The Laws Of Elios (Book 2) (26 page)

It had only taken a moment for the possessed Jamison to gain the friendship of
a pert young waitress named Genae.  Genae was immediately enthralled by the tales of the handsome adventurer that he had pretended to be.  Under the guise of a night on the town in the low light of the entrance of a pub that they had just exited, Jamison offered her the exotic looking red sphere as a token of his affection.  When she took the artifact into her hand he closed her hand around it and with titanic strength held it in place until its influence had entered into her.  Within moments she was now as Jamison; a piece of Pechor’s mind and power. Then like a discarded cloak Pechor removed his influence along with his energy, lumen and soul magic and pulled it into his newest slave.  The former fisherman collapsed in a heap never to move again.  Genae stepped casually over the corps and had made her way home.

The following day Pechor found himself sorting through the girl’s memories trying to ascertain who the young man was vying for her attention.  The only memory that came to mind was that she thought he was handsome, that he always had money for a good time and he
was as inexperienced as he looked in the ways of wooing women.  He liked to kiss and hold hands when they went to the pubs and she only tolerated it due to the tips he gave at the café and he always paid when they went out; it was clear that she was using him. 

On
e day when the young boy had come to the café Pechor caused the waitress to sit with the young man in order to see if the boy was the son of someone important, or just a sailor blowing his pay.  After an hour of nonsense and growing mentally tired of the unproductive flirting, the Pechor possessed waitress, was about to tell the youth to take a flying leap into the harbor when he noticed the glyph covered rings on the boys fingers.  Recognizing the lumen glyphs Pechor scoured the memories of the girl to no avail; she had no memories of the rings or what the symbols meant. - Soon Genae was fawning over Nuekirk like an infatuated kitten. 

By the end of the day as a result of some heavy petting at their favorite pub Pechor soon realized that the waitress that he controlled had the lad every bit wrapped around the her finger as were the powerfully enchanted rings wrapped around his.  By the end of the night Pechor knew about the sloop,
the names of Shew, Shane, and Ari and that two of them were mages of some sort.  The lads incessant prattling on had almost brought the evening to an end except the youth then began telling about how the man Ari used to be an assassin named Stafford.  This immediately intrigued the possessed waitress and she soon pumped him for details about what he did and when.  Unfortunately Nuekirk’s knowledge of Ari and Shane were minimal; for that matter he barely even knew much about Shew. 

After an hour of her probing, the possessed Genae decided that she had all that she was going to get in the way of information and changed her focus to turning the boy in to an asset.  “I can’t
believe you are so important in helping with the war,” she cooed into his ear.  The closeness of her feminine curves leaning against him and the warmth of her breath and softness of her cheek against his, achieved the desired effect.  “If you only knew how exciting I find your adventures and the bravery you must have to have to do such fantastic and dangerous things,” she whispered letting her lips brush against his ear and cheek stopping and pulling away at the corner of his mouth.  “What are you going to do next?  Are you going to attack the king of Infin?”

“I don’t know what the current plan is,” Nuekirk smiled blissfully.  “We have a meeting in the morning to discuss our next step.  A wry grin followed by a humble look of self-sacrifice decorated his face.  “I’m not sure I’ll make it back… I’m certain this will be one of the most dangerous missions yet.
  Why don’t we go back to your place and we can spend the evening creating memories in case I don’t make it back”

Genae reached and clasped his hands as they had begun to wander and held them as if in affection. 
I’m afraid I need to get home I work early tomorrow morning and I can’t be late or I’ll lose my job,” she said as an excuse. “If you have time come by the café in the afternoon and we can go to dinner tomorrow” she added enthusiastically.

After returning to the waitress’s humble apartment,
Pechor laughed out loud; this world would be his after all.  If this boy could get him access to the man called Stafford and the other mages – The mages that were rescuing his slaves faster than he could capture them, he may be able to turn this to his advantage.  With a sudden decision he decided that he would give it one more week.  If he could exploit the young man called Nuekirk and eliminate the two lumen mages; he would go after the star seeds.  The only thing that could hold that up would be if he didn’t find a way to increase his harvest of more lumen.  The company that he was sending west should solve that, he mused.  That would complete the fueling of Brenner’s starblade and he would then be ready to capture the star seeds; he would return as a Great One.  A brief vision of Stafford leaked from the possessed kings memories; the fear of the man was still there.  Caution was called for, except this time it wasn’t the thought of the former assassin that nagged at his thoughts, it was something else, a man whose face he couldn’t quite recall and a voice: “…he is a Sicam and this conversation is over…”

Run.  Cut your losses
, screamed an inner voice.  Pechor was only shaken for a moment, his ambition rising to the forefront of his thoughts. – In seven days this world would be a cinder and the Lumen would be his.

Ari and Shew were dressed alike in the black clothing that concealed as well as muffled the many deadly weapons, poisons, and other tools, that they expertly used to infiltrate and remove many an enemy.  The present goal was not to eliminate any targets but to enter the magetech factory and the locked holding bay that held the crates of Allyant enchanted wristbands.  Within moments with the aid of one of the portal devices that Shane had made, Ari and Shew were alone in a pitch dark store room.  Ari reached out with a thought and mentally created a set of illumination glyphs.  He slowly increased the energy until the room was sufficiently lit and they could see the stack of crates and boxes.  Moving to the stack Shew was ready with a pry bar to open the nearest unlabeled crate when Ari spotted a very small artifact attached to the box.  “Hold up, Shew, it looks like these are either sealed magically or trapped.”  Let me take a look.

Ari carefully scanned the artifact that was bolted to the side of the crate. The glyphs indicated that it was both a lock and an explosive.
Seeing that it was a situation of one of the rare artifacts that modern magetech had figured out how to couple together Ari saw that it was powered by the same power glyphs.  Using the same technique that he had been shown by Shane he simply reverse-imbued the glyphs and released the lumen from them.  With a click the lid opened a small crack.  Shew carefully lifted the hinged lid slowly; making sure nothing was hidden beneath it as a backup.  Noting that it was clear he opened the lid the rest of the way until it hung from its hinges on the side of the box.

With gloved hands Shew pulled out a rack of several vertical rods that were full of glyph inscribed leather and cloth wristbands.  “How do we do this,” he whispered to Ari as he carefully set the rack on a box nearby.

Ari opened the pouch that Shane had given him and carefully poured out a small pile of the small nearly two dimensional blue dots.  “Hand me a band,” he answered. 

Taking a single band from Shew he grasped one of the dots with his thumb and forefinger and deciding that it would be best that
it not be visible he placed it on the underside of the band.  Not sure if it would stick he was ready with a small vile of adhesive.  As the dot made contact it seemed to melt into the material of the band.  While still visible it appeared to now be a part of the wristband.  Examining it with his lumen sight he saw that it had also integrated itself with the glyphs of the band; it also seemed to have activated with the existing lumen in the wristband as well.  “It looks like it is working,” he whispered back to his partner.  “Here count how many are on each rack and then let’s empty them all into the crate.  As we do them we will put them on the rack making sure the counts are the same.  That way we know if it is on the rack it is modified,” Ari instructed quietly.

Within an hour they had modified all the bands that they could find.  The final count had been one thousand.  Ari swept up the unused dot glyphs and put them back into the pouch while Shew put the racks back into the crates and closed the lids.
  Ari then held the lids closed tight and re-imbued the lock mechanisms.

“
Phase two,” queried Shew?

“
Phase two,” nodded Ari.

Deactivating the illumination glyphs Ari opened a portal back to the sloop.  Shew pulled up a pair of tall stools and the two men settled in to begin surveillance via the larger screens of the nav console.  Before long they had locate
d and were tracking the column of soldiers marching through Jehhet on route to the magetech factory.

Shew pointed to a birds-eye view on his side of the screen
.  “If I had to make a wager, I’d put my money on here, or here, for a thirty minute rest,” he stated informatively, as he adjusted the view slightly and zoomed in a fraction.  “There is water sufficient for the officer’s horses and the trees will block the cold wind out of the north.”

Ari examined the area that Shew had pointed out.  “I agree, but who’s to say which one they will ch
oose.”  Shew shrugged.  “I guessing here,” Ari pointed to the first area.  “Let’s split up.  I’ll take the first spot you take the second.  We’ll both settle in and wait.  If they start showing up in my area, I’ll comm you and open a portal to where I’m hidden.  If they show up in yours, call me and I’ll port to you.”

Before they left Ari scribbled a message to Nuekirk, folding it into a one hundred gold note from the Bank of Luion, telling him he had the rest of the day off and that the sloop would be inaccessible for the next day or so; that none of the accesses in Lu Y Onton would be working, and to stay in an inn until he heard from either him or Shew.

After dropping off Shew at a large park in North West Jehhet, Ari quickly ported to his probable intercept location also in West Jehhet but further south.  The area was a large park with tall deciduous trees scatters around its perimeter.  The park had a large bricked walkway large enough for traffic when events allowed for it such as parades or celebration events; most times it was open to only foot traffic.  In the center of the large promenade was a large flowing spring fed fountain of fresh water.  The fountain was hundreds if not thousands of years old as it seemed to be powered by ancient glyphs and artifacts and still was fully functional; the near winter temperatures seemed to not be able to freeze the flowing waters.  Ari used glyph mastery to become invisible, and then setup a shield that would cause people to unknowingly walk around the tree where he waited with sufficient space as to not run into him.  He then sat comfortably in the lee of a tree close to the fountain and waited.

After nearly thirty minutes of waiting
he heard the sounds of marching feet and the clip clop of slow walking horses.  A couple of blocks away he spotted the approaching column.  Touching his ear he called Shew and in short order Shew slipped through a portal that if he had been seen would have appeared as if he had walked from out of the tree.  Ari quickly applied invisibility to Shew and they began to rehearse the plan.

Like they had anticipated the large captain spoke to the sergeant and the sergeant bellowed the command
causing the column to halt.  The officers took their horses to the fountain and dismounted.  Several enlisted soldiers hurried and took the mounts and began watering them while the officers took their belt canteens and went to the section of the fountain that was made for human use and began to fill them and get a drink themselves.  After the officers had finished, they migrated to the lee sides of the trees and made themselves comfortable by lounging out of the wind.  It was then that the enlisted troops began to get their own drinks.

Unlike the younger officers the tall Captain walked further away from the rest of the group towards where Ari and Shew were hidden. 
Evidently this was a common practice for the company commander because the other officers and troops seemed to take no notice.  As he neared the shield he paused as if perhaps there was a better location for protection from the wind and stopped and turned around to survey his soldiers.  Shew whispered, “let’s go.” Without waiting for Ari he walked toward the Captain, his invisibility dropping as soon as he did.  Without breaking stride he removed his jacket and reversed it inside out and donned it as a fleecy sheep skin coat. 

Shew cleared his throat as to not startle the solitary officer. Even still the large man turned reflexively half way drawing his sword as he took in the unexpected appearance of an oddly dressed old man.  Deeming the presence of Shew as harmless he let his sword slide back into its scabbard
.  “I beg your pardon,” Shew crackled in an artificially old voice.  “If I told you that the king you work for is a pinprick, a bastard, has the character of a tissue wipe, and that I would gladly jump in line to choke the life out of him, if such a line started up, what would you say to that?”

Ren laughed out loud at the unexpected comedy of it all.  This was the last thing he had expected to come from the mouth of an elderly man walking through a park in late fall early winter.  “You better watch what you say old man,” he replied as he held up his left forearm, “I’m wearing this.

“Not much for fashion are you sonny,” Shew responded innocently as he glanced at the wristband on the captain’s arm.

Ren was feeling better today more than most.  He had gone almost the entire
morning without feeling the intrusion of the king’s influence. 
Perhaps the tyrant was busy bothering someone else for a
change
, he thought.  Not wishing to have to deal with the old man; more so not wanting to have to enslave another innocent he smiled and said, “I’ll over look your comments old man, get the enfer out of here and go home before the ‘bastard’ makes me take you in for treason.”

While the Captain was being distracted by Shew, Ari remained invisible and quietly crept up behind him.  Carefully he used lumen mastery to drain the captain’s energy then catching him as he fell; quickly dragging him to the trunk of the nearest tree propping him into a sitting position so that it appeared the he was lounging peacefully. Once the man was situated
Ari made Shew invisible once more and then retrieved a blue dot from his pouch and attached it to the large man’s wrist band.  Once that was complete he restored the energy that he had taken and the captain began to wake up.  Before the captain could become fully awake, Ari used glyph mastery to secure him to the ground so that he couldn’t move. 

The captain was suddenly fully awake as he discovered his immobility.  He was about to shout for help when he felt the unmistakable pressure and edge of the cold steel from Ari’s knife press into his throat.  “I need you to listen carefully,” spoke a voice that was whispered into his left ear. – The captain looked right
and left but could see no one; even the old man was gone.  “I have somewhat disabled your wristband and it is safe to talk.  I have only immobilized you just in case you did something rash.  If I release you will you sit still while I explain?”  The Captain nodded.

Ari
disabled the glyphs that held the man immobile.   Other than moving slightly as if verifying his release the captain remained sitting against the tree.  Ari put away the knife and then conversationally began to explain why he had been approached.  “My associates and I have been watching you for quite a while,” he exaggerated.  “I have a pretty good idea on your feelings towards the king and his knew way of running Infin into the ground.  Like I said, I have disabled the wristband so that the king can no longer use you.  Nor can he detect that it is disabled unless he removes it himself and examines it personally.  You will need to keep it on in order for him to still think that it is active, but he can no longer use his magical influence against you.  My question to you is:  are you the only one that feels this way, or are others in your company feeling the same way?”

The man breathed in deeply as he formulated his reply.  “The whole
maudire bunch would jump at a chance to take out that no account excuse for a king,” he spat.  “The problem is it isn’t just the wristbands that keep us under his thumb.  Most of us would rather die than put up what he orders us to do but he is also threatening our families.  If I wasn’t concerned for my wife and children I would have gone after him wristband or not, and I’m not the only one.”

Ari thought for a moment.  “Ok, here’s the plan…”

~~~~~

Ava found herself standing on the
smooth platform next to the large golden pyramid shaped Arc.  She had just began looking around, taking in the tall mountains and the valley, when Shane and is parents appeared next to her.  “You have got to teach me how to do that,” Ava exclaimed still taking in the scenery.  “This valley is beautiful!  What is it called?”

“I just call it the Valley of the Arc,” said Shane
.  “What is it really called,” Shane asked turning to his parents?

Soaris was about to speak when a voice
answered from behind them.  “It is called ‘Valee Loi’.”  The four recent arrivals turned to see Ahhan standing before an opening that had appeared in the side of the pyramid.  “There is also a small city to the east of here called Loi E’Paix.  Or rather there will be when Ava gets around to restoring it,” Ahhan winked at Ava.  “It was designed as the residence of the Singers of Eliom and their council.  We can talk more of that later; I believe there are introductions to be made.”  Ahhan indicated the doorway that led into the Arc, turned and said, “If you would follow me please.”

Shane, Ava and his parents entered the pyramid behind Ahhan and began walking down a marbled hallway;
well-lit from a gentle glow that seemed to emanate from the stone itself.  A short distance later they entered a large foyer decorated with large picture windows that looked out into various landscapes ranging from lush forests to glorious beaches and seascapes.  There were comfortable chairs roundabout with low tables in front of them.  One of the tables toward the center of the room held an intricately crafted and engraved silver tray with five gold and silver goblets made of what appeared to be gold silver and crystal; seamlessly woven together in a design that could have only been achieved by magic.  Each goblet was filled with a clear liquid to just below the brim. 

Ahhan bent and picked up the nearest goblet.  “Drink up,” He instructed with a smile then brought his own drink to his lips.

Soaris and Shane picked up their goblets and followed suit.  Laura picked up her goblet and examined it critically then looked suspiciously at her brother.”