Chapter 302: Dome sweet dome (Patreon)

“A choice?” Kaitlynn asks, a frown on her avatar’s glowing face. “What choice do I have?”

“Well,” I start, “we’ve been talking to Yog. Officially, your trial is in two days, however, he could probably figure out a way to get it postponed until after the operation, which is still on schedule to happen in five days, right before the Earthshift would occur.”

Kaitlynn’s eyes widen as the implications hit her.

“But here’s the thing,” I say, licking my lips, feeling a strange mix of emotions. “We could also try to get it delayed a little... less. Until right around the planned time for the operation. And then, when you get sentenced and sent to Starlight Palace... you could use this.”

I pull a familiar, black, owl-shaped whistle on a necklace from inside my tiny spiritform-offshoot.

Kaitlynn’s eyes widen. “What? How did you get that in here?! Aren’t they going to notice the connection to...”

She trails off, squinting at it.

I nod. “Yeah, it’s not actually connected to Goddess. In fact, as far as I can tell, it’s Extant, though you should still keep some of your attention on it at all times—should you decide to accept this mission.”

“How is this going to work if it’s not connected to Goddess?”

“From what I understood, the moment you blow it, a pulse will erupt that travels in all directions,” I explain. “It’s pretty much a beacon for Goddess to hone in on. If we used this from a lower Realm—either in physical or spiritual Realmspace—it wouldn’t work. The signal would die before it reached her. However...”

“The Yin-Yang Realm and the Realm of Imagination are adjacent!” Kaitlynn finishes excitedly.

I nod. “It should work. We’re like 99% sure.”

“So, I just go in there, pull out the whistle, and blow it?”

I sigh. “Well, that’s the tricky part. The timing. You see, if you’re going to do this—again, it’s your decision—we’re going to need you to hold off on blowing that whistle until the pocket dimension has been deployed. Which means you will probably need to stall somehow, though hopefully not for long. As a last measure, you may even reveal yourself. Starmother will definitely be full of questions if you do, which should prevent her from killing you, but she’ll likely start trying to Command you so she can interrogate you, so you’ll need to be ready to defend yourself against that.”

Kaitlynn remains silent for a moment, appearing deep in thought. “Let’s say I succeed, what happens next?” Kaitlynn asks. “Goddess can’t defeat Starmother in this Realm on her own, right?”

“She can’t,” I admit. “But she won’t be descending alone. She’s going to drag along some very dear friends of yours.”

She stares at me for a moment, then her eyes widen. “My cuties?! You want to drag them into Starlight Palace?!”

“They’re willing and able, and they can handle themselves,” I tell her softly. “Starmother may be powerful as a collective, but most of her individual clones shouldn’t be much stronger than Trisha’s. Your cuties will protect you while Goddess faces off against her, and help you complete the second part of your mission.”

She blinks. “There’s more?”

“Remember the anchoring problem I told you about?”

She nods.

“Well, your cuties are each going to come down bearing a bag full of them, and those need to be spread throughout Starlight Palace.”

“You want me to spread 1.2 million anchors?!” she asks, incredulous.

I snort. “That’d be ideal, but no, it’s only going to be a couple of thousand, belonging to some of the stronger raptors, and you can throw them out by the dozens. The rest of the anchors we’ll still fasten to the outside, but we predict it’ll make the descent a lot smoother to have a few inside. Especially if we can get Elysia to focus on those, have her actively use them as a guide. Also, this way it’s less of an issue if some anchors are lost in the melee.”

“I see,” Kaitlynn replies thoughtfully.

It’s silent for a beat, and I bite my lower lip. “Hon, I hate to rush you, but we’re running out of time, and I need you to make a decision. Please know that whatever option you pick, no one’s going to judge you, very much including me.”

And I mean that. Honestly, I’m not even sure what I want her to say myself! Part of me wants her to accept the mission, because I really do believe it’s our best shot at saving Earth. Another part of me desperately wants her to be as safe as possible.

She wavers for a moment longer, then straightens her spine and looks up at me.

I can see the decision in her eyes before she even says anything.

Letting out a sigh, I hold out the whistle for her.

The glowing fingers of her avatar grab onto it, but I can’t quite seem to let go just yet, and so it remains hanging between us.

There’s so much I still want to say, so much I’d prepared to say, but now that I’m here, words fail me. Instead, I just drink in her glowing features as she stares back at me with a small, sad smile.

The part of my consciousness that’s still keeping track of what’s going on outside registers a noise, then, as the red crystal flashes. Drawing a bit more of my attention out, I catch what the dour voice from before says. “Your visitation will end in one minute. Please detach so the prisoner can return to the containment zone before the end of your visit.”

Gritting my teeth, I let go of the whistle. Kaitlynn smoothly pulls the necklace over her avatar’s head so that the whistle rests on its glowing sternum.

“Good luck, Kait,” I say hoarsely. “And I’ll see you soon.”

She nods, the glow eyes from her eyes shimmery. “You too. Be safe.”

Biting my lip, I refrain from crossing my fingers behind my back, and nod in assent. And with that, I pull my consciousness out of her Core.

With great reluctance, I instruct Alec to stretch his hand forward again, and... let her go.

Kaitlynn floats back up under her own power, right into the middle of the hexagonal room. A moment later, the spherical field reforms around her, confining her to a space with only a three-foot diameter.

The Darksteel door behind me swings open.

It’s a good thing I’m not the one who has to do the walking as Alec and I leave, because I don’t see how we’d have made it outside otherwise.

The last few days of preparations turn into a complete blur, but part of that may be that I’m actively trying to keep busy, keep my mind off Kaitlynn in that cell, waiting for her trial and verdict.

Because if I don’t, my mind just keeps running in circles as it ponders if I should’ve ever suggested this stupid plan in the first place.

Anyway, the good news is that Yog successfully managed to get Kaitlynn’s trial pushed back towards a time that’s more suitable for the operation.

His method was both crude and ingenious. He pretty much just threw a tantrum and had several Peilor arrested for various made-up accusations, and then demanded their trials be expedited.

He basically got Kaitlynn’s trial postponed without ever even mentioning Lyrack’s name. It’s exactly the kind of scheme I’d expect from a Lustrous-tier Peilor.

The bad news is that his scheming ways had a downside. Since he affected Kaitlynn’s trial date indirectly, there was some uncertainty in the exact amount it would be delayed, which resulted in the trial being postponed to mere hours before the countdown for the Earthshift runs down. We’re cutting it a lot closer than we’d like, but we’ve still decided to go ahead with the plan.

After all, as long as we take over the Voidcannon before it can be used on Earth, we’re good.

After a lot of debate, we’ve settled on a six-person infiltration team. Sudo and Jacob are a given, I’ll be riding along with Alec again, and Suri will be accompanying Dave.

While Yog is a powerful fighter, there’s too much scrutiny on him. Moreover, he’s expected to show up at the Countdown Gala that the Network is throwing, and that starts a little before the mission.

However, he’s assisting in another way. He got us an official order from the Council of Stars to perform an inspection on the Voidcannon. The rest of the council obviously isn’t aware of this, and doing this would likely cost him his seat under normal circumstances, but that’s not really going to matter after today anyway.

Well, unless we lose, I guess.

I blow out a breath, halting my pacing for a moment to sternly tell myself to stay positive.

Dave glances up at me from his table, where he’s going over our plans for the umpteenth time, looking for any inconsistency or overlooked detail.

We’re not in Trisha’s Teahouse, however. We moved the command centre to Herman’s shack inside Elysia a while ago, because Dave wanted to be closer to the action. Also, the closer we get to Earthshift, the less it matters if any Peilor grow suspicious. The time for them to make a report that leads to any kind of meaningful action is growing shorter and shorter.

If there’s one thing I have faith in, it’s red tape.

“Perhaps you should get some rest,” Dave suggests kindly.

I smile wryly. “I could say the same to you. And honestly, once you grow your Espir Pool beyond about double what you need to function, rest really becomes a needless luxury.”

I shoot him a meaningful look. Despite Trisha’s assistance, Dave’s Espir Pool isn’t quite there yet, having just reached about 2000 motes.

He shakes his head, and picks up a glass with some kind of fruity concoction and a tiny umbrella, courtesy of Akir. “There’s too much at stake for me to rest just yet, but don’t worry; I’ll take a meditative break shortly before the mission, to get myself in top shape. However, even if you don’t require rest from a mental perspective, you could perhaps still use one from an emotional or psychological perspective.”

He returns my meaningful look with one of his own.

I let out a sigh, deflating a little. “Easier said than done. But I hear you about the meditating.”

Dave hums in a neutral tone, yet somehow it sounds a bit sceptical, like he’ll believe it when he sees it. “Are the raptors done yet?” he asks, tactfully changing the subject.

I nod before I even think about it, my tuned-in senses having constantly taken in their progress in the background. “They’re just finishing up the top of the dome.”

As we worked out the details for this plan we realised that, for the raptors to properly use their collective Imagination, they needed a way to see what was going on. As in, all of them.

And preferably, they’d be able to watch everything that’s going on from reasonably up close, but from behind sufficient protection.

So basically, we ended up having them build an arena. Not just any arena, however, but the biggest one I’ve ever seen.

The seating area forms a circle with a circumference of about six miles, and it has six vertically displaced sections, each with about fifty rows of seats.

The wood from the Ark was only the beginning, and ended up mainly being used to form a pretty basic skeleton for the massive construction. After that was erected, we needed to construct sturdy walls and floors from something abundant, that we could gather from the Realm of Imagination without raising any suspicion.

Thankfully, the raptors are masters at turning sand into glass.

We didn’t have any of their trademark cerulean sand available—and Herman wasn’t too keen on us using the pristine white sand he’d painstakingly gathered for Elysia—but thankfully there is plenty of pitch-black sand lining the beaches of the sea of glitter.

The resulting glass is reminiscent of obsidian, and the massive gleaming structure made from it looks—in Jacob’s words—pretty friggin’ metal.

After that, however, we ended up using a lot of Elysia’s white sand after all, to furnish a massive dome that covers the lake that’s fully caught in the inner ring of the Arena. That dome is both meant to help prevent Starmother from escaping, as well as to afford the massive raptor audience some extra protection from the battle that will be taking place inside.

Our conversation quickly peters out, and I start pacing again. Finally, after going back and forth about it in my head for a while, I grit my teeth and make my decision. “Fine. I’m going to meditate. Warn me if anything happens.”

And with that, I move to a little room to the side, where I sit down cross-legged and close my eyes, knowing that most likely, the next time I open them, will be to start the mission to save Earth.

Author's note:

Thanks for reading! ^^