Asheron's Fall: The Power of Ten, Book Six

Kristie just smiled slightly up at the Hea chieftain, only a simple circlet on his head indicating his status. His reputation did indeed precede him, as one of the least violent of the Hea tribal leaders, more concerned with making his own slice of tumerok paradise than spreading his name as a glorious fighter.

Which was not to say he’d not done that, as well. More than a few tribes of both Hea and the wilder races had taken runs at his little kingdom here, and he had been quick and decisive in punishing them for their effrontery. Such raids had settled down to occasional probes of the strength of others, tit for tat things done as displays of strength more than intent, each side holding to a territory and just letting the other know they could defend it.

Clearly that strength wasn’t going to be enough here and now, and all the older warriors and the magic they’d painfully learned wasn’t going to make a difference this time!

“In deference to your wise leadership of the past generation, Hea Kurugus, your people will be allowed to disarm and leave to the east.

“Remove all armor, weapons, and talismans, leave it all behind, and go.”

She just looked up at him, and he stared back at her in disbelief. “You expect us to disarm so we will be slaughtered the more easily?” he scoffed down at her.

She just moved her shoulder, and the great Aun shaman behind her scoffed back at him, “Do not judge her by what you would do, Kurugus!” Aun Hemenua hurled his words back at him in equal disdain. “She will do as she says! Why, I do not understand, as slaves to the virindi should not be treated as anything more than the drudges they are,” Hea Kurugus’ jaw clearly clenched at the insult, “but if she says you will be allowed to leave, you will be allowed to leave!”

Aun Hemenua’s name was old and honored, his word absolute. That he spoke for an Isparian was a powerful statement of validity.

“And if we do not?” the Hea chieftain growled, simply because he had to.

Her smile was death. Eight canines gleamed at him, and he had a vision of crazed carenzi leaping for his throat in blood-mad frenzy. “Please, do not withdraw. It makes things so much simpler.”

Hea Kurugus could not help but swallow. “I… will need some time,” he hedged carefully.

“You have ten minutes. You are the chieftain. Make the decision, and tell them. They will obey, or matters will become... simpler.” Her dismissive motion was curt and sharp, and he was stepping back from the simple power in her gesture before he realized it.

Eight sharp teeth, gaping wide, coming for his throat…

---

The Hea kept his head up, but Kristie could see the defeat in the set of his shoulders as he walked away.

It was kind of disappointing. Setting the place on fire, then wading into it to kill them all in the inferno was something she would absolutely enjoy doing, a tactic her mother had used more than once against the Viamontians.

Rantha immunity to fire included immunity to carbon dioxide, monoxide, and smoke inhalation generated by flames. Burning castles and garrisons were no impediment to a Rantha.

“Explain to me why you would let them leave. The shame of having to surrender and being let go will prompt many of them to take up spears against you merely to prove their bravery and their honor,” Aun Hemenua asked her.

“One, it shows we have honor, where they had none.

“Two, it shows we have strength, and they have weakness.

“Three, it shows who we have respect for. I believe that Hea Kurugus may well be mocked and shamed by the other chieftains for choosing to save his people instead of fighting us… and when we cut those other fools down without giving them any respect or honor, they will know who WE hold in regard.

“This will up his standing among his people without him doing anything, because we will not give them a choice.

“Four, is not Kurugus the one who sent trueborn Hea to be fostered to the Aun?” I asked archly.

Aun Hemenua’s eyes narrowed. “He was, indeed…”

“Then we want the leadership of the Hea to be a warrior who cares more for his people than for the commands of his masters.”

Aun Hemenua rumbled deep in his throat, his fingers tweaking the drum at his side with a soft ba-dump to accent, a complimentary gesture for her cunning. “And if he should choose to fight?” he asked carefully.

“If they choose to fight, then I will slaughter them all, and their cries to their masters will not save them.” And she would kill them, it wasn’t even a question.

That the Hea on the walls could hear her last statement very clearly, it must have been their ancestors carrying it to them on the wind…

------

They did stare at the lines of soldiers forming a path for them, the first ones tense as they strode out, breaking into a cautious loping after a perfunctory once-over from the white-haired, dark-skinned female waiting for them placidly outside the gates. She waved each of them off in turn, and the army of Isparians, Royalist lugians, and Aun watched them go.

Sure, there were some tensing of spears, scowls, and angry eyes looking after them, but no action was taken.

One by one, the Hea of Soushi, carrying little but the clothes on their backs, exited the town they had built up and re-purposed to the needs of their people, and they ran off to the east, towards yet another town and fortification built by Isparians that they had taken from them.

Briggs and Kris were at the end of the line, watching them go. Hea Kurugus was the last to go, his circlet left to him by the female who’d calmly flicked her hand and removed jewelry and fetishes from those who’d hoped to sneak them past her without comment.

He gave each of them a glance as he loped past them, a hunter’s pace that would eat up the miles and carry him to his destination. Still, he had to cross the river and cover over fifty miles to make it to the main Hea camp and fortress in Osteth, although there were other camps and settlements on the way.

They just looked after him with even expressions, and if Kris smiled just a little bit to hurry him on his way, that was to be expected.

“Send in the scouts and the Aun,” Briggs rumbled, pointing Endure at the gates, and the teams of both hurried into the city.

If they wanted to destroy everything out of spite, that was their prerogative, and would not affect our actions one way or the other. We were expecting a few surprises, so the scouts and Aun were going to vet through the whole town.

In particular, Aun Hemenua was going to go in with his helpers and see if the Hea had further destroyed the Root and essence of the living thorns that had helped guard the walls here. If they hadn’t taken further actions, why, then, without about a week of work he could reverse what Kris had done to the thing, and even improve it substantially… such as not having the core of the organic formation sitting above ground exposed to a sabotuer!

Hea Agutok was a student of the old ways, that was true, but the Hea had lost a great deal of their ancient knowledge and magic under the influence of the virindi and the young tumeroks they’d raised into power over their kin. The old ways had fallen into disfavor, and with them the lore and knowledge of their ancestors.

Naturally his skill with such thorned defenses was not going to equal the knowledge of the Aun, who had kept their ancient knowledge alive with determination and zeal, even if much of it was… difficult to draw on.

If not outright lethally dangerous!

I wandered up to the two of them, both of them looking away… but not to the east.

To the west!

“Hey, I know that face. It’s the ‘we beat the glove, but not the fist it surrounds. Prepare my chin for the pummeling, please!’”

They both lowered their eyes to me, and Kris promptly pounced on me and give me a firm noogie for being a smartass while I ineffectually beat her off, cursing about Hags and hard nails and other things.

“You know this wasn’t about the Hea. The Hea, regardless of their boasting about their warrior traditions, don’t have the stomach or heart for a true armed conflict,” Briggs rumbled.

“So, you’re expecting the virindi to come sailing in here to see what happened and set it right?” I asked, rubbing my head and giving Kris a sour face. She just shit-grinned me and wagged a finger at me.

“Nobody I’ve talked to can ever remember a scene of virindi moving out like a true army, only in small squads, maybe the size of a platoon. There should be a reason for something like that…” Briggs continued, ignoring our antics. “Standard hiveminds EXCEL at swarm tactics. Intelligent hiveminds that can use magic in a coordinated fashion are the most terrifying of Axiomatic entities, using an entire army as if were one mind and body.

“They’ve never shown that kind of mass power and coordination, despite exhibiting so many other signs of hiveminds with their emphasis on the Singularity and Quiddity and whatever.”

“The most obvious answer is this is the mortal plane, and they are some form of psychic elemental. Their very existence here requires that they cloak themselves in psychoactive metals to contain and shelter themselves. It would not surprise me that grouping together raises their psychic imprint to a level where their robes can’t contain their power, and they destabilize. A self-correcting mechanism that can likely only be controlled by specific runeworks and psychic circuitry worked into their domiciles… or by keeping careful distances between one another.

“Remember they are Aberrant. They are alien to the rules of this place, and the world doesn’t like them. They start concentrating numbers, and the world really won’t like them!” I finished sourly, actually hitting my head with a Vivic Dart to ease the pain.

Bloody hag.

“And yet they still remain here. Whatever powers are chained here must be addictively attractive to them,” Kris mused.

“Or the risk of being able to harvest what they want is worth remaining, and Aberrants normally aren’t too caring of the passage of time,” I agreed. “Fifteen years, fifteen minutes, doesn’t matter. Timeless is usually a part of their psychology, so it’s merely find and adapt and find out and relate to prior experiences and experiment… all the while probably being led along by the nose by whoever and whatever has power and control over the ley lines and System on this place.”

“Mmm,” Briggs offered noncommittally, but I knew he’d filed it away to use against them at some point. “For now, we have to expect a response. From what you’ve told me, that is absolutely the first time you’ve used vivus against non-Summoned virindi?” he asked archly.

Kris glanced at me, nodding for herself. “Only landscape Summons from me,” I confirmed.

“Given the lack of reaction to you offing landscape Summons, we can assume that such are distant or unconnected to the main overmind of the virindi, and might even just be copies of them used by the System as random filler. We can’t expect that to happen this time.”

“A sudden and permanent loss to their overmind. Yeah, that should get a reaction.”

“Even the Rynthids they abhor so much didn’t cause permanent losses to the Singularity. The infected virindi had to be destroyed and purified, but they were recycled into it all the same, according to the researchers involved with that incursion,” I added to his supposition. “Annihilation will get a response, just on the basis of self-preservation.”