JANUAE

As promised, Dustik took me out to meet his nephew, the warlord Tarvesh. It was a two day travel south of his vast farmland, but it was easy travel by means of a numenera powered land vehicle. On the second day of travel we had passed several exhausted floatstone mines and reached a vast plain with no fields, no towns or aldeia, nothing at all. It was at this point Dustik insisted on blindfolding me. Once I complied we continued our travel for only fifteen more minutes or so before he removed the blindfold. I found myself standing before a large encampment, several soldiers running battle drills and mock skirmishes. Others seemed to be discussing strategies of sorts, while many sat and casually visited. There must have been close to a thousand people in the encampment.

Dustik exchanged greetings with a few of the people as he escorted me to a tent in the center of the encampment. A sentry acknowledged Dustik and motioned us to enter the tent. A younger broad shouldered man, perhaps in his thirties conferred with a well armored woman at a table. Upon seeing us he dismissed the woman and took Dustik in an embrace.

TARVESH

Uncle! You’re a ways from your farm! It’s good to see you as always.

DUSTIK

It’s good to see you as well, nephew. How have things been for you?

TARVESH

No complaints. Doing a bit of police actions these days. We dispatched a contingent to the southeast to keep the peace between the Glenesh and Peredrie clans. Some delves managed to find some numenera that a nano figured out how to weaponize. It was starting to get ugly so we had to stop a battle from breaking out. You know how that goes.

DUSTIK

Yes, a skirmish between clans becomes a rending of the council.

TARVESH

Well we put a quick stop to that. As you know, my army is a force to be reckoned with. So who is this you bring into my camp? 

DUSTIK

This is Januae. He essentially saved my life as well as the lives of my friend Nentani and most of my field hands.

TARVESH

Most? It sounds like you suffered some losses then. What happened out there?

DUSTIK

We were attacked by several Stratharian War Moths that had apparently been nesting in the fields. They must have emerged from their cocoons while we were out there.

TARVESH

So what was this life-saving feat you performed, Januae?

JANUAE

It was pure luck. Nentani happened to have some cyphers that transformed projected light into hard light which disabled the insects.

TARVESH

Interesting. I’m sure those cyphers would have fetched a nice sum of shins. Nonetheless her life is far more valuable to her than some cyphers so I’m sure she can’t be too sore about it. Well good work. It sounds like they were lucky to have you there at the time.

JANUAE

I suppose. More lucky that she was carrying cyphers that had that effect.

DUSTIK

Januae is on a sort of mission. That’s why I brought him to speak with you, nephew. I thought you might be able to help him in his quest.

TARVESH

Yeah? What quest is that?

JANUAE

I’m traveling to various lands to speak with the people who have some degree of influence over the decisions that are made on behalf of each kingdom. You see, my goal is to reveal the truth of the Amber Pope’s plans for his crusade.

TARVESH

I don’t know anything about any crusade. What do these plans involve?

JANUAE

He is planning to launch a crusade against the Gaians, the people who live in the lands north of the Steadfast. He touts that it is a preemptive strike, that the Gaians are planning to invade the Steadfast. I have personally been to these lands and have found this to not be true at all. Come to find out this crusade is merely a propaganda tool, a means with which to unite the Nine Kingdoms by providing a common enemy. Having visited these peaceful people I can’t just sit by and do nothing while the Papacy sends its legions to slaughter these innocent folk.

TARVESH

So what is it you would have me do, Januae?

JANUAE

I just want to make each kingdom aware of the truth of the Amber Pope’s plans.

TARVESH

And you would want us to stand against the Amber Pope?

JANUAE

At least push back on joining his crusade.

TARVESH

And what happens when Pope Durranet decides to use his influence and resources to coerce us otherwise?

JANUAE

I don’t know. I’m hoping Milave or any of the other lands would not want to send their citizens to die for the wrong reasons.

TARVESH

(after a pause)

So how do you know all this? Are you affiliated with the Order somehow, an Aeon Priest, perhaps? And as such you would be willing to go against the head of your Order?

JANUAE

I was an Aeon Priest. I’d decided to denounce the Priesthood once I learned of this.

TARVESH

(dubious)

And you’ve been traveling all these great distances from the lands beyond the Cloudcrystal Skyfields to near the southern border of the Steadfast. How many thousands of kilometers is that? And you’re trying to tell me you’ve visited each land along the way?

JANUAE

No, it’s not like that at all. You see, I have this condition where I jaunt to various places, uncontrollably. It started while I was visiting the Spiritlands north of the Steadfast. The last place I jaunted to was Jargolamis. So I figured since I ended up there I would speak to the Empress.

TARVESH

You spoke with Challadien III? And what did she have to say? I have to admit, I’m very curious to hear that.

JANUAE

She hoped I could convince Archbishop Iijeo to help her improve the defense towers along the southern border.

TARVESH

(laughs heartily)

Oh that’s rich! Defense towers! You know what, Januae? I’d like to show you something…

JANUAE

Tarvesh beckons for two guards to follow and we take a walk. He leads us toward some ruins that stand several hundred meters away from the encampment. We come within fifty meters of the ruins, a jumbled structure of strongsteel standing over sixteen meters tall, with strange angles and struts and giant rivets intermittently along the surface. Tarvesh reaches into a small bag and produces a fifteen centimeter tall replica of the ruins, then proceeds to separate it into three pieces, handing each piece to one of the accompanying guards. As he does this I watch the ruins separate into three pieces as well… one piece lifts away from the top of the ruin and floats upward, another steps sideways away from the other piece, and the last one rolls in the opposite direction.

TARVESH

Observe! My war machines! See, for the longest time people thought this was a set of ruins no one was able to get into. Then I was able to procure this little guy and after studying it I realized it was a control mechanism for what you see here. Let me demonstrate:

JANUAE

One of the guards begins to manipulate and rotate the piece she holds. The rolling machine lurches forward and as it rolls it appears to “chew” the land it moves over. The other guard works his control and the corresponding machine stands aloft on five long strongsteel legs and begins to crawl, moving quite swiftly for such a large object. I watch as dozens of blades drop down from the belly of the machine and scissor rapidly amongst each other as the guard sends the machine over to some low growing trees. The machine’s blades make unsettlingly quick work of shredding the trees to bits, rendering them to a pile of brown and green slivers and tatters.

Tarvesh controls the floating machine. It does not seem able to move at nearly the speed of the other two machines but I can see a light blue glow broadcast downward from the front edge. Any organic matter struck by the glow sizzles to a crisp in seconds.

TARVESH

Impressive, huh? What do you think?

JANUAE

I say these machines are nothing to be reckoned with. Quite formidable.

TARVESH

You better believe it!

JANUAE

Satisfied with the demonstration, Tarvesh nods to the guards and they return their controls to him as he reassembles the pieces. The giant war machines cease their actions and return to their original positions, rejoining until they once again resemble an old abandoned ruin from ages past.

TARVESH

You know why I showed these to you?

JANUAE

Um, I’m not entirely sure…

The two guards grab JANUAE and restrain him

JANUAE

Hey… what are you doing… let go of me!

A sound of a knife is heard being pulled from a sheath

TARVESH

Because I want you tell Challadien what you saw here today.

JANUAE

The Empress? I’m not planning to see her-

TARVESH

Cut the skisk! A jaunting Aeon Priest? Traveling the entire length of the Steadfast in the blink of an eye? A bit too far fetched, don’t you think? She needs to send far more clever spies in the future. Your story and your convenient heroics might have convinced my uncle but he’s a farmer, not a fighter. He doesn’t know any better.

JANUAE

Please! I’m no spy, I’m simply trying to-

TARVESH

Shut up! Now, I figured why hide this from a spy? Why not show her my devastational power! Let her know exactly what her troops will meet if she dares send them over into our land! Tell her exactly what you saw, what these machines did, and what they can do. Got it?

JANUAE

You don’t understand, I-

TARVESH

That is, if you make it back to Rarmon without getting killed by any abhumans or any of the other dangers out here. Honestly, I hope you do. But I ain’t gonna make it easy for you. Good luck, spy.

A thud is heard with Januae grunting from the blow to the head.