Heretical Edge

Virginia Dare had been in quite a few dangerous situations throughout her long life. Ever since being the first English child born on the new continent, she had found it quite impossible to ever be average. It was a trait that had passed down through her child and grandchildren, not that the vast majority of them, or anyone, had any idea about their real relation to her. Only Felicity and Koren, her granddaughter and great-granddaughter, knew the truth about that. They were her only blood relatives who had the slightest clue that she wasn't merely one of their teachers. And Gaia was the only person outside their blood family who knew. Three people in the entire universe. Even that many had very nearly been enough to shatter the spell that was protecting the Earth from another Fomorian invasion.

In the end, the spell had held, albeit barely, against those moments. It survived Gaia learning the truth and then, decades later, the twin punch of Felicity and Koren doing so. Those had already been dangerous enough, had already put the planet at risk. But now? Now the spell was at its most vulnerable, stretched near the snapping point, like a rubber band pulled to its very limit.

Because now Virginia was trapped on another planet. She could leave Earth's solar system for brief times, but didn't like doing so, not considering the danger doing so posed. She was supposed to stay there. Her presence helped keep the spell intact, and it usually wasn't worth the risk of leaving.

But now she didn't have a choice. She was stuck far from Earth after finding herself accidentally transported while she'd been trying to save a group of imprisoned Alters from some slavers.

No, not accidentally. There really was nothing accidental about it. She'd had a time-stop effect up to stop the ship from taking off until she finished freeing the prisoners who were on board, and someone had disabled it. There had been someone else there, someone powerful enough to turn off her time-stop bubble and stay completely hidden from her that entire time. Someone who had wanted this to happen.

It didn't necessarily mean they knew about the Fomorian spell or her true identity, of course. She had made plenty of enemies over the decades who would be quite delighted to send her far away from Earth, possibly forever. Though someone who was actually strong enough to do all that and take her completely by surprise in the process made the potential list a good bit smaller. If Fossor wasn't very dead already, the man probably would've been right up near the top of it.

First things first, before she could even start to worry about who was responsible for this, she needed to assess what 'this' actually was. A moment ago, Virginia had been aboard that ship as it made the jump straight from the surface of Earth out to the middle of deep space. But doing so, making that jump so close to the planet itself, had damaged the thing catastrophically. So the ship had used emergency measures to transport all of the passengers, Virginia included, to the nearest planet that could actually support life. It had done what it could to save their lives before falling apart.

Looking up, Virginia could see that unfamiliar red sky. The grass under her feet was the color of amber, and there were purple and green rock formations in the distance. If the colors weren't so wrong, she would have guessed she was standing somewhere in the American southwest, like Utah with its grand rock formations, or maybe Wyoming given the vast, empty field of grass. There were no cities or any signs of actual civilization anywhere in sight, just this admittedly very beautiful wilderness. If the situation hadn't been as dire as it was, she might've enjoyed the view.

All around her, the handful of slaves who had been trapped on the ship when it jumped were still picking themselves up from the ground. She heard them exchanging fearful words with one another, some speaking English, others using languages that clearly didn't originate from Earth.

But no matter what their specific words were, it was clear that all of them were afraid. They were as clueless about this place as she was. None of them seemed to know anything about where they were. Which wasn't a great first sign when it came to how difficult it would be to get home.

The spell was still intact, as far as she could tell. She'd always felt the thing there at the back of her mind. Now it was stretched taut, weakened but definitely there. Her best guess was that it would last three days at the most. Three days before the spell would collapse thanks to the vast distance involved. Three days before the only thing stopping the Fomorians from invading again completely vanished. Which would mean the Seosten would take the only option they had to try to preserve humanity, their best weapons against those monsters. They'd bring their fleet in, grab all the humans they could, and abandon the planet. What other choice would they have?

In three Earth days, if she didn't get back, human civilization as they knew it would be over.

Setting that worrying but ultimately unhelpful thought aside for the moment, the woman focused on continuing to take stock. As her eyes flicked around the area, she filed away details. There had been twelve slaves being ushered onto the ship back on Earth, but most of those had been left behind. Only a few ended up on the vessel and thus here on the planet with her. Four in total. One was a child, a diminutive cat-like Nekomata with gray-black fur. The other three were adults, two of them seven foot tall, rather thin reptilian figures, while the last was a small teddy bear-like man who looked quite similar to one of those Ewok creatures from Star Wars, aside from the fact that he wore a well-tailored business suit rather than simple tribal headgear.

That was it. Only Virginia and these four were here, as far as she could tell. The ship had been breaking up when it sent them here, and she didn't expect it had lasted much longer. Especially after using all of its power to transport them here. Wherever here actually was. It also hadn't sent any supplies or tools with them, either because it was never programmed to, because it had only retained enough power to send the people at that point, or because it was sabotaged. That last one was a real possibility, considering that whole part where someone had disabled her time-stop.

Taking all that in with just a glance around this place, Virginia realized all four of the prisoners were staring at her. One of the reptilian adults had stepped somewhat in front of the feline child and each of them regarded her with a mix of uncertainty and suspicion. Of course they did. Not only were they prisoners, having been on their way to be enslaved, but they were also Alters. Which meant there had been a blaring alarm in their heads warning them that she was a Boscher from the very moment they saw her. Yes, she had attacked the ones who were holding them captive, but for many Boschers that wouldn't mean anything. Crossroads and Eden's Garden loyalists would have killed everyone there, slave and slaver alike, without question.

At least that fact meant this situation would be incredibly simple to resolve. Virginia spoke up clearly, keeping her voice calm as she left her hands at her side. Raising them would have looked too much like an aggressive gesture for people this obviously skittish. "It's okay. I'm not going to hurt any of you, I promise. I'm with the Boscher Rebellion, with… with Joselyn's Rebellion. Have you heard of that?"

The former prisoners, who had clustered together by then with the three adults blocking her view of the child, whispered quickly. They were keeping their voices very low, but Virginia's Amarok senses heard them clearly as one of the reptilians urgently whispered that it could be a trick. Which was immediately followed by the 'Ewok' pointing out, in a deep, rich, baritone voice, that Boschers didn't actually do that. They didn't do tricks, they just killed. There was no need for her to trick them. If she was really one of those people, she would have just massacred them already, without even taking a moment to talk.

Once that much had been established in their little discussion, Virginia decided she couldn't wait any longer. They were already working with very limited time, for reasons she obviously couldn't actually get into. Instead, she spoke up to get their attention. Not that they had ever taken their eyes off her. "We're all stuck here, so we need to work together to find a way back to Earth. Do any of you know anything about this planet, or have any way to work out where it is, exactly?" She paused very briefly, realizing she hadn't even introduced herself. "My name is Virginia Dare. I'm going to do everything I can to get all of us back safely, I promise. But right now, we need to assess our situation and--" Stopping in mid-sentence as she took in their worried, overwhelmed, and confused expressions, the woman took one step that way and went down to one knee, offering her hand, palm up. "I know people like me have scared you before. I know we have hurt and killed your friends and family. But that's not me. I am here to help you, all of you. Will you please work with me so we can all find our way back home, to the people who care about us?"

To her relief, that was enough to calm these people down somewhat. The small, furry figure took her offered hand in his paw and squeezed it, speaking in that deep baritone. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Mau Dare. I am called Kausel." It sounded like castle but with a caw rather than cah sound. "My people are known as Peirdieas. There are very few of us left, after--" He stopped, but it was clear that he had been about to talk about the Boschers. Instead, he left it like that.

The reptilians and the Nekomata child introduced themselves too. The first two were Piek (Pie-ehk), the male, and Deeana (Dee-aw-nah), the female. The cat-child was called Kipsa (kip-suh) or just Kip. All of them, and the other prisoners who were still back on Earth, had been left homeless just days earlier after a Boscher attack on the once-secret neighborhood where they lived. Many of their friends and relatives were killed, and they were sent running in terror.

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They hadn't made it very far before those slavers captured most of them. Which meant it was most likely that the slavers themselves had been the ones to make sure the Boschers found the hidden neighborhood in the first place. They had used those Loyalists to flush out their quarry. There was probably some level of dark irony in all that, but Virginia didn't want to think about it.

Instead, she started talking through their situation with the others. Unfortunately, none of them had any way to easily identify where they were. All of them had spent their entire lives on Earth and had no reason to know anything about other worlds. None of that was actually surprising. It had always been a bit of a long shot that any of them would have a spell or power to instantly take them all back home and be done with all this that easily, but stranger things had happened.

Fortunately, Virginia did have a few different options to try out. First, she used a handful of locator powers to try and identify where Earth was and how far away they were. Three of the five abilities simply didn't work at all. They were too far away, completely out of range. Of the remaining two, one was able to show her exactly where in the sky to look in order to be pointed toward Earth. The other told her that, at a brisk running speed of one thousand miles per hour, it would take her approximately ten million, two hundred thousand, four hundred and twelve years to get there. Give or take a thousand. So she was going to leave that as a solid plan B.

Obviously, she didn't have any chance of using a spell or power to go straight back to Earth. Knowing how far away it was and the direction didn't change that. Virginia had picked up a lot of powers and spells in her time, but nothing that would allow her to travel that far. Or even to another world without a lot more help and a better idea of where the next inhabitable world was. Even leapfrogging from planet to planet would take a thousand years at least, and they didn't have a thousand years. They barely had three days. And even that would be pushing things.

The next possibility was communicating with someone who could bring them back. That would have been even more unlikely than it already was just a year or so earlier. Before they had allied themselves with Athena and her organization, before Puriel of all people had brought the Olympus back, before they'd actually gained access to a small fleet of actual spaceships, the only hope they would have had was that one of the very few Boscher colony worlds just happened to be close enough to communicate with. The odds of that weren't exactly the sort that Virginia would have put too much money on. That… well, it would've been pretty bad.

But this wasn't a year ago, it was now, and they had a hell of a lot more when it came to space assets. Even as someone who obviously made a point not to have too much to do with that side of things, Virginia was still very aware of what they were working with. She knew that Athena controlled a large group of what amounted to rebel Seosten, known as the Aelaestiam. Many of them had moved their operations to the Sol system and were using the Fusion School as their base. Or, to be more accurate, the Fusion School was using the Aelaestiam star station.

And yet, not all of the Aelasetiam ships stayed at the Sol system. Not by a long shot. They traveled back and forth, they did what they could to recruit other Seosten, to help where they could against the Fomorians in order to show that they were all on the same side, and so on. Which meant they were constantly communicating with Earth and the people there. And, more importantly, vice versa. The people who were staying at the starstation had to be able to contact their ships back in Seosten space, both normally and in case of a sudden emergency. There had been at least two of those that Virginia had been around to witness, along with one of their drills.

Asking the others to give her a few minutes of quiet so she could work and focus, Virginia carefully produced a field engraver and began to draw a spell on the ground. She took her time, ignoring the sense of panic that kept trying to well up in her. She couldn't afford to make a mistake with any of this. Not with so much on the line and the clock steadily ticking away.

Eventually, the spellforms were complete. Turning, the woman laid back on them, staring at the sky for a moment before closing her eyes as she triggered the spell she had just put together. Immediately, she was launched into a detailed dream-like memory, a very specific moment about seven months earlier. She had been talking with Abigail about one of the school's potential field trips, when Athena's personal assistant had run past with a computer pad in one hand as he shouted over his communicator about needing to contact one of their ships back in Seosten space. Virginia had only caught the slightest, most momentary glimpse of the holographic display coming from his computer as he darted down the corridor. It had lasted all of a second at best, at least as far as getting a clear view went. For a given definition of 'clear view.' The man was fifteen feet away, the holographic screen visible between for that brief moment just over his shoulder before it dipped out of sight again.

Virginia froze the memory there. In her mind, she focused on the tiny, barely visible screen. A thought made the display begin to grow, taking up more and more of her field of vision. It was diagonal at that point thanks to how the man was holding it, but she turned it in her mind to be rightside up. One by one, the symbols on the screen became clearer. She saw them perfectly.

Ending the magically-recreated memory then, she straightened up and looked to one side. Her right hand, still holding the field-engraver, had sketched out the symbols from that screen. They were, essentially, the security passcode to allow communication with Aelaestiam ships.

From there, the woman carefully drew out a full communication spell, including those symbols that would hopefully ensure any Aelaestiam ship in range actually received her message and realized it came from someone they should pay attention to. At least enough to check with Athena.

Speaking as clearly and firmly as she could, Virginia carefully laid out the situation in her message. "To any of Athena's people who receive this message, this is Virginia Dare from Earth-- from Rysthael as you know it. I have worked closely with your leader. Check with her for verification. I and several others have been accidentally transported to the location this message originates from. It is absolutely imperative that I return to Rysthael immediately. My current mission involves something that poses a grave, immediate danger to my world. I do not invoke this lightly. I mean, in all seriousness, that if I do not return to Rysthael, the danger posed to that world is incalculable. I must reach the threat there and stop it. Any ship who receives this message, please verify my words with Athena and then come to these coordinates."

She gave a few more details about how to find and communicate with her, stressing the danger her world was in while doing her best to imply that said danger came from some immediate enemy whom only she could find and eliminate. It wasn't the best cover, but she had to make sure they had some idea of how critical things were without actually telling them the details. It was the best she could do.

Opening her eyes after all that and straightening up, Virginia found the Alters staring at her. She offered them a faint smile that she hoped was reassuring. "Okay, with any luck, we should have a ship coming to pick us up soon. We just need to wait until they get here. I promise, as soon as we get back, you'll be free to do whatever you want to do."

With that, she glanced away, trying to think of who could possibly have been responsible for this. Who had disabled her time-stop? Who had wanted to ensure she was sent away from the planet? Was it someone who somehow knew about that danger, or who just wanted to get her out of the way for awhile? Whatever it was, whoever they were, she had to get back. She had to return to Earth before--

Her thoughts were interrupted as the young Nekomata girl, Kipsa, tentatively asked, "What if there's bad guys here?"

Virginia met the girl's gaze and vowed, "Then they will find themselves very rapidly regretting their life choices. Nothing bad will happen to you so long as I am here, I promise."

She reached into the pouch at her belt then, producing a package of cookies, which she offered to the girl, telling her to share with the others. There was a moment of hesitation, the deep-seated fear of Boschers clearly almost overwhelming the thought of the delicious treat. But in the end, Kipsa took the box, thanking her quickly before retreating to share her bounty.

Smiling a bit as she watched her go before exchanging a nod with the adults to assure them it was fine, Virginia was about to say something else. But another distraction came first. This one came in the form of a shuttle that came shooting down out of the sky. It was a sleek, blue craft with a body shaped like a scythe. The 'blade' part was clearly where the cockpit was, while the thirty foot long 'shaft' held a dozen windows on either side for passengers to look out.

For a moment, the shuttle hovered several hundred feet over their heads. Then Virginia felt a tingling sensation that made the woman brace herself before being instantly transported up to the ship itself. The others were taken as well, and the entire group found themselves standing in the main passenger compartment of that shuttle. There were rows of seats on either side, almost like an airplane. Including those windows that allowed them to see the landscape beyond. Ahead of them, by the hatch into pilot's compartment, a Seosten man regarded them intently. He was a tall figure, standing at a full six feet, four inches, with brown hair that was slightly graying, a slightly lined face, and intense green eyes. He wore a light blue bodysuit with dark gold armored portions. His voice was crisp. "How are you here?"

Virginia started to answer, since the four Alters had all gathered behind her and were leaving her to be their spokesperson. But even as the words began to come, she caught a glimpse of… something through the nearby window and instinctively turned that way, leaning down to stare. In the distance, beyond the area they had arrived in, the grass wasn't amber. It was green. The trees were familiar types. The rocks, the dirt, the bushes, even the animals there, in that area, were all… they were all familiar. Her voice came in a choked, barely audible sound. "Where… where are we?"

If those rocks, plants, and animals had been familiar, the voice that spoke up next was exceedingly more so. "See, everyone has questions." The figure stepped out of that pilot's compartment to stand by the Seosten man. "You want to know how they got here, and they want to know where here actually is.

"Well, Professor Dare," Felicity announced, "this is the world that the original Lord Tabbris of Llylewys made disappear over a hundred thousand years ago.

"And that land out in the distance there, exactly where it was sent to merge with this place a little over a hundred years ago, is Desoto."