The Hellenes stood in shock. Hell, Liam was in shock. He had traced the line of Meg’s flight and it looked as if she had started from Babylon, shot past the sun, and swung behind the Paladin in a single smooth motion. He knew that valks had long dreamed of making a ‘straight shot’ - flying from one side of Purgatory to another - but the heat of the sun had made that an impossibility. Well, an impossibility to someone who wanted to survive.
But Meg had done it.
And as he stood there, she threw her javelin. It shot across the deck with a crack, its course ending with an unmusical clunk. Liam whipped his head back in time to see the other Paladin charging forward, his sword gleaming with flames, the javelin clattering to the ground beside him. Meg threw again – and again, the Paladin parried it.
Meg beat her wings and soared upwards as the Paladin swung. His sword smashed into the rear of a cannon, knocking it off its carriage and sending it rolling across the deck. Several marines were sent tumbling to the ground, screaming in pain. As Meg soared overhead, Liam heard Kailey bellow – a wordless scream of wrath. She picked up a pair of Hellenic marines, squeezing their necks and then hurling them into the mass of the enemy.
The pirates who hadn’t been slain charged from cover, swords flashing.
But then Liam had to focus entirely on the Paladin who was rushing for him. He moved with astounding speed, armor or no armor. Liam ducked underneath his sword swing, then stepped backwards. His feet skidded along the blood slicked deck and he lifted his sword to parry the backswing. Sword met sword and Liam’s blade simply dropped to the deck in two pieces.
“I hate not having the nice sword,” Liam hissed. He stepped backwards again and his thighs bumped against a cannon. He glanced away from the Paladin – who was carefully stepping over corpses. That armor would make tripping and falling a real bad idea. The cannon, though, was loaded and primed, the crew sprawled in death around it.
Liam sprang backwards.
The Paladin stepped up, sword swinging.
Liam yanked on the cannon’s firing cord. Flint sparked and the gunpowder went off, sending a cannon ball right into the deck of the docked ship beside the Kiss. But, more importantly, the cannon bucked into the Paladin and sent him sprawling onto the deck. Liam looked around for a weapon – but then Meg landed beside him with a grunt. She hurled her javelin and the Paladin swung his blade around, despite being sprawled on his back. The javelin struck the blade and shattered into pieces.
“This guy just won’t-” Meg snarled.
The Paladin lifted his left hand up. “Smite her, my Lord!” he bellowed.
Liam slammed his shoulder into Meg’s and the two of them sprawled on the deck as a bolt of golden light shot from the Paladin’s palm. It clipped the corner of the forecastle, exploding wood and sending up a spew of smoke into the air. Meg groaned and sat up.
“The fuck was that?”
“Dia!” Liam started to stand. “Your collar!”
Across the deck, standing next to Kailey – who stood atop a heap of bodies and was surrounded by increasingly terrified marines – was Dia. She put her hand to the collar that Quinn had removed from her neck. It hung loose around her shoulders, dangling there. She under-handed it to Liam as the Paladin staggered to his feet, golden flames writhing around his shoulders. His sword seemed to glow.
“Deus vult!” he roared, charging at Liam and Meg.
Liam caught the collar, and snapped it around the Paladin’s wrist. The collar clicked home.
The golden flames vanished like a light switch had been flicked. The sword remained steel, but it no longer glittered as if it had been coated in raw magic. The Paladin staggered and stumbled to the side, as if his strength had been shut off with the golden light. He looked around, then down at his wrist.
“God?” he asked. Plaintive, like he expected a response.
“He ain’t listening,” Meg growled, yanking her last javelin from her pouch and hurling it in the same smooth motion. The javelin smashed into the man’s neck, tearing through the thinner chain, and finishing its flight by burying itself up to the grip into the mast of the Morrigan’s Kiss.
The Paladin clutched at the blood fountaining from his neck, seeping past his articulated gauntlets. He staggered and collapsed to the ground. Liam slowly relaxed as the remaining marines raised their hands in surrender. Liam leaned against Meg, nuzzling her gently.
The Paladin began to gurgle out a laugh. He lifted one hand, weakly, then sprawled back on the deck.
Liam and Meg turned, wordlessly.
The Monodeist fleet had rallied and the Babylonian ships had joined them. New Monodeist flags flapped on them, and the decks of the Babylonian ships were slicked with blood. The Paladins and the Hellenic marines that thronged on their decks could not hope to sail them. But in the current stillness of wind and wave, they didn’t need to. They simply had to load the cannons. Liam groaned.
“Oh come on...” he snarled.
Distantly, they could hear the shouts of the Hellenes. The order of loading cannons. The beat of feet on the decks. Kailey was starting to try and marshal what was left of her crew onto the guns. Meg sighed, patting her leather pouch.
“I knew I should have brought two,” she muttered.
“You can still get out of here,” Liam whispered back.
Meg’s incredibly rude response was lost in the sound of the world tearing apart. And, before Liam’s eyes, a sphere of crackling energy appeared above the leftmost Monodeist ship. A large, dun-colored rectangle dropped through it and Liam had just enough time to recognize the brutal shape of a US Army Humvee – complete with mounted machine gun – before it struck the Monodeist trireme amidship, smashed through the hull, and sank into the waves. The Monodeist ship started to fold in half, prow and stern rising upwards, then splashing down. The crew hadn’t even had time to cry out in surprise.
The Paladin aboard the ship vanished beneath the waves nearly as fast as the Hummer.
Meg blinked.
Liam blinked.
“What the fuck?” they said at the same time.
Another resounding roar. Another flare of light. This time, a crate clearly labeled as being the property of the United States Air Force smashed to the deck about five feet to the left of Liam, crushing several corpses beneath its weight with a rude noise. Meg squeaked and leaped backwards into Liam. Liam gaped at the crate – reading the smaller stenciling underneath the starry logo. They were an arcane list of letters and numbers that surely was the crate’s tracking number.
The third roar came with a loud scream.
Liam watched as a figure in camouflage patterned Army green with rifle and backpack and more dropped about five feet and landed with a grunt on the deck of the central Monodeist trireme. He staggered with the impact and swung around, backing towards the prow as the rest of the stunned crew gaped at him.
“Meg!” Liam hissed. “Meg, get him, now!”
“Kill the invader!” the Paladin shouted, aiming his sword at the man.
The man hadn’t been given the same translation spells that Liam had.
But he clearly had been educated in what a collection of swords and flintlock pistols meant.
The sound of the assault rifle going off stunned Liam. And he had fired an AR-15 at a shooting range, when he had been a teenager. But after two years of swords, bows, magic, and memories of cheap action movies, the real thing was chilling. More chilling was the number of Hellenic crew who went sprawling on the deck. Even the Paladin went down in a spray of sparks and blood. The man - the soldier -snapped his magazine out of his rifle, flipped it, slapped it back in, worked the chamber, swung his rifle around.
The ship next to him was swarming with men – all of them grabbing for muskets and rifles.
He opened fire on them.
Liam’s heart was in his throat as Meg swooped overhead. She waited until the soldier was reloading again, then dove down. She landed beside him, arms lifted in a clear show of non-violence.
Whatever words they exchanged, the soldier looked from the stunned Monodists – the other triremes were beating away, the men shouted to their oars by the surviving Paladins – to Meg. Then he turned his back to Meg. Meg grabbed him, beat her wings, and soared up into the air. When she landed, Liam got his first look at another American in what felt like two lifetimes.
He was a she.
And she was pretty. Her hair was dark black, while her eyes were a rich brown. She looked Asian, which made Liam realise the closest thing to an Asian person he had seen in Purgatory was an elf. She was tall for an Asian woman with lean muscles, a strong jaw and a smooth skin.
Her uniform had her name stenciled on her chest: S. Fong.
Liam held out his hand in the stunned silence that seemed to have settled across the whole of Purgatory.
“Liam Vanderbilt,” he said.
The woman nodded. She took his hand, then shook it. “Lieutenant Simone Fong. Army Rangers.”
An awkward silence stretched between them.
Then Simone jerked her thumb at Meg. “The first fucking thing anyone says to me in this place, and it’s 'Welcome to Earf'?” She looked stunned. “Welcome to Earf? You fucking taught the natives about Independence Day? The fuck is wrong with you?”
Liam sagged slightly.
“Hey,” Meg said, grinning. “I thought it sounded like a neat movie.”
***
The Morrigan’s Kiss limped into Babylon two days later, flanked by the surviving Babylonian ship – the crew freed from the hold, where they had been forced by the Hellenic marines. As the Kiss sailed forward, Simone looked at the city with wide, wide eyes. She was leaning on the railing of the ship – one of the intact parts, at least – and Liam stood beside her.
“So, uh...” He paused. “Here it is.”
“Here it is,” Simone said, slowly. “I guess you never heard of the Prime Directive?”
“It seemed like a bad idea,” Liam said, grinning slightly. He and Simone had had shockingly little time to actually talk. The Kiss had been damaged badly by the fighting and while having an entire crate full of supplies from the future was damn nice, having Kailey take all of it as ‘lawful prize’ was the last thing he wanted. Simone had been just as busy working on the pumps, fixing sail, and carrying around wood as Liam had been arguing Kailey down to just taking the MREs.
And now, they were almost out of time.
“So, let me get this fucking straight,” Simone said, ducking her head forward. “You, an American citizen, and a minor-”
“Hey, I was nineteen!” Liam said.
“If you’re not old enough to drink, you’re a minor in my book,” Simone said, turning around to lean against the railing. “And yet you took up service as a mercenary. Engaged in combat at least two dozen times, engaged in espionage for a foreign power, became a dictator, and led armies against enemies. You’ve married, had two kids. Oh, and you’ve detonated a weapon of mass destruction.” She glared at him. “Twice.”
“Okay, um, they may have slightly oversold how powerful the Godkiller was,” Liam said, holding up his hands.
Simone rolled her head back, laughing. Then she started to pace. “Oh, no, Lieutenant, you’ll be put down in an isolated area, no chance of there being more than predators. We sent probes. No, Lieutenant, it shouldn’t be more than a fifteen mile divergence between arrivals. Oh no, Lieutenant, their technology can’t be more advanced than bronze-aged based on observations! No, Lieutenant, it’s highly unlikely that Vanderbilt will be difficult to rescue once you find him. A simple mission, despite the exotic locale. It’ll be a snap!”
Liam watched her walk back and forth.
“If it helps, I’ve brought them the technology of pizza,” he said, grinning.
Simone shook her head. “Fantastic.”
Liam sighed. “I’m not going to jail if I head home, will I?”
“If we were doing this by the book?” Simone asked. “Fucking yes!”
“Are we?” Liam asked, grinning hopefully.
The boat nosed into the dock. The Cross Guard were there – an honor guard for Tethis, Fizit, Brax, Marion. Cheering crowds, all of them eager to see their Lord’s return. As the gangplank was lowered, Meg walked up to the pair of them. She grinned and slapped Simone on the back.
“What’s up?” she asked, looking from Simone to Liam. Simone sighed.
“What’d she say?” she asked.
“What’s up,” Liam said.
“That’s what I said,” Meg said, grinning.
“That’s what I said,” Liam said, his voice dry.
“Oh, you’re translating,” Meg said, then winked. “Don’t translate this, but I think I saw Quinn absconding with one of those thingies. You know, the one that makes the red dot?”
Liam rubbed his temple, then looked at Simone – who, to her credit – was looking wryly amused.
“To answer your question,” she said. “No. I think the book went out the window with the rest of my team. We need to figure out where the rest of said team – especially the civilians – went. We need to find the rest of the supplies and we have to hope that the communication rig didn’t get smashed. Fortunately, there were several dozen com-rigs sent through, so our chances are good, but...”
“Com-rig?” Liam asked as he started for the gangplank. As he walked, Meg licked her thumb, then slapped her thumb against Simone’s forehead. A crackling light flashed and Simone staggered backwards, blinking.
“Wh...what?” she asked.
“Translation spell,” Meg said, cheerfully.
“I...” Simone blinked. “I can understand you.”
“And, I note, you didn’t need to fuck her,” Liam said, his voice dry. He had long known that the first time he and Meg had made love, literally minutes after meeting one another, hadn’t actually been required for the translation spell. But he still liked teasing her when he got the chance.
“I stand by my actions!” Meg said, her wings mantling.
Simone shook her head. “I feel like I’m going to get really good at filing things under ‘ask later’ on this place.”
“Yup,” Liam said, nodding. “So. Com-Rig?”
“Right,” Simone said, shaking her head. “Our objective was to get you home, Vanderbilt. And even though it just got a fuck of a lot more complicated, it’s my job.”
Liam gulped.
The three of them walked to the gangplank. Brax was restrained by his mother, but Liam could see that Fizit looked as if she was five seconds away from charging him too. Liam decided to ruin that by running down the planks. He had had time to cling to Meg and cover her kisses, in the few snatched moments between keeping the Kiss from sinking. But Fizit? He had wondered if he’d ever see her again sometimes.
And so, he grabbed Fizit and picked her up, twirling her around. She squeaked, and started to say: “This is undignified, you’re the Free Lord, your wife is-” And then he kissed her, shutting her up.
“Uh...” Simone could be clearly heard from the top of the gangplank.
“Wow, Liam was right; everyone on Earth is a total prude,” Meg said, sounding amused. “I thought Atlantites might be different.”
Liam, who had been marveling at the way that Fizit’s tongue swirled around and around his, the way her soft breasts mashed against his chest, broke the kiss long enough to pick up Brax and swing her around. His son laughed, kicking and spreading his arms. Then, suddenly looking concerned, Brax squeaked: “You won’t kiss me too, will you?”
Liam kissed his scaled cheek with a wet smack.
“Eaugh!” Brax writhed, disgusted by a display of affection in the way only a boy of his age could be.
“What did you call me?” Simone asked, walking down the gangplank.
“Atlantites?” Meg said, looking confused. “What? It’s really obvious, whoever did the spell was, um, no offense, kind of shit.”
But now, it was time for Fizit and Tethis to get an eyeful of not just Simone, but also Quinn and Kailey. The two goblinesses were dressed in their finest clothes and were walking down the gangplank, flanked by the two burliest members of their surviving crew. Kailey looked feral and fierce in her leather armor and sheer kilt, while Quinn had fished out a robe that was nearly a match for Tethis’ most formal wear.
“Quinn?” Tethis asked.
“Tethy?!” Quinn squeaked.
“You know each other?” Liam asked.
“N-Not quite,” Tethis stammered.
“You were lovers with that Tethis?” Kailey asked, sounding shocked.
“I wasn’t sure if they were the same...” Quinn admitted. “There are more than one gobliness named Tethis who were great healers.”
“Oh my gods!” Meg squealed. “You never mentioned her.”
“I can’t imagine why,” Liam muttered.
Quinn bristled. Tethis flushed.
Fizit, meanwhile, rolled her eyes. “Mammals.”
“How... She...” Simone spluttered. “She has breasts!” She sounded anguished as she gestured at Fizit’s impressive chest.
Liam shook his head. “Let's, ah, continue this discussion at the Palace. In private.” He glared at several men and women who he recognized as journalists. The printing press and Babylon’s adoption of a free press – the first, and to date, only one on Purgatory – had given a load of people jobs that they had never known they desperately wanted.
“Let's,” Fizit said, glaring at the journalists.
“Honey,” Liam muttered. “You can’t throw them in jail.”
“I can imagine it...” Fizit shot back.
Brax giggled.
And behind them all, almost forgotten by the crowds, was Dia. Hidden under her robes. Meekly, she followed.
***
The banquet hall of Liam’s Palace had more than enough room for all of them – and the kitchen staff seemed to be just as overjoyed to get Liam back as his family, considering the effort they put into the food. Liam was digging into some steak while Simone was polishing off three pieces of pizza. If she minded the strange color of the ingredients, or the fact that the slices were cut into perfect squares, then she didn’t show it.
Fizit, though, was listening to Kailey, who was wiping her mouth clean as she finished off her telling of the combat. Being both a seasoned captain and the only one with a spectral raven flying overhead and providing a literal birds eye view of everything had given her the best grasp of what had happened.
Fizit absorbed the last of the words, her knuckles pressed underneath her muzzle as she leaned on her elbows. She had sent Brax to his tutors – and Liam had put his foot down when Brax had whined about not getting to spend time with his Dad. This wasn’t a discussion he wanted Brax to hear.
“So, every report I have on the Paladins is true,” Fizit said. “And the null-collars are real.” She looked at Dia. “I’m sorry, Anubis.”
Dia, who had cast off her robe, but remained as withdrawn and quiet as she had been outside, shook her head. “Don’t call me that. My name is Diayet. I was a priestess of Anubis – who was as silent and distant as the stars in my day. I prayed for guidance, and sometimes felt him guiding me, but now...” She looked at her hands. “I doubt myself.”
“You were never a god,” Liam said, trying to make his voice gentle. “Tethis, if what you said is true, gods... are humans. Or, well, any humanoid with... well, that.” He gestured to her and she quietly worked an illusion spell to project an image of Liv’s brain – expanded to reveal the growth in the center of her mind. It looked like a cone with nerves and veins reaching out to every other part of the brain to Liam.
“What is it?” Quinn whispered.
“It looks like a tumor,” Simone said.
“It’s not a tumor!” Tethis snarled. Liam bit down on his lip to not laugh, as he didn’t want piss her off. He figured she’d said it often enough, considering that level of venom.
“Okay. Come with me on this hypothesis,” Liam said, hopping to his feet. He walked around the illusion, pointing at it. He had been sitting, but the idea forming in his brain left him tingling with an urge to walk. He paced back and forth, his hands sliding along his sides, tucking into his armpits as he crossed his arms across his chest. “In the ancient past, some humans get a mutation that causes that brain bit to grow. It gives people godlike powers. Those people become worshiped as gods.” He paused. “Somehow, the Christian church comes about and builds... a thing that jams the New Gods here...” he shook his head. “Where the hell would they get that?”
“The Ancients.”
The voice was low and rough and came from the entrance to the place. Guards were stepping out from where they normally stood, but Liv was walking past them. Her hair had gone from blue to pure white. Her eyes glowed with pale light. And she seemed to radiate energy. It roiled along her skin and crackled between her fingers. She staggered forward, dressed in only a white cotton shift. Simone stood, drawing a pistol and aiming it at her.
“Who is that!?” she shouted.
Liam sprang up and got between the two of them. “Liv!” he said. “A friend! Kinda.”
“Kinda?” Simone asked.
Liv cricked her neck. “The Ancients came to Earth and saw the gods. They wanted to figure them out.” She walked past Liam, grabbed the pistol from Simone with a motion so fast that it couldn’t be seen. She looked at it, then tossed it aside. It skittered along the ground, clattering and clinking as she walked past a stunned Simone to sit down at the table. She picked up Tethis plate and started to cram food into her mouth. She chewed, and spoke between swallows.
“They made Purgatory to be their laboratory. But the Gods broke out, overthrew ‘em, and took over.” She licked her fingers. “Everything became legends and myth.”
“H-How do you know that?” Tethis asked.
Liv licked her thumb, then looked at Tethis. “Cause I asked?”
“Asked who?” Liam asked, walking over quickly to sit beside Liv. She looked at him. Her glowing eyes narrowed, then she grinned.
“You’re not gonna like the answer,” she said.
“I’ll deal,” Liam said.
Simone picked up the pistol. Checked it. Glared at Liv.
Liv grinned. “Sysminor’s little brother. System Administrator Two.”
Stunned silence remained.
“Sysminor is short for System Administrator Four,” Liv said, sighing as she leaned slowly back into her seat. “He was the insane one. System Administrator Two, though, told me the basics. I...” She paused. “I didn’t follow all of it.”
“How?” Tethis asked.
“How can you or a lizard or an elf cast magic?” Liv asked. She looked around. “Come on, it’s fucking obvious.”
“You are an Ancient,” Liam whispered. “Goblins. Lizardmen. They’re all Ancients.”
“My mother was part of the Stakosha caste,” Liv said, her voice bitter. “Before Ares raped and murdered her. According to what Two told me, the Stakosha rule and are immortal. They designed the Potkoss – the goblins – and the Huulor – the lizards – for specific roles and only breed em when they’re needed.”
“Designed,” Fizit said, slowly.
Liam looked at her.
Liv was still Liv, and she proved it, by being utterly unaware of the gathering storm. “Yeah, apparently.”
“Designed...” Fizit grabbed up her plate and dashed it on the table before Liv. The shattering sound and the spreading food caused Liv to jerk backwards and Simon to tense. Tethis squeaked and even Kailey – who had been watching everything with a kind of avid but detached interest, like a woman at a wrestling match that had just gotten interesting – jerked back. Meg grabbed Liam before he could spring forward and get between the two women.
Fizit slapped her palm against her chest, her tail lashing hard enough to send her chair skittering away.
“I’m twenty six!” she snarled. “I’m middle aged. I’m going to die of old age in two decades if I’m fucking lucky, you elven bitch. And you tell me that your people built me that way?” She stepped forward. “Built us big and dumb and short lived, but strong and fucking tireless! So we can haul your water and built your godsdamned laboratories?”
“Fizit!” Tethis sprang to her feet. “Calm down.”
Liv shrugged. “I didn’t do it.”
“I won’t live to see my son’s old age, you bitch!” Fizit leaped at Liv with a snarl.
Liv waved her hand and Liam tore from Meg’s grip. Everything went horribly slow – a disaster he couldn’t stop, but he had plenty of time to admire it. A ripple of air shot from Liv’s palm, rushing towards Fizit. It slammed into Fizit’s chest and she went rocketing backwards as if she had been smacked by a giant’s baseball bat. The stricken expression on Liv’s face – the horror at what she hadn’t meant to do – was no consolation.
Fizit smashed into the wall with an explosion of dust and a crack. She sprawled on the ground, her head twisted almost entirely around, her neck snapped. Her mouth opened, then relaxed as her eyes stared outwards, sightless.
Simone reacted by aiming her pistol at Liv. “Hands up!” she shouted.
Liam felt as if he had been frozen – he couldn’t even feel anything. Liv was stammering – it sounded like she was trying to say ‘I’m sorry!’ Meg was charging towards Liv. Kailey and Quinn had gotten to their feet, adding their voices to the din. Simone was still bellowing the words at the stunned Liv. Dia looked as if she wanted to curl up on herself and vanish.
But before anyone could make another move, Tethis screamed: “Everyone! Shut the fuck up!”
Everyone shut up.
Tethis lowered her hands. “L-Let's all use our heads instead of our... other parts.” She shook her head. “I put the stasis spell on Fizit. By the gods, she was as big a target for assassination as Liam!”
Liam didn’t realize he had been about to collapse to the ground until he was already sprawling. Tethis leaned down, her eyes hooded as she started to make the passes of the healing magic. Her voice shook as she snarled out the words. Healing magic surged into Fizit’s body – her head slowly spinning back into place. As she jerked and gasped, Tethis glared up at them.
“But you...” She pointed her finger at Liv. “You’re very lucky. Even my spell can’t fix a destroyed brain. If you had pulped her head, or smashed her head against the wall, or, or...”
Fizit sat up, groaning. “What happened?”
Tethis burst into tears and threw her arms around her, hugging her as tightly as she could.
Simone slowly holstered her pistol.
“And I thought my family reunions were fucked up,” she whispered.