The Northern Wastes - Garret's Fortress
The wind howled through the skeletal remains of what had once been a mining settlement, now transformed into something between workshop and fortress. Garret Duskthorn stood before a wall of crystalline displays, each one showing data streams from across the continent. His hair, once dark, had gone steel gray in thirteen years. His hands, which had wielded staves of magic alongside Kael in their youth, now bore chemical burns and calluses from tinkering with machines.
A figure entered the chamber, moving with the awkward gait of someone unaccustomed to flesh and bone. Half their face was bronze, mechanical replacements for injuries sustained in experiments Garret refused to acknowledge as failures.
"Report," Garret said without turning.
"Communication silence from the Dravens Reach extraction team. Three days overdue."
Garret's fingers stopped their rhythmic tapping. "Define silence."
"Complete. No scheduled check-ins, no emergency signals, no courier arrivals. The last confirmed contact was four days ago reporting standard operations."
Garret finally turned, his eyes, enhanced with minor magical sight, studying the messenger with uncomfortable intensity. "And you're certain the communication systems are functional?"
"Tested daily, sir. The silence is on their end, not ours."
For a long moment, Garret said nothing. Around him, the workshop hummed with activity. Automatons, cruder than Kael's RCSF units but functional, moved between workstations. Scavenged components from a dozen different kingdoms lay in organized chaos, waiting to be transformed into weapons or tools.
"How long has our extraction operation been active in Dravens Reach?"
The messenger consulted a brass datapad, its screen flickering. "Seven years, two months. Team leader was Vex, formerly of the Iron District gangs."
"Vex." Garret tasted the name, remembering. A brutal woman, scarred and pragmatic. She had sworn loyalty when he tattooed his mark into her throat, binding her service with both magic and obligation. "She wouldn't abandon the operation without cause."
"Perhaps discovery by local gang rivals?" the messenger suggested. "The city has been a warzone for years."
"No." Garret moved to a specific display, calling up maps of Dravens Reach. The image showed a city of brass and decay, its defenses collapsed, its systems dormant. "Vex's team operated under cover for seven years. They knew that city's gangs, had arrangements with the major players. A sudden collapse suggests external intervention."
He traced a finger across the display, highlighting the Foundry Quarter where Vex's team had established their warehouse. "Send a shadow team. I want eyes on the situation. Full stealth protocols, no engagement unless absolutely necessary."
"And if they find the extraction team?"
"Recover any useful intelligence. Leave no evidence that could be traced back to our operations." Garret's voice carried cold finality. "If Vex compromised our security, her loyalty tattoo will ensure she took our secrets to whatever grave she found."
The messenger bowed and departed, their mechanical joints clicking softly. Garret returned to his displays, but his mind was elsewhere. Seven years of careful extraction, pulling valuable components from Dravens Reach's corpse while keeping the city too weak to threaten anyone. Vex had been perfect for the role, brutal enough to handle the gangs, intelligent enough to recognize truly valuable technology.
And now, silence.
He activated a different display, this one showing a network of operatives spread across the continent. Most bore his mark, bound by magic and fear. Others served for coin or ideology or simply because they had nowhere else to go.
"Something has changed in Dravens Reach," he murmured to the empty room. "The question is what."
A thought struck him, cold and unwelcome. He dismissed it immediately. Kael was dead, or as good as. Thrown back to Earth thirteen years ago, powerless, mortal. Even if he had survived somehow, Earth had no magic, no way to return.
And yet.
Garret pulled up archived data from the night of the betrayal. Security recordings, carefully preserved. He watched again as Kael, mortally wounded, vanished into the portal. Watched as they had tried and failed to follow, the portal collapsing behind him with devastating finality.
Dead or stranded. It had to be one or the other.
But if not...
Garret closed the display with more force than necessary. Paranoia was useful in measured doses. Excessive paranoia led to mistakes, to revealing capabilities before they were ready.
"Send the shadow team," he repeated to the empty room. "And have them look for anything unusual. Any sign that the city's systems have been reactivated."
Dravens Reach - The Warehouse
Back in the warehouse, Kael remained kneeling beside the corpse. The tattoo seemed to pulse in the light from overhead lamps, though he knew that was illusion. Magic had been woven into the ink, binding loyalty, preventing betrayal through physical compulsion. He recognized the technique. He had seen Garret experimenting with similar methods years ago, testing ways to ensure absolute obedience from followers.
It seemed his former friend had perfected the approach.
Elena approached with careful steps, her hand resting on her sword hilt more from habit than expectation of threat. "Your Majesty, the warehouse has been secured. Marcus is cataloging the stolen goods."
Kael didn't respond immediately. He was studying not just the tattoo but the woman's hands, the wear patterns on her clothing, the calluses specific to certain kinds of labor.
"This wasn't recent," he said finally. "Look at the ink, how it's faded with age and weathering. How it's stretched with the skin's natural changes." He stood, gesturing for Elena to examine the mark. "This tattoo is years old. Possibly as much as seven or eight."
Elena knelt, her military training allowing her to suppress any revulsion at examining a corpse. After a moment, she nodded. "The skin around the mark shows patterns consistent with long-term exposure. And look here." She indicated the edges of the tattoo. "The magical binding has degraded slightly, lost its sharp edges. Fresh magical tattoos hold their precision. This has been active for years."
Master Chen joined them, his engineer's eye assessing the situation differently. "If this operation has been active for years, the question becomes what they've stolen in that time."
"Let's find out." Kael led them deeper into the warehouse, past the bodies of the fallen gang members. RCSF units stood guard at regular intervals, their amber eyes tracking any movement with mechanical precision.
The warehouse's interior revealed years of systematic theft. Crates were stacked in organized rows, each marked with coded labels. Marcus stood amid the inventory, his police instincts having organized the chaos into comprehensible categories.
"Your Majesty." Marcus approached with a ledger he'd found in an office cubicle. "They kept records. Detailed records of everything they took."
Kael accepted the ledger, flipping through pages filled with neat handwriting. Dates, locations, items, estimated values. It was a testament to professional operation, not random scavenging. His expression darkened as he read.
"Mana crystals from the Eastern Tower. Gyroscopic components from the Clockwork District. Brass plating from the defensive walls." He looked up. "This isn't theft of opportunity. They knew exactly what to take and where to find it."
Elena peered over his shoulder. "That level of knowledge suggests either inside information or extensive reconnaissance."
"Both, most likely." Kael continued reading. "They've been stripping the city of anything valuable for years. Every component needed to rebuild our defenses, every technological advancement I created before my exile. All of it, systematically stolen and shipped north."
"To Garret," Chen said quietly.
"To Garret." Kael's voice carried no anger, which somehow made it more frightening. "He's been preparing for my return since the moment I vanished. Ensuring that if I ever came back, I would find only ruins. No resources to rebuild, no technology to threaten his consolidation of power."
Marcus gestured toward a specific section of crates, marked with red symbols. "These were staged for immediate transport. Whatever they contain, it was priority cargo."
RCSF units moved the crates to an open area under Kael's direction. Chen produced a pry bar, carefully opening the first container. Inside, nested in protective packing, lay familiar shapes.
"Gods preserve us," Chen whispered. "These are automaton control cores. Advanced models, from the experimental production run you completed just before the betrayal."
Kael lifted one of the cores, its brass surface still gleaming despite years of storage. "With these, Garret could reverse-engineer my control systems. Learn how I programmed loyalty, precision, tactical thinking into mechanical frames."
"How many are here?" Elena asked.
Chen did quick inventory. "Thirty cores in this crate. And there are..." He looked around, counting. "At least a dozen more crates with the same markings."
"Over three hundred cores." Kael set the component down with excessive care. "Enough to build a small army of advanced automatons. Enough to threaten any conventional military force on the continent."
The implications settled over them like frost. Garret hadn't just been stealing resources. He'd been stealing knowledge, capability, the very foundations of technological superiority.
"We need to examine everything," Kael ordered. Every component, every blueprint, every scrap of documentation they've collected. We need to know exactly what Garret has obtained over the past seven years."
As Chen and Marcus organized the inventory teams, Elena pulled Kael aside. "Your Majesty, if Garret has been this systematic, this thorough... He'll know the instant his operation goes silent. He'll send people to investigate."
"I'm counting on it." Kael's expression showed calculation, not concern. "He'll send scouts, spies, agents to determine what happened to his scavengers."
"And when they arrive?"
"We'll be waiting." A cold smile crossed Kael's face. "Leave the warehouse exactly as it is. Bodies where they fell, stolen goods visible, evidence of our involvement clear. Make it a trap baited with information Garret desperately needs."
Elena's eyes widened slightly. "You want to capture his investigators."
"I want to capture his investigators, interrogate them, learn the extent of his network, his capabilities, his plans." Kael gestured toward the warehouse. "These scavengers were foot soldiers. The agents he sends to investigate their disappearance will be more valuable. Higher ranking, better informed, possibly bearing communication devices or intelligence we can exploit."
Marcus joined them, understanding dawning on his face. "A trap within a trap. They think they're investigating a collapsed operation. Instead, they walk into our hands."
"Precisely." Kael's voice carried quiet satisfaction. "Station RCSF units in concealment around the perimeter. Use the AI's surveillance network once it's active to track anyone approaching. When Garret's agents arrive, we take them alive if possible, neutralize them if necessary."
"And if they escape?" Elena asked.
"They won't." Kael turned to face her fully. "I've had thirteen years to study Earth's intelligence gathering techniques. Surveillance, counter-intelligence, operational security. Garret's agents will be skilled by Eldros standards. But they've never faced methods from a world that perfected espionage to an art form."
He looked back at the warehouse. "Let them come investigate. Let them think they're gathering intelligence on a gang war or rival operation. And when they're most confident, most exposed, we'll show them that Dravens Reach is no longer the helpless ruin they've been exploiting."
"But you still want to hide your personal involvement?" Marcus clarified.
"For now." Kael nodded. "Let them report back that something has changed in Dravens Reach. That the city has mysteriously become more dangerous, more organized. Let Garret wonder and speculate. But until I'm ready, until our capabilities are fully developed, they don't learn that I've returned. The captured agents certainly won't be able to tell him."
Elena's expression showed grim understanding. "Because they'll never leave the city."
"Because they'll become sources of intelligence for us instead." Kael's voice carried no remorse. "Garret spent seven years stealing from my city. Now we'll steal something far more valuable from him. Information."
The Inventory
For the next days, they cataloged stolen goods with growing dismay. The extent of the operation was staggering. Every significant technological advancement Kael had created before his exile, all of it systematically identified and extracted. Control systems, power coupling, magical enhancement arrays. Even personal research notes he had thought destroyed.
Chen sat amid piles of documents, his face pale. "Your Majesty, some of these designs... They're from your private workshop. Places only you and a handful of trusted assistants could access."
"Meaning Garret had help on the inside," Marcus concluded. "During those final months before the betrayal, someone was copying your work, documenting your research, preparing for his eventual theft."
Kael picked up one of the documents, recognizing his own handwriting from years past. "Who had access to my private workshop?"
Elena consulted her memory. "You, myself, Chen, and occasionally Torren when his military expertise was needed for weapon systems. That was the complete authorized list."
"And the betrayers," Kael added quietly. "Liora occasionally visited when we were still... close. Garret had standing permission for magical consultations. Asla came rarely, but she had the access codes."
He set down the document, a bitter smile crossing his face. "They were planning the betrayal for months, possibly years. While I trusted them, worked alongside them, called them friends, they were systematically preparing to destroy everything I built."
Chen picked up another document, this one showing advanced automaton designs. "Your Majesty, if Garret has had access to these specifications for seven years, he's had time to understand them, improve them, possibly even build prototypes."
"Which means we can't assume technological superiority," Elena said. "Anything you created before the betrayal, he potentially has access to."
"Not everything." Kael moved to a specific section of the warehouse where empty crates bore markings that made him pause. "These containers held something large, carefully packed. They're empty now, transported before the current extraction team could handle them."
He read the labels, recognition dawning. "The Skybreaker prototype. They found it. They took it."
Silence greeted this revelation. The Skybreaker, even incomplete, represented a leap forward in aerial warfare. In the right hands, with proper completion and enhancement, it could dominate the skies over any battlefield.
"How close was it to completion?" Marcus asked carefully.
"Forty percent. Physical frame complete, engine systems installed but not calibrated, control surfaces functional but not optimized. The magical enhancement arrays and AI guidance systems were never installed." Kael's voice stayed level, but his hands clenched. "But with access to my other research, with time and resources... Garret could finish it."
Elena moved to the empty crates, examining packing material still clinging to the interior. "Recent transport. Within the last month, judging by the dust patterns."
"So he has had it for years," Chen calculated. "Seven years to study it, reverse-engineer it, potentially build copies."
"Or improve it," Kael said quietly. "Garret was always a gifted mage, creative with his applications. If he's spent seven years studying my designs while building his own technological base..." He trailed off, the implications clear.
Marcus broke the heavy silence. "Your Majesty, if Garret has capabilities comparable to or exceeding yours, how do we counter that?"
Kael turned to face his advisors, and for the first time since his return, they saw something other than cold confidence in his expression. Not fear, exactly, but acknowledgment of genuine challenge.
"We innovate beyond anything I created before the betrayal. Garret has my old designs, my thirteen-year-old thinking. But he doesn't know what I learned on Earth. He doesn't understand the principles I've mastered, the fusion of technologies he can't even imagine."
He gestured toward the recovered goods. "Transport all of this back to the palace. Everything, even the empty crates. We'll examine it in detail, determine exactly what he's stolen, what he knows, what his capabilities might be."
"And then?" Elena asked.
"Then we build something he can't steal. Something he can't copy. Something so far beyond his comprehension that when he finally sees it, he'll understand the futility of resistance."
The Return
The procession back to the palace stretched through Dravens Reach's recovering streets. RCSF units hauled crates on mechanical carriers, their bronze forms gleaming in midmorning light. Citizens watched from windows and doorways, whispers spreading about the returned king's victory over the final gang.
None of them understood the true significance. They saw reclaimed property, justice delivered, order restored. They didn't see the revelation of seven years of systematic plundering, the evidence of betrayal's long reach, the confirmation that their enemies had been preparing for this moment since long before it arrived.
Kael walked at the procession's head, his silver-threaded hair catching the light. He acknowledged citizens who called out in gratitude or hope, but his mind was elsewhere. Calculating, planning, revising strategies based on this new intelligence.
Garret had the Skybreaker. Garret had his old designs. Garret had been building technological capability for seven years while he, Kael, had been trapped on Earth.
But Garret didn't have the AI central chip. Garret didn't understand quantum computing fused with magical enhancement. Garret didn't know about Earth's advanced materials science, its precision manufacturing, its theoretical frameworks that could transform Eldros's crude magic into something approaching genuine science.
The game had changed, but it wasn't over. If anything, it was only beginning.
They reached the palace gates as noon approached. RCSF units transported the recovered goods to secure vaults while Chen began organizing inventory teams. Marcus assembled his militia, their numbers growing daily as branded citizens volunteered for service.
And through it all, Kael stood on the palace balcony, looking north toward the distant wastes where Garret had built his empire on stolen technology and betrayed trust.
"Send your shadows," he murmured to the wind. "Send your spies and agents. Let them see what I've rebuilt. "
Behind him, Elena approached. "Your Majesty, Master Chen requests your presence in the control room. He says it's time to activate the AI central chip."
Kael turned from the balcony, from his contemplation of distant enemies and ancient betrayals. "Then let's show Garret what thirteen years of Earth's knowledge can accomplish."