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Loose Threads
One Hundred Forty Two
The medic slid open and Alabaster slowly sat up. “Hello?”
“It’s Iain,” he replied. Alabaster jerked around to face his direction. “I’m sitting in a nearby chair to keep there from being any accidents.”
“You don’t trust me not to harm you?”
“You are a dragon, with all that implies,” Iain rose slowly. “And Rule Thirty definitely pertains to interactions between soft creatures like me and dragons.”
She sniffed the air. “I recognize your scent, Iain Grey. What is this rule?”
“A little trust goes a long way. The less you use, the further you go.”
The dragoness laughed as she slowly stretched. “That is accurate enough. Please pick me up.” Iain gently lifted her out of the medic and sat back down with her in his lap. She curled up in it. “Thank you. I am still blind.”
“I wanted to talk to you before we did anything. Are you familiar with the anatomy of a minimal dragon?”
“Somewhat. I have heard parts of it described at times while I was in Drake’s lab or library. What did you find?”
“Testing shows that your eyes and the visual part of your brain work normally. The problem is your optic nerve, which transmits signals from the eyes to the brain. There is a genetic abnormality that prevents it from forming a complete myelin sheath. In technical terms, you have a localized version of neuromyelitis optica. In layman’s terms, your immune system is attacking the myelin sheath of your central nervous system. There are indications of other damage to nerves elsewhere in your body. But the eyes were the worst. The myelin was completely gone and the optic nerves had died as a result. It is a genetic disease and so we checked your undeveloped eggs. You’ve got one chance in seven of passing the condition to your offspring.”
Alabaster hunched in on herself. “I see.” She barked a sour laugh. “I don’t see, but I understand.”
“With clan technology, the damage to your eggs and everything except your eyes can be treated.” Iain scratched her chin with a fingernail. “The eyes are much more problematic because of how severely your immune system responds. We grew back your optic nerve twice and your body immediately began destroying it again. The final option that testing shows should work is if we give you an artificial optic nerve. It will be synthetic and will act just like your original optic nerve would have if it hadn’t been damaged.” He smiled. “It means that we can help you, if you will allow it.”
“You mentioned that this is clan technology. Do I need to become clan before you will use this for me?”
“No.”
“Good. I do not wish to be coerced into becoming clan. I wish to voluntarily become clan. I can be useful.”
“I don’t doubt that you can be useful. You don’t know anything about us.”
“Morgana says good things about you and I trust her. She will be joining the clan too if she has not already done so. I know that Drake was unwilling or unable to help me, and he created me. You are willing to help me, even though we have just met. I want to become clan now.”
“All right, Alabaster. I’ll swear you into the clan and then you can get your sight.”
“Have any of the other minimals become clan yet?”
“No. Morgana wanted them to have a moon or so to get settled in.”
“I am the first?” Alabaster sounded delighted. “Good!”
Iain chuckled. “Oh, you’re going to fit right in. We have two options. You can be awake for a few days and then I can oath you into the clan before you go back into a medic for the nerve and the treatments or you can oath you now and you can go back inside right now.”
“I would like to go in now. I cannot think of a reason to delay this. I want to see you when I open my eyes next.”
“The delay would give you time to meet some of your future clanswomen.”
“I will meet them when I can see,” Alabaster said firmly.
“Then I will oath you now. Repeat after me.”
***
Pandora gave him a half hearted glare. “I hurt in places I never knew existed and this is your fault.” She looked down at the two infants nursing at her breasts. “But I forgive you for it, this time.”
“You’ll forgive me for it next time too,” Iain said prophetically.
April chuckled. “If I could find a way to add that exertion to one of my exercise programs without the person having to actually be pregnant, that would be quite the workout.”
Pandora looked past Iain at Lucifer. “You don’t mind, do you? She was my friend and I promised myself to name my firstborn after her when she didn’t kill me for kidnapping Iain when I followed him back to the land of the living.”
Lucifer leaned down and kissed Pandora on the cheek. “If she was still alive, Eve would tell you that you were being silly, but she can’t stop you and I love the idea of naming your daughter Eve for her.” Her eyes twinkled. “You could name your other daughter Danielle for her too.”
“Her name is Martha,” Pandora said. “Martha was an Angel and my best friend before my tamer died. Iain said it was all right to name this one after her.”
April was busy cleaning up. “Kasumi was confused about why Pandora took so long to deliver. I explained about the time Pandora spent in pokeballs while pregnant and how being in stasis during that time didn’t allow her pregnancy to progress. We did the math to prove my point and she was very surprised. I think she’s going to talk to Ninhursag about making sure that pregnant pokegirls spend as little time in pokeballs as possible from now on.”
Pandora nuzzled the top of Martha’s head. “I don’t care how long it took. I never expected to have children and they are a blessing I never thought I’d have.” Her eyes glowed as she looked up at Iain. “I never expected to find someone I wanted to have children with.”
Iain grinned at her. “Fortunately, you were wrong on that one. Now, here we are and those must be the two most perfect Archangels in all of creation.”
Pandora watched him for a moment. “I keep expecting you to make some kind of stupid joke about this.”
He smirked at her. “If you’re expecting it, it’s no fun. I’ll catch you unaware later.” He grunted when Lucifer elbowed him hard in the gut.
“Sorry, my mistake,” she said cheerfully.
“And once again, we see that Celestial public relations paints a much better picture of Celestials than exists in reality,” Iain muttered as he rubbed his stomach.
“I have no idea what you’re blathering about,” Lucifer said innocently.
“I’m pretty sure that’s a blatant lie.”
April snickered. “Lucifer, let’s leave Iain and Pandora alone for a while.”
Pandora waited until the door shut behind them before taking his hand and squeezing firmly. “I want you do something for me.”
“What is it?”
“Can’t you just say you’ll do it for me first?” She shook her head tiredly. “No, you couldn’t do that and still be the man I love so much. Iain, I’m going to be a pokewoman eventually, probably sooner than later. I want you to make it so I only give birth to Archangels. I don’t want to have to worry about having Fallen Angels or anything else except Archangels.” Her eyes locked on his. “That includes human girls. I only want to give birth to Archangels.”
“Ok, you know I have to ask why, so you should have just gone ahead and explained the reasoning behind that request.”
“Humans are weak, Iain. Human children raised with pokegirls are jealous of them and their gifts. I do not want my daughters to be jealous of their sisters. And I want them to be strong. We have wars to win and, according to what I’ve heard, worlds to conquer. Archangels will be able to contribute far more than any mere human would.”
“You were read into Orb Weaver?”
“I’m the captain of your guard, Iain. April read me in the day after the project was initiated, as she needed to.” Her hand tightened briefly. “My request?”
“I can figure out a way to do this, but you need to understand that there is no coming back from this.”
“I know. It’s what I want, Iain.”
“There is no way to do this halfway, Pandora. If I do this to you, you will always and only have Archangels. You won’t be able to have any other child.”
She blinked. “You can’t make it so I can still have boys?”
“That’s not how it works. My sperm is the determining factor in the sex of a half dragon and I can’t give you only sperm that have Y chromosomes in them. I am not going to make the modifications to my body necessary to create that condition. I’m not even sure how I’d go about that and not fuck up my gamete production completely.”
Pandora closed her eyes for several seconds. “I could never give you sons,” she said quietly. Her eyes snapped open. “Others will. This is what’s best for my babies.”
“I don’t think I can follow your reasoning and I can’t see any logic in this. You want this for you, not for the babies.” She flushed and opened her mouth. Iain covered her mouth with his hand. “I’ll still do it for you.” She blinked in surprise over his hand before biting him gently. He pulled his hand away.
“I am doing this for my children,” she said hotly. Martha made a distressed sound and Pandora nuzzled her close. “I am doing this for my children,” she repeated in a quieter tone.
“You’re being selfish,” Iain disagreed. “It’s not surprising, you’ve always been that way. But it’s your right to be selfish about this since it’s your body I’ll be changing.”
“How am I being selfish about this?”
“This is your fear of accidentally harming a human rearing its head again. Now you’re not afraid of breaking my neck, but you’re afraid of killing one of your daughters. I’ll do this, but I want something in return.”
She eyed him suspiciously. “What is it?”
“I want you to get some therapy about this issue. Theodora and Daya can do this without needing to involve Scheherazade or Ganieda. I can’t guarantee that, one day, you won’t wind up someplace where you end up having to have sex with a human who isn’t me because of circumstance. I’d rather you do that so I can find you than have you go feral and do goddess knows what. But if you, with this psychological issue, must make yourself helpless before this human has sex with you, they have a better chance of doing something nefarious to you, like pokeballing you and running you through an L5 cycle you or something like that.” He smiled thinly. “And you successfully finish the therapy first, before I will even consider doing this.”
“Who decides if it’s successful,” Pandora’s voice was low and angry.
“Theodora does and Daya will have to concur. I don’t trust my judgment in this and you’re too private a person to involve Candace or anyone else. That’s why you do this with Theodora and Daya. They can do this under privacy and without that stupid Hippocratic Oath getting in the way.” He kissed her on the forehead. “You complete that program and, if you still want this, I’ll do it to you.”
‘I won’t change my mind, Iain.”
“Neither will I.” Iain sat down on the edge of the bed. “My nose says that at least one of our girls has just peed and needs changed. I’ve got some of those self-cleaning diapers in my lab. I can go get some of them if you’d prefer those to the cloth ones April and Lucifer put on Eve and Martha. That way we’re not changing them every few hours.”
“I’d like that. Why do you have diapers in your lab?”
“They’re flat cleaning cloths,” Iain said as he got up. “They’re great for chemical spills and whatnot.”
“Do you have any that you haven’t used for wiping up acids and strange chemicals? I’d rather not use your rags on my girls.”
“I have some brand new, never been used ones if you’d prefer.”
Pandora nodded. “Those, please.”
“Let me make a quick run to the Danger Room.” And then to Twenty Three where I keep the baby gifts, he thought to himself. “Back in ten.”
***
Caintigern and Nightraven stepped through the gate, exiting at the Desert Temple on Ragnarok. Iain was sitting on a bench at a covered table and writing in a book. He glanced up at them. “Let me finish these last few sentences of my observation and I’ll be with you ladies.”
“Why aren’t you waiting for us,” Caintigern asked curiously. “You invited us here.” Nightraven just watched him, her eyes dark and empty.
Iain didn’t look up. “I asked you here yesterday, twenty seven hours and fifteen minutes ago when I opened the gate and sent you a message. Eventually I decided that sitting here waiting was a waste of valuable free time. And I did other things while time passed.”
“What are you writing about,” Nightraven asked in a flat voice.
“I visited the Ark you trashed. I wanted to see what was happening now. It’s repairing itself and I learned something interesting when I examined its software.”
“Caintigern told me that you took control of the Ark’s ruling intelligence,” Nightraven sat down across the table from Iain. “I have not been able to do that.”
“I use technology and magic,” Iain said as he put his pen down. “You don’t touch technology. The People, to a large extent, never did. Technology allowed me to suborn the Overseer and the other control systems.”
“What did you learn?”
“The system has three basic functions. The first is observing any sentient life and challenging it to see if it’s ready to defeat the Overseer and advance along the steps to Extinction. If it isn’t, the system eliminates the organism to make room for one that will. The second function is the boss challenge system which tracks whoever battles their way through the caves to acquire the artifacts, does one or more boss runs and then fights the Overseer. The third function is repair, and that is the interesting one.”
“What do you mean,” Caintigern sat down next to Iain and slid her hip against his. Nightraven’s eyes narrowed slightly but she didn’t otherwise react. “He is our drake,” Caintigern said. “If you don’t touch him, I will.”
“The repair function,” Nightraven said quietly.
“It’s what the Ark is using to repair all of the damage you did. It’s even replacing the Obelisks. But the repair function is also what controls the respawns of the animals, vegetation and rocks. It has a map of the Ark and slowly repairs everything to that map. For the animals, it has a minimum number of wild animals that are supposed to be present at any particular time and it replaces any that are removed, be they killed or tamed. I can’t decide if it’s an elegant solution, a slapdash one that was cobbled together while setting up the Ark program or a mix of the two. I suspect I won’t know until I can get into the computers on Extinction and see if there are any records of the fall of humanity and the Ark program being developed.” He closed the book and it vanished. “I can heat a pot of water if you’d like some tea and I have wine. I’m going to have some tea.”
“Why are we here,” Nightraven asked.
“I’ve been thinking,” Iain turned to a tea trolley, lit a burner and put a pot on it to heat. “About various things and how they all tie together.” He looked at Nightraven. “I know you’re angry and depressed about what we discovered, but I could not in good conscience keep that a secret from you. You’d have discovered the truth eventually. I’m sorry you’re unhappy about it, but I would not have lied to you about it, even if I’d known how much it hurts you.”
“You do not lie if you can avoid it,” Nightraven said. “It is one of your strengths. No matter how unpalatable the news, you refuse to lie about it.”
“I refuse to lie to you,” Iain corrected her. “It’s too easy for you find out I’m lying, after all.”
“And again you are truthful,” Nightraven observed. “Continue.”
“Do you lie to me,” Caintigern asked.
“No, and for the same reasons. I’m sure you have a temper. I’m also sure that I really don’t want to see it being aimed at me.”
“Wise,” Caintigern smiled. “As I have come to expect from my drake.”
“I found the Queen’s residence and later used that to find the Queen’s palace.”
Both women frowned. “The Queen’s residence,” Nightraven said, “is also the palace as humans understand them.”
“That was true, up to when Caintigern was Queen. When Blacktooth took the throne, she moved to a new location on First World and had a palace built there for her and her children. Well, her and her daughters. I’ve been collecting every scrap of anything that had words printed on it or paint, since pictures can tell stories too. Fortunately, thanks to Caintigern’s memories and the dead Nightraven’s notes, I know where the major knowledge centers were. The planets were broken but not scattered and somehow whatever happened seems to have kept the planetary cores from bathing everything in lava, which means I’ve been working on building as comprehensive a picture as I can of the events of those worlds.” He looked at Nightraven. “I’d like you to search your memories for any place you can remember that held books or other documents.”
“You have the dead Nightraven’s journal,” Nightraven noted. “You don’t need my help.”
“That’s not true. I doubt you recorded every place you ever found books in your journal, so there are places you know about that I don’t. And it’s obvious that her life couldn’t have been exactly like yours.”
“Why not?”
“You’re not dead and she is.” Nightraven frowned slightly as he continued. “She did things that you didn’t or you did things that she didn’t because the divergence between you two ended up with me being able to find her body and claim her castle and with you sitting there with information that could help me find out if I can help you.”
Her frown deepened and he saw a little life in her eyes. “How could you possibly help me? The People are dead. We are all that remains of them.”
“Can you just trust me on this, please?”
Nightraven shook her head. “You must tell me, Iain.”
He sighed. “This is going to start with the word if. Understand that. This may not work at all, and if it doesn’t, nothing changes.”
“Tell me.”
“If, and that’s a huge if, if we can put together enough information about what happened, between Caintigern giving up being Queen and the end of the People, I, or maybe we, may be able to find a cusp. The right cusp where, with the right application of pressure, we can change the fate of the People. For us, here, they’ll still be dead as a race. But if we cause the right branch, we can create an alternate universe where the People still live. Will you be able to get revenge on Blacktooth? Maybe. But for you to even have the opportunity, we need to create that universe and it is far from certain that we can. Still, I think we need to try. Otherwise, all we have is a spiral of black depression and rage in which I can’t trust one of my mates with our children.”
“If the People can live again,” Caintigern said, “it is my responsibility as Queen to do my utmost to make the conditions necessary for success come to be.” She looked at Nightraven. “You are a member of the Royal bloodline. It is your responsibility too, especially if you ever seriously considered becoming Queen after your revenge is complete.”
“Make me some tea, Iain.” Nightraven looked evenly at her grandaunt as she sat down on the bench opposite Iain. “I agree that the People should survive as a race.”
Iain poured three cups of hot water and added some herbs to steep. “Even if it means that you can’t get revenge on Blacktooth and her ilk?”
Nightraven stared at him for a long moment. “I do not see where I would not be able to get that revenge.” She nodded slightly. “If I speculate, as you often do, I would accept the idea that if I had to choose between the People existing as a race and my revenge on Blacktooth, I will choose the continuation of the People as a race. Caintigern was their Queen. One day I will be their Queen and it is my responsibility to them.” She looked at him. ‘What of you?”
“I have no intention of ruling the People, even if could. However, I agreed to help my mates. The project we’re involved in has had the scope widen a whole lot, but that doesn’t change my commitment to you and to Caintigern.”
“You do not care about the fate of the People,” Caintigern asked.
“I do not. I was not raised among the People. Even if I had been, I’d have been raised as a drake. Considering what it’s like to be raised as a drake, if I still had any of who I am now in my personality, I’d either be in seclusion, in another dimension or dead. I certainly wouldn’t be interested in raising a talon to help the dragonesses of the People in their fights among each other. They either wouldn’t want me involved or would be using me as cannon fodder. They certainly wouldn’t allow me to contribute anything useful as you have.”
“While I do not like your conclusions,” Caintigern said thoughtfully, “I cannot dispute your accuracy of your probable situation among the People.”
“What would you have us do now,” Nightraven asked.
“Both of you go through your memories for places where there were books and where they kept records of current events.”
“What will you be doing?”
“I learned a technique from Kerrik that allows me to copy all of the books around me and recreates them in a place of my choosing. I’m working on modifying it in a couple of ways.”
Nightraven reached for her tea. “I taught Kerrik the technique you speak of. How are you trying to modify it?”
“I want to expand the area of effect to cover an entire planet.” He smiled. “Honestly, I’d like to have it cover the solar system of the People so I don’t miss anything that might be important. The other thing I want to do with it is have it create a digital record instead of books so I can search it faster, otherwise we’ll be forever reading the damned things.”
“I know a technique that will summon all of the books that hold information on a particular subject,” Nightraven said.
“I know that as well,” Caintigern added.
“And we’ll use it,” Iain sniffed his tea and drained the cup. “The problem is that it could be we don’t know the right questions to ask yet.”
“True,” Nightraven drank her tea and held the cup out. “More.” Iain took the cup from her. “If you remember, a basic lesson in our magic is that to expand the range of an effect you wish to produce, you must be able to visualize the area that it will encompass. It is said to be impossible for the mind to comprehend a very large area, making what you want impossible.”
“I know.” He looked at Caintigern. “More tea?”
She gulped hers down and offered him the cup. “Please.”
***
Alabaster stretched and opened her eyes. She froze in mid motion, staring at him. Iain smiled. “Good morning. I take it from your reaction that your eyes are working properly now.”
“I can see you!” Her squeal made Iain’s ears ring.
“You can see me too,” Morgana said happily from where she sat on the medic’s lid.
Alabaster looked at her. “I can! Morgana, this is wonderful!” Lights appeared around her and began swirling.
“Alabaster!” The white dragoness and Morgana jumped at the snap in Iain’s voice. “Control!”
The lights vanished. “What?”
“You were letting your power get away from you.” Iain shook his head. “I’m sorry for raising my voice and surprising you. I’ve been working with Anust on her control and it’s become something of a habit to correct her.”
“You’re right,” Alabaster said. “I was letting my emotions and, thus, my power run free.”
“I’ll help you,” Morgana dropped into the medic in front of Alabaster. “You’ve got a lot to learn when you’re ready. I made you a promise, remember?”
“To teach me to fly when I could see,” Alabaster said softly. “I have never forgotten it.” She looked up at Iain’s chuckle. “What is amusing about her promise?”
“Flying is easy.”
Morgana looked at him. “It is very difficult.”
“No, that’s landing. Learning to fly is easy. Throw yourself off of something high enough. Your body knows most of what it should do already and you’ll be flying in short order. Learning to land is the hard part. Landing involves thinking about what you’re doing while you’re doing it until you do it enough that it becomes muscle memory and automatic.”
Morgana cocked her head. “I disagree. Flying can be as difficult as landing.”
“Very well.”
“You’re not going to disagree with her,” Alabaster asked curiously.
“I don’t agree with her, but I don’t see a reason to argue with her about it. And, honestly, it’s probably a difference of what she and I classify as flight and what we separate out into landing. She will teach you to use your wings and body to move through the air while avoiding things in your path and then how to transition from flight to ground or other solid object without breaking the things around you or hurting yourself.”
“Will you help her?”
“I want Morgana to work with you for now. She’s taught a lot of hatchlings how to fly, so she should be able to teach you too. I’ll see you soon.”
“Iain?” He turned back to Morgana. “Thank you for helping my sister.”
“You don’t need to thank me, but you’re welcome. I look forward to seeing you both at dinner.” He bowed to the two dragonesses and left.
***
Wearing an EVA belt and an excursion pack, Iain floated in deep space, a light day outside of the solar system that held most of the Arks. In front of him was a wirework of a sphere. Inside the sphere, a tiny light moved from the leftmost side of the sphere to the rightmost side. Another light appeared at the lowest point and moved to the uppermost. As the lights reversed their pattern, in his mind’s eye a drone left a small space station and headed into deep space. When the light reached the other side of the sphere, the drone stopped at another space station. As the lights moved, so did the drones in Iain’s mind.
Behind him rested the Ouroboros. Daya’s touch was gentle and soft. You’ve been here for four hours. Do you need to take a break?
No. I should be able to do this. Endurance check.
Your pack has three hours of maneuvering thrust remaining, which you are not using and should last for months. At your present rate of respiration, you have two weeks of time remaining. However, the radiation shield that your belt and pack generate will only last for ten more hours.
Inform me in eight hours.
Will do.
Hours passed before Daya spoke again. Iain, your shield has two hours of durability remaining.
Iain turned and headed for the Ouroboros. Prep me another belt and excursion pack. I want something hot to eat, mostly protein, and room temperature water to drink.
Understood. The meal will take a few minutes to prepare and send to you.
For five days, Iain hung there, only leaving to eat and get another EVA belt and excursion pack. He was about halfway through the endurance of this belt’s shield when he turned and headed for the Ouroboros. End simulations. I’m coming in.
Did you do it?
No. Nightraven may be right that I can’t visualize something like that, at least not easily. I just realized that I’m doing this all wrong. I don’t have to visualize it.
A few minutes he stood in the hanger bay he’d been using. He dropped the excursion pack, took of the belt and stripped off everything he was wearing. “I feel gross. The station markers are still in place, right?”
“Yes,” Daya said as she appeared.
“I want to visit each of them in turn. Which one are we closest to?”
“We are almost exactly equidistant from all of them. We are slightly closer to Echo.” There were six of them and they had been named Alpha through Foxtrot.
“Let’s start at Echo then.”
“If I transit to each station at sublight speed, this is going to take weeks, Iain. I know here we have all of the time we want, which is why you picked this place during your free time. If I can use my hyper drive I can be at each in minutes since the sphere is only twelve light hours across.”
“Hyper it is,” Iain stretched and headed for a doorway. “I’m taking a shower.” He looked back at the pile. “Launder my clothes, please, and prep another excursion pack and belt. I’ll make short trips outside to each of the stations and then it’s back to the center.”
***
Iain floated in space again. Daya?
I am ready. Monitoring is active at all of the stations.
At each station, Iain had exited the Ouroboros and touched each station, leaving a sphere of magic that radiated energy harmlessly into space. It wasn’t radiating much, but it was something that was unique and something he could detect anywhere within a solar system. He’d used this idea when spelljamming in the Toril sphere, using the beacons as an ad hoc GPS system for his explorations.
Now he detected each of the beacons and filled the space between them and himself with a pale blue light.
I can see it, Daya said. I cannot detect any energy output though. Is it because it is magical in nature?
Iain dismissed the light and repeated the experiment. Yes. Technological sensors have problems with magic detection. He dismissed the light, turned and headed for the Ouroboros. I have some ideas on hybrid sensors, but it’s slow going.
Does this mean that you will need a shuttle and some marker stations for this project?
It does. Iain floated through the barrier into the hanger bay and landed.
Daya appeared. “I want to be there. You’ll need a tech platform to absorb the data you’ll be creating and I can do that just fine.”
Iain shook his head. “You can watch through a transparent gate and be ready to enter if something goes wrong. I haven’t found anyone alive, but it doesn’t mean there isn’t someone out there in hibernation. If my scan gets someone’s attention, whoever it is will most likely be a truewizard. I don’t want anyone invading one of our ships or destroying you.”
“Yes, Iain. Shouldn’t I be worried about this person instead attacking you?”
“I am much smaller and harder to locate,” Iain pointed out with a smile. “I will still take some basic precautions so I don’t get targeted.” He stripped off the excursion pack and dropped it on the deck. “First of all, I’ll add the magic to the drones before they’re deployed. That means I don’t have to hang around in system for a few weeks while they move into position. Second, this doesn’t require me to be in the center of the sphere when I activate the technique. I’m going to let you pick a random spot near an open gate for me to use.”
Daya smiled. “There will be one gate open and, therefore, only a few places for me to choose from. And if every time I randomly choose it turns out to be the point closest to the entrance to the gate and safety, what will you do?”
Iain returned her smile. “I said you get to pick the point. I’ll just have to be closest to escaping the system if the random numbers align that way.”
“You cheat at video games, too,” Daya noted amusedly.
“If it’s single player and what I do makes the game more enjoyable for me, then it’s not cheating. Or it is, I haven’t ever really let people who aren’t me apply derogatory labels to me, so call it what you want. I’m having fun.” He winked. “However, I don’t cheat during the simulations you ladies run me through. Those I need so I can survive in real life.” He stretched. “I’m going to take a nap. I’ve been up for over a week and it’ll be good use of my time while you return to the gate generator so we can get the drones moving.”
“I am enroute now. You want to do this now? I thought you’d return home and come back on your next free time.”
“This isn’t part of my free time and I like to finish a job before I move on to the next one.” He dropped the EVA belt on top of the pack. “Any other questions?”
“Always, Iain, but not on this subject.”
“Well, come with me and we’ll see if we can knock out some of your other questions on the way to my quarters.”
***
“Iain!” Jo threw her arms around her brother and hugged him as hard as she could.
Iain hugged her back. “You saw me at breakfast.”
“But that was hours ago!” Jo clung to him for several more seconds before releasing him. “Rowan, your turn.”
Rowan gave Iain a quick hug. “She’s still a bully,” she complained good naturedly.
“She’s been one since she was four,” Iain noted. “Do you really expect her to change now?”
“I was hoping the therapy would fix it.”
“Yeah, right.” Iain blinked when Catherine hugged him. “You too?”
She grinned. “Yes. James is back to reminding me how I’m your responsibility for the next few decades.”
“And a welcome responsibility you are.”
“Good.” Catherine looked between him and Dianthus. “What brings you to Austin on this fine day?”
“I was about to ask you the same thing. You’re a little far from home.”
“Is it really far when everything is just a quick teleport away,” Catherine asked with a grin. “Dani dropped us off.”
Iain frowned. “Danielle?”
“She’s Dani now,” Jo announced. “She told us to call her that.”
“She hasn’t told me so she’s still Danielle.”
“Your sisters are coming to stay with an old woman and help take care of her in her dotage,” Catherine grinned at him. “My guest room got cleaned out, to James’ extreme annoyance, since it was another one of his junk storages that he called a storeroom, and now we’re here in Austin to get two beds and dressers for them.”
“That’s very charitable of you,” Iain noted. “You’re buying furniture for the girls to stay at someone else’s house. I know they’re not staying with you since you’re not in your dotage. So, why did you clean out your guest room?” Catherine stuck her tongue out at him.
“I want top bunk,” Jo announced.
“I already said I’m not sleeping in a bunk bed,” Rowan shook her head. “Been there, done that.”
“If she keeps going on about it,” Catherine said with a smirk, “I was thinking that I’d get you a nice bed and your sister a bunk bed all for her.”
“Then she’d be in my bed as soon as she remembered how much she hated bunk beds,” Rowan sighed. “Because she did.”
Jo’s grin vanished. “Did you kill Carlos? Brutal honesty, my brother.”
“Are you sure you want brutal honesty?”
“I do.”
“I did not kill him. He is, however, dead and by my order.”
Jo nodded firmly. “Good. He was a bastard and I never realized I was just one of his bitches until my therapy helped me understand the truth about our relationship.”
“I’m just glad you’re healthy again,” Iain checked the time with his twee. “And I’m afraid I must be going. I have an appointment.”
“Will you be free for lunch,” Rowan asked.
“This won’t take that long, so yes. I’ll let you know when I’m free and you ladies can pick where we eat. Cool?”
“Cool,” Catherine took Jo’s hand. “Let’s go.”
Iain nodded to Dianthus and headed off. They stopped off at a large grassy lot. On both sides of the lot and behind it, new construction was either completed or ongoing. Iain looked over the lot for several minutes before Dianthus touched his shoulder, making him start. “You’re going to be late, Iain.”
He gave himself a mental shake. “Yeah. Don’t want to be late.”
The next stop was outside a small building with a sign announcing that it was the headquarters of Madison Realty. Iain went inside, followed by Dianthus. A short blonde woman looked up from reading something at her desk, stood and came around the desk with her hand outstretched. “Iain, it’s good to finally meet you. I’m Jennifer, but you can call me Dolly.”
Iain shook hands with her. “Dolly Madison?”
“It was my nickname as a kid. My brother loved the cakes and the Peanuts cartoons and he taught my nickname to my husband while we were dating.” She gestured at a seat. “Please sit.” Having been warned to ignore his guard, she went back around her desk, closed the book she’d been reading and pulled a file from a drawer. “Are you sure you want to do this?” She opened the file. “I will be more than happy to place the land on the market, but once you sell it, you lose all control of what’s done with it.”
“I’m never going to build there,” Iain said quietly. “Too many memories and ghosts. Someone can do something useful with it. Someone else.”
“As requested, I put out word that you plan to sell the property. I’d have done so anyway once I took the contract. The more people who know it’s for sale, the more people who might bid on it. A bidding war for the property will be advantageous for us both.” Dolly said evenly. “Someone from the mayor’s office came by to see if that was true and to put in a bid for the property.”
Iain blinked. “Whatever for? The last thing Austin needs is more civic buildings. They’ve got so many from when Austin was the state capital that they’re not using them all. Hopefully it’ll never grow so much that it’ll need all those buildings. They should sell off at least a quarter of them.”
“I can’t disagree with that, but the mayor’s interest in your piece of land is easy to understand once you think about it.” Dolly shook her head. “Iain, everyone knows that you pretty much singlehandedly saved Austin from burning down. You cleaned up the contamination for free and gave away wood and other supplies to help those who wanted to rebuild. The mayor would get great PR for putting a memorial of those events somewhere and even more so if it was on the site where Melanie’s once stood. And it’s an election year.”
“Fuck.” Iain shook his head. “I had a lot of help and we did that because it was the right thing to do. Can’t they just let it go?”
“The mayor is in a tough race, Iain. As much as I don’t like him, I’m sure he’s calculated down to the last vote how much a statue on that property would help him. I’m only telling you this because I know you wouldn’t want that to happen.”
“You’re advising me against selling that piece of land. Why? You’re talking yourself out of a sale and, without a sale, you don’t get your commission.”
Dolly nodded. “I know. This is my home. My husband is Joe Vesey. He and I live upstairs. We own the printing shop next door, too. It’s Joe’s business. Both buildings were pretty badly damaged by the blast. We couldn’t have afforded to rebuild except for the supplies you donated. That’s why I’m deliberately losing this commission.” She smiled. “That and the mayor is a scumbag that we won’t miss in the slightest.”
“Take it off the market.” Iain stood. “But bill me for the commission just as if you’d sold the property.”
Dolly looked surprised. “Are you sure about that?”
“I’m certain. You’ve been good to me. You kept me from having a feud with the mayor of Austin. You deserve it.”
“I won’t turn it down,” Dolly said warningly.
“Smart. Do you deal in commercial property?”
“I do. Zoning is a lot more flexible than it was before the Plague, so if you like a spot that’s not commercial, it might be able to be used as such anyway. What are you looking for?”
“What’s the status of Bergstrom Air Force Base?”
“As far as I know, it’s abandoned. It was hit by pokegirls during the war. They shattered the runways and destroyed most of the buildings. Later the Air Force emptied it out when they consolidated bases to try and protect them from attack. Then it was hit with the flood that destroyed most of Austin. I think people comb the place occasionally for anything of value, but they never find much.”
“You have good information,” Dianthus said.
“We still had a television stations and news then,” Dolly replied. “It was one of the first real attacks on Austin and everything except the flood was covered in full color and excruciating detail.”
Iain looked thoughtful. “I know you mostly deal with already owned property, but could you check with Buck and see if the base is available and what the price is? I’ll pay you normal commission on the sales price if I buy it. I don’t have time to visit everyone I’d need to for some of this stuff and, as much as I like Buck and Sandy, listening to him whine about how work cuts into his fishing gets old fast. Especially since anyone who knows him knows that he loves the jobs he has. If he hated them as much as he claims, he’d just quit and become a fishing guide.”
Dolly laughed. “You do know him.”
“I’ve known him and Sally for several years now.”
“I’ll see what I can find out about the base. I presume you want this kept quiet until after you complete the purchase?”
“I most certainly do.”
“I’ll handle it.” She gave him a winning smile. “I don’t suppose you’d want to sell your property at Barton Springs, would you? I get lots of questions about it and could set up a bidding war for that place in almost no time.”
“We’re keeping that one.”
“A wise move,” Dolly said. “I’ll talk to Buck tomorrow, if that’s all right.”
“That’ll be fine. Just keep my name out of it. Oh, and I assure you I’m not doing anything illegal with it if I do buy it.”
“If I even had a suspicion of that, you wouldn’t be working with me, Iain.” She walked him to the door. “I have your com number. I’ll call you tomorrow afternoon either way.”
“That’ll be perfect. Good day.”
Dianthus glanced at the back of his head as they headed to his next stop. What is your interest in an old airport? Is this something for Prometheus?
No. It’s for Silver Horse Services. It’s going to need a base and Bergstrom has the land I’ll need for it.
What are you going to be doing? Your company is small.
It’s small here. I intend to eventually start trading between here and Twenty Three. I’ll need a primary depot for it. And it’s big enough that I can also set it up as loading point for Orb Weaver without having to despoil the ranch.
So you’re thinking very long term now? Good.
Iain chuckled. I’m nearly fifteen hundred years old, Dianthus. This isn’t long term, not by my current definition of long term. But it’s part of my long term plans, indeed it is.
***
“Our children are going to understand what a fucking calendar is,” Iain grumbled as he flipped through another page of the tome in front of him. “And they’re going to know how to count years with a number and not this insane reign nonsense alone.”
Cantigern looked up from the book she was reading through. “The People’s methods of telling time are easy enough to understand.”
Iain raised his eyebrows as Nightraven paused in her reading to watch the discussion. “Yes, for many things, the spring of Narathek Four is perfectly adequate. But for what we want, it’s not. Yes, I understand that it’s the fourth year of the rule of Queen Narathek. But when exactly did that year take place?”
Caintigern frowned. “Five years after Doretn Nine Four Nine, the last year of her reign.”
“The problem,” Iain said slowly, drawing on the patience he’d learned as Nightraven’s student, “is that while you can count back to find out how far one event is from another, your records begin to fall apart eventually and nobody is sure what the count is anymore. That means all of the years are suspect and nobody is really sure when each year actually happened.”
“Do we have the information that we need to begin considering what we can do,” Nightraven asked.
“I think so. We should. Scanning the entire system worked well, it’s just now we need to winnow through everything to find exactly what we need.”
“Did you digitize these books as you said you wanted to do?”
Iain looked at her evenly. “You didn’t like that idea. You’ve never liked that idea.”
“That doesn’t stop you from doing something you want to do unless I expressly forbid it and you cannot find a way around my proscription,” Nightraven smiled slightly. “The fact that you did not answer my question is revealing by itself.”
“Yes, I digitized everything I scanned.” He gestured at the books they were reading. “I also created a physical library too. The physical library these needed was bigger than your library.”
“I want copies of everything you found.”
He smiled. “You and Caintigern both get copies when you’re ready to house them.”
Nightraven nodded. “Good. Is it true that with your technology you can search through the digital records more effectively?”
Iain examined the question for traps and decided to hedge his bets. “Probably.”
“Is the reason you are not using these digital records the fact that I and Caintigern are uncomfortable with that level of technology and are instead leafing through books and hoping for a breakthrough?”
“Yes and no.”
“Explain.”
“I am taking notes as I read and jotting down anything that appears to be pertinent along with the book it came from in case I start getting hits.”
“I think, considering the things you have endured with us, we can start learning about new things, including a higher level of technology than we are currently comfortable with.” Nightraven closed her book. “We will start now.”
Iain put his book away and shifted to his dragon form. “Green Obelisk is the closest. Let’s go there then.”
“Can’t we do this here,” Caintigern asked, not getting up.
“We have to go visit the best computer here, so it’s off to see the Overseer.” He waited a few seconds. “You can stay here if you want.”
Nightraven shifted to her dragoness form. “I am coming.”
Iain took off and flew northwest as he reached out with his twee to the repeater in the Highlands. Who is on Iain duty right now?
Daya, she said back. I’m close enough that you don’t need the repeater.
Good. I need you to play Overseer for Nightraven once we get to the Overseer’s arena. A glance over his shoulder showed Caintigern in hot pursuit of them. Caintigern too.
I’m watching the three of you. I’ve overridden the Green Obelisk to bring you to the command deck without tribute when you activate it. I’ll be ready.
Thank you.
He landed on the teleport platform and waited as Nightraven landed. “Caintigern is following us,” she said as she folded her wings. “While it would be amusing to leave her behind, it would not be appropriate.” Iain nodded. “Thank you.”
Iain twisted his head to look at her. “For what?”
“I realize now that I was back in the black depression that almost ended with me taking my life around the time that your dead Nightraven did. I don’t ever want to be that close to suicide again. You and this idea of yours piqued my curiosity. I do not think it will work, but I will assist diligently as long as you are willing to pursue it.” She shrugged. “You have proven me wrong before, once or twice.”
Iain’s head lifted in surprise. “I have? You never mentioned this before.”
“I am a dragoness of the People, Iain. Most of us would never admit that a drake could prove us wrong about something where he could hear of such an event transpiring. It is only after thinking about things that you have said about the People are that I considered how I treated the drakes that I interacted with. I do not think that I treated them poorly, but I gave you an oath about how our children would be raised that requires me to think about what will change from what I am used to.” She met his eyes. “Caintigern and I have been discussing what we will need to change and changing it with you will help us to remember to change it with our children.”
“You’re going to treat me as an equal?”
“I am going to treat you more as an equal,” she replied. “You are not my equal, but you have earned better treatment than what we have given you.”
Caintigern landed. She looked from Iain to Nightraven. “Where is this Overseer?”
“As you are aware, the Ark’s boundaries above the ground are bordered by a forcefield. Beyond that is a hologram of the land and air continuing into infinity at ground level and into a normal space and air interface above ground.” Iain shifted to his elf form and patted the pedestal in the center of the Obelisk platform. “Above the hologram of the sky is a command deck from which the Overseer and its minions dispatch the supply drops, replace the trees, rocks and animals. They also monitor the boss arenas as well as the Ark itself. It’s also where the arena is for fighting the Overseer, the final test of someone’s fitness to destroy the ultimate enemy on Earth itself. As soon as you’re on the platform, we’re going to use it to teleport up to visit the command deck. We’ll go to the arena and there the Overseer will be waiting to help us search the database I compiled of the People’s knowledge.”
Caintigern and Nightraven shifted and joined him on the platform. “Have you been to this Earth,” Caintigern asked.
Iain pushed the button on the pedestal and the teleportation dome formed overhead and began to lower. Numbers appeared in the air and began rolling backwards. The numbers were in cuneiform script and sexagesimal or base sixty, suggesting that this Ark was built for humans from Sumerian and Babylonian backgrounds. “I have not. I’m kind of saving it as a reward and, if I do that, I want to do it right by defeating the bosses, the Overseer and then the bosses of the other maps in turn.”
“Why?” Caintigern was watching the colors change as the field descended around them.
“I think it would be an interesting challenge and it would keep my mind occupied for several years. When the countdown completes, we will teleport to the command deck, arriving near the boss arena observation area. It’ll be very cold, around minus twenty eight degrees Celsius, but I have a box with some cold weather gear if you don’t want to shift back to dragon or use magic to keep you warm.” The scene around them shifted and they stood in a metal hall where the ceiling towered over them. “As you can see,” vapor billowed from Iain’s mouth from the sudden cold, “the command deck is more than large enough for our dragon forms, but then it has to be so the Overseer can fit in here. Now, please follow me.” Iain headed down the hall at a loping run, ignoring all the display windows and holograms as he went. Behind him, Caintigern and Nightraven shifted to dragoness and followed.
The Overseer waited in the center of the arena in its abstract diamond lozenge form. As he stepped out into the arena proper, Iain shifted to his dragon form. He waited for Nightraven and Caintigern to join him. ‘Overseer,” he said, “the dragoness that is on the left is Nightraven while the one on the right is Caintigern. Recognize them.”
A red light played over each dragoness in turn. “They are recorded,” the Overseer said in a mechanical voice. It changed color, following the spectrum, as it spoke. “What is their authorization level?”
“They are authorized to ask questions about the library of the People that I have assembled and to receive answers to the level of detail that they request,” Iain replied. “At this time they have no command authority.”
“Authorization set.”
“Based on the information in the library designated as the Dragon People Collection, build a timeline of the Queens of the People,” Iain said. “Color code the transition between the royal bloodline and the bloodline of Blacktooth and give the years that each Queen ruled. If there is uncertainty in the years, color those years in yellow.” He looked at Caintigern. “What is your favorite color?”
“I like the green of new grass,” Caintigern said.
“Use that color for the royal bloodline and process.”
Lines of green names with numbers began appearing in the air in front of them. At the beginning of the list, it was mostly yellow. As the names changed, the amount of green began to grow, but it didn’t take over until a third of the way down the list. Even then, there was a lot of yellow interspersed with the green. When Blacktooth took the throne, the color changed to red. A dozen names past her, the line color changed again, this time to light blue. Five names past that, the color changed to pink and ended four names later.
“What are the other color groups,” Iain asked.
“The blue is when Ranareth took the throne. Her bloodline was neither the royal bloodline nor Blacktooth’s. The pink is for when Maltorak took the throne and her line became rulers.”
“I was kind of afraid of something like this happening,” Iain said quietly.
“What does this mean to you,” Nightraven asked.
“When Blacktooth murdered the new Queen, the Royal bloodline and, finally, claimed the throne for herself, she told every other ambitious dragoness that if they could kill her or her descendants, the throne could change hands again. Blacktooth made murdering a Queen a legitimate way to become Queen of a new bloodline. Almost immediately, I’m sure some of those dragonesses accepted her challenge and began planning to take the throne for themselves.” He poked a talon at the last name on the list. “And it looks like the People became extinct during the reign of Maltorak V. Overseer, what was the situation at that time?”
“There were disturbances on all of the inhabited worlds,” the Overseer said. “Blacktooth established a force of dragonesses loyal to her that functioned as both military and secret police. The last two Queens had used military forces to put down the disturbances during their reign, but the execution list of Maltorak V is twice as long as their combined list.” Caintigern hissed angrily as the Overseer continued. “The last official reports available describe the deployment of the Queen’s forces against rebels in an iceberg community on Second World.”
“Is there any information on how the worlds of the People were destroyed,” Nightraven asked.
“No. The documents in the library stop with no indication as to any sort of disaster or calamity taking place.”
“So we may never know exactly what happened.” Iain cocked his head. “Which is hopefully not going to be a problem. It wasn’t celestial in nature. I can almost guarantee that. If the sun had gone nova, all the planets in the system would have been affected and the destruction would have been very different.”
“Why is it important that it was not something celestial in nature,” Nightraven asked.
“Because we can’t stop that from happening and, if it’s something like a nova or a rogue asteroid cloud that they drifted through, it’ll happen every time we undo what happened and in every alternate timeline we create. At that point, we’d have to convince the People to move to another solar system if we undid what happened and then wanted to save them. We might convince some of them to move, but I’m pretty sure we’d then have to nurse them through a population bottleneck if the numbers that we can convince to move are too small for decent genetic variability. Fortunately, that does not appear to be something we have to contemplate.”
“Would one of the changes of bloodline be the best place to intervene?” Caintigern waved a forepaw at the list. “The reading that I have done suggests the best place to apply political pressure is during times of chaos.”
“What reading,” Nightraven asked curiously.
“Theodora has provided me with books on human tactics and strategy that deal with small group operations in hostile countries,” Caintigern replied. “It was why I became trapped. I went there to do reconnaissance on the situation since we did not know what had happened since the message you received from your mother.”
“And it was good that you did,” Iain said. “We had no idea of what had happened to the People and how it changed the mission we have. If you hadn’t gone scouting, we could have all stepped into that without being prepared for it. Getting back from it would have been rather difficult.” He looked at the Overseer. “Download what you’ve collated to my computer along with the historical background during the transitions between bloodlines so I can review it. If I have any questions, I’ll come back here so we can talk again.”
“As you command,” the Overseer said. “Information sent. Is there anything else?”
“No.”
“I return to my duties.” The Overseer swept away from them and out of the arena towards the entrance point.
Iain shifted back to elf and pulled a device from his pocket. “Ready to return to the Desert Temple?”
Caintigern leaned forward to sniff his hand. “Why didn’t you use that device to come here?”
“It’s a remote control and is too small to have its own teleport system in it. This one can activate the teleport system here in the arena. The Obelisks aren’t set up for remote control and I don’t understand the teleport system the Arks use well enough to build one of my own.”
“Yet,” Nightraven asked amusedly.
“I do intend to puzzle it out,” Iain admitted.
“Take us back,” Nightraven ordered. “Can we return here without you?”
“The Obelisks don’t normally work that way, but I’ll see if I can set something up so you can if you want.”
“I believe I wish to learn more about lesser technology before returning here,” Nightraven said thoughtfully. “And our drake can teach us so we can spend more time with him.”
Iain pushed the button and the teleport dome formed around them. When it died away, they were back at the Green Obelisk. He tucked the box away and shifted to his dragon form. “Let’s go back to the Desert Temple before we do anything else. I have something I want to offer to you.” He flew away towards the sand in the distance.
At the Desert Temple, Iain shifted back to elf and poured two glasses of water as Caintigern and Nightraven joined him, changing to their human forms as they did. “Please sit down.” He put a glass in front of each of them along with a twee pellet. “This is a technological item that will grow inside you. It won’t hurt and I already have one. It’s called a twee and, among other things, it’ll make your memory perfect and it’ll let us be able to speak to each other using a way that doesn’t use magic and so can’t be detected by anyone among the People. It’ll also help as an assistant to aid in your learning more about things like technology.”
“Is this a courting gift,” Nighraven asked as she picked up and examined the twee.
“No, it’s not. To be honest, I am only giving this to you because we’ll need a way to talk that they can’t use to find us and because you want to learn about technology. It’s for clan and,” he shook his head. “It’ll be useful.”
“What were you going to say?”
“Nothing pleasant.”
Nightraven nodded. “I thought so. Speak freely.”
Iain eyed her before shrugging. “I thought long and hard about offering you this. We’re not enemies anymore, but even though we’re courting and lovers, you’re still not trying to be my friend. You treat me a lot like a traditional drake and I don’t like it. I don’t think you deserve a twee, but it’ll make our chances of survival a lot better. They’re still terrible odds but having communications that can’t be blocked or intercepted will be crucial eventually.”
“You are still angry about what I did,” Nightraven said.
“I’m not. I am a dragon. I’ve been a dragon for over ninety percent of my life. If I hadn’t accepted it, I’d probably be dead. I’ve had centuries to work through it and I did. Additionally, I’m not like you and I don’t hate forever. I either kill the object that I hate or I get over it. What’s going on is that I’m unhappy about the way you and Caintigern have been treating me recently. I’ve been courting you both and you both have been lapping it up like cats with cream. But you haven’t courted me at all. And that statement you just made about how I’m not your equal but you’ll treat me better makes me feel like a prized pet in your collection more than anything else, that even with the fact that I’ve been making a rather significant effort to help you come up with a way to save the People and, maybe, although probably not, give you your chance at revenge.”
“How would you have us treat you,” Caintigern asked.
“I am a full partner in this. I’ve been doing a lot of the heavy lifting and I’d like to be treated like I was.”
“We have been trying to do so,” Caintigern pointed out.
“Here and there I have to agree, but for the most part you’ve been talking about treating me more equally than actually doing so.”
“As I said before, I do not feel that this has any significant chance of working,” Nightraven said. “If I were to treat you more as a dragoness, I would tell you so and refuse to waste my time helping you pursue your goals.”
Iain’s eyebrows climbed up his forehead. “If you feel that you’re indulging me, then stop. Go home.” He looked at Caintigern. “Both of you just go home. I’ll stop beating my head against a wall trying to figure out how to save your civilization. You two will accept that there are only the three of us left, and that only if you accept that I’m one of the People, which you probably don’t. I’ll archive this research until I might want to try to consider why and how the People exterminated themselves and you can go find a big rock to sun on while you consider the whichness of the why and about how contrary the last drake in existence can be.”
“I did not say that this was a useless idea that would not work,” Caintigern protested.
“No,” Iain conceded, “you did not. Do you feel that this is something useless that won’t work?”
Caintigern was silent for several moments. “I do not know. I feel that it was my neglect of my role as Queen that led to the end of the People, and I do not like that at all. I do not know if your idea is feasible or not, but I feel it is my responsibility to save the People if I can,” her voice filled with momentary grief, “even if I cannot save my daughter from what I started with my foolish mistake. I cannot think of a way to save them. You did. Until we explore the idea thoroughly, we will not know if it will save the People. I do know that if we do nothing, they are extinct. You once told me that many races thought they would exist forever and that they were gone, vanished into the dustbin of history. I arrogantly told you that such an event would never happen to the People. I was wrong. I do not want that to be the fate of the People. I also want my children to be able to have mates from among the People so that their blood will stay pure.”
“Aren’t you concerned that having children by me will pollute their blood?”
“No.” Her tone was definite. “You are a drake of the People. Nothing can change that, even if you reject our culture for one that is so chaotic, crude and primitive.” Her eyes met his. “Even if you actively seek to sully your blood by mixing it with beings who are not of the People.”
“Well, at least you’ve upgraded them to beings,” Iain said wryly.
“If I were sharing my drake with animals I would exterminate them,” Caintigern stated flatly. “And your women would help me do so.”
“I can’t argue with that.”
“Because of this, I will help you with examining this plan,” Caintigern said.
“I will help as well,” Nightraven announced.
Iain looked at her blandly. “Why bother? You’ve already decided that it won’t work.”
“I wish my children to have others of the People to breed with as well.”
“Well, that’s a reasonably ulterior motive,” Iain lit the burner under the teapot. “Are you going to approach this with an open mind? Because if you don’t, it’s already failed.”
“You cannot guarantee that this will work,” Nightraven said.
“I cannot. If I could, we’d be in the planning stage. But if you work against us, it’ll never have any chance of success.”
“I will help and I will stay open minded in doing so.” Nightraven swallowed her twee pellet. Caintigern quickly followed.
“Very well.” He rubbed his eyes. “Let me get some tablets and set them up for you to use and we’ll start trying to figure out what is the best time for our intervention. In the meantime, get in some relaxation or something. Research and planning like this will take many grueling hours before anything close to answers is reached. Oh, in case you’re not aware of it, there are three new truewizards at my house now. Two are clan and the other is becoming clan sometime in the not too distant future.”
“Who are they,” Nightraven asked.
“The clanswomen are a Fomorian named Anust and a white minimal dragoness named Alabaster. The other is Morgana, a minimal silver dragoness.”
“Morgana and Alabaster belong to Drake Greystarr,” Nightraven said. “You have had no direct contact with him.” When Iain raised an eyebrow, she continued. “I monitor Drake closely. He is ambitious and has plans to try and kill me for the things I have that he covets.”
“Why do you tolerate his existence,” Caintigern asked.
“He was my student, like Iain. Also like Iain, he was one of the potentials I considered as a prospective mate to help me in my quest for vengeance. He turned out to have more potential and real problems than benefits, so he was not chosen.” She looked back at Iain. “Morgana is the first of the minimal dragonesses. Why is she here?”
“She feels that she’s been systematically mistreated by people there and has sought sanctuary with the clan. Alabaster joined us for similar reasons.”
“Drake will not like them being here or being clan. He will not recognize your sovereignty over them.”
Iain shrugged. “If he ever comes here, I have some plans.”
“If necessary, I will help you confront him,” Caintigern said. “You are my mate and I will help protect you.”
“I will help you as well,” Nightraven added. “Drake fears me and that will be to our advantage.”
“Are you willing to kill him if it becomes necessary?”
Nightraven nodded. “He plans to kill me when he feels he can safely do so. He wants my home and my library.”
“If he tries, I will help you as best I can,” Iain said quietly.
“Because I know you as well as I do, it is not unexpected that you would make that pledge,” Nightraven said. “And it still pleasing to hear you make it. I accept your assistance.”
“I will help too,” Caintigern said.
“We will eventually have to train in how to coordinate if we’re fighting in the same battle,” Iain leaned back in his chair and looked up at the roof that protected them from the sun. “We’ll plan out when that training will take place, but for now I think we need to take a bit of a break and do some hunting, if you ladies would be willing to do so.” He grinned. “I’m hungry and there are way too many galimimus and parasaurs around here.
“Hunting would be nice,” Nightraven said. “Will you feed us from your kills?”
“I will.”
“Then let us hunt.”
Iain Grey
Harem
Ninhursag Grey - Elfqueen & maharani
April Grey - Duelist & beta
Dominique Grey - Blessed Archmage
Pandora - Fiendish Archangel
Zareen - Nightmare
Sofia - Ria
Vanessa – Evangelion
Lucifer – Megami Sama
Ganieda – Snugglebunny Splice
Heather - Elfqueen
Marguerite – Unicorn
Scheherazade – Dread Wolf
Irena – Sanctuary Goth
Lynn – Dire Wolf
Rosemary – Mistoffeles
Dianthus – Elfqueen
Candace – Nurse Joy (kami)
Bellona – Dragonqueen
Elizabeth – Vampire
Matilda - White Tigress
Sorrel - Armsmistress
Outer Clan
Golden Cloud – equine unicorn
Arianrhod -Fey Goblin Female
Satellite Clan
74 male Goblins
89 female Goblins
Queendom / Outer Clan
1048 Elves & Elfqueens
Dionne - Elfqueen
Adrianna - Elfqueen
Heltu - Wet Queen
14 Wet Elves
Dead Harem
Eirian - Silver Dragoness
Aurum - Gold Dragoness
Skye - Blue Dragoness
Emerald - Green Dragoness
Beryl - Red Dragoness
Julia - human
Ling - Cheetit
Liadan - Twau
Natalie - Blazicunt
Maria – Slutton
Alabaster – Dragoness (white)
Onyx – Dragoness (black)
Lapis – Dragoness (blue)
Garnet – Dragoness (red)
Iolite – Dragoness (purple)
Malachite – Dragoness (green with white swirls)
Viersunuth great wyrm blue true dragoness
Talyl – drow commoner
Zarza – drow commoner
Sabrae – drow commoner
Sintree – drow commoner
Alyfaen Dinaen – drow, matron of House Dinaen
Phaerxae Dinaen – drow, former matron of House Dinaen, mother of Alyfaen
Mother Children
Vanessa
Myrna (Age 4)
Saoirse
April
Dorothy: Duelist (Age 3)
Meara: Duelist
Regan: Duelist
Lucifer
Olivia: Megami Sama (Age 6)
Seraphina: Megami Sama
Miram: Angel (Age 5)
Zareen:
Caltha: Nightmare (Age 0)
Kim: Nightmare
Xanthe: Nightmare
Epona: Nightmare
Philippa: Nightmare
Nott: Nightmare
Nyx: Nightmare
Sofia
Anna: Ria
Esmerelda: Ria
Monica Chambers
James: Jamie Harris kid (Age 2)