The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

“The contractions are four gross hearts apart now.” Legent Kara informed the healers and doctors attending Brenhar. “When they hit about half a gross it will be time to get ready.”

“How goes the evacuation?” Lisa asked, walking into the command tent.

“Slow, they keep wanting to take stuff with them.” Tagoni answered with a grim shake of his head. “And more than half have volunteered to stay behind to slow the Kallows, glorious end and all that.”

“Not good.” Lisa replied softly. “There is no glory to be found here, just death.”

“How long do we have?”

“Until Brenhar gives birth.”

“Then what happens?” Kandra asked, joining them. She offered Lisa a mug of hot chocolate, fortified like her own.

“Thank you.” Lisa replied, taking it with a sigh. “Then this all ends. He cleans up this mess.”

“Cleans?” Tagoni asked shuddering.

“Yes, I believed that I still had moons to go and that the Kallows were not a significant problem once Donalson went down. The Kallows have help, old help, but he won’t become directly involved. He can’t.”

“And?”

“One moment.” Lisa answered, concentrating for a moment. Then the world became a white room for them again, just as she had done earlier. Lisa stood facing Kandra, Lucas, Tagoni, Sien, but to everyone else’s surprise, not Nicole. “This is the hard part.”

“Hard part?” Lucas asked, annoyed. “I was talking with some people.”

“Sorry.” Lisa replied. She smiled as the room becomes an overview of the camp and surrounding lands with them standing in mid air.

“What the?” Is hissed with a lot of echo, and some choice words.

“Here we are.” Lisa says as a large area shades slightly blue. Then another area shades red, “And there they are. Notice the concentration just behind the ridges on the far side of the river valley.”

“I see.” Tagoni said ‘walking’ over to look.

“They knew about what Charles would do, and about when.”

“I don’t like the sound of that.” Tagoni said, ‘walking’ further over to look at the enemy rear positions.

“Neither do I. Only half a dozen of the long guns were manned when Charles struck. Now nearly a gross of gun crews and sets of faux Blood Queens who were using magic to fire the guns, are along the ridges ready to cover the crews and squads.”

“This doesn’t look good.”

“It’s not. They have another set of guns further back, waiting for us to charge across the river. They will have time to use them because each of those sets, they range from three to six women in a set, are nearly as strong or stronger than a Kimer. Their raw power is less than Sien or one of the Vale. Yet unlike the Vale, but like the Kimer and Sien, they have mental attacks as part of their power. Only Sien, Kandra and myself are stronger than any one group on mental or physical attacks.”

“So there are just under a gross of them?” Lucas asked, pointing at the ridge. “And they can all turn minds like the Blood Lords?”

“Yes, but to a certain extent it can be blocked.” Lisa answered. “That also doesn’t account for the secondary force behind them.”

“Shielding the mental pulls strength we will need for normal shields during the attack.”

“Exactly.” Lisa agree. “We hold the high ground, the strong ground, and the balance of numbers are nearly all ours.”

“Yet we are trapped.” Tagoni said, surveying the whole scene.

“What is Charles going to do next?” Kandra asked.

“I don’t know.” Lisa admitted.

UC:Fates—Septus : Finitus Partus Trio

It began with two of the collared Kallows girls from different sets deciding to kiss. Then another two from two other sets decided it looked like fun. In an eighth bell dozens of couples had formed the same way. At half a bell one of the handlers trying to break up a couple was instead brought into the session. In barely a gross of hearts he no longer remembered what he was previously doing. In a bell, about the time Land Mother Kilsin and The Man were receiving word of it, all but a few handlers and their girls were involved in the show. Only two dozen of the thousand were not in or watching the show as girls and handlers alike traded off.

“What is happening? Is this because of the collars?” Land Mother Kilsin demanded of The Man via mirror.

“No.” He frowned. “This is because the boy figured out the first stages of the Blood Lords’ power.”

“Figured out?” She demanded.

“Exactly. Just as we can pretend to their power with the collars, he pretends to other parts while he learns them for real. His next attack will be more.”

“More?”

“Yes.” He laughed. “This is for nothing more than upsetting you. It will pass soon enough. Enjoy the show while you can.”

“Once this passes we start in with the long guns?”

“Of course.” He laughed as she stepped away from her mirror.

“She seems upset.” The Unnamed said curiously.

“She should be.” He replied seriously. “I have no idea how the boy figured this out.”

“Is it a real threat?”

“No, he is just harassing us. It will pass. I am far more concerned by the condition of Massoon. It is dying. Gahalia either is or soon will be as well.”

“You look far more concerned than you admit.”

“This is a multi point attack, not his style. It is what a strategist does, not a tactician.”

“Could he be making the leap?”

“Unfortunately yes. The timing is unusual. There should nowhere near enough tension or stress to push him like this.”

“Then something isn’t what it seems.”

“It would appear so.”

“Lisa.” Kandra interrupted where she sat watching the river.

“Yes.” Lisa answered with a sad smile.

“I have to ask something, but the words to ask it are hard. They are also heavy, they fall through the pictures in my mind, scattering them.”

“How did you gain such power? Why so much so quickly?”

“Yes.” Kandra replied sitting beside her, even more puzzled now.

“It is because of his control of you.” Lisa replied staring off into the distance.

“His control?”

“Yes. He gained control, and that control is external. Being external it gives you accurate information about exactly what you are doing. That means you can push harder than normal without hurting yourself because you really know exactly what you are doing. Self evaluation is hard. Self honesty is even harder. The more accurate measure you have, the harder you can push.”

“The greater the control, the more accurate the information?”

“Exactly.”

“And he is very self honest I take it.” Kandra asked as she followed the logic.

“Exceedingly.”

“He doesn’t lie to himself, and doesn’t allow me to lie to myself then?”

“Just so.”

“How does it work?”

“You really want to know?”

“Yes.”

“Then relax.” Lisa said reaching out to take Kandra’s hand. Then they are standing in the white room in Kandra’s mind.

“Wow.”

“Not many people get to see even this much of their own mind.” Lisa said. “Take my hand.”

“Why?” Kandra asked, taking it.

“For this.” Lisa said and Kandra found herself in another white room. This one had many tunnels leading off it in all directions. She had never seen it before, but it felt familiar.

“What is this?” Kandra asked, staring at the smaller versions of herself walking around.

“This is your inner mind.” Lisa answered.

“Mine?”

“Yes.” Lisa answered. She looked around before heading down a tunnel and motioning Kandra to follow.

“Where are we going?”

“Here.” Lisa answered at a set of double doors.

“And here is where?”

“Open it...them.”

“Now I’m scared.”

“Wise, but proceed.”

“Yes ma’am.” Kandra answered hesitantly. The sight that greeted her also confused her. The door opened into a large warehouse filled with and lined with mirrors. At the mirrors are smaller versions of herself interspersed with smaller versions of Charles. Watching them, she soon noticed openings that turned out to be other hallways lined with doors. Coming and going through them were more copies of herself and Charles. The large number of them shook Kandra to her core. “What in Chaos name.”

“Welcome home Kandra. This is what you did, what you allowed, when you invited yourself into his life and him into you.”

“I did this?”

“Yes.” Lisa answered sadly. “This is what you allowed.”

“How?” Kandra asked, whispering. In her thoughts she could hear a strange but now familiar buzz. It echoed around her as familiar to her as her own voice. “This is why I am so strong?”

“Yes. This Kandra, this is why you are so strong.”

“How strong am I now? What am I now?”

“You are stronger than any of those limited to the vale.”

“Limited to the vale?” Kandra asked, aghast.

“Yes. You have more power than any short of Charles or myself.”

“How, I Mean I see him here, but how does that equate to power?”

“Look at the mirrors.”

“Ok.” Kandra says stepping up to one.

“On each of them you will find words, sometimes whole pages, on others pictures, sometimes simple, sometimes complicated.”

“So I see.” Kandra agreed as she went from mirror to mirror.

“Those words, pages, pictures, portraits, and all the rest of the noise are what Magic is made of.”

“They look more like recipes with pictures than spells.”

“Essentially, they are.” LIsa admitted, surprised by the correlation, its accuracy, and even more so by its source.

“They are?”

“Yes, these are the directions, step by step, that make up spells. The words on these are written in the language of Magic.”

“You make it sound Techist.”

“In some ways it is.” Lisa agreed, “At this level you can think of Magic as a pinch of this or that. You need lots of meat, so you add lots of a few different machines in meat like proportions. For flavor, you add smaller amount of a larger number of different machines.”

“So the spell is like the recipe, if you look at the details, you can’t see the whole it will become, but by following the recipe you don’t need to.”

“Exactly. You can make risen bread easily by following the recipe, but if you try to do it by detail you end up with either a gooey mess, or a brick.”

“I see, at least I think I do.” Kandra said frowning at the simplicity and complexity on display, baffled by how it could be both at the same time, “WHat he does is make noew reciopes all the time, that is why no one can match him, he is the only one looking at ingredients instead of just the recipes. Now what?”

“Now,” Lisa answered with a smile agreeing, “You spend some time here and get to know yourself.”

“Get to know myself?”

“Yes. You will need to. You have one of the most important jobs.”

“I do?”

“Yes, and once you have come to know your new self, you will understand.” Lisa answered. She faded out, leaving Kandra alone with the copies of herself and the bits of Charles doing whatever it was they did.

“Hello old friend.” Startled The Man from his late day rest.

“Who?” he asked as his eyes opened. Then he didn’t need his eyes to know.

“Ethan now is it?” She asked.

“How?” He demanded as his proximity and sensing spells for her all went off at once.

“Is that any way to greet an old friend?” She asked, smiling.

“Die!” He shouted, attacking as his shields formed.

“Ethan!” She frowned firmly as the walls around her buckled. The explosion of force ripping two walls out of the building, part of the ceiling and the floor leaving it only half standing. It ruffled her hair.

“You’re dead, I killed you!” He shouted as layer after layer of shields formed around him while he prepared his next attack.

“Bad boy.” She laughed, waving her hand at him. The gesture throwing him away like a doll, shields and all.

“Oh sweet chaos.” The unnamed whispered. She had entered the square just in time to see Ethan thrown from the remains of the out building he used, and catch the first feeling of who or whatever it was that did it.

‘Hi Bree.’ The unnamed heard. At first she had thought it was words and then she realized it was in her mind. She had heard that ‘voice’ before, a long time ago. It had been at a picnic somewhere in a park. That voice and her parents had been discussing trees.

‘Trees?’ The Unnamed asked herself. ‘Why am I remembering that now?’

“Lumos zaius igni.” The Man shouted, throwing his arms high and wide after rising. Lightning split the sky, an explosion of light and sound that went on and on, seeming to grind bone against bone in its intensity.

‘Bad boy.’ The unnamed heard again. Then the strange woman waved her hand at The Man again, sending him flying a second time. Around the woman the ground smoked, but she stood untouched.

“I don’t know who you are Lady, but you just killed yourself.” The Unnamed announced. She projected force and shields as she staged a multipronged attack.

“Stop.” The woman whispered, glancing at her.

‘What in chaos name?’ The Unnamed asked herself. For that whisper had been equal parts heard and felt. It echoed throughout her, carried in muscle and bone, repeated in her mind. So penetrating was it that she thought she could taste the word. She soon realized that she had stopped as ordered.

“This is not your concern child. We ancients are having a discussion.”

“Who are you?” The Unnamed whispered back, all the sound she could make.

“Not someone you want to bother.” The woman laughed.

“Why do I know your voice?” The Unnamed demanded as best she could.

“Why do you dream of trees?” She demanded back.

“How did you know about that? I never told anyone.”

“I know many things.” The Woman laughed as she walked toward the Man’s landing spot.

“Sheskari et...” The Man is shouting when his voice is lost in the noise of winds and lightning splitting the sky once again. Around The Woman the ground erupts from the lightning and other forces The Unnamed can’t understand.

“Lumos.” The Woman with wind stirred hair whispers when the storm stops. The Unnamed wants to whimper for she had heard that word with her skin and felt it in her bones.

“Why don’t you die?” The Man demanded with rage hiding tears of fear behind a sheen of sweat.

“Why don’t you learn?” The Woman asked.

“Learn what?” The Man demanded. “Learn that the mortals have to learn? They have to, we all know that. They have to make the mistakes and they have to keep making them until they learn from them.”

“Dominum ne...” The Woman started in.

“No.” The Unnamed managed to say out loud by letting her thoughts leak.

“And why not?”

“Why does he have to die?”

“He has interfered in my works, again and again.”

“There are fates worse than death.”

“Yes, but those are reserved for those worthy.” The woman laughed. “Or needful.”

“Do you know who I am?” The Unnamed asked. She is surprised to hear her own voice putting words to her unanswerable question, but welcomed them one and all once they had escaped.

“Yes, of course I do, you are one of my two hopefuls for dealing with the anomoly.”

“Hopefuls?”

“Yes, you were my first, but then I lost you so I had to replace you.”

“Lost me? Replace me?”

“Yes, with you gone I had to make another or waste all the time and effort I had put into preparing you.”

“Preparing me?” The Unnamed asked as she felt further and further lost, that the more she learned the less she knew.

“Yes, preparing you to be a woman who can grasp what our power really is.”

“What our power really is?”

“Yes, the power of men is faster, stronger than ours, but shallow. They lack control.”

“I thought women were always stronger with magic?”

“You are mistaking the moment for the action.”

“I don’t understand.”

“So I see.” The Woman mused for a moment before turning to The Man. A focused look on her face brought him up in the air as a thin bubble of translucent wrongness formed around him. “He can wait until we have talked for a while. If he’s smart, he won’t try to escape.”

“What happens if he does?”

“He tangos with Darwin.” The woman laughed as she released The Man, forcing him to keep himself suspended in the air to avoid touching the bubble.

“Lisa.” Lucas said, getting her attention as he intercepted her.

“Yes.” She replied looking up, desperately hiding the haunted look on her face.

“We have locations on two of the Legents.” Lucas said, carefully ignoring her look.

“Who? And where?”

“Legents Amina and Kara are with Brenhar. Also, Captain Neall just arrived with Cinna in tow. Do you have any idea where Micah or Sien are?”

“None, though you may want to try down toward the river. Last I saw Charles was examining the goo from the attack.”

“What is it?” Lucas asked, looking at her closely.

“There is something wrong.” She answered carefully. “He refuses to discuss ideas or strategies for dealing with the Kallows long guns. He says we have covered it already. I can’t even get him to look at it through our back channel.”

“Is that unusual?”

“Very, he has never made any attempt before to filter the information exchange.”

“And now he is?”

“And now he is.”

“How much longer?” Brenhar asked through teeth still clenched from the passing contraction.

“Half a bell at least, less than a full one.” Legent Kara answered with a grimace and a smile.

“Will the collar endanger my child?”

“No.” Legent Amina answered firmly, and Brenhar visibly relaxed.

“Will it endanger my Heir?” Land Mother Michelson asked.

“No.” Both Legents answered.

“Thank you.”

“You are welcome Mother of Lands.” Legent Kara said warmly. “Were the collar to have endangered the child we would have interfered long before this.”

“Are they worth it?” Brenhar demands.

“Who worth what?” Land Mother Michelson asked.

“It is hard to say.” Legent Amina answered.

“How long until it resumes?” Brenhar asked.

“You know?” Legent Amina looked surprised.

“What resumes?” Demanded the puzzled Land Mother.

“The Sync wars Land Mother.” Brenhar answered. “I am beginning to see now, starting to understand the stakes the Hearthdaughter plays for.”

“We’ve been waiting.” Legent Kara laughed.

“The armies Land Mother, all the armies.” Brenhar said turning to face her.

“The armies?” She asked back.

“Yes, they are our sacrifice. The price we pay for my child, and Muren’s.”

“Why? What price?”

“Because the Legents have to start over.”

“So?”

“We, mankind, have always used breeding to overcome changes in war.”

“Then you lost your singular advantage in the fall.” Legent Kara said sadly. “The single advantage that has always kept our species alive went away. We women went from averaging two point eight children apiece, to averaging one point six four.”

“Given that it takes a little over two children per woman to keep the population static,” Legent Amina went on with haunted eyes as the two Legents traded off, “That meant extinction in just a few generations.”

“The only hope we had was that just as Magic entered the world, disease basically left it. With the old moral values, population was in a rapid decline. With the new values we introduced, this promiscuous world that you know, we managed to raise it to two point zero three children per woman.”

“That meant that after everything we could do, after every trick we knew or could think of, that we as a species saw a twenty six to one reduction in the population expansion rate.”

“A small window, a tiny opportunity.”

“Not even a full chance,” Brenhar broke in, “just a part of one.”

“Yes...but it worked.” Legent Amina answered.

“The Sync wars Land Mother,” Brenhar laughed with a slight grunt. “Have nothing to do with war, or the atrocities, or the slavery the Blood Lords practiced. They have to do with choices.”

“Perceptive.” Legent Kara said with a genuine smile.

“Thank y...” Brenhar was saying when she breaks off with a grunt.

“What are you trying to do?” Kandra asked the smaller Charles. She is still in the warehouse room in the tunnels of the inner white room of the white room of her mind.

“I am looking for a way to ease my growing headache and contain the Magic the fake blood queens across the river are using to drive our troops into a frenzy. That is why the evacuation is going so slowly. They can barely think.” He answered, after standing very still for several seconds as various mirrors showed blankness or blackness.

“You have a headache?” She asked noticing a pattern to the black showing and him pausing in apparent pain.

“Yes, a severe one, just like I used to get while recovering from the fight with Brenhar.”

“Is there anything I can do?”

“Not that I know of.”

“Is there anything that makes it worse, maybe I can help with that?”

“Old thoughts, every time I review things it gets worse.” He answered gesturing to a mirror that showed nothing for several hearts.

“Then I’ll you what.” Kandra laughed, pulling Charles into her embrace. “You think your new thoughts. Let me think your old ones for you.”

“Route them through you?” He asked, returning the hug.

“Of course, I think so anyway. Lisa has used words like that and they feel right. We are in my mind and I am in yours as well. Let me review for you.”

“Thank you.” He whispered as he returned her kiss. Kandra’s mind suddenly flooded with new thoughts, not in the background, not as a whisper she could ignore, these whispers, they became her very thoughts as Charles pushed now that he could again.

“Chaos.” Lucas hissed as something pushed at his mind.

“Vale. Shield wall NOW!” He shouted in panic as a force pushed at him in mind and body alike. The leaves on trees showed the force where they bent as though in a wind, but the branches did not, yet.

“On it.” Several answered. In a couple of dozen hearts a literal wall, a visible distortion in the open air, stood between them and the river in the distance. The scenery beyond that wall looked subtly wrong, looking more wrong as the wall firmed while the pressure on their minds eased.

“Someone find the Hearthdaughter and summon Sien now.”

“What is this?” Someone asked.

“I think this is the Hearthson’s next step against the Kallows.” Lucas lied.

“Then why is he attacking us?”

“He’s not.” Lucas lied again. “It’s just leaking, this will be even worse for them.”

“This is why the Hearthdaughter wanted us to fall back isn’t it?”

“Yes.” Lucas replied as he looked for Lisa.

“I have this.” Sien announced, walking up calmly as she cast another wall beyond the one already present. The pressure on Lucas finished easing. His mind no longer objected to being where he was, but he still felt this pressure wanting his body away.

“What is that?” Lucas asked.

“Bad news.” Sien replied, blinking with the effort of bringing her wall further into focus.

“How bad?”

“You should have run.” Sien grunted as her eyes went wide and lost for hearts before focussing again, bringing sorrow with them.

“How far?” Lucas asked seriously.

“Keep going until it eases.” Sien answered shifting her stance while spreading her arms as though to push gently against a door or a wall.

“That could take days and I am guessing we don’t have days. From your tone, I doubt we have one.”

“You don’t.” Sien told him flatly.

“We don’t? Then what about you?” He asked pointing to her stance that plainly said she would be remaining where she stood.

“I can give you about a bell, maybe more if I can get this solid enough. After that, I won’t be any help.”

“You don’t have to do this.” Lucas pleaded.

“Yes I do. Some of these soldiers are my people. I took an oath. I swore.” Sien smiled in reply.

“But...”

“It’s ok Lucas, it really is ok.” Sien smiled sadly. “Take the vale daughters with you. I have this. They won’t really affect how long I last here, they can’t do this, but they can make all the difference once you are away. At a distance what they can do will help, but they don’t how to help up close and I ... I ... there is no time to teach them.”

“I can’t just leave you here.” Lucas said frustrated, wincing at the light forming in the air as Sien’s shield met the chaos now billowing their way like a ground fog.

“You can, and you will. These are my lands and that is an order. Tell Brenhar I said I forgive her. She will understand.”

“But...” Lucas pleaded knowing it was futile.

“Do you feel that you crazy bitch?” The man demanded from where he floated in the sphere of wrongness that bound him while The Unnamed talked with his attacker.

“Your trap failed. He found another way.” She laughed, “You see Bree, true thinkers think. Ethan, you forgot that true thinkers adapt.”

“But I poisoned him. He can’t use old data, old information. Every time he tries it hurts him. Without review he can’t go forward, he can’t do anything coherent.”

“And did you happen to think that maybe he might have access to other minds that can think old thoughts for him?”

“But that’s...”

“A trick of the joining.” The Woman laughed.

A mounted scouting party of the Kallows were the first to find the fog issuing from the very ground. No one panicked at first for no harm came to those exposed. Three gross of hearts later as they entered camp with fog following, the first Kallows Magists met the fog, the results were not harmless.

“You...” Teanna shouted turning on the Magist who had her collared.

“What the?” Jonnis demanded as he felt his awareness of the women bound to him by their collars feel distant then fade away as the fog surrounded them.

“You motherless...” Lonna screamed as the collar dissolved from around her neck while her Magic went away, freeing her mind and body alike. Her first move brought her short sword out and into Jonnis’ back in one nearly liquid move that thrust it all the way through.

“Gahhh.” Teanna shouted several hearts later plunging her own short sword into Jonnis’ dead eye then looking around her.

“Kris?” Lonna asked softly of the third woman, slumped silently in her saddle.

“Kris!” Teanna hissed in horror as the limp woman slid sideways off the horse when Lonna shook her shoulder.

“We should go back.” Lonna said staring at nothing as she felt compelled to move further away from the river, “Can’t see anything in this fog now anyway.”

“What do we say about that?” Teanna asked pointing their former collar holder.

“Nothing, we lost track of each other then found him like this, blame the other side’s advance patrols, then get a good nights sleep for the first time since this madness started.”

“Want some company?” She asked.

“Could use it.” Was admitted.

“How can you maintain a shield like this one your own Sien?” Lucas asked as the last of camp headed out. He was determined to leave no one behind by being the last one out.

“I am using Gahalia.”

“Gahalia?”

“Yes, the capitols, the bigger and older ones that is, are alive. The others like this one, all they really do is feed the bigger ones.”

“Incredible.”

“Run Lucas, the pressure is increasing and I can’t leave here now. I have to remain in order to keep this wall in place, if I retreat it will fail.”

“Are you sure?” Lucas asked softly.

“Yes Lucas, I am sure. This is the way it has to be.” Sien said sadly, “I have to stay.”

“You mean we have to stay.” Micah said walking up with Cinna and Nicole behind him.

“Sien, how is it going?” Nicole asked.

“Massoon is gone. It stopped responding a while ago.”

“How long does Gahalia have?” She asked. She didn’t even blink at the light in the air making everything shine or glow.

“A bell...I think, maybe less.”

“Ok Micah,” Nicole said, “I can talk you through calling it, but are you sure you want to. Few males have ever been able to hold and manage water.”

“Planning on using the river?” Sien asked surprised.

“Yes, it insulates Magic and we need that, but not right here.”

“With Micah helping I can walk with you to the river. It will make Lucas leaving easier.” Sien offered.

“Cinna, Nicole, shall we?” Micah asked gesturing as he joined his will to Sien’s firming the wall further and driving the faint fog back.

“Yes.” Nicole answered, shooing Lucas on his way, “Tell Tagoni I’ll join him once I finish.”

“Ok.” Lucas replied watching them walk away.

As they walked the half a league to the river, they passed trees bending and slanting sideways from unseen pressure. Sand lay on the ground and dirt lay undisturbed, but small stones sometimes rolled by going in the direction from which they came. As they came to the river, larger things were starting to roll away from it. Cinna laughed at the furrow of dirt where a stone was pushing through the ground as though pulled by hand or pushed by the wind, yet the air stood still.

“Eerie.” Nicole whispered watching the ground in front of the furrow crack as the rock advanced through it. There was no wind, but the air was charged. Her and Cinna’s hair were starting to halo around their heads while their skin tingled despite the shield. “How can you take the pressure that weighs so heavily on the rest Micah?”

“When I was young, well younger,” He laughed, “Our shop was also our house. I had to get away from the crowds and noise in the only place I knew I could always go, in my head. I learned how to not hear some things. This is like that for me.”

“Not hear?” Sien asked.

“Listen to the sound and feel the feeling out here. Then look for a place inside yourself where it doesn’t echo. It doesn’t need to be big. You just retreat into it in your own mind, then put really thick shields on it. Your head aches after a while, but it no longer does what this is doing to you.”

“This is the same idea as Zandrus’ song, just differently done. Find the place between the notes, the quiet places in the crowd of noise.” Nicole said sadly. On her face was sorrow and acceptance.

“Oh.” Sien whispered. She knew this was true because Nicole had always been the real historian of their group. She was the one who always pushed the boundaries, the one who studied the deepest past. If anyone besides the Legents themselves would know, she would.

“Oh.” Sien whispered again as it worked. Three gross of hearts later they reached the riverbank.

“Massoon is down.” Legent Jeff reported to the gathered Legents.

“Gahalia doesn’t seem far from going down as well.” Legent Anna noted.

“It doesn’t matter.” Legent Wilhelm said flatly. “This whole thing is a hail Mindy pass. It wouldn’t work for us...”

“But she is her own law.” Legent Alice broke in.

“Yes.” Legent Wilhelm agreed. “Care to share with the rest of the class now why you took a necessary piece off the board Alice.”

“I demoted one elevated to bishop back to pawn so that she could cross the board.”

“I don’t like being handled Alice.” Legent Wilhelm growled, but the half smile took the sting from his tone. “Even if it is at Mindy’s behest, what’s the game?”

“I took every bit of Magic out of her. I took her body’s memory of it as well, but I left the echo in her mind.”

“And?”

“That is all.”

“Why?”

“Bishops can’t marry, not and keep their rank.” Legent Alice smiled. “But pawns...”

The billowing fog thickened as it spread from the riverbank. As it went it encountered many more scouting groups. Individual Techists felt nothing from it and the few Magists couldn’t understand what was happening in time to try to race ahead.

Occasional random groups of the collared women were freed when their collars dissolved, most of the handlers died at the hands of the freed women, but not all. The reason for this is simple, while many of the men, all chosen exclusively for their Magist abilities, were as bad as the first, some were kind and gentle, and a few even a pleasure to serve.

Those freed also found themselves oddly unconcerned with the state of the abortive war, in fact they were concerned with almost nothing other than relaxing and enjoying the day. In a few places some Magists managed to get ahead of the fog, but not many and horses couldn’t stay ahead of it indefinitely, they had to rest some time. So while word would get ahead sometimes, the mirrors weren’t working to communicate over distance so each of those warning lines only stretched until it ran across the first or second gap in rested horses. Scores of Magists and Techists were enveloped in the growing fog. Techists didn’t care though it scared Magists beyond reason. Most Magists that is, some it comforted instead.

“Are you ready Micah?” Nicole asked. They are both standing in the shallows of the river. Cinna is in the water about two fathoms away splashing at something while Sien is on the shore holding the wall of force in place. To her surprise being near the water seemed to help despite how close they were to the source now.

“Yes.” Micah answered. He formed the picture in his mind and put will to it. Water pulled upwards towards him even as it flowed.

“Excellent.” Nicole said, watching. She was surprised that he was able to call the water so well. Then she remembered that, despite how it came to pass, he is the Hearth Father Emel and his land knows him, “Remember thuogh, you have to see it in your mind from all around it, not just where you are or it will flow away from you.”

“I have it. Now, come here Nicole. Tell me if it is uniform and correct.” Micah ordered as he drew the water into a column a fathom high and wide.

“Almost perfect.” Nicole complimented as she walked around the near perfect cylinder of water a fathom across and high.

“This is the hard part.” Micah said summoning Cinna with a thought.

“What is?” Nicole asked stopping to look at him, startled by his sorrowful tone and sad face.

“The betrayal.” Micah grimaced in answer closing his eyes. He summoned a new water column as he released the old one. The new one surrounding Nicole, encapsulating her in water, suspending her in the middle.

“Micah, what in Chaos name?” Sien demanded as her cousin flailed pointlessly, held in the middle of the column of water. She couldn’t stop what she was doing though. She couldn’t let her attention wander or all those retreating would take the brunt of what she blocked. She knew it would at least take their minds, or worse. Yet, her cousin was drowning, dying by Micah’s hand mere fathoms away and she dare not even concentrate on it, let alone interfere, or thousands would pay the price.

“I am sorry Sien. It will all make sense in hearts.” Micah apologized sadly, pleadingly.

“Micah!” Sien screamed around tears. She debated how long she could let her shield collapse to stop Micah without killing Legents only knew how many of those soldiers retreating, the answer wasn’t encouraging. She did the math again and again, but the answer remained the same, she couldn’t at all, and she knew it. Unable to interfere, she still forced herself to watch as Nicoles struggles grew weaker.

“Cinna, face Nicole at the edge of the water.” Micah ordered.

“Yes sir.” She answered, unconcerned by the sight of the flailing young woman in it.

“I am sorry Cinna.” Micah said as he drew his knife. In one quick motion he drew it across her neck. Her blood sprayed the column of water that entombed Nicole. Spurts surged with her pulse in a macabe shower, drawn to the water like iron filings to a magnet.

“Order take, I hope this works.” Micah went on as he shoved the bleeding, dying Cinna into the column of water to finish bleeding out in it, staining it bright red. Nicole grabbed desperately for her even as her own bubbles of air rose to the surface. It was of no avail since the water drew Cinna inward as well, but life means never giving up and Nicole had never learned how anyway.

“Ok Brenhar,” Legent Kara said softly as she saw the contraction start, “Push.”

“Gently at first, get used to it. These are not the gentle ones your mothers told you about.” Legent Amina said just as softly.

“Gahhh!” Brenhar screamed as the contraction hit. This time it felt different than before.

“Make sure they know.” Legent Kara said to the open air, obviously expecting an answer.

“Always.” An indistinct voice echoed.

“You know what is happening?” Legent Amina asked, also to the open air.

“Of course.” The soft voice trailing laughter replied.

“Have you been protecting the backer of the Kallows?” Legent Kara asked.

“Yes.”

“Why?” Brenhar demanded as the contraction passed.

“Because it needed to be done, and I pay my debts.”

“You owe no one.” Legent Amina stated.

“There is more than one way out of the dark little sisterling.”

“He’s alive?” Legent Amina demanded, sure who she meant, but not why.

“Yes.” Legent Kara agreed. “And all of a sudden I think him solving the interface problem was no stroke of luck. He had help didn’t he?”

“Of course.” The voice agreed.

“Who are you?” Brenhar demanded, blinking as she felt another contraction starting.

“Someone who wishes you luck.” The voice answered.

“Are you ok?” Legent Amina asks gently.

“As well as I can be. I have to go now Mongoose. It is time for me to be the snake once again.”

“When will we hear from you?” Legent Kara asked.

“Soon, soonish anyway, but for now I must go. I need most of my attention where I am if I am to save him this time. The Hearthson is about to go quarkian.”

“God speed.” Legents Amina and Kara whisper.

“I never much believed in him, but apparently he believes in me. God speed my friends.” The voice answered and was gone.

“Who was...” Land Mother Thompson was asking when she is interrupted.

“No Mother! Don’t ask th...” Brenhar is ordering when she screams.

“Push.” Legents Amina and Kara say nearly as one.

“I gave you chances.” The Woman is saying to The Man, further confusing the Unnamed.

“The strong must be allowed to be strong. We cannot deny our nature.” He shouts back.

“Chances?” The Unnamed asks.

“He is a useful tool.” The Woman acknowledges. “Give him almost enough information and he will find what he needs to complete his task. He is quite dependable that way.”

“He works for you?”

“No, he is just a very useful tool. Would you like to watch him die?”

“No, not really.”

“Oh, I understand. He got your family killed. I’m sorry about that. He wasn’t supposed to be working this far north at all. You want to kill him yourself.”

“No.” The Unnamed replied as The Man’s face blanched.

“Then what?”

“He is information. I can learn.”

“Fitting.” The Woman laughed. “Alright James Nathaniel Zandry, here is your chance.”

“My chance?” He asked.

“Yes.” She laughed. “You want to live. She gets humble you. You let her do this of your own free will. Humbled, you live. Otherwise, I will simply let you go. Then you can try to stop what is coming on your own.”

“You weren’t going to kill me at all Mindy.” Nathaniel laughed as he finally began to grasp what was really going on. “You don’t want me dead. I didn’t interfere in anything you didn’t want interfered with, did I?”

“Very good, took you long enough.”

“Why did you use me to make the joining? Why did you point me in the right direction? Why do you fight your own?”

“Live through this and we’ll talk.”

“Your word?”

“You have my word.”

“Fine.” Nathaniel said, his head hanging in defeat.

“There is something else you should know.” Mindy said. She released the bubble around Nathaniel and he dropped to the ground.

“What is that?”

“The boy, the half Irish one, the first one to harness magic on purpose.”

“Yes.”

“He was your grandson.”

“What?” Nathaniel asked in shock.

“I have always known how to make us immortals have children.” Mindy admitted. “That was the easy part. Guiding you into starting the process was more difficult. Your connection to him was real. That is why it was so easy for you to guide him and those that came after. The Legents were also guided into becoming the Legents so they could advance the development of magic. That was the hardest part.”

“Now what?”

“Now you mourn for a while. Nearly every living soul upon this world is, however remotely, your descendant and your responsibility.”

“Why me? You had hundreds to choose from.”

“I pay my debts. You know that. You saved me all those years ago. One simple observation, one tiny thing you caught did it. You harnessed your own inner darkness and it saved me when I should have died. You gave me back the life I thought was lost forever. You let me start over. You gave me the world. I hand it back to you, but you must rejoin it to understand the rest.”

“The rest?” He asked with tears. He remembered the lives he had sacrificed over the years to advance his cause of the strong being allowed to be strong once again. They were all his blood, all his family. So many had died by his hand. He had been merciless but not uncaring as he slew and let die across generations.

“Someone is making eggs from omelets. That has consequences.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Stay here in these lands you know so well, the ones where you were born and grew up. I know you are from near here, I remember where you came from, how you came to our attention. Do not leave here, them, for now. Help them learn. Help them grow. They will need you both until they can learn, they need time and you must give it to them.”

“Who will?”

“Everyone from here to the Appalachians.”

“Why?”

“The world is about to change. You can’t survive that change alone, but she can.” Mindy said seriously, with lonely smile. “That which has been shall in part be no more. That which was lost, shall in part be returned. You will understand when you awaken.” “What is going to happen?”

“Unnamed.” Mindy said, turning to her. “Your name is Bree. You are blood of the Michelson Clan of the Michelson Familydom. You are first cousin to Brenhar. There is Magic within you. More importantly, you have other Magic you can draw on as well.”

“I am Bree?” The Unnamed whispered, speaking her own name. This returned it, and with it, all that had been taken save the control Nathaniel still held.

“Yes, now hurry, there is little time.” Mindy said and Bree could feel something change about her presence. Then she noticed Mindy’s feet seemed buried in sand.

“Little time?”

“Look inside. You will find an echo of trees. Follow it. Listen to them. Talk with them and you will understand. The world is broken. This is the next step in fixing it.”

“I think I understand.” Bree replied softly. “I have always heard the trees. They have always whispered to me. With them I have never been alone.”

“Remember Nate, she has the tools to survive this. You don’t. If she doesn’t humble you, if you haven’t truly let go, then you will die here. I won’t be able to save you.”

“You’re serious?”

“Yes. Now Bree, once I let go of this form, you need to take it. Form it into a shield around you. It can save you if you use it right. Keep it, keep it close, may it serve you well.”

“I will try.”

“Good, you might also want to quiz him on why he was trying to elevate the pirates, what he hoped to accomplish.”

“I will.” Bree promised.

“Goodbye Nate, and good luck.” Mindy said and the sand like effect crept up her legs until she looked like a statue made of painted sand. Then it began flaking away until Bree took hold of it with her will. She drew it into a shield around them, blocking out the sun.

“You heard what she said.” Bree challenged once they were in the dark.

“Go ahead.” Nate said, lowering his shields, “And ask what you will. I don’t think you will find what you think you will.”

“We’ll see.” Bree said, reaching out with her will to begin the simple series of spells that were humbling.

“Micah!?” Sien shouted in misery and pain. She was watching her cousin drown, but unable to intervene because doing so would kill so very many innocents. “What did you do?”

“I broke the omelet to make an egg.” He replied dropping to his knees in the sand beside the river. His tears were lost in the water dripping off him.

“For Orders sake why?”

“Because it needed to be done. Because this isn’t going to work. You aren’t enough to hold this back. We aren’t enough. None of us is.”

“What?” Sien asked, stunned by the real sorrow and resignation she hears. She can’t comprehend why he did it, but she can tell what it cost him. Even more startling is the realization that he would do it again. This is Micah, but not the Micah she knows. This is another one, someone, something else. Not the HearthFather she eralizes, but the Blood Lord, Micah the First had just annointed himself with his cousins blood, something was coming, but what could require that kind of a sacrifice.

“You, The Kimer, The Vale daughters, Kandra, The Hearthdaughter, even together, you are not enough. We need more.”

“More what?”

“I don’t know, but it isn’t going to work the way it is. So I made something else.”

“Lucas.” Tagoni shouted, running back to find him.

“Here.” He shouted.

“We have some weird reports from the scouts. According to them about three leagues of the river isn’t flowing anymore.”

“What?”

“The river, it stopped.” Tagoni repeated as both of them looked toward the horizon. The now softly glowing fog continued its inevitable march their way without pause, rising from the river valley to cover the sky behind them, topping the wall Sien still holds in place.

“Runner, bring me a Mirror.” Lucas shouted.

“Here sir.” One of them replied, coming over and opening his pack to reveal a mirror in a frame.

“Mirror.” Lucas said as calmly as he could. “Clan Mother Yemel. Now!”

“What?” A woman said answering moments, later looking very harried.

“I have no time to explain, but the river just stopped flowing. Why?”

“Why do you assume one of us is involved?” She demanded.

“Because that takes a ridiculous amount of power. The Vale are with me as are the Kimer. Nicole is with Sien who is shielding us and they happen to be near the river that isn’t flowing right anymore, so what is happening?”

“I don’t know.” She answers hesitantly, looking even more haunted.

“What?” Lucas demands, “This is important. What is happening?”

“Anointment, baptism, no, those are not the right words, more like atonement and redemption.”

“What?”

“You should have run sooner.” She replied, closing the connection.

“Gahhhhh!” Every Magist for a hundred leagues heard screaming through their minds. There was one thought, one sensation, one moment of indescribable crushing pain. Then a moment where none of them could breathe, none heard their own heart beat, no one had a thought, their own or any at all. Then normalcy resumed.

“Did you feel that?” Bree asked the humbled Nathan at her feet as the feeling poking at her mind but warded off by the sand shield faded.

“Yes.”

“What was that?”

“Bootstrap.”

“Bootstrap? What is that?” She demanded, “And give me a full answer.”

“Someone’s Magic just booted, came online. There is a new Magist in the world, however that Magist already knows Magic so they went straight to full power. As their magic builds itself their power will continue to grow.”

“Who?”

“I don’t know.”

“It’s a girl.” Legent Kara announced proudly over the baby’s first cry. She held Brenhar’s daughter up for all to see for a moment before cleaning the child.

“Charlynn Breah Thomson.” Brenhar announces firmly as she holds the child up before offering her daughter her first meal, quieting her instantly. Silence reigns over the audience. There is a gentle burp a gross of hearts later. Then warmth, food and comfort sent the child into her first nap while her mother was still being cleaned.

‘Sien?’ She heard whispered in her mind as the scream faded.

“Who?” Sien asked, unsure what was happening.

‘It’s ok.’ The whisper said reassuringly. ‘It worked, I am well.’

‘What worked?’ She thought back as she stared at the column of water changing shape.

‘Take Micah and go. Go now.’ The voice ordered.

“Nicole?” Sien asked out loud and in her own mind. She stared at river. She saw that it was not flowing. She saw waves running across it the wrong way, waves that grew as she watched, back and forth as though rocking they grew into a literal wall.

‘It’s ok. Micah was right.’ Nicole said in Sien’s mind. ‘Tell Tagoni that I love him and I am sorry.’

‘Right about what?’

‘I wasn’t made a Techist by Legent Alice. She simply took my Magic.’ The voice answered as the column of water faded into the river leaving Cinna’s body in the shallows but no trace of Nicole.

‘Took your Magic, then how?’

‘Took my Magic, not my ability to do Magic. Micah was right. He gave it back to me. He gave me the last remnant that survived, the tiny bit that held Cinna, the one I used to speak to you through her. It has been returned. I am healed. I am whole again.’

‘Returned your Magic?’

‘Yes! I am me once again. I have been restored. I know what to do, I know how to do it. I can handle this. Go and rule your people in peace.’

‘Nikel?’ Sien asked, confused and concerned, feeling something she has no words for.

‘It’s ok Sien.’ Nicole answered with a smiling voice. ‘This is what is meant to be. I am the one who studied all the forbidden texts. I am the one who learned of all the forbidden arts. I am the one who studied the ancient bloody past that is our history. Now I am the one who has to be here. You don’t how to do what needs to be done, I do, and thanks to Micah, now I can.’

‘Why you? You have someone who loves you. It should be me.’

‘You have someone too. Micah loves you. Trust in that. Trust in him.’

‘You bring up that silly collar at a time like this?’ Sien asks, desperately changing the subject because this is the last time she will speak with her cousin and she knows it. Nicole will never survive using the level of power she is talking about, and they both know it.

‘Of course, no better time.’ Nicole laughs.

‘Now what?’

‘RUN!!’

‘Tagoni.’ He heard whispered in his mind, disturbing him with it’s familiarity.

“What?” He said out loud looking around, drawing stares.

‘Send two spare horses down the river road three leagues back. They need your help.’

“Nicole?” he asked in a whisper, staring into nothingness as he tried to find her voice. Snickers started in until Lucas shushed them.

‘I sort of lied about where I was earlier. Sorry about that. Micah and Sien need a ride, quickly. They won’t make it far enough on foot. I can’t delay, I don’t dare, not even for them.’

“I’m on my way with horses. Where do I meet you.” Tagoni replied, not caring about the stares as his audience heard only his half of the conversation.

‘Just them dear.’

“What?”

‘I’m at the river. I’ll be here for a while. You’ll see.’

“Sir.” Someone interrupted, offering a pair of far glasses.

“What?”

“The river, it is rising.” He whispered shuddering.

“Is it going to flood now?”

“No sir, it is not rising that way. It is becoming a wall.”

“A wall?” Tagoni asked, taking the glasses. He looked toward the river. The sight that greeted him drew a grunt of shock. The river was rising into a wall made of water. This wall was holding back the glow in the air, stopping it at the river. It is sparing the alliance soldiers, but doing nothing for the Kallows’ people on the far side of the river.

“What is happening?” He asked, half inside, half outside.

‘I am stopping the attack on you.’ Nicole answered. ‘I can save you and your troops, or them, but I can’t save both.’

“Why?”

‘I can’t stop what he is doing. I can’t completely block it, but I can turn it. I can shield you.’

“I am on my way to get Micah and Sien. Where do I find you?”

‘You won’t. I’m in the river.’

“Well that was interesting.” Legent Wilhelm joked as he surveyed the map. On it the river formed a barrier stopping Charles’ Chaos fog from penetrating Emel. The Kallows however have no such protection. It advances across them unimpeded.

“Seems to be moving about a third, maybe half as fast as a good horse runs now.” Legent Jeff said, measuring the fog’s advance.

“Nicole is rerouting the rivers and streams as she goes. It will make a good enough boundary.” Legent Alice said, pointing to where the fog is going and not going.

“How long will the water last?” Legent Wilhelm asked.

“Long enough it looks like.” Legent Jeff answered looking at projections.

“Oh I hope this holds.” Bree thought to herself from inside her shield bubble. She felt the land dying around her, Magic fading as it is torn from the land and the people alike. Short the strength given freely by the trees she would be as they are becoming. So powerful is whatever is happening that even her shield loses bits of itself, but it holds. Despite herself, she held Nathaniel close as comfort. She soon distracted herself with him, enjoying his experience in pleasing a woman now that he would concentrate on it. Around her bubble of protection, the world changed. The chaos fog stripped away what once was, in favor of the new that is becoming.

“She kept her word.” Elder Isiaah of the local Amish branch said before the town meeting of Hope.

“Yes, and we must always remember to boil our water now.” Someone chimed in. “We have to start worrying about diseases again.”

“We know the strictures, the rules.” Elder Isiaah replied gently. “We are now as we were before the fall. The world has begun to heal. It is up to us to lead the way. The road is long and fraught with hardships, but we shall persevere.”

“Amen.” The congregation echoed, then the real meeting opened.

“What happened?” Tagoni demanded, watching Sien and Micah mount the spare horses while his escort kept a wary eye out.

“Nicole is a Magist again.” Sien answered angrily.

“What? How?” Tagoni demanded as they started back.

“I’ve told you Sien.” Micah stated. “She never was a Techist. She was just a Magist without magic.”

“And you gave hers back?” Sien replied questioning but unbelieving.

“Yes, I told you. There was a tiny bit left in Cinna.”

“And the only way to transfer it was to drown Nicole, then slit Cinna’s throat so you could drown them together in Cinna’s blood?” Sien demanded.

“You what?” Tagoni asked, shocked.

“I had to.” Micah admitted. “Nicole didn’t die, she drowned, and now she is un-drowned.”

“Why? How?” Tagoni demanded.

“Because it wasn’t working, and it wasn’t going to work.” Micah growled in frustration, “We needed more and we didn’t have it. We needed old knowledge. We needed someone who could understand it, and someone who could use it.”

“You defied the Legents.” Tagoni accused.

“No I didn’t. They didn’t say she was a Techist. They asked what she would be willing to give up.”

“They took her Magic, and now you have set her at odds with them; again.”

“Not exactly Tagoni.” Micah said, stopping to look directly at him. “Listen to what they said. Think about it. What did they say?”

“Well.” Tagoni replied, thinking back. He tried to relive the day and the event in his mind. “They asked what she would be willing to give up, and what I would as well.”

“So they never said they were making her a Techist?”

“She didn’t have Magic anymore. That made her a Techist.”

“No, it made her without Magic, another thing entirely.”

“What?”

“They took her Magic, not her powers.” Micah said with a smile backed by growing confidence. “They took her Magic which made it seem like she no longer had powers because she didn’t have the Magic to use them any longer.”

“Then how did you?”

“I gave her back a trace of her own Magic.”

“The bit Nicole placed in Cinna to bind her, and so they could talk over great distances?”

“Exactly, all I did was take it out of Cinna, and ensure it made its way back into Nicole.”

“Then why the drowning?” Tagoni asked, intrigued by the logic. It made sense, in a disturbing way of course, but it still made sense.

“Because Magic will die outside of a body. It sort of dries up. So I used water. If there had been more time then I might have tried something more direct. I might have cut both palms and had them shake like you two did, but I didn’t have time. I am also not a Legent who can guide the process as they did making you a Magist using Nicole’s Magic. I had to improvise once I understood what I needed to do.”

“Then you drowned her so she would have to breathe the water with the trace of her own Magic in it. You were assuming that once it was in her again, once she breathed the blood containing those remants, it would go back to her.”

“Exactly. I thought it would ... heal, I know that is not the right word but it is close enough, her in the process. I know it seems like I was doing something mechanical, like I was starting a machine.”

“But it worked, so you can’t have been completely wrong.”

“Exactly.” Micah agreed, happy the former Techist still remembered the viewpoint. “I know I have no clue why it worked, it just seemed...and we had nothing to lose.”

“Now what?” Tagoni asked. He was unsure of what he felt, wanted to ask, or how.

“Now Nicole keeps that fog away from us. It will reach the mountains sometime tonight, or tomorrow, the next day at the latest. I have no idea what it does, but it can’t be good.”

“You make good babies.” Legent Kara was complimenting Brenhar when she stopped, staring.

“What is wrong my lady?” A Chambermaid asked Brenhar.

“It burns.” She answered in a low hiss. She held out her child for the Legent to take. It was the safest place she could think for her child to be if this was an attack. She tried to rise.

“What burns?” Legent Kara asked as she rocked the child gently.

“I, me...” Brenhar grunted as she collapsed to hands and knees. Tears red with blood dripped as she cried. She shook her head to clear it and sprayed blood from her ears and nose around the room.

‘I am sorry.’ Brenhar heard. She opened her eyes to see the white room inside the white room. Charles was standing there with Lisa beside him. Charles spoke again. “I didn’t understand what I knew.”

“Knowledge and comprehension got out of sync.” Lisa explained as ideas flowed. Knowledge, comprehension and sorrow were carried with it as Brenhar came to know what they wanted her to know.

“This is my last bequest to you.” Charles said, reaching for her. “This is to repay you for helping me wake up, helping me see myself. Without that, without the pain and suffering, I never would have.”

“I’m sorry Charles.” Brenhar replied softly. “I was a total bitch. I took my place for granted. I was wrong. There is nothing I can do to take back my actions.”

“And no need.” Charles said. He touched the collar she still wore deep in her own mind.

“What?” She asked. A line of white light formed about her neck, then fell away in decaying bright fragments to the floor. In moments there is no trace of her former collar.

“And now.” Charles said and Brenhar’s world goes white for a moment. Then they are in the outer white room. Brenhar still bears a collar there.

“Still no need.” He said. Again, the collar turns to white light and drips into nothingness by the time it reaches the floor.

“What are you doing?” Brenhar asked.

“Setting things right and preparing the world for the next step.”

“What?”

“There is a flaw in the world, a hole if you will. It is time to fix it.”

“Are you coming back?”

“No.” Charles admitted.

“We have other commitments now.” Lisa said, smiling. “Tell Sinda and Sandy I love them.”

“I will.”

“Tell Sinda I’m sorry I got her killed.” Charles said sadly.

“I’m also sorry that I killed her.” Brenhar replied just as sadly.

“I know, else I couldn’t have done this.”

“This is goodbye then?”

“Yes.”

“Been good knowing you.” Brenhar said as tears flowed.

“Been good knowing you too Brenhar.” Charles said.

“Goodbye.”

“Goodbye.” Charles and Lisa said as one. Moments later the white room faded out.

“Gahhh.” A scream filled Brenhar’s ears. After a moment she realized the scream was hers. It matched the pressure she felt in her lungs and the burning covering her body.

“Stay back.” Legent Kara warned as Land Mother Michelson came running. The sight that greeted her scared her more than anything had in her entire life. Brenhar knelt on all fours, blood came from her eyes, her ears and especially her nose. Her sweat was tinged with red and she shook. In moments, she collapsed as her body convulsed over and over.

“Is the Heir ok?” Land Mother Michelson asked, noticing the Legent held the infant.

“Yes, the child is safe. I am shielding her from this.”

“What is happening?”

“Reversion to the mean.” Legent Kara answered as the skin around Brenhar’s throat puffed up. The swelling skin turning bright red, seeming to glow.

“Do not panic.” Legent Kara ordered. Silently they watched as a strip of skin nearly three fingers wide puffed up further as the rest contracted. The almost glow became real as the strip developed solid boundaries, then flattened into an elevated scar.

“This is expected.” Legent Kara went on. The scar developed cracks that leaked more light and then began cracking off. It peeled away, like Sien’s collar had, leaving a three fingers wide pink region of new skin behind.

“Mother, the Hearthholders...” Brenhar shouted, trying to speak but unable to hear herself.

“Go get a shower at least. I suggest a bath though, a long bath.” Legent Kara suggested, smiling. “I have your daughter. She is safe with me. I guarantee her safety until you are ready.”

“Thank you.” Brenhar said, trying to pick herself up. She wasn’t quite able to stand yet. She felt her clothes slide on bloody sweat. Her mind adjusted to the lack of weight on it, and the lack inhibitions in it. The Vale wants to play.

“Do we know what happened to them?” Tagoni asked a doctor a week later. They are in the field triage unit on the border between the former Massoon and Gahalia territories.

“As far as we can tell sir, they are sick.” The Doctor answered. The Healer just shrugged.

“Sick?” Tagoni asked.

“Yes sir, everyone hit by the fog is getting sick, Techist and Magist alike, well former Magists that is if I want to be accurate.” He answered sadly. “Even minor cuts are failing to heal overnight or in just a day or two like they normally do. Coughs do not clear up after being in sunlight for a few bells. Sleep is troubled and healing spells have no effect. Even medicines are having limited effect, taking far far longer than normal.”

“So it is true, something took their Magic?”

“Not just took it sir, but changed them as well.”

“Changed them? In what way?”

“Their blood is different. It is missing some parts and has others that we have never seen before.” The Healer spoke up. “We have seen some of these symptoms before, but nothing like this. Studying the lady Nicole after her magic was taken gave us some idea of what to look for when wounds started becoming red and swollen.”

“I’m sorry sir.” The Healer said apologetically a moment later when he realized what he had said.

“It’s ok Healer, Doctor, just do what needs to be done. She did. That’s what she would want us to do now.”

“Well sir, the thing is, without what we learned from studying the Lady Nicole after the Legents did what they did, we wouldn’t know what we were looking at.”

“And what are we looking at?”

“I am sorry sir, but if I answer that it will touch on...”

“Tell me.” Tagoni ordered gruffly.

“If Lady Nicole had not shielded us, we would be just like them.”

“Powerless?”

“Not just powerless, but diseased, rather; able to have a disease.” The Doctor answered. “Also, there are the former fake Blood Queens. There were a gross and a half handlers. All but a dozen are dead, at the hands of the previously bound girls. Their Magic, the Magic that bound them, and the controls based on it, faded as the fog passed over them.”

“I take it the guys had abused their access to the girls?”

“Badly it seems for the most part. The exceptions are still alive.”

“You said you have something disturbing when you asked me to come by.”

“Yes sir.” The Healer spoke up. “We are not sure why, but of the nine hundred and seventy one collar bound girls that survived and were released, seventy three are pregnant.”

“What? Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“How?”

“We have no idea, but among the ones who didn’t kill their handler, a third are pregnant. The youngest being twenty six.”

“Incredible. Then Brenhar’s record is safe?”

“So it would seem. We also have a better idea of the spread. It went forty leagues to the mountains, and one hundred north to south centered here. It is not a square, more of a squished oval bounded by rivers and lakes for the most part.”

“Has anyone seen any sign of any of them?” Tagoni asked, referring to the missing.

“No sir. No sign of the Hearthholders at all. No sign of Lady Nicole, though we are hearing rumors of a woman wandering the Kallows with a thrall healing people who are sick or injured. She seems to have magic, but apparently not a lot, she is able to help some, but not others. None of the patrols have been able to find her either.”

“And the Kallows Mothers?”

“All depowered, along with everyone else caught in it.”

“And Kandra?”

“No change from three days ago when we found her...still comatose.” The healer answered. “Her body is responding to liquids, everything is working, but she is unresponsive.”

“Send her to Ericson. Sinda and Sandy can look after her until she wakes.”

“She’ll be on her way on next train.”

“Thank you, has anyone seen Lucas?”

“He is meeting with a patrol that just returned. Apparently they started to feel sick after several days charting. We think this happens to anyone who goes into that zone. We had several cases the first days that seemed to get better once they left the zone. We assumed it was in their minds.”

“Perhaps not, setup another camp ten leagues inward toward Gahalia. Coordinate with Hearth Father Emel.”

“We will do so.”

“Good. We need to be ready if it starts spreading.”

“Do we intervene or not?” Legent Wilhelm asked.

“She is his wife.” Legent Kara stated flatly.

“She is also proof that we can be defied.”

“We need that eventually. A stray myth or legend might come in handy later.”

“She might tell them what really happened.”

“We can simply ask her what she intends.” Legent Jeff suggested.

“Do they have any clue what happened to the Hearthholders yet?” Legent Wilhelm asked.

“None at all.” Legent Mary answered. “How about if we make sure she stays alive, then use Nicole to send a message of sorts?”

“What sort?”

“A message of fate of course.” Legent Mary answered, holding out a single ring marked “fates” with just the S different this time.

“You think it will come to that?”

“It might, especially once they figure out that Magic can come and go as you enter and leave the zone.”

“You take it Alice. She’s your project anyway, be creative.”

“I can do that.” Legent Alice laughed as she scooped up the ring before fading into nothingness.

“How do things look?” Land Mother Michelson asked.

“So far, it looks contained.” General Iverson replies via mirror from near the Gahalia Massoon border.

“Good.”

“We have a lot of scared people here mothers, and not just from us.”

“We know.”

“So far it appears that after five days in the zone, you start losing your Magic. After seven it is gone. Return on days five, six or seven and your Magic is back overnight. After that, it takes two days for every one you were in. It jumps from bells of recovery time to days.”

“Keep us updated. Also, you should know that Kandra woke in Ericson a few days ago.”

“Good. Does she know what happened to the Hearthholders?”

“She won’t discuss it...with anyone.”

“It’s been over a moon to us, but just days to her. Give her time.”

“We know, but we also need to know.”

“Speaking of over a moon,” He replied, changing subjects, “we need to send more troops home. The weather here will start to turn soon.”

“Do what you need to.”

“Thank you. If you don’t mind me asking, how is the Heir?”

“Brenhar is well. The child is as well, very healthy.”

“Good, and the Thomson Heir?”

“She is also doing well. We expect her to deliver her twins any time in the next moon.”

“Oww.” Nicole whimpered. The pain of her bruised body woke her. This wasn’t the first time she had awakened given the familiarity of the scene. She finds herself wedged between rocks somewhere.

‘That hurts.’ She thought to herself. ‘I think I bruised me.’

“The falls.” She mumbled as dim memories of guiding water into a wall returned. Then came memories of her Magic returning. Then memories of breathing in bloody water while she finished drowning. Then she saw Cinna’s throat slit by Micah before he shoved her into the water. Finally, she remembered Micah trapping her in the column of water.

“These must be the falls down river. How did I get here?” She asked herself. She was somehow not disturbed at the moment that she had been drowned, then lived, then became something else and then nothingness. At that moment, she had pain enough to prove that she still lived, and that dwelling on the past would preclude a future.

“I wonder if anything works?” She asked herself while trying to find a grip on something. Eventually she succeeded. Then she discovered that moving meant moving against the weight of flowing water pinning her in place amidst the rocks that hid the shore from her and she from it. She also had to deal with the leak trying to drown her when she succeeded.

“Well this is bad.” She observed, laughing. Study showed that the moment she moved, normal flow would resume. This would carry her downstream over rocks as the river water was able to take its normal course. Her current position blocked that normal flow.

‘I wonder?’ She thought, reaching out for her previous connection to the river water. It was weak, but present. Soon the weight of the water eased as it moved itself off her. Disgusted or amused, and unwilling to take the time to sort the feeling out, she climbed out of the rocks. She found herself mid stream. The river was pushing to resume its former easy course.

“Great.” Nicole laughed. The river refused to stop flowing so that she could walk across to the shore, but it still flowed away from her enough to not flood her perch.

“Midday.” She grunted. She looked up at the sun and reached out for Gahalia, knowing Massoon was no more.

‘Hello.’ She heard tentatively.

‘Hello back.’ She thought in its direction. ‘Can you please have someone find me?’

‘Soon.’

‘Thanks.’

‘Happy to be of service Lady Emel.’

“Lady Emel?” Nicole asked herself.

“Clan Mother.” Yen greeted her before the real gathering in the fields by Camden pass. It was the nearest known neutral place to the front where the gathering of mothers could happen.

“Lady Yen.” Clan Mother Yemel greeted her with tears.

“It’s ok. I am ok Mother of clans.”

“But you?” She stammered. She put out her hands to pull Yen into a hug but they just passed through the ghostly presence of her niece, leaving nothing but a faint tingle in their wake.

“She is not alone.” Another voice said.

“She is never alone.” More voices intruded from the shadows. “We are proud to stand with our lady.”

“She was not coerced.” A new voice intruded, this one solid. The Clan Mother gasped as she turned to find herself facing Legents, a lot of Legents.

“She acted on her own.” The same calm voice continued, disquieting her. The speaker is Legent Wilhelm. By their feel, the other eight with him are definitely other Legents. “In fact she defied her orders. She acted outside of both the bounds and intent of her orders.”

“Yet rest assured,” A female Legent spoke, “Had she not done what she did, Dest would have fallen before you could have moved to block or support them.”

“Had she not acted.” Another Female Legent spoke, “The chain of events she allowed could not have started.”

“Without the opening she provided, nothing the Lady Nicole did would have mattered in the long run.”

“That would have put Dest in Donalson’s hands, which would have made Sien’s actions in Donalson impossible.” The Legents continued to trade off speaking

“And that would have meant facing the two of them, and the Kallows, all acting as one.” Finished Legent Wilhelm.

“We would have failed, fallen.” Clan Mother Yemel whispered.

“Had I not betrayed my oaths Clan Mother, I could not have saved anyone.”

“Nicole!” Tagoni shouted in joy as he saw her ride up with a patrol. They had reported finding someone stranded in the river leagues downstream from the fight in response to directions from Gahalia.

“Tagoni.” She replied softly, but he heard it anyway, mostly in his mind.

“Nicole?” He asked stopping and staring. She looked different in some way that he couldn’t put words to. Thin, cold, hungry, desperately tired, but different in some way defied description.

“Yes Tagoni, I am me again, my Magist self that is. Micah restored me.”

“How?”

“That is between him and the Legents.”

“What happened?”

“The Hearthson finally cracked.” Nicole laughed as she hopped down from the horse. “He went crazy for a while. It took Me, Kandra and Lisa just to save you guys. No offense, but the rest of you, even Sien, wouldn’t have mattered. How bad is it on the Kallows? I know Massoon is down, but how many did it kill?”

“Directly, no one, but it did something in many ways worse.”

“Is that why it feels dead there, no Magic?”

“Exactly.” He replied stepping forward to offer a hug.

“I missed you too.” Nicole said wrapping herself in his arms, crying on his shoulder as emotions forced their way to the surface when she finally relaxed.

“Lady Nicole Dest Emel.” A new voice interrupted.

“Legent.” Nicole said with a sad smile and a grim chuckle. She expected punishment, even execution, for her use of forbidden magic to turn the river into a shield, she had simply hoped for a little more time.

“We need to have words.” Legent Alice told her.

“You want to do this here?” Nicole asked, pushing Tagoni away from her. She reached out and drew into herself the power of the place, preparing for what she knew came next. She was unwilling to give up without a fight this time, not after all she had sacrificed to get here.

“You think you could stop one of us?” Legent Alice asked curiously.

“No, but I am no longer the child. I no longer accept being a pawn.” Nicole declared flatly, without anger, but with more determination than even she had realized she possessed, “You want my head, I know I can’t stop you, but you’re paying for it.”

“You are no longer a pawn.” Legent Alice laughed smiling sweetly, “In fact, you had achieved bishop status when I demoted you back to pawn so you could become a queen in your own right, not as an adjunct to another.”

“What?”

“You see more now than you had ever envisioned seeing, but the future still hides itself. You see only what you are prepared to see.”

“Huhh.”

“You have been chosen,” Legent Alice continues as she holds out an ornate wooden box that floats in the air in front of her, “to receive an honor, and a burden. Not all the pieces available were needed. You get to position the leftovers for the future. If you are truly what is needed then you will know where these and the rest go.”

“What is this?” Nicole asked bringing the box closer to herself but not touching it.

“A chance.”

“I will do my best.” Nicole promised, reaching out to take it.

“We expect nothing less from the chosen of Fate.” Legent Alice replied laughing. Then she simply wasn’t there anymore.

School at Centerversity began on time, a much needed way of making a bit of normalcy, though it was short some students. Recovery efforts and support for the now Magicless population of the Kallows meant that many fathers were not home to see their children off to school. Their departures were sad and in some way desperate as they sought the normalcy no one could give them.

Sinda and Sandy of Ericson returned, for the first time not in the shadow of Lisa. The newly appointed though not yet confirmed third heirs of Thomson and Michelson arrived together, choosing to share a dorm room that they find is already next door to where Sinda and Sandy are.

Brenhar and Lucas returned as well, the only parents in school, also the only ones with a servant, Brenna, who handled baby sitting duties for them while they attended classes, but both were determined to finish their educations properly. Tagoni and Nicole returned to their former rooms, bringing a contingent of somewhat nervous students with them. Emel sent no heirs for they have none yet, but many students, which the heirs of Michelson and Thomson promised to help as needed.

For the first time in memory, the Kallows sent no new students. Though never sending many, it has always sent some. The few remaining Kallows students that had stayed through the time of conflict were now the only remaining Magists from the Kallows. When it became clear that the Kallows had no way to pay for their educations while recovering from war damage, and the changes in their population at large. Micah and Sien pledged to pay for them, calling it a gesture of good will toward a conquered foe they wanted to see recover to be a friend. They did this to ensure history did not repeat itself, and to ensure the end of the Sync wars for all time.

Kandra remained in Ericson, withdrawing from the public eye. Over the months her proximity to the HearthSon was at her request played down, it eventually began fading from general public awareness. While Sinda and Sandy were at school she oversaw the running of Ericson. Those who knew her said there was a sadness about her, a hollowness, as though a void lay within her. As time passed, she withdrew from all but a few friends and the others caught up in the affairs of the Hearthson. She made for heself a small residense over looking the lake. Within it she makes a small room, a personal study. In it she keeps her most prized posessions, her personal journals. She also keeps a wooden box on a shelf, passed on to her by Lady nicole with instructions to take care of its contents.

The school year passed warily as fears of further war slowly passed. The Kallows slowly changed from a Magist based society, to one geared toward a Techist view. The Amish came out of their long seclusion to teach them the old ways. For now in the Kallows you could get sick from drinking bad water, and those who stayed to long or were their on that day, could not tell good from bad as they always had been able to. After a long vacation, Darwin has returned to the Kallows, and class is in session once more. When reprisals and sanctions upon the Kallows did not come, they began to relax. When the zone of lost Magic did not grow, everyone else began to relax as well. Sinda and Sandy on their own organized unofficial classes teaching humbling to the youngest so that all would know the art and the rules that went with it, determined to prevent certain events from repeating. In weeks, attendance became mandatory for first through third years, the staff informing them they will pass or keep attending. Leaders of Kingdoms and Familydoms whose students attend Centerversity are informed of the new curriculum and agree, the classes are needed. It is agreed that the ladies are stepping up properly, as is expected of all the chosen of the Hearthdaughter.

The sight of growing trees in Michelson grove at Brenhar’s places from the previous winter and the summer solstice both, brought tears to the Land and House mothers of Michelson, proof that they were indeed blessed. No one questioned her place now or Lucas being by her side. Small changes resulted from him being her partner, not her consort. For the first time a consort was a true partner of an heir, and no one doubted he would continue to be when she came to be House or more likely Land Mother in her own right. Other Familydoms began to look for that in their consorts as well since that extra bit he brought had helped them survive the seeming impossible, and they want that kind of strength as well.

The school year ends with an easing of the tensions of the previous decades. Little conflicts continued of course, people being people, but nothing that threatened to engulf whole continents in war. Gahalia is loaned to the Kallows as a place for their surviving Magists to call home.

Summer comes, the sun shines, and tomorrow can take care of itself.

The Legents smile looking upon all that the Hearthdaughter has wrought.

Another watches them, smiling as well, knowing this step is done, readying herself for the next.