Chapter 295: Under pressure (Patreon)

We bid goodbye to Kirri and Koko, and move through interstitial space to Trisha’s Teahouse, ferrying over Dave, Alec, Jacob, Loudmouth, and—for convenience—Akir.

Other drones from Trisha are already present upon our arrival to take over providing Espir to our friends.

Hiveminds sure are convenient.

With all the new faces and additional drones, our room in her teahouse is getting rather cramped, but we manage to bunch up most of the blue dragons on the couch, with Alec and Loudmouth each sitting on one of the armrests, and Jacob standing behind it, leaning against the back.

“Let us do the talking, yeah?” I ask them quietly, side-eyeing Alec, who rolls his eyes, but doesn’t protest.

Soon enough, the heavy presence of Goddess washes over us as she, Agath, and Marty enter, rendering the Cinnamon Circle complete.

It’s a feeling I’ve gotten quite used to by now, but judging by the goosebumps and shivering of Dave, Jacob, and Alec, and the open-mouthed, wide-eyed staring from Loudmouth, Goddess hasn’t lost her touch.

Once they’re seated, however, Marty is the one who speaks up first, causing my stomach to sink.

“Well,” he glubs, blowing bubbles out of his pipe. “It would seem you have succeeded in rescuing all of your friends. Congratulations!”

“Thanks, Marty,” Kaitlynn replies pleasantly, while I narrow my eyes at him, not trusting this one bit.

“So,” he continues. “Now the big question, of course, is what you will do next.”

And there it is.

“Well, we haven’t had a lot of time to think about that yet,” I say tersely, crossing my arms over my chest. “We were kinda still in the middle of celebrating when you called us over.”

Agath shifts in her seat, her muscles barely quivering as she does. Goddess just stares at me, inscrutable.

Marty nods placidly. “A well-earned celebration. However, what is the countdown timer down to by now?”

“47 Earth days, 18 hours, 36 minutes, and 22 seconds,” Suri rattles off without a pause.

I deflate a little.

“And you still hope to stop the Earth from being brought over, I presume?”

“We do,” Kaitlynn answers with determination, reaching over to lay her hand on my arm in support.

“And the main way you were considering thus far was to sabotage the Voidcannon, correct?”

“It’s one idea,” I admit grudgingly, really not liking the way his questions seem to be leading somewhere.

At that answer, Marty leans back a little in his chair. “Well, I’m afraid that’s going to be a problem...”

“Could someone elaborate on that, please?” Kaitlynn asks, her eyes flicking to the other members of the Cinnamon Circle.

Agath lets out a sigh. “We’ve learned a lot from the prisoners. The security on the Voidcannon is in the hands of the Peilor’s military branch—as it ought to be—and they are... more thorough than we anticipated.”

“You have been very successful,” Goddess intones. “And we commend you for it. However, a stealth mission into the Voidcannon does not seem feasible at this time, and we fear that a more forceful attempt would draw Mara’s attention, and ultimately restart the war prematurely.”

“So, what?” I state, standing up with clenched fists, as rage that I long haven’t felt bubbles up. “We’ve pulled off four successful missions, and now you’re telling us to forget about the next one, before we’ve even made a plan? You’re telling me to accept the death of 98% of the human race, of all of our families and friends, based on your judgement that it can’t be done?!”

A silence falls over the room after my outburst.

Marty sighs, and takes the pipe out of his mouth. “Emma... no one is telling you to give up. We’re simply trying to keep you focused on the bigger picture.”

I blink, my rage ebbing away as I look at him, really look at him, and see mainly concern. It dawns on me that, at this point, once we’ve returned to the Yin-Yang Realm, they wouldn’t really be able to stop us from trying to storm the Voidcannon if we decided to do it anyway. They’re concerned for their people... Fine, I get that.

Clearing my throat, I sit back down. “All right, I’m listening.”

Agath grunts, sounding relieved, now that I’m listening for it. “The missions you’ve performed thus far have gained us an unprecedented advantage in our struggle against Mara. Never before have we controlled any Peilor—let alone one on the Council of Stars. The possibilities this offers us are incredible. For example, we could have them bring over and drop anchors into the Yin-Yang Realm for our agents. Heck, even for Her Highness. In many ways, this is the first time we’ve had the opportunity to seize the initiative in this conflict. If the Peilor grow wary, however, their increased scrutiny and security would negate much of that advantage.”

“What about Sudo?” Dave asks, showing he’s been paying attention. “Her Core inspection is due soon, is it not?”

Marty shrugs, his fins flopping up a little with the motion. “While she makes for a useful asset in the field, we could always have her hide her body somewhere, and keep her here permanently. Her disappearance would be suspicious, but no immediate cause to suspect our involvement and restart the war.”

Damn. There goes one of our main arguments...

“In the end,” Goddess proclaims, her voice gentle like the drip-drop of a spring shower falling on a canopy, “this is what it comes down to: a successful mission to sabotage the Voidcannon would at best spare your people a few months. If the price for that is the loss of an advantage that could have won us this war, it is too high. If that should occur, your people will still be taken, and you will not even be around to save what’s left of them.”

“And that,” Marty glubs, “is the big picture.”

I sag back onto the couch.

“So what are you saying?” Kaitlynn asks sharply. “You want us to give up on preventing the Earth from being brought over?”

Agath shakes her head brusquely. “No. We’re saying whatever plan you come up with, needs to be subtle. The Peilor cannot find out they’re being acted against until we’re ready to strike the final blow, until we’re ready to take down Mara. And as much as we’d like to help you save your people, infiltrating a massive military installation like the Voidcannon is not subtle.”

The mood in the room after the rest of the Cinnamon Circle leaves, is about a sob shy of depressed.

Trisha is going around offering cookies as comfort food, and I can’t even really enjoy the naïveté of my friends as they sombrely stuff their faces. In fact, when Trisha stops in front of me with that hopeful look on her face, even I cave and grab a lemon square.

“Well, this is a setback,” Suri chimes after a while.

I roll my eyes. “Wow, really? You don’t say.”

“No need to get snippy with me, young lady,” she replies coolly. “I don’t see you taking any initiative to do something about this mess. Now, Dave... I know we’ve barely met, but I went through a lot of trouble to help save you, and I was told you have a keen mind for strategy. Now would be a great time to demonstrate it.”

Dave looks at her wide-eyed, and swallows a bite of his cookie. “Ehm...”

“Suri,” Kaitlynn admonishes. “Be nice. We didn’t just save Dave so he’d help us save Earth, it’s just... well, something we hoped he might be able to do.”

“Not really lowering the pressure there, Kait,” Jacob remarks dryly, to Alec’s amusement.

Dave clears his throat. “Well, I’m... flattered by your confidence in me. I don’t know if I’ll be able to come up with anything good, but... I’m damn well going to try.”

“Hear hear!” Alec brings out through a mouthful of cookies. He has been partaking gluttonously, and despite everything, I find myself looking forward to the look on his face when I tell him about Trisha’s Price.

“Now,” Dave says, standing up. “This has all been rather a whirlwind for me, so, if you don’t mind, I’d like to try to bring some structure to my understanding of the situation. Ehm... could someone conjure me a blackboard and some chalk?”

It takes a moment, but Dave’s proactivity finally gets me out of my funk and moving.

We quickly rearrange the furniture, until we can all comfortably sit on one side of the room, while Dave stands in front of the rather nostalgic blackboard I summoned on the other side.

“Okay, please correct me if I’m wrong, of course,” he starts. “But this is how I understand the situation so far. We...”

He trails off for a moment as he draws a rather poor depiction of a dragon in blue chalk—one of the like forty-two colours Kaitlynn conjured for him.

“We,” he repeats when it’s done, “have an alliance with the Realm of Imagination.”

More relatively poor drawings follow, until Alec can no longer take it, and jumps up to take over the drawing portion.

“Ah, yes, thanks,” Dave mumbles, as Alec rapidly starts to draw up a rather frightening depiction of Goddess. Freed up from having to draw, he continues. “Now, our main goal is to save Earth, while theirs is to win the war against the Peilor.”

He takes up a white piece of chalk, and starts to write keywords on another section of the blackboard as he keeps talking. “The good news is that our goals align at the point of defeating the Peilor, as that seems necessary to assure Earth’s safety in the long term. The bad news is, that when it comes to saving Earth, while the Realm of Imagination sympathises with our wish to do so, seeing it fulfilled is not a priority for them.”

He glances back at us, and I nod in agreement.

“Now, if we analyse a little deeper,” he continues, turning back to the blackboard where Alec by now is sketching Planet Earth in way too much detail. “We have a short-term goal of finding some way to prevent the imminent portalling of Earth, and a long-term goal of taking out Starmother, which will most likely take the form of finding a way for Goddess and her to duke it out, without Starmother having the chance to flee.”

“That seems like our best option, yes,” Jacob states dryly.

“And our immediate problem,” Dave finishes, “is that our allies are not willing to sign off on a mission to sabotage the Voidcannon, as they think it will restart the war prematurely, and significantly reduce our chances of defeating Starmother.”

Having said this, he steps back, falling silent as he looks over the board.

To be frank, I don’t find it all that clear of an overview, but if it works for him, I’m not going to judge.

Alec scratches the back of his head. “Well, if pulling a sick stunt is out of the question... maybe we could try more of a social approach? That Yog dude has a lot of clout, right?”

“We have considered that,” Suri chimes. “Unfortunately, the network isn’t that easy to push around; it’s backed by several Lustrous-tier Peilor itself.”

“Mister Lyrack always said all higher-tier care only about reputation,” Loudmouth croaks. “Maybe we... ehm... draw funny pictures?”

“I’m not sure caricatures will have the necessary impact,” Jacob replies diplomatically, “But I do think you’re on to something. Maybe we just need the right kind of motivation. Does Yog have any dirt on them?”

I purse my lips. “We could ask... It’d have to be something pretty good, though. I reckon it’d be very difficult to convince the executives to postpone the event they’ve been hyping up with friggin’ commercials and a big, dramatic countdown.”

“Not to mention the launch party,” Suri adds.

Jacob scoffs. “They’re throwing a party? Of course they are, why am I even surprised? Bastards.”

“How about a more public approach?” Kaitlynn asks. “What if we send in, like, a bomb threat, or stage a protest?”

“Too visible,” Akir grunts, shaking his head. “I doubt the circle would sign off on it.”

A silence falls over the room.

“You know,” Dave muses, “the more I think about it, the more I feel that anything we do to postpone the portalling is just a temporary stay of execution, not to mention another chance to get caught by Starmother’s secret police. Perhaps the best way—or even the only way—to get the Cinnamon Circle on board with a plan to save Earth, is if we can somehow combine both goals into one mission.”

I blink. “What do you mean?”

Dave underlines the word Voidcannon on the board, and turns around to face us. “They won’t let us enter it for sabotage, but what if we took control of it instead, and actually used it to strike a crippling blow against the Peilor?”

AUthor's note:

Thanks for reading! ^^