#rainbowsparklepowerfriendsreunited
To hold, the other entrances in Scotland, Wales and France had been other forts in the net work for High Brazil. Several more had been lost when the Sea levels rose and flooded what is now the Irish Sea and Dogger Land at the end of the Ice Age.
Pushing deeper still Angel reached the point the stone in her hand had been attuned to Cyhyraeth. She saw a man in orange robes, dark skinned and dark haired, with blue, intelligent eyes, smiling at her. Things went hazy around Angel and she felt woozy for a second, and then she stood up, her point of view moved in the memory, or was this happening now?
"My child!" The robed man cried out in joy and coming to hug her, not the stone but Angel. She could feel his arms around her, his face pressed into her arm just below her right shoulder. "You are so tall!" his voice was muffled, "To know I have a descendent who can use the stones as my forefathers could brings me great joy." Angel could feel this world shift as someone entered the room, a woman that looked so much like her own mother that it surprised her, breaking the connection and dropping her mind back into her body, now standing on the ramp, the stone pressed up to her right arm, where the man's face had been pressed.
"Are you well?" The Whisp asked, "Your heart rate is elevated."
"I think so, I just saw a man when I was meditating on the stone, I think we were, I mean are related. He'd attuned the stone for Cyhyraeth to defend High Brazil and it's people from something they knew as the Formorians, who came from the sea." She closed her eyes and focused on the memories," I think we might be able to find other useful items at the other outposts." Angel focused on a map she'd seen, it covered more of the North Atlantic than the one in Tintagel had. She remembered a number of green dots, one had been just off the Isle Of Man a second had been off the coast of Denmark in Jutland, with a third located on the banks of the Forth River, the others that hadn't been mentioned by the Knights had been on the west coast of Ireland, off the coast of Inisbofin, Inishmore, Portmagee and Clonlakilty Angel was later able to pin point when looking at Google maps, but there was no sign of High Brazil. "Would you be able to function underwater?" Angel asked the Whisp,"I'm not sure, that is an environment I have not encountered before."
"When we go back up, you can dip your feet in the water. Metaphorically" Angel finished, remembering the whisp changing into the Warden and picturing what amounts to an 8 foot tall ghost dipping it's toes in the sea...
The Whisp resumed its scanning of the cave, it approached the control tower for the Forge and paused, going around the tower, it pushed against the gel pad and a deep noise of something being activated could be felt and heard in the cave, a small bust of the Warden formed in the air, Angel caught it before it could fall to the floor. "It's fully functional, their are some issues resulting from lack of maintenance but nothing serious."
"So what can we make with this?" Angel asked gesturing to the tower, and by extension the Forge itself.
"This is a medium size unit, the one in the other cave was a domestic type, the clutter in the assembly area needs to be removed, but that one will be capable of assembling anything in the repository of the tower to a cubic volume of," Angel didn't understand the dimensions the Whisp just said, the measurements going out of use before the Bronze Age," this version can assemble anything from the repository up to."
Angel interrupted the Whisp before it could give another series of sizes she had no idea of. " Why don't you just show me? Sketch out a block the size the domestic one will do by hovering the corners and I can visualise what you mean."
" The craft is taking up to much space for me to do that in here." The Whisp said, slightly annoyed.
"Show me on the lawn up there okay?" Angel offered as a solution. "When you're finished, of course." She added. While the Whisp ran scans over the rest of the room Angel touched the gel pad on the black stone tower and lost herself in the Precursor IKEA catalogue for a while. She was pulled out of it by the Whisp talking incessantly about what it needed to fo and how the forge worked. They left the cave, Angel making sure the door was firmly closed, and climbed back up to the hotel, the Whisp submerged itself in the cold North Atlantic with no ill effects. Once up on the cliffs, and back with the group the Whisp quickly sketched out the maximum sizes of the articles that could be built by both forges, the domestic one could build anything up to the size of a large corner sofa up to shoulder height, with the medium sized one could assemble quite complex items up to the size of a large Mercedes Sprinter van. Angel asked Micheal if the cave system had any flooded portions, and was told there were a couple, and she asked if they could get hold of some diving equipment, telling them about the map and brief overview of Cyhyraeth memories.
Araceli took the lead on the journey back to Mexico, landing the 3 of them on the road outside her house so she wouldn't be lugging 2 suitcases all the way from the beach, Kat had her paper bag with a fat willy's surf shack stamp on the side. They exchanged WhatsApp details and then Angel and Kat returned to Angels garden.
"What time are we on?" Kat asked, Angel took her phone out, several message pings tumbled over each other as her Huawei connected to the home WiFi.
"It's 2.10pm," she scrolled through the notifications, "Claire is asking about the drone, the guys from Cornwall are all added, as well as Araceli and Lola, Ricky has had a phone call from Eldar Seth's daughter asking to meet us, after a message from her mother and seeing us on the news again."
"Do you want me to handle that..."
Angel held a finger up, "And Ricky is asking if he can have an interview with Claire or myself." Kat raised her eyebrows, "Do you want to do that, or let Claire take it this time?"
"I'll get him over to my work and do it there." Angel replied.
"Not a bad idea."
Angel's phone pinged again, "Claire is saying it's probably not the best idea for her to do an interview given she's FBI, and she's getting a bit of flack officially over being active with us again."
"Shit, " Kat muttered, " I hadn't thought of that, I'll need to talk with everyone I work with, let them know."
"Is there a chance you could do it in a zoom call?" Angel asked.
"That group chat video call thing?" Kat answered with a question, not having used the app yet.
"That's the one, really handy for team meetings and stuff."
"I don't think I should, security and what not, and it might put some boomer noses out of joint that I'm doing it all at once rather than ringing specifically to let them know that before I told anyone else." Kat paused, "I'm going to have to spend a morning scheduling calls, to spend a day making calls." Angel looked on in quiet support. "Urgh!" Kat moaned, she stomped her a foot a little as well, in exasperation.
Angel patted her on the head, "There, there," she offered, she put on a Mary Poppins type of accent before carrying on, "soonest begun, sooner done. " she dropped back to her natural accent," Go home, have a glass of wine and start scheduling phone calls." They chatted about a few more things before Kat drove home, leaving the t-shirts and hats on the dining table for the girls to find and made a start on dinner, while the pasta was cooking she started with the first round of phone calls.
Far Away, the next morning.
Morven paused before she knocked on the door to the building and looked around the homes near the wizard's house, there weren't any overt signs of damage or recent repairs, which suggested this one either knew what they were doing when it came to potions or was a total book wizard, Beatrice looked nervous, wringing her hands and shuffling her hooves as Morven knocked on the door, the apprentice answered.
"You're a little early the Great Wizard Muth is still preparing for the appointment." Morven felt the usual tingle as one of the creatures on this side brushed the surface layer of her thoughts to borrow a name, "I'm Homer," it told them. Beatrice snorted, trying to work out if it was the Ancient Greek writer or a Simpsons reference that Morven had been thinking at that moment, "but you can come in and wait as she'll not be long."
Beatrice ducked through the door first with Morven following.
Homer brought them both a drink and dissappeard again, fading out in a haze of blue sparkles.
A door opened and a bored voice called out, "Come in."
They walked into the next room, a young looking wizard sat across the room behind a desk and watched with studied (dis) interest as Beatrice negotiated the door. "I don't see Minotaurs very often, free ones are even rarer to come across, " She looked at Morven, "and I've never met a human before, but the crows have spoke very highly of you when I asked them who you were." She pushed some parchment across the desk towards Beatrice, " That's what I know about Minotaurs, it's not much, I'm afraid and most of it the crows told me. I do know more about the Warlord."
Beatrice took the pages and looked at them, then Handed them to Morven,"I still struggle to read, it takes time with my mish-mashed brain for none combat details to sink in. Tell me about the castle." Morven didn't really listen to what was said, as she focused on reading the parchment for her friend. The crows had told Muth that Minotaurs seemed to come from 1 city that was a major source for the slave trade and magical activity, there were reports of Minotaurs coming off boats in chains, but more seemed to be a coming from the place than been shipped in, which suggested captive breeding. The slave markets tended to be flooded with buyers from the various Warlords when there was a large supply of Minotaurs available. The last point noted that female minotaurs made up only a small amount of the observed population.
Morven looked up and saw the glowing representation of the castle that Muth has conjured on the desk.
"This is because it owes me big, and the crows say I should help you."
"The crows?" Beatrice asked.
"Yes, they like you two. You provide good eating in the majority of places you've been too.." Muth replied, smiling. "They would also like a word, there's one out the back who's waiting for the human." Muth nodded at Morven and pointed to a door in the corner of the room," Follow the corridor it's the door facing you at the end." Muth informed her, Morven stood to leave, folding the paper and putting it in a pouch on a knife scabbard." 2 things, for payment I'd like you to show me how you made your hand, and I'll help you take down the Warlord."
Morven paused," It's mostly jewellery techniques with a gold, silver and iron alloy."
"Iron? I do have some, but it's not the easiest material for my kind to work with."
"Are you hoping for something like this?" Morven held up her sapphire hand, "Or just something decorative?" She asked.
"I'd like something as useful as your hand." She replied.
"I'll need to go back to the tavern and find the particular set of notes. Can I borrow something to write with?" Morven asked, Muth pushed over a quill and paper, Morven picked up the quill, dipped it in ink and sketched out the links with the dimensions, "You'll need to make more than 30 of these molds," holding up her blue hand and moving the fingers, she pulled another sheet and sketched out the wrist joint, the radius, ulna on a second, the elbow on a 3rd and humorous on a 4th, "Do you need the shoulder strapping? You being a wizard I'm sure you know a decent leather worker who can sort that out for you?"
"I do." Muth replied, smiling ruefully as she looked at the pages, and cast a cantrip to visualise the joints and bones, while Beatrice studied the castle for attack vectors and weak points.
"Am I okay to go and talk to the crows, while you 2 look at... stuff?" When no one replied, Morven opened the door and followed the corridor to an outside door. Opening it she stepped threw into a walled garden, herds and strange plants grew in spended profusion up the walls and across several raised beds. A large crow stood on one of the frames eyeing up a plant that Morven thought might be parsley or coriander.
"I hear you wanted a word with me?" She asked the crow.
It jumped and looked around at her, tilting it's head to look at her first with one eye then the other. " We do, we have even heard that you are planning on leaving."
"It's a goal now, and it's not exactly a secret as I've been hunting for a way home since I healed."
The crow bobbed up and down and looked at her with its left eye, "What changed that makes you think you can cross back over?" it asked.
"This new series of Rifts seems to offer a good chance of getting back across. Certainly better than what has felt like nearly 20 years of side quests." She answered, "Why is this of interest to you, specifically and generally?"
"Quick and selfish answer is we get good eating when you're around, longer and more complicated answer goes along the lines of there isn't anyone that does what you 2 are doing for the reason you are doing it, no one is doing good for the sake of making things better for their fellow beings, it's Warlord against Warlord here. You are going to be missed by the innocent bystanders, some of them even have human blood."
"Are you trying to appeal to a higher notion? Some kind of shared heritage with the survivors of various mass abductions, the targeted kidnappings and the random wanderer that find there way over, even now?" She asked the bird.
It walked along the woodwork and looked at the soil,"Frankly, yes.." it said before poking at the soil.
Morven crossed her arms, "Given an option I'd settle for a way to keep fighting the good and being able to see my mum and dad, my sister and my friends, but this is an either or situation, I leave for good and everything carries on as it has always done here, with the Seelie and Unseelie fighting skirmish after skirmish with no winner in sight or we stay and do so little that in this, " she snorted as she remembered a line from a book she'd read years before," whole general mish mash, very little is actually changed for anyone that's not a Warlord for more than a month before the next dick head muscles in."
"You are doing the most concentrated good in generations here, and we hope you'll stay and carry that on."
"There's no guarantee that this will work, we might not make it in time, we might not be able to get across, we might have to fight through a sizable army on this side to get to the Rift. There are a lot of things that can go wrong between us having this conversation and me hugging my mum and dad again."
"Well if your mind is set, let us at least help you a little," the crow called out and another crow flew over the garden wall and landed on the raised bed near Morven, this one has a key in it's beak, she held out her hand and the crow dropped the key into her hand," that's the key for the western sallie port, one of my murder will show you the way when you attack. I'm guessing you aren't going straight from here?" the first crow asked.
Morven looked up from the key, "No I'd like to be wearing the armour that works, not a nice light jacket when attacking a Warlord, but we'd better not wait to long, I'm sure they'll have heard we are in town by now."
She thought briefly about what was the best plan of attack, now they had a access to a relatively unguarded way in. "Thank you, " She said to the crow, waving the key at it, "maybe you ought to come in with me, so we can coordinate stratagy?" Morven suggested as she walked towards the door.
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