With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)

17th Vorhexen 2512
Evening

"That…" Teclis shakes his head. "Is not it."

Kaleina is doing something magical, but because the manipulation of the winds of magic isn't visible until they're formed into a spell unless you're a magician yourself I'm not seeing anything.

I sigh. "Look, we knew it wasn't stabilisation or reduction. You told me that."

"And I would doubt that your ring could manage something in that regard that High Magic could not, but if your ring is a device wrought by the Old Ones then it isn't impossible. I do not expect to solve the problem of millennia in a single day. Kaleina, were you able to learn anything of note from the Dark Elves?"

"That I was mistaken when I thought that I could have no new way to hate them."

On the opposite side of the room, Aranei shifts awkwardly.

"All of those I examined were physically healthy. I could detect no sign of the Lantern's orange light, but also could detect neither any significant dhar residues nor the taint of Slaanesh."

"I altered their minds and souls. The structures I build are made of the same stuff as what is there anyway. Changing how parts of their brains are wired doesn't change the chemical composition of their brain matter."

Kaleina rolls her eyes. "You really don't understand anything about magic, do you?"

"It's true that I can't use magic." I smile at her, and generate six inverted 'A' constructs in the air around her. "But I get by."

I spot Kaleina's pupils dilate as she recognises the rune and see her fingers move as she attempts an unbinding, but as they're not actually runes nothing happens. After she has enough time to realise that, I pull them back into the ring.

"Kaleina, Lantern, that does not help us."

Teclis sounds a little irritated, and… Yes. That looked like I was effectively waving live grenades at her. I shouldn't have done that.

I nod, then bow my head slightly towards her. "Loremaster Kaleina, I apologise. That was a needless escalation on my part. Though I should point out that those weren't actually Runes of Immolation, since I can't channel the winds of magic at all."

Teclis raises his eyebrows very slightly, then turns to Kaleina and raises them a little more.

"Your apology is acceptable."

Teclis closes his eyes for a moment, then looks at me. I shrug.

"It's not total magic and it's not throughput. Could it be..? Highs and lows?"

"In what sense?"

"How much the strength of the winds changes over the early part of the pregnancy? I still don't know enough about what elf genes do to understand how genetic expression works in your species, but I know that human wombs will spontaneously abort foetuses which somehow register as non-viable. And that the mechanism can sometimes go wrong. I don't… Have good data on what happens with human mutant foetuses, but none have been born around here since I arrived."

"There are no mutant elves, so there is nothing to which we could compare whatever information you gained."

"No mutant elves?"

"I am not counting the Curse of Aenarion, as that is more akin to a spell bound to Aenarion's line."

"No, I mean… Elves have fought beastmen before, and they habitually rape any women they come into contact with and don't immediately kill. I assume there have been a few elf women who've given birth to beastmen."

Teclis bows his head slightly. "You are most likely right, but the lives of such unfortunates are not well recorded."

"No records at all?"

Kaleina shifts uncomfortably in her chair. "Ulthuan is clear of such creatures, as unlike the humans we do not bear such monstrosities by chance and they have no skill at sailing. The savages of Athel Loren may have better records, having as they do more contact with them. Or you could ask your witch."

She doesn't look at Aranei as she says it, but Aranei draws herself up.

"We do not have beastherds in Naggaroth either, nor do we birth them. What a revolting idea."

How to put this..?

"Aranei, Naggaroth has a sizeable Slaanesh-worshipping religion."

"The Cult of Pleasure is a minor group that only exists at all as a favour from Witch King Malekith to his mother. And they do things that are actually pleasurable. They don't mate with beastmen."

And then she looks uncertain.

"I… No. Where would they even get them? And summoning and binding daemons would be easier… No."

"But they don't have any mutations either, despite performing daemon magic?"

"I can't imagine them failing to smother mutant children in their cribs and then burn the remains if such creatures were born, but I have heard no accounts of such things."

"But…" I turn to Teclis and Kaleina. "There's definitely a link to dhar build-ups and mutations in humans?"

He nods. "Yes, that is easily provable."

"So why not in elves? It's not because of qhaysh use, because the Dark Elves certainly aren't using that. It can't be because of exposure to the winds of magic, because while Naggaroth doesn't have a Great Vortex they are close enough to the north pole that they have significantly elevated levels when compared to the rest of the world."

Kaleina straightens slightly. "You think that our wombs destroy mutated foetuses early in pregnancy. So early that we are not aware that we have fallen pregnant."

"It might be more than that. They might be blocking fertilisation in some way, so that conception can't happen."

Teclis nods slowly. "Elven bodies are generally better at handling magic than humans. Humans who use dhar in quantities common amongst Dark Elf sorceresses would be visibly altered even if they were able to avoid outright mutation."

"Could it be..? Flux? Not… Whether the flow of the winds is high or low in absolute terms, but in how much it shifts? And… I suppose for father and mother?"

Teclis's gaze grows distant.

"I can't call to mind any investigation into that. Any… Elf woman who was shielded from the winds of magic would be experiencing a far lower level of exposure than she had for the rest.. of her life. Elevated… Would be no better. If her womb were responding to that and preventing conception as an anti-mutation measure…" He shakes his head. "It fits the observable phenomena, but I can't say that it's true."

Kaleina frowns, but in curiosity rather than frustration. "How would your ring impact that?"

"If elf bodies have a record of historical exposure to the winds of magic, there's a good chance that the ring would reset them just.. because I didn't know that it was supposed to be there. If I'm resetting it to zero and then absorbing enough magic to keep it there, then their body wouldn't think anything was wrong."

"Will the elf women in Altdorf miscarry now that you are away?"

"I don't know. I'm checking back twice a week-. I'll increase that just in case. Is this something we can investigate?"

Teclis nods. "I believe that we can. If only to eliminate the possibility. If this works, all elf-kind will be in your debt."

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves. We could have a long way to go before we can prove it. Though I suppose that this gives you another reason to work on the global network; if we can stabilise-."

"Stabilise the flow of magic worldwide then we won't need special measures." He smiles faintly. "It seems likely that we will be spending a good deal of time together."

 

1st September 2012
15:56 GMT

"But why did he leave?" **Come Over to the Winning Team.**

The nearby gordanians of what turns out to be called the Endless Conquest clan switch from 'caution-intruder' to 'caution-boss' mode, making gestures of respect and deference to me before returning to carting materials to repair the smashed up transport bay down the corridor.

"He believes that you are dead and that I am therefore weakened. But I got a solid hit on him before he left and our god powers mostly relate to strategic manipulation. Which means that even if my metaphysique was weakened due to losing you-"

I take a quick look around and confirm that no one is looking. Then I pick Lynne up and hug her to my chest.

"-I could still kill him by conventional means and then rest and recover. I love you."

"I love you too Daddy, but you should put me down."

"Bah, who's the god-king here?" I've got a rough idea of the ship's likely layout, but Grayven's lingering presence is preventing me from commanding it and I can hardly ask the crew.

"You're more like a god-president, like they have in Europe where the president is just supposed to make sure that no one's being too stupid while the prime minister runs the government."

"Apt." I put her down, smiling fondly. "Does this mean that you want to get involved in the family business when you graduate?"

"I don't think I could do anything else."

"Oh? Do I have to punch my father in the soul again?"

"My god powers let me make sense of groups of people without trying to read all their minds. What other jobs let me use that?"

"Anything in management. Retail. Local government. State government. Federal government."

"I thought American government was all about preventing anyone having too much power."

"Yes, but the US Constitution was written before telepathy and magic were well understood. I'm fairly sure that you could bypass checks and balances even without my help. Ah, or help them adapt to that oversight as an unelected advisor."

"Hm."

Ping.

Yes, but he'll almost certainly have remodelled a bit. Those ships were designed to be run by Lowlies and multiple New Gods, not one New God and a multitude of aliens. He would have had to make the design more rational.

Ping.

It's what I'd have done. Those old ships were a bit of a mess if you forgot that they were built on the assumption that the people on board were supernaturally good at certain things and so didn't need certain systems. I try reaching out-.
Not Authorised in My Domain.
"Shouldn't we have run into someone important by now?"

"Someone with decision making power will be on the bridge. But gordanian military leaders will be on other ships, and civilian leaders will be wherever he's keeping their civilian population. Probably habitation ships, mining vessels…"

"What about senior officers?"

"Who's the fourth highest ranking Orange Lantern?"

"Ah…"

"It goes me, Dox, Komand'r, and then..?"

"I don't think you told me about anyone else."

"Because the three of us are the only ones with command authority. Primitive militaries need complex hierarchies of authority to get anything done. I'm a New God and Dox is an organic computer. Grayven might have non-commissioned officers and clan officers and officials…"

"But they're not important to him, because he instinctively knows who the best person for the job is and so does everyone else because they're under his power. Which works fine until he dies and there's no one to take-." She frowns. "So he should have killed you and taken control of me, because then I'd be a loyal second in command who could carry on his work. Why didn't he?"

"He didn't know about you, you're a bit of a handful, and he doesn't really care about what he's building. It's part of him, not a thing in itself. If your head gets cut off, it doesn't really matter what shape your feet are in."

"But aren't both of you the same?"

"He didn't have my second life. He went straight from Apokolips to this, while I got the advantage of a normal life. For a few decades."

"What if you didn't?"

"I'd probably have ended up the same."

"No, I mean… What if you didn't escape? What if he did something and made you just appear on the other Earth?"

I carefully avoid thinking anything about that.

"Or maybe he's the pretender. Humans can't be the only species who can be Awakened. If he made himself look like you and then got Awakened, he could pretend he was you." She looks up at me. "Would that work?"

"It m-. Oh look, a door!" I take Mother Box off my harness and tap her against the control panel. "Let's see if we can find a map or something."

The door splits, sliding left and right into the walls. And it's another launch bay, because of course those would all be in the same part of the ship. Given that we're against the hull here I could blast my way out… Maybe. But I don't want to give Grayven a reason to prioritise me, or attract undue attention.

"Navigation computers." I send beams of orange light into the waiting craft, ignoring the confusion of the gordanians preparing the landing craft. "They'll have to have our location loaded on them. I don't suppose that these fellows know where we are, do they?"

Lynne's eyes shimmer for a moment, and the gordanians go back to their work. **Above Your Concerns.**

"No. The other Grayven had good operational security."

Ah! Snagged one. And…

Ping.

An outside line! How nice. Call Duke Oswin and get me our current location.

Call in progress. Location not found. Local navigation data located. Extrapolating.

Oddly.. industrial. There isn't anywhere in Vega like-.

"Kranaltine. He's attacking Kranaltine. But without his direct aid we'll butcher his fleet, that doesn't make sense."

Someone on Oswin's end sends an acknowledgement.

"Grayven! Good to hear from you."

"Oswin! I'm chasing down Other Grayven. How are you managing?"

"Going well until a minute ago, when stars and planets started flying at each other. Any idea what's going on there?"

"Orrery. Oswin, is there anything on Kranaltine called 'The Orrery'?"

"Yes, there are display pieces in various museums. Is this really the time for sight-seeing?"

"Grayven's here with a dreadnought, and from the lack of shaking I don't think you have a home defence fleet any more. I'll get him, but he's here for something called 'The Orrery'. Where were your people's first settlements?"

"The-. The northern continent, around the coast."

"We'll try there. Grayven out."