It took Catriona a moment to process Michael’s answer.
“Touched by an Angel?” she wondered. Then it hit her. “Wait, you recognise me? From all those years ago?”
She had never imagined he would. Frankly, she wasn’t that conceited.
“I have a feeling I would always recognise you,” he replied, cryptically.
Choosing to let that go, Cat asked what he remembered about that day. He told her how sorry he was that he had been unable to stop the void-creature, but promised he had done all he could.
“Void-creature?” Cat wondered. “Is that what that Monster was?”
Michael shrugged. “That’s just my name for it. I have no idea what it really was.”
He went on to tell her about the three figures who appeared and how they, too, tried to stop the void-creature before the Angel turned up.
Cat vaguely recalled something about that, although she’d been much more focused on the loss of her home and the death of her father at the time and then she’d been knocked unconscious by her mother just moments later. Finally, Michael told Cat how the Angel appeared and beat back the Monster before talking to him.
“After that, you know more than I do,” he concluded. “What did the Angel say to you?”
Cat shifted, uncomfortably. As an information trader, she appreciated the value of what he’d given her and she wished she could offer something of equal value in return, but she couldn’t.
“Sorry,” she apologised, “but if my Angel wanted you and the gods kept out of it, I have to assume there was a good reason, so I probably shouldn’t discuss it any further. Same goes for my staff. I’m planning to talk to Daelen about it, but it will have to be just him and me. Sorry.”
The alcove powered down, and Michael stepped clear.
“Not at all, my dear,” he assured her, kindly. “The gifts of Angels are precious, and only a select few may touch them.”
“Maybe, but of course, my visitor wasn’t an actual Angel,” Cat pointed out.
“What makes you so sure?” Michael wondered. “They do exist, you know. Daelen has seen one, though from what he’s told me, I doubt it’s the same one. Anyway, speaking of Daelen, are you ready to go and save him?”
“Ready,” she affirmed. “Teleportation, I presume.”
He nodded.
“Which means you need a clear image, so you know where to go.”
Again, he nodded.
“The image that’s currently in my head, so you’ll need to go in and have a look, yes?”
Another nod.
“I’m afraid so, yes. If you don’t mind – pardon the pun, I don’t mean to joke about it.”
“A sympathic link won’t be clear enough, I suppose?”
“Sorry, no. It has to be full telepathy.”
“Thought so. These things will be a lot easier when photography takes off.”
My mother was quite right about that, gentle reader. Broadly speaking, in those days, a sympathic image versus a telepathic one was like the difference between having a vague drawing of a pub and labelling it ‘FaerWay Tavern,’ versus having a high-resolution photo of the place itself along with exact map co-ordinates.
“OK, I’ll let you in. Why not? I’ll throw down the welcome mat. I just hope you can find space. It’s getting rather crowded up here, these days. I’m going to need a bigger head.”
“I do hope not,” Michael protested. “Your head is the perfect size, just the way it is.”
Cat raised her eyebrows in amusement.
“Thank you. That may be the oddest compliment I’ve ever received, which, considering the company I keep, is quite an achievement, so congratulations on that. Just hold on a tick, I’ll get Pyrah to lower her defences.”
“Pyrah?” Michael wondered.
The green snake poked her head out of Catriona’s pocket, and Michael immediately sank to his knees.
“Forgive me, Mistress Pyrah,” he gasped. “I had no idea I was in the presence of one such as yourself.”
“Erm, message from Pyrah: You may stand, and you have her permission, as well as my consent, to enter my mind for a moment,” a puzzled Catriona responded. “Message from me: What the f—?”
“—I’m a creature of the gods,” Michael replied, quickly, cutting her off. Though he was back on his feet, he was still clearly in awe of the little green snake, “But sometimes even the gods have gods, and Mistress Pyrah is one of the most revered of all Ysirians.”
“Ysirians?”
“That’s the name of her people. She’s Ysirian. She has not told you this?”
“I know she’s from one of the higher planes,” Cat shrugged, “but I don’t think she’s ever mentioned the name of her race. To me, she’s just my friend, Pyrah.”
“Who exactly are you, Catriona Redfletching? Touched by an Angel, host to a shadow warrior and friend to a god of gods?”
Catriona flushed at his reverent tone. “I’m just Cat. Just a simple half-Faery druid girl. Nobody important.”
Michael shook his head, his eyes wide. “I hate to contradict you, Cat, but I’m certain you are quite, quite wrong about that.”
*****
Cat and Michael materialised in the middle of a pitched midair battle between Daelen and Aden. Both had already expended a great deal of energy. Cat could tell by the power readings that were considerably lower than they had been a few minutes ago. Not to mention the mass devastation all around them. She wondered what would have happened if she hadn’t gone to fetch Michael. She knew ‘Aden’ generally gave up and ran away, but what if he didn’t? Would they have kept fighting their futile battle to the point of mutual destruction? What could they possibly hope to achieve by that?
Still, she supposed that was why Daelen had Michael.
‘And now he’s got me, too.’
As the Champion of the Gods moved to fight at close quarters, Catriona kept her distance and worked her magic from afar. That would give her time to react, should anything nasty come flying her way.
She fought with wind and ice and water. Trees reached up to grab Aden, lightning strikes assailed his body. All the while, she kept on the move, on the ground, in the air, shifting to falcon form, shifting back and dancing on her Windy Steps. All of her training with Dreya paid off. Except, of course, this wasn’t training, it was for real, and the energy beam that Aden fired towards her was not merely a beam of light. But she was ready, her hand in her bag of sand. The druidess threw it in the air, and it formed Nature’s Mirror. Just as Dreya had explained, there wasn’t time to do all this, given the speed of the energy beam, and yet the mirror formed precisely when she needed it to, reflecting the beam straight back, so it slammed into Aden’s body and knocked him to the ground. All three combatants stopped for a moment, and stared at her, not believing what they had just seen.
To Aden, Catriona yelled, “That’s from all the Faery to show you exactly what we think about all the slurs about wings!”
Aden got to his feet and conjured a Prismatic Sphere. Ignoring Catriona, he spoke to Daelen.
“Three against one? That’s hardly sporting. Still, I’ve got to hand it to you, brother. These mortal pets are really useful things. Maybe I should get one of my own. Bye, y’all!”
With that, he stepped through his portal and disappeared.
“If I ever say something as inane as ‘Bye, y’all,’” Daelen instructed Michael, “kill me immediately.”
Michael rushed over to check if Catriona was alright, Daelen a step behind.
“Me?” she queried. “What about you? No offence, Michael, but aren’t you supposed to die in every final battle?”
“That rule only applies to Kullos,” he explained.
Daelen nodded, adding, “There could be no such rules about my clone. Michael was created more than two centuries before I was split.”
“Although there is also my Curse,” the demigod told her, “which says that I shall die permanently in the final war of the shadow warriors.”
“I’ve promised to break that Curse,” Daelen insisted.
Michael shook his head. “Can’t be done.”
This was clearly a very old argument, and Cat was keen to return their focus to the present.
“Well, either way, right now, since Aden’s run away, we need to deal with Kullos.”
“And the void-creature,” Daelen put in, “for all that I’ve been told it’s not my problem. If it’s there when I attack, then it’s my problem.”
“Wait, the void-creature’s back?” Cat demanded, forcing herself to catch her breath and slow her heartbeat.
She could not panic in front of these two and she told her mind she did not need any flashbacks to the Day of the Monster, thank you.
“You know about it?” Daelen wondered.
Cat was grateful when Michael stepped in and covered for her. “The monster that killed her parents, along with many of her friends and neighbours,” he explained, gently.
If there was any possibility of Daelen talking her out of joining him on his mission before, this news removed that chance entirely.
Acting on a sympathic suggestion transmitted by Dreya, Cat volunteered, “I think we should try and limit knowledge of this void-creature. We particularly wouldn’t want your clone finding out. He’s already not happy about being outnumbered. If he knew of the power of the void-creature working with Kullos, he might decide to throw his lot in with Kullos, too.”
“Then we’d be in even more trouble,” Michael agreed.
“Well, I wouldn’t expect Kullos to be willing to work with my clone,” Daelen mused, “but then I wouldn’t have thought he’d build an army to take on Michael, either.”
“Exactly,” Cat affirmed. “You can't go on like it's business as usual. Things have changed and you need to do the same. Whether it really is Time manipulation or not, I don’t know. But either way, I’d say it’s time to throw the old rule book on the fire. The fight between the four of you isn’t just about you anymore. That void-creature attacked my home and Kullos is dragging us mortals into his army. They have to be stopped. We might not be able to control much about this situation, but we can control the information.”
“Catriona’s right, Daelen.” Michael backed her up. “You must place a block in my mind, so I don’t remember the void-creature, and then send me away. I will rendezvous with you when you’re ready to make the final push to Kullos’ fortress, and I’ll bring help.”
Michael explained his reasoning. His was the only mind that was vulnerable to Aden’s telepathy. Even if he tried not to think about the void-creature, that would be like telling someone not to think about elephants. Plus, he knew there was something else Cat wanted to discuss with Daelen that he could not be privy to.
“If we’re doing this, though, we need to know where we’re going,” he reminded the druidess.
She nodded. “Daelen,” she began, a determined look in her eyes, “swear to me, with Michael as a witness, that you will take me with you, and I promise I will give you both the location. There will be no more tricks from me, and if you want Tempestrians to believe you are in any way trustworthy, there will be none from you, either.”
The shadow warrior was torn. He could see the value of Catriona, more so than any other mortal for centuries, but his instinct to protect was telling him to keep her safely out of it. To buy himself time to think, he formed the mental block in Michael’s mind, as agreed.
“The way I see it, there are three reasons why I should be with you,” Cat pressed.
“First reason is this: I do not underestimate your power, or that of your fellow shadow warriors, but have you ever wondered why the most powerful mages in history are so often defeated by those with less power? Power isn’t everything. Power breeds confidence; great power breeds over-confidence. When a being of your power goes into battle, your first instinct is to hit your enemy with the most powerful weapon you possess. There’s no subtlety, no finesse, just mindless brute force. Trouble is, that makes you predictable, and so your enemy can take steps to defend himself. You try and overpower your enemies. I out-think them.”
“You can’t out-think an energy beam,” Daelen disputed.
“Really? I think Aden would say I just did. He was predictable, that’s why I could deflect his weapon blast. I anticipated he would do it.” She left out the part about her magic having a temporal element. “I’m concerned that your power may lead you to underestimate our enemy and in my experience that is fatal. Across this continent, there are bashed and broken towers, the bastions of wizards, some of whom are bashed and broken themselves. They underestimated me and look where it got them.
“We’ve said the rules have changed, Daelen, but I fear that you have not. You’re set in your ways, predictable. Your enemy has adapted. You must change, too, and I think I can help you with that. Lower power weapons, wielded with guile, ingenuity and creativity can usually win the day. In short, I believe in brain over brawn. With you and me together, we have both. That’s why I should be with you.
“Second, there’s my research. There’s somewhere en route to our destination that I’ve always wanted to visit but never had the means. You do. Joining with you is my best chance for success in my research, and as far as I’m concerned, that means my place is at your side. I’m your shadow now, Daelen, so you’d better get used to it.”
When it became apparent that Cat wasn’t going to say any more, Daelen prompted, “What’s the third reason? You said there were three.”
Of course, she had just been waiting for him to bite.
Flashing him a dazzling smile, and fluttering her eyelashes, she explained, “That’s simple. Why go off alone when you can enjoy the sweet, charming and delightful company of yours truly?”
Michael rumbled with laughter. “I think you buried the headline there, Cat. Tell you what, my dear, why don’t you walk with me a bit while he reaches the only sensible conclusion he could come to. He can catch us up, you can tell us where we’re going, and then we’ll go our separate ways. Don’t forget, you need to get Daelen’s essence out of you, too.”
Cat took Michael’s arm and began walking with him.
“I won’t forget,” she assured him, although the druidess had no intention of giving it up until she’d determined whether it would help her understand her staff more and she couldn’t test that theory until Michael was far away.
“Tell me honestly,” Michael requested, smiling conspiratorially. “Are there really bashed and broken towers all across the continent, owned by bashed and broken wizards?”
Cat matched his smile with one of her own.
“OK, I may have exaggerated, slightly,” she confessed. “I’ve demolished a total of three towers…and I rebuilt them all, afterwards and no-one got hurt apart from once when I lost concentration, and a brick landed on the wizard’s foot. But I healed him right away.”
Michael laughed. “Catriona Redfletching, you are a rebel.”
“Well, a friend of mine has taught me that it’s often good to have something of a reputation. It has a way of making people more co-operative.”
“Couldn’t agree more, my dear. Why do you think the gods made me look like this?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Cat disputed, leaning close. “I think you’re quite cuddly, really.”