Lillene
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Chapter 824 - A Better Plan
🕑 Added 2023-08-15 00:00:24 +0000 UTCEnjoy!
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“You should take Liam with you next time. No, Samantha. Actually, why not both?” Rissa tapped her bowl with her fork. “Definitely Blaze, too, in case you get bitten again. You said there are only two functional protective shawls, right?”
Serenity nodded, confused. How did she expect him to get everyone across the manastream with only two enchanted items to protect them? Was she planning to have someone walk back and forth across it, so that one other person could cross each time? That might work, but not until the basilisks were dealt with.
Jenna picked that moment to imitate her mother by banging her cup on the table. Diane stepped a little closer, but Jenna decided to drink some more of the water instead of making a mess.
Serenity just watched; he didn’t know enough about raising kids. Diane’s usual policy of “set boundaries but don’t interfere as long as Jenna stays within them” seemed reasonable to him, but what did he know? Serenity glanced over at Rissa and found that she was watching Diane just as closely as he was.
“It’ll be you and either Ita or Blaze against the basilisks, of course.” Rissa continued as though she didn’t still have her eyes on her daughter. She started to tap her bowl again but carefully set her fork down instead. “I wish there were more of them, but two will have to do; just make sure they don’t get damaged this time.”
Wait a minute. There were more than two of the protective wraps. “There seemed to be more on the other side of the river. I couldn’t get to them because of the basilisks.”
Serenity’s eyes widened as he realized he’d missed something. Something that hadn’t occurred to him until this moment. “I bet I could get them, too; the proper application of a telekinesis spell should be able to grab them off the hooks. They don’t have any protection against that.” Most enchanted items didn’t. It was more complicated and usually wasn’t worth the extra cost and time the creator would ask for.
“Ita and Blaze, then. It’s too bad Kerr and Legion aren’t here. Legion would be perfect for this. Do you think Legion’s weapons would work on the basilisks?” Rissa seemed to have entirely forgotten about her food.
“Probably,” Serenity admitted. “Not as well as on people, but we know they can go through stone if you adjust them properly.”
Serenity hadn’t even considered using them on A’Atla even though he had a few; now that he thought about it, that was still the right call. He only had the ones he did because Legion had asked him to keep them.
They weren’t made to subdue, they were made to kill. More than that, he wasn’t an expert with that sort of weapon. He could learn, but he would have to learn. Aiming a gun wasn’t the same as aiming a spell. Spells worked on intent while guns were entirely physical.
Admittedly, the greenstone guns might have an intent component as well. They were magical, after all, and they did use greenstone that responded to Serenity even though they were no longer even close to Lyka. Serenity still wasn’t confident they were a great choice for him at all, even against the basilisks he didn’t mind killing.
For someone else, on the other hand, they might be just the thing. Normally, they’d only work for Legion; Serenity had set that up himself. “If I’m going to pull in Liam, I should pull in Team Two as well. They’ll be better shots than I am and I can temporarily authorize the guns for them. Do I even need…”
Serenity paused as he thought. There were six people in Team Two but only five wraps. Just as importantly, Serenity wasn’t certain that five greenstone rifles was the best choice; yes, it was probably the fastest way to kill the basilisks, assuming it worked, but it was also the fastest way to get some of them killed if more basilisks decided they didn’t want to wait and leapt into the river. They’d have to stand close enough to the shore to have the rifles completely outside the stream, just like Serenity’s manablade, which meant they were close enough that a basilisk could reach them.
On top of that, Serenity wasn’t even certain he could make the temporary authorization work if he was on the other side of the stream and he wasn’t about to change the limitation to permanently add someone. That was a huge weakness; it was far harder to fool a resonance lockout than a specific authorization. Serenity could override the resonance lockout temporarily by providing the resonance himself, but the more he thought about it, the more he thought that wouldn’t work through the manastream.
“Three people from Team Two, Ita, and me,” Serenity muttered. “A Death Field will help weaken them; they’re already going to be weak from the one earlier today. I can activate the guns and distract any basilisks that Ita doesn’t manage to pin down. It should work.”
There was a little more discussion of the plan, but it didn’t really go anywhere before dinner was over. After dinner, they had evening plans; it was Rissa’s turn for storytime. If Jenna was still awake after that, Serenity would play with her. She rarely stayed up too long after dinner.
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The next morning, Serenity made his way to the workrooms Samantha and Liam used. It took him a few tries to find either of them, but Samantha was hard at work in one of the workrooms farther down the hall. Serenity couldn’t tell what she was doing, even though he recognized the equipment she was using. It probably wasn’t important; he could see that she was simply working with one of A’Atla’s display wands.
Serenity tapped on the door since Samantha hadn’t looked up when he opened it. “Samantha?”
Samantha didn’t look up. “They’re two rooms down, in the box labeled extra.”
“What are?” Serenity had to stop himself from laughing at the sheer boredom in her voice. Somehow, Serenity was pretty certain she didn’t realize he was the person at her door.
Samantha turned to look, then shook her head with a chuckle. “Sorry, I’ve been getting the same request for days. Apparently someone figured out how to share maps and now everyone wants their own. What do you need, Serenity?”
Serenity grinned. He was pretty sure he knew what the answer to the next question was, but he couldn’t resist asking it casually. “I was wondering if you’d be at all interested in taking a look at A’Atla’s powerplant.”
Samantha very slowly turned her chair to completely face Serenity instead of simply turning her head to look at him. “Could you say that again? I thought you just invited me to examine where A’Atla makes its energy.”
Disbelief was just as good a reaction as the over-the-top joy he’d expected, so Serenity grinned at her. “That’s right. There are some difficulties getting there, but I’m pretty sure that’s what the facility is.”
“For that, I can get the earthmoving equipment taken off its current tasks. A powerplant that can run for millennia with no maintenance? Everyone’s going to want to see that.” Samantha searched the table near her, then turned around and picked up a tablet that she’d clearly set there earlier. “How deep is it? Are we going to need anything special?”
Serenity shook his head. “It’s accessible from the tunnels. Well, mostly accessible; there’s a gate that I don’t want to remove until we’re certain there are no more basilisks in the upper section. Or the lower section for that matter. I could use some help with that.”
“Basilisks?” Samantha squinted one eye closed and held the other one wide open as she looked at him with an expression that was closer to a grimace than a grin. “You do mean the mythological critters, not the lizards, right?”
Serenity shrugged. “I’m pretty sure they’re stone elementals, but they sort of look like lizards, they can petrify living creatures with a glare, and they eat stone. Not A’Atla’s walls, apparently, but definitely people they’ve turned to stone. That seems close enough to a basilisk to me.”
“I thought A’Atla didn’t have dungeons.” Samantha frowned. “Or was that just a theory because of the lack of people? But how can the engine be inside a dungeon? Has there been a dungeon break?”
Serenity shook his head. “They’re not dungeon monsters. They seem to have been here since A’Atla sank. I’m not sure how long they were here before that, but either way, they’re not dungeon monsters. You’re right, there aren’t any dungeons on A’Atla yet. There may never be one; the node’s big enough to support one but the ship’s strange. It might not get anything.”
Really, with a nexus this large there should have been something, but Serenity hadn’t found anything. That might be because of the weirdness he was trying to fix with Amani’s contraption or it might be because A’Atla’s control system itself counted as the “something.” Serenity was fairly confident that the first was indeed a barrier, but he wasn’t certain about the second.
If nothing else, he hoped the opportunity to connect A’Atla to the rest of the portal system became available somehow. That would make moving back and forth much easier; right now, everyone had to go by ship or by plane and there weren’t very many planes that could manage the distance, even from the closest islands, without needing a runway. A runway was planned but for now all they had was a grassy field that could only manage small planes.
Samantha took a long moment to think through what Serenity told her. “You wouldn’t be here without a plan. How are we supposed to get past the critters that will turn us to stone if they see us? Mirrors?”
Serenity chuckled at the suggestion. Yes, a shield polished to a mirror finish was how Perseus dealt with Medusa, but it was highly unlikely to work. “Reflecting their own gaze back at themselves? That would only work on a really poorly created spell. Which, now that I think about it, means that the myth may actually have a basis in reality.”
Serenity’s grin turned into a frown. That was exactly the kind of error people made. He could think of a couple different ways to make that mistake in the targeting conditions, too. Serenity had always known Earth’s myths were oddly true. The more he learned about Earth’s hidden history, the more he came to believe that they’d happened on Earth, as well, instead of simply being tales from people who’d somehow arrived from somewhere else.
Serenity shook his head and found himself grinning again. He had a much better solution than a mirror and a prayer. “No, we’re going to shoot them. Well, I’m going to provide the guns and three of the soldiers Liam has with him will shoot them. I think he called them Team Two?”
“If that’s what it takes to get access to A’Atla’s powerplant, I think that’s a price we’ll be happy to pay.” Samantha grinned at Serenity. “Did you want anyone else to come with us? The rest of Team Two, maybe? One of them has magical ammunition; maybe he can be a fourth shooter?”
Serenity shook his head. “The limit isn’t the number of guns, it’s how many people can go through at once…”
Serenity had to explain the situation several more times, but the major hurdles were past. Samantha took care of most of the details, which left Serenity with only one real issue: the soldiers wanted a chance to test the greenstone rifles before they used them in actual combat. Serenity knew he should have planned for that; he’d just gotten in a hurry again.
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Author's Note: There is definitely some sort of communication happening with the next level up from Team Two whenever Serenity commandeers them, but so far that hasn’t caused enough of a delay for Serenity to even notice it.
