill you!"

Still an improvement.

 

[Mr Zoat]

17th February 2013
16:58 GMT

As the only full human on the shore, I should probably field that.

"When we first found you, oh glorious one, your heart was missing from your chest! You attacked us quite vigorously!"

"What do you mean, my heart was missing?!"

"Looked like someone cut it out, magnificence!" I start walking closer as she stares down at me. "We could see your lungs!"

"My heart is in my chest."

"No, that's a new heart I made! I've got no idea where your original one is!"

Her unusual facial structure makes it a little hard to decipher her mood, and she's clearly having a nasty shock. But she isn't smashing me for my lies, so I'm going to assume that she's at least accepting it as plausible. I could ask her what made the wound in her chest, as that would help with the sheeda and the creatures assailing Themyscira. But that's probably a bit confrontational.

"Might I ask your name!?"

"Do you think I am some minor goddess, whose name can just slip your memory?!"

"I worship the gods of Olympus, divinity. I am far from my homeland, and their place of power. I probably never learned it."

"Then know that I am Tlaltecuhtli! Goddess of Earth and all the life that springs from it!"

I roll my eyes at that-. And Kon catches them and shakes his head. Yes, I had realised that now isn't the time for comparative theology. This blood-fuelled earth goddess might be the Aztec version of Demeter but she certainly isn't Gaea. I just realise that calling her out on her creative advertising wouldn't help the situation.

She crouches slightly, her right arm dropping down to tear rocks from the ground, a load that she pushes into the hole in her chest. The rock then spreads across the injury, merging with her flesh to create a patch. It's not the same colour as the rest of her skin, but it appears to be functional.

I wonder. If we accept that the Olympian mythos survives so well because they're drawing power from the chained titans, who are too fundamental to the human part of the Dream to ever fully fade, that makes them more powerful and more coherent than the gods of other dead or dying religions. As for the rest… I don't know. I remember reading in Hellblazer that the gods of dead religions don't get weaker, but Bast herself said that her realm was in decay without humans at least thinking of them. Maybe it's the realm? Or the human-comprehensible parts of the god rather than the core self?

Or maybe Hellblazer was wrong, or John was dishonest?

No, can't be.

"Do you require our assistance any further, oh Goddess of Earth?"

Might not have been wise to draw attention to the fact that she needed mortal help, but unless she feels like sharing what happened to her there isn't anything she can do to help us solve the case.

I think she's thinking about it, but then she spots Themyscira on the horizon.

"Why is that here?"

"Don't know. We were about to find out. They're being attacked by humans who have had their hearts torn out-."

"I will deal with them."

She stamps towards the misty sea, the stone causeway which Kon obliterated reforming to take her huge footfall and weight.

Kon ambles over, careful to keep Tlaltecuhtli in view.

"It worked."

"Good work with the heart massage."

He snorts. "Good work with the heart."

"That wasn't the hard bit." I look around. "Cernunnos? Are you around?"

There's a faint shimmer at the tree line and Cernunnos stalks out, keeping an eye on Tlaltecuhtli.

"You may have saved her from enchantment, but she still eats hearts."

"I haven't forgotten, but we're in the land of the Aztec gods. They all do it, and we're going to have to deal with them. Would you mind flying to Themyscira and letting them know we're here?"

"What's wrong with you?"

"Ring's dead. Kon, what's your damage?"

Kon pulls the melted remains of his kinetic belt off his suit. The suit is thin enough to be protected by his organic force field, but the belt extends outside of that.

"Fine, apart from the belt. Are you having trouble recharging?"

I raise my left fist and tap it against a personal lantern that isn't there.

"Yes. I'll need a moment. Please keep watch."

He nods, doing a quick check of our perimeter.

"Oh, and in case you missed it, her chest could absorb the orange light, so there's probably another-."

"One of your clones-" He nods. "-with its heart cut out."

"Just so. Okay."

This should be doable. I recreated Larfleeze's ring from pure avarice because it had existed for so long that it imprinted on it. My personal lantern has only been orange for a couple of years, but the orange light fountain has existed about as long as his ring. Not sure if Hinon dismantled it as part of building the Orange Central Power Battery, but the imprint should still be there.

I make a fist with my right hand and raise it slightly, contemplating the ring.

And it should be tied to this ring.

Just outside the-. Ooooh. It's actually a little easier to see things here without straining. No, no, not the desires of individual people. I want to see the distortion left by an object, things not tied to a particular person or mindset. A device that used to cage the Ophidian. There are Kon's desires and Cernunnos's desires and Tlaltecuhtli's desires and pull out pull out pull all the way out. There's the whole of the orange but it doesn't all flow from the desires of individuals. Behind that, there's the desires of groups, species, things existing beyond the individual. But aside from that, there are structures which emerge from the thing itself…

I reach out with my right hand and touch my ring to the structure.

This is my cause, this is my fight,
Shine through the void with orange light,
I've claimed all within my sight,
To keep what is mine, that is my right.

Something moves, and the previously empty ring becomes full again as I return to the realm of the gods and toss Kon a replacement kinetic barrier.

"Is it lava proof?"

"Try swallowing it."

He snorts, then we both rise into the air and head after Tlaltecuhtli.

 

[Mr Zoat]

17th February 2013
17:00 GMT

I watch from a little way back as P-.

I wince as the world shimmers. Out of curiosity I asked Scott about the level of arcane force it would take to make a New God as strong as me feel faint, and apparently it would be easier to crack the moon in half. To deliver that amount of energy without any detectable sign that it was being delivered is something he'd assumed would be impossible until I demonstrated it in his workshop. He didn't have any idea how it could be done, and Kanto…

Kanto expressed a mild interest in learning how to use something like that for assassinations, but he's happy working as a history lecturer so I think that it's best to leave him to it. In the fullness of time his god-name will drive him to expand his horizons, but we live indefinitely so there's no sense in hounding him or leading him astray. Something that Darkseid has never learned.

Anyway, the boy is standing next to the rock cairn that marks the resting place of the material remains of his mother. I honestly thought that he'd want to avoid ever coming back here, then I got a notification that someone opened a boom tube here. I opened one as well, and I'm not using any sort of stealth system, so he knows that I'm here.

I haven't really talked about this with them. I mean, they all know perfectly well what happened… If you ask them about it. But I think that the younger ones are mostly forgetting what it was like.

He hasn't. Clearly.

I take a couple of steps closer. Just a reminder that I'm here for him if he needs anything. I don't have much planned for today, and it's nothing I prioritise above the emotional needs of my eldest son.

He looks around. His expression is… Thoughtful? Pensive?

"Do you know where father's remains are?"

I shake my head. "No. To the best of my knowledge he died on the mainland, and the people who killed him had the knowledge to properly dispose of a vampire's remains. Most likely, they burned the body and buried small parts of the ash at a dozen different crossroads."

I could ask John Constantine about it, but I think it's probably better to let the matter lie. I have a small concern about the possibility of him getting back up, but John killed the king of the vampires years ago and he hasn't put in an appearance since. And I haven't seen Dracula either, so I'm going to assume that them getting back up isn't a simple matter of spilling a few drops of blood, if they can at all.

"What..? What would have happened if they hadn't caught him?"

"Difficult to say."

He gives his head a small shake. "I know he was a murderer. You don't need to protect me from it."

"I don't know the details of his life. Yes, he killed at least one woman locally, but that could have been-."

"Please."

I sigh, nodding. "Based on what little I know, he would keep preying on the local people using mesmerism to avoid raising the alarm. Given the relatively low number of deaths, it seems likely that he was doing that as a strategy, and given that your blood-siblings are all full-siblings I would guess that your mother was feeding exclusively from him. I imagine that once you were a little older he would have begun teaching you hunting techniques…"

Hm.

"What follows there depends how good a strategist he was. It would be almost inevitable that you and the others would kill a few people during your earliest feeding attempts, so remaining in a rural location would be unwise as there wouldn't be any way to cover up the fact that something wasn't right."

"We.. can't hold back."

I regard him levelly. "Couldn't hold back. You and the younger ones have focused well on your lessons."

"No-." He nods. "Yes, but we wouldn't have been able to hold back. If we'd stayed with them."

"There wasn't any way for him to have known that. Vampires get hungry, but they don't usually get overwhelmed by the need as you do. If they're hungry, then they're hungry all the time, whereas you don't experience hunger unless exposed to something that you can eat. Succubae and incubi experience even less compulsion."

And we can't test whether or not the children could be fed enough to grant them mental clarity in their bestial state. Some combinations just don't work well.

"Do you..? Remember being hungry while your father was alive?"

He looks down for a moment, then shakes his head. "No."

I nod. "Then making sure that you stayed full would probably be enough. They would probably move to a city, somewhere with a high murder rate so that they could conceal your early feedings. And hopefully where they could enthral a teacher to get you a basic education."

"Then they would have to either hope that you would snap out of it after feeding, or move to a war zone. Depending on how many children they had in total, they might have escaped notice for a while or they might get the attention of the Justice League. Between that and a child's natural inclination to follow their parents' example, it is unlikely that you would have questioned it."

He nods solemnly.

"Why did they do it? Miss Gloria lives around humans. She lived around humans before you got her a new body."

"Why.. everything? I can only guess. Binding herself to a human body effectively put your mother outside of Queen Triskelle's control for as long as it lasted. Triskelle is highly controlling, and probably wouldn't like one of her people forming any kind of power base away from her. Vampires usually turn humans in order to get controllable minions. There's no obvious benefit in siring children that a vampire would care about by default, and repeatedly being fed on would have limited his ability to build his own strength. My best guess is that he either wanted to unleash a novel form of death onto the world and thought that she was the best person to enable him to do it or he genuinely loved her and wanted something approaching a normal-looking life."

Now he looks slightly worried. "Does that mean that Mum is in Hell?"

I hesitate, then nod. "Probably."

Because the alternative is that you tore her soul apart and ingested it for arcane power and she simply ceased to be, and I'm not going to mention that even if I do find evidence for it.

"And would Queen Triskelle have… Done something bad to her?"

"Again, probably. If Triskelle was happy then we'd probably have heard from her by now. Since we haven't she was probably unhappy. Which means that either your mother was given a long-term punishment and there's not much we can do about it, or she was given a short term punishment and she's probably fine by now."

And the question I've been dreading…

"Do you want to try summoning her?"

He doesn't answer. He looks down, then off to his right where the sea is crashing against the rocky island shore.

"The others don't remember her, and Miss Gloria is very good at pretending to be human. I don't remember her all that clearly. But she was evil."

"That doesn't mean that it's wrong to want to-."

"I don't want to summon her."

I nod, trying not to look as relieved as I feel.

"I want to try summoning Caroline."

"Caroline..?"

"The oldest-. Our oldest sister. The… First one we ate. I came here-. Back, because I wanted to bury them next to Mum, but-. But we can, can't we?"

That's not much better.

"Do you know where her remains are, then?"

He looks at me sombrely. "I know where they all are."

What..? Would have happened to her soul? She could hardly be held responsible for the murders her mother and father committed. I doubt that she got any religious instruction, and she'd have been killed when she was… Fourteen, at the eldest? If her succubae nature resulted in her going to Hell she'd probably transform into a full demon relatively quickly, but at the moment she would still be being tortured. But I don't have a good way to help with that. No one really deserves Hell.

But that's got nothing to do with anything.

I walk closer to my boy, and crouch down to hug him with my right arm.

"We can try."

 

[Mr Zoat]

17th February 2013
17:01 GMT

"Lantern?!" Zosime looks up in surprise after shoving what looks like a javelin through the arm of an Aztec… Fine, zombie. "Prince Kon?"

The Aztec woman has clearly had a rather bad time of it, but despite wounds to her abdomen, neck and head she's still clumsily trying to rise, to attack the one who defeated her.

"Hey." Kon nods, taking in the fallen woman. "Are we holding?"

"This is hardly the first time the dead have attacked Themyscira." She looks down with the stoicism of a three thousand year old veteran. "Our fallen sisters usually dress more decorously."

I look around. It looks like the attack by the dead in this part of the island is under control, with the Aztecs being netted or knocked down so that they can be pinned. I generate construct spike drivers and speed up the process, earning myself a few grateful nods.

"If your shade ever attacks me without a shirt on, I'll be sure to dress you before anyone else sees."

"Shirt? I have bought sports bras from New York. They provide far better support-."

"You just want an excuse to-" I raise my eyebrows sceptically. "-show off your skin."

She shrugs. "Delphine likes it. How did you get here?"

"Ah, long story short, you should probably avoid the west side of the island for now."

Zosime frowns while Kon shakes his head. "How did Themyscira get here?"

Zosime looks over to her pentekontarchos, who nods as she organises her detachment to chain up the zombies and cart them away.

"It was just after Oizys touched our minds. Reformation Island vanished, and I hoped that whatever magic moved it would affect the rest of us as well."

Kon looks concerned. "How did everyone..? Did everyone make it?"

"After two thousand years of isolation I doubt that any of us have not felt such misery at least once. Though had it gone on longer it would have been uncomfortable."

"So..?"

"We prayed for deliverance. Some of those who are skilled with magic attempted to alter the wards to block out whatever malevolent magic-." She frowns. "What was it?"

"It's called 'Anti-Life'. There's this evil alien god called 'Darkseid' who uses it to make everyone so depressed that they just give their souls to him."

She actually seems to brighten up a little. "And you are fighting it?"

"Yeah. It's not easy, but Paul found a way to get rid of it."

"He has a several stage plan and we're only about half way there at the moment. What happened next?"

"The gods moved us here. The priestesses say that Olympus and Skybreak are now one, or… Connected together. We are in the realm of the gods."

I look towards Skybreak, and… Yes, the topography is a little different to what I remember, and a little more like what I remember of Olympus.

"And the Aztecs?"

"Is that their name? They do not talk much."

"They probably call themselves 'Mexians'."

She nods. "Like the woman at the pastry shop."

"No, she-. Maybe, but she's probably Mexican. That's where the word comes from, but it's not the same thing. Their gods require human sacrifice to remain strong, and they like receiving their sacrifices heart-first."

She frowns, looking down at the impaled man beneath her. "These are sacrifices?"

"We're not exactly sure-" There's a loud thud of footsteps heading towards us. "-what's happening there."

Zosime looks west, hefting her spear as the other Amazons abandon prisoner detainment and begin to form up. "When you said to avoid the west side of-."

The towering form of Tlaltecuhtli walks around the side of the mountain, stomping on- Quick referral to my mental map of Themyscira. -some pasture fields that she probably isn't damaging by accident, being an earth goddess. Amazon eyes widen and they shift into a dispersed formation.

"No, it's-." / "She's fine-."

Kon and I look at each other, and I bow my head to my prince.

"That's Tlaltecuhtli. She's an Aztec goddess, and she's here to-."

Tlaltecuhtli stops and reaches down, tearing Aztec zombies off their stakes and lifting them up. She then splits her head in two to reveal her second mouth, and…

Drops the zombies in.

"To help."

"Prince Kon-El!" The pentekontarchos looks at him for direction. "Your orders!"

"Move away from the Aztecs and let her take them."

"Ah, except…" I put a construct sarcophagus around the one that Zosime was working on. "This one, I'm experimenting with her."

The pentekontarchos frowns and looks to Kon for confirmation. He nods, and she organises her women to put the zombies in a pile and then back away.

While I stick a heart in this one, inject cloned blood into the circulatory system, and use a construct to make it beat, and then add a transmuted cardiac stimulator to keep it beating before closing up her chest.

And monitor for any change.

Kon comes a little closer, trying not to be overheard. "Should we try and help the others? Stop her eating them? I mean, can we?"

"We could try. I don't think we'd be successful, and as far as I'm concerned this is more like a resurrection than a healing. If it works and we get someone who can tell us what's going on then great, but if we can't then I'm not going to beat myself up over it. These people are dead, and when they were alive they were Aztecs."

"They died a long time ago. And they're the souls of the dead. This isn't… Right."

I shrug. "No, but it's part of their belief structure. When we find out what happened to their hearts we can try and sort something out but so far this one isn't moving."

I try scanning her again.

"I'd guess it's because they can't supply their own power in the way that a goddess can, but I don't know that. I don't have a perfect solution and this is the best available non-perfect solution."

He nods, clearly not happy but not having anything better. "Zosime, is Grandma in the city plaza?"

"If she's not on the beach, yes."

"'kay. Let's go check in with her."

 

[Mr Zoat]

17th February 2013
17:07 GMT

"Kon-El!"

Queen Hippolyta smiles broadly as we come in to land, then walks over and wraps Kon in a warm embrace. She's wearing a slightly more ornate version of the armour worn by the other women, and seems to be in generally good spirits. I watch for a moment, then turn to the nearby Philippus and open my arms with a winsome smile.

She settles for tapping her fist against my cuirass. "Lantern. I see that you restored the Earth Goddess's heart. I hope that you do not play Euanthe false?"

"Not intentionally, but who knows what women think."

She chuckles, because that's not just a chauvinistic jibe but a quote from a popular Themysciran play. The male character is something of a well-intentioned but slightly pompous figure of fun, and they.. were going to include it in their next international tour.

Queen Hippolyta half-releases Kon while keeping her right arm around his waist, leading him closer to the central table covered by a map of Themyscira. There are markers indicating the locations of Amazon military units, with slightly different signs to distinguish between guards and militia. All Amazons are trained as soldiers, but they don't all take to it to quite the same degree and they've only been able to get enough orichalcum to equip the standing army.

"We have some respite, now that Tlaltecuhtli is permanently dealing with the heartless. Orange Lantern, please update the map."

I scan, and shift the markers to their precise locations. Then I add markers for the remaining Aztec attackers and a single large one for Tlaltecuhtli.

Hippolyta nods to me. "The remaining heartless will be contained within the hour, and… Fed to Tlaltecuhtli. That will grant us the first true respite that we have had since the attacks started."

Philippus snorts. "I think that will create more disappointment than joy, majesty."

"Perhaps the loudest complainants would enjoy marching to the shoreline for reconnaissance."

"Your majesty, could you explain to us what is going on? Zosime gave a quick.. summary: Reformation Island vanished, the Anti-Life started affecting your minds and then you were teleported here, then…"

"Lord Hephaestaean explained that we had been brought here as part of his effort to protect both us and Olympus from the… Anti-Life. The precise mechanics are beyond my understanding, but we now stand a little closer to the gods than we did."

"Power… Gradient. It's possible to move physical objects into the immaterial realm. You have to have a fairly concrete part and it would take a lot of power…"

"Lord Hephaestaean said something similar. For a time we were simply relieved that we were safe. Then something occurred to cut us off from Olympus. The mountain is still there, but we cannot reach the gods and they cannot reach us."

I nod. "I couldn't rise more than a hundred metres into the air. I assumed that was just how it worked here. It wasn't like that before?"

"No."

Hippolyta shakes her head, and I wince inwardly as I realise that I'm not likely to be able to get useful thaumaturgical information here that could let me work out how that happened. Most Amazons have a basic grasp of magical practice but next to none of magical theory.

"So it's Tlazolteotl, right?" Kon's looking at me as he says it, but my only response is a shrug. "Bast said that she was looking better than she had for a long time. Aztec gods get stronger when they get fed hearts, and Tlaltecuhtli didn't have a heart when we got here."

"Plausible, if speculative. And it wouldn't explain why the other Aztec gods were okay with her doing that."

"What's Tlazolteotl goddess of?"

"Disease, adultery, vice and absolution. And bathing, for some reason."

Across the table, Menalippe looks slightly more horrified than everyone else. "And she consumes hearts for that?"

"All Aztec gods except Quetzalcoatl do. It's why no one worships them any more and why the whole region was happy to convert to Christianity. And why the Aztecs mostly got slaughtered by their tributaries rather than the Spanish who conquered them. Demanding money is one thing, but demanding people to be sacrificed isn't something people will accept in the long term."

"The hearts of other gods."

I shrug. "The principle's sound. Until we see some of the other Aztec gods, we can't conclude that for certain. Though it does put what Zeus did to Metis into perspective. Anyway, Kon and I are here trying to track down a kidnapped elf, and the sheeda who probably did that had his heart removed as well. And whoever it is also acquired the blood of a God of Travellers from some undoubtably nefarious reason."

"Which God of Travellers?"

I smile at Menalippe's disquiet. "According to the merchant, one from a dead religion. Hermes is safe."

Hippolyta considers the map. "Do the Aztecs have a navy?"

"They weren't much of a naval power when their civilisation was a going concern." Not compared to Britain, France and… Well, Spain. "Tlaloc and Chalchiuhtlicue share the 'water' domain, but I don't know… Anything about what happens in the Aztec afterlife. I had thought they went in for reincarnation so there should only be a few human souls here, but… That's clearly not the case."

"How long did Aztec civilization last?"

"About two hundred years, early fourteenth century to early sixteenth century. Depending on what you count. The people weren't exterminated after they were conquered by the Spanish, but their religion was prioritised for elimination due to the whole human sacrifice thing."

I get the general impression that the Amazons aren't exactly impressed by that. And to be fair, compared to them that's barely any time at all.

Kon frowns. "Grandma, why did the gods bring Themyscira here? I mean, specifically. I don't think Amazons and Aztecs have ever met."

Hippolyta look at Menalippe and raises her eyebrows slightly. Menalippe nods. "The… 'Anti-Life' was not merely disquieting to we mortals. Lord Hephaestaean moved Olympus to ward off its attack on the magics of Olympus."

"Because it's not being attacked here and now?"

"The magics being inflicted upon it here are different."

"So it was a trap." That gets some attention. "Someone -probably Mannheim- launches an attack on Olympus and leaves an avenue of escape. Lord Hephaestaean sees what looks like a solution and takes it, and runs into an ambush."

I guess forming a working relationship with the new War God was always going to take a little while.

Hippolyta nods. "That may well be. But what comes next?"

"Reconnaissance. Superboy, Cernunnos and I can fly across the landmass and try and find someone to interrogate." I waggle the construct coffin back and forth. "Bringing the zombies to their senses seems a little more difficult than the goddess."

Hippolyta makes eye contact with Philippus, who nods.

"Very well. Captain Philippus and our pegasus riders will accompany you."

"That-."

"We saw you fall from the sky, Paul. And Kon could have drowned in the earth."

I nod. "Of course, majesty. How quickly can they be ready?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

17th February 2013
10:21 GMT -7

"Hmm." Sunset looks over to Circe. "Does that looks right to you?"

Circe seems mildly puzzled. "It's not like you to be so hesitant, Sunset. Are you worried about what we will be conjuring up?"

"We don't really have demons in Equestria." She taps her tablet as she checks the geometry of the ritual space. "The closest thing we have are umbrum, and they're basically useless."

"And not evil?"

"Oh, they're evil." She shrugs as she lowers the tablet. "Or at least that's what all the records say. But they're hard to bind and they don't really have any useful magic of their own. King Sombra used to use them to possess ponies so he could control them, but that only worked because he was a manifested umbrum himself and they were okay working for him without being bound. For everyone else, if you're strong enough to bind the umbrum you can probably just mind control the pony you were going to order them to possess."

I raise my left eyebrow.

"Or-. Just-. Find some other way to do it."

I nod. "Just because you're Alicorn of Magic, that doesn't mean that you have to solve-."

"Solve every problem with magic." She rolls not just her eyes, but her entire head, demonstrating that ascension doesn't stop you being a teenager. "You sure it's not Celestia you're dating?"

"Yes." I look over the programmable ritual circle. "So what are you summoning up?"

"I figured the best place to start was the youngest succubus, because that-."

"Sunset, I have adopted nine children. I don't want to end up on a sex offenders register."

"No, it's okay. This spell is the version for when you want to send a succubus to seduce someone else. They know what you want before they appear."

"Okay." I nod. "Just remember that it's your magic signature that's on all of this, and I will have absolutely no hesitation in giving the police your name."

"Sunset?" The boy goes to take a step out of the double-warded viewing area I told him to stay inside, then remembers himself and stops at the exterior line. "Is it going to summon my sister?"

Sunset glances at me, a little awkwardness and uncertainty entering her posture. "It might, but probably not. We're just going to get a succubus who knows more about what's going on than we do."

He nods, looking pensive.

Sunset nods. "Alright, positions."

Circe and Sunset take up positions opposite one another across the summoning circle while I step inside it, careful to avoid interfering with their drawings. And then I make eye contact with the boy while theatrically wiggling my left hand. Now, normally, standing inside the summoning circle is a bad idea, but that is because most summoners are squishy humans calling up things more physically powerful than themselves.

But as John Constantine demonstrated with the Fuckpig, it doesn't always have to go that way. And I am a New God.

Sunset gestures, and the edge of the summoning cylinder shimmers. And there's a faint scent of rotting eggs, which suggests that whoever we're summoning predated modern hygiene.

And given the shape of what appears… Sort of a combination of Cro-Magnon and actual crow, with a diaphanous… Mini-dress. The face is a sort of human face stretched in such a way as to suggest a beak, while the dress and feathers fade into each other. Now, I could sort of see how a bird woman could be an arousing sight. I've seen Ms Thal's fan sites. This is… Something unsexy that you can sort of see that it could turn into something sexy… If someone put a lot of work in.

"Usually, they wait outside the circle, oh God of Conquerors." She blinks her too-large eyes. "Though given your power I can see why you did not. You should have more caution: this gateway can work both ways."

"Oh, I plan on visiting Hell eventually. I do appreciate your warning, though I am somewhat curious as to your reason for offering it freely."

"Someone of your power could easily represent a long-term contract. I would ruin my chance if you died foolishly. Though perhaps my caution was unwarranted, given your great power."

"It's a foolish overlord who gets annoyed at subordinates looking out for his interests. Now, I want some information from you."

"Volunteering information only goes so far. If you are not sending me out to seduce your enemies, I will require payment."

"Fair enough. What do you have in mind?"

"I understand that your library is extensive. Given their aversion to demons, Atlantean lore reaches us only slowly."

"You want books on thaumaturgy?" She nods. "Seeking to better yourself. I respect that. Bit surprised that you didn't ask for more, but okay."

"If you weren't willing to supply even that, there wasn't any point in continuing the conversation. Ordinarily, I would attack a summoner who was so miserly, but in your case I would simply have left."

"Rational. You're young, aren't you?"

"Is that something that concerns you? I assure you that any information that I have will be accurate. My nature will not allow me to violate pacts."

"I imagine that an older demon would be more inflexible, that's all. Very well. Somewhere between ten and fifteen years ago a succubus set up with a vampire man on a small island in British waters. They had numerous children. The vampire was killed and the succubus 'died' shortly afterwards."

"That is not possible. We cannot bear children."

"Unless the succubus possessed a human body. I'm not exactly sure how it worked, but…" I point over to the boy. "It did."

The succubus makes a quiet cawing noise.

"So can I assume that you have no knowledge of his mother?"

"Succubae come and go. I have heard nothing of a succubae doing what you described."

Hm. "Alright. Any succubae showing an unusual interest in newer succubae? Or.. other newcomers to Hell? Some of her children died a little while after she did and we're trying to track down their souls."

"Countless souls fall into Hell every moment. But children are rare. Why do you think they would be ours?"

"Inherent demonic magic, inherited from mother and father. I suspect that reality would have treated them as demons."

"I cannot demand that you pay me for information I don't have. If I return and look for those children, what can I expect in thanks?"

"Depends on what you get. You can have a book for any substantial piece of information, even if it's just the mother's name. If you actually find the children… I could bind you to the Earth for a decade or so. If you maintain your adaptability, you could use that time to flourish within the bounds of human society."

Behind me, Sunset frowns at something.

"And the Queen?"

"If she gives you trouble, refer her to me."

The succubus bows. "I will return to Hell to begin my search."

I watch the space she occupied as she shimmers into non-existence. Then I turn to Sunset, who rotates her demonic analyser so that I can see the name and the boy can't.

Caroline.

Hmm.