Ajacii and Demons: The Ingenairii Series (2 page)

Upon receiving her command to leave Vincennes, Alec had transported from the poignant scene in Caitlen’s palatial suite to his apartment, where he found relief in his isolation. He sat and pondered his decision to leave her. He had left because he was a foreigner in the Avonellene Empire; and to his infinite sadness, he had discovered that he had become a foreigner in all parts of the world, except his memory, a place he couldn’t call home. His memory was the only place he didn’t feel like an outsider; but he couldn’t live there – he had to live in the world.

He had no homeland to go to – the Dominion and Michian were worlds in which he had no friends, no role to play. He believed himself called to this land of Avonellene only for the purpose of helping Caitlen regain her throne, so that she could fight the use of slavery. In the course of his struggle to achieve that, he had come to believe that he was also in Vincennes for the sake of her heart and his, and that happiness in a relationship with the Princess was something he could achieve for each of them.

Now though, he had come to feel despair over the contradiction of his love for the girl and her society’s disdain for him; the ever-present conflict had led him to flee from her. Rising, knowing that he had made the decision and would have to stand by it, Alec left his apartment and walked through town to one of the banks in the eastern part of the city. The Conglomerate, led by businessmen, had left the banks unmolested even while it had supported the failed coup attempt against Caitlen, and Alec was able to withdraw a small amount of money from the untroubled bank, a stake of cash he would possibly need to use in Krimshelm.

Caitlen, please write a letter of introduction for me to take to Krimshelm
, he transmitted a message to the princess. That was something else he would need, he realized. It would ease his entrée into the palace at Krimshelm. He left the bank and walked to the former headquarters of the Conglomerate forces, now a ruin within the city after a ferocious battle had been fought there, led by Alec on behalf of Caitlen’s forces. The building was a series of jagged wall sections that surrounded charred timbers and fallen bricks. Alec had fought hard here, and expended his energies here to disrupt the Conglomerate occupants. And even after the success of his efforts, he was still seen as an outsider, and an unworthy ally.

Alec stood and looked at the destroyed building as the sun set. His urban conflict had been finished in that structure; there were no more military battles to be fought within Vincennes, and it was time to move on, he realized. He walked a meandering path back through the oversized metropolis, lost in thought, and long after dark he reached the vicinity of Caitlen’s temporary headquarters. He strode into the commissary for a quick meal, then left the building to go to a dark alley, and translocated to Caitlen’s suite.

The Princess was waiting for him. “Alec, you don’t really have to go,” she said hesitantly, as she came to give him a long hug, her arms grasping him with fearful desperation.

“
Caitlen, you wouldn’t have asked for this if you didn’t think you needed it. Don’t worry; I understand that you are different from your countrymen because you did trust me as a foreigner,” he told her.

“
Do you have a letter of introduction I can give to the Earl?” he asked as he gently pulled out of her grasp. She nodded yes. “That’s taken care of; now go lie down on the bed, and let me see if we can bring you closer to becoming an ingenaire.”

He felt distant from her; he realized it was a distance he was putting between them as a way to protect his own heart. And he knew that after this he would leave her for a long time, and that the next time they met, her life would have changed as she consolidated the powers of her stronger army and her growing empire.

It felt improper to delve so intimately into her soul when he felt so detached from her, but they had run out of time to patiently allow her powers to grow to maturity at a slower, natural pace. He knelt on the floor beside the bed and raised his arms to place both his hands on her head, then let his Spiritual powers open the channel between them. His spirit circled and examined her, seeing the clear signs of Spiritual abilities that he had laid down in his prior sessions with her. They were with her still, though not incorporated within her.

He moved about, establishing more of the sense of the Spiritual, opening up his own memories to show her the faith he felt, the miracles he had witnessed. He observed and felt her belief in him, and her potential for Spiritual power increased. But it remained on the surface, not suffused within her being, and he only saw one direct way to incorporate the faith within her in this session. Plunging into her with blunt force, he drove his memories deep within Caitlen’s soul, and showed her his experience in John Mark’s cave, when he had tried to focus his healing power upon the mystically dead-and-simultaneously-alive body of Christ. Alec pulled the girl with him down the remembered plunge towards Hell, then let her feel the love he felt when Jesus rescued him. The dramatically turned journey showed her the right and the wrong of faith, and let her experience its power through his first hand memories.

He saw himself staring down at the open wound on his hand, then saw the wound become a channel for his Spiritual powers, and finally saw the wound become a weapon that he used to destroy the three demons that circled Jeswyne and him in Oyster Bay. Alec began to relive the loss of Bethany, and the night he let his Spiritual powers float among the stars in a calming recollection of every moment of affection he had shared with the Water ingenaire, both pain and peace overwhelming his calm as he relived the trauma and serenity again.

Suddenly Alec was aware that Caitlen was crying. He pulled his memories away from the core of Caitlen’s spirit, and then pulled himself free from her, no longer imposing his own life experiences into her, and he ceased his self-reflection so that he could examine the spirit of the woman. The essence of faith was deep within her now, but not integrated, and she was crying, suffering from the exposure to so many of the passages in his life where he had witnessed or relied on his Spiritual energy.

Caitlen’s eyes were clenched tight, and Alec used a fingertip to wipe away the moisture that brimmed within each eye. He knew he had imposed a great deal of his own faith on her in an ungentle, fast, and direct manner. “I’m sorry Caitlen, I know it hurts,” he said gently. “The next step will be yours. You have the elements of my faith and Spiritual powers within you. If you can accept them and incorporate them into the fabric of your own being, if you can accept that these things are real, and live your life trusting in such powers, I believe that with my blood you will be able utilize the energy.

“
It will be up to you,” he told her. “I’ll be listening, and I’ll come back if I ever hear you call me back. Regardless of that, I’ll let you know if we achieve success in Krimshelm.”

Her eyes opened and bored into his, searchingly, as if trying to find something more about him, something that reflected the knowledge she had just gained. Her hand crept up behind his neck, then pulled him towards her so that their foreheads touched. “I wish you weren’t going, and that this had never been necessary,” she told him. She started to say something more then paused. “Will I see you in the morning?”

“
No,” Alec replied as he pulled away and rose. He strolled over to the table where an elegant scroll of paper laid waiting for him. “I’m not going to wait until tomorrow. I’ll leave tonight. I hope that I will hear good things about your future,” he told her, unable to any longer withstand the contradiction between his desire to stay with her versus the political need for him to depart.

“
Alec! Wait!” she sat up and cried, but he disappeared from the room, leaving her alone with her sadness.

Chapter 2 –
Return to Krimshelm

Alec arrived in Krimshelm after three steps of translocation, as he returned to the city when his Avonellene adventures had begun. He stood on the docks, which were empty late at night. The sounds of the water brought back memories of his time aboard the
Ingrid
, and he deeply breathed the salt water atmosphere. There were likely to be inns near the waterfront where he could stay the night; he only needed to pick the one that was least likely to have a rowdy sailor and longshoreman clientele. He left the docks and walked past the buildings that housed the repair shops and the warehouses and the daytime markets. Two blocks inland he found the type of establishments he sought, and he picked the one whose public room seemed least boisterous.

After he paid for his hotel room he sat away from the fireplace, listening to the conversations at the tables nearby, trying to gage the sentiments of the city he was in. Amidst the everyday talk of boats and families and neighborhood issues, he heard fears of the anticipated arrival of the Conglomerate, whose forces had arrived by ship and landed in nearby harbor. The earl was recently dead in a freak accident, and his untested, pregnant wife was viewed as unlikely to have the ability to lead the city to withstand Conglomerate demands.

Upstairs in his room, Alec pondered the unpromising state of affairs he found. In addition to the problem of fighting against the Conglomerate, he now painfully knew that his accent and foreign origins would limit his effectiveness, in addition to the problems he knew a female head of state would have in controlling and leading the city. The woman must face sleepless nights, alone and carrying the child of a dead husband during a time of stress, and Alec’s heart went out in sympathy to her.

When he awoke in the morning, Alec decided to present himself at the gate to the Earl’s castle, and seek to speak to the leader of the military. Despite the attitude of Stocker, the xenophobic leader of the Valeriane forces, Alec hoped that his skills would win him a useful role in Krimshelm, from which he could help the city-state defeat the invaders. The breakfast waiter gave Alec directions to the palace, and Alec set out early in the morning. He passed through a now-busy fish market, the same market he had seen last fall when he had arrived at Krimshelm as a lost and amnesiac sailor, and the route he needed to take was a short portion of the same road on which he had walked during that earlier visit, before he had jumped into his improbable adventure aboard the hijacked payroll wagon.

Alec passed the street side cafe where he had tasted the bitter cup of coffee, and he paused as he remembered the striking woman in the sedan chair he had seen just before the violent street ambush had occurred in front of him. Her chair had been carried up the hill he was climbing, probably carried to the very palace he intended to visit, he now suspected. The road rose higher, then turned at the crest of a ridge. Alec saw other ridges, growing into mountains, stretching westward, while the road turned south, and not far ahead he saw the road led to a strongly fortified castle.

Minutes later Alec stood at the gate, and spoke to a guard. “I have been sent as an emissary by the Princess Esmere Caitlen Trelawney, ruler of Vincennes and all her subject empire. I am here to deliver this message to your ruler, and to offer assistance,” he said formally, attempting to speak as slowly and clearly as possible in hopes of reducing his accent.

The guard asked for Alec’s letter, examined it, then spoke. “May I send this in to the court?”

Alec granted permission, and stood at the gate for some time, waiting for a reply to return. A teenage boy approached the guard at length, coming from inside the castle, and Alec was beckoned over. “This page is sent to convey you to meet Menard, the major domo of the court. Before you can go, you’ll need to leave your arms here for safekeeping,” the guard told him.

“
What’s your name?” Alec asked the attentive boy who waited for him.

“
Macon, sir,” the boy answered.

“
Will I be safe in the castle without my weapons do you think?” Alec asked with a hint of a smile.

“
If you behave yourself sir, I’m sure you will be,” the boy replied with a straight face.

Alec laughed and unbuckled his sword belt, then removed his bandolier, handing both to the guard at the gate, and proceeded to walk inside behind his guide. Macon led him through a number of courtyards and passages, then into a dark stone building whose internal walls were dark wood paneling, polished to a gleam. They stopped at a door, where Alec was invited to enter.

“
Thank you, Macon,” he told the page. “I hope we can work together.”

Inside the room were shelves on every wall, and a desk covered in papers. Behind the desk sat a harried-looking man, who held Caitlen’s letter in the air before his face, examining it through thick lens. “You bring a very impressive note from the Princess Esmere,” the man said. “Based on this letter, I expected either a battalion of warriors or a court-full of nobles. But the report from the gate was that a young man had arrived alone.

“
How is the situation for the Princess in Vincennes?” he asked.

“
The Princess has won the battle of Vincennes. The Conglomerate forces have been routed from the city,” Alec said. “I have been the princess’s greatest warrior in achieving that victory,” he said immodestly. “And yes, I am a foreigner. That’s probably one reason I have been sent to Krimshelm – to remove my unacceptable presence from her court, now that my fighting skills are no longer needed,” Alec said more than he had intended.

“
And you’re unhappy about that?” the man asked.

“
I understand it is how life is in Vincennes. It may not be right, but if it helps the Princess for me to leave, and if it helps the Princess for me to help Krimshelm, then being here is the best thing for me to do,” Alec said stoically.