Chapter 303 - Final Preparations Begin

Chapter 303

Final Preparations Begin

Alexander blinked slowly, staring directly at Gabriel. Willing him to continue.

The man remained obstinately quiet.

“Seriously, Gabe?” Alexander growled. “That’s it? Why do you always say something dramatic, then fall silent? Who the hell is Zephyr?”

Gabriel closed his eyes. “You know how it works. I cannot say any more, for fear that my words will direct you down a path with less desirable outcomes.”

“This is why I hate fortune tellers,” Maximilian said.

Alexander raised an eyebrow. “Right. Because your weird math professor is so much more reliable.”

Maximilian opened his mouth to retort, only to be shushed by Raelene.

She turned to Gabriel. “You must have foreseen what I’m going to ask next.”

“I can safely tell you that he’s an alien, and that I truly don’t know much else.” Gabriel glanced between Alexander and Maximilian. “For whatever reason, if you’re successful in hunting him down, whatever you discover is something you refuse to talk about with everyone else.”

He turned to Raelene. “If they choose to pursue Zephyr, which will be a serious commitment in these final weeks before the Cataclysm, learning about who he is now slightly increases their likelihood of success.”

“Why can you not simply tell us where he is?” Raelene asked. “I’ve not dealt directly with many precogs. I understand the limitations on your powers in a technical sense only.”

“Think of the future we want to come to pass as a racecourse where you need to make your way through several checkpoints. Getting there is complicated by the need to pass through the checkpoints in the correct order, and at the right times. Sometimes a checkpoint has a pop quiz, and if the right person hasn’t learned or seen or thought the right thing, then they fail.”

Annie clicked her tongue. “That actually made a lot of sense.”

“I have had many future occasions where I needed to explain it to you in particular.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Gabriel just smiled.

“And I assume we cannot simply game these ‘checkpoints’,” Raelene said, cutting off Annie before she could retort. “Because everything you say changes the future, which means, to use your analogy, the racecourse is continually shifting.”

Gabriel nodded. “That is correct.”

“Can you tell us what would happen if we launched an all-out attack on the location right now?”

“I cannot,” Gabriel said. “I do not know the precise location, and it appears this information is intentionally withheld from me in the future to ensure I don’t share it now.” He paused. “I can tell you that it’s somewhere in Europe. That doesn’t change anything important.”

Alexander sighed. “I used to think precognition was cool. We won’t get anything more out of him.” He turned to Maximilian. “My first instinct is to go after this guy, but preparing for the Cataclysm is more important.”

“Unless stopping this Zephyr leads to stopping the Cataclysm,” Maximilian said.

“Are we going to completely ignore that Gabriel said he’s the father of the System?” Carmen demanded, looking around the table.

“We’re not ignoring it,” Talia said. “But alien involvement is one of the most popular theories about how the System came to be.”

“My money was on a supervillain cabal,” Annie said.

Augustus nodded. “Mine was a military superweapon gone rogue.”

“Nah, gotta be the mega-corps, right?” Cash asked.

“Experimental government program,” Titanic grunted.

Everyone turned to him. It was the first time any of them had heard the man speak. His voice was deep, but oddly melodic.

“You talk?” Annie said, mouth open wide. She was glaring at him with something akin to betrayal. “We fought together on Mars and you didn’t say a single word the whole time!”

Titanic shrugged, arms still crossed. “Had nothing important to say.”

Alexander laughed. “But discussing conspiracy theories is?”

Titanic grunted.

Alexander continued. “Anyway, my understanding is that the Cataclysm is a fixed point. It can’t be stopped. So, unless that’s changed…” He glanced at Gabriel.

Gabriel shook his head.

Maximilian nodded. “I have spent years preparing for it. And there is still too much work left to be done…” He trailed off. “If your theory is correct, and we are going to be the focal point of every other world’s invasion, then the Cataclysm is not simply one terrible event we need to survive.”

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“Invasion is something we have planned for, though,” Raelene added.

“Yes. But it was factored in as a series of attacks.” Maximilian sighed. “We did not account for it being a mass migration from multiple off-world civilizations as powerful as the Empire of Stars.”

“We can adjust for it,” Julia said. “There is still time.”

“But only if we prioritize that.” Maximilian met Alexander’s gaze. “Which is why I cannot commit any resources to hunting an alien ghost, no matter who it is or how much I want to.”

Alexander leaned back in the chair and stared at the ceiling. What he wanted to do was probably obvious to everyone in the room. Whoever Zephyr was, they’d made a move on his people back on Mars. He’d tasked Talia with doing whatever was necessary to identify them, and his intention at the time had been to go after them the moment he had a lead.

It was also his next goal. Something Augustus had helped him see he needed after he’d eliminated Santiago. A new focus.

The others watched him in silence.

Except for Gabriel, who’d closed his eyes. The precog had been an oddity from the moment they met, though beyond the weird initial meeting, he’d found the man to be insightful. Perhaps that was unsurprising for someone who could see the future, someone who had seen hundreds if not thousands of variations of futures, including those that terrified them.

They were friends. Not the best of friends, as Gabriel had claimed. Not yet, at least. But they were friends enough that he knew the man was looking out for him in some way. Putting his finger on the scale at just the right moment to tilt things in his favor.

The question was why he’d insisted that a decision needed to be made now. And while Alexander didn’t have an answer for Gabriel’s behavior, he could see something else.

Change. In himself. Because he now saw the threads as links to those he was responsible for in some way. That was a change that occurred during his time in the wizard world, and it explained his future behavior. That would be the reason he’d initially choose to ignore Talia’s lead on these enemies. Personal justification and revenge weren’t more important than the work they could accomplish preparing for the Cataclysm.

At least, not until she proved there was a connection between those same people and the System. Because if there was any chance of finding the source of the System, that changed everything. It meant they had a shot at interfering with whatever came next, even if it couldn’t be entirely stopped.

And that made his decision simple.

“Grimnir will go after Zephyr,” Alexander said. “What do you and the Compact need from us to help with the preparations?”

Maximilian nodded. “Expanded access to the Beastworld for additional training while we have time.”

“Done. What else?”

“Can you spare Augustus and his—”

“No.”

Maximilian pivoted immediately. “Carmen’s abilities would be very useful to help us continue to weed out those who don’t intend to truly commit to the Compact and the network of alliances being formed around it.”

Alexander turned to Carmen. “Are you willing to assist the Throne of Scales with this?”

She nodded. “Of course.”

“Manpower,” Maximilian said after a few moments. “And any additional material support. Credits. Food. Construction materials. Additional computational power.” He raised an eyebrow. “I understand you have two supercomputers.”

Alexander glanced at Talia.

She nodded. “We can spare mine.”

“Alright,” Alexander said. “Carmen. Jasmine. The two of you will coordinate with Raelene. Talia will provide a list of everything we can offer. I’m authorizing access to the Sanctum and the Beastworld gateway, but only if they’ve been vetted by Carmen first.”

Murmurs of agreement followed.

Alexander turned to the Commander of Sentinel Security Solutions. He’d been mostly quiet, though he’d been paying very careful attention to everything being said. “What are your plans, Mr. Hamment? I’m aware things have moved beyond the bounds of the original contract between Triple S and Grimnir. If you wanted to sue for breach of contract, you’d be well within your rights.”

Lesley shook his head. “No, sir. We’ve no intentions to do so. My boys have been quite happy with the arrangement and the opportunity to grow stronger. With your permission, we’ll continue working with Grimnir.” He glanced at Jasmine. “Though, perhaps it is necessary to revise the contract given the topics being discussed here. I don’t mean to imply that I see Grimnir as something of a life raft in uncertain waters, but, well…”

“If the shoe fits,” Annie mumbled around a mouthful of snacks.

Alexander nodded. “Perhaps we can sponsor your guild’s entry into the Compact as part of the new agreement.” He turned to Maximilian. “That’s something we can do, right?”

“Yes. All members of the leadership body may do so.”

“That is something I will need to discuss with the rest of my team,” Lesley said. “We run our guild a little differently, but I’m confident we’d accept such an offer.”

“Good,” Alexander said. “Is there anything urgent that needs to be discussed? Otherwise I’d like to wrap things up and get myself cleaned up. There’s a lot I need to catch up on.”

He waited a few moments, but nobody said anything. Just when he was about to end the meeting, Annie raised her hand.

“Souvenirs,” she said.

“What?”

She leaned forward and narrowed her eyes. “Obviously you brought back souvenirs, right? There’s no way you went to a whole ass other world and didn’t come back with presents.”

Alexander grinned. “I was kinda busy, you know?” He reached into the ring, and turned to Augustus. “Though I did manage to bring a few gifts back for my favorite wizard.”

With a thought, he unloaded a handful of objects onto the table. They appeared in a pile in front of Augustus. Half a dozen wands. An ornate wooden staff with a large topaz set into the top of the wood. A thick leather spellbook, trimmed in faded gold.

Augustus reached out to pick one of the wands up.

“I’ll walk you through everything later, but that should be plenty for you to study,” Alexander said. “Oh, and I also brought you back a massive obelisk with a bunch of warding magic on it. I don’t know what most of them do, but one of them stops you from flying more than an inch or two off the ground.”

Augustus looked up, a smile spreading beneath his moustache. “You shouldn’t have.”

Alexander made a face, and raised a hand. “Oh, then I guess I’ll just take these back.”

Augustus quickly pulled the magical artifacts closer. “I didn’t say that.” He tugged on his beard. “Thank you, Alex.”

Annie huffed. “That’s it? Some boring sticks and an old book?”

Alexander raised an eyebrow. Then he grinned. “You know what, I did pick up something else that you might like…”

With a thought, he dumped the throne made of staves onto the floor on the other side of the table. Immediately, some of the dull, glowing gemstones began to light up the room in faint colors.

“You’ll probably need to throw some blankets over it, but can you imagine watching Barkforce in the Empress’s favorite chair?”

Annie squealed.