To Summon a Thief
Chapter 1 of The Daughters of Ginmaya
The lofty Hall of the Sybils on Mount Nuerca was home to the five oracles. The back side of the extinct volcano faced the north Pedale Sea. Here in the wide, circular hearing chamber, a narrow bridge extended to a platform that hovered above a seemingly bottomless abyss. There the recipient would look up at the oracles and hear their prophecy. Hanging glass panes lent a musical mystique on cold subterranean air currents, flashing various colors as they caught the light coming from the entrance patio.
Jili could not care less. At eighteen, she was the world's premier assassin, had single handedly destroyed the vaunted Green Tip assassins league. She stood apace, watching the one called Picard argue with the guard captain about giving up her weapons. Not going to happen. There was some crisis in the dark realms that had prompted Picard to bring a veritable army of super heroes from his universe. Hearing of their prowess, Jili had no sense of them needing any help from a stealth pig sticker. This promised to be a battle of magical titans. Then she'd received the summons from the Sybils, one she was prepared to ignore. But her boss, Karst, said to ignore it was unthinkable. Probably something to do with his many crime links here in Eolca. And so here she was.
The guard captain warily approached where she waited beside a shadowed bench. "Can you not see how we must protect the oracles? You must have a thousand ways to kill them."
Jili looked up under dark kohled eyes. "Do they not see the future? If they show themselves, is it not proof I mean no mischief?"
The guard looked to Picard for support, but the starship captain merely spread hands. He turned back to her. "Very well. But we're watching for the slightest provocative move on your part." He stomped off, leaving Jili to saunter out onto the long pathway toward the railed platform at the end. Apparently the oracles were awaiting the end of the standoff, and now filed in behind their lofty seats along a curved stone wall. All five had white hair, and all wore the pale blue robes of the Order of Helios, with its sun-rayed crown emblazoned on front. The one in the center spoke.
"You are rebellious, Jilianna of Khot."
She bristled at use of her given name. "I'm here. What do you want?" Voices echoed out here above the abyss.
It was like they could read her mind. "You doubt the power of the forces arrayed by Jean Luc of the Federation. How see you the outcome of the struggle?"
"I've heard," Jili said, "they want to stop a horde of invincible robots from pouring into their galaxy. That sounds like a strong incentive to me."
"Without you, they will fail."
Jili shook her head. "I can't believe the goddess will let that happen, and I'm tired of being the first one picked every time someone chooses a team." She started to go.
"Shall we ask the other?" the oracle called after her. "The one like you?"
Jili stopped in her tracks, feeling a thrill course through her body. She had long since known the shattering reality that she was a created being, alone in the world. But now . . . . was it possible? She turned back toward the oracle, agape.
"We can say no more—only that the two of you will decide the outcome of this clash of galaxies. The place is the same floating city you were abducted from as a child. Luzistor."
Jili looked back to the entrance, aglow in late evening light. Rabelus had arrived. The master of the magic academy had lost his daughter Eiridne, leader of the Red Claws, in that raid. The oracles thought Jili might be turned against the ones who had given her such dark powers. But she had gone her own way, escaping to Khot, City of Thieves. Rabelus nodded his hoary head, even now not blaming her. She had been a child, not knowing her scratch was fatal. But the new Red Claw leader, Caladra, very much blamed her. And Caladra was responsible for logistics and support for the mission.
Her usual reserve dropped away, and Jili heard herself ask the plaintive questions: "Is it a he or a she? What are they like? How do I find him or her?"
"We know only what was foreseen," the oracle said. "A dark magic has been transplanted here from Picard's universe long ago. You have fought their product, the spirit trees."
The walking trees. Susceptible to fire spells but not much else. Crafty. You didn't know a tree was one of them until it uprooted and grabbed you.
"The spirits trapped in these trees," the oracle went on, "can be used for any purpose, even unto giving life to statues and suits of armor. Each requires a human sacrifice, but the dark lords have little remorse about using them. Can even the goddess prevail? Has she not gifted you with abilities to aid her?"
It was a conundrum Jili had never come to terms with. Part of her saw things the way the goddess did: a body only wanted to live, and it was a shame to have to end it because of its foolish owner. Another part of her relished the mayhem—the part that could reanimate the dead and summon a skeletal familiar. She was beyond words now. It was time to go.
Picard
Picard had witnessed the drama, felt the pain of what Jili must be feeling about a kindred soul. This was a dangerous time. He waited for her slow return to the atrium. The orange sun lent a sickly pallor to her already pale face, a face so devoid of expression that she might be capable of anything.
The maze master, Rabelus, was much more familiar with her. "Let me handle this, Picard. She and I will go to the academy and talk in private. I'll help her deal with it."
"Can it be true?" Picard asked the taller man in the royal blue robes. "Another like her? Can there be two super assassins?"
"That's just it. We can't know until the two of them come face to face. I suspect that other is in hiding. If the dark lords knew about this, then that person would be getting some unpleasant conditioning right now. Let's hope your party is the first on the scene before they get wind of it."
Jili had reached them, having no response but to slightly hang her head and look at the flagstones. It was still too much to process, too much to hope for.
Picard started to reach for her, but the more experienced Rabelus put out a staying hand. She didn't respond well to sympathy.
"Jili," Rabelus began. "I may have some perspective for you, both good and bad. Let's retire to my office."
The assassin had regained her old aplomb, giving each a sinister look. "There is no bad part to this. If there is, I intend to destroy it." She wafted out, leaving the two men trading troubled looks.
Rabelus
The giant twin domes of Academy and Library sat lower down the extinct cone, on a broad plaza always crowded with students and staff. The city proper wound its way much farther down to the sea wall. Rabelus, a wizard in his own right, sat at his desk as Jili paced. On this orbit, she threw the magic cord up to the vaulted overhead, reeled herself up, and hung there regarding him upside down.
"You're making me dizzy," he said.
Just then, a roar sounded from the oculus atop the dome. Theoretical magic was practiced there inside a containment field. Failed efforts exploded upwards, sparing the spell casters annihilation.
"You hear that?" Jili asked. "That's Bonnie and Zena practicing a hybrid spell."
Though of moderate skill, the girls could combine sorcery and wizardry to create awesome hybrids that were inherently unstable, as dangerous for casters as for their enemies.
"And what can I offer?" Jili now crossed her upside down arms. "My best spell is homing stars, which a demon lord would laugh off."
Rabelus shrugged. "It isn't your specialty to go head to head. Your strength is getting to the enemy's weak spot."
Now Jili spun herself down, to sit cross-legged on the desk. "It gets worse. You know how I feel about the space people's beam weapons. Those are for cowards. The girl made of white metal seems a good enough warrior. But the queen of the drones—Ardra will have to babysit her the whole time to keep her from going feral. She could botify the whole planet."
Rabelus leaned back to study the shroud-layered apparition before him. "You've avoided the reason for changing your mind. The confounded sibling, if that's what this other is. Even if you end up disappointed, there's a mission to complete."
Jili didn't take that sitting down. "You're glad your granddaughter isn't going on this one." Wayacth, now imperatrix after the Red Claws put down a rebellion in the west, still didn't know Jili had accidentally killed her mother. Rabelus had always sweated the missions the powerful sorceress took part in.
"You're right," he said. "I can't go through that again. Losing you would hurt just as much."
The assassin had no answer for that, never a type for hugs and laughter. "All right. I'll make this happen for Wayacth. And for Eiridne." The latter was the former Red Claw leader.
Rabelus watched her collapse into stealth, a mere distortion, and didn't see which method she used for exiting the office. Knowing her, it was probably out the lofty window.