Tales of Alterra Chapter 2

 

Chapter 2

August sat down on a rock. “You’re an alchemist, aren’t you?”

Elyse scoffed, walking to her clothes and grabbing them off the tree branch. “You’re one to talk. You managed to deactivate my invisibility field with a single spell.”

August shook his head. “That’s not the problem. Have you been dumping waste chemicals into this river?”

Elyse shrugged. “Yeah, I have. What, is that a problem?”

August sighed, standing up. “Yes, it is. The people in the village downriver have been having a, well, a fungal problem.”

Elyse’s eyes opened. “Wait, what do you mean, downriver?”

Is this girl just incredibly unaware? Thought August. He rubbed his eyes. “There’s a village downriver. They’ve been drinking whatever you’ve been putting in this water.”

“Oh, well, I, uh.” Elyse snapped her fingers and her wardrobe wrapped around her. First came her undershirt and then the black cloak that covered her entire body, from wrists to ankles. She rolled her arms and turned to her cave. Then she turned back to August.

“Is that a skysteel sword?” she said.

August reflexively grasped his sword’s hilt. “Yes.”

“Can I see it?”

August read Elyse’s gaze and felt no malice. So he handed her his sword.

Elyse giggled and held her finger to the blade. A small ball of purple light formed underneath the finger. She ran the ball up and down the blade and then twirled the blade with surprising dexterity. “Wow.” She handed the blade back to August. “I happen to be an expert in skysteel.”

“Back to the topic at hand.” August sheathed his sword. “You. You’ve been dumping dangerous chemicals into the water.”

Elyse waved her hand. “Come with me.” She walked into the small cave between the rocks at the edge of the river. There was a ripple and then her form was gone.

August took a deep breath and then plunged in after her. The world switched instantly and he stood at the entrance of a large cave that was filled to the brim with alchemical equipment.

“I’ve been working on a serum to increase crop yields through splicing grain with mushrooms.” Elyse did a twirl in the middle of the equipment. “If it’s successful it could triple crop yields around the disk.”

“I don’t think you understand.” August walked, with caution, to the center of the laboratory.

Elyse picked up a bottle with blue liquid in it. “But it could change the world.” She put the bottle back down. “What’s a few people with mushrooms sprouting from their arms compared to millions of people who will have food on their tables where there wasn’t before?”

“Are you one to make that judgement?”

“Dunno. I’ve never thought about it like that.”

“Please, move your lab or stop dumping stuff in the river.”

Elyse picked up a pink vial. “I did, of course, come up with a cure for mycomanifestia.” She tossed it to August. “It’s right there. Rub a bit of it on the affected limb and the mushrooms will be gone. Probably. Side effects may include …” She mumbled. “And there you have it! All better.”

“I think you better come with me to help administer this stuff.” August examined the small pink vial.

Elyse sighed. “Yeah, I guess it is my responsibility.” She sighed again. “Really? Do I have to go into town?”

“You have to.”

Elyse looked nervous. “Really?”

“Is there a reason why you shouldn’t?”

“Um …” Elyse scratched her chin. “No. No there isn’t.” Her voice cracked.

August frowned. “Then let’s get going.” He paused. “You going to wear that even though it’s the middle of the day in summer?”

Elyse twirled. “It’s precisely because it’s the middle of the day in summer that I have to wear this. You see, I have very little melanin in my skin. I am an albino.”

“Melanin? Albino?” August shook his head. “Never mind. Let’s get going.”

“Ah, melanin is, you see—”

August cut Elyse off. “Later. For now we have to make haste.”

Elyse raised her shoulders and rolled her eyes. Then she followed August out of the cave and into the river clearing.

The two of them followed the riverbank down towards Dunhollow.

August’s greenblood sense picked up something he did not want to see. A slight fog covered the ground, and the temperature suddenly dropped ten degrees. Elyse pulled her cloak to herself.

“It’s the middle of the day in summer, right?”

“It’s supposed to be.” August took out his skysteel sword. It hummed, the sure presence of a monster. “Dangermuff.”

Elyse froze, her eyes widening. “No way!” She seemed to be much more excited then scared. “Anfalus Hypnogogus! In the flesh! A real—” Her eyes rolled back into her head and she collapsed to the ground.

August knelt down beside her. The fog deepened. The dangermuff was on the hunt. Elyse’s eyes opened huge. They were glazed over, showing that she was not in control of her body. She stood up like a zombie coming to life and stumbled towards the brush.

“Ah, not good, not good.” August grabbed her by the arms.

Elyse fought like a mad rabbit, scratching him with her nails and trying to bite him.

August anchored himself to a tree root and gripped Elyse. She continued to fight his embrace.

August expanded his greenblood sense and located the mind of the dangermuff.

Okay, here we go, showdown time. August leaped into the mind of the dangermuff and started smashing things. The dangermuff screamed with a psychic attack, piercing August’s ears. August couldn’t cover them because of Elyse. He fainted after a couple of seconds and everything went black.

When he woke up Elyse was still in his arms. The evening was setting in and the sun held the world in a warm orange embrace. August tapped Elyse. “Wake up.” He pushed her off his lap ad stood up, shakily.

Elyse’s eyes opened. Then she jumped up with excitement. “Holy cow! That was the first time I’ve ever been seized by Anfalus Hypnogogus!”

“You almost died.”

“It was so cool! A hallucinatory experience that rivals muskwort!”

August gripped Elyse’s arm. “You are far, far too naive to be alone in the woods.” He looked at the setting sun. “In any case, I’m taking you to apologize to the villagers and fix whatever you caused.” He paused, furrowing his brow. “Wait, dangermuffs don’t hunt during the daytime unless …” He gritted his teeth. “I have a bad feeling about this.” He started jogging towards the town, scrambling through the bush and onto the main road.

“Come on! Let’s go! We don’t have much time!”

“But I want to examine the Anfalus Hypnogogus’s body!”

“You do realize they disintegrate into thought matter when they die, right?”

Elyse caught up to August, surprising him with her speed. “Yeah! But I wanted to see it anyways!”

“Not the time.” August strapped his shield to his off hand. “The village is in trouble.”

A pillar of smoke rose in the distance, right in the direction of Dunhollow.

Elyse grimaced. “This means I don’t have to fix anything anymore, doesn’t it?”

August bit his lip. “Let’s hope you’re wrong.”

A spear whistled out of the woods. August caught it with his shield hand. He glanced at the spear, stunned.

Elyse whistled in admiration.

“That was a fluke.” August tossed the spear aside.

A monster known as a gangler emerged from the shadows. Then another, then two more. They were monkey-ish creatures, walking with their arms dangling low, wearing nothing but loincloths. They also smelled.

Elyse took something out of her cloak. “Ooh, Sarus Indictus.”

“Can you shut up about that?” August held his sword in a guarding position.

“But this is exciting!” Elyse whipped her wrist through the air and a fire began in her palm.

The fire stretched out until it formed a devilish whip. She cracked it, sending sparks through the air.

It was August’s turn to whistle. “Where’d you get a demonic artifact from?”

“Not the time, sweetie.” Elyse flicked the whip through the air menacingly.

August turned to face the ganglers. “Well, I’m glad to have you on my side.”

A gangler charged August. August stepped aside and lopped its head off. His skysteel blade shimmered, lightened by the blood. The headless gangler collapsed to the ground.

The five other ganglers formed a circle around August and Elyse.

At that moment August lost control of his own body. Or, rather, switched control of his body with the person next to him.

He was now inside Elyse’s body. The fire whip was coming towards him. Having no experience with whips, especially ones made of demonic fire, all he could do was dodge the thing and dive to the ground.

What the hell? It was Elyse’s voice, inside August’s head.

Whoah this cloak is heavy, though August. He tried standing up and caught his feet on the fabric.

A gangler’s spear came for him and he rolled, just in time to avoid it.

Elyse—in August’s body—was swinging his sword wildly and without control. She managed to clip a gangler in the arm.

You think the cloak is heavy now? Said Elyse’s voice in August’s head. Try wearing it while traveling in the middle of summer.

Now is not the time, thought August.

Yeah, no beans, said Elyse. She tripped and collided with a gangler, tangling with it.

“What happened?” said August, in Elyse’s voice.

Then their bodies switched again. August was on the ground, staring at a gangler’s face just an inch from his.

“Hya!” he stabbed the gangler and twisted away from it. The other ganglers were rushing for Elyse.

Elyse performed a twisting, twirling kick and knocked out three ganglers at one.

“A spectral tie.” She whipped the head off of the last gangler. “I’ve heard of them, but I’ve never seen one for myself.”

“What do you know of them?” August flicked his sword clean of blood.  

“Not much. Now’s not the time!”

“Ahh!” yelled August and Elyse at the same time. Their minds melded again, though this time they did not switch bodies.

Not cool, said Elyse, in August’s head. It must have been the Hypnogogus.

You mean dangermuff?

Yeah, that.

August gripped his head as a splitting headache pounded a nail into his head. He staggered. “I can’t fight like this.”

“Neither can I.”

“But the village.” August pushed the pain away. The pillar of smoke in the distance was getting larger.

Both Elyse and August looked at each other. “Not good.”

Elyse and August sprinted towards the village. They burst out of the forest and into the fields surrounding the village. The entire place was on fire. Flying alligator-like creatures called alzoths dove through the smoke. The ground rumbled. A mound of dirt popped up and started heading for them.

“A wurm,” said Elyse, flicking her demon whip.

“Yeah, no kidding.” August got into a position with his sword.

August felt a memory float into his mind. An explosion. Sadness. Lots of important people watching.

“Not now!” he said, out loud, as he waited for the wurm to arrive.

The wurm erupted from the soil and aimed its massive maw at August. August twisted, jumped, and severed the lower portion of its head. Blue blood sprayed everywhere.

Elyse leaped on top of it and wrapped her demon whip around it, the flames burning into its skin.

The wurm trembled and then came to a rest.

Three more mounds of dirt appeared and started towards August and Elyse.

“How many of these things are there?” said August. He readied for a fight.

One of the wurms disappeared, presumably to go deeper underground.

A maw opened beneath August and wet flesh surrounded him. Teeth wrenched into his armor, piercing his skin.

The wurm had got him. He was too constricted to do anything about it.

He felt the presence of Elyse, her mind’s panic, everything running through her head.

I’ll save you.

Tales of Alterra Chapter 1

 

Chapter 1

August the monster hunter knelt down to check the tracks of the monster he was hunting. It was a pigglewig, a slightly higher-grade monster than your average wild boar. Still dangerous, it was powerful enough to kill an untrained man.

The tracks told him that the pigglewig had switched trails right in front of him abut twenty minutes ago. August’s green-sense told him about which direction the monster had gone in.

August crept through the underbrush. He was about to enter a forest clearing, but then stopped. The moonlight came out of the clouds above and illuminated a sleeping figure, wrapped in a deep black coat. The forest was silent. August stayed in the shadows, surveying the landscape before him.

The sleeping figure did not move. It had not sensed August’s presence, as far as he could tell.

August picked up a stone and tossed it out into the clearing. The figure did not respond. This gave August the courage to creep out of the brush and into the opening.

August approached the body. Upon closer inspection, the body was that of a girl, underneath a thick black cloak. August knelt down next to the girl and reached, gingerly, towards her.

The girl’s hand snapped out and gripped August’s arm.

“Food.”

August was baffled. “Food?”

The girl looked up and her eyes became visible, shining bright red under the moonlight. Her hair flowed down past her shoulders and was shock white, containing stars in its fibers. Her skin was whiter than the stars. August had never seen anything like it before.

“Food.”

August took off his rucksack and pulled some jerky out of it. He held it out to the girl.

The girl snatched it out of August’s hands and devoured it. She swallowed and then looked up. Her eyes opened as if she had just noticed August’s face.

“Ooh, a greenblood.” She pulled herself up onto her knees and sat down cross-legged. “Water.”

August took out his canteen and handed it to her, hesitantly.

The girl took it with a bit more grace than the food and took a long swig. “Much thanks.” She shoved the canteen back at August. She stood up and wiped down her black cloak. The cloak covered everything except her face.

The girl took out a pair of sunglasses and applied them to the bridge of her nose. “I’ll remember this.” She turned around and began walking away.

“Wait,” said August. “I never got your name.”

“Name?” the girl turned to look back at August. “Elyse.”

“My name is August.”

“Hello, August.” Elyse turned back around and disappeared into the brush.

August took a deep breath. The encounter had been strange, but it wasn’t too strange. Finding a girl collapsed due to exhaustion at this time of night was a bit out of the ordinary, but August had seen worse. He shrugged. The girl was probably just another fellow traveler. Her being alive out here at all meant that she had enough wherewithal to kill a pigglewig or two. Those who traveled these roads alone had to be able to do at least that. She had just miscalculated her provisions or something and needed a pick me up. That was what August decided to think about the affair.

August continued tracking the pigglewig. It went in the opposite direction from where Elyse had gone. Without expecting to, August stumbled onto a fried corpse where there had once been a pigglewig. It lay in a small depression, charred black all around.

What had caused this? August knelt down next to the corpse.

Someone had tried to eat it. August thought it was common knowledge that pigglewig flesh tasted like, well, rotten fish. There was no palatable way to eat it.

And yet someone had tried. The person who had tried had teeth like a human and obviously either extreme ignorance of local fauna or a dash of recklessness—or both. August sighed, turning away from the beast. Pigglewig flesh was good for one thing—making candles. The candles made with pigglewig fat burned bright, clean, and long. Now that the body was in this state there was no use for it. August began the trek back to the main road. The nearest town was Dunhollow, which was a bit of luck, since August had a good relationship with its people. Greenbloods were a rare sight here in the southern wedge and the people needed someone to deal with monsters for them.

August checked the road before making his presence known. He stepped out of the forest and onto the path. The road was an ancient construct that was formed of a strange solid rock, through which wide cracks ran, and over which a wheel passed easily. It had been there since before recorded time. Roads like these crisscrossed the world disk and, in this part of the world, were well-traveled.

August began the trek back towards Dunhollow. The moon occasionally peeked out from between the clouds and illuminated the road ahead. The nighttime ambience was calming and gave August a feeling of safety. Owls dd not call when monsters were nearby.

Finally August made it to Dunhollow. It was early in the morning, maybe three hours to sunrise. The single guard at the gate caught sight of August.

“Who goes—Oh, August. I’ll open the gates for you.” He began winching open the palisade gate. As August passed inside, the guard whispered to him:

“There’s a witch around here. Better be careful who you talk to on the roads this late at night.”

Witch? Thought August. It could be that girl I saw earlier. August shrugged. It wasn’t in his contract to hunt down humans. As a greenblood, he was worn to protect all humanity, and that meant only killing humans when absolutely necessary. This did not seem like a case of that, but August decided to visit the town elder anyways. He knew where to go, and started down the main street towards the inn. It was early, but the town drunkards were probably still nursing beers there.

The town had a single street on which sat finer houses, but most of the outlying domiciles between the center and the palisade were small hovels. The village was a small one and dealt mostly in the fur trade.

August found the inn and pushed his way inside. The place was lit by a crackling fire and the innkeeper’s daughter stood behind the counter, polishing the table.

“August,” said the innkeeper’s daughter, whose name was Freyalie. “It’s been a while.”

August sat down at an empty table. “How have things been around here?”

“No too well, actually.”

“Oh?”

“There’s been a rash of curses.”

“How so?” August made the signal for a beer.

Freyalie took a mug to the tap. “Two of our village mothers have had mushrooms sprout from their arms. Several cattle have died, and their internals were filled with the same kind of mushroom.”

“Is Penny okay?”

“She’s fine.” Freyalie brought the mug to August’s table. “As good as any teenaged daughter could be.”

August took the mug. “I heard there was a witch.”

“You don’t do those things, do you?” Freyalie returned to the bar counter and leaned on it. “You’ve always said no to killing bandits around here.”

“I only kill humans when absolutely necessary. A witch poisoning a well or two with mushroom sickness doesn’t count for that.”

Freyalie sighed. “Well, I’d feel better if you at least investigated.”

“I also don’t do these things without pay.”

“Well, we’ll wake Village Elder when the sun comes up, see what he has to say about these things.” Freyalie picked up a rag and began wiping, even though the bar was exceedingly clean.

August nursed his beer until the sun came up. Being a geenblood meant that he only had to sleep once every three or so days. When the sun was light enough to see by, he paid his tab, left the inn, and went to Village Elder’s house.

Edwin, known around town as Village Elder, was the man appointed by the local baron to handle Dunhollow. He was a respected man because of his character, but that respect came with a distance. He was, after all, the one in charge of punishment and taxation.

August knocked on the fine wood-framed door. The butler opened the door and nodded.

Two minutes later August was in the sitting room watching a fire burn in the magnificent fireplace.

Edwin came into the room in his nightclothes.

“You’re early.”

“I am.”

“I can never get used to you greenbloods.” Edwin took a cigar out of a humidor and cut it.

“It’s not my problem.”

Edwin examined the cigar before lighting it. He puffed. “Well, I wasn’t saying it was. In any case, I know why you’re here. The witch?”

“I appreciate you understanding.”

“And you won’t kill her.” Edwin puffed, blowing a smoke ring.

“No. But was hoping that you’d let me deal with her, for a price, of course.”

“How would you deal with a witch without killing it?” Edwin examined the ash at the end of the cigar.

“Perhaps she can be persuaded to leave.”

“And you think you can do that?”

August frowned. “You doubt me?”

“I’ve always been impressed with your results.” Edwin paused. “Go ahead. I’ll pay you when she’s gone and the curse is reversed.”

“Two gold.”

Edwin sighed. “Always a stickler, you are. One gold.”

“One gold one silver.”

Edwin stretched out his arm for a handshake. “Deal.”

August shook his hand. “Deal. I’ll have her dealt with by sunset.”

Edwin stood up and walked to the window. “In the meantime, I have village stuff to attend to.” He looked at his nightgown as if he were surprised to be wearing it. “Well, first I must change. Go on, do your thing.” He waved his hand.

August stood up and left the sitting room. He passed the butler as he left the house and exited onto the street. He caught sight of Freyalie, carrying water, accompanied by Penny.

Penny was a red-haired girl of about fifteen who August had known for quite some time.

“August!” said Penny, waving.

August waved back. “Heyo. How have you been?”

“My mother has been teaching me spinning recently.” Penny frowned. “But I hate it. It’s so boring, I don’t like it.”

Freyalie pinched Penny’s arm. “Not in front of everyone.”

Penny made a face. “Well, it’s the truth.”

August made the best face he could given the situation.

Freyalie sighed, pulling Penny with her. She turned to look back at August. “I’ll see you at dinner tonight. I won’t take no for an answer.”

“I’ll be there,” said August. He turned and walked towards the village entrance.

Once outside the village he turned on his greenblood sense and searched for magic residue. He noticed a faint spell aura to the west and, for lack of a better target, headed that way. It happened to be upriver, and he traveled alongside its edge. On a whim, he knelt down and touched the water.

The water was not pure. It had the distinct note of magical contamination. This was probably what had been turning the cows into mushroom farms. Someone was up the river, polluting it with chemicals of some sort.

August stood up, wiping his hand carefully on his handkerchief. He folded it and returned it to his pouch before continuing up the river.

He reached a small waterfall rapids where the flow was considerably increased. There were a pile of stones next to the riverbank.

He had a hunch. Holding up his hand, he created an antimagic field and expanded it.

Right in front of him, hanging on a branch, were a woman’s underwear. And standing in the water, with one arm covering herself, was a girl August recognized. Her other hand was pointed at him and contained a deadly ball of fire.

“Oh,” said Elyse. She lowered her hand. “It’s you.”

Spacetrail Chapter 1

 

Chapter 1

Serth sat atop his god throne. One hand upon his scepter, he had a full view of the naval engagement spread out between Ulius IV and VI. Thousands of capital-class ships hacked it out against each other, catching orbits and flying at significant portions of the speed of light. The panorama was much like watching a piece of radioactive material boiling off in a cloud chamber.

Serth’s chief strategist, Morion, turned to him.

Morio bowed. “My lord. The field is ready for your Geiss.”

Serth stood up. His god-power, granted to him by the chief deity of the human pantheon, was a powerful fate-altering weapon that could change the speed of light in a localized bubble about the size of a solar system. If the change happened fast enough, relative speeds would change and confuse anyone doing spatial calculations without prior knowledge of the Geiss’s effect. This would cause a serious advantage for the side of humanity.

Serth swept his hand in front of his chest. “Those triptifilexians will meet my wrath.” He closed his eyes and altered reality.

Light speed distortions that normally only occurred during warp travel sprung into being everywhere throughout the battlefield. A good portion of the triptifilexians’ ships were immediately disabled. The human forces combed through the remainders and began mopping up.

At once every third human in the command room fell to the ground in agonizing pain. Serth was not affected—being of god flesh—but Morion was.

Morion clutched his neck. “Master,” he babbled. “It hurts.”

Serth knew exactly who had done this. The triptifilexians had a god on their side as well. Someone from the pantheon of pain. Serth prepared for a showdown in metaspace. He flicked his fingers and entered the warp realm. This realm was, first and foremost, the playground of the gods. He saw, on the other end of the distorted space, a monstrous being that had to be the triptifilexians’ deity. Serth addressed the monstrous creature in god-speech.

“You.” Serth flew towards the being. He could tell nothing from looking at the thing. It was a mix between a beetle and a lizard. No distinguishing characteristics at all that a human could understand.

The beast-god spoke with a tongue that clicked and clacked with menacing undertones. However, due to god-speech, Serth understood him.

“My friend.” The trip’ clacked its mandibles together. “Do you not wish to spread your religion?”

“I am a god, so of course I do.” Serth flew closer to the enemy god. He began circling the trip’.

The trip’ opened an orifice and a blue gas escaped. “Then why do you begrudge me my religion?” It clacked its foot claws against the warp space.

“All you do is cause pain.” Serth landed on the platform the trip’ was standing on. “Your species are a menace. You torture your prisoners—our civilians—with methods that would cause our worst serial killer to vomit at the sight.”

“And so what of it?” The trip’ watched Serth with all of its eyes. “Your species is soft, like the underbelly of a groxian.”

“Your slaves?”

“We would not call them such.”

Serth sat down in lotus position. The rule of god to god interaction was ironclad, even between species that were diametrically opposed. Serth would not be hurt. “You co-evolved with them. And yet you treat them horribly.”

“They are a species that needs hardening.” The trip’ sat down across from Serth. “Our species, who you call triptifilexians, are a species who grew up with six sentient co-evolved competitors. Do you know why we ended up on top? When a dianod has carbon fiber armor and a crax has claws with ten tons of force? What did we, the triptifilexians have? We had pain. Pain is to us a loving mother. It takes care of its children and we are its evangelists.”

“But we don’t like pain,” said Serth. “We have tried to tell you that over and over.”

“Did you know that, as we have found, the triptifilexian nervous system is ten times more sensitive than that of a human’s?”

Serth blanched. He knew what kind of tortures the trips’ inflicted on every sentient being they encountered.

“We have tried to negotiate.” The trip shifted its weight. “We have tried to be peaceful.”

Serth stood up. “And your peace is our hell.” He turned away. “In any case, the UN space force seems to have won this battle.”

“Farewell.” The trip’ left first.

Serth stared at an empty warp zone. He sighed, and then returned to his ship’s bride. Less than a second had passed for the people down there—relativity did that kind of thing.

“Are your pnumann okay?” Serth stood up from his god throne.

Next to his throne was another seat, reserved for the ambassador of the pnumann race. It was, for lack of a better descriptor, a very well decorated fish tank. The pnumann were a species about the size of a sea monkey but with full sentient-level intelligence. Their brains were hydraulic instead of organic. They also worked really well together with humans, whose blood vessels were a cozy crawl space for these little tykes. They formed a perfect symbiotic relationship with humans and most other humanoid races allied with the UN, though humans were their favorite because their blood ph was closest to the pnumann homeland. It helped having a trained doctor plus EMT crew inside every important human officer, ready to act at a moment’s notice. A typical human could host over ten thousand pnumann without suffering ill effects.

The pnumann ambassador spoke through his amplification device.

“I’m okay. It looks like the psychic wave only affected you terrans.”

Serth knelt beside Morion. “Do you think your people can handle it?”

The pnumann ambassador was silent. “We do not do well with the human nervous system. It appears that the attack made against us has disrupted that on a fundamental level.”

“Are your people okay?”

“They are intact, yes.” The pnumann ambassador stepped out of his fishtank and into his mech suit, about the size of a Guinea pig. The mech strutted over to where Serth was kneeling beside Morion.

Morion groaned. “My lord,” he said.

Serth pulled out his best healing magic. “It appears that their psychic wave attack only affected a quarter of our men.”

Morion coughed. “My lord, save your magic for someone else.

The pnumann ambassador walked up to Morion’s shoulder. “You are the lynchpin of the chain of command.”

“Right, Sir Bloop.” Morion looked at Serth. “If you have to heal me, do it now.”

Serth healed Morion with god magic. “And you have a lot of work to do. The battle still rages.”

The healing aura surrounded Morion and every other person on the bridge. The light exploded with intensity and, when it was gone, the effects of the psychic blast were nullified.

“I’m getting feedback from the other vessels,” said Maki, the helmsman, who had not been affected by the blast. “We’re making a pursuit. Soon we’ll be able to begin land based operations.”

“Even with orbital superiority it’s going to be difficult,” said Morion, climbing back up and returning to his post.

Serth returned to his god throne. “That’s it. We have them now and are on the path to victory.”

The cleanup lasted two local hours, though it was vastly different for those on the clipper vessels that routinely traveled close to light speed.

Serth called his counsel together to prepare to make the next step.

“The arch-god Demonis has scheduled a visit with our fleet,” said Morion, holding a tablet device. “While we conduct cleanup operations we will need to prepare for his arrival.”

“Wills, take care of that.”

Wills saluted and left the room.

Serth put his chin into his hand. “We need something special for this land operation. The planet is mostly jungle and it’s going to be difficult going. Do you think we should bring in the Ionians?”

“You’re our god,” said Morion. “You make the decisions.”

Serth thought for a minute. “We’ll call them in,” he said.

“It will take two medium cycles for them to arrive,” said Morion, checking his tablet.

“Then we have time,” said Serth. “I want to have a foothold on the planet before they arrive. We need to make our best welcome.”

“And Demonis?” said Morion.

“Give him the full treatment,” said Serth. “I’m a minor god, after all. He outranks me by several levels, and even then I wonder why he’s bothering to come and inspect a small fleet like ours.”

“I don’t know about that,” said Morion. “We’ve been having pretty good results so far.”

“And that’s just because of luck. We are lucky we keep getting paired with trip’ gods that are not specialized for combat. I have a feeling that our fleet is very low on the trips’ priority list.” Serth took a tablet from a slot on his chair.

“Is that a problem?” Morion began pacing back and forth.

“No, no.”

A man entered the bridge. “It looks like they’re routed.” He saluted.

Serth pursed his lips. “As we expected. But there’s one problem. Why was it so easy?”

Morion clasped his hands behind his back. “Perhaps because this planet is not of much strategic import.”

“Is that it?” Serth rested his chin on his fist. “I think there’s something else going on here. Something I don’t know about. They must be giving us this planet for a reason.”

“They lost.” Morion did an about face. “That’s all we have to worry about, yes?”

Serth leaned to the side. “It makes sense.” He looked out the window at the blackness beyond. “And yet it doesn’t. Our track record is clean. Too clean, if you ask me.”

“Then we keep it that way.” Morion stopped in his tracks. “Let’s interrogate a prisoner or two.”

“We don’t play by their rules.” Serth frowned. “We do not torture prisoners.”

“I was not suggesting that.” Morion lifted his chin. “Those trips’ are notoriously hard to torture anyways. They always act like they enjoy it, and never spill the beans.”

“In any case, no.” Serth stood up. “I’ll begin the inspection.”

He walked up to the bridge’s communications table. “I want a report.”

Admiral Kong replied. “Your magic really did the trick, my lord,” he said. “They were so confused by the miscalculations that they practically exploded their own ships.”

“We don’t be able to use that trick again.” Serth leaned closer to the mic. “Those trips’ are nightmarishly adaptable.” He paused. “By the way, do you know anything about the triptifilexians co-evolving with six other sentient species?”

“Well, didn’t we also do that? Neandertals and all that?”

“No, I’m talking about a predator-prey relationship. I got the feeling from talking with their god leader that they are so tough because they fought sentient hunters that were constantly after their flesh.”

“And why are you discussing this with me?”

“I need input.”

The comm clicked off. Another god, Brim, teleported into the bridge, freezing time as he did. He made the symbol of the gods. “Serth. Heaven has requested you return immediately. There are things we need to discuss.”

Serth surveyed the frozen interior of the spaceship. Only high level gods could freeze time like so.

“I’ll come with you.” Serth surrendered himself, ready to be restrained. Except, he wasn’t.

“There are many things you need to know.” Brim turned away. “Come.”

The portal opened with a rip and Brim stepped through. Serth hesitated for a moment and then followed suit. He was teleported back to beautiful terra heaven, the home of the human pantheon. The place was teeming with life, both deity and not. Shops selling all manner of goods lined the streets of the welcome entrance.

Brim ignored everything and brough Serth to the hall of the angels, the home of heaven’s bureaucracy.

Brim stepped in. “Wait here.”

Serth waited. He wasn’t sure what he was waiting for, but he waited.