Tracia hates Lorv’s ship. It is an impressive feat of engineering to be sure, a spaceship the size of a planet capable of warp speed and near light speed, but when she is on Top she feels like she is in a planet sized cage. Her body can sense the outsell of Top even if it isn’t visible from the ground. She has a similar aversion to the caves of Sakpata’s disc and she would always send Pultine to handle any business that needed to be handled there. She’s not claustrophobic, she just doesn’t like being in places that don’t allow for easy escape if it is necessary. Being on Top is like being underground to Tracia, and the only underground she tolerated was the Deep of Agê’s Disc. Her love for the Deep had only grown since her youth and she is never put off by the journey down to rest alongside the Deep Ocean.
Top is full of beautiful sights, Lorv had fashioned it after the lush jungles of Agê’s Disc, but Tracia has spent less time on Top than she had in the Deep.
“Why do you hate my ship?” Lorv asked as they traveled from the entrance on the outsell to the large command tower from which the ship was navigated. “Don’t lie, either, I can feel it every time you arrive here. You look more annoyed with Top than you do about the angels.” Lorv tilted her head back to indicate Metatron, Gabriel, Jophiel, and Raphael who followed them through the outshell to the command tower.
“It’s just a reminder that we are no longer Fonlanders,” Tracia said truthfully. “What need do mmoatia have for a giant spacecraft? The Fonlands is designed in such a way that ships like this are not necessary. We can fly under the strength of our own wings to any disc, even if it would take a long time, we would eventually make it.”
“So it’s not just my ship,” Lorv chuckled. “I never thought that we would be in this realm like we are. When we first met in the forest, did you imagine that I would become a navigator of distant reaches of a foreign realm?”
“You were an adorable girl when Ahdis and I found you. I still can’t believe you stumbled through the jungles and the forests by yourself to find us, but it made it hard to doubt that you were truly our sister. Made of tougher stuff than any of us. Your mother’s bark is still the hardest substance on the Disc of Agê, even after all of this time, millenia in Earth years. You have always been the strongest of us, if anyone could do the work of braving unknown realms it is you.”
“But you are the first, big sister,” Lorv said with a proud smile. “I am sure that none of us would have been born into the Fonlands if not for the mold you cast when Golden Trumpet gave birth to you. Anyway, our existence is a wonder. Shame that I am beginning to shrink.”
This startled Tracia so much that she grabbed Lorv’s arm and forced them both to stop and hover in the air. The angels behind her tumbled into each other and composed themselves enough to float behind the Mmoatia.
“You are starting to shrink?” Tracia asked gravely. “You can’t be shrinking. You are the youngest of us.”
“Oh, big sister, I didn’t mean to worry you, but we realized it during my last inspection. We have many medical professionals on Top to deal with the rigors of constant space travel and random illnesses and diseases. I have regular checkups as the captain of this impressive ship and during my recent physical inspection, it was noted that my height decreased for the first time ever. I am shrinking. I hoped that we could all discuss it later when these guys were settled in somewhere, but I guess it’s no big deal if they know. Shrinking isn’t instant death, and I am tall enough that I should have many more years before me.” Lorv chuckled despite the severity on the faces of the winged beings staring at her.
“It’s not possible,” Tracia said, shaking her head. “I am the first, and even I haven’t begun to shrink. Maybe your doctors are mistaken. I will monitor your body mass to confirm it.”
“Fine, we can discuss it later,” Lorv said. “But there are much more pressing matters and we should get to the command Tower so that I can brief everyone on the details we have obtained about Bludon.”
Pultine and Ahdis waited for them on the roof of the command tower that was a large stone pavilion with stone benches. Pultine sat and Ahdis waited like a schoolgirl; she seemed to burst with excitement at the sight of Gabriel, who was just as excited to see her when the angels landed after Tracia and Lorv.
“Look who has finally arrived to explain himself,” Pultine said. Her hair hung long and straight behind her, draping like a cloak on the stone behind the bench. Her legs were crossed and she sat straight up with her arms crossed at her chest.
“Do we need to start in conflict?” Gabriel asked between kisses with Ahdis. The two were still hugging as Raphael sat on the bench across from Pultine, and Lorv sat beside her. Tracia stood next to Metatron, and Jophiel stood behind Raphael on the bench.
“We need to start,” Tracia said and looked to Metatron.
“Right,” he cleared his throat. “You are all aware now of the movement of the so called Daemon from Endla. What you may not know is that they have been radicalized by a faction of their numbers known as the Head. They are my children and they are very powerful entities in their own right. They are on the same level as Hysteria, the daughter of Ahdis and Gabriel, but unlike Hysteria, they proved harmful to other Fonlanders at birth and they were made to live their lives away from mainstream society. This Head was five separate Aerphim, one of them has since died on Bludon, and they were intent on taking over Endla and doing great harm in the process. I banished them from this existence because I could not bring myself to kill my own children, but they have learned to navigate the space that they were banished to and have returned to lay siege to Bludon. They plan to turn it into Daemon paradise and they recently took every inhabitant of the underside of Endla to Bludon. We are gathered here to lend aid to the planet. I take full responsibility for this…”
“You really are dumb,” Pultine said loudly.
“Did you not banish them to a predetermined space away from this existence?” Lorv asked. “You just used your magic to rip a hole in existence to somewhere you didn’t know and flung them through?”
“He is an idiot,” Pultine said.
“It was a tense situation,” Metatron stammered. He’d been caught unaware by the mmoatia who seemed to know something that he did not. “I acted without thought, for sure, but I was only trying to save as many as I could in the moment.”
“You sent them to Outer Spacetime,” Lorv said. “Do you know what that is?”
“Of course he doesn’t know what that is,” Pultine said.
“What is Outer Spacetime?” Raphael asked Pultine who looked at him smugly every time she spoke.
“I know what Outer Spacetime is,” Jophiel said. “Lorv mentioned it in a report a while ago, when she served as neutral arbiter in that trial on Rycoia.”
“That was ages ago,” Metatron said with annoyance.
“Apparently,” Jophiel continued, “Rycoian mystics use magic that they gather from the veil existence that overlaps ours. Rycoian scientists have confirmed the actual existence of this veil existence and call it Outer Spacetime. It is a pervasive concept in planetary civilizations that have interacted with Rycoians. Lorv’s reports are very informative.”
Lorv smiled at Jophiel who was proud of her knowledge of Lorv’s reports from her voyages on Top. The two had a long history together and even though they generally did not get along well, they could find times of comfort together between the great skirmishes that were known to arise when they were angry with one another. They hadn’t had any cause to be angry with one another in recent history.
“Outer Spacetime is a powerful source of arcane power,” Pultine said. “If these Head Daemon survived it, then they definitely found something to make them stronger. How did you even open a portal there if you didn’t know what it was?”
“Why are you all so sure that I even sent them to this Outer Spacetime?” Metatron asked. “I merely gathered all of my strength with the intention of shattering a hole in existence that I could fling the Head through, which I did and was able to mend spacetime using the essence.”
“We know that they went to Outer Spacetime,” Lorv said, “but we can’t be sure where they got the power that they wield now against the Guardians of Bludon. Analyzing the energies of the Head Daemon Minyak and Shoun reveals data that confounds the best scientists on Top. They are not the same Daemon that lived on Endla, they are different somehow.”
“The darkness,” Tracia said and Metraton looked at her with concern. The mmoatia seemed very morose all of a sudden, even Ahdis who had been so happy in Gabriel’s arms. “We know that something terrible is coming and whatever it truly is, rears its head under the guise of the Daemon. They are puppets for a greater power that I fear is already in this realm. It must not touch the Fonlands, I cannot stress that enough., and this is not just about my love for my home realm. I fear that whatever has bolstered the Daemon, has hollowed them out, and could do the same to the powers in the Fonlands. If it can co opt the essence, we are all doomed.”
The gravity of Tracia’s words settled over the crowd. Then Lorv laid out their plan.
“We have arrived at Bludon and will seize the Daemon meteor that contains all of the Daemon that formerly inhabited Endla. We will question them, and we will discover whatever secrets are being hidden.”
“And what of the Daemon?” Raphael asked.
“We will build them mansions in the stars to live out the rest of their days,” Pultine said flatly.
“We will cure whatever taint may exist in them,” Tracia said, “then return them to Endla.”
“So that Metatron can continue his subjugation of them, of course” Pultine said.
Metatron stood in front of Tracia, as though he meant to have private and sincere words with her.
“The Daemon must be returned to Endla,” he said earnestly. “They are Aerphim. If they are dangerous, we will deal with them, but it cannot happen that the mmoatia unilaterally decide to slaughter them. Even if some view them as second class citizens, that would be viewed as a genocide of aerphim and the peace that we have enjoyed of late will be obliterated.”
“You would lecture me on how to handle the Aerphim you discarded as dangerous refuse,” Tracia hissed at him, trying to keep her voice down.
“Why do you two do this?” Pultine asked. “We can hear you, you should just address us like your equals.”
“The Daemon have done untold harm to Bludon,” Raphael admitted, “but they are not subject to mmoatia justice. If you intend to bring them onto this planet to slaughter them, you will meet resistance from me.”
“Please, brother,” Gabriel said as Jophiel put hands on Rapahel’s shoulders to calm him.
“We do not want hostility,” Jophiel said. “We all just want the situation contained. It will be contained when the Daemon asteroid is on Top. We will discuss what comes next once that is done.”
The mood was tense on top of the command tower, but everyone agreed to contain the asteroid on Top with assurances made to Raphael especially that all attempts would be made to spare as many Daemon lives as possible.
Tracia had no intention of letting any Daemon leave Top. She would only let them live until she learned about the darker presence that haunted them.
PRL Serials 