Queen's Quest

Chapter 7

Chapter Seven The Coven

Very well," said the Commander very quietly, "Commander, we need to return to the Nessa, I have to speak to both captains as well as round up the other witches, create a clone for Mynce transfer her mind and spirit so you can reset your ship's computer…Then, we have to develop a plan, I sure wish there were a couple more senior Guild members on board, I'm going to have to consult some of my texts on this."

So it was back to the Nessa, our sudden return causing much concern. Commander Siofra and Jina held a private meeting with Captain's Demlin and Giyax then the four Guild witches were ordered to report to us. First up was Lieutenant Sabora Surgical assistant serving aboard the Nessa as well as Lieutenant Frayla from Intelligence one of the rare Faeries who wasn't serving in the medical section. From the Osha we received Ensign Zoxie, from dental, and something I was very surprised to see as they are so very rare, Lieutenant Junior Grade Spookia Vesson a dark elf who was head nurse over there. Commander Siofra told me later that she was very popular on the Osha, but broke a lot of hearts, her incredible beauty concealing her total professionalism and strictness to duty. Once everybody had been introduced and we all sat down Commander Siofra addressed the group.

"All of you have been asked to report here strictly as members of the Witches Guild, as you are all no doubt aware a situation exists on earth…Our place of origin as it seems a malevolent magic, magic stemming from a Garuda." This brought gasps and hushed comments, Siofra continued, "Before we can do anything down there, this evil must be destroyed, and as all of you well know the only way to do that is form a coven, now I see everyone looking around, and yes there are only six members here but Mynce, the Inkara's AI will serve as our seventh member, I will transfer her soul and spirit into a clone for the purposes at hand." At the mention of this deep concern suddenly appeared on everyone's face. Lieutenant Vesson raised her hand, Commander Siofra acknowledged her.

"Commander, isn't creating a clone bordering very closely on the black arts I thought that was expressly forbidden?" The commander nodded,

"Your right Lieutenant, it is, in fact when we return I will be putting myself on report, no doubt all of you will be called to the hearing for testimony that is why I would suggest that you all keep copious notes, we are entering uncharted waters here, I could very easily be expelled from the Guild but since I'm the most senior member here Jina being the second, it's something we simply have to do. Lieutenant Frayla then spoke up,

"Commander I'm probably the youngest member here, I'm only level eight but it's my understanding that this Mynce practiced the black arts and indeed killed someone doesn't that disqualify her from participating in this effort."

Commander Siofra nodded,

"You're absolutely right Lieutenant, however we are in a situation that calls for drastic action, I've promised her full reinstatement to the Guild and expunging of her record, does anybody have a problem with this?" Lieutenant Sabora asked that we adjourn to the Inkara so that she and the others could speak with Mynce before making up their minds. Since this was now strictly Guild business I was excluded from the meeting, however Jina told me that poor Mynce was really raked over the coals.

"About the only thing they didn't ask her was how many lovers she regularly slept with but I give her credit, she stood up to the questioning and seemed to satisfy everyone."

Since it looked like Mynce would now become part of the Coven Commander Siofra addressed everyone with,

"What we aer about to do will be the subject of many symposium's to come much discussion, and argument. In all fairness, I'm going to ask that all of you think very carefully as to what you are about to commit yourselves to, with the exception of myself, and Jina, the rest of you are all junior members of the Guild you are going to be asked to participate in an action that is considered many levels above your level and skills, because of this, I will walk all of you through the process, all questions will be settled. Make no mistake, this is a very dangerous endeavor we are embarked on all of you will be performing magic on a level many tiers above your own, however it will be duly noted, it will go into your Guild record and no doubt you'll all find that your skill levels will be raised considerably. The respect and admiration you will receive from your sisters will be something you can and will be proud of. So, having said all that, anybody who has any reservations or concerns is free to get up and leave nothing will be said, nothing will be noted, what I'm asking you to do is strictly voluntary, I will leave this room for a moment, when I return, anybody still here will be considered as being part of our effort." With that Commander Siofra and I left , when we returned, nobody had left, the Commander simply smiled and said,

"Very good, for the Guild, for Isseth."

After that, events moved rather rapidly, while we were en route, Commander spent every minute with her sisters rehearsing the drama that was to take place, as well as answering questions. Before we left the Nessa, Commander Siofra exorcized Mynce's soul and Qi into a clone. It was very unnerving to see Mynce as a living entity although this "Mynce" showed no emotion or behavioral traits indicating she was anything other than a construct. Fashar was especially fascinated by Mynce's clone, apparently he and Mynce had been developing quite a relationship. From what others have told me the Pixie's, while serving admirably aboard navy vessel's always felt they were "odd man out," being as small as they were, and only able to communicate through telepathy. Every effort was made to make them feel as though they were part of the crew but Jina told me she often caught Fashar sitting in his special seat near the scanner lost in thought but actually chatting with Mynce. As for myself and the rest of my crew, we gave the witches all the "room" they required, we were well aware of the job they faced and went out of our way to make them comfortable.

I put us down at the same spot as before, Commander Siofra Jina and the others were all dressed in their witches robes hoods hiding their faces. Commander Siofra then announced before they left,

"It might be a good idea for each of us to cast minor insulation and protective spells on each other, it's going to get very nasty out there, you're going to get very cold and wet as well as being completely drained, all of us will be at our weakest point when this is over, so let's do it ladies." Each one of then turned to one another and cast the prescribed spells.

"Well ladies," announced Commander Siofra, "Into the fire we go!" Suddenly they all vanished, but the rest of us knew it was only to the stone ruins some distance from the ship. Watching from our scanner we saw them all forming a circle within the ruins, even though it was after midnight local time we noticed the sky roiling, clouds black as anything I've ever seen were quickly moving in, lighting and thunder began to rip the night. Suddenly the whole stone structure glowed with lightening fire bolts of lightening danced and flowed over every stone. Then it began to rain we felt the force of it drumming on the Inkara's hull, I could only imagine what those women were experiencing. Suddenly Fashar's voice exploded in my brain.

"Commander, look! What are those?" I turned to the screen, all around the stones there seemed to be movement zooming in closer we could see that thy were figures.

They appeared to be skeletons, even though the intense rain made it hard for the scanner to pick up what was actually going on, the lightening made it clear they were human skeletons all fighting and clawing at the stones as if trying to reach our friends. By this time the wind and rain had reached fever pitch. Besides the skeletons there appeared to be other creatures moving around the site as well. Horrible things the stuff of nightmares. Lieutenant Geardot gasped and exclaimed,

"Someone is down, now two, no! three are down." Clearly she was right, whoever they were I couldn't tell, however they didn't stay down for long, quickly rising and returning to the fray.

Words cannot truly express what the rest of us witnessed that night, everything was riding on what Commander Siofra, Jina and the others were trying to accomplish out there, this Garuda the Commander spoke of must truly be something horrible, the battle raged for over an hour, Dr. Aelfric as well as Lieutenant Gaeril and Ensign Lannor simply watched in amazement, Lieutenant Gaeril and Lt. Commander Tormish because of their expertise in ancient lore both had a pretty good idea of what was going on and added commentary to the action taking place on the screen but none of us could really understand what those witches were experiencing.

Just as suddenly as the whole thing began, it ended, the rain and wind stopped, the thunder and lightening faded away, Ensign Fashar's voice shouted, "Quick, they're all down they need help Commander Siofra is calling to me for help." We all raced down the ramp and literally ran towards the ruins. It appeared that there had been some sort of fence around the whole site but that appeared to have been completely knocked down, the ground was churned up as well. Commander Siofra and the others were all laying in the middle of the inner ring soaked to the skin, we threw them over our shoulders and started back. Gretchen and I got their robes off and blankets and warming covers around them, all were still alive…But just barely, Mynce's clone appeared to be dead, but Commander Siofra gasped out that Mynce was alive, and that the Garuda had been defeated…For now. Since we were cloaked, we remained where we were, far enough away from the site so that inquisitive visitors wouldn't stumble upon us, but close enough we could monitor activities around the site. And activities there were, while the witches slept the rest of us took turns sleeping and monitoring the screen alert for anyone approaching the location of our ship. The nights "festivities" had the whole site swarming with what were obviously some sort of security people, there were flying machines hovering over the site the scene was duly recorded, for future reference. On a couple of occasions humans approached very closely to our craft, but all seemed to stop look around and quickly return to the monument.

The human members of our crew all watched in fascination at their counterparts these people being fellow human beings and quite possibly their ancestors as well. It also became apparent that the humans on this planet were more technologically advanced than back on Pyrra, something that was noted as well. I had been sleeping when I woke to Gretchen gently shaking me,

"Commander, Commander Siofra is awake and wishes to speak to you." Quickly pulling on my tunic, I went to where she was sleeping. Sipping on a mug of Drowma she smiled at me,

"We did it Commander, it was a damn close run thing, but we did it, I'm so proud of my Guild sisters, but Mynce…Mynce stood like a rock at one point she was taking all the Garuda could throw at us. All of them, Jina, Spookia, Zoxie, Sabora and Frayla, they are going places in the Guild, they all looked in the face of true horror and stared it down, I simply can't overstate how proud I am of them."

"What about the Garuda and the magic?" I asked.

Clearly the Commander was still exhausted, taking a deep sigh, she quietly replied,

"We destroyed it but it will be back, not right away, not for a long time…But it will eventually return. I imagine we are going to have a number of "visitors" showing up, we spiked that magic so high it's as though someone punched you in the face while you were sleeping and dragged you out of bed. I left marking runes all over those stones that they will be able to read saying, "We're here, we have to talk! I'm figuring they'll start showing up sometime later tonight, or no later than tomorrow." She slept for a few more hours then checked on Mynce's clone deciding it was still too exhausted to try and reinstate back into the computer. By midnight everyone but Mynce was up and moving around, the chief concern was that there appeared to be a number of security people hanging around the site almost guaranteeing the people we wanted to meet wouldn't come. Lieutenant Vesson was up and watching the screen, chuckling she announced,

"Ha look at them scatter! Well we aren't causing that rain so I guess it's safe to assume we've got "company."

Commander Siofra watched as well, then announced,

"Showtime people let's look our best for our "friends," Lieutenant Jina, would you do the honors?" Jina donned her issue rain parka smiled and suddenly disappeared. We could see her re-appear near the ruins, there was more loud cracks of thunder and lightening, suddenly she had returned, accompanied by six individuals who didn't look very happy. None of them appeared to have Elvin ears or eyes, one of the males was dwarf sized although he didn't appear to be a dwarf. Another appeared to be a very sour faced woman quite attractive but clearly hate written all over her. When they saw the rest of us standing in front of them their eyes got big as plates even the woman snapped out of her scowl.

"Oh my God!" came an astonished voice, "You're elves!"

"Not only elves," I said, "But Faerie, as well as Pixie there are no dwarves in this crew, but they're a part of our family as well." Our guests simply stood in awe as Commander Siofra and I introduced our people. Finally I said,

"Now that you know who we are, who are you and why was a Garuda dominating your magic?

"I am "The Morrigan," announced the woman," and quite frankly that is really none of your business, you show up here destroying a major part of our existence here go back to where you came from and leave us alone." At this point a short woman spoke up,

"My name is Ciara the Faerie Queen, "The Morrigan is head of the dark Fae currently there is an uneasy truce between those of us of the light and those of the dark, the Garuda which you destroyed was trying to formulate a renewal of a millennia old war between our two forces, the dark Fae want to destroy the humans and make them their slaves, we of the light Fae however prefer to get along as best we can with the humans, it's a constant jockeying back and forth with no let-up in sight." I looked closely at the woman but could not discern any Faerie features Commander Siofra as well as the other witches obviously couldn't either, something clearly wasn't right here.

The rest of the so-called elders were introduced, the short man being Trick McCorrigan who claimed he was a blood sage whatever that was, another woman of plain features introduced herself as "The Nain Rouge" a divine Fae spirit. A man of the light side who claimed to be Elvin as simply Tarsin, and someone else as Jafie. Of the so-called dark Fae we had a man who had definite Elvin facial features but without the pointed ears as Fanor, and a heavy-set fellow who called himself Loki.