UC:Fates Act4 Part2
“What’s wrong Yen?” Muren asked as Yen was cleaning Charles’s dorm.
“I know, knew, him.” She replied pointing to Terl.
“And?”
“And she destroyed him. Like I said, I know him. I’ve Known Terl all my life and that is no longer Terl at all.”
“You’re imagining things.” Muren denied deflecting the conversation.
“No I’m not. He is your plaything like I am Charles’s. But there is more to it than that, I know how he moves, how he talks. He is coming to talk like you do, exactly like you do. Terl is no longer in there, he is just a Terl shaped thing now, his mind is gone.”
“That could have been your fate as well.”
“But he was a person.” Yen whined.
“So was Sinda.” Muren screamed in sudden rage, “She was a person and you, your kind, killed her without a second thought, you never even checked if Charles was alone.”
“I.” Yen started to answer turning away.
“Look at me when I’m talking to you.” Muren ordered angrily.
“Yes ma’am.” Yen heard herself reply as her head twitched around to face Muren on it’s own, dragging her body around as well.
“Interesting.” Muren smiled watching, and even more interestingly, feeling it as Yen obeyed.
“What?” Yen asked feeling panic start in, She didn’t know why, but she suddenly knew she had to obey Muren for some reason.
“Go bend over on the bed and spread your legs.” Muren ordered as the same thought occurred.
“What? Why?” Yen demanded as she felt herself complying.
“Terl, go take her in the ass then stroke her until she orgasms.” Muren ordered, guessing it was Charles’ Seed Magic in her forcing Yen to obey. Not being bound or controlled by it was letting her speak through it she guessed.
“Yes mistress.” Terl replies rising.
“Muren please. I’m sorry.” Yen begs as Terl lifts her dress and her limbs stay still.
“Not much fun is it?” Muren asks Terl unceremoniously takes Yen anally, it hurts since he didn’t lubricate because he hadn’t been told to.
“Muren no, please, no more.” Yen begs as Terl reaches around to stroke her and she feels her body respond.
“Good boy Terl.” Muren says as Yen’s face flushes then her mouth hangs open in obvious forced near orgasm in response, despite the pain, “Now we keep this up until she learns her place. Not nearly as much fun on the receiving end is it?”
“Please, no.” Yen pleads as tears of fear and humiliation blend with orgasmic sweat.
“You wanted to see me Headmaster.” Cyril says entering the headmaster’s office then stops cold seeing his sister June already seated.
“Have a seat Cyril, the headmaster will be right back.” She tells him.”
“What’s going on?”
“I don’t know. When I arrived I was told to wait here until he returned.”
“Thank you for waiting, they will be with us momentarily.” The headmaster says entering.
“Who will?” Cyril asks.
“Us.” Four older Women say entering.
“No offense but who are you?” June asks.
“We are House and Land Mothers Thomson and Michelson.”
“What? We haven’t done anything, I’m not even in this side of school.” June replies suddenly scared, Familydom Mothers don’t travel without reason, and together with another Familydom’s is even rarer.
“No, neither of you have done anything wrong.” One of the women start in.
“Yet you now have enemies you must beware of.” Another continues.
“As of today you two no longer have a younger brother. Your other siblings are being told separately”
“Why?” Cyril asks, “I mean Charles isn’t much. Sure he survived some combat against your Heir Primus but he was saved from worse by the other of yours Third Heir.”
“That is not as accurate as you think.” The four of them laugh loudly, the first humor they have found in days.
“What?”
“We are not your enemy.”
“Then who is?” June asks.
“The person or persons who set the bomb your younger brother and one other young man stopped. That bomb would have killed all four of us as well as our primary and secondary heirs. He helped stop an assassination and a war.”
“Charles?” June asked stunned.
“Yes.”
“Really?” Cyril asked just as stunned.
“Again, yes. He is now partnered with our former Third Heir, Lisa Ericson, now Hearth Daughter Ericson.”
“You mean he is the Hearth Son Ericson?” June and Cyril ask as one.
“Yes. As of now, if anyone asks about your younger brother all you know is he was going here, but didn’t do well. The last you heard he went to Dest or Donalson to see if he could do better there pretending to be a Techist.”
“Why?”
“We, between us, lost a gross or so of people. If he had not done what he did then we would have in addition to us lost twenty to fifty times that amount due to the crowds coming to see us all. That estimate doesn’t even consider the losses from the resulting war.”
“We were present to honor Lucas Alson, now Consort of our Heir Primus.” Land Mother Michelson said seriously.
“The pregnant one?”
“Yes.”
“Then he must be dead to us.” June said with resignation, “Anyone capable of killing an unborn, especially an unborn Heir, will be hunting him, along with this Lucas.”
“We never really got along,” Cyril said sadly, “He, we, just never could find much in common.”
“You must never travel to Ericson and never speak of him again other than regrets that he ran away to be what he obviously wasn’t. Those hunting him will stop at no measure to hurt him. If they realize who you are they will hurt, harm or kill you and your parents to get to him.”
“Do we get to say goodbye?” June asked.
“No. He did say however to tell you he loves you all very much, and apologizes that he was never good at saying that or much of what he meant.”
“Tell him we said goodbye.” June said rising.
“Tell him I said go with Order.” Cyril said also rising.
“We will. Thank you for understanding.”
“Good day.” They said taking their leave, leaving the Mothers with the Headmaster
“A beautiful blending of truth, innuendo and lies.” The headmaster compliments them.
“Sorry, what?” Land Mother Thomson asks.
“Do you honestly think me unaware in my own school?”
“No.”
“Between the four of you I have dozens of new people roaming my halls and many more in my town.”
“Dozens?” The Land Mothers ask looking at each other.
“Several, why?” The head master asks.
“Again?” Land Mother Thomson asks irritably.
“That girl is getting irritating.” House Mother Thomson replied with a low growl.
“Fun, isn’t she?” Land Mother Michelson asks with a laugh.
“We’ve been chasing after her since we realized they gave Brenhar the child.”
“What?” The headmaster gasps silently as he recognizes deep waters.
“Any luck so far?” Land Mother Thomson asks with a amused sigh.
“We have every Clan and House strategist trying to keep up with her.” Land Mother Michelson says with exaggerated patience.
“So far we have a solid track record of accurate predictions. We’re just waiting for the same person or people to be right more than two or three times in a row.” House Mother Michelson admitted.
“I suppose it’s too late to just strangle her with my bare hands?” Land Mother Thomson asks.
“Too late,” Land Mother Michelson agrees with a laugh, “She’s head of an allied state now, you have to leave it to the assassins.”
“Do you suppose there is any point in trying to navigate the false trails she is leaving for the spies?”
“None.”
“Can I hug her to death then?” Someone asks and the talk devolves into laughter.
“It is confirmed then?” Muren asks the doctor and healer both of whom are staring at her, “I am with child.”
“Yes ma’am.” The healer confirms, “You are now a self confirmed Heir.”
“Good.” Muren smiles as she rises to leave.
“But we have more tests to run.”
“Do you perhaps remember that unofficially reported threat by Brenhar about someone’s tonsils?”
“Yes.” One of the doctors replies nervously.
“Think of that as my general approach.” Muren said simply changing from the gown to her street clothes as they talk, or rather, she talks and they listen, “And I started in a worse mood.”
“We shall pass word to your Familydom.”
“Don’t bother, I’ll tell the Mothers myself. I’m on my way to lunch with them in a while. I’ll also inform the father, I’m sure he’ll be delighted.” She said giving the impression of it being Terl, but thinking of Charles and how hard all this is on him.
“Mothers.” Lucas says in surprised greeting entering his dorm to find them all present. Though he had of course noticed an increase of armed retainers of Michelson in town, the numbers had grown since Brenhar returned to school. There being none in school, there was nothing to warn him what he was walking into in his own dorm.
“You wished to see us before we left.”
“Yes,” Lucas replied going to his dresser to get a flat package, “Can you please tell me what the mystery is about this woman.”
“She is umm...” Land Mother Thomson starts to say when she sees the picture he had slid across the table, then stops cold, unsure what to say. The family photo is of Charles’s family, yet only one person in it is of concern and they all know it.
“This is both ridiculous and impossible.” House Mother Thomson says grimacing at the picture of the much older looking but still obviously Lisa’s birth mother.
“She is not a Legent.” Legent Amina says as they all become aware she is there.
“But we do know her.” Legent Anna says softly as they become aware of her as well.
“Legents?” The Mothers hiss in shock.
“Why did Charles panic when he saw her? Why did Brenhar go half crazy?” Lucas demanded, oddly unsurprised and unshocked that they are present in a closed room meeting and none of them had had a clue they were there.
“Brenhar reacted badly because she knows this woman. She used to come through our Familydom as part of a caravan of free traders that roam this continent.” Land Mother Michelson replies.
“Charles reacted badly because in addition to that picture he recognized her from pre fall memories we shared with him and Lisa.” Legent Anna replies.
“Fortunately Lisa has not been able to look at her mother’s portrait in years.” Legent Amina says next.
“What should we do about her, Lisa’s birth mother that is?” Land Mother Thomson asks.
“Nothing, ignore her. She is not and never has been your enemy.”
“Do you know how Charles and Lisa were able to give Brenhar his child?” Lucas asked.
“Yes.” Legent Amina replied looking directly at him for the first time.
“Then why not share with everyone before now?”
“We did; once.” Legent Amina replied sadly.
“What do you think started the sync wars.” Legent Anna asked quietly.
“What?” Lucas asks as the Mothers hiss in shock once more.
“I bet none of you ever thought to ask why it was called the sync wars did you?” Legent Amina laughed.
“Children are born only when the parents are in sync,” Legent Anna laughed with her, “even now.”
“You mean if Brenhar weren’t already pregnant?” Lucas asked in a whisper.
“Yes Lucas,” Legent Amina said with a smile, “So long as she wears that collar you can give her as many children as you want.”
“Then Muren?”
“Muren is with child even now, she will tell you soon, when she arrives here in fact.”
“Yes, this is also the trap. The collars were originally a method of enforcing certain behaviors or preventing others. They are what inspired the Humblement we gave the world.”
“And part of what you took from the world when you destroyed the Blood Lords.” Lucas accused.
“Yes.” Legent Amina replied.
“We had to.” Legent Anna continued, “Those who wear the collars can be made true slaves to those who wield them, they are allowed no actions not approved, no thoughts, they become no longer themselves if they fight back hard enough long enough. Brenhar is lucky to have you Lucas, you see her as a person in her own right, if you did not we would have intervened for the collars are forbidden magic.”
“Then why allow this one? Or the rest they have used.” Land Mother Michelson asks.
“Because it, they, have not been misused. We do not intervene until it has been misused, then we will remove the full authority tree.”
“So if they told me how to make them?” Lucas asked hesitantly, “And if I misused it or someone I told how to, they would pay the price along with me?”
“Yes.”
“So as much as I want to know, they are protecting me by keeping me ignorant?”
“Yes.”
“I can’t see them,” Lucas says looking straight at Legent Anna, “But I can sense moves within moves, plans within plans. You being here today is a chosen time to tell us all this, you are interfering without directly interfering, skirting a rule or a law.”
“You are a good rook.” Anna laughs.
“Queen’s rook?” Lucas asks startled.
“Exactly.”
“But only half the truth again.” Lucas accuses as some stray thought teases him but won’t stay to play.
“Now you begin to understand why she chose you. If she falls, you take over. Next to her, you are the best qualified to take up the big fight.”
“You sound like her you know. Like Lisa. Like she sounds when her voice is far away yet she is in your face, when she talks of distant things in her mind, though she says it to you in front of her.”
“We know her mother, have known her mother, for a very long time indeed. She began these events so we are content to watch, waiting, until and unless things get out of hand.”
“Do you know what kind of a bomb was used at the lake?” Land Mother Michelson asks.
“Yes. Charles labeled it correctly, it is a humble bomb. It converts a normal explosion into a vast pulse or wave that humbles by brute force. The blood lords used them. It is another reason we took them down.”
“Why were Charles and I spared then? Why weren’t we humbled?” Lucas asks.
“Because of Lisa’s use of seed magic on Charles and the fact she used Brenhar’s seed magic on you to both protect you and enforce the collar.”
“So if Brenhar and I both had been in range it would have been worse?”
“Yes. The bomb draws strength from those it humbles, the more magists there are, the larger the effect. Above a certain strength it takes all your magic, forces it all out of you at once at the same time in a pulse, killing you. Give a high enough density and the wave will continue unabated until it runs out of people. Had Brenhar been in range your protection would have been under assault, as hers would have been with Charles there.”
“So if it had gone off in town it might have destroyed the whole town?”
“No, the explosion itself stays the same, the wave or pulse that humbles would have expanded though, killing the people without destroying the buildings. As it takes your magic it reduces your mind to porridge attempting to repeat the pattern until it runs out of Magic once it starts.”
“Do you know who set it?” Lucas asks before anyone else can while feeling his blood run cold.
“Not yet. Wilhelm and Simon are looking into it. We are actually here to deliver something to you Lucas of Alson.”
“Me?”
“Yes.” Legent Amina said smiling as she held out a ring.
“Me, a fate?” Lucas asks staring at the copy of the ring Charles and Lisa wear, though some of the outer letters that spell ‘fates’, the ‘A’s, are depressed rather than raised.
“There is one for Brenhar as well.” Legent Anna added holding out another.
“You already know the questions and the answers, why ask what you already know?”
“So that you know as well.”
“You are afraid of Lisa’s birth mother.” Lucas stated.
“She may well be the most dangerous person to ever walk the earth. We have thought her dead with proof several times so far. One on one she may be more powerful than we are.”
“So as long the children are Charles’ you are content to watch. Yet if Lisa...?”
“Yet if she were to be with child we would intervene.” Legent Anna replied flatly.
“Your children would also be acceptable Lucas Alson, you are of good stock.” Legent Amina laughed.
“Games within games, lies told with misunderstood truth, goals hidden from sight by their display, you are lying to us, have always lied to us, yet you do not wish to.” Lucas accuses.
“And that is the difference between you. When Lisa figured that out, she acted on it. If she falls you will continue to act, yet you won’t act on your own.”
“Are you the Legents saying Lucas Alson is worthy blood in his own right?” Land Mother Michelson asks.
“Yes Land Mother, we are.”
“Despite the bomb,” Land Mother Thomson asks, “Did we step outside what she, Lisa, had planned for?”
“No. Not in the long run at least, though it did skip generations.”
“In fact you advanced her cause. The bomb was intended, as best we can tell, to go off in five to six years when you came together at a solstice. It was to prevent you working out some sort of treaty to preserve peace having to do with the Donalson, Dest, Kallows alliance.”
“Then Lisa would have been the only possible Heir to have survived since Primary and Secondary Heirs would have attended.”
“Indeed.” Legent Anna replied sadly.
“Putting two Familydoms at war in the hands of an untested, untrained, unknown, ungraduated young girl that many would not even consider a real Heir in the first place.” Legent Amina finished.
“She kills thousands.” House Mother Michelson whispers.
“To save millions.” House Mother Thomson replies.
“Like her mother, she is that thing out of the deep.” Legent Amina said sadly, “I was once called that thing the dark exists to hide. She, Lisa’s Mother, is what the abyss exists to hide.”
“She said she had to choose between saving family and Familydom.” Land Mother Thomson whispers quietly thinking back.
“She said she was propping up Michelson to knock them down when and where she wanted them.” House Mother Thomson said speaking up.
“They missed one.” Land Mother Michelson said suddenly and firmly, “Not a Blood Lord, one of the others, one the old ones like them. Now they are afraid to move until they know more and are allowing this girl to act as bait to attract the Demon.”
“Then this Demon may be working with Dest, Donalson or hiding in the Kallows and you have only the vaguest idea where to look as of yet.” Lucas said, half as observation, half as accusation.
“We were not aware of the Demon as you have named him until the bomb.” Legent Amina replied sadly, “We were merely looking at them, Charles and Lisa, as a way to help your kind come to terms with yourselves. Now as much as we would like to help, we dare not.”
“There is only one who both could and would do something like that.” Legent Anna said looking disturbed at some thought in her minds eye, “It means he has been hiding from us for over five hundred years, watching, waiting. Lisa is the only upset his plans have had, we want her and Charles to succeed, yet if we move too soon and he gets away, it is for naught.”
“Tell me Nicole.” Tagoni says to her where they sit on the hill looking at the setting sun, “How is it that the magic of the collar presents no problem to the Techist side of the school?”
“Magic has two basic forms.” She answers after a moments consideration, “Internal and external to put it in Techist terms. External Magic affects things around the wielder, Internal affects the wielder themselves. Because the Collar is internal, it affects nothing beyond me. As for the link between you and my collar, it is like it is internal because it listens to your blood. The collar enforces that I shall learn to understand what it senses and act on it.”
“So it is actually a passive device?”
“If I understand correctly, you are asking if it waits for instructions before acting, then yes.”
“Yet if it were active, if it could decide on it’s own, that would disrupt Tech?”
“The potential no, the act, yes.” Nicole replied, relieved she can talk with Tagoni now, yet disturbed she is beginning to understand Techist words and views.
“Then any Magist could enter this side if they simply kept their Magic to themselves?”
“In theory, yes. However, we Magists interact with everything around us. We experience give and take with our environment. We feel it and it feels us. Especially the older places from the Sync wars that still function. Those places talk to us, tell us things. They whisper to us constantly because they were made to, and they like it when we whisper back.”
“You talk, bad word but I think you understand anyway, with the world around you?”
“Yes.”
“Come with me.” Tagoni says with a laugh heading toward school.
“I don’t understand?” Nicole says a while later. They are in a laboratory with all the lighting turned off, every piece of electrical equipment turned off and the room lit by candles showing glass tubes on the floor in a circle.
“It’s easy.” Tagoni says softly, “What I want you to do is talk with the contents of the tubes. Each tube has what is called an element in it.”
“You have elementals in your laboratory?”
“No, elements. You know how you explained there are different types of Magic and Magics?”
“Yes.”
“There are many types of elements, they make the world. Each tube contains a tiny sample of just one, each a different one, I want to see what happens when you talk with them.”
“Ok.”
“Nicole,” Tagoni says formally, “you are a Magist.”
“Ok.” Nicole replies feeling the now familiar inrush of magic filling her which she held inside in panic at first, then slowly opened herself to when protective wards did not assault her.
“Wow.” Tagoni says staring.
“They tickle.” Nicole says staring at the tubes arrayed around her, now glowing gently with wavering ghostly flickers, each a different color or colors as she moves.
“Can you pull your magic in? Completely, all the way?”
“I can try, it’s unnatural, but I can try.”
“Try.”
“Ok.” Nicole answers and the tubes begin to go out. Then descriptions and memories begin to make sense and her stomach grows cold.
“Excellent.”
“Tagoni.” Nicole says with artificial calm calling him by name, “I need you to choose a dozen or more of these tubes and meet me at the rail yards as soon as possible.”
“Why?”
“I can’t say.”
“I can order you to.” Tagoni laughs thinking it a game.
“No good.” Nicole grimaces, as his orders conflict others of a higher priority, and then heads out anyway. “I’ll see you there as soon as you can, please trust me. There are things I can’t say right now. Not that I don’t want to, but I can’t, I don’t have a choice, none at all.”
“What’s going on?” Tagoni demands a half bell later in the rail yard. Lisa, Charles, Brenhar, Lucas and Yen were waiting when he arrives just behind Nicole.
“Please Tagoni, trust me, Just play along for a few minutes and lay the tubes out around me.” Nicole pleads.
“Ok.”
“Bren, Yen, say nothing for a few minutes. This is for Charles and Lisa. I have a theory and I have to test it.”
“Ok.” They all agree puzzled as Lucas joins her at her signal.
“Lucas I have a question for you,” Nicole says to him as the tubes light around them by the force of the combined presence of their Magics, “Is two plus two four?”
“Yes.” He replied wondering what was happening.
“Is Brenhar your slave?”
“Of course not.” Lucas replies offended and not noticing the tubes glow differently, though Charles is staring closely at the pattern and the change in pattern, as is Brenhar. Their minds race watching the change in light flicker pattern from truth to untruth. His thoughts raced in circles as he controlled a feeling of dread, her mind simply tried to run away.
“Yet you can make her do what you want?”
“By using the collar only.” Lucas replies getting angry.
“Lisa,” Nicole says rounding on her and pointing to the tubes, “Ask Charles if he has seen this pattern before.”
“No way.” Charles and Lucas say together as Lucas finally begins to notice.
“What are you saying?” Brenhar and Yen ask together.
“It’s the same isn’t it?” Nicole demands.
“Brenhar, humble Lucas now.” Nicole orders.
“Why?” Brenhar demands.
“Just do it, Charles needs to see.”
“Lucas?” Brenhar asks.
“Ok.” He replies staring at the tubes glittering and flashing.
“But that’s.” Charles whispers as the flickering tubes make a pattern as Lucas is humbled, not another new pattern, but one he has seen before, reflected on the walls around a building he hid behind just before the humble bomb went off. The pattern is obvious to his Techist eye, horrifying to his Magist eye and his stomach is not something he wants to hear from. For the pattern of the flickers and the flashes are part of the light dance reflected from the lake onto the buildings, the same lights that tried to humble by trickery then did so with brute force, killing dozens.
“Is that?” Brenhar demands looking at Charles, feeling a part of the sickness he felt through his Seed Magic in her. Yet horrified in her own right as she realized he both recognized the patterns from the bomb, and even worse, understood them.
“Yes.” He whispers affirming, but it doesn’t matter, Brenhar doesn’t need to hear him to know it. The horror echoes through the remains of the seed magic in her even louder than he whispered in reply.
“What is that?” Lisa asks unable to make sense of what she getting from her back channel with Charles.
“I’ll explain what I can on the way.” Brenhar says then turns to Yen, “Yen, go to the train station. Tell them I’m not feeling well so I am commandeering a train to go home, now, tonight.”
“Yes ma’am, but the expense.”
“Is there any chance that isn’t what I think it is?” Brenhar asks releasing the humblement on Lucas.
“No.” Yen admits after Nicole simply states there isn’t and Charles, thinking they are asking the same question agrees it looks the same as at the lake.
“Then run.” Brenhar orders as Heir Primus.
“What’s happening?” Lucas asks puzzled by the sudden activity.
“I can’t explain yet, we are going home now, tonight. I need to remain as Heir Primus for the trip, it is critical for my Familydom.”
“She’s scared Lucas.” Charles tells him staring, “She is so scared words are failing her.”
“I must admit to much confusion.” Tagoni says a bell later just after they pulled out of the station.
“Like why I’m able to act as the Heir despite wearing a collar?” Brenhar asks.
“Let’s start there.”
“Simple. I am acting for my Familydom’s interests not my own. As such I can do whatever I need to with no danger of being held back.”
“You planned this?” Tagoni asks looking at Lisa.
“Allowed for the possibility.” She answered, “By now she knows her place and rules quite well. If it is needed the collar can come off quite easily to save the child, she both knows that and how to by this time.”
“Her plans require a strong Michelson.” Brenhar laughed, “So there is no way she will leave the fate of the child in doubt. Besides, even if I remove this infernal thing the councils of the upper and lower houses will put me on trial. They already did of course, and my sentence would be, will be, to be recollared with exceedingly tight restrictions on me. All with Lucas acting as my regent so I can attend to me motherly duties full time.”
“So you’re never going to be free?” Tagoni asks hesitantly.
“Correct Prince of Dest.” Brenhar replied sadly then turned to Lisa, “Now that we have left can you please reach back and have Sien mirror ahead to my Mother. Have her tell her I said to prepare but not call to stands a grand assemblage.”
“No problem, I thought you already mirrored though.”
“I did, to tell them when I was arriving. This lets us have days before any spies can tell who ever is watching that something besides me being sick is up. That is why I was careful to make sure I didn’t speak directly to Sien, so no one would know.”
“Like your Housemother calling an assemblage that could but doesn’t actually mean you are in trouble?”
“Exactly.”
“Care to share yet?”
“I wish I could, but I can’t. I need this to hit them and all of you all cold. I obey your rules here, you can override them if you wish, but I ask that you don’t”
“Ok.” Lisa replies as she gets comfortable and then reaches out to Sien still back at school.”
“They left last night?” He asks.
“Yes, quite late, and after Brenhar mirrored her Mothers, they left taking a train off schedule.”
“Interesting.”
“It would appear she found a way to get in trouble again, quite the feat given she is with child.” King Donalson commented.
“Don’t be as sure of that you appear to be. Don’t forget that according to what we have pieced together Third Heir, sorry, Heart Daughter Ericson, has her collared. The collar could relate to the child, there is a way to use them that way.”
“The collar could be related to the child?”
“Oh that’s right, you haven’t given that any thought yet have you?” He laughed.
“I’ve heard of collars like the rumors say she is bound by, but old wives tales and legends told by the free traders.”
“Trust me, they are real.”
“Do you know how to make them?”
“I know the theory King of Donalson, such were never my style, checking on it though would leave tracks I can ill afford.”
“Can you really challenge the Legents?”
“Directly, no, that would be madness. You’ve seen my power?”
“Yes. As did my father and his father before him, I am the seventeenth generation you have guided after all, we know you well.”
“Let me tell you about the Legents, I fought them before they were what they are now, I knew them when they were young, before Magic, before the fall, I watched them learn. I watched war break out after the fall. Six hundred and forty some odd of us to nineteen of them and they fought anyway. I am the last one left on my side and there are still at least thirteen of them. I was in the top ten power wise, I can challenge a few of them, but raw power alone will never rid the world of their interference and let man be man once more.”
“You knew them before the fall?”
“Yes, and knew them well. Power alone is not enough, they hold us all back because they don’t like what happens when man is let loose. I want a world where the strong can be strong again. As I have shown some of those at Kallows how to be around Machines without breaking them, I show you how to remake the Machines of old.”
“We know, and appreciate it. What you showed us about making spark for engines helped us a great deal. We can make them stronger, but your way of making spark keeps them running even around Magists, the lower output is well worth the trade off, and they do last longer which helps.”
“When you can understand why my way works and yours doesn’t, you will have taken your first steps toward really learning and understanding the world.”
“So far as we can tell so far anything purely mechanical works around them. Whereas anything more delicate than that, controls that work on light or electricity, fail randomly.”
“So far, so good, keep learning King of Donalson, you have taken baby steps so far, you must take the strides of giants if you wish to challenge the Legents though.”
“I leave the future to itself, my children can go onward from here. I was hoping to add Michelson in my time though. I don’t know where this Lisa Ericson came from, but in Order’s name can that girl make plans within plans. We’ve been following false tracks she laid down for weeks now and we are no closer to identifying this Charles. We have unimpeachable sources saying he is in Dest, here in Donalson, still in school where we happen to know he is for real, and in hiding in Ericson. We have many proven identities for him as well as redundant false trails of where each false identity went.”
“It’s a waste of time but keep at it, she mustn’t suspect the depth of my plans.”
“We are. We are also hoping to have a chance to take him out.”
“Beware, any chance to strike at him will be a trap laid out by her, or worse, him.”
“Him?” King Donalson asks.
“She is strategy, he is tactics. The girl is running the rumor mill like a pro, I’ve only seen her equal once before, thank Order and Chaos alike that woman is dead and has been for a very long time.”
“There is worse than her?”
“The girl checked out a book I told your family to read and memorize generations ago, the one by Sun Tzu.”
“Where did she find one? I thought Magists didn’t have that sort of thing?”
“They don’t, she checked it out of the Techist side of campus.” He told the king.
“How did she know of it? Whom did she know to have it retrieved.”
“According to a source in the library she checked it out herself.”
“Impossible, the girl is Magist, a powerful Magist, the wards would have kept her out.”
“Yet they did not, she went in personally.”
“Only the Legents of all Magists can go around technology freely without breaking it.” King Donalson observes thinking hard.
“So far so good, what else?”
“So either the Legents granted an exemption or the girl somehow found a way to cheat.”
“What is it with people these days?” The man asks exasperated, “Can’t anyone think anything through anymore?”
“Excuse me?”
“Just keep thinking on it.” He orders with disdain, “Should your brain manage to kick up something approaching an answer, I’ll tell you. It’s the one thing the Legents and I agree on, if you don’t discover it for yourselves it’s no good. So now that it’s happened figure it out or I will replace you with someone who can.”
“I assume there is a reason for the expense and hassle?” Land Mother Michelson asks as they disembark the train at midday.
“Yes Land Mother, unfortunately there is.” Brenhar says with a heavy heart.
“Unfortunately?”
“Yes. I need Tagoni to remain on the train under guard. He has done nothing wrong, but he needs to remain here where he can neither see nor interfere for now, I will need to send for him soon.”
“As you wish.” She replies motioning for a pair of her detachment to break off.
“I also need the Family and Clan Mothers to divide themselves into two groups, half to assemble, half to remain outside and watch the lights of the meeting house.”
“Is there something we should know first?” House Mother Michelson asks.
“No.” Brenhar replies turning to Charles and Lisa, “I assume you two can shield them from the effects of what was shown earlier?”
“I believe so.” Charles replies with a smile, “It seems simple enough.”
“Nicole, can you handle projecting for a full house?” Brenhar asks.
“I assumed you would be umm,”
“I can’t. There is no way you can do the finish, not if I want to stay breathing that is.”
“Oh, yeah, I guess I’m elected.” Nicole says looking at the ground, obviously disturbed by something.
“It’s ok Nikel.” Legent Arie says with a smile walking up, “So long as you are doing your job, not trying to reassemble old power, you are safe. Do not tread where your ancestors tread and you will be fine. The collar prevents you from more than thinking that way anyway.”
“Legent Arie?” Land Mother Michelson asks startled.
“Thank you Legent.”
“She is remembering the oath given by her forebearers.”
“I have more conditions on me than just those imposed by my collar or my keeper Mothers.” Nicole tells them hesitantly.
“Didn’t think of it applying here until you realized you would have to speak did you?”
“No Legent, you have my word I am not...”
“I know Nikel.” Legent Arie said cutting her off, “Even if you were to try, Tagoni could pull you down and Charles or Lisa either one could stop you even without the collar. So long as you bear that collar, you are free of your oaths as are your cousins. For those collars bind not your actions, but your mind and your very thoughts if need be.”
“Then Tagoni really could?”
“Yes Nikel, Tagoni really could reduce you to a carnal toy. Did he not think of you as a person, you would not be yourself any longer.”
“Why are you here?” Land Mother Michelson asks Legent Arie.
“I am here to watch baby steps Mothers of these lands, not to interfere.”
“Are you saying that leaves on stems from branches can develop roots to grow trunks of their own to have new branches and stems that belong to them alone?” Lisa asks.
“Like I said Mothers, baby steps.” Arie replies with a genuine smile at the confused expressions on the Mothers and most of the other faces
“Thank you for coming Mothers.” Nicole says to the half assembled gathering inside the ‘Arena of Truth and Understanding’. The other half outside watch the lights that ring the building. Those lights tell by their display whether truth or deception reigned inside.
“As you know this place has represented truth for generations.” Nicole continues on, “Yet this place is also something else, something dark. Something left over from the sync wars. It can be a dark and deadly thing, yet the Mothers Michelson have never used it that way, nor would they have even if they had known what it is truly is.”
“They have not known however, they couldn’t. we, my cousins and our blood, are descendant of the blood lords, and I didn’t know until days ago.” Nicole continues hesitantly then strongly as she senses this is the moment she no longer has to hide.
“Though we have preserved the traditions orally, not even daring write them down, we had no clue what this place is, so there is no way anyone else could have.” She says projecting her voice, “Watch now, then watch again outside, then I will explain if anything need be said after that.”
“I begin by asking you to choose to take either my side or Lucas’. It doesn’t matter as long the sides are close in number and this is just a demonstration, not a real debate.” Nicole says and starts in the whole demonstration from the train yard again after laying the tubes out around her.
“Now we need to reassemble outside to do this all again.” Nicole tells them as Brenhar releases the humbling on Lucas. An eighth bell later she instructs those who observed outside to just observe while those who were inside were to do the same again. The only difference being that this time they are outside the hall with Tagoni’s tubes are arrayed around her, Lucas and Brenhar in the middle.
“Now Mothers, bear with me another half a gross of hearts.” Nicole says motioning Lucas and Brenhar back while beckoning Tagoni forward. She whispers to him for a moment then turns back to the assemblage, “Watch the tubes Mothers, watch them carefully.”
“Now Tagoni.” Nicole says a half gross of hearts later as she does a dance and the light of the tubes responds to her as though she were kaleidoscope.
“Nicole,” Tagoni says firmly yet uncomfortably, “You are a Techist.”
Gasps are heard as the light from the tubes goes out while Nicole continues her dance undisturbed, long accustomed to her powers coming and going like a Techist light.
“You have all watched from within during debates.” Nicole says stopping and facing them, ignoring the looks of amazement at not feeling her power or her presence like they always do with any Magist in some way, “You have all watched from without. Now some of you have watched both with the same routine then the last. I stand before you a Techist. I have lived and live my life as a Magist, yet I have also had to learn life as a Techist. I confirm that through my own actions and stupidity I am collared, bound by law, I make no secret of my fate and hold nothing back because this is bigger than my individual fate.”
“We always watched the lights on the hall of debate, they tell us of progress inside, are you telling us there is more to it than that?” Land Mother Michelson asks.
“Yes Land Mother I am.” Nicole replies after a deep calming breath, “I think we need to ask the Legent, who just happens to be here today, why the capitol of the largest Familydom on the continent has a Techist artifact from the Sync wars as a central piece.”
“Are you saying the hall itself is a Techist device?” A Mother asks.
“Yes Clan Mother Cyl’emel. I am not just calling it a device though, I am calling it the ‘Light of Knowing’, the way that some of the blood lords, our very ancestors, forced what they called truth into the minds of their subjects.”
“Assuming for a moment you are correct,” Land Mother Michelson interrupts, “How did you discover this?”
“As I said, I am collared. The Collar enforces parole through the will of my keeper, Tagoni. I serve him so that I will not face formal charges for my actions.”
“So you have said, yet you have not answered.”
“Each night when I report to Tagoni’s chambers, I am his chamber maid in addition to my other duties, I lose my powers, this permits me to explore the Techist side of the school. As part of my duties, there is more to being a chamber maid than keeping a bed warm I have discovered, I have had to learn many Techist things. I have come to understand some of what a Machine is, it is a Techist term, and when Tagoni asked for my help with an experiment I came to understand what our hall is.”
“You should recognize it Mother to the sons and daughters of Emel.” Legent Arie said stepping out where all could see her.
“We should?” She asks.
“Yes, your ancestors built it after all. I’m sure your oral traditions include the ‘light of new found truths’.”
“This is that?” She asks plainly shocked.
“Yes.” Legent Arie replies, “Yours is the last branch of the blood lords that survives, we reduced the rest and the rest of yours. Emel had seven children in it under seven years, the lines have collapsed to the three seen today. We the Legents bear you no ill will for who your forebearers were. You bear no responsibility for this hall, this device, used to humble by force and place new thoughts into the minds their subjects. You show none of the madness that infected them, you are an honorable clan merely subject to human failings, not living up to being the past you left behind.”
“Thank you Legent, we have tried to remember where we came from without chancing a return to what we once were.”
“And today that faith is repaid.”
“Is this the baby step you came to see Legent?” House Mother Michelson asked.
“Yes, one of them at least.” Legent Arie laughed, “Tell me Hearthson Ericson, have you figured out how it works yet?”
“Yes.” Charles answered hesitantly, “It’s function is obvious, yet invisible because it is a machine built of Magist components to a Techist design from a Magist philosophy.”
“Didn’t take long once you actually looked did it?”
“No, the resemblance to the pattern from the humble bomb is too close, that makes the next step obvious.” Charles replied then hesitated, “Nicole I’m sorry, I have to give you a new rule now.”
“I know.” Nicole said sadly then spoke loudly and boldly, “To those charged with guarding the hall, I am now barred from entering unless accompanied by one of the Hearth Holders or my Keeper Prince Tagoni of Dest.”
“Why?” Clan Mother Cyl’Emel asks.
“Because I now wield the power of a woman’s Seed Magic, I can never be allowed in there again because that is how it is actively used. With the Seed Magic I can make the lights that show what lies in hearts, put things into those hearts instead.” Nicole told her, “My life is no longer my own. Even should I serve my time or have my sentence commuted, I can never be released from this collar, none of the blood of Emel are allowed Seed Magic by ancient treaty with the Legents.”
“How? How can you know? Have that?” Clan Mother Cyl’Emel stammered.
“Because I showed her.” Lisa told her speaking up, “I had to. It was part of the events that lead to us stopping the humble bomb at the lake.”
“Why show her though?”
“Because I needed time.”
“Should we ask how you know?”
“No.” Legent Arie interrupted, “Like all these things it is a matter of time, yet time doesn’t in the end matter. What matters is that she, they, know.”
“We have held faith Legent.” Clan Mother Cyl’Emel insists.
“I know. This isn’t your fault though, you, your clans, have done nothing wrong.” Legent Arie acknowledged, “Yet events forced Nikel into a corner through no fault of hers, she bears no blame for stepping over that line, the actions were not hers. The Hearth Daughter had no idea what she did, nor to be honest, any choice.”
“Yet still my daughter will bear this collar like an animal for the rest of her days.”
“Mother.” Nicole yells stepping up to her, “No more. Had not the Hearth Daughter done what she did the bomb would not have been detected for another quarter bell at best. The Mothers, Land and House alike would have died along with the Thomson Mothers’. The dead would number a half a gross of grosses or more, this is small price to pay for that.”
“But you are...”
“I have a good keeper, I shall have a good life. As usual, the Hearth Daughter chose well.”
“I can push, have this out.”
“Do not Clan Mother.” Nicole orders her, “Tagoni is not my master, he is my keeper. If you push on my behalf, then what comes to be publicly known on the legal record of me will also speak of Brenhar as well. Freeing me, or any of us for that matter, will unbalance the whole of the Familydom. All the Mothers, Family, Clan, House and Land know, yet with Brenhar and us collared as we are, it is known we shall never be that way again. It is a polite fiction holding this Familydom together that you would break in your attempts to free me from my own stupidity.”
“You three are the eldest girls, with all three of you bound like this.”
“Yet we have younger siblings and will have more. Let this be.”
“Nicole.” Charles says interrupting while staring at Lisa.
“Yes.”
“You did well, a reward is in order we feel.”
“You do?”
“Yes.” He laughs, “The impression you have given is that you accept your parole.”
“I do.”
“Then I grant you a grace.” Charles says with a sweep of his hand. Nicole feels the collar grow warm where it circles her neck. From the view of the Mothers it glows first orange then yellow before a white line appears on the back cutting it in two allowing it to peel off her neck. Pink skin fairly glows in the sun as Nicole feels her powers return showing her the feelings of Tagoni’s location were still there the whole time, had she thought to look. As the collar peels it burns bringing a silent scream of pain that drives Nicole to her knees while it comes loose falling to the ground.
“What the Chaos?” Nicole asks in a pained whisper.
“Until and unless it is needed for the performance of your duties, you are free of the collar.”
“You can’t do that, the seed magic, I am in violation of oaths to the Legents.” Nicole says trying to pick up the remains of the collar that crumble in her hands.
“Nicole of Emel.” Legent Arie says formally.
“Yes Legent.” Nicole replies staring in fear and horrified shock at her.
“Are you articulate? Are you educated? Do you think?”
“Yes Legent.”
“Then remember the oaths and stay within them.”
“You mean?” Nicole asks.
“Yes. We have seen a world where mere possession, mere possibilities, were crimes. A world where intent was ignored, we don’t ignore it.”
“But this violates the letter.”
“She is testing you Nikel.”
“No offense Legent, but I fear her punishments far less than I do her tests.”
“Like I said Mothers, baby steps.” Legent Arie laughs.
“I will find quarters in the city.” Tagoni tells Nicole when she enters her quarters where thrifty servants have already prepared her room.
“I would normally quip, normal for the collared me that is, great where are we staying? Yet I do not know how to say this.”
“Say what?”
“Were we in Dest I would stay with you in your quarters.” Nicole says mindful of the presence of servants yet determined to do what she felt she must, “Yet we are in my house. You are of course welcome here if you wish, or we can adjourn to guest quarters if you prefer.”
“You’re free of that collar, you’re done.”
“No, this is just homework.” Nicole says frowning, “I am still your chamber maid and I shall not neglect my duties.”
“Homework?” Tagoni asks noticing that servants are occasionally stopping to stare then running away.
“Yes. There is a way for me to keep to my oath, yet without the easy way provided by the collar, she, they, would not do this otherwise. Now I am required to serve on my own since I proved I can think and serve at the same time.”
“Humiliating you like this,” He begins then stops to stare at a boy of maybe ten who has stopped staring at them, “You, what is happening, why is everyone staring.”
“I umm, sir.” The boy stammers in obvious terror.
“It’s ok, answer the man, I was a bitch who showed little appreciation for those who made my life easier.” Nicole said seriously.
“I should go.” The boy said staring.
“One moment.” Nicole said smiling, “Would you like proof Tagoni?”
“Proof?”
“Yes, proof.” Nicole laughs turning to the servant boy, “Bryan, right.”
“Yes my lady.”
“Trust me Bryan, I’m no lady. I need to make a point to Tagoni here and I need your help, will you help me please?”
“Yes ma’am.” He replies nervously as he stares in surprise at her soft tone.
“As you can tell my shields are down, I want you to humble me, don’t tell me you don’t know how, all younglings play like that, I know I did, mostly on a dare though.”
“I can’t, that would be...”
“That would be you doing as requested. I only need you to for a few hearts.”
“Why?”
“Because I asked.” Nicole told him gently.
“Ok.” Bryan replied hesitantly then stared in shock as it failed, “Impossible.”
“Try with touch.” Nicole said raising his hand to her cheek.
“I can feel it want to work, then slide off.” Bryan whispered.
“That is the power of the Hearth Son and Daughter. I am their servant and can be commanded by no one save those they approve.” Nicole tells him as he stares silently then turns to Tagoni, “Now do you believe me? I am still your chamber maid exactly as assigned. The moment my freedom interferes with my duties, my freedom is gone.”
“Impossible.” Bryan whispers almost silently.
“Go confirm rumors Bryan, tell them I am Tagoni’s chamber maid.” Nicole says grinning, “In fact, tell them to prepare a room for Tagoni, I’ll be staying with him not the other way around this time. I’ll go check in with home in the morning.”
“Nicole?” Tagoni asks.
“I am what I am Tagoni, no use denying it.” Nicole told him watching Bryan run off.
“You know how the hall works?” Land Mother Thomson asks Charles over dinner.
“Yes Land Mother, I do.” He replies between bites pausing to look at her while answering, “When it is off it merely reflects whether there is agreement, truth if you will, a passive lie detector. If there are more people telling the truth than lying the lights are flowing, pretty. If there is deception they are discordant, jarring. Once they are activated the same lights that reflect what is inside, place things inside instead. It takes a lot of power and control, but this is a tool of the Blood Lords and they had power. This would enable them to place any thoughts they wanted in the minds of those within.”
“You have good tutors. Few not born to pomp and circumstance pick up the rituals of these dinners even half as naturally as you have.” She replied mentally digesting his words.
“This is social, I just follow Lisa’s lead, doing what she says, your world here makes no sense to me.”
“Then my next question should be directed at her I think. Lisa, why did you save my Familydom when you obviously had the opportunity to destroy it?”
“It needed doing.”
“Because we are of more use to you intact than broken?”
“That too. Though to be honest, I prefer creation to destruction.”
“Then this may annoy you, though it may also amuse you, but we want Bell in a collar like Brenhar is.”
“You mean pregnant like Brenhar is?” Lisa asks.
“Yes. We also want Lucas to be her Keeper as well.”
“I believe we can arrange for Bellany to have Lucas’ child, though it may take a while.” Charles answers.
“Sorry,” Lisa says hesitantly, “But what she means is Bellany is to have your child just as Brenhar will be.”
“Mine?”
“Yes.”
“You have good blood Charles of Ericson and we have watched ourselves become weaker in some ways as we have gotten stronger in others. We need your blood to save ours. In addition to her, we also want our Heir Tertius to bear your child. We liked the idea since Thomson having a third heir after the bomb would have meant they won, so we adopted it for ourselves as well.”
“What?”
“We will of course happily take any others you are willing to gift us with, but those we insist on.”
“Why me?”
“As I said, you have proven good blood that we need.”
“What she means Charles,” Lisa says sitting back in her chair laughing. “Is that both Familydoms are going have three Heirs apiece, each with your child eventually. If we fall then the Familydoms will merge based on the fact that the next generation of leaders in both are all your children anyway.”
“True.” House Mother Thomson acknowledges.
“Yet I notice nothing has been said of my own children.” Lisa observes, “Since Land and House Mothers along with Clan and Family never mention or fail to mention children except on purpose, I am guessing there is some kind of an issue about me.”
“Yes there is.” Land Mother Thomson says flatly, “There is the issue of you having children at all, when do you intend to take the time. By the look of your movements so far you aren’t going to stop until you control the continent, Magist and Techist alike, that will take decades, many decades. In the mean time we would be wasting good blood if we didn’t proceed.”
“I understand.” Lisa said bowing her head in acknowledgement, “With his mind preserved six wise, I need have no hurry on my account, thank you I suppose.”
“Hey.” Charles says feeling left out of decisions about his life.
“It is called life Hearth Son.” Land Mother Thomson tells him, “As she has just had to admit, you both are far more likely to die in this endeavor than succeed. Your blood mixed with her sisters’ is nearly as good as hers with yours and can happen far more quickly. The same with our Brenhar’s cousins, this is the price of empire.”
“We are one chance Charles,” Lisa says softly, “The children are more chances.”
“Don’t forget how delicate we in Thomson have become.” House Mother Thomson reminds them sadly after an attendant whispers in her ear and she nods affirmatively, “Your blood Charles, is proven to be able to handle power stabily, we can ask for no more than that for our Heirs. Admittedly not as good as a mind like hers with yours, but better than we can hope to find in our own house we are forced to admit.”
“This is the real reason for the HearthHold Charles.” Lisa admits with defeat, “They are paying us in the dozen range of square leagues of developed land with population apiece for your children. A higher price than was ever paid, even during the height of the sync wars.”
“The highest price since the fall Hearth Son.” Legent Wilhelm says joining them.
“I still don’t understand,” Charles says staring at Wilhelm, “Why me?”
“Because you have an open mind Charles.” He replies sitting down as a place is set for him at the foot of the table.
“An open mind?”
“Because he has learned to see?” Lisa asks.
“Exactly.”
“Learned to see what?” Charles asks.
“What is. You have a Techist mind in a Magist body Charles, the Mothers are intelligent enough to see that for the value it holds. They would pay the price of that land even if it hurt them rather than lose a bloodline that capable of advancing. You suffer if the word were to really apply in this context, from an order or disorder of the mind. It allows you see the world from a distance if you choose to, yet were that gift even a little stronger it would cripple you. As it is the Mothers can depend on their blood diluting your gift so your children will be even more stable than you are even if they will only have a portion of your gifts.”
“And those gifts you have are far stronger than ours of the same type are.” Land Mother Michelson admitted, “Should your children have half your gift we will consider them blessed. Yet they are right, you are likely to fall in your endeavors.”
“Because the odds are we will die, they preserve you by saving your blood. You are a sport, none of the mothers know even now how much of one but I will give them a clue.” Lisa laughed, “He has two older brothers and two older sisters, they know that. What they don’t know is the possible price they pay, for two are Magist and two are Techist.”
“What?” The Land and House Mothers gasp.
“One of my sisters and one of my brothers are Techists, the other two are Magists.”
“How?”
“Many families around Centerversity are mixed, is there a problem?”
“You see Charles, they have never met anyone from a mixed family before.” Lisa giggled.
“I am surprised we are not eating with the Mothers.” Lucas says to Brenhar as they, along with Tagoni and Nicole, sit down to dinner.
“The hearth son is being told the price of empire.” Brenhar replies quietly, “I would imagine he will be resistant at first.”
“What she means,” Tagoni says with a smile looking at Lucas, “is that they are telling him he will be having two more children here in Michelson, by the other heirs of course. As well as two more in Thomson by their other heirs.”
“Wow.” Lucas whispers in awe, not only at the number of confirmed children Charles’ will eventually father, but who is having them.
“What Brenhar here gets to break to you sometime over the next year is that not only will her next be yours, but the whole next round of children will be yours.”
“What?” Lucas gasps.
“I wasn’t going to tell him until Solstice after next.” Brenhar says unhappily.
“Sorry, but it does need to be addressed. I have gotten a couple of questions from home about me since I apparently have a chamber maid for the foreseeable future. I am nearly an adult and will be expected to find a wife soon, I am unsure what affect Nicole will have on this.”
“Have you figured it out yet Nicole?” Brenhar asks.
“Figured what out?”
“The first thing you need to do Nicole is think. I know you can, and I know you can maintain two different types of thinking at the same time. This is why you are a chamber maid in the Techist side of the school, yes you are Tagoni’s toy, but as usual Lisa is doing more than one thing at a time.”
“She is?”
“Yes. Tagoni can I borrow a couple of those tubes of yours please?”
“Certainly.” He replied then whispered to a serving girl.
“Nicole I need to perform an experiment.”
“Why am I suddenly afraid?” Nicole asks Brenhar jokingly.
“That is just the first glimmer of understanding of how badly we are outmaneuvered.”
“I hate to ask this, " Tagoni says hesitantly, “but are you sure this will work?”
“Yes.” Brenhar answered with a smile as the servant girl returned, “The only question is whether she wants this known yet or not.”
“Wants what known?” Nicole asks as Brenhar arranges a dozen tubes in the middle of the floor area in a circle.
“Lucas,” Brenhar says turning to him, “Do you understand it yet?”
“You think this is what she was really doing?”
“I think this is a step.”
“What is a step?” Nicole asks frustrated.
“Nicole.” Lucas says sharply and Nicole’s head twitches to look at him like a puppet whose strings just got yanked, hard, “go stand in the middle of the circle.”
“Yes sir.” Nicole hears herself answer as she moves to obey the direct order.
“What the?” Tagoni asks startled.
“Are you still compelled to obey me Nicole?” Lucas asks.
“Yes sir.” She replies half herself, half her body, “I am.”
“They never revoked my permissions with her.” Lucas replies to Tagoni.
“You have permissions? What kind? I thought they removed the collar”
“There is more than one way to ensure compliance and if this still works then he can do as he wants with me so long as what he orders is within the parameters the Hearth Holders have set.” Nicole replies nervously staring at the flickering lights in the tubes around her, “I believed it to be linked to the collar, but now I know not what to think.”
“What you will think.” Lucas says watching her closely and speaking over everyone, “Is to remember the feeling when your powers were gone before this.”
“Ok.” Nicole replies nervously.
“Now you draw those memories out, you will make yourself feel them.”
“Ok.” She replies staring as the lights dimmed but refused to go out.
“Good girl.” Lucas says absently staring at the dimmed tubes.
“Gahh.” Nicole whimpers as her knees buckle and she smells like she wet herself.
“Lucas dear,” Brenhar laughs, “Did you perhaps forget a detail?”
“Sorry Nicole,” Lucas grimaces, “I didn’t realize that would do that.”
“No problem.” Nicole grinned where she knelt with a flushed face, “Kind of embarrassing like this but I don’t mind the feeling one bit.”
“Did she just?” Tagoni asks shocked.
“Oh yeah,” Nicole whispers giggling, “I just did.”
“Wow.” He whispers back.
“Bren.” Lucas asks turning to her, “Is there perhaps something I should be told about now?”
“Sorry dear, but I have had my orders.”
“Can you give me a clue?”
“It should be here in a dozen or two hearts.”
“What should?’
“Your clue.”
“My clue?”
“Yes. I have under orders been guiding conversations for weeks now to bring up certain ideas and discuss them in certain ways. This is far too early for what I was told to be ready for, yet I think events forced their hands as well.”
“Who’s hands?”
“Reporting as ordered.” Yen says entering.
“Here yen.” Brenhar says motioning her over.
“Yes ma’am.” Yen says coming over to her then leaning down when motioned so Brenhar can whisper in her ear.
“As you command.” Yen answers Brenhar unhappily moments later.
“Prince Tagoni I must ask your indulgence on two matters of some importance . We need to borrow Nicole for a while.” Brenhar says as Yen makes her way to him, “We also need to punish Yen for some transgressions against her rules.”
“Transgressions?” Tagoni asks as Yen kneels next to him.
“She has broken both the letter and the intent of her rules.” Brenhar says with a different voice.
“Hearth Daughter?” Tagoni asks staring at Brenhar though he notices when Yen lays her head in his lap.
“Now what Lisa?” Lucas asks sounding annoyed.
“Now you begin preparing for your next step Lucas.” Lisa says through Brenhar, “Think meditation and you will figure out your assignment. In the meantime Yen will get Tagoni erect and take him orally as far as she can.”
“Why?” Tagoni asks more curious than anything else.
“As this is somewhat of Nicole’s reward, it very much one of Yen’s punishment.”
“What do I have to do with any of this?” He asks as Yen reluctantly opens his pants and strokes him erect before going down on him.
“Once you place a drop of your blood on back of her collar, she will have no thoughts other than your carnal pleasure if you are other than completely sated. Until Lucas finishes with Nicole that is. In this instance, this is a true punishment for her. She is stripped of her powers. She is stripped of thoughts, even her very sense of self so long as you have any carnal thoughts or desires at all.”
“Why?”
“Because she is being punished. For you, until Lucas can finish with Nicole that is, Yen is like one of those girls you can rent from specialty houses, only she isn’t acting or playing a part. She really will have no thoughts or awareness beyond her place, which is primarily as your sexual relief. She will assume any other duties or roles you desire of her, though carnal desires of yours will come first.”
“That’s barbaric.”
“That is why it is called punishment.”
“So I am supposed to use her like a thing?”
“She will be a thing, I could assign her to your armsmen if you prefer.”
“That’s alright, so I just put a drop of blood like I did with Nicole?”
“Exactly.”
“And this is punishment?”
“Yes. She is being punished for failing to learn some of her lessons.”
“Dare I ask which ones?”
“Humility for one. This may take a day or a moon with Nicole. I ask that you go ahead and play with Yen, harshly at first preferred, then treat her according to how well she performs her duties.”
“What of school?”
“Short of making sure you are fully sated every night there is no way she will think clearly enough during the day to attend classes. Thus she will remain in your quarters most likely and keep them perfectly if she has a brain in her head.”
“This is not just a game of state.” Tagoni says staring at the terrified girl holding him erect in her mouth though she trembled doing it, “There is more than one layer to what you do here.”
“A place holder tried to play pawn, tried to be more than she is, she neither succeeded nor truth be told even made the effort correctly.”
“There is a correct way?”
“Yes.”
“You could have arranged all this at the school, why the theatrics here?”
“Timing.”
“A truth and a lie in one.”
“Yes. I’ve never denied that I do that.”
“How does Brenhar deal with you borrowing her like this?”
“Not well.”
“Ok,” Tagoni replies thinking for a moment, “How much longer can you afford to keep spending resources and hours like water with your rumor mongering and image management?”
“I have good credit.”
“I refuse the offer.”
“I wasn’t offering, she is sentenced.”
“What exactly is her sentence?”
“To have her total sense of self be under someone else’s control for a while.”
“So she will be what I desire?”
“She will be and remember being anything you desire. She will remember obeying and it feeling great to obey, of that obedience being thrilling.”
“This question and the punishment is yet another clue for me isn’t it?” Lucas asks.
“And if it is?” Lisa asks.
“You seek to build alliances yet I see you doing nothing but dividing.” Tagoni says.
“She’s trying to get me to move myself rather than having to move me.” Lucas tells him with frustration.
“Planning on dying Hearth Daughter?” Tagoni asks.
“No, but the children will need a real tutor when the time comes and I have to be sure they will have one no matter what.”
“I thought they were in both Familydoms?”
“For now.” Lisa laughs.
“That’s how you’re financing this.” Tagoni says with shock.
“Nicole.” Brenhar asks with her own voice once again, “Would you like for me to do this part?”
“Yes, very much, but allowing anything that might effect the child even a little is even more unacceptable than this. I’m sorry Yen.”
“Mghh.” Yen whimpers unable to even speak out loud though her wide eyes conveyed her fear
“I take it she means for Tagoni to be her mind or thought warden?” Nicole asks wearily.
“Yes, I think so that is. Her way of explaining is weird.” Lucas answers.
“Thought warden?” Tagoni asks.
“Keeper of her mind, not just her body.” Nicole answers.
“Of her mind?”
“Yes. You are my keeper.” Nicole answers hesitantly, “You have had complete control of my body, anytime I resisted that control I was withdrawn from it. That is to say, I became isolated in my own body so it could more freely obey you. A keeper of the mind on the other hand does the same with her will and her sense of self, if you want her to call you master she will, even in her own mind. If you wish her to think of you as her master, she will. She will literally be nothing more than you think of her.”
“Then her complete sense of self is in my hands?”
“Yes. Whatever she is, whatever she thinks of herself as when she is released is what she will remain unless that is changed. Where I was, am, bound to obey you, you can withdraw me. With Yen it will be that she has only what you grant. Good behavior will grant her self awareness, bad will withdraw it from her. She will be a thought controlled puppet to you. Normally it is a Magist that does the controlling. Yet I see now how the Hearth Daughter will manage this with you being a Techist. Since you currently own me, my Magic is yours. That means when I bind her with my seed Magic, you will be using me, my Magic, to control her.”
“Yet at the moment when I need a question answered by her she is gone.”
“Yes Prince, she does that.” Brenhar laughs, “I assume you know how from your oral legends Nicole?”
“Yes.” Nicole answers hanging her head in shame, “It is part of our past I used to study quite closely.”
“Can you also do it?” Brenhar asks.
“Yes, no, I don’t know.” Nicole answers as tears drip, “She commands me to betray my oaths, my friends, my family. To make my cousin less than a person, a thing, an extension of another as his property, barely even a pet.”
“Yet this is the price we pay for the games we played.” Yen hears Brenhar say sadly. In her own mind the horror is growing. Yen loses track of the conversation as she tries to find a way around the collar restricting her to obedience. After a while she notices changes, not around her, but in her, that something about how she sees her world is changing. Then she remembers that her owner has another option other than keeping his erection in her mouth, it is her responsibility to keep him in her as long as he is erect after all. He softens in spite of her best efforts though so she allows him to withdraw from her then stares up at him. He looks lost and confused but she doesn’t appear to be in trouble so she curls on the floor next to him where she belongs when not actively serving. If there is more for her to do she will either just know or he will tell her if she misses it the first time.
“What did you just do?” Tagoni asks staring at Yen curling into a ball at his feet like a cat.
“It is an old form of torture from the Blood Lords.” Nicole answers unhappily, “Obedience will bring awareness, disobedience withdrawal. It is seed magic based and actually designed to be used by Magists, but I believe if you concentrate, you can control her directly. With practice, she should respond directly to your thoughts, like an extra limb. Just remember, she isn’t a person right now, directions have to be simple.”
“So if I told her to go to my room?”
“In her mind she is, you’re here, that makes this your room to her.”
“And how long does this last?” Tagoni asks thinking of the implications.
“Until I learn whatever lesson they want me to learn. You don’t think of me as less than a person so I have not been reduced. If you don’t think of her as something more than she currently is, she will remain as she is now.”
“And if I choose to see her as she was before?”
“You don’t know her.” Brenhar answers, “Therefore you can’t simply recall her, you will have to solve the riddle of how to draw her out if that is your goal. However, do beware, the stronger your arousal, the more carnal she will be. Will power or denial has nothing to do with it, you can only work on that kind of a goal while sated.”
“So I am forced to begin sated if that is my goal?”
“Yes.”
“And what shall poor Lucas be doing with his time?”
“Learning to take Nicole’s powers.” Brenhar answers flatly, “Then teaching or if necessary training her on how to do it for herself without losing them permanently.”
“No offense Heir Primus, but I suspect your belly has as much to do with the schedule as anything.”
“I am larger than expected for this soon. The doctors say I shall be immobile or simply pop for lack of room by autumnal equinox if not the start of next school year at this rate.”
“Possibly by the sky showers of summer’s bane, though not more than the next moon by my eye.” Tagoni replied desperately trying to take his mind off Yen curled at his feet like a human sized cat.
“And your point?”
“Perhaps the Hearth Daughter decided your keeper needed to be kept sated as well.”
“Then why not just send Yen directly?” Brenhar asked.
“Because this way she achieves multiple goals.” Lucas answered, “Tagoni is affected, I am affected as well as Nicole and Yen both in addition to you, a lot of birds for just one stone.”
“Like I told you before Lucas.” Brenhar laughs, “My only real advantage is both realizing and admitting that I am missing as much or more than I am catching.”
“I don’t see what that has to do with this over grown kitten she has...” Tagoni is saying then yelps in surprise when Yen on all fours nuzzles against his leg purring.
“It can’t be, she wouldn’t...” Lucas says with a tone halfway between a laugh and a groan then stops.
“Can’t be what dear?” Brenhar asks.
“Tagoni do me a favor will you?” Lucas asks.
“What kind?”
“Envision Yen curling up on the foot our bed and going to sleep will you.”
“Ok.” Tagoni replies closing his eyes.
“Is she doing what I think she is?” Lucas asks Brenhar and Nicole both when Yen rises, walks to the bed and lays down in a ball on the end of it and closes her eyes.
“This is his move, not hers.” Nicole says.
“Not sure myself.” Benhar replies.
“Someone want to give me a clue.” Tagoni asks.
“She, Yen, is for the time being yours.” Lucas answers, not sure what he feels, “That isn’t really Yen, only enough of her to obey. You have a word for small machines you use to do single jobs.”
“Appliances.”
“Exactly.” Lucas tells him, “She is your appliance, for now at least. By the feel of her there is very little of her aware at all. She is for now the embodiment of your thoughts and desires about her body, those spells reduced her to an extension of you.”
“Test and reward in a group, as a group, yet personalized, she is a most efficient person, kind of scary really, truth be told.” Tagoni replies still staring at Yen.