Outside Influences

Hanti began the meeting by nodding to a long line of important people who were distinguishable from the rest of the room by their fancy hats. She greeted each one by name and a brief list of accolades which slipped through Bel’s memory like sand through her fingers.

It didn’t help that she still didn’t understand the government in the Golden Plains. From what she’d seen of it, consensus was built via shouting matches, bribes, and the occasional ceremonial fight. After Kjar and Dutcha had laid waste to the Dark Ravager’s pyramid, Bel had been plunged face-first into the local politics. Things had gone about as well as swimming through mud. She had even started having dreams that her mother, primordial goddess of change and upheaval, would take things into her own hands if things didn’t start happening soon.

Unfortunately, bringing Lempo into the discussion had only created even more discussion rather than speeding things up. Since that early frustration Bel had retreated to the desert and tried to be as uninvolved as possible, although she was anxious for them to finally make up their minds and get things moving.

She wasn’t the only one eager to get back to Satrap. Beth worried, with increasing volume, that they were losing the tactical advantage by giving Technis’ forces more time to put down the Points rebellion and react to the Dark Ravager’s incursion into their territory. Bel’s sister leveraged the small army of semi-humans that she had riled up with the promise of human mates on the other side of the Barrier to much more effectively than Bel would have managed.

Hanti finally finished her long-winded acknowledgements and began the meeting. Bel leaned forward in her seat, eager for things to finally commence.

“As you know,” Hanti began solemnly, “with the death of the Dark Ravager many things have changed within the Golden Plains, both for good and for ill. The divine spirit released from his failed ritual has reseeded the continent with spirits, but the chaos she has caused in Skotos has had other repercussions.”

She hoisted a string with a frightening number of ears impaled upon its length. “The elves of Skotos continue their attacks. Despite being pushed back repeatedly, they are still arriving with nothing more than crude rafts, wooden spears, and bloodlust. Darshan?”

Hanti gestured to her side and Darshan, a tall, wiry man with large eyes and a slender frame stood up. Bel couldn’t decide if he had lizard or bird ancestry, or perhaps both, but either way he looked fast and deadly.

“Yes, general?”

Probably lizard, Bel thought after hearing his hissing response.

“Have we made any progress identifying any organization behind the elven incursions?”

“My spies returned overnight general. They report seeing great destruction from the spirit Dutcha’s mana storm going straight through the heart of the elven lands. Although we cannot rule out that they were previously held back by the Dark Ravager’s followers, I would conjecture that these are slaves who are escaping in the chaos rather than an organized reprisal from their prince.”

Hanti snorted. “So diplomacy would be useless once again, eh?” The ant-warrior glared at a fluffy woman sitting near the front of the table. The woman shrugged back in response, but Bel wasn’t sure what that indicated. Is the fluffy person pro-diplomacy? Bel had some vague memories of her going on and on about pointless things at great length, but she couldn’t remember any of the details.

A scaled woman who looked very similar to Crystal – some kind of pangolin hybrid Bel had learned – tapped on the table for attention. “Have they been making any landings on the western side of the Golden Plains? Or do their attacks all go through the river?”

Darshan wobbled his clawed lizard-hand in the air in a kind of ‘so-so’ gesture. “Some land in the desert, but they give up quickly and continue in their water vessels. Most travel along the coast until they find the river. They are escaped slaves, and are ill-equipped to cross the desert so they find the river a more inviting route.”

Hanti grinned. “Well, with their short legs I’m not surprised that they struggle with the sand. Keep an eye on them, and let us know if anything changes.”

“Of course, general.”

Hanti looked at the people with fancy hats. “With no new developments on that front, I believe we are ready to discuss the Satrap campaign. Unless anyone has any topics they would like to bring up?”

James began to raise his hand, but Daran quickly squeezed him in a hug, locking his arms in place. Beth gave her an appreciative nod. Bel felt a mix of guilt and glee – guilt that she’d left her brother without an ally, but glee seeing Daran handle him so easily. She couldn’t help but feel hopeful that the ant-woman would make a good wife for her brother. She had gotten the people of the Golden Plains to adopt his technology far faster than would have been possible without her help, so Bel hoped that James would learn some social graces from his bride-to-be.

The rest of the room ignored the small scuffle and the fancy hats were silent, so Hanti nodded with satisfaction and locked eyes with Beth, who had been sitting to Darshan’s side. “Lady Beth? I have heard that your people are ready for the trip into the Agartha – I’m sorry, into the Labyrinth, as you call it. How are your preparations?”

Beth stood quickly, her back stiff and straight. “I’ll begin with a summary our situation for those who are new to the plan. As many of you know, we’ve discovered an entrance to the Labyrinth under the Dark Ravager’s pyramid. We believe he mined the area for spirits, but most of the passages they used are now blocked, leaving the passages under Outpost 3 as our best route of attack.”

Beth grinned and held up a small skull. “The area is crawling with scrattes, with the fire breathing dhvaras showing up less frequently. Aside from the pillars that hold up the world, the first layer is mostly empty. We’ve done a fair bit of exploration, and we think that we’ve found a route that leads to an empty cavern where a small task force will be able to drop most of the way to the second layer.”

Beth carelessly tossed the skull into a corner of the room. “Past the first layer though, we have no hard information. Your people have stories of seven layers, but we haven’t been able to verify much of their content. We are certain that the Dark Ravager’s followers had their own passages underneath their pyramid, but again, those have been buried.”

Beth gestured at James. “With our innovative new technology we won’t be needing their old passages anyway.”

The fluffy person who had attracted Hanti’s glare earlier rang a small chime to interrupt. Her voice quavered with age, but she spoke with a calm, soothing tone. “Is it not possible for us to negotiate with the Dark Ravager’s former cultists for more information? Surely that would be a better alternative than going in blind, and perhaps you over-discount the value of their old routes.”

Beth frowned. According to Beth, this kind of discussion had been the main obstacles to them moving quickly.

Hanti quickly stood before Beth could response. “Respected elder Robète, this point has already been litigated to the point of death. Please do not interrupt unless you have a constructive point or an actual question.”

Robète’s large ears drooped sadly. “Surely if we offered amnesty to those–”

Hanti smacked a hand into the table. “Amnesty to who, elder? Unless you are sheltering former cultists and have been hiding them from us, we know of no one to offer amnesty to.”

At Hanti’s angry words several different people leaped – or leaned – up to shout their own accusations and indignations into the air. Bel met her sister’s gaze and rolled her eyes. This was why she avoided all of these meetings.

It took a solid minute and Hanti banging her mallet to bring everything to order again. Her antenna wheeled angrily through the air as she gnashed her teeth in the direction of anyone who continued making noise. Finally, the room grew quiet. She gestured with her mallet and commanded, “Beth, please continue.”

The assassin nodded eagerly. She reached into her cloak and removed a metal disk with intricate filigree that fit into the palm of her hand.

“We do not need the Dark Ravager’s secrets,” she declared, “we have already copied his technology for piercing through the Barrier – the Blue Wall as you call it – and need only place agents on the other side to secure passage.”

Beth nodded in Bel’s direction. “The goddess Kjar has already given us information on how to pass through the Barrier. We will send a small team under it. Surely no one here will object to the directions of a goddess?”

Beth paused for a moment, but there were no audible objections, although Bel saw a few people twisting their mouths or fluffing their feathers.

Beth dropped the disk onto the table and pulled out a large bundle of silk. “I’m sure that many of your have already heard of our experiments. These ‘parachutes’ and ‘hot air balloons’ make use of innovations from the Old World, innovations that the Dark Ravager knew nothing about. While he may have had discovered one possible pathway through the layers of the Labyrinth, we will be able to find a more direct route.”

Beth gestured to James, who eagerly jumped to his feet. While the room filled with quiet murmurs, the read-headed otherworlder quickly set up a tripod that reached most of the way to the ceiling. He hoisted a piece of fabric held open by a rod onto the tripod, revealing a small diagram.

This was a technique called a “slide show.” James swore that his “power pointing ability” would blow the minds of everyone in the room.

Beth picked up an arm length pointing stick and gestured to a curved line that represented the surface of Olympos. It was even labelled, the word “Olympos” stitched into the fabric in large letters. An arrow connected the name to the curved line.

“As I mentioned, we have discovered a route that leads to a thousand stride drop onto the bottom of the first layer.” Beth traced a red line that descended through the outer circle and dropped through a large empty space. “Our task force will parachute down to the bottom of this floor, bypassing most of the level.”

Beth pointed to a small drawing of parachutes dropping down.

“Then they will immediately drop through another opening and straight into the second layer.”

She pointed at a number two stitched into the fabric, with another set of parachutes dropping below it.

“Once they have reached the bottom, they will assess the second level. Stories indicate that it will be watery, so we have included several people skilled in water scouting and combat in the task force.”

Beth gestured at Cleis and Pelagius, who waved their hand and flipper. Orseis, dutifully sitting at Beth’s side, stuck an appendage out of her cloak and waved a few of her tentacles as well.

Beth nodded to James, and he swapped out the first cloth drawing for a second. It depicted a watery layer with two different scenes clearly divided by a thick cord running through the center of the cloth.

“In one scenario,” Beth explained, “the Barrier only extends through the first layer. If that is the case, the task force will alert us through James’ call stones and will be able follow with the bulk of our forces whenever they are ready. The task force will ascend into Satrap and send us information as we work to join them.”

Beth pointed at the second drawing, where several figures were stuck on the other side of a blue line. “If the Barrier extends deeper, they will scout the area and gather more actionable information before returning with their hot air balloon.”

Beth glared at Robète. “We have already agreed,” Beth bit out, “to wait until after the main harvest before beginning our assault. Spending additional time scouting beforehand will ensure that we can move quickly once we mobilize.

The fluffy elder shrugged off Beth’s complaints.

“If the second layer is similar in size to the first, then it would take us a week at most to find a path through,” Beth explained.

James swapped to a third cloth panel. This one illustrated six layers with question marks underneath the known first layer. There was some math and the number 60 was circled on the side. Beth tapped the number. “Even if we have to descend to the center of Olympos, if the task force spends a full ten day week finding a route through each level it will only take slightly more than half a month.”

She pointed to another column of numbers. “Some have suggested that the creatures will grow more dangerous as we proceed. If we imagine that the time it takes to map a route increases by half of the time of the previous layer, the absolute worst imaginable case that Hanti and I can imagine, then exploring the six additional layers would take slightly more than 200 days, or two months, just after the end of the main harvest.

The room was quiet, apparently intimidated by the show of numbers, just as James predicted.

Hanti grinned with satisfaction as she stepped forward. “Thank you Beth.”

The warrior ant queen tapped her fingers against the pommel of one of her swords. “The soothsayers have approved two groups of seven to serve as two groups in the task force. They have only to make a small offering at a ceremony to the gods before they leave. If there are no more reasonable objections, I will send them on their way.”

Hanti glared, daring anyone to speak. She smiled slightly at the silence and smashed her mallet into the stone. “Then this meeting is complete.”

Bel couldn’t suppress a trill of excitement that travelled up her spine and ended the flicks of her serpents’ tongues. She was going to explore the alien world underneath Olympos’ surface. She was going to grow strong and powerful. Then she was get back to Satrap, where she would avenge Ventas and kill the false god, Technis.