CHAPTER 2
Back in my room, I unpacked my duffel and arranged the contents in the various drawers. While doing this I realised that the seal I placed when slowly repacking my belongings in front of the border guard was now gone. Apparently while I was introducing myself to various people someone had taken the time to check my luggage.
Well, good luck to them! I didn’t have anything suspicious in my bag, or better said nothing that didn’t look like it belonged there.
I took a seat at the narrow desk and placed the framed image of my fictitious family in front of me, within an arm’s length. A plain crystal and carbon rectangle, not unlike millions other cheap memorabilia sold pretty much everywhere on the Dominion worlds. Reaching into my Core, I let a tiny tendril of eka raise and touch the object, overwriting its atomic structure with an entirely different pattern. The frame image started to flow like wax, rebuilding itself into a crystalline structure, lit with the tell-tale halo of a long-range communication portal. I might not be an expert in Matter manipulation but reforming a device back into its initial configuration was simple enough.
One more eka push sent a signal to the other end, promptly acknowledged moments later.
“I’m in,” I informed the Spy Mistress laconically. Verdid was not prone to chit-chat when in business mode, something I learned to respect a long time ago.
“Any insights?” responded my comrade and friend in an equally concise way.
“The ambassador has a dysfunctional relationship with her Resident Adept, and somebody was curious enough to mess with my things. Nothing conclusive, I’m afraid.”
“I was informed another suspicious communication occurred today between the Huynar Station and the kreussa fleet hidden half a light day away from Caldeor. The fifth of its kind we know about, and the third in the past couple of days. Whatever happens, expect to happen fast.”
I acknowledged the message and cut the discussion short. I didn’t have a couple of ten-days. I might not even have a day to sort out who was bringing a mercenary fleet at Caldeor and for what nefarious purpose. Was it just a driang power play, or something much worse than that? Caldeor was far from the Wall, far from the frontlines of the Scourge War, and their ships couldn’t possibly hope to cross half of the Dominion undetected. Yet, someone thought the kreussa could. The lizard race was a neutral party in theory, though various factions continuously allied with our hated Enemy and with us, in an ever-shifting pattern of loyalties.
Well, I guess the first step to gain an answer to my questions was meeting a certain Archon Erdolminer, the esteemed driang responsible for Calderon's orbital defence.
I watched myself in the mirror to check how the other saw me. I wasn’t a vain person, or at least I didn’t think I was. I was still adjusting to my new role, and I had to feel comfortable in my own skin.
The girl in the mirror looked back with huge black eyes rimmed with purple. Matching facial patterns adorned my face, almost the same shade as the eyes and the accents in my hair. I wasn’t accustomed to such prominent marks, but I must admit they looked good and I could understand why Sandrial seemed to be inclined to flirt with me.
I might be a vain person, after all!
Focus Ellandra Deluan! Tomorrow you’ll have a long day in front of you.
***
The esteemed Erdolminer, as any high ranking Caldeor bureaucrat, had its working offices close to his nest at the very top of one of the downtown high rises. Did I mention that the driang had no use for elevators in their residential towers, seeing them as a sign of decadence inspired by us, the alien races? Any visitor had to climb hundreds of rather steep stairs or suffer the indignity of arriving by air in one of those transports designed to carry supplies, not people. Any self-respecting driang would always fly to his business meetings. A pity that neither First Legate Delora Hardun nor I had wings.
I didn’t fly often, but I had no problem doing it. There were no flying contraptions on the Haillar worlds, nor any other form of mechanical transport, for that matter. We didn’t need them. Why clutter our streets when anyone can travel by portal to a gate within walking distance of any destination? It wasn’t the same on most worlds populated by other races, places where eka devices were not so widespread. Even less so on Caldeor, given the reclusive nature of these charming birds.
So, flying it was, and if our image would suffer because of this, so be it!
We boarded the transport early in the morning, only the two of us, Delora and me. The pilot was a surprisingly social avian, who chatted incessantly about his experiences on different worlds. Apparently, he was well travelled, including a cycle spent on Dorien, the Haillar world giving the name of this Sector. The place of the Chaos Queen’s Palace of Glass and hundreds of other marvels.
His words, not mine.
While the trip was more pleasant than expected, our reception was as frosty as it could possibly be, considering Delora’s ambassador status.
The esteemed Erdolminer was a plump bird, the first overweight driang I’ve ever met, and I’ve seen my share. For Flame’s sake, they were supposed to be falcon-like avians, not turkeys! Yet Erdolminer looked like a turkey and behaved like one too, full of bluster and self-importance.
“Caldeor is a world almost as old as the Dominion,” he boasted. “We are one of the most important planets in the Dorien Sector, and for sure strong enough to be self-sufficient.”
“Of course, Honoured Archon,” responded Delora. “Caldeor is an influential power and an important partner for the Haillar and for the House Sen’Dorien in particular. This is one more reason for us to be concerned about its security and always ready to come to your support.”
“Your support is welcome, Ambassador, and has been so for sixty thousand cycles. Caldeor respects the Suzerain Queen and thrives under her shield. But we are not a World of the Wall, to be permanently under the threat of a Scourge attack. We are a peaceful colony thousands of cycles away from the frontlines. For us, the only threat is posed by the occasional pirates and smugglers, not by a worldwide siege. By arming the Huynar Station, we’ll project our power in space, and thus relieve Haillar resources better needed elsewhere.”
“Haillar patrols that cost Caldeor nothing.”
“Not directly, Ambassador, but under the Dominion’s Accords, we do provide resupplies and cover the planet-side costs of your crews. But I admit such costs are meagre. This is mainly about our national pride, about being able to defend ourselves from any local threat, without support from the Dominion.”
This was precisely the type of drivel a Scourge drone would utter, and for a moment, I was sure my worst fears were confirmed. Yet, I fed a tendril of eka towards the driang official and I couldn’t feel a thing. No sign of Scourge tampering, no sickening corruption. Erdolminer opinions were his own, and the avian was either as obtuse as it looked, or otherwise involved in his own plot.
“I fear your stance might put your entire planet at risk, Archon,” continued my boss relentlessly. “Non-eka orbital defences had proven to be of limited use in the past, due to the light speed limitations and the sheer distances involved. A fixed platform would always remain a stationary target, while any potential attackers could dance around whatever you can throw at them.”
“That’s not the case here, Madam Ambassador. My colleague Krestellar, the esteemed Head of the Huynar project, assures me the defences he plans to acquire were tested and are every bit as effective as you eka weapons. The jalmaar consortium selling this prototype are long time business partners of exceptional repute.”
The jalmaar were indeed known to be outstanding engineers, and half of the new technologies adopted in the Dominion originated from them. Yet I never knew them to be involved in building weapons, and especially doing so behind our backs.
“In this case, Esteemed Archon, maybe Master Krestellar would not mind arranging a demonstration. If some of these weapons are already on the station, I’m sure it won’t be a big inconvenience to organise a test. Your business partners shouldn’t mind either, for if the weapons are as good as advertised, hundreds of Dominion worlds would be interested in buying them.”
The Archon paused for a second, contacting an underling and asking him to relay our demand. Surprisingly, the answer was received only moments later.
“Your request is acceptable, Madam Ambassador. Station Head Krestellar would be waiting for you and your colleagues tomorrow at noon, and everything would be in place for a demonstration.”
That went surprisingly well. I must admit I didn’t expect the driang to be so cooperative, especially considering the string of concealed messages our spy network detected earlier this week. Addressed to a kreussa fleet, and not to any jalmaar consortium.
***
The transport took a sharp turn and landed on its designed pad, at the back of the Haillar Embassy building, next to the entrance for supplies deliveries. We thanked the pilot and jumped on the slightly raised platform.
“At least this morning wasn’t a total waste of time,” muttered Delora in a lighter mood. “Tomorrow the two of us, Ortens Sen’Galahad and a squad of guards will pay this Krestellar a visit and see for ourselves the miracle weapons he intends to install in orbit. Maybe adept Sen’Galahad can also make a little demonstration and convince our hosts that dispensing of the Haillar support might not be such a good idea.”
The thought of the local Resident competing with an automatic defence system was slightly ridiculous. For sure this wasn’t something the First Legate was seriously considering, other than as a barb for the local Resident.
I was about to respond when something triggered my instinctive defences. I reacted without thinking raising an Order shield, the first response that came to my mind. The energy blast hit the edge of my defence, dissipating across a barrier made of compressed gases frozen in space and time.
“Look out!” I shouted before the ambassador even had a chance to realise something was happening. “Get down and stay behind me. We are under attack.”
I modified the shield into a perfect semi-sphere, as a precaution against an attack from a different angle. It didn’t come, but a hail of heavy projectiles slammed into the front side of my shield instead, flattening against the air barrier as hard as diamond.
Somebody up there was quick to react and equipped to deal with unforeseen circumstances. Most of the energy shields offered limited protection against kinetic impacts, so an alternate attack stood a fair chance to succeed. It happened that a well-made Order shield was one of the few defences equally effective against both types of weapons, and that I luckily picked this particular response. It wasn’t of course impenetrable, for no defence really was. Still, it seemed the attackers lacked the type of weapons that could bypass this barrier, and they couldn’t mount the firepower needed to overload it.
For the time being, we were safe, but I had no idea where the shooters were. Hence I was in no position to remove them and had to resume myself to maintaining the shield, while blindly sending eka feelers into the buildings ahead.
I needed to try something else.
As if on cue, the two embassy guards turned around the corner and sent a couple of serious blasts of Light and Darkness towards a specific tower, some five hundred strides away. Ah, a Sen’Vollar bonded pair!
I was about to join the military adepts when the attack I thought might never come eventually happened. Somebody opened fire from behind us with an even more powerful kinetic weapon, the blast coming low, almost parallel to the ground. My barrier proved its worth, but the unsuspecting guards stood no chance. Heavy penetrators caught them squarely at chest level, passing through whatever protection they had. The men were literally raised into the air and thrown against the embassy wall, shredded by the high calibre fire.
Such an attack was too powerful to be stealthy. The source proved to be a flying transport, so similar to the one that brought us earlier on, that I initially believed it was the same. A roaring explosion coming from the direction of the landing pad informed me that wasn’t the case, and that the driang pilot who had the misfortune to carry us today was one more victim of this cowardly attack.
My own blast enveloped the enemy gunship moments later. I used Order again, mindful of the potential for collateral victims. My favourite weapons were not at all adequate for this place, but Order was one of the most controllable aspects. This didn’t make it less deadly, not to mention notoriously difficult to avoid for any non-Haillar target. The enemy vessel froze for a moment, metal, glass and organic matter all turned into crystal. Crystal doesn’t fly though, so the statue of the former gunship fell like a rock, shattering in a million crystals.
The penetrator fire suddenly stopped, and an eery silence fell like a curtain over the battleground, in direct contrast with the racket surrounding us mere moments ago. I kept my shield in place and pushed my eka forward, searching for the first team of assassins, the ones targeting us from stealth. I fumbled blindly through the buildings in the general direction of the initial attack, in particular the tower targeted by the embassy guards. I couldn’t find anything. Whoever was shooting from the high rises was long gone, and I had nothing on them that would allow me to follow. Sen’Haillar adepts could sometimes blast an enemy with precise hits across enormous distances, but we were no magicians. We needed a handle, a marker, something to guide our attack. I didn’t have anything on our ambushers, so finding them became a matter of chance. And chance was not with me this time around.
“It’s over, First Legate. Let’s go inside”, I said.
We entered the Embassy and were welcome by a lady in white. It wasn’t hard to deduce it was Ortense Sen Galahad, dressed so alike her House’s liege queen, that one would have thought she was the mirror image of the Lady of Frost.
Up until the time she started to speak. While the Ice Queen was always measured and calm, this Caldeorean rendition was the complete opposite, closer to Fire than to Frost.
“This is all your fault, Mistress Hardun”, she said fixing the First Legate with a baleful glare. “This is the consequence of not listening to my advice, of stubbornly trying to placate the locals, of letting pass slight after slight. To what end? Being targeted in plain sight of the planetary authorities. Being shot at in the middle of the street. Haillar adepts died today, Legate. Good people died, and their blood is all on your hands.”
“They died doing their duty, Mistress of Frost”, I said. “You do them no honour by blaming their death on anyone else other than the very people who planned this cowardly act.”
“You!” shrieked the white-clad harridan. “Who are you, by the way?”
“Ellandra Deluan, Legate Assistant, my Lady.”
“You, Legate Assistant? You are a spy, nothing but a rogue, a snitch hiding into the shadows. You are here illegally, Miss Deluan. As the highest-ranking Sen’Haillar on this planet, I am to be informed of any arriving adept. You failed to do this, and in doing so you broke the Dominion law. Make no mistake, I wouldn’t let this pass. I will report you to the Order Queen, and to the Ice Lady herself, and not even Verdid Sen’Aesir would be able to protect you.”
I doubted somehow that the Order Queen, not to mention the Queen of Frost, who didn’t have any stake on Caldeor, would get themselves involved in sorting out this procedural issue. My lack of concern must have shown, as Ortens Sen’Galahad continued her tirade.
“This place has devolved into anarchy over the past fifty days. I can hardly wait for the Suzerain Queen to take back her rightful place and set everything in order.”
I found the idea of Ortense reporting my transgressions to the Suzerain slightly ridiculous. I knew for a fact that the Chaos Queen had never met the Caldeorean Resident, and that she would never approve bullying in any case, no matter how entitled the bully believed herself to be.
Nevertheless, I reigned in my temper and bowed to the Sen’Galahad, as a junior practitioner to her superior. I had no intention to get caught in the local infighting, any more than I already was.
The Resident adept dropped the issue and waved me off, as not being worthy of her ire. She turned instead back on Delora.
“You and I need to come together and sort out this mess, Legate.”
***
I entered the canteen and got an altogether different reaction compared to my low-key arrival yesterday. By now, everybody seemed to be up to speed that something happened outside, yet no one had all the details.
My arrival was met with hushed whispers and furtive looks, as the few people who already knew me were making their colleagues aware of my presence.
“Ellandra!” exclaimed Sandrial, coming from the back where he was having tea with one of his friends, Prion I believe. “You are a woman of mystery, Miss Ellandra Deluan. Or should I call you Lady Ellandra Sen’Aesir, as befitting your station.”
One of the common mistakes people make was assuming that any adept working from the shadows was automatically a Sen’Aesir. Yes indeed, the Spy Mistress was Verdid Sen’Aesir, and indeed a large proportion of her cohorts were people from her house, but by no means all of the shadow agents were adepts of Dream.
Yet, I wasn’t here to correct peoples’ misconceptions, but to find out who was plotting against the Dominion while putting Caldeor at risk. And if anyone in this building knew something about this.
“Ellandra Deluan works just fine, Sandrial. I’m still your colleague and still Legate Assistant in this embassy, same as yesterday.”
“If you say so, my lady, if you say so.”
Was that Legate Halora, the ex-military man who forgot to introduce himself yesterday? Gone was his vague air of condescendence, and this time around his face was displaying a genuine smile. Soldiers and adepts often fought side by side, and in fact, most adepts I knew had also been soldiers at one time or another. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Legate knew well the two guards who lost their lives today. Active and retired warriors were often close, especially in an isolated place like this.
I joined Sandrial and his friend, who promptly led me to their table.
“If you are still one of us, Ellandra, then you will do us the favour of joining this group and pay for your meal by recounting step by step everything that happened today. This is what junior legates on Caldeor normally do, sharing everything they know with their friends. Without leaving out any detail.”
I wasn’t about to feed the full story of my life to the embassy’s grapevine, but I could give a brief account of the events today. I could honour the memory of the people who died, the chatty driang pilot who loved to travel and the two Sen’Vollar adepts who valiantly came to our help and paid the gesture with their life. All killed by a coward, in an undeclared war, against an enemy we couldn’t see.