Chapter 17 Plan
PLAN
As Heathren Merkami tells me we can’t fight this cosmic division energy out in the stars, I feel my entire world unravel.
But in the next moment, his words make sense.
Something clicks into place for me as I watch him, understanding his short answer.
There’s a lot more to the longer answer, however, which I know to my blood and bones is true, as I pin him with my gaze and feel Maryse’s words echo all through me now.
“We don’t fight it. We have to heal it, don’t we?” I say, as my Bloodwalker power rings all through me, knowing the truth.
“Healing is a good word for it, as good as any.” Heathren nods at me now, as his pale silver eyes glitter with something like approval.
“Cosmic energies can’t be killed.” Insinio joins in now, giving me a more direct answer than his mysterious companion.
“As such, what you must do to get it out of your hair is to halt this thing’s spread here on earth.
Closing the Rift where it’s manifesting, and stopping it from giving that energy to the Black Dragon, is a great place to start. ”
“So how do we do that?” I push now, needing answers if we’re about to go up against this thing soon.
The Intercessoria duo glance at each other.
“If we knew that,” Heathren says, “we would already be doing it. You have to understand, Rikyava, the stakes are exceedingly high here. If this force can destroy the Void, devouring and scattering formed souls back to empty, cosmic potential… then it’s one of the primal forces of the universe.
There are many primal forces that form and destroy the universe, and it seems the one your Ancestors tapped into is one manifestation of division energy.
Just as you believe, it will continue to sunder anything that’s whole, until it takes down the entire place it manifested in—our earth.
Then spread to other worlds, eating them next. ”
“Bad news, any way you look at it.” Insinio growls now as he grips the pommel of his sword with his big hands.
“Aesa and her drakes fought the Black Dragon five thousand years ago, and King ?rn Magnussen trapped it at that Outer Island where Rikyava’s sister and her drakes resurrected it,” Mikkel says now as we all recall the Black Dragon’s history.
“Could we do something like that—how it was fought in the past?”
“The crater on that Outer Island was an ancient holding cell for the Black Dragon.” Heathren and Insinio share a dark look.
“King ?rn’s incarceration field for the creature was a massive piece of work, brilliant, and extremely dangerous.
He trapped it far away from its source, the Black Rift, so it could no longer rampage and feed the Rift, making the Rift go dormant. Clever.”
“Lithava broke that containment field with her power, as she wielded Hedda’s magic through the black ring.” A sinking sensation fills me. “The diseased runes at the blast site were a combination of the Black Dragon’s and hers, as her other mates helped it get out.”
“King ?rn built an entire temple and a fucking insane warren of sub-passages on that island just to create that rune-field,” Insinio agrees, as he watches me. “Your sister and her drakes broke all that when they busted out the Black Dragon.”
“But the basic structure for the containment field is still there.” Heathren is thoughtful as he looks at me, before his pale gaze snaps to Baldur and he narrows his eyes.
As Heathren’s vast Archangelic power sweeps Baldur, he shivers, but weathers it.
Heathren lifts an eyebrow as I see his mind working a thousand miles a minute as he considers my Fourth Drake.
Then looks at me as I feel him formulate a plan.
“The Intercessoria have been working on a new containment structure for the Black Dragon, and it is nominally complete,” Heathren says now as he and Insinio share a glance.
“They have not tested it yet, but believe it may hold the beast. If we could tether that containment system to King ?rn’s original runic field, still within the crater, using the dormant volcano to power the field, which is what I believe he did in the first place… then it might be done.”
“A new trap.” My gaze meets Heathren’s, as I know what he’s talking about, to my blood and bones. “You want to make a new trap for the Black Dragon, far from the Rift, just like King ?rn did. To make the Rift go dormant once more.”
“It worked in the past.” Heathren’s pale eyes pin me. “It could work again.”
“But Aesa and her drakes didn’t destroy the beast, or close the Rift.” Laerke counters now as she lifts a caustic eyebrow. “We’re out to kill the Usurper forever, and shut the mouth it feeds. Not trap it and make that power go dormant again.”
“Noble; I applaud that,” Heathren says with fierce approval in his gaze now as he looks Laerke over, thoughtful. “But the problem with killing a force such as this is that it cannot be done. As you have already realized, division, strife, war, and battle only feed it.”
“Could we trap it, then blow up that ancient volcano on the island to kill it?” Mikkel asks now as a vicious look takes him. “Then it wouldn’t be us fighting to destroy it, but a force of nature taking it down.”
“Perhaps.” Heathren exchanges a thoughtful glance with Insinio.
“First, we would need to cleanse Lithava’s curses from the site, and the Black Dragon’s own from when it escaped.
Then we would need to restore as much of King ?rn’s original runic containment field within the crater as possible, especially in any of the temple’s under-passageways that are still intact.
We’d need to complete everything quickly before the Black Dragon can power up any further.
Before Lithava and her drakes complete Hedda’s second ritual and return Hedda’s mates to it. ”
“And Hedda herself.” I ponder what would need to be done, and the timeline. “Our auric fire has been helpful in battling the beast, and the division energy that powers it. We might be able to battle the Usurper down into the trap if we had the full Intercessoria on our side.”
“Perhaps.” Heathren and Insinio exchange a glance again.
“Getting the top brass to agree to this is going to be a bitch,” Insinio says in his burly voice as he lifts an eyebrow.
“What choice do they have?” Heathren is dire as he lifts an eyebrow back.
As Insinio grins then, giving a low, battle-ready chuckle, I know our plan is formed. I only hope the Intercessoria can come through before Lithava gets everything ready for Hedda’s second ritual.
But as if reading my mind, Insinio turns to me now, his vivid silver eyes serious. “Rikyava. I gave you a promise the last time we saw each other. I promised I wouldn’t leave you and yours out in the cold with the Black Dragon; I will uphold that promise any way I can.”
“Even if we have to quit the Intercessoria to make our stance known, then we will,” Heathren says to me now as his pale eyes somehow gleam a brighter white, ridiculously intense by the fire’s light.
“Sin and I don’t agree on many choices the top brass make; a little rebellion is healthy for them, from time to time.
I will call you when we’ve secured their cooperation and have their containment field transported to the Outer Island.
Then, we’ll need you and all your drakes to work your specific runic magic to cleanse and repair King ?rn’s.
Archangel magic doesn’t play nice with Blood Dragon runes; we can’t cleanse and repair Blood Magic, so you’ll have to. ”
Pulling a golden smartphone from a pocket in his battle-leathers now, Heathren taps a few commands into it. I see him spread his wings, then send a pulse down into it; an aura around the phone shivers, then cracks, as tiny white-gold runes shiver off it and explode into thin air.
“This Intercessoria phone has been decrypted; use it to call all the allies you have, and ask your King to send forces.” Heathren hands it to me.
“The battle to contain this thing will be brutal, and will need more firepower than even one Lineage alone, perhaps. But if we coordinate it right, perhaps it can be done. Just as it was long ago.”
As Heathren finishes speaking, I nod, knowing this plan is solid. I can’t help feeling trepidation, however; because even though the Black Dragon was trapped in the past, I also know King ?rn warned me that route might not be possible for us.
He insisted I had to find my own way to defeat it. Not just that, but Maryse also warned me not to trap it or fight it. She said I had to solve this problem with loving unification, to get rid of the Black Dragon for good this time and close the Rift that gives it power.
Ending the cosmic division energy’s presence in our world, completely.
But even as Insinio and Heathren each place a palm to their hearts now, honoring me and my hunt before raising their massive silver-dark Archangel wings and flashing out via portal, I know the Archangels are probably right.
This trap is our best plan for putting the Black Dragon away again, and closing the Rift in our world so that this cosmic division force can no longer get at us.
And now it’s time to call all the allies we have left.
Lifting the little golden phone Heathren gave me, I call my King first. I’m put through to him at once, as if he was expecting my call, thanks to Bjorn being with him and everything that’s going down right now.
“Yava, speak to me, niece. What news?” King Huttr says in his growling basso voice as he answers, though I feel all the love he has for me, and his concern, despite him giving no pleasantries.
“Uncle. I’ve spoken with the Intercessoria. They’ve agreed to help us.” Quickly, I relate to him everything that was said during my meeting with the Juds, and everything that was decided.
Growling like a furious bear as I finish, my uncle snorts on the phone, then speaks again.