Tales of the Aggronaut

NaNoWriMo 11–Cambridge Beneath

November 12, 2013 by Belghast

NaNoWriMo 11

I am starting to embrace the fact that I am going to end up rewriting most of this anyway. Yesterday was a real struggle to push through roughly 2000 words. Its like now that I know roughly where I am going, this is no longer as exciting of an act for me. Previously it is like I had been running off the adrenaline created by envisioning an entire world, but now that I know what is going on it is no longer as exciting to me. It feels as though all I am really doing now is just documenting the thing I already created, and as a programmer I tend to hate documentation.

However I have committed to do this thing, so onwards we go! I figure I will let it sit for awhile after finishing and then revise the living shit out of it. All the things need work, but right now I am just trying to brute force out the story. As always take what I have written with a grain of salt because it is likely to change, but here we go with todays installment. At this point I am just shy of 20,000 words. Here is the story so far, if anyone is reading this and wants to catch up.

11 – Cambridge Beneath

Pico had always been intrigued with the old tomes she found laying around the various ward houses she had worked out of. She took every available opportunity to travel to a new one to see what great secrets should could unlock. It was during a summer at the London house that she first found the library. She had taken a day trip up to Cambridge to check the restricted section of the library for any veiled watch related references. It was there that she had followed a series of watch symbols on the shelves and uncovered a hidden panel. Upon opening the panel she uncovered a staircase winding down deep within the bowels of the earth. At the bottom she found what appeared to be an ancient watch house.

She wondered why they had moved to the London house after having such a elegant and well hidden one at Cambridge. The walls of the corridors were ornamented in various tapestries depicting creatures and places she had never seen before. Each chamber was filled with thousands of leather bound tomes, depicting the history of the watch. It would take her decades to pour through them all, she she grabbed a few of the more choice looking ones and carried them back with her to the Lonestar watch. She was certain that the answer to how to repair the wards was laying somewhere within the walls of that catacomb.

She had teetered back and forth on how to explain to the watch that she had uncovered a vast tome of knowledge… but had kept it completely secret all these years. It is not that she meant to be selfish, or had wanted the glory of the discovery, it is more that she wanted to be the first person to have read it all. It took her awhile to work up the courage to explain to Farragut where they needed to go and why she was so certain what she was looking for would be hidden within those chambers.

She had however explained and after giving her a stern scolding and a long speech about duty and honor, he agreed to send her to the archives. The cost however was that she would have to also explain to the London house where the entrance was and turn over the contents to them. While definitely not a complete history of the Cambridge house, the books she had been able to recover seemed to indicate that the Ward Watch started there. If there was any place that would have the information on how to repair the wards or even where to find that knowledge it had to be there.

More importantly than that, she was hoping to find more information about the illusive Order of Merlin. The tomes she had recovered made it unclear if this group was associated with the watch or not. She pondered all of these things and more as she was trapped on board the disguised watch cargo plane headed towards the Cambridge airport. As far as planes went this one was rather nice, and the inside was furnished out in a series of individual suites. She was able to do some work while on board because unlike most airlines, this one had onboard wifi.

No matter how posh a plane is a fourteen hour flight is enough to make anyone a bit claustrophobic. By the time they landed at Cambridge she was up, packed and pacing the plane until she was given leave to depart. She rushed out onto the tarmac and was greeted by a rather cheery fellow named Alfred Sterns. She was reluctant to get back into another vehicle, but she knew that walking really was not that practical. The van she was ushered into was marked like some sort of delivery company, which she assumed was a needed ruse to get them onto the Cambridge campus without serious questioning.

Thirty minutes later Pico and Sterns stood in the restricted section of the Cambridge library. Once again her forged credentials had worked like a charm. She followed the symbols like before that lead her to a false panel. She explained how the process worked to Sterns, and pressed the correct inlaid panel. There was a grinding sound briefly as panel swung inwards revealing a stone passageway. The pair followed it to the staircase and downwards the eight flights of stairs to the ancient watch house. It was as she remembered it exactly, in fact she could still make out her footprints from the last time she was here in the dust.

Pico had spent roughly five hours pouring over the books when she found something that looked promising. It was a narrative description of the founding of the wards. The watch went further back than she could have possibly imagined. It seems as though the Watch itself was founded by the offspring of the order of merlin. She had long wondered the significance of that name. Growing up like any of us, she thought Merlin and King Arthur were just a myth. But according to the tome Merlin at the least was very real.

Nearing the end of his unnaturally long life, Merlin determined that mankind was better off not living in the shadow of Magic. The passage referred to him devising machines using the “Magic of Man”. They were comprised of Dragon bone, that much she knew from the earlier diagrams she had found. However it went into further details that included black iron, and sapphire and amethyst bearings much like the jewels in a watch. The design itself was deceptively simple and from what she could see from the text it simply calculated the decimal places of Pi.

She had been to one of the wards before, deep beneath Dublin… the Green Ward as the watch called it. The dragon bone was cracked deeply, and while at the time she did not understand what the material was, she assumed that this was causing the drop in the ward levels. If all of the wards were suffering similar wear, she would need enough bone to replace them all in order to stop the decay of their power. The problem is… Dragons were not real, at least not as far as she knew.

Reading further into the text she found the source of the wards names. Each of the wards was named after the species of dragon that was slain to build it. The first ward was built out of the bones of a green dragon. She was afraid that this had significance and potentially amplified the power of the machines. Pico sighed deeply… where was she going to find a single dragon, let alone green, black, white, blue, orange and blue ones. She would have to find a way to cross over, and do so with a large enough strike team to be able to take down one or more dragons.

This was a puzzle she just didn’t have the answers to. The analytical weapons did their job on the mortal plane, but it was completely unknown if they would have any effect at all in the shadowlands. On top of this, she didn’t know if conventional weapons or even the laws of physics worked the same. If she could contact the Order of Merlin, she might have a chance and they might be able to tell her just what she needed to do to accomplish her mission. There was the sounds of movement in the hallway as Sterns entered the doorway of the room.

“Miss Pico, I believe you should come see this” Sterns had a look of concern on his face. Pico nodded and followed behind him. He moved down the hall to a chamber at the end. She remembered on her first trip she thought the room was curiously sparse, but in the presence of so many chambers filled with books she ignored it. Alfred it seems did not have the blinders on that she apparently did. “I came across this chamber, and it felt wrong. I followed the same pattern you did above in the library, and found that this panel opened in a similar fashion” Sterns explained triggering the switch and causing a stone doorway to swing inwards to another tunnel. She followed him down the tunnel to a large circular room at the end of the corridor.

The walls of the chamber were covered in intricate carvings, the likes of which she had never seen before. In the center of the room was what looked like a stone picture frame, free standing. She wondered if maybe there had once been a tapestry hanging there. Her eyes moved to stone chests resting on either side of the frame. Above each chest was an indentation and running her finger over it she found no clear purpose for it. “Help me lift the lid off this chest” she said crouching down to slide the stone slab off. It was far lighter than she would have expected and between the two of them they removed it easily.

The moment the lid had shifted the chamber was flooded with a blinding blue light. After removing the lid she saw that there was a small crystal pulsing with a humming blue light. The stone case seemingly had muffled the sound, but now it was absolutely deafening echoing around the circular chamber. She had a hunch and lifted the stone out, and it slid neatly into the side of the stone frame. Alfred gave her a cautioning look of shock as he had not expected her to act quite so carelessly.

LIke an excited child on christmas morning, she moved swiftly to the second chest and found that she could easily slide the lid off without assistance. Once the lid slid free this time a red light poured out of the chamber with a similar humming in a slightly different pitch. Together the stones bathed the circular chamber in a purple glow. Just the same as the blue gem, she was able to slid it neatly into the slot. Immediately upon doing so the chamber was flooded with a blinding purple light and there was what she could only describe as wind.

When Picos eyes adjusted to the brightness she found herself staring at a glowing ring of purple light. Shockingly instead of the other side of the room, she now saw what appeared to be a stone chamber on the other end. It was similarly decorated but had completely different symbology. She had read about these in one of the tomes she took the first time. “It’s a waygate” she said half to herself and half for the benefit of Alfred. “These used to exist as stable portals between the mortal realm and the shadowlands”.

She had found her way to the other side. “Alfred, once I go through contact the Ward house. We have to guard this. Tell Farragut what I have done, I will take his scolding when I get back.” Alfred looked her over cautiously “Miss Pico, are you certain this is entirely prudent?” She shook off his concern “We don’t know if the stones have enough power to open the doorway again. I have to take this advantage while I have it.” She grabbed her pack, not that she had anything in it that would help her slay a dragon, but she felt more prepared with it on her back. Closing her eyes she stepped through the portal and vanished from the circular room below Cambridge.

NaNoWriMo 10 – The Lady

January 1, 2014November 11, 2013 by Belghast

NaNoWriMo 10

Well in the important news, our little man Smokey seems to be recovering. Still not sure what happened but Saturday night we found him in the cage, extremely cold and not very responsive. He is roughly eight years old, so for a ferret an “old man”. We lost his brother about this time last year so we figured it was the end. We tried our damnedest to warm him up and hydrate him. We spent yesterday feeding him duck soup and nutrical and throughout the day he continued to recover. This morning he is pushing things around in the little “sick bay” that we created for him. So I think today I will introduce him back into our main cage again. But thank you all for your thoughts.

Onwards to the tale. Yesterday I was a bit of a slacker and only wrote around 2000 words. I am hoping to add to that this morning since I have the day off. Right now I am up to 17190 word count. Here is the story so far, for those who want to catch up easily.

10 – The Lady

They had been walking for what felt like days when on the horizon Jace saw a glimmer of light. Just as quickly as it had arrived it was gone again, but he felt that they were being watched. He kept catching little glimmers of light to the left and right of him. Brief flashes of green almost like the after images from staring into a bright light. The grove of trees was filled with inky blackness of high shadow, were it not for the warm glow of Dimcy swirling around them they would have been unable to proceed. The little firesprite landed on Jace’s shoulder briefly before buzzing off to take the lead again.

He turned to look at Kale who had been confidently striding towards some unknown destination, and she looked no less determined that they were going the right way. He wanted so badly to ask “are we there yet” but didn’t want to seem like a child. He trusted her far more than he should having only met her a very short while ago. She seemed determined to fulfill the mission his mother had given her, and I guess that was good enough for him. It still seemed to odd to say Mom… instead of Aunt Beth. He would be angry about it… but he knew Benj was just trying to protect her, and him too to some extent.

He felt a sudden pang of fear as he realized he had no idea at all if anyone was okay. Benj was strong, and he had no doubt he would have fought his hardest, but there were just so many of them. Bemel, Morrow, Josah… he didn’t know if any of his family was okay. He hoped they would be and that he would be able to meet up with them again soon. For the time being he had to focus on getting to his mom and helping her out. What was he to do when he found her though. He didn’t have any special powers like Kale did, he didn’t suddenly get stronger or quicker… he was just a boy. Oakswurv had magic and he watched through the window as he was struck down. How was he supposed to stop anything from happening.

While lost in thought he did not notice that they were inching closer and closer to a faint glow nearby in the woods. Apparently Kale had known exactly where she was going. Out of the darkness around them there came what looked like hundreds of fireflies circling them as they moved forward in a big wide ring. Dimcy flew close to Jace, flying little circles around him in what he could only imagine was her trying to protect him. She had not spoken much since he let her out of her vial. When he had done so she stretched her back unfurling her wings and with a little smile on her face only said “Thank you my prince.” From that point onwards she had simply been lighting the journey.

From the dim yellow glow on the horizon came a ball of green light, and as it got closer Jace could make out individual blips that added to the larger glow. Kale had explained that we were in the territory of the Wildfae, and that they held no allegiance to any particular Elfen court. She had been befriended by one of their leaders and had been granted safe passage through their realm, but she was not sure how they would react to Jace. He could only assume that the ball of lights heading towards them was the “welcome wagon”, he felt a deep dread as he thought that they may not be welcoming at all.

Kale turned around to look at him raising her hand to signal him to slow “You better wait here Jace, I will go out to meet them. Dimcy… you watch after him okay.” Jace slowed and with this Dimcy sped up her circling forming what looked like a solid ring of light around him. Kale continued along the path and as soon as she had moved a bit forward the various green blips from the sides of him formed a ring around him essentially pinning him in place. They were not advancing but the provided a blurry green wall keeping him from moving forward. As he could make out now, they were very much like Dimcy… hundreds and hundreds of tiny sprites.

Kale was getting a bit concerned, this was less than welcoming. She neared the larger group of sprites and noticed the familiar outline of Dobin the chief of this little enclave. Within a few moments he had flow up close to her and she stopped. “Kale.. why do you bring an outsider to our enclave?” the little man said motioning to the wall of green behind them. Kale swallowed the lump in her throat and spoke “We need your help.” She explained to him over the next few minutes about the attack on the farm house, and that Jace was a prince of the Summer Court. She explained how his mother the Queen of the Elfen Courts had sacrificed herself so that they could escape.

When she had finished explaining that the Queen had been captured into a crystal the little man spoke. “She allowed herself to be captured?” He stroked his tiny beard for a moment and then like a light bulb coming on he exclaimed “We need to go see the Lady, she will know what to do.” Dobin muttered something in a language she did not understand and the sea of green lights parted freeing Jace from their cage. He ran to her side glad to be free of that. Dimcy eyed the little man, and there was what Jace could only guess was a look of distaste in her eyes. This did not go unnoticed by Dobin. “Your friend does not like Wildfae, she thinks we betrayed the courts. To a certain amount she is right, we did leave the courts to find our freedom in the wilds.” Jace looked at Dimcy “It will be okay, if he can help us, we need whatever we can get.”

With that the little spite and his retinue buzzed off towards the enclave. Kale and Jace has to struggle to keep up. Within moments they had cleared the part of the enclave she was familiar with and had gone into what looked like an older area of the shroomspire forest. The mushrooms were more tightly packed and the vegetation more overgrown. The air became warmer, more humid and as they went the night time seemed to lighten. In the distance he could see a warm amber light.

The shroomspires broke way to ferns and lush vegetation as the light became something akin to late afternoon. In front of them stood a circle of fir trees, and in the center of them was a tall plant reaching at least 30 ft up into the sky. The top of it appeared to be on fire with light and the amber castoff radiated throughout the area bathing everything in a warm afternoon glow. Underneath the plant was a small hut which appeared to be the destination that Dobin was taking them. As they got to the ring of fir trees the other sprites that had been following along with them, broke off forming a circle around the stand of trees.

As they reached the small hut, Jace realized that it was not a hut at all, but a large mat of naturally growing plants that had been shaped into the form of a house. He could make out individual vines and flowers. Where would normally be wood were trees grown into the shapes of doors and windows. The entire thing was alive but also serving the purpose someone had intended for it. Dobin pushed out in front of them, and clearing his tiny throat he bellowed “Lady, forgive us but we have visitors that need your assistance.” There was a tinge of fear mixed with a clear tone of reverence. He did not want to disturb her, but felt that he must.

The tree that would be the door creaked open revealing a tall slender woman with long flowing green hair. She surveyed the visitors taking time to look deeply at Jace, Kale, Dimcy and then back to Dobin. “Dobin, why have you brought before me a Prince of Summer, an Ortkin and a Firesprite of the Summer Court.” Jace felt his jaw grow visibly slack as he wondered exactly how she had known when even he himself didn’t before the events of the last few days. “Lady my forgiveness, they came to us seeking help.”

The woman waved off his apology “You were right to bring them before me, I can see to them from now on. Please if you three will join me in my house I will tend to your needs.” She motioned for Jace, Kale and Dimcy to enter. Dobin who had been obviously been dismissed hung his head slightly as he flew off beyond the fir circle. Kale nodded to the woman and entered the house, followed by Jace who did so more cautiously and trailing slightly behind him was the fire sprite.

“Has my sister sent you to retrieve me? As I have told the others who have come… I am no longer a member of court and do not wish to return to Avalon.” said the Lady in a very clear and unmistakable manner. It was clear she had delivered that message many times before, and she had long grown passed being aggravated by it. “No maam… I don’t know who your sister is, but we need your help.” Jace went through the events of the farmhouse and when he reached the point at which he explained about his mother and the crystal the other exclaimed “Bethilda did what?” Jace was taken aback… he had not given her name.

“What of Morrow? or Josah?” The lady demanded. “I don’t know if they are okay… when we escaped they were still fighting the Orts” Jace explained shaking his head slightly. “My sister was always the strong one… I have to believe that Morrow found a way to survive” The lady said sounding as though she was trying to reassure herself. “I am Merowyn, her sister… I was the one who was supposed to be the Spring Scion. It was I who was supposed to marry Josah. It was I who would have been fighting those Orts.” She looked down at the ground shaking her head slightly.

“Morrow always was the strong one. I couldn’t accept the responsibility being asked of me, so I ran away. I came here and over time the little sprites looked up to me like some sort of a goddess. They know my name… but they prefer to simply call me the Lady.” She let out a deep sigh. “I don’t deserve their reverence… I am just a coward… and my sister has suffered because of it.” She sat back down “That changes today… I will help you and I will help my sister.” Jace beamed because since shifting into this world that was the first really good news he had heard.

“The wildfae scouts have told me of a war on the north east coastline. The summer wall has long protected the Valkore village of Hagengarde. The forces of the Trogjan empire are massing on the border there.” Merowyn paused for a moment before continuing “I believe that the crystal was meant to break through the summer wall. On the far side of the summer wall there is a place known as Fort Kraken.” she paused again slightly “I believe Bethilda is in that Fort, it is there we must go. There is an enclave of wildfae near the border that may be able to help us.”

NaNoWriMo 9 – People of the Storm

January 1, 2014November 10, 2013 by Belghast

NaNoWriMo 9

Well I failed miserably yesterday and did not write a blessed word. I had a rough day, and it ended with finding out that one of our ferrets was seemingly near death. We did our best to nurse him back to health but when we found him in the cage his body temperature was extremely low. We built a little sick bay of sorts to isolate him from the others and this morning he was drinking water and eating again. Still extremely weak but seems to be doing better. So at this point we are going to continue to nursemaid him throughout the day, and hopefully I will catch back up on my writing.

Here is where we are to date… also no real editing.

9 – People of the Storm

Grandfather Torgos crossed the room to stoke the fire against the morning chill. Within moments he was joined by the littlest of the Torgos line. Minjin watched the old man stir the crackling coals with a poker before setting it in a rack beside the fire. “Granpa, tell me about the Storm” said the little one eyes staring up at the old man in wonder. “I think you mean, People of the Storm yes?” The old man reached down giving the boys head a scratch. Torgos moved across the room to his favorite chair “Bring me my cider and I will tell you a story.”

The boy wandered off into the kitchen and poured from the hot kettle into a large cup, bringing it to the old man being ever so careful not to spill a drop. Torgos took the cup with a friendly nod and the boy sat down on the floor in front of him, wrapping a thick fur around him making a personal tent with it.”The People of the Storm, the Valkore lived in great floating cities. We had mastered the power of the storm, using it to keep aloft our fortresses. We were a proud people, too proud.” Torgos continued watching the little one nod his heading having heard the words all before.

“In our pride we ignored a growing enemy on the ground around us, the Trogjan. They were once our slaves and laborers, but they rose up against the their masters. They learned how to use the magic, and with it struck down our cities in the sky. One by one they drove us from our old homeland into this new place.” The old man said motioning with his arms waving around him. We met another proud people, the Elfen, who feared the approach of this new army. Using their strongest magics they created a barrier that the Trogjan could not pass.” The old man pointed out the window to the crackling orange wall of power on the outskirts of the settlement.

“Here we have thrived in the shadow of the summer wall. It gives us light and warmth and keeps the Trogjan at bay.” Torgos finished taking a sip of cider. “Grampa, can I live in the sky someday?” the youngest beamed. Taking a moment to savor the flavor of the rich cider before responding. “Maybe oneday you will lead our people back to our forgotten greatness. In the meantime though we have the skyships and the power of the storm to protect us.” Nodding to the window and the summer wall outside “And of course we have the wall.”

There was a bustle of motion outside the house and a tall man dressed in furs and leather stepped through the threshold. “Elder Torgos” the man greeted making a fist and clutching it to his chest in salute. “Huntsman Velden, do you have something to report? I was just telling my grandson about the Valkore again.” The face of the other softened a bit “I have troubling news from the other side of the wall.” Velden said as he took a seat near the elder. “Our scouts have seen a massing of Trogjan forces at For Kraken. An entire legion of of Ort Backbreakers have set up camp around the fort and there are all manner of gobbley machinations as well. It looks like they are going to make another push on the wall.”

The elder thought for a moment before speaking “This is troubling of course, but the wall has protected us for centuries against so many waves of Trogjan forces.” Torgos looked at his grandson who was lost in play, pantomiming a great battle with skyships. “We have no portents that the wall is weakening, it will hold again as it has held so many times before.” The old man looked at the face of the young blond haired warrior “If there is nothing else, I would like to return to my grandson.” Velden rose nodding, giving the salute again and walking briskly out the door.

Velden was certain something was different this time. In the past when his scouts had passed through the barrier wall, it had been a challenge to do so. Lately however they have been able to walk through without much effort. Something was changing in its consistency and he did not know how or why. He did know however that they would be prepared for an invasion if it happened. He would rally the guard and send quiet dispatches to the other settlements letting him know his thoughts as well. He would openly defy the Elder, but they could not ignore the threat.

Velden walked along the sea wall lining the village. The skyships moored there, represented the last of the proud technology of his people. He regretted no longer having access to the great float ballast mines of the icy steppes. Without a fresh supply they could no longer built the massive skyships they once had, but instead only repair and rework the few that remained. He was thankful however that it seemed the Trogjan never figured out to manipulate the ballast we had them mine. The sky was still ours he could take a small amount of solace in that.

—

It had been a day roughly since the events of the farmhouse, but as Bemel thought about it now that seemed so long ago. He had thought it was the end when the white fire hit him, but instead it did something he was not expecting. It pushed him through to the shadowlands but he did not immediately recognize where. After roaming around the coastal area for a bit he found Morrow laying half submerged in the sand. She had been doing really badly when he found her, barely alive. But over the course of the hours since he had been wounded, he scoured the beaches for the right components to healing poultice like he had been taught by his mother.

It was not easy, and he had to use rock as both a makeshift pestle and mortar but he made it work. After he had applied the thick tar consistency salve to her wounds she appeared to start recovering. It was a long while before she was able to speak but when she did she asked about Josah, to which he had no real answer. It seems that the weapon had a bit of a random component to it. The two of them had been pushed a good distance apart, he could only imagine that if Benj and Josah survived they could be almost anywhere.

Morrow was still barely coherent, and definitely able to move herself, but he felt they were woefully unprotected out here. Surely there had to be a settlement somewhere nearby. If he was on eastern coast, then he was well into Valkore territory. They were a mostly peaceful and shamanistic race, and luckily one with which the elfen courts had treaties. He just had to find them and hopefully they could mend to Morrow better than he could. He had yet to explore the region north of here, and as he was preparing to go off in that direction he noticed a large shape on the horizon, flitting over the tops of the treeshrooms.

As the shape got closer he noticed it was some sort of ship. Remembering back to the days before the summer wall, the Valkore were a skyfaring people with great floating cities. He wondered if that could be one of their skyships. Moving closer towards it he saw many shapes moving around on board of it. Mustering all of his strength he poured as much force into his lungs directing it up at the ship. “Hello! We Need Help!” Screamed bemel at the floating skyship.

The others seemed to notice him, and the looming ship slowly descended to the coastline. A plank extended out of the side of the hull and slapped down hard upon the sandy shore. Across the plank strolled a woman dressed in furs and leather accompanied by two male warriors brandishing broad headed axes. She made her way cautiously up to Bemel stopping a few meters away. “My name is Captain Barret” she replied in a cautious tone “Who are you and what seems to be the problem.”

Bemel turned his hands palm sign up as a sign of surrender. “I am Bemel Foxfire, a member of the Autumn Court” motioning to the woman laying on the ground “This is Morrow a member of the Spring Court. She is badly wounded, we need help.” Bemel end almost pleading. The captain looked both him and the woman over before responding. “You are Elfen correct? You built the summer wall. I am sure Velden would like to speak with you. Our village is just a ways up the coast, I can take you there.”

The two warriors slung their axes across the backs and bent down, gently lifting up morrow together and carrying her back to the skyship. Bemel followed the captain and within moments of boarding the plank was retracted and the large ship began to float up delicately off the sandy perch. Bemel had never seen a skyship before, let alone ridden in one. The motion was something he had not been expecting. He could feel the wind whip past him and see the world buzzing by, but onboard the ship there was no visible sign that they were moving at all. The craft simply floating along silently staying perfectly level and stable the entire time.

The captain was right, it did not take long at all to reach the village. The great ship perched teetering on the edge of what looked like a giant rock seawall. The village itself was nestled next to the summer wall with its warm orange glow, bathing the area in its eternal light. He could see why someone would build their home here, much like the suntraps of his own avalon it gave this place a sense of high sun all of the time. He was escorted from the ship to a long building decorated with a flying eagle motif. He was ushered inside and told to take a seat at a long table.

He had only waited there a matter of minutes when a large blonde man wearing leathers and furs strode into the building. Bemel arose from his chair to greet him as he spoke “I am Velden, the chief huntsman of Morden, this village. The captain explained who you are. We have our shaman tending to your friend, she was badly wounded but I am sure they can heal her.” With this Bemel relaxed a bit, it was good to hear they were going to be okay. “Your people built the summer wall is that correct?” asked the huntsman.

“Our people built the wall based on the technologies that we use to guard our home of Avalon. But I am not gifted with magic, so I do not understand how it works.” With this the huntsman frowned. He had hoped that the elfen would have some clue as to what was going wrong. “Something is wrong with the wall, it seems to be losing strength.” Velden continued. “Over the last several days across the wall at Fort Kraken, the Trogjan have begun building what looks like an invasion force. Our scouts have reported their numbers growing almost by the hour.

Bemel thought for a moment and then like a light flickering on, he understood what Baigan had done. Capturing the queen had weakened the power of the summer wall, and the Trogjan could exploit this to break through. Bemel took the next few minutes explaining what had happened at the farmhouse and that the queen had been captured. When finished both Bemel and the huntsman looked withered. “That’s it then… we are going to be invaded. We have to prepare. We will help Morrow recover, but our efforts now must be on the impending war.” Velden got up from the table, and went out to start preparing. Bemel was left alone in the long house and found himself wondering about the others and if they were okay.

NaNoWriMo 8 – Dragon Bone

January 1, 2014November 9, 2013 by Belghast

NaNoWriMo 8

It has been a crazy busy day. We spent most of it running errands from the moment I got up. As a result this is the first time I have sat down at my computer. No writing yet today but yesterday I managed to push through to 15198 and finish up chapter nine. Hopefully I will find the will to write today and get another few chapters. However even if I do not, I can pretty much write all day tomorrow.

8 – Dragon Bone

“This just can’t be” remarked a woman staring blankly at a readout on a lcd screen. Pico had been pouring over the same readings for two hours, analyzing them in every possible way trying to make her conclusion not be true. However many times she did it she ended up with exactly the same results. The ward strength had fallen by roughly 11% in the last day. At first she thought it was a fluctuation, like had happened before after an event. However the levels were not recovering. The wards were seemingly permanently weakened.

Reaching over to the intercom she hovered her finger over the switch that had been labelled “Farragut” with masking tape and sharpie letters. She took a breath in and pressed it. Within seconds the com channel snapped to life. “Yes Pico? What is it?” the man on the other side questioned. “Sir, you are going to need to come see this. I can’t really explain this over the com.” She replied tenatively, dreading the news she was about to deliver. The com channel clicked closed. Farragut recognized the fear in her voice, and knew this was not going to be good.

Pico preferred to keep her offices as far away from anyone else as possible. The lab was a room lit only by the momentary flashes of colored text against black screen. When they had found her, she was had been running a little racket, using her ability to sidestep to build a rather large and unofficial bitcoin mining operation. She had bots within bots catching tidbits of information floating around the net, and then extorting when she found something that should have been kept secret.

The watch had changed that, given her a purpose, a reason to care about the fact that the world was rapidly going to hell in a handbasket. They told her about the wards. Ancient machines buried within the earth, submerged within underground rivers. She knew she could do what she could do, but she never knew why until they told her that she was a betweener, someone who lives between the two worlds not really a true part of either. Since that day she had been the director of the analytical weapons division here deep under the Texas soil at Lone Star watch base. It was here that she made the first breakthroughs in decades on creating the calculation matrix weapons, and here she tried to unlock secrets of the dragon bone matrix deep beneath the earth.

It took a few minutes for Farragut to reach the dungeon, as Pico lovingly referred to it. He opened the door with a very worried look on his face and stepped into the dim light. “What happened? I heard the “something very wrong” tone in your voice”. Pico spun around in her chair and oriented to look up at him. “I’ve gone over the data as many ways as I know how to… but I keep getting the same results.” She turned slightly and within a few mouse clicks brought up a line graph on her monitor. “You see this big drop? This aligns precisely to the moment Chief Aimes ordered the dropping of the Lovelace device. Then each of these” she pointed to a number of smaller drops in the line “Relates to the moment that a calculation matrix round was discharged.”

“What are we looking at Pico? What does that line represent?” he replied the concern on his face growing. “Today we strength of the wards dropped permanently by 11%. Instead of protecting the wards, we destroyed a piece of them. We can’t risk ever using them again… the Ward levels are already down below 60% now.” She said with an almost somber reverence. Farragut let out a deep sigh acknowledging the news. “What does this mean Pico?” He asked with an edge of desperation.

She turned and grabbed a ancient looking leatherbound book from a nearby shelf, the sound of the vellum cracking and straining as she opened it to a specific passage. “We don’t know who created the wards, but for as long as the watch history goes back they have protected humanity from the chaotic influence of the shadowlands.” flipping to a another page “It was the watch’s great engineer Babbage that first devised a way to measure the strength of the wards. He recorded the first drops in their strength. As the signal of the wards have weakened so too has increased the chaotic influence on our own world.”

Farragut nodded “I’ve read the debriefings, increased frequency and severity of weather patterns.” Pico shook her head in acknowledgement “But there is more than just that” she clicked her mouse and opened a program on her desktop. “This is a model that I have created, while I cannot say with any certainty how long we have… but when the wards the earth itself will buckle under the forces of the two worlds merging. The model indicates it will be an extinction level event.” A cold look of fear crossed the others face, they had just sped up that clock by a very significant amount. “Those weapons can never be used again, but that leaves us defenseless as well.” Farragut found himself feeling a little weak, so he took a seat on a nearby stool.

“Babbage didn’t have the models we do, but he came to this same conclusion. The difference engine was his attempt to create a man made ward. Other ward engineers have followed in his footsteps, but we have so far to go. The recent improvements exhibited with the Oakridge Titan, still product less than one one-hundredths of the raw computational field exerted by one of the wards.” Grabbing an even older tome from her shelf, she flipped slowly to the last page. This book was written on that shimmered in the light, almost rippling as she touched it. “This book pre-dates the founding of the watch by several centuries. It mentions something called the Order of Merlin, and a magical colony called Brittagus.”

She held the book up showing an illustration to Farragut. “This is a diagram of the wards, the components needed to create one, and the incantations needed to start the computational core.” Pico let the words sink for a moment “The wards came from the other world, they list components like dragon bone. We have to find this order of merlin, they may be able to repair the wards.” Farragut was not sure exactly what she was suggesting “Surely you aren’t saying we need to send someone into the shadowlands are you?”

“That is precisely what I am suggesting, we are still hundreds of years away from the computational power needing to build our own wards. We have to find a way to repair them, or at the present rate of decay they will not last our lifetimes.” Farragut stood pacing around the room a moment before responding. “This is going to have to be confirmed by other groups, and we will have to convene the high council” his words trailed off lost in the list of things that had to be done before he could order action. “Pico… please make sure the weapons are destroyed. I will work on the council and see what can be done.” He looked at her with a sadness in his eyes “We have to do what we have to do…” He walked out of the room and Pico returned to her screens. She thought to herself “Now we just have to find a way to get there”.