I didn't have a rooning clue what that something should be though.
That bright crisp morning I quietly dressed in my snakeskin robe and did the rounds whilst most hara were asleep. Even the Althaia rooms were relatively silent, apart from the occasional sharp intake of breath or whimper.
Outside the sun was beginning to peep over the horizon giving everything a rosy glow. It was earlier than I'd thought, but the view was insanely beautiful, and completely at odds with the worries of us mere mortals.
I sighed; wishing somehara else was awake and willing to share the moment. Everyhara was looking to me for answers, and it was weighing on me. What if I chose wrong? Was I endangering everyhara I knew by my choices?
Nobody came... In the movies a dashing hero or heroine always arrives and makes it all right. It wasn't a movie.
As I stood there, a song popped into my head, It seemed appropriate to this moment, a song celebrating life but with a tinge of sadness to it.
Using my skills in etheric manipulation I created the aural equivalent of a visualization, summoning up the backing music from memory. Once I had found my place in the song, I began to karaoke to the chorus.
I stopped after the first few lines, startled by the quality of my own voice. I had always been completely dire when it came to singing. I'd been tone deaf and my teenage voice had quavered all over the spectrum.
The song I'd expected to be grunting along to, was now actually incredibly easy to sing. I felt like an idiot; how could my vocal chords not have been changed along with everything else about me?
I started again, vastly encouraged. This time mentally editing out the human girl's voice and singing myself, pouring my heart and soul into the lyrics, allowing it to express my inner mood.
Angeli i demoni kruzhili nado mnoj
Rassekali ternii i mlechnye puti
Ne znaet schast'ya tol'ko tot
Kto ego zova ponyat ne smog
Nalybuites' nalyubuites
Aeria gloris, Aeria gloris
Nalybuites' nalyubuites
Aeria gloris, aeria gloris
I am calling, calling now
Spirits rise and falling
S toboi ostatsa dol'she
Calling, calling, in the depth of longing
S toboi ostat'sya dol'she
Nalybuites' nalyubuites
Aeria gloris, aeria gloris
Nalybuites' nalyubuites
Aeria gloris, aeria gloris
Stand alone . . . Where was life when it had a meaning . . .
Stand alone . . . Nothing's real anymore and . . .
Beskoneshnyj beg . . .
Poka zhiva, ya mogu starat'sya na letu ne upast'
Ne razuchit'sya mechtat' . . . lyubit' . . .
. . . Beskoneshnyj beg . . .
Calling, calling, for the place of knowing
There's more than what can be linked
Calling, calling now, never will I look away
For what life has left for me
Yearning, yearning, for what's left of loving
S toboi ostat'sya dol'she
Calling, calling now, spirits rise and falling
S oboi ostat'sya dol'she
Calling, calling, in the depth of longing
Soboj ostat'sya dol'she . . .
Nalybuites' nalyubuites
Aeria gloris, Aeria gloris
Nalybuites' nalyubuites
Aeria gloris, aeria gloris
When I'd finished, I felt a presence behind me and turned to see pretty much every hara who'd been present in the house that morning standing on the dew covered grass.
"That was beautiful!" exclaimed Brook rushing over to hug me tight.
The others closed in, also murmuring their admiration and requesting that I sing to the entire tribe. Perhaps this wasn't a movie; perhaps it was a musical. The sun had risen as I'd sung and maybe the world wasn't such a grim place after all.
---
After breakfast I sprinted the five miles out to Hill-16 to see how things were going. Every day Hill-16 looked more like a settlement or at the least, a boot camp.
Now that there were sufficient hara, I'd put them to work doing some combat training with Blue, Petreon and an ex-national guard sergeant we'd acquired. I watched proudly as a team worked its way up The Hill, throwing explosive batteries that detonated against wooden cut-outs shaped like soldiers.
I fingered my pack of four AA-size where they sat in my pocket. After the debacle at the restaurant, I always carried a few of the innocuous looking power cells with me.
Further away small groups spaced widely apart were practicing some of the etheric combat moves Massasauga had passed on to us. There was no way to detect what exactly they were projecting, but the results were evident on row of old coke cans that were alternately crushed, blown up, frozen or set alight.
I just hoped it would be enough against real bullets and real attack aircraft and real artillery.
"Bang! You're dead,” whispered a voice so close that his breath tickled my ear.
I turned to see Suriv grinning impishly from ear to ear. A further six hara who'd been relatively young humans and now formed Suriv's Batch, stood a few steps behind with equally broad grins on their ageless faces.
"Not bad" I congratulated "..and a human wouldn't have heard your thoughts either"
Suriv's smile faltered slightly
"I'm kidding" I admitted "you caught me completely by surprise. Well done"
Suriv's grin returned full force and his friends crowded around, patting him on the back and sharing breath.
I felt a pang that I seemed excluded from the camaraderie, but disguised the emotion as best I could and continued my tour, leaving them to it.
I was just jogging into sight of the park's old visitor centre when I felt the tickle of a long distance sending, it was Jonquellia, a har who shared Gyvon's gift for long range sending.
Anton and Brad have survived their Althaia and have chosen their roon-guides. Brook thought you should know Ladylord
There was no point trying to send a reply, even on my best day I didn't have the mental reach to respond. Oddly enough, I didn't feel envious of the lucky hara who were even now showing the two new Tuaththua how their bodies worked.
Since the odd events the day that I'd met the Colurastes, I seemed gradually less interested in aruna, and even that desire was utterly focused on Brook. Of course, being obsessed with Brook wasn't a bad thing from my viewpoint.
I decided to be charitable and give the new hara until the evening before interrupted their special time. I fondly recalled my own inception, with Ash desperately trying to muffle my ecstasy with a rolled up sock.
---
Getting back into Zanesville proved slightly more difficult than I'd expected, the Home-Sec guards found a guy jogging along the road in the middle of an all out plague quarantine to be sufficiently odd to give me a full scan and pat down.
Stood with my hands against the wall and legs spread apart and sweating profusely, I cursed myself for getting so lax.
Fortunately I'd palmed the batteries before arriving at the checkpoint.
The Haz-mat suited guard ran his hand over my arms and then down my torso to my crotch, I winced as his hands brushed against the outer furls of my Ouana...and then moved on to pat down my thighs and lower legs.
I couldn't believe it! The human hadn't noticed my complex genitalia. Gripping the battery tighter I waited patiently for him to finish and reluctantly hand back my ID card.
I could do without scares like that, I decided, as I jogged along the nearly deserted streets.
Arriving back at the villa, the change in atmosphere was noticeable. Where the streets had had an aura of dread, the Villa felt joyous and celebratory. It was probably just as well that the humans were mostly mind-blind, otherwise we'd have been busted.
---
The celebration was of course just a re-run of the party we'd been holding pretty much daily as each new batch of hara were welcomed into the Tuaththua. Catching sight of me, the eight new hara detached themselves and clustered around. The whole thing made me feel very parental as they thanked me for the new life they'd been given.
Anton and Brad or 'Docanton' and 'Bradoc' as they now called themselves were about to take their turn at sharing breath with me, when a disturbance at the back of the crowd indicated the arrival of Massasauga.
The Coluraste Phylarch was followed by his tribe walking in double file; I had to force my expression to remain neutral as I was reminded of Harry Potter's Slitheryn House.
At first I didn't recognize the individuals in Massasauga's entourage, however I soon realized that these were the same s'Har I'd met a couple of weeks ago. The thing that had fooled me was that each of them had shot from looking ten years old to something closer to thirteen. I made a note to ask Massasauga what was up with that, but promptly forgot about it in the swirl of events.
"Ladylord" said the tall, severely beautiful Coluraste.
"Phylarch" I nodded in reply
"I have heard that you intend to dramatically accelerate your tribe's inception rate. I would discuss this with you." said Massasauga, sounding as if I was pulling a fast one and implying that I required his permission.
The last thing I needed was a further rift between my Tuaththuan's and the Colurastes. Fortunately I'd figured that this was coming and had a solution in mind.
"That’s good cuz I was going to invite you to a meeting of our Inner Council anyway. As you are here, I can bring that forward and we can get started sooner." I replied turning to the inceptees "Docanton and Bradoc; meet Phylarch Massasauga Har Coluraste. You two will be at the council meeting to representing today's batch of inceptees."
Massasauga smiled in his thin-lipped way and offered a limp hand to the two hara in such a way that they could have either kissed the hand or shaken it.
Bradoc chose to take the limp handshake, but Docanton decided to give a surprised Massasauga a Gallic kiss on each cheek, forcing me to hide a grin behind a fake cough. Leaving my esteemed guest making small talk with the inceptees I quickly sent to Amnil asking him to pull together a council meeting ASAP.
---
When it came to the meeting I visualized a military headquarters tent of the sort Alexander the Great might have used...if he had access to a holographic map table that is.
Massasauga had not previously been invited to join a council meditation and seemed impressed when he found that I'd projected him in the form of a human sized Cobra.
FasScinating, this form of meeting is unique to your Tuaththua. I know of no other tribe that visualizes so well or regularly. said the Phylarch admiring his scaly hide.
I puffed up with pride. Massasauga wasn't a har who gave out compliments very often, or by accident.
Thanks. I will just pull the others into the sharing, please make yourself comfortable
Finally getting the point that this is war then sent Flamepetal upon seeing the décor.
Don't for the minute think I'm condoning your actions. You still have a penance to do I snapped back, before turning my attention to the council and formally introducing the Coluraste to them.
Once they'd settled down I described again my plan for the assimilation of the Doctors’ gay buddies, mainly for the serpent har's benefit.
My sources.. I nodded toward Bradoc and Docanton ..Indicate that the local gay group has expressed an interest in joining us, they've heard vague rumors from their big city friends, I figure we can sell them on the idea pretty easily
So, You plan a masSs capture? asked Massasauga
Yep. Docanton and Bradoc will Round them up, I'll then offer them all a Wraeththu-hood and its sorted. I explained
sSuch endeavors tend to result in violence. No large group thinks with a sSingle mind warned Massasauga Also, the possibility of a stampede should not be DisSscounted.
I'd considered that, but hadn't really thought up a solution...until that moment.., I might not have an answer, but I knew that the Snake-har did! If his harlings could cause me to obediently follow them when they were singing, the effect should probably work on the less advanced human minds just as well. A quick song would keep the humans relaxed and pliant.
Normally yes. But I'm betting that you know a Magari that will keep them receptive. The one you used on Brook and me for instance
The giant Cobra flinched, clearly unhappy that I was mentioning a magaric trick that he'd so far kept exclusively for Coluraste use. The moment only lasted an instant soon replaced by a thoughtful scheming expression.
I can teach that Magari. But the Rehuna has to be someone with a good singing voice. The sSong must be flawless or it will fail.
So we get your cute little harlings to do it instead then sent Flamepetal
You would exposSe MY children, MY s'Hara, to danger! hissed Massasauga his blank snake-eyes glowing with an inner anger I'd not seen before.
It would be better all round if one of us learned it I intervened glaring at Flamepetal. Phylarch, If you can show me how later, I'll give it a go
No Disrespect Ladylord, but it does need a voice as talented as that of my s'Hara replied Massasauga
I grinned broadly, the chance to get one over on the snake was far too addictively rewarding.
A few of the councilhara had been around for my earlier performance and were looking reassuringly eager. The others catching the prevailing mood looked from face to face slightly puzzled. I decided that the final chorus should be sufficient
….Nalybuites' nalyubuites
Aeria gloris, aeria gloris
Nalybuites' nalyubuites
Aeria gloris, aeria gloris
I let the achingly beautiful words trail into the ether and turned my attention back to the Phylarch Massasauga, who looked, if anything, slightly greener So was that good enough?
As I have sSsaid before, The Ladylord is a remarkable Har replied the Phylarch Very well, I will instruct you, Ladylord Sixteen. But I ask that you take some bodyguards. I am sure that your tribes-hara will insSsist that you do not risk your personal safety
Massasauga's sincere concern for my safety felt odd, it didn't fit at all with what I knew of his 'Coluraste First' philosophy.
I could see several Council-hara nodding in agreement, but this wasn't what I wanted at all.
A leader should lead. I won't hide behind his army like some Pentagon General I protested.
Perhaps we should consult Daananan on it then Suggested Jasem.
I nodded, reluctantly. In the end it would be a decision of the Council. I'd paid enough attention in my Corporate Management Classes to know that for a system of government to be stable, the leadership had to play by the rules it had set itself.
I turned my attention to Massasauga We are about to summon the Tribal Dehar, you are the first non-Tuaththuan to see him.
You do me great honor. replied the Cobra bowing his reptilian head
Carefully I drew Daananan's sigil in the tent's doorway, changing the silken portal into a wooden framed opening that displayed the green skies and greener meadows of Daananan's Realm beyond.
Today Daananan was presenting his warrior aspect, his body adorned with decorative armor as he practiced some almost balletic moves, The Spear of Light held in his living metal hand.
"Stood hand in hand, love's arrow deflects harm.
In great numbers, safety may be found, In a song's gift, many hearts may rejoice.
Two roads run parallel for a time, But each may have its own destination"
Said the dehar before returning his attention to the precise dance of lethal moves.
May I greet the Dehar? asked Massasauga
Go for it I replied intrigued to see how the two would interact
I am Massasauga, A Phylarch of the Colurastes. I offer the greetings and respect of my tribe and my Dehar
Daananan's whirling spear came to rest, pointed at Massasauga's heart.
"Knowledge is the power radiant, but wisdom is the lens that burns the grass." replied Daananan, smiling sweetly, before turning away.
As usual the Dehar had managed to be completely cryptic and still get the message across. Fortunately it was one of Daananan's attributes that we all understood the meaning behind his words.
Reverently, I formed the symbol that would close the portal to Daananan's Realm and returned my attention to the meeting.
Its settled then, we go ahead I told them Get moving, you all know what to do
The only person looking confused as I dismantled the etheric meeting was Massasauga. I guess because he wasn't a Tuaththuan, and had had no part in visualizing Daananan, he had no insight into what our Dehar had said meant.
"So..is Daananan awesome or what!" I asked as the rest departed, leaving only myself, Massasauga and Brook; who placed his reassuring hand on my shoulder. As always dealing with the other plain of reality left me feeling like a super-har.
"Very different from my own Dehar, The great serpent Nagataka, and yet similar in some ways. Still impressive though" replied the Coluraste thoughtfully
"Thanks!"
"I take it that you have a venue chosSsen for this foolish risk you plan to take?" he asked
"Yep. They have a hangout on Route 666 south-east of town."
"So basically they chose the ground, not you."
"I guess so." I admitted. Now that I thought about it, it was obvious that I should have set up the meeting in a place that I controlled or was at least familiar with.
To my surprise instead of taking a dig at my lamentable tactical skills Massasauga chose to look extremely concerned.
"I don't like the idea of you being in danger" he sighed "Of all the hara in Zanesville, you and your Chesnari are the only two that we cannot risk losing."
"My Ches-what?"
"Chesnari. Your soul-mate. Tiahaar Brook"
Instinctively I glanced at Brook and our hands slipped into one another.
"Look around you, all of our adult hara are like teenagers on an extended beach party...they'd roon anyhar" said Massasauga.
I flushed with anger thinking that he'd just insulted my tribe.
"That applies to me and mine equally" he added, knowing what I was thinking. "But you two...You are in love at a deeper, or perhaps higher, level. That’s a precious thing, not to be risked lightly. It’s possible that in some distant future, they'll tell the story of Brook and Sixteen. Even though I'm not of your tribe; I don't want that story to be a re-visualization of Romeo and Juliet."
I glanced again at my Brook and he returned my gaze.
It's quite possible that we could have lost a few minutes as we appreciated one another. Massasauga was still there when I came out of it, so I guess the timeless moment had actually been pretty short.
"We have no intention of dying, do we Brook?"
"Not in my plans either, love" he replied squeezing my hand and sending a private thought about what we might get up to later, in private.
Massasauga sighed again, "Despite what I said in Council. I would prefer that my harlings take the risk. You are an excellent singer Ladylord Sixteen, but they've had more training and can maintain that magari longer than you could"
I hated the idea. Putting little kids ...harlings... in harm's way was so utterly wrong.
"He has a point" said Brook, surprising me.
"Huh?"
"You can't be persuading the humans and enchanting them with a song at the same time."
Unfortunately He had a point, I hadn't thought of that.
"OK..Ok! We'll use the Colurastes, but I want some of our Hara guarding the little flowers." I replied ungraciously.
---
As I lay in the grass observing the venue as the cars began to arrive. I needed to piss and there was no rooning way I was going to admit something like that in front of another tribe's leader and twenty or so Hara and Harlings.
The time had gone by in what seemed like a flash
The venue was small and well out of town. The people who visited here preferred the more reactionary townsfolk not to know about it. There were only two exits, a double door at the front and a smaller door behind the bar.
"Well, now you've seen the place, what do you think?"
"About what I expected." replied Massasauga "You had better be a good talker Sixteen. When this goes wrong it’s going to take precious sSSseconds to get backup to you."
"It'll be cool. They trust Docanton and Bradoc." I replied complacently.
Getting up and dusting the grass off I signaled for Docanton, Brook, Jimmy and Bradoc to join me.
The feeling that we were five Wild West gunfighters walking into the saloon, was an unwelcome prod from my subconscious.
Conversation stopped dead as we entered. There were between twenty and thirty of them, several were wearing surgical facemasks in the hope that this would protect them in case Rat-flu could be spread by inhaling it.
They were of all ages, all looking scared, all hoping that being at a public meeting wasn't killing them.
At the back end of the Bar was a small stage, we headed there. The plan was for the two Docs to do an intro and for me to do the actual recruiting. Jimmy and Brook would be in the background in case of trouble.
"Nice butt" someone murmured
I blushed, but ignored the comment.
Once on the stage Docanton didn't waste any time, doing little more than introduce me.
"What with the plague going about, I figure we want to keep this meeting brief as possible. This here's Tiahaar Sixteen, he's one of the Wraeththu we've been hearing about. You've probably heard on TV that they're all homicidal cannibals with a taste for boy-butt...."
The audience laughed slightly at the joke.
"...Bear in mind that that’s the same TV that says you guys are committing a mortal sin every weekend and should be staked through the heart"
"Weekends?..that’s Daily for me boy!" heckled someone getting a rowdy laugh.
I'd come to the place with this whole speech worked out, it was a work of seductive magic guaranteed to beguile the most suspicious human. When it came right down to it though, this was a different ballgame. In the company of other hara, I knew my place, knew that I was respected, that I could command them. But in front of the humans I felt like a kid again, stood up in front of the school governors.
".........uh...Hi." I mumbled and looked at my feet
I'm here whispered Brook supportively
"Hell, this twink don't look so special" said a voice in the front row.
That was all I needed, someone to aim at. I focused my attention on him, a middle aged human, somewhat overweight with a receding hairline. I looked him in the eye and sort of opened my memories up so that he could sense some of the shit I'd been put through recently. It wasn't like a sending or anything, just a regular stare.
He shuddered and backed down "...no offence"
"Ok...The thing you need to know about Wraeththu is that we're different. We aren't a gay sub-culture hanging around the edges of society getting beat up on by religionists. We're our own civilization with our own laws and our own social structure, we don’t take shit from anyone. Any of you not prepared to cut their ties with everything and everyone they know, should walk out now...."
I paused, no one moved.
Inwardly I smiled, I'd kept to my honor code and given them a chance to remain human. Even if they were only staying because they were curious, they were fair game now.
Take down anyone that leaves I sent
Yes Ladylord
"I guess you've all heard rumors about us, or you wouldn't be here risking your lives. So...Tell me what you know and we'll start from there" I said to my audience in a gentle voice.
A teenager of about my age raised his hand as if he were still in school.
"My cousin in Cleveland, he's kinda homophobic, he got hooked up with you Wraeththu. He sent me this weird email, like, he apologized for all the bullying and said now that he was no longer a 'half-sex' he understood he'd been behaving like a bastard. The email then went on about how cool it was being one of you and that I should come join up... That’s the last I heard from him. According to his mom he disappeared from home that same day" he explained.
"I got the same sort of thing from my Ex. He phoned to say he'd heard about a way to get multiple orgasms, every time, without any drugs; a bit of a hedonist our Billy. He dropped out of sight and a week later his apartment block burned down." said a guy in his mid twenties from the back of the crowd
"I heard from a friend that his lover came back and he was like a pod-person, gone from muscular and hairy to sort of graceful and elf-like, my friend said." added a third.
I didn't like the way this was going, each story seemed to have a sinister edge to it when viewed from the human side. I, of course, could well understand the bubbly euphoria that had led those distant hara into attempts at recruiting, unfortunately it wasn’t helping me much.
"I even heard you can do, like, real magic" said a guy leaned up against the wall, half-joking, half-nervous
That at least was something positive that I could easily demonstrate.
"Like I said, there's more to being Wraeththu than joining a club, a lot more actually. Once you've become one of us, there's a desire to be with your own kind. That’s why your friends and lovers disappeared. As for magic...yeah with training you can delve into different planes of reality...and do shit you wouldn't believe"
Raising my hand I focused on my index finger and painted the sigil of the aralid so that the etherial realm shone through as a glowing shape suspended in mid air.
I grinned, rather proud of the fact that I gotten it to manifest in the mundane world. It was a neat party trick. It wasn't however, a good thing to leave open, as it drained a significant part of my energy just for looking pretty. With a showy wipe of my hand I dispelled the sigil, they'd seen it and that was all that mattered.
They were impressed, that was kewl.
"Screw this bullshit! I didn't come here to watch an illusionist act" said someone in the middle of the room "Cut to the chase. Doc said on the phone that you got an experimental vaccine for the Rat Flu. If you got a cure, my nephew needs it right now! If you don't got a cure I'm walking before I catch a dose!"
The crowd backed away from the speaker, clearly fearful of the plague. It was obvious to me that cure-guy wasn't alone; quite a large proportion of them cared only about survival.
"Doc. Tell them" I said
"Its true. The Wraeththu genetic modification blocks Rat-Flu at 100% efficiency, I have seen the human test results. That’s both as a vaccine and post infection anti-biotic " replied Docanton, going on to talk medical jargon about how effective 'the cure' was.
"But only for guys?" asked someone picking up on that detail from the jargon.
"Unfortunately yes." I replied "And it is a substantial genetic change...I..."
My voice trailed off, something was coming, something big.
Did you feel that? sent Jimmy s'Har Coluraste faintly, his juvenile sending barely able to reach across the room.
I felt it too sent Brook
And I. Me too replied Docanton and Bradoc simultaneously, their thoughts overlapping.
If you hara felt that, then it wasn't one of my precognitions, something’s happening, like, right now I sent.
I felt odd, claustrophobic, I needed to be outside. In the distance I heard the sound of a thousand birds startled and taking flight.
Birds...something about birds...
The odd feeling was still gaining in intensity, building in the Earth, swelling upward.
The Earth and startled birds....its obvious when you know the answer, but my brain hadn't quite joined the dots. All I knew was that we absolutely had to get out, I stopped thinking and startetd acting.
"Outside! Now! Move! Move!" I yelled
My hara moved, the humans didn't, they just stood, puzzled looks on their faces. I guess I'm losing touch with being human really fast, it actually amazed me that the humans couldn't sense 'it'. Whatever was coming was so large, it ought to be obvious even to their mind-deaf brains.
There was no time; that much I was totally sure of, certainly not enough to explain in words. I grabbed the teen who'd had a cousin in Cleveland and flung him bodily as far as the front door. I grabbed two more collars as I went past, dragging them after me.
The crowd had enough time to start reacting, mainly objecting to the injustice of my assault. Then the first vibration hit, a glass rattler, like the throb of an eighteen-wheeler.
Fleeing birds... The Earth....Earthquake. Finally my conscious mind caught up with my sub-conscious. By the time I'd inhaled to yell 'Earthquake' there wasn't any point in saying it, everyhar and everyone had already 'got' that there was a quake. It was already throwing them to the floor.
The Venue collapsed inward onto my potential recruits after only 55 seconds of a quake that seemed to just keep going on and on. After what seemed like an ice-age, the quake eased off; the odd 'presence' fading from the Earth.
Sighing with relief, I got up and began dusting off the cement and powdered brick dust. Looking around I noticed that everyone else was still on the ground curled up in protective poses. I took a moment to count how many had gotten out. Aside from my hara, only ten humans had gotten clear including the three I'd manhandled (har-handled?).
The boy with the cousin in Cleveland glanced up at me "Thanks!...I think you just saved my life man!"
"I'm not a man" I said distractedly as Massasauga and his harlings began emerging from the forest.
Once in the open the harlings split up, each going to tend a different human. Before I realized what they intended, they began efficiently injecting the survivors.
"Hey!" I protested
"You said incept anyone who leaves" smiled Massasauga sweetly.
"Well yeah, I guess I did." I admitted, then shrugged, it was, after all, what I'd intended to do to them anyway. "Caught me off guard is all. Carry on"
The human at my feet glanced between me and Massasauga, suddenly terrified.
"What...?"
"You're joining the Wraeththu. Massasauga and I are of different tribes, we just go about things differently. You can either get your vaccination now or you can do it the proper way and have a nice ceremony in three days. Your choice. Decide now." I instructed in a tone of voice that I hoped conveyed firmness and compassion.
"I...I think I'll stay with you Sir"
Massasauga sniffed haughtily and turned away clearly annoyed. Just beyond him I could see the guy that had the dying nephew.
"That one has a nephew with Rat Flu. I figure that’s more your area" I said pointing at the man, who was holding his injected arm.
Massasauga gave me another inscrutable look and nodded slightly.
Brook limped over to join us. I was immediately concerned, but he assured me that it was just a dead-leg from where a brick had hit him.
"We need the fire brigade out here stat" said Bradoc dropping back into a lifetime of routine.
"I figure they're busy" I replied nodding in the direction of Zanesville and the multiple smoke plumes rising into the sky.
"Besides, we'd have to explain all these Althaia symptoms" added Brook rolling his eyes.
"Sorry Docs, you're limited to what we can do ourselves." I said turning to Massasauga "Hey Phylarch, know any Magari good for pulling humans out of collapsed buildings?"
"Not really...But I have sSeen you do such a thing"
"Huh?"
"Bring them into the etheric realm and you will know their location and condition"
"Kewl! Ether-vision! I'm a regular Super-har, I should have a red cape"
Brook rolled his eyes and gave one of my rat-tail braids a tug. "Earth to Sixteen. They're humans, it might not be that easy."
He had a point. I sat down cross-legged in a meditative pose and closed my eyes.
"What are you doing?"
I opened an eye and looked at 'my-cousin's-a-Wraeththu' who was looking at me in that cute half-lusting half-terrified way that some inceptees get.
"I'm doing some magic, this will probably feel weird, don't panic..'Kay?"
"OK" he replied with a delightful tremor in his voice.
"Massasauga, Brook, lend me your strength" I instructed before closing my eyes.
I felt a warm loving hand touch my shoulder and then another, colder, more detached presence touching my other shoulder. pure white Agmara energy surged into me, filling me with exuberance and pure life.
I drifted into the etheric realm, standing in its white blankness, like an artist before his canvas, I sketched roughly letting the whiteness form an undulating plain denuded of foliage and then shaping the broken building in as much detail as I could. That much was easy, the trick was getting the place populated.
Breathing deeply I let my awareness float outward, seeking other minds to pull into this new place. Physical distance and direction seemed to have no bearing. The first and nearest mind that I pulled, was suspended like a broken doll within the semi-transparent building, the next felt as if it were in the far distance but was in fact Bradoc, materializing only a few feet away.
The first time I pulled an incepted man into the ether, I was surprised to see a ghostly version of The Aghama knelt beside him stroking his brow. The second incepted man also had The Aghama with him, as did each additional inceptee.
I heard a gasp next to me my-cousin's-a-wraeththu had been sucked into my reality. Even though he had not had any blood, The Aghama stood over him as well. I counted that as a good sign.
Please take care of him I requested
The Aghama nodded silently and ran his fingers through the human's hair. Like a kitten, My-cousin's-a-Wraeththu bobbed his head up to meet the stroking of the Dehar's hand.
Taking a couple of deep breaths, I refocused my attention onto the translucent pile of rubble. Slowly five more humans materialized suspended like flies in amber. Only five. Tears of frustration dribbled slowly down my cheek. If only I'd precog'd the quake or understood what it was I sensed just a fraction earlier.
Concentrate on the living, love whispered Brook, squeezing my shoulder gently.
I blinked and refocused, three were in the far right hand corner in an air pocket, there was another who'd ended up trapped in the middle of the room, his right leg pinned at the ankle. The Last one....no human or Wraeththu body was designed to bend in the ways that poor guy was. It was a surprise that he was alive at all, but looking closer I realized that it was in fact only his limbs, by some freak of pure luck the teenager's torso and abdomen were entirely intact.
Dig for the lower left corner, the one there is the worst hurt, be quick
We can see them. replied Bradoc sounding awed. I'd forgotten just how new to this my Doctors were.
Carefully I isolated the doctors and excluded them from the visualization. I figured that they'd need to be able to concentrate on the real world in order to do their best for him.
In the corner the injured boy had managed to perceive the etheric realm, and having seen the state of his limbs, had begun to twitch and struggle feebly.
I didn't dare move in case I dislodged the two hara feeding me with Agmara, so instead I pulled the entire visualization closer so that I was sat within the ghostly rubble next to the human's head.
Can you hear me?
There was no answer. But his face looked confused as if he were seeing but not understanding what he saw. I reminded myself that humans just didn't have the knack for this. I just had to say it and hope he understood enough of it.
You have to lie still. Help is coming
He frowned, clearly not getting it, so I repeated it again and again until a look of amazed comprehension drifted over his face.
Feeling relieved I turned my attention to the others; the wall in the corner had been hacked through by a couple of my hara. The three survivors had been extracted and immediately incepted; they lay on the ground a few feet away with manifestations of The Aghama standing next to each, like a Deharic version of a guardian angel.
The sight caused a swelling of love within me for The Aghama, our creator. It was truly awesome how he cared for every single hara in such a real way and detectable way.
Where's the other one? asked Brook, diverting my attention away from the Dehar.
I frowned and swept my mind over the area, the one who'd been only slightly trapped wasn't where he'd been and wasn't within range either. Carefully putting our point-of-view back where our bodies were, I collapsed the visualization, stood up, and strode over to the place where the trapped man had been.
A trail of blood smeared the rubble and led off through the grass. In the distance a vehicle revved loudly, the sound followed immediately by the screech of wheels throwing up gravel.
There was no hope of catching the man.
"I guess we have to add him to our 'to do' list." I shrugged, sadly turning back to the final victim who was being very carefully detached from the debris v. "Ok Hara, lets hustle, get this lot into cars and over to The Hill, we want to be gone if he brings any Home-Seccers back with him."
"What about the trapped guy?"
I glanced in that direction and noticed that the two Docs were lifting a roof beam that seemed like it ought to be way too heavy.
"Get him out if we can" I replied jogging over to help hold the beam off the human.
Seeing the boy's wounds in real life immediately made me want to throw up. So much blood.
With me now taking the weight of the beam, Bradoc was able to dive in to the hole next to the boy, feeling for his pulse.
Sorry Ladylord, It's already too late, His pulse is extremely faint. There's nothing I can do without our meatwagon. Sent Bradoc bitterly
Phylarch Massasauga. What about a transfusion of Wraeththu blood? Would that work?
No Ladylord. Our blood would begin disrupting his metabolism and then leak out, only hastening his end. replied the Coluraste gravely If he were already Wraeththu, there is a majahn ceremony that might work.. as it is, no, sSssorry.
"NO!!" I raged, giving the roof beam a heave that sent it clear.
It was a feat of strength that I'd not thought possible. Relieved of the burden I leapt down next to the boy and delicately brushed his hair to one side.
Now that my hand was in contact, I could 'sense' that the Doc's human trained medical opinion matched what I was feeling on the more esoteric level.
My eyes welled up with tears. A human male would have held back in order not to show 'weakness'. That was foolishness, I needed to express my grief and this was nature’s way.
"Come on Sixteen, there's nothing we can do" said Brook, his voice sounding equally choked.
"No...there is one thing" I replied, the idea springing fully formed into my head. The beautiful poignant song had been in the back of my head all day. I'd thought I'd be using it to capture these humans, instead I'd use it for a sadder purpose.
Placing my hand on the boy's head I began to sing, filling him with the words
Nalybuites' nalyubuites Aeria gloris, aeria gloris,
shaping him into an etheric birdform and allowing him to fly briefly in a sky filled with beauty and wonder. At least this way his final moments would be a pleasant experience.
Like a hatchling breaking from its egg the etheric form burst from the boy's body, looking like a phoenix of legend at first wobbly and unsure but then confident as it launched itself into the pseudo-air of the etheric realm.
When I finished the song and returned to the normal world the human shell was already beginning to cool.
Everyhar was looking at me again, like I'd grown a second head (again). Massasauga in particular looked distinctly un-nerved.
"What?"
"Ladylord, you attempt things because you don't know that they're impossible. I have literally no idea what you've done to that poor human's soul."
I suddenly felt grey and drained of agmara.
"Quickly! Give him your support" snapped Massasauga.
Swiftly hands touched me, agmara energy flowed into my body with each new touch. For a second or two I felt whole again and I brushed them away.
In the background of my mind, I thought I heard the slow beat of graceful glowing wings as the transformed human glided exploring beautiful and alien lands.
---
Getting back to either the Home Villa or the Hill proved more difficult than expected, although the Home-Sec checkpoints were un-manned, Zanesville itself was in ruin. The famous 'Y' bridge had lost one of its spans, it still crossed the river but the northeast branch now rested at the bottom of the River Muskingum.
As we approached our home the first sendings touched us.I learned immediately that, Like our party, the rest of the tribe had sensed the quake coming and had gotten out in time.
Not a single casualty! I sighed with relief. Given the devastation our convoy had just driven through, that was a miracle.
We'd not proved as lucky with our dwellings. Brook's Villa, my home for the last month, was a ruin, leveled to the ground apart from the area directly over our sacred Nayati. Out at the Hill our loosely jointed timber cabins shrugged the quake off easily, the leaky handmade joints moving with the shake. Meanwhile, the old Lakeside visitor centre hadn't proved so resilient, the concrete structure had collapsed right on top of some of our more useful equipment.
I learned a few weeks later from an incepted geology student, that the quake had lasted three minutes 16 seconds at 8.1 on the Richter scale, followed by a further 50 seconds at 6.3 running along a previously undetected fault that followed the length of the St Laurence and then doglegged south from Cleveland all the way to the lost city of New Orleans. The fault had moved a full foot, coincidentally breaking every bridge and telecom cable and cutting the nation in half. That explained a lot, but I didn't know it yet.
I've ordered a sweep of the out-lying farms Petreon informed me I told them to Incept anyone they rescue. I figure for the next 24 hours we'll have free reign...Anyone we save will heal quicker as Wraeththu and in the confusion of plague and quake combined they’ll not be missed
I didn't have the energy to worry about it. If there were consequences, I'd handle them later. In the back of my mind the phoenix bird circled on a thermal rising high above lush green plains.
Right then I was too busy feeling nauseous, the sensation seeming to well up from a point just below where I thought my stomach should be...not that I knew what shape my organs were these days.
It occurred to me that the loss of our beautiful home would be affecting Brook and his brothers more than I, it was their childhood home after all.
I moved over to where Brook had knelt next to one of the primitive wards we'd placed around the grounds.
"Roon Brook, I'm so sorry"
"What? Oh, the house? Its cool, it was too human anyway, reminding me of being a half-sexed male all the time." He replied "No, the weird thing is this charm. Its shattered, I guess earthquakes happen on the etheric plane as well as the normal one."
"Really? That is weird." I replied mildly puzzled but largely apathetic. The bird swooped down, accelerating toward the distant ground and sweeping fast over the etheric mountainsides.
Brook glanced up at me, his eyes penetrating me in that uniquely deep way that the Colurastes called 'Chesnari'.
"We're going to the Nayati," he said to the tribe in general with a note of finality in his voice "We're not to be disturbed for any reason."
Taking my hand he guided me unresisting into the dusty basement.
"Why are we down here?" I asked stupidly as he began to unbutton my clothes. The bird soured upward again, raking the snow with a talon.
"Messing with that dying boy's essence has mucked you up somehow" he replied
"Oh" I replied uninterestedly as a garment hit the floor. The bird swept down to land upon a giant crystalline thorn projecting from the side of a mountain, joyously preening at its fire-rainbow feathers.
"I don't have your training.." he said pulling at the laces of his shoes
"..I can't visualize The Aghama or Daananan to heal you.." unbuckling his belt.
"...So I guess I'll go with the last bit of advice Ash gave me before he left for Europe" dropping his trousers.
"What was that?" I asked mildly intrigued.
"When in doubt try Aruna"
It was at about this point that I realized that we were both naked. An unbefuddled and primitive part of my mind noted Brook's Soume-lam flowering temptingly.
Even then, I was so far gone that Brook had to wrap himself around me before I finally 'got' what we were doing.
Brook wrapped me in loving folds sucking me deeper, not unlike a daisy petal caught in the vortex of water draining down a plughole.
I shuddered in pleasure as the first of the five pleasures blasted away the cobwebs that had been clinging to my mind. I was soon lost in the sensations, a purely physical thing. We pulsed together like some great lighthouse each searchlight beam.
Somewhere at the edges of my perception the beautiful bird-form descended toward us its essence sucked in toward me, feathers pulling loose and drifting into me, until all that was left was a tiny glittery mote that drifted away in a weird 5th dimensional direction.
My pleasure soaked mind swirled away in another direction, visions of other things, other pleasures and other times occupied my attention as my thrusting Ouana darted snakelike in that familiar final telescopic thrust.
Sated and whole again I rested in Brook's protective arms gradually drifting into an exhausted sleep.
---
When I awoke with the dawn chorus the following morning, it was to find that I'd used my beloved chesnari as a soft Wraeththu mattress against the hardness of the smooth stone floor.
My renewed intellect, as sharp as a razor, immediately deduced what the problem had been. Maintaining the illusion of life for the poor dead soul had required energy and I had been its source, I'd forgotten to end the illusion and it had just continued to drain me. It was another reminder that really I was still a toddler paddling on the beach of the Agmaric Ocean.
Brook brushed my straggling hair from my eyes, a look of concern on his beautiful face. I didn't need to share breath to know that he wondered if his improvised medicine had worked. I smiled lustfully and he knew instantly what I was thinking.
I rolled him onto his back and demonstrated the fullness of my return to health. I felt alive again, the grayness that had been sucking me down was gone and I felt eager to tackle the new day, in a new world, one where human authority was in ruin and my Tuaththua were ready to step forward to fill the temporary void.