[This is a chapter from my latest novel, a sequel to The Fall of Doc Future and Skybreaker’s Call. The start is here, and links to my other work here. It can be read on its own, but contains spoilers for those two books. I try to post new chapters about every two weeks, and the next one is planned for around August 9th. I sometimes post short stories and vignettes on off weeks ]

Previous: Chapter 25

Flicker stood beside Journeyman in the portal room of her workshop. His motion was imperceptible, turning him into a dramatically posed statue, his hand slashing sideways at the top of the oval portal he was opening to Kyrjaheim, as Flicker tried one last time to calm herself.

But there were too many unknowns. She looked over at him, seeing the determination on his face, the strength that was seldom so obvious, and smiled. He was opening the portal beside her, he would be beside her when the talking started, and that would just have to be enough.

It was enough. She slowed back down to let him finish the motion, and he deftly finished connecting two worlds. She nodded to him once as it stabilized, then sped up again to go through.

Flicker seldom had to enter a social interaction completely cold anymore–she’d gotten spoiled by Database summaries. But she still had a lot of practice at deciphering cryptic tableaux, extracting as much information as she could from position, body language, and environment before slowing down enough to speak and be seen.

The Volunteer had taught her when she was younger, since he had so much experience with the same problem. He’d described how people in crowds behaved differently from the way they did as individuals or in small groups. He’d showed her how to see the focuses, the threats, the sources of fear or reassurance.

And there was plenty here to look at.

Golden Valkyrie stood in the middle of a loose crowd in front of her hall. She was wearing the lower half of her armor, and the rest of it was stacked on top of one of the huge packs her Choosers used to transport cargo between worlds. The packs were large enough to be quite inconvenient for anyone who wasn’t both strong and able to fly.

She was speaking to Dr. Margie Drozniakiewicz, her oldest Chooser, who looked grim. The Volunteer himself was standing behind and to the right of Margie. Even wearing the hooded cloak he now used to hide his face while his eyes regrew, he radiated support–nobody could do body language like he could.

Flicker frowned, and ghosted around the two of them, observing from all angles. There was something she wasn’t getting here. The Volunteer was staying with Margie while he recovered, because he had a literally inhuman work ethic, and Margie was the only one with the necessary skill, authority, and shared background to get him to not try to work while he needed to heal. But the way he was standing…

Oh. He wasn’t projecting ‘I support you’ to Margie–she didn’t need it. He was projecting his support for her to everyone else–and it didn’t look like just generic support. It looked like 'I support my partner.’

When had that happened?

A puzzle, but not close to the most urgent one right now. Flicker started ghosting through the crowd, looking at facial expressions. Lots of distress and worry–not normal for Choosers, not at all. Ten of them also had packs, and were standing apart. Two of them were hugging other Choosers, and one had tears in her eyes.

Okay, they were clearly going on a trip with Golden Valkyrie. A sudden, unexpected, long trip, which might be why everyone was so upset. But what could possibly require a long trip for her? Even the Xelians hadn’t known how far their portal weapon had blasted the Volunteer, but she had taken less than a day to track him down.

Time to find out. She waited until Journeyman was arriving at his vantage point–he liked to assess things before jumping into the middle of a crowd–then moved to a spot near Margie. Journeyman would follow in a second or two, she knew.

Flicker slowed down and listened.

“–as many who flee as you might sustain for at least a year, but no more,” Golden Valkyrie was saying. "But I doubt that will happen. I trust my daughter.“ She shifted her attention to Flicker and smiled, as Journeyman appeared beside her.

"Well met, both of you.”

“Hello,” said Flicker. "What’s going on?“

"Change.” Golden Valkyrie shifted her gaze. "Journeyman.“

"Yes?”

“I look upon you with my Sight and I see alliance with my daughter, and trust, and loyalty, both ways, to the end of the world. Am I wrong?”

“No. You’re not,” said Journeyman, and Flicker felt a sudden lump in her throat.

Golden Valkyrie nodded, then turned back to Flicker. "Daughter, there is a favor I would ask of you. A small task that you can perform, that I cannot.“

"Um. What is it?”

Golden Valkyrie went to one knee, leaned her head forward, and swept her braid to the side. "Unfasten the clasp on my necklace. Your father could do this as well, but you are here and he is not.“

There was a sussuration of gasps from the crowd. Flicker glanced at Journeyman. His eyes were wide, and she was certain hers were, too.

"Are you sure?” she asked.

“Yes. It is time.”

“All right.” Flicker moved closer, and studied the clasp. It was heavy but simple, fashioned out of the same vanadium steel alloy as the rest of the necklace. Doc had crafted both like someone might someday need to tow a battleship with it. That was on fire. She gingerly unfastened it and lifted the chain over her mother’s head.

“Thank you.” Golden Valkyrie stood and moved her braid back into place.

Flicker held the ends of the necklace awkwardly, close to her body, in case she needed to move suddenly. "What should I–“

"Give it to Journeyman to hold, for the moment.”

Flicker turned to him. He looked at the necklace like it was an angry, venomous snake–but he took it.

He glanced at Golden Valkyrie sidelong. "A hint about what I’m supposed to do with it would be nice,“ he said. "Are we talking investiture here, or dangerous artifact safekeeping?”

Golden Valkyrie smiled gently. "Fasten the Skystone around Flicker’s neck. It will ward her from the void, and strengthen her against the harsh fires of creation.“

"Um…” said Flicker.

“Investiture. Right,” said Journeyman. "I’m sure it would. But as her partner, and her friend, and as a magician… I have a few questions before I’m willing to do that.“

"As well you might,” said Golden Valkyrie. "Ask.“

"Will she be able to take it off?”

“If she wishes. You are not the Maker. But as long as she wears it, clasped by your hands, you may always find a path that leads to her. And she, you. At any distance. Across all worlds.”

“Understood. Now, what if–”

Flicker couldn’t stand it any more. "Four billion degrees, mother. That’s how hot I’ve been and lived. And I’ve vaporized my costume dozens of other times without even getting close to that. Nothing material but me can survive those temps, the Thunderer’s hammer didn’t stand a chance. And even if I could keep the necklace together, it would end up so radioactive it would kill everyone around me.“

Golden Valkyrie’s eyes narrowed, but she answered calmly. "The Skystone is not some petty trinket like the Thunderer’s hammer, crudely contrived by a jealous imitator. Your father forged it at his height. It was as a part of my body for nineteen years–and will be as a part of yours, even to your shell. It will not melt. It will not tarnish. It will not suffer change to its nature from tiny sparks of creation or destruction, no matter their vigor. Focus your will upon it in greatest extremity, and you may sustain your purpose for a time with naught else, and remake your own body from the cool mud of your pool, under the Tree.”

Flicker sped up, committing each word, each change of expression and posture, each gesture to memory, to unpack later. Her mother was usually a miser with information, and almost unreadable. Not now, though. But there were so many things Flicker needed to know. She slowed back down and took a breath, trying to decide what to ask first.

“Her shell?” asked Journeyman, before Flicker managed to get a word out.

“That which began as Himinbrjota’s, before I trapped her in an endless tunnel of mirrors, and peeled it from her husk after her will faded, to give to my daughter as she quickened within me, nineteen years ago this midsummer.”

“Ah,” said Journeyman, in way that implied he would think very carefully before asking any more questions.

Flicker now had two more questions of her own, and an outraged accusation she wanted to make, and was even more flustered than she usually ended up when she tried to talk to her mother.

Enough. Ignore it. Focus on the most important question first.

“Why do I need the Skystone?”

“Your hands, your rocks, and the storm of your passage are all weapons, but they are not enough. It is time for you to forge Skybreaker’s Spear.”

*****

“So what am I looking at?” asked Donner.

He’d moved over next to Stella so they could both see the display on her handcomp. She was working her way through the analysis she and DASI had done on effects of the Concert in the Dark. Statistics wasn’t really his thing, but people could be all kinds of different, so if you wanted to know anything useful about a lot of them, you had to look at the numbers.

“This is a summary of the longer term psychological changes in listeners, compared to the controls, an average of a month later.”

“Yeah, I’ve been wondering how much of that there’d be. I kind of leaned against the immediate push a little, singing more like some of my old stuff, because I didn’t want anyone using the recording to drum up war or status-quo support or anything like that. Drinking songs can be dangerous that way.”

Stella smiled. "Yes they can, and you did a very good job of it, too. See this big dip here?“

"Yeah. What is it?”

“Reduction in right wing authoritarianism. Which is exactly the opposite of what anyone trying to use a recording the way you were worried about would want. The effect magnitudes from the recording are much less than the original live performance, but there is a fascinating 'contagious liveness’ response that DASI is still trying to pin down.”

“Contagious liveness?” said Donner. "That reminds me of the parties a few of my old fans used to hold for a while after I toned down the power fifteen years ago. They’d play personal concert recordings for people who hadn’t heard me live before, and a lot of newer fans swore they got more of a kick that way. Of course, there were usually mind-altering substances involved, too.“

Another smile. "Your music is quite sufficiently mind-altering on its own. The effect is real, and it seems to be tied to a mixed group listening to the recording, when some heard it live, and some didn’t. It doesn’t do anything more for the original live listeners, but there is a larger response from the non-live listeners.”

“Huh. I’d be kinda interested in learning how that works, when you figure it out.”

“DASI will definitely keep you posted. Now, these other effects are smaller, but still significant. DASI found a decrease in aggression versus out-groups, increased empathy for out-group distress, a decrease in the bystander effect…”

Her voice had the same 'I’m sharing something surprising and cool’ tinge of eagerness to it that he often heard from Flicker, and his empathic sense–now that he no longer needed to worry about his mind being eaten–was telling him Stella’s enjoyment was genuine. Donner was getting a better idea of how the two of them had become friends.

After she finished her summary, Donner pondered for a moment, while watching the ripples the wind was making in the grass. "That all sounds pretty good to me.“

"I certainly think it does. Now for the important question,” she said. "Are you willing to keep singing that way?“

Donner’s heart pounded, and he took a deep breath. "Well, see, there’s a small problem with doing that. Without an alien invasion for cover, people are gonna start noticing the after-effects, no matter what DASI does in the way of smoke and mirrors. And then I’m back in the same boat I was in fifteen years ago, with assassination attempts, bombs at concerts, and all the rest of the stuff Doc wasn’t able to stop.

"Now maybe it wouldn’t be coming from as many directions, without that Trickster guy stirring things up. But there are still a lot of powerful groups that hate me, and they’ll be ready. Even if they don’t manage to get me, I’d be risking the rest of the band, the concert organizers and workers, and the fans themselves. I’m a lot less casual about that now than when I was twenty.”

He raised an eyebrow. "So I’m gonna ask you a question right back. Do you have some trick to stop that shit, that Doc didn’t?“

Stella nodded. "DASI is far smarter, and has much more versatility and reach than Doc’s Database did fifteen years ago. Black Swan is willing to assist, as well. The three of us can protect you, and everyone else. We will protect you.”

Donner frowned. "Why go to all the effort? What makes this worth it to you?“

Stella looked over at the tree where he’d leaned his motorcycle, her face thoughtful. "We’ve already been taking unobtrusive measures, since the virus attempt. Anyone willing to assassinate Flicker is hardly going to balk at killing you. And my estimate of how likely that is–no matter what you do–has been going up. But I understand your point.”

She met his eyes again. "I want the reduction in authoritarianism. There aren’t many ways to shift that, without side effects that are as bad, or worse. And you can do it everywhere at once. There will be political and economic disruption from the Grs'thnk mission and Black Swan, no matter what I do. And frightened people in times of change and disruption are very vulnerable to authoritarianism. Especially if… Well. There are many different ways things could get very bad, all over the world. None of them are individually very likely, but authoritarian reactions can make all of them worse, and create feedback loops.“

Stella waved her hand. "Honestly, I wouldn’t care if half the people who hear your music decided to dye themselves purple and play the sitar all night, as long as they don’t go marching off a cliff in lockstep, following some opportunistic demagogue who convinced them it was the way to safety.”

Donner laughed, then sobered. "I want to, but… It’s a big step, and not something I can take back if it goes sour. I’ll have to think about it. Talk it over with my band. And we still haven’t firmed up plans for the Grs'thnk tour, so I don’t know when we’ll be back. Which reminds me, DASI said there might be some kind of diplomatic hold-up–do you know anything more about that?“

Stella sighed. "Yes. It looks like your tour is going to be delayed, at least for a while.”

“Damn. Why? Are they worried about me corrupting impressionable young Lizards with my music?”

Stella shook her head. "They’re surprisingly mellow about that, even the Technotraditionalists. I think a lot of them still fondly remember being corrupted in their own youth. No, an Auditor asked an inconvenient question at our meeting yesterday–which is part of their job, and seems to be how a lot of their political wrangles start.“

"What was the question?”

“How much your prolonged absence from Earth would contribute to local political instability at a critical time. None of their sociological models included you, and the mission has a mandate to avoid unnecessary disruption. And DASI and I certainly didn’t have a good enough answer for them yet.”

“Great. Would they really deny me a visa over that?”

“No, but since your tour will be for profit, the answer is relevant to their externality calculations–which affect tax rates, contracts, and the like. One round trip worth of consultations will be needed, at the very least. It may be a while before you get to thrill any live Grs'thnk crowds.”

“So someone has to file an environmental impact statement before I’m allowed to make money outside my natural habitat?”

“More or less. At least you don’t have to pay for it.”

Donner leaned back until he was flat on his back, and looked up at the sky between the tree branches. "Hell. That’s not even that unreasonable. I’ve had concerts delayed for stupider reasons.“

Stella looked down at him and smiled wryly. "There are going to be enough stupid reasons floating around for everyone. I’m taking all the precautions I can.”

“Yeah,” said Donner. "And I probably should, too.“

He watched the branches sway for a while longer. Stella remained silent. Finally he looked over at her again and narrowed his eyes. "You know what I’m going to decide, don’t you?”

“Not with certainty. But I know when not to interrupt someone who is arguing with himself.”

“Heh. Okay, if I go for this, here are some hypothetical ideas I’ve had knocking around for a while…”

*****

Journeyman’s hands were steady as he fastened the clasp of the Skystone. It seemed to snap into focus, and Flicker could sense all of it, not just the parts that touched her. It did feel like part of her body. There would be time to test everything else later.

“Green?” he muttered.

“Green”, she replied softly.

Green didn’t mean 'I’m okay’; she wasn’t. It meant whatever they’d just done had worked well enough that she was ready for the next thing. Even though there were still so many questions–and so few answers. At Flicker’s request, they had moved inside the hall for privacy. Golden Valkyrie looked on, wearing all her armor but the helmet, her face impassive.

“All right,” said Flicker. "Let me make sure I have everything essential. You don’t know what Skybreaker’s Spear is, how it works, what I’ll need it for, or anything else about it, except that it won’t break, can poke through anything, and it would be a bad idea to use it anywhere I want people to live. But I need to make it soon, or the Earth won’t survive.“

"Before midsummer at the latest,” said Golden Valkyrie. "Yes.“

The scary part was that she was being as helpful as she could, and was pushing her Sight to the limit. Doc had told Flicker once that the trick to shaping prophecy seemed to be to go for the minimum necessary information for the future you wanted, because the more you tried for, the less likely you were to get anything at all.

"And the only clues you can give me about creating it are that I should be wearing the Skystone, and I need to go to 'a realm of ice, more than any frost giant has ever dreamed of, held steady by firm hands’. Wherever that is. And I need Journeyman’s help to get there, to put the spear away safely after I make it, and retrieve it when I need it. Except he needs to 'seek the dragon’s wisdom’ first.”

“Yes. It brings me no joy to leave you in such a quandary, but I will not infer beyond what I See. To do otherwise would court disaster.”

“Okay.” Flicker pressed her lips together. "Are you– Can I ask where you will be while I’m doing all this?“

"You may. It is time for me to follow a different path.” Golden Valkyrie gestured to her pack. "If the world were as I wished, your sister and brother would be twelve winters old. Instead, they are yet unborn. But the challenges that await them will not be so kind as to mark time for twelve years.“

Golden Valkyrie met Flicker’s eyes. "They will grow brave, and generous. And headstrong. As your father is. As I am. As you are. And no more eager to stay idle while lives end, even if they are too young to help. So I must find somewhere for them to grow safely. Somewhere everyone takes a longer path, even unmoving. And I must leave this day, for reasons I can guess at, but not See.”

Flicker frowned. "To go somewhere time flows faster?“

"Your father might put it thus. I do not know how long it will be, for you, before they return. But they will surely seek their sister when they do. Signy and Solmun will be their names. Magnataur and Fairweather, when they bring forth their power.”

“When they return? Won’t you be with them?”

“My Choosers will," said Golden Valkyrie. "My own path is less clear. I can no longer hope to keep my old promise to your father. As he will know. Dendrite clouds my Sight too much. I will raise your sister and brother, as I was unable to raise you, and then we will see. I know you will protect your worlds fiercely, wherever I go.

"Your youngest sister will never be, as your father would not consent. I will not know his touch anew, nor ever again lie with him in the fresh grass, marveling at butterflies. The worlds move on, regardless.”

Flicker felt another lurch from her stomach at the feeling of everything shifting around her, as her mother stepped forward to embrace her.

“Take care, my daughter,” she said. "My little bird.“

Flicker blinked back sudden tears as Golden Valkyrie stepped back again. "I… I will.” No other words would come.

“Your father may live. And we may meet again. But now I must go.”

They followed her back outside, and Flicker watched numbly as her mother donned her helmet and pack. Then she joined the ten Choosers, and after a final wave of her spear, she slashed it downward and around, and they all stepped through the resulting oval rainbow. A moment later it shrank to a point and was gone.

Next: Chapter 27

