Adrien grunts as he regains consciousness on a soft cot, in an unfamiliar barracks panelled with a dark material that has a visible grain to it.
Turning his head from side to side he can see other members of his patrol, along with the colouration of another patrol. Staring up at the ceiling he tries to remember how they got here.
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Adrien stands in front of flight leader Desolas, with the other patrol leaders, a matter of hours after the reaction fleet swept through relay 314.
"Patrol leaders, we have been tasked with securing the planet and locating the primary settlements of this new species. Each of you has been assigned to investigate areas with higher-than-normal levels of heat or electrical discharge."
Adrien looks down at his datapad, "Flight leader, this appears to be a single building."
Desolas flares his crest aggressively, "I am aware of that. However, we have been unable to locate anything we recognise as settlements. Does anyone else think they see more than me?"
Adrien subsides, and just looks at his patrol route.
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Adrien can't help clicking his mandibles in frustration, as his memories after that are jumbled, as he remembers doing a hot drop with… with… Oriania's patrol, and after the ship took off there was red light and…
Forcing his mind away from what he can't control, Adrien starts to check his own equipment, reasoning that anyone monitoring them would have heard his frustrated click.
As he tries to raise the arm with his omni tool, he clicks again in frustration as appears that there is no power to the servos. His clicks turn into an angry chirp as he manages to raise both arms, only to find out that his omni tool is dead.
As he's slowly moving his arm to his eyepiece, a click echoes across the barracks. Turning his head, his mandibles gape open as an asari walks through a door. After a couple of moment, Adrien starts to notice the differences, such as the fact she's not blue, or that she has fur instead of a crest. There're also the ears, like quarian or animals have.
As they get closer, he calls out, "Who are you? Where are we? What…" he trails off as he realises they probably don't speak the language of the hierarchy.
As she gets closer to his cot, he tries to move, only to find that his armour has seized up completely. Then she sits down on a spirits damned chair that just appeared out of nowhere.
Adrien opens his mandibles to say something, but his words die in his throat as she pulls a silvery strand from her head with a finger. As she reaches towards his head, he tries to move, to get away, anything, but some force is holding his head rock steady. Despite his flight instincts screaming at him.
Then she touches his head between his eyes, and a blinding pain goes through his head, as he remembers spending weeks learning to speak English.
Abruptly he comes back to his body and moves his jaw, no mandibles, and shakes his head from side to side.
Once he realises he can move again, his gaze snaps back to the woman sitting on the chair. His own crest flares slightly in surprise as he recognises the expression on her face as sorrow.
The woman shakes her head sadly, "Hello, my name is Siúsan, and I am a sidhe." As Adrien goes to speak, she raises a hand, "I'm sorry that we had to teach you English like this, but we needed a way to communicate with you, and there are things that you and your people need to know for your own safety. Not to mention your own need to communicate your needs to us. Now, I appreciate that your jaw isn't suited to speak English the way you learnt it. For the moment, just nod or shake your head."
Adrien nods his understanding of what's being said.
Siúsan sags a little in relief, "I'm going to let your companions wake up in a minute. When I do, I'll be in the next room until you're ready. Once you're all ready, would you be able to translate for me?"
Adrien tries to say 'How will you understand us?' but his mandibles get stuck on the unfamiliar sounds.
Siúsan smiles ruefully, "I'm going to use a human skill called legimancy to read your surface thoughts. Just like I'm doing now. As long as you're thinking in English I'll understand them."
Adrien's crest falls flat, and his mandibles gape, 'You can merge like asari, except without touch?'
Siúsan shakes her head, "No, it's not that complete. And to answer your question, I got a sense of what you meant along with your question. I'm going to leave now, when you're ready just have someone open that door."
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As the sound of surprised chittering fills the barracks, Adrien pushes himself into a sitting position, "Enough. Are you all fledglings, not yet ready to leave the nest? Show some awareness. We have been captured by an asari like species."
From the other side of the room, Oriana snaps, "How do you know that Adrien?"
Adrien hisses at her, "I have the higher ground for the moment. One of them taught me one of their languages in a way similar to asari."
"Well, what do they want?"
"I don't know, they're through that door. I think she wanted to give us privacy."
Oriana clicks in annoyance, "What sort of captors would do such a thing?"
Adrien shakes his head, "I don't know, we need to see more to understand."
Oriana's crest lowers slightly as she concedes Adrien's temporary height advantage, "Fine, I'm going to get answers."
As she storms to the door and stares at the handle when it doesn't pull or push, Adrien chirps a laugh, "Try knocking."
Oriana crest rises in annoyance as she does just that.
A moment later, the door knob turns and the woman comes back in. As soon as she's passed, Oriana turns the knob and looks at the primitive latch in disgust, "What sort of primitive's are we dealing with here?"
Adrien clicks in warning as he sees the amused expression on Siúsan's face. As Oriana turns around to snap at him, a large, padded chair appears and Siúsan flops backwards into it. "Don't mind me, finish your conversation if you need to. I can wait."
When she clicks her fingers, and a cup of water appears next to her, Oriana's crest finally collapses as her mandibles drop open, "How?"
Around the three of them, their patrols are similarly surprised. Though they say nothing while their leaders are sorting out who has the higher ground.
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Siúsan sits there patiently as two of the turian's have a rapid fire conversation, probably about the chair. Finally the turian she gave English to looks directly at her, 'How did you make that chair?'
Siúsan smiles, "Before I answer that question, would you mind introducing yourselves? I don't want to refer to you as turian one, two, three, and so on."
Adrien chatters in his own language before he points at himself, 'I am Adrien, that is Oriana. We are the patrol leaders for our patrols.'
"Adrien is a nice name. One day I hope I can learn to say it properly. Now, I need you to forgive me for my haste, but our human liaison has stressed how important it is that we impart this on human time scales…" She pauses for Adrien to translate, "The first thing I need to do is apologise on behalf of the Systems Alliance. You are not prisoners, rather you are part of an intelligence gathering operation that went bad… Your groups were captured so that we could read your minds in a far more invasive manner than I'm using with Adrien… They would have then wiped your memories of the encounter and returned you to your previous locations…"
Siúsan looks around each of the turian's individually, "They discovered that you had a highly contagious disease called Prothean Syndrome, and they immediately enacted quarantine procedures."
Siúsan has to stop for a few minutes as Adrien and Oriana both seem to be arguing and pointing at her. Eventually Adrien looks at her eyes again, 'Oriana doesn't believe my translation, and wishes to know English so she can understand herself.'
Siúsan looks at the ceiling and closes her eyes for a moment, "This is why I dislike haste." Conjuring a simple reclining chair next to her, she points at it, "Ask Oriana to sit in the chair, and I'll give her the language. Let her know that it will hurt, and I'm sorry about that."
Once Oriana gingerly sits down in the chair, as if afraid it will just disappear, Siúsan pulls the same History from her head, before pushing into Oriana's head. Then she closes her eyes, to seem at peace while the memories work through Oriana's head.
Siúsan knows exactly when Oriana has recovered from the new memories, as she starts a rapid fire conversation with Adrien. After it's been going on for a few minutes, she fires a cannon blast into the air.
"That's enough, you're squabbling like children, and I'm trying to tell you what's happened. Now, as you're behaving like children, I will treat you like children. Sit on the floor."
Both Oriana and Adrien sit on the floor as she brings her magic to bear.
"As I was saying, it was discovered that you had a highly contagious disease we call Prothean Syndrome. As this is deadly to around 30% of the human population, they enacted quarantine procedures and evacuated all non-magical beings to our realm. Congratulations, you no longer count as non-magical beings."
When Adrien and Oriana are saying nothing Siúsan looks at them sternly, "You're supposed to be translating for the other turians."
Siúsan waits while the two take turns in speaking until they stop, "There are a few things you will need to learn before we can return you to the rest of your people. The first thing is coping with the fact that your lifespans will now number in the thousands of years."
Siúsan pauses again as the two turians translate, and then a furious argument breaks out amongst all of the turians present. She waits for a few more minutes before firing off another cannon blast, "Enough!"
Once they've all lapsed back into silence she continues, "The second thing you will need to learn is how to control and use your own magic, now that it is part of you. If we were to allow you to return now, you would kill every other turian you come across, and you will also render your own technology inoperable. Now, I'm going to show you all around the building and explain the facilities here. After that you will be assigned a mentor who will be entrusted with your care and basic training. Any questions?"
Both Adrien and Oriana shake their heads, 'You see far more than we do, so we accept that you are above us for the moment.'
Siúsan sighs and begins leading the turians through their temporary home.
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Adrien huffs with exertion as he goes through the basic kata with one of his wing leaders. The last six years have been hard on all of them, as the pace of life is so slow and seemingly relaxed. Paradoxically, despite their relaxed lifestyle, the sidhe seem to have the same natural alertness turians do.
The sidhe overseeing the kata barks "Faster!" in the turian dialect Adrien speaks.
As the pace picks up and the kata switches directions to put Adrien on the defensive, any time for thinking quickly vanishes. As he recognises himself reaching that point, he abandons rational thought and allows himself to just drift into the motions of the kata. Step, sway, parry, strike, parry step, lunge.
He's not sure when, but at some point he's aware of how his body is moving, and his body and sword become one. Suddenly, his protective membranes blink as he realises he's pointing his sword at his opponents throat.
From the side, the Sidhe nods, "Good, Camitius, take a break. Adrien, take position for kata 1."
Adrien returns to the starting position, and holds his sword ready. As his instructor takes position opposite him, Adrien raises his sword on the attack. Immediately he knows that this is going to be a punishing bout, as the instructor responds as fast as Camitius was moving before he stopped thinking.
Abandoning thought again, Adrien allows himself to drift once more. As he does, the tempo continues to increase and he drifts into the motions of the kata once more. Step, step, parry, thrust, duck, swing, slide, parry.
Slowly his awareness starts to come back as it's almost as if he's gained new eyes to see with. When Adrien starts to increase the tempo again, on his own terms, he can see the approval in his opponent's eyes.
Adrien can't help himself, he starts to grin even as he starts losing ground. He feels free, like he could jump to the top of one of the mountains at home, or he could chase down a varren on his own.
When he finds himself on his back he starts to laugh and the instructor nods while switching to Sidhe, "Good, good. You've finally found your magic. Next lesson, we'll move you onto kata 2. In the meantime, try to find that feeling again while you're not fighting, and bring it to the surface. When you stop thinking about holding onto that feeling, and it's just there, you'll be ready to go and meet your people once more."
Switching back to turian, the instructor turns to two more turian that are kneeling on edge of the practice area, "Arruius, Polcidia, you're up. Adrien has found his not-biotics, I expect everyone else to find theirs soon."
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As Adrien allows his feet to guide him, he reflects on the changes he's experienced since they were brought here. The first is that none of them have had any trouble eating anything that has been hunted and cooked. Even the occasional dish from the human settlements, who they've confirmed are a levo species, has been perfectly palatable.
The second, and most world changing, is their insistence on teaching every clan member how to climb the mountains themselves, figuratively anyway. The elders are only elders because they have more experience with climbing mountains to see than the other members, not because they claim a better vantage point.
Adrien pinches the space between his eyes, a habit he's picked up from the human members of the clan. 'What do you think?' has become one of his most hated questions. Especially from those his every instinct and upbringing says have the better vantage point.
Siúsan's voice pulls him out of his thoughts, "Adrien, are you ok?"
Adrien clicks in annoyance, "I'm fine, the instructor said I found my magic, so now I have… what was the human term… Home work."
Siúsan takes his hand and jumps the two of them to a nearby rise. She then sits down on the grass, "That's not the only thing that's bothering you."
Adrien sits next to her and looks out over the village, "It's everyone's insistence on making us climb the mountain ourselves, rather than telling us what they see."
Siúsan nods thoughtfully, "Back on earth, things are different. Not in the clans, but in the courts. Many of them don't teach their people to 'climb the mountain' as you say. A few actively punish those who do. However, one thing has become very apparent since Hela guaranteed clan freedom. That is that those courts that do teach their members to climb the mountain are also the courts most able to adapt to new situations."
Adrien can't help but ask, "Why?"
Siúsan looks Adrien in the eyes, "How do you know that those at the top of the mountain see truly and don't have cataracts?"
Adrien opens his mandibles to say something, and then stops. Then he starts again more slowly, "Because they have shown time and time again that they see true."
Siúsan nods, "That is true, but blindness doesn't happen suddenly, it creeps up on people. Then the people who are climbing up later start to doubt their own eyes as they look from a similar vantage point. Are they seeing things that aren't there? Are they missing things that are there? All because they've never been taught how to climb the mountain themselves, and relied on the person who is now half blind."
Adrien's crest flattens out in the turian version of a frown, "That's why you have people climb different mountains. That way they have a different perspective on the land below."
Siúsan nods again, "And when those who climb the mountains all want the choicest hunting for themselves, and work together?"
Adrien rears back, "They wouldn't."
Siúsan looks at Adrien sympathetically, "It has happened many times in human culture. It has also happened in many courts." She reaches up to her temple and draws a history from her head, "This is one such event that happened over 50 years before the sleeper wars on realm:2 earth. They called it the second world war, and once magic was revealed to the world, governments from around Europe asked us to compile a History of the rise of the people in power who started that war."
Adrien frowns at the silver blob on Siúsan's finger, "I'm not sure I want to know."
Siúsan smiles, "But do you think you need to know?"
Adrien nods, "I fear I do."
"Then take it from my finger."
Adrien reaches out to try and take the memory, only for his hand to pass through it.
Siúsan laughs, a clear sound that sends Adrien's heart soring, "You found your magic, now you need to use it to take the history."
Adrien playfully flicks Siúsan's hair the way he might a turian he's interested in. Then he stills, "Why do I like being around you so much?"
Siúsan looks at Adrien seriously, "Don't stop trying to take the memory while we talk. The reason you like being around me is the same as the reason I like being around you. Our magic likes each other."
Adrien reaches out again, "What does that mean?"
"I'm sure you've heard some of the humans talking about soul mates. Well, it's a little like that, except it's not one true love. Well, it's not unless you allow the bond to develop. To start with, you just like being around each other, but over time that develops into more. It's why I'm going to ask to join the Dark Walkers when a member next arrives at Shaanxi."
Adrien reaches down to the earth and drags his talons through it, "But I'm already betrothed."
Siúsan shrugs, "We have at least 50,000 years ahead of us, what is a century or more spent living in realm:2?"
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Desolas curses has he stumbles through a forest on the garden world they've taken. Not only did a couple of patrols vanish without trace a few days ago, but the relays went into standby at around the same time. To cap it all, a bos'het on the science vessel they were escorting, before being diverted here, screwed up the fusion power plant and causing it to crash in this spirits forsaken forest.
So now they need a flight leader to retrieve whatever the ship was carrying, and he's the only spirits damn flight leader on planet.
As sound to one side has his crest flaring to try and locate the source, and he freezes along with his squad. As the echoes bounce of too many spirits damned trees, Desolas forces himself to calm down and continue making his way through the forest.
One of his squad members softly says, "Why can't we just cut this damn forest down."
Desolas curses, "Be quiet you bos'het, do you want to tell every native in earshot that we're here? Also, have you forgotten this is a garden world?"
Soft grumbling is the only response he gets.
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A short while later Desolas' patrol breaks through the undergrowth, and stumbles into a clearing that is at the beginning of a long trench caused by the science vessel.
Standing around the trench is a group of aliens that look like asari of all things.
Desolas is already drawing his sidearm and dodging as he registers one of the aliens raise their hands. Then a red light seems to fill the clearing and…
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Jack Harper looks disdainfully down at the aliens lying on the grass. If it wasn't for the damn magi and N-series services, he'd kill them and be done with it.
Shaking his head, he waves his hand over his shoulder, "Strip them, and leave them inside the forest line."
As a few of his men move forward to do just that, Jack looks down the trench towards the crashed ship. Then over at one of the men that is scanning the sky, "How long till my yacht gets here?"
The man shrugs, "Five or ten minutes, depends on how long it takes them to evade the garrison sensors."
Jack nods, "Keep track of it. The rest of you, I want that eezo drive extracted and ready to go as soon as possible. The garrison won't remain preoccupied with the invaders for long. If you have time, grab everything else you can from inside, starting with that prothean relic. Once we've got all that, we can start our own colonies outside System space."