The Wyrms of &alon

The days passed swiftly, though I should have expected that, considering how busy I was, mostly with training. Once I'd felt sufficiently confident in my abilities, I joined Nina and Suisei in instructing the Vvz'zsh about how to use magic the way we did. From a cultural anthropological perspective, it really was fascinating to see how the D'zd's preconceptions about Chant affected the way they understood our training. I think Suisei put it best: the D'zd's ability to use pataphysics was limited by how their culture and tradition had come to understand it.

For the D'zd, magic—that is, Chant—was part and parcel of their beliefs in the lifelight that pervaded their world's biology, and, above all, in the solar electromagnetic radiation that they saw as lifelight's metaphysical origin point. Because of that, they were surprisingly reluctant to accept the idea that the wonders they associated with Chant didn't actually require the baggage they'd hung on it: ritual incantations, special meditation regimens, holy gestures, and so on.

But, by and by, they made progress. It wasn't as extensive as any of us would have wanted, but it was definitely better than nothing. For a warrior in a clutch moment, even small applications of psychokinesis and the like could make a big difference.

The day of the battle began like any other. We helped the Vvz'zsh take out the bowls of Milk-Szrg sap and stacks and stacks of heating tiles up to the mountaintop to soak up the coming day's sunlight. While in the middle of that, I heard tchn't't song in the distance. A great commotion broke out among the crowd as everyone skittered over to the edge to watch in wonder as the other Vvz'zsh Clans and their troops arrived, one by one, carried by a whale-road in the sky.

There are hundreds and hundreds of soldiers spread across dozens of Passaged tchn't't. The sky-whales were decked out in ceremonial armor made from thick, knitted sheets of kerchiefs painted in brilliant colors. The troops rode in on howdah-like structures built onto the tchn't'ts' backs, like fingers of gloves. Decorative harnesses spread bead necklaces across the tchn't'ts' hammerheads.

It was glorious, and grew only more so as I lowered my gaze.

"Holy fudge…" I muttered.

Hundreds more, if not thousands, of soldiers gathered far, far below, around the mountain's distant foothills. Because of the cloud cover belting around the mountainside, I didn't get a full view of the army, only glimpses, caught in between gaps in the clouds. If anything, that made it even more impressive.

We were really going to war, weren't we?

Two of the sky-whales came down and landed on the plateau down below. The Chiefs disembarked from their massive mounts and entered the great hall.

"Come on, Genneth," Suisei said, with a tap of an arm. "We're needed."

Behind us, Krr'kt'zz's people began loading up their own tchn't'ts.

The final preparations were underway.

The Vvz'zsh cheered as we entered the mountain and made our way to the Great Hall. The hall was filled once more, though with far fewer D'zd than before. Only the leaders, coordinators, and key fighters participated in this meeting. Everyone else was hard at work preparing for our assault on the T'dzd'ch capital: Dz'zrt'zt.

This time around, my group and I stood alongside Krr'kt'zz in a terraced pit at the hall's center from the very beginning.

"This will be a day of many memories," Chief Bzrt'zrt said.

All three Vvz'zsh Chieftains had gathered. Bzrt'zrt and Krr'kt'zz wore full sets of armor, while the feminine Srrt'zt'krr dressed zyrself in a sweeping robe inlaid with luminous threads stitched in the shape of mystic geometries and runes. My ability to detect pataphysics purely mentally, without the use of wyrmsight, had improved enough that I could join my companions in gawking at Chant woven through the garment, and coiled in Srrt'zt'krr's staff.

I had to say, it was pretty awesome, meeting a real-life wizard like this.

There was magic Chanted into the other Chiefs' weapons and armor, though not quite as bright as Srrt'zt'krr's.

The Wizard Lord of Clan Dzd'chr-kd'zk stamped the base of zyr staff on the stone.

"Having consulted with my sages, I must insist on modifying Krr'kt'zz's original proposal," Srrt'zt'krr said.

Bzrt'zrt glared at Krr'kt'zz. "If it isn't a change for the better," ze said, "I'll throttle your head right off your body."

"You needn't worry," Srrt'zt'krr said. Ze glanced at the lords of the Nzrk-Dz and Tzrk'vv'k clans. "The only change I propose is to better utilize our forces, now that we have the Messengers' powers on our side. This changes the calculus. It will do us no good to let their powers go to waste. We must strike like Kzn'skn (Kuzzun-skoon) the Great in the days of old. Our first footsteps must leave them crippled and awed. Light willing, the rest will be deluge."

Srrt'zt'krr stamped zyr staff on the floor while intoning a song. Light spiraled up from the staff, weaving together into a glistening, flicker-edge hologram that filled the space above us, between the great hall's ring of pillars.

Krr'kt'zz raised zyr flower. "This is a schematic of the Dominion capital."

The display's light wasn't as richly detailed with different frequencies of electromagnetic radiation as what D'zd vision was used to seeing, but that hardly stopped onlookers from quietly gasping.

Bzrt'zrt wiggled zyr abdomen in frustration. "H-How are you doing this?" ze asked.

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"Dzd'chr-kd'zk tend to the bulk of our people's supply of storystones. Through careful study, our sages have gleaned some of the ancients' tricks."

Bzrt'zrt reared up and stomped all four of zyr legs on the ground, flower sputtering with rage. "You… you toyed with the storystones?! That's obscene! If anything went wrong, we'd lose our only connections to our past—to our homeworld!"

Srrt'zk'krr lowered zyr flower. "You are not wrong. As much as it pains me to admit it, more than a handful of our storystones have been destroyed through our experimentation."

Bzrt'zrt screamed, yet Srrt'zk'krr stomped zyr staff once more.

"Roar all you like, Bzrt'zrt. We had to make a choice, and we chose to survive. No one will carry our people's story if the Dominion succeeds at eradicating us."

"It's also worth noting that if all goes according to plan," Krr'kt'zz said, glancing at me and my companions, "our Messenger friends will raid the capital's libraries and treasuries. Think of all the storystones we could gain, Bzrt'zrt. We'll finally get to learn the history the T'dzd'ch have kept from us."

Bzrt'zrt drew one of zyr swords and scraped it across the ground. "I'll hold you to that, Krr."

"As is your right," Krr'kt'zz replied. Ze turned to Srrt'zk'krr. "Now, tell us about your plan."

Srrt'zk'krr glanced at me, and then raised zyr staff and pointed its head at the large, dome-like structures located at the corners of the city's hexagonal fortifying wall. Tube-y looking things stuck out of the domes, looking suspiciously like heavy artillery.

"What are those dome things?" I asked.

"If I had to guess," Suisei said, "those are fossil rays."

"Fudge…" I muttered.

Krr'kt'zz had mentioned them before.

Wait a minute…

"Shouldn't they be called freeze rays?" I asked.

"If you wanted to be pedantic about it, I suppose," Suisei replied.

"Call it what you will," Srrt'zk'krr said, "the threat remains. Recall, Krr'kt'zz's original proposal was that we dive into the Dz'zrt'zt from above and neutralize the fossil rays from the air, so as to pave the way for the ground invasion. However, I believe we ought to do the reverse."

"How?" Bzrt'zrt asked. "Do you expect us to fly in backwards?"

Srrt'zt'krr reached into zyr robe and pulled out something not unlike a wineskin of satchel, only covered in plates of exoskeletal carapace. "Zz'zz," the Chieftain said, lifting the satchel and stepping toward Suisei.

Suisei skittered toward her. "Is… is this it?" he asked.

"You know about this?" I asked.

Suisei nodded at me. "Yes. I've been trading messages with Srrt'zt'krr over the past few days."

"I was the one who suggested Zz'zz do so," Krr'kt'zz said. "Clan Dzd'chr-kd'zk's riches are vast. As ze knows zyr powers better than any of us, I felt it was a good idea to inform zym about it, to give zym a chance to make the best use of what we have to offer."

Suisei eyed the satchel with what I was pretty sure was greed, or maybe excitement. "We'll do more than make good use of it." He glanced at Srrt'zt'krr and then Nina.

"Nina and I will take out the fossil rays for you," Suisei explained, "but we'll do it from the ground, not the air."

"You can do that?" Lark asked.

"I can do a lot of things," Suisei replied, smugly.

I looked at Nina. "Nina, are you—"

"—Don't worry about it." She shook her head. "Dr. Horosha and I already talked about it. I'm fully on board."

"And how do you intend to accomplish all this?" Bzrt'zrt asked.

Suisei raised the satchel up high. "With this?"

Bzrt'zrt crossed zyr arms. "Which would be?"

"Sundew," Srrt'zt'krr said.

Bzrt'zrt skittered back, away from the satchel. Ze lowered zymself to the ground and drew zyr swords. "Sundew?!" ze roared.

"What's sundew?" I asked.

"Explosives," Suisei explained. "The Dominion uses them as grenades and the like."

"Clan Dzd'chr-kd'zk refines them from their produce," Bzrt'zrt said. "It's used for digging and construction, but very sparingly. Sundew is stupidly dangerous. And using it properly takes quite a—" But the Chieftain cut zymself off and glared at Suisei, narrowing zyr flower. "You're gonna use those crazy powers of yours, aren't you?"

Suisei nodded. "Guilty as charged."

Slowly, Bzrt'zrt relaxed. Ze walked back over to us and sheathed zyr weapons. "Even if you could pull it off, it would be a heinous, dishonorable trick. Battles should be won by sword and wit, not by force of nightmares."

"You can thank us when it's over," Suisei replied.

Krr'kt'zz pointed at the satchel. "But will that be enough to take out both fossil rays?"

Suisei shook his head. "Even if it isn't, we have nothing to worry about." He turned to Nina. "Nina can handle the Dominion's explosives," he said. "Trust me. The way this will go, the Dominion will be crippled in minutes."

"Yes," Srrt'zt'krr said, glancing up at the hologram overhead. "This will be Phase 1. Zz'zz and N'n will use the sundew to neutralize Dz'zrt'zt's fossil rays from a distance. This will then free our soldiers to mount a full frontal assault on the city, to lure out as many soldiers and guards as possible."

"And with their powers," Krr'kt'zz said, "I have no doubt our friends will earn every last scrap of the Dominion's attention."

"I can cast, too," I said. "What will I do?"

"You'll be going in as part of Phase 2," Suisei said.

"Phase 2?" I asked.

Suisei looked over to Srrt'zt'krr, who raised zyr staff and flicked zyr arms in an artful gesture. Immediately, the overhead projection changed. Poorly rendered D'zd figures filed in from the image's edge and began marching toward the city's front gates. The Chieftain waved another arm, and the display changed yet again, this time to show sky-whales flying down toward the city from above, bearing Vvz'zsh troops on their backs.

"Once the signal is given," Srrt'zt'krr continued, "Phase 2 begins." Ze looked to Krr'kt'zz. "This will proceed exactly as you proposed, Krr'kt'zz. Passaged tchn't'ts will carry contingents of our soldiers into Dz'zrt'zt, with the goal of securing as much of the city as we can."

"Have you decided on how to signal the start of Phase 2?" Bzrt'zrt asked.

"I'll make the fossil rays explode," Suisei said. "That will be all the signal you'll need."

"Alright, so the fossil rays get taken out and the soldiers get brought in," Lark said. "What happens after that?"

"Victory, if fate is on our side," Krr'kt'zz said.

"How?" I asked.

Krr'kt'zz pointed at me. "You, Zhn'nt."

I pointed at my chest.

"Yes," Krr'kt'zz said. "You, Tk'tk'tk, Rk⁠ (Erk), and Dzrtk will ride in on a tchn't't and break into the Palace of the Hierarchs. You'll raid their treasuries for their storystones and the Key to the Krr'ts' prison."

"What are storystones, by the way?" I asked.

"They are works of Chant," Krr'kt'zz said. "They're the oldest, most powerful means of recording information we have. A single storystone gives more detail than a thousand scrolls. They are difficult to make, and are precious beyond words."

Ze glanced at Suisei and Nina. "Your friends will rendezvous with you as soon as they can. Meanwhile, the Passaged tchn't't will join in the attack along with the soldiers, creating as much chaos as possible, so as to keep the Dominion from noticing you and your team."

I gotta say, on the one hand, that was definitely a lot. On the other hand, however, if I was going in all spy-like, that minimized the chances I'd get caught in a fight and risk screwing everything up.

"As part of this," Srrt'zt'krr said, "you and another strike team will be entering the Hierarchs' Palace directly."

"Directly how?" I asked.

"Once the fossil rays are disabled, the tchn't't will ram into the Palace walls, opening holes for you to enter."

If I had eyes, I would have blinked.

"Wait. What?"

And that's how I learned I was going to be doing some sky-diving.