Chapter 26

“This universe is composed of infinite diversity in infinite combinations. Whatever collection of celestial bodies the mind can imagine can be found somewhere out there in the expanse of space. Anything that you can dream of is out there somewhere.”

—The Trouble with Telemetry, Silyn Blaithe

Sylvas was up before the rest of the crew as usual, positioned in the silver circle of command in the cockpit, sifting through the remnants of the information that Hammerheart had transmitted and using it to refine their search for the Consortium’s base. There were dozens of reported attacks on worlds that had reported Aion relics on them that the Empyrean knew nothing about and that the Hammerhearts had only learned about through their own extensive network of contacts outside of the government. Many of the colonies were somewhat distant from their masters in the Empyrean. It turned out that when you asked for volunteers to go live on distant worlds beyond the reach of the law, it tended to attract a certain type of person. Ones who were not terribly inclined to have the government involved in their business.

With those attacks and their own observations, Sylvas and Mira had been piecing together a map, narrowing down all of the potential bases of operations in deep space to even fewer than Mira had been able to the night before.

Something still isn’t right. None of the deep space asteroid fields are a good fit. She thought back to him.

Most of the information that the Hammerhearts’ spies within the Consortium had managed to dig up was out of date by many years now, cutting off not long after they became heavily involved in the transport of eidolons. But that had still provided some useful intelligence about where they were selling their ill-gotten goods. More black markets could be added into the equation, with the more favored ones being given extra weight in Sylvas’ calculations and the ones that were in decline being moved down the list. It was reasonable to assume that the Consortium had been using their base back then, too, even if the spies had never had access to it, so the places that they were shipping to from it would have still been the same, even then.

They were rapidly reducing the possibilities, but it still wasn’t enough information to make an educated guess where the Consortium base was hidden.

“You’re right. There is something we’re missing here.”

Strife shifted restlessly in Sylvas’ chest. It could feel their annoyance, but it was too distant to connect with. It needed more anger than mere irritation.

Mira highlighted some of the planets which they were still lacking information from. Not all of the places that had reported Aion finds but key ones in different locations.

If we eliminate these, discovering which have been hit and which haven’t, that should allow us to narrow in on our target.

“So we’re going to spend the day doing a tour of all the dead worlds the consortium has made. Delightful.”

“I believe that some people consider talking to yourself to be a sign of madness.” Malachai poked his head into the cockpit. “Although in your case, I suspect the madness predated the talking by quite some time.”

Tell him he looks very handsome today.

It appeared that Malachai had spent some time working on his wardrobe before settling into bed the night before. He had lost his uniform when they transferred out of the Ardent, the same as the rest of them, but while Kaya and Sylvas had been content with the standard-issue black bodysuits that Hector had brought on board for them, they were too casual for the necromancer’s tastes. He’d been performing some acts of transfiguration on them, combining the materials together into more formal attire. A collarless suit that hung longer in the back. It was still black, but Sylvas suspected that was more because Malachai preferred it that way, rather than because he couldn’t be bothered changing its color.

“Mira likes your new outfit.” Sylvas had decided that to keep the peace, passing along messages was definitely safer than letting Mira surface to communicate herself.

Malachai didn’t smile, but he did preen ever so slightly, smoothing his hands down the lapels. “Thank you, madam. I was not sure if I’d still remember the spell work required for repairing torn clothes from when I was a child, but it seems that certain things never escape the memory. Even one that is woefully incomplete in comparison to your own.”

Kaya came wandering through, dressed somewhat less impressively in her tank top, underpants, and with one arm still in the process of getting locked back into place. “Morning, bone-boy. Morning, stanzbuhr. Morning, stanzbuhr’s dead girlfriend who lives in his head.”

How polite.

Sylvas pinched the bridge of his nose. “While Mira appreciates the attention you’re all showing her this morning, I think it might be more efficient to just treat us as a single person.”

“She can vent us into space, so I’m going to be nice to her.” Kaya yawned, looking at the illusory display that Sylvas had cast. “What’s the plan?”

“We think that if we visit the fifteen highlighted planets, we’ll be able to narrow down the Consortium base to somewhere in a sphere of… twenty light years. Which is still quite considerable but provides us with considerably fewer asteroid fields to visit.”

Malachai looked pleased. “Then the risk of contacting your old foe Hammerheart proved to be worthwhile?”

“Looks like it,” Sylvas said. “Although Mira and I both feel like there’s something we’re missing. None of the asteroid fields line up perfectly with the center of the sphere we know that the Consortium operates their illegal trading in.”

Kaya plopped herself down on the floor and started tinkering with the mechanisms of one of her legs. “Been wondering about that. Maybe there weren’t any asteroids?”

Malachai cocked his head, quizzically. “But there were clear marks on the Consortium ships.”

“Same ones we’ve got on our ship now, and we ain’t been visiting any asteroids.” Kaya detached the leg to get at a covered servo.

“You think that they visited the planets that the Consortium has been destroying?” Sylvas said. At the same time, Mira said the exact same thing in his head before pouting that he’d thought of it, too.

“Makes sense, right?” Kaya popped the leg back on and flexed her knee a few times. “You pull all that stuff off a world, you need somewhere to store it. One ship to rip it up, and then one ship to scoop what comes off.”

Mira had already leapt ahead, eliminating the requirement for an asteroid belt in deep space from their map and resetting each of the potential spheres where the Consortium was operating, with the center of each sphere as their new target in deep space.

“I think you’ve just cracked it.” Sylvas grinned. “We will still need to visit a couple of planets to be certain of the extent of their operations, but once we have… we’ll have them.”

Malachai continued the charm offensive. “My thanks to the Lady Mira, for her swift calculations.”

A sending spell appeared beside Kaya, startling them all. It wasn’t one of the clean white shields that they’d become accustomed to while working for the Ardent but a plain black disk, giving nothing about its caster away. She stared at it for a second before touching it and hearing the message. Then she sighed heavily, threw back her head, and bellowed. “It’s Sylvas, you cowardly culgh!”

For a moment, there was no reply, and then Hector came wandering along the corridor to the cockpit sheepishly. “I just wanted to be sure who I was going to be speaking to before—”

“The internal bulkheads on this ship are not terribly thick. I am afraid Kaya and I were both privy to your conversation last night.” Malachai cut him off before he could make things any worse.

Both Sylvas and Hector flushed with embarrassment, while inside Sylvas’ head almost all of his thoughts were drowned out by Mira cackling.

“Can we keep this professional, please?” Hector asked, making Kaya burst out into even louder laughter than Mira’s.

“Once again, I’d like to apologize for—” Sylvas began, but Hector held up his hand.

“Let’s just… never talk about it. Okay?”

Sylvas nodded firmly. “Please.”

“So I hear you’ve got a plan?” Hector quickly moved on, strolling over to the floating star map.

“The bulkheads really are thin.” Sylvas managed a smile.

Once again, Hector let out a whistle. “Two planets to narrow it down. That’s… actually really impressive work.”

“As much as I’d like to take credit, it was all Mira.” She was radiating smugness across the back of his skull. “And Kaya, of course, pointing out that the damage to the ships could have been from the planetary destruction rather than asteroid fields.”

“Well, you’ve got control of the ship again, so let’s go.” Hector strolled back out of the cockpit. “I’ll get the coffee brewing.”

That seemed to perk Kaya up entirely from her stupor, and she crawled, clambered, and then ambled off after Hector at the promise of some caffeine, leaving Sylvas and Malachai alone. “How has your attempt to assimilate the eidolon been proceeding?”

“I honestly don’t know.” Sylvas sighed. “I’m angry all the time, which is supposed to help. But it doesn’t feel great.”

Malachai stepped a little closer, mindful of the thin bulkheads in a way that the rest of them had never been. “Has Hector informed you of the technique by which he bound his own eidolon? Perhaps it might prove to be useful to compare.”

“I’m afraid not.” Sylvas lowered his own voice, too, even though he wasn’t entirely sure what they were trying to keep a secret. “And there’s nothing written down about the process anywhere.”

“So all that we know for certain is that both eidolon and mage must be in temporary alignment in terms of personality and emotion to initiate the bond.” Malachai brought a finger up to rest on his lips as he pondered the situation. “Perhaps that is sufficient to begin constructing some rudimentary theories about the spell work involved.”

Oh, this isn’t about helping you. He’s trying to work out how to bond an eidolon himself.

The moment that Mira said it, it became obvious to Sylvas, prompting him to mentally kick himself. It made sense after all. Malachai was well on the way to completing his fifth circle, and he had never been one to rest on his laurels, not any more than Sylvas had. 

He was already looking for the next stage in his own advancement. Even if the cost of that advancement was absorbing an extra-dimensional demon into his soul. Sylvas’ first instinct was to yell at him for even contemplating it, but he had lost any moral high ground that he might have possessed when he declared to Hector that he was going to go through with his covenant. 

Who was he to try and stop someone else from doing the same?

The voice of reason? The voice of sanity, perhaps? A guiding hand so that your friend doesn’t turn himself inside out and let an eidolon climb in and wear his skin? You’ve never had any trouble with hypocrisy before, so don’t go changing now.

Sylvas very deliberately ignored her. “If you do start piecing it together, please let me know, and I’ll be there to help.”

You’d help him turn himself into the mutant that you’ve been so desperately trying to avoid becoming?

“Of course,” Malachai said, backing off rapidly. Sylvas had clearly come a little too close to the uncomfortable truth that he wasn’t ready to admit yet. “Because I would be doing it to assist you in better understanding your transformation.”

“And I’d be happy to return the favor if there is ever anything that you are working on.” Sylvas smiled at him, which always felt a little pointless with the stern necromancer, but he did it all the same, to remind himself that he was still human, if nothing else.

Malachai went off in search of coffee, ostensibly to give Sylvas the time he needed without distraction to send them off into null-space.

So you’re not only in favor, but you’re also offering yourself up as a study buddy to help him consume an eidolon all the quicker?

Sylvas spoke softly as he took a firm grip on the ship and rotated it to face their next destination. “If he isn’t talking to me, I can’t talk him out of anything. At least this way, we still know what’s going on.”

I suspect we’d work out what he was up to when he summoned an eidolon, actually.

“May I have a moment?” he grumbled, prompting Strife to stir just a little at that spark of aggravation. “And that means you too wolf. It’s bad enough to have two of us arguing in the one body, let alone three.”

In the brief respite that Mira granted him, he took her calculations and his intuition, and he cast the spell that sent them out of the real universe and into the nothingness beneath. Their course was already set, and he’d flung them forward with the full weight of his will, so now it was just a matter of engaging the engines and letting the ship go.

The coffee was ready by the time that he was done, and he headed back to find his customary seat already set up for him. Kaya, choosing not to be a pest that morning, was allowing Malachai to sit where he belonged in the little half-booth beside her. Hector lifted a cup in welcome. “Nice of you to join us.”

Malachai slid one of the tin cups that were all they had on board across the table to sit in front of Sylvas, and he used the first gulp of scalding black coffee to wash down his nutritional supplements, ignoring the bitter chemical taste and washing it away with the next mouthful of coffee.

“I’m not a big believer in fate, but I’ve got to say, you guys have been exactly what this job needed.” Hector was smiling contentedly into his drink. “The perfect connections, and the perfect skill set. I probably would have still been running around shaking down black markets for intelligence for another month without you.”

Darling, be a dear and swap with me. I should quite like to taste the coffee.

Sylvas groaned, but he didn’t argue. He just tried to give the others some warning. “Mira and I came to an agreement that during our downtime, she would get some… use of my body. She wants to try the coffee.”

Kaya’s eyes widened in excitement. “Oh yes!”

Just the thought of Mira and Kaya together was enough to fill Sylvas with dread, but he didn’t interrupt. Malachai looked uncomfortable, but Hector looked like he was ready to run. Sylvas tried to reassure him, “She’s promised to be on her best behavior. Nothing like last night.”

“No!” Kaya yelled. “Bring out the crazy!”

Both Malachai and Hector looked at her in dismay as the transformation washed through Sylvas, and he was dumped into his own hind brain.

Be nice.