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The role of the Cryptarchy is to encrypt and safeguard civilization's informational infrastructure, not to decrypt anything and everything for any lowdown scavenger who happens upon an engram. | The role of the Cryptarchy is to encrypt and safeguard civilization's informational infrastructure, not to decrypt anything and everything for any lowdown scavenger who happens upon an engram. | ||
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==The Coven== | |||
[[File:Grimoire The Coven.jpg|right|150px]] | |||
''On the Eve of War'' | |||
The chamber was dark. The seven of them were rarely in a room together anymore, but this was the eve of their greatest journey, a plan that overcame death and spanned universes. | |||
They were all connected in trance, communing as the ancients did. Speaking would tip their hand to the Harbinger Minds they kept here, trophies from an ageless war, and weapons in the right hands. | |||
“Oryx could kill her, if she holds on too long.” Sedia offered through the silence, fearing what was to come. | |||
“We took an oath long ago, obedience even in the face of defeat.” Nascia despised fear. | |||
“Only a defeat here, now. Not there, then.” Illyn wandered between the two sides of three. The amulet around her neck marked Illyn as the coven’s mother, granting her visions beyond the veil, places only the Queen could go. | |||
“So we hope.” Kalli had long sought the power of the amulet, but Techeuns are taught not to desire. | |||
“Our Queen awaits.” Lissyl attempted to end the challenges. There was little time and a war to fight. | |||
“So now the decision is nigh. The Harbingers, which to prepare?” Shuro was determined to see this all through. Excitement was taught to be kept at bay. | |||
“We cannot send them all.” Portia reminded. | |||
“All but one, the oldest. It stays with us. Sedia, Kalli, Shuro, take the children, tell her they are to be planted into a dead thing to have children of their own.” A plan hid behind Illyn’s eyes, but Techeuns do not share their eyes with others. | |||
“What if they are not wise enough for the Dreadnaught?” | |||
Illyn turned back to the source. | |||
“Sedia, do you not have faith in our Queen?” | |||
{{clear}} | |||
==The Aftermath== | |||
[[File:Grimoire The Aftermath.jpg|right|150px]] | |||
''"Do not fear, brother. This was the only choice I had."'' | |||
The sound of her voice ripped him from sleep. He jumped up; his ship was still contained in its protective sphere. He tried to retract the shield, but it was locked to its initiation time. He couldn’t remember activating it. Then he remembered the battle. That blast. | |||
What that ship fired was ancient, not bound to anything the Origin Libraries even sought to describe. | |||
He tried to calm down. He thought of her, searching for her pull. He couldn’t find it, but he was not calm. She always told him she would always be there behind the calm. | |||
All he could hear were echoes of that sound. | |||
It began as soon as they hit the ring plane, ringing in the old glimmer of his long-buried self. Before she showed him who he was—in the before and the after. | |||
The Techeuns should’ve known what the Dreadnaught could do. Must’ve known. Did they not feel what he felt? Hear what he heard? And that damn Ketch, it wasn’t protected. They had to know that. All to deploy the Harbingers. They barely got a foothold before the weapon was fired. He thought of Petra and how overwhelmed she must be, forced to hold her post, and watch her people perish. | |||
He tried to calm himself again, forcing long breaths. He realized where he was: Mars. Athabasca. The Candor Isles. He hadn’t been here in so long, not since he found the Black Garden. | |||
The countdown to the shield’s deactivation pulsed. He tried again, to home in on her, to find if she truly gave herself for this battle. He felt close to something, a hum of starlight, then shield deactivation broke his focus. | |||
He climbed out and saw the damage to his ship, and the truths of the armada's devastation sunk in. | |||
He turned in despair to find hundreds of his Crow drones, deployed on Mars long ago, circling his ship, waiting. | |||
“Welcome back, Master.” The one closest to him spoke first, and the others followed, a wave of salutations echoed throughout the dry sea. | |||
And with that hope returned. | |||
“Begin repairs on the ship immediately. Something has gone missing and you will help me find it.” | |||
{{clear}} | {{clear}} | ||
[[Category:Grimoire]] | [[Category:Grimoire]] | ||