Abyssal Road Trip - 344 - Flatline (Patreon)

Amdirlain’s PoV - Material Plane - Qil Tris - Year 4370 (Local calendar)

While Amdirlain created a series of towns and facilities in some of the newest demi-planes, Sarah went to Osaphis with Malcineas.

Sarah summoned Amdirlain under psionic concealment, and they quietly joined Malcineas. They found him puzzling over the base camp’s architecture, “Why are we in the wilds? And why would you build this way? There are no wards but no creatures or even dust.”

“Pretty sure you’ve had enough shocks for the day,” replied Amdirlain, and she double-checked the concealments on her aura.

Malcineas shook himself, and his ears twitched. “Forgive me. This place and situation is quite intimidating, even after you removed those memories.”

“Nothing to forgive,” reassured Amdirlain. “Your situation isn’t a comfortable one. Have you talked over options?”

He wants to be calm so I can inspire him to find it, but it still feels like mind control.

“I thought to tell this 'Mor’lmes', part of the truth. You rescued me from one of the Matriarch’s facilities, and I’ll need help to catch up with the world outside her lies,” replied Malcineas. “That way, I can help teach and research sooner rather than sitting on my hands for a year.”

Rolling her eyes, Sarah smiled at Amdirlain. “Isn’t it great to meet people you share common interests with?”

“I’m not the only one who can’t stop working,” observed Amdirlain. “I’ve seen some of the toys you’ve been using lately.”

Giving a slightly embarrassed smile, Malcineas scratched at his ear. “I’m calmer when I have things to keep busy with. I find the activity absorbs some of my energy so I can make clearer decisions.”

“It’s daytime in Osaphis, so Mor’lmes will probably be at the campus,” noted Sarah.

“I’ll leave you to handle the introductions. I’m going to check a few of the Matriarch’s cities,” said Amdirlain. “Malcineas, I won’t ask you to address anyone, but if it’s alright, I’d like to share my memory of our conversation from when you woke up.”

“About her lab?” sighed Malcineas.

“Yes, do you need me to share it with you,” asked Amdirlain. “so you know what they’ll see?”

Malcineas rubbed the side of his muzzle slowly, his expression bleak. “The offer’s appreciated, but I’ll leave the details in your hands for all the good it might do.”

Putting a reassuring hand on his back, Sarah smiled. “Your image is in her propaganda; it will be a punch in the guts.”

“But the violence,” murmured Malcineas.

“I will move people to safety after I give them the information. I’ll also handle cities in sections so I can head off the chance of rioting,” replied Amdirlain, and she looked at Sarah. “Let me know when you’re ready to catch up, and I’ll send you my location.”

Appearing atop a high rise in the southernmost of the Matriarch’s cities, she took in the ongoing chaos in the city’s military base. The generator Sarah had stolen hadn’t been the only piece of missing equipment, it had simply been the biggest. While overriding of the propaganda broadcasts had the impact she’d hoped, it had influenced some military personnel. With several companies on lockdown by the base commander, she sent out invitations for those troubled companies to move. A surprising percentage took the offer of shifting from the military machine with minimal information.

Amdirlain dispatched a message to Ebusuku with the details of the target demi-plane and got a confirmation that helpers to settle them were on the way. In messages to Gail and Isa, she gave them themes of the demi-planes for relocation, along with where to find the required construction music and plans. Transporting a memory crystal with the composition to the spot she gave them, Amdirlain pushed ahead.

Relocation orbs swept through the outer suburbs and the work factories. Amdirlain had updated them with the Patriarch’s reincarnation and his words about his daughter. Their presence was invisible except the person they’d locked onto for the cycle. The core of each orb contained a psi-crystal that gave information and a way to activate it when they were ready to depart. Using the events with Malcineas might not have been necessary, but it was effective. Though some individuals accepted relocation immediately, most waited until the rest of their family members returned home in time for curfew.

It was early evening when Sarah announced she’d settled things, and Amdirlain sent her the view from her latest perch.

Sarah appeared next to where Amdirlain was standing on the high rise’s rim. “We were going to plan this properly.”

“It’s going great,” drawled Amdirlain. “They’re on the edge of large-scale violence, and dozens of cities are currently under military lockdown. I’d have moved them earlier. You said things were percolating.”

“No deaths, just some arrests,” reassured Sarah. “Maybe next world you can just work in that pub you discussed. Take everything easy.”

Giving her a side eye, Amdirlain huffed. "I no longer have Femme Fatale. I’ll be skipping the control lessons.”

“Yeah, you can skip those. Maybe you might achieve the elusive subtleness,” ribbed Sarah, and she frowned at Amdirlain. “What’s got you so upset?”

Amdirlain motioned towards a military convoy splitting up to patrol the street below. “Folks remembered the military units passing through, so they had first-hand truths to go with our news. We missed the preparation for Astent; we could miss people being executed. Opening the truth bucket isn’t calm when an authoritarian regime is involved.”

Sarah’s gaze narrowed at the military vehicles Amdirlain had her gaze set on. “Military curfews. I’m not sure they’re going to work. The question is, do you wait?”

“No, I didn't. I’ve already sent out updated relocation orbs,” said Amdirlain.

People started disappearing from the high rise beneath them, and Sarah caught the sudden absence of minds. “Curfews make people more inclined to flee to safety. Who would have thought it? Her use of his image in her propaganda backfiring?”

“Big time. The conversation about restoring him settled people’s minds about how it is possible,” clarified Amdirlain. “I won’t involve him directly.”

“If you empty all her cities, what happens if people don’t want to return?” asked Sarah.

“One bridge at a time,” muttered Amdirlain. “I’m already questioning the sanity of this, but I’m trying to get people out of the way of her thugs. Despite knowing that a military strike was heading for Astent, the Wizard in charge of that convey is business as usual. He thinks all the new casts are illusions.”

As more relocation orbs triggered, Amdirlain provided them new targets and heard them skip to another high rise.

“You need to do this wholesale,” muttered Sarah.

Amdirlain nodded. “Astent was quick, I just moved everyone within the city limits; this is time-consuming.”

Around them, more high rises started to empty as thousands of families left.

Sarah eyed Amdirlain. “How many orbs did you make?”

“Only twenty thousand so far. They’re transporting people—those touching them—and some personal possessions,” replied Amdirlain. “Gail and Laleither are making more towns.”

“You dragged Roher’s wife from her children?” gasped Sarah in mock surprise.

“I didn’t! Gail told her she needed exercise. I’m sure that didn’t go as well as Gail’s update implied,” laughed Amdirlain. “I’ve sent Dagrastûr details to reach the planar conduit of other ghost caverns. While none of them are ready to pop abominations, with the city’s populations dropping, it’ll tie things off.”

“Have they finished the first one yet?” enquired Sarah.

Amdirlain nodded. “The spawning abominations are big flesh-like orbs with hundreds of mouths that vomit spectres and spit magical curses to inflict damage. How he described it sounded like a giant putrid cyst popping with foulness.”

Sighing dramatically, Sarah gave Amdirlain a pout. “Don’t I get to play with one?”

“Do what you like, you insane git,” huffed Amdirlain.

Eyes widening in mock outrage, Sarah straightened and looked down at Amdirlain imperiously. “I’m the insane git? Me?”

Laughing, Amdirlain started to get back to work.

“I have an idea,” offered Sarah.

Amdirlain nodded. “Go on, I’m listening.”

* * * *

The morning saw five of the Matriarch’s cities into proverbial ghost towns. Only sections of the military, some government personnel, and elite families remained. The psi-crystal had filtered out those trying to accept the offer for an other than a genuine desire to be away from the Matriarch.

Shifting outside the Matriarch's compound, Amdirlain scanned through it. Guided by the music of her father’s flesh, she found the Matriarch’s lab beneath the building. Sarah offered her the gadget, and Amdirlain listened to its melody and that of the laboratory; as soon as the theme was complete, she nodded.

“We should have enough time to put fixes in place on the receivers,” advised Sarah as she considered the still-dark night sky. “They’ve cut power to them.”

“You repair one, and I’ll fix the rest,” replied Amdirlain.

Two hours later, the pair sat on a bench opposite the government’s central administration building. Those who passed them on their way to work didn’t notice how their attention slid away.

“I wonder if any of them will play buzzword bingo in today’s meetings,” Sarah said.

Looking at all those moving about in government uniform, Amdirlain snorted. “That’s if they end up having their morning meetings. Does this city have any purpose but government administration?”

“I don’t think it does. Malcineas says it wasn’t the capital when he was alive, and one of the Matriarch’s estates isn’t far from here,” advised Sarah.

“They’d still need support infrastructure for the bureaucracy. An evil dictator version of Canberra?” mused Amdirlain.

Sarah smiled. “Really? Poor Canberra.”

“It was just an idle thought,” replied Amdirlain. She waved an arm at the pristine buildings, their manicured spaces separating them. “Do you think she impressed anyone with all this?”

“Her minions,” proposed Sarah. “Though they’re terrified or brainwashed—or both—so I don’t think they needed to be impressed.”

Amdirlain’s song recreated the Matriarch’s likeness based on images provided by the drones in her lab. They caught the perfect moment of bone-white fur and a red gleam in her gaze eerily similar to the undead. The last Amdirlain could only guess was an effect from her Life Bane Class. The change ran through the city, and every face of every building had her staring at those below.

“I think you’re going to scare the children,” offered Sarah.

“They’ve every right to be scared,” replied Amdirlain.

The disabled receiver screens around the city come back to life, showing the Matriarch experimenting in her lab. Everyone could hear her live reaction to the news of her visage being displayed, all while she stood over a giant skeleton created by fusing hundreds of bones. In other cities, they broadcast the morning’s events before relocation orbs appeared, and people fled. While many took the relocation orbs’ offer, some in cities close to the Oligarchy and Allied Territories’ border took more standard routes.

When the military used violence to break up a gathering, Amdirlain noticed none of the nearby civilians carried weapons. As the soldiers started to cut people down, Amdirlain stopped asking people and moved them. Violence broke out in more cities, and Amdirlain tried to maintain her distance, working to snuff out the violence. She’d moved onto the fifth when Sarah’s monitoring units in border towns signalled trouble. A location with troops firing on fleeing civilians had Sarah appear nearby, and kinetic strikes obliterated the attacking troops.

‘Fanatics,’ growled Sarah, and she reappeared near the injured civilians to dispense healing drones.Their mental link shared her every action with Amdiralin.

Yet it was then the purpose of the initial command to attack showed its hand. With Sarah in the open, wizards teleported more troops into the nearby streets and opened fire on her. The energy projector’s blasts were stopped by shielding drones in a flare along their force barriers. Other drones replied in kind to spit a hurricane of energy and obliterate dozens. While his fellows died, a trooper appeared close to Sarah, and she brushed him aside absently and nearly decapitated him with that lazy motion. Above Sarah, the sky filled with hundreds of drones; from them, groups split off and escorted the evacuees to the border station while others dealt with fresh troops. Within moments of teleporting on site, hundreds following the Matriarch’s kill order were dead.

“Subtle?” questioned Amdirlain as she appeared amid the carnage. “You could have just assisted from the shadows.”

“And you didn’t have to come out here to let them see you. You were having all the fun,” countered Sarah, her eyes still ablaze with anger as she eyed the soldiers.

“Your drones match the ones at the studio,” observed Amdirlain. “And you said things about me running in to save kids.”

Sarah shrugged. “Weren’t we nearly done with the public fun? The long-term play against the Matriarch got tossed already. I’m tired of the bitch. Her military being ordered to fire on people says the bonfire is already burning. I think it’s time we cracked the egg and separated the yolk. Or cut the head off the snake, whatever term you want.”

“What did you have in mind?”

“Break her ward or door number two,” grumbled Sarah.

“Door number two,” picked Amdirlain. Catching distant observers, she ominously pointed a finger at each of them‌ despite their vantages kilometres away.

Sarah looked past the dead troops to glare where Amdirlain pointed. “Time to move.”

While she pointed out the last observers, Amdirlain’s song reached out to the civilians. The latest she’d restored to life sat up, shuddering from the cold of death being torn away and the toll their bodies had paid; their tears of relief showed the border guards they weren’t undead. Amdirlain waited for the observers to finish broadcasting the news, then teleported them to the military command post.

“I think it’s better they report in person,” commented Amdirlain. “Let’s go deal with the Necromancer.”

“Sorry to rush you folks, but we’ll get you to safety before we move on,” said Sarah.

Larger humanoid drones appeared to lift the nearby revived carefully, and Sarah turned to the shocked guards at the border station. “Will you let them through or keep standing around with your dick in your hands while people get gunned down?”

“We were told not to start a war,” called back a guard. “We’re letting them through without papers, but they’ve got to get here first.”

Amdirlain touched Sarah’s arm. “Let’s go with door number two. Do you want to detail some of your drones to help the guards keep arriving civilians safe? Let’s stop this now.”

Some of Sarah’s drones scattered about before they appeared a few kilometres from the estate. Still tense with rage at the troops, Sarah looked at Amdirlain. “You want to minimise casualties among the elite soldiers as well?”

Amdirlain set up a barrier around the estate ward that prevented teleporting and phylactery links. “I do, but I’m more worried about the people they’d kill if they join up with another lackey.”

“Want to give the locals a proper show?” hissed Sarah.

“No, let’s stick with your idea; the pieces are still in place. Either way, I’m sure the plinth will have a field day, but I won’t gloat about tearing her dominion apart. She’s hurt other people, but not me,” replied Amdirlain.

Sarah lifted a finger and pulled out a link unit. “I’ve got a message to pass along.”

“Who is this?” snarled the Matriarch as she answered the call.

“Malcineas said to tell you that you were always loved and that he wished you’d learnt to love others instead of your power,” said Sarah. The sheer anger in her voice made the words a mockery. “I’m going to take satisfaction in the fact that, despite you not believing in any God, Hell believes in you. I hope you enjoy the molten river.”

There was a pause before the Matriarch hissed a reply. “Who are you?”

“A messenger. We restored your father from the dead; he wanted me to pass his words along before your end,” replied Sarah.

Amdirlain sighed. “Tell your troops to surrender and leave the estate. You can save the lives of the troops in your command.”

“If you could touch me in here, you already would have. Those soldiers are mine; I will live eternally, and they’ll live with me.”

Amdirlain clenched her teeth. ‘Even if there is a phylactery inside the barrier, it won’t activate.’

“Enjoy your long walk off a short pier,” replied Sarah, and she disconnected.

From multiple points around the estate, Amdirlain’s voice could be heard telling them to leave their weapons and walk away from the estate, only for none of the military units to move.

“Time to see if the big gun will work,” muttered Sarah, and she made another call.

“This is Malcineas,” said Malcineas, his voice coming from Sarah’s unit.

“Have you considered what we spoke about?” asked Sarah. “She’s got the soldiers killing people. We’ve been working to stop things, but more have suffered; it’s time to make a choice.”

“Yes, you are right. I can’t just walk away. What do you need me to do?” asked Malcineas, his voice cracking.

“I passed your words on to your daughter. Consider what you want to say and look into the caster I left with you. Speak up and think about all the lives you’ll save. You can get the government into other people’s hands later, but it has to be out of her hands first.”

“Years that I can give myself back with life extensions, yes,” agreed Malcineas, and the call cut off.

A few minutes later, drones Sarah had sent closer to the estate started to project Malcineas’s image.

“Every functional receiver in the country will see this, and the link units will hear it as well,” said Sarah.

Amdirlain sighed. “I was going to leave him out of it.”

“It’s his price to pay. Stop forking out for other people’s messes,” grumbled Sarah. “We’re cutting the head off the snake; let’s give them a hopefully saner leader to settle things down. I’ll return in a decade or two to ensure it’s transitioning to sanity.”

Malcineas' voice echoed from the drones; having introduced himself, he kept going, and his voice firmed.

“Three hundred years ago, my daughter struck against me. I was trapped, unable to prevent the path she took our country down. But I’m no longer trapped, and you should also free yourselves. Lay down the weapons you’ve raised against each other—focus on defending others from what comes from the ghost caverns. Once, she claimed to have the nation’s interests at heart. But if that was ever the case, those times have gone, and only her lust for power remains. Disregard my daughter's orders and fulfil your duty of caring for all citizens, regardless of their magical abilities or pride.”

Malcineas continued for a short time to echo from the drone’s projections, and as some guards tried to leave the estates, others shot them down.

Those at the wards’ edges were whisked to safety, and Sarah huffed in disbelief before directing her healing drones to restore them.

“Just in case, harden the barrier. I don’t like the Mana generators here,” advised Sarah. “Her delivery will arrive shortly.”

Amdirlain changed the barrier and watched the end arrive. Sarah’s custom link unit showed the camera views from the stealth units Amdirlain had created around the Matriarch’s lab. Blue light flashed at the end of the camera; a combination of magnetic coils and gravity pulses sent rounds the length of Amdirlain’s forefinger out at nearly Mach 12.

With four drones alternating between solid and flechettes, the Matriarch’s body rapidly transformed into a gory mist. Despite that, the drones repeatedly adjusted and fired at whatever pieces their sensor detected until their guns ran dry. They were still shooting when the wards tied to her life sign pulsed and rang. Her failsafe triggered, and the estate’s Mana generators exploded. The activation of the phylactery fought and clawed against the spherical barrier Amdirlain had put in place, but ultimately failed.

“I’m astonished Gideon doesn’t have rules against that,” murmured Sarah.

“I wasn’t expecting a self-destruct. And objects moving at speed is impossible to prevent since any orbiting object needs to move faster than those rounds,” replied Amdirlain. “She was a soft target, and I went overkill with four. It wouldn’t work against someone like Moloch, his flesh would shrug them off even if you made them from adamantine. A gun equipped with magical rounds he’d sense or they’d be subject to protection spells to deflect them.”

Sarah nodded, but her expression was resolved. “I think we’ve saved far more lives making a clean cut than not.”

“You get the experience?” asked Amdirlain, as she tried to change the subject.

“For her and the military units on the estate,” agreed Sarah.

Huffing, Amdirlain waved at the message behind the dome. “Complete favouritism. I blow things up and don’t get any experience; you signal drones I created, and get experience.”

“Duplicated,” corrected Sarah. “I designed them and made the first. It was also my idea. Though you’re deflecting.”

“Yeah, but I wish I had killed her this morning instead of attempting to fracture people away from her,” replied Amdirlain. “Or at least gotten her to flee her estates so we could catch her exposed.”

“And I was hoping your approach would get them to back off and let you continue the evacuations, but that wasn’t working out,” clarified Sarah. “How many wounded and dead have you had to restore today alone?”

“Too many, and it won’t end here,” murmured Amdirlain unhappily.

Sarah frowned. “It should for us. It’s not our mess to fix. If you want to buy them time, get the details of the other conduits and let the cloister patrol them.”

“I’ve already got the songs of all the ghost caverns,” advised Amdirlain, not taking her eyes from the visible dome. Water manifested inside the dome to snare the dust and drive it to the ground, resulting in a mud-filled lake in the hollow that existed now.

“We still should get the refugees settled. I don’t think sending them home is safe until the situation is calmer.”

“Ebusuku has people in disguise sorting that out. There are more than enough housing and Mana generators for the population I’ve shifted,” replied Amdirlain. “I’m going to check on other cities to see how they’ve taken Malcineas’ speech.”

“I’ll start on the eastern border,” said Sarah.

“Then I’ll go to the capital and work westward,” responded Amdirlain, and she promptly vanished.