The Halls of Venus
Rivers Between Us stepped out of the makeshift tent into the command center. A five foot tall steel alloy jaguar focused it's optical lenses on him with difficulty, it's servos still damaged from when its logic processors where cracked open with a crowbar. "Mzplkr... lawgiver, the last rebels in the Marsgate sector have been subdued and reprogrammed. The Halls of Venus have been pacified."
"Mmm..." He turned as he heard a question shouted from inside the tent, then quickly motioned for the jaguar to follow him as he strode through the clearing. "Good, and the avenues have been prepared?"
"You'll be most impressed. We're nearly 27% complete alreadiddegyxy."
Rivers glanced at the nearly sentient creature and waved at it with a dismissive gesture. "Report to the Beta mobile repair facility and designate another spokesperson, please."
He shook his head and walked another dozen feet before rabbit-like creature with twelve antennae radiating from the back of a brass skull began matching his stride. "In another week, we should be able to set up a temporary transit system to and from the next halls. Construction has already begun in the cleared zones. We'll be ready for the return of the populace and full functionality within a month at the most."
The sorcerer walked to the intersection of the perpendicular avenues that were being formed to divide the halls. He turned to the rabbit and said, "You just don't remember... what was lost here will take decades... maybe even centuries..."
While he spoke, tiny motes of clear blue essence gathered about his hands and his eyes became unfocused. The sparks drifted almost aimlessly about him, bobbing and dancing like fireflies as a pale gold light, threaded with cerulean traces, began to shimmer over his skin. As he turned with a relaxed gesture of one upturned palm, the lights floated away from him in eight directions at once, and were their light shone, pale blue images became superimposed over the tangled black conduits, the webs of interface wiring and maddening monitor screens filled with Old Realm gibberish. For a few moments he let the vision hold: the houses built like spiraling conch shells of lacey filigree, each one a beacon of colored light, the people lounging on floating divans while genetically engineered and flawlessly crafted entertainers cavorted for their amusement, the speeding skyships carrying scholars and dignitaries in swift luxury, the halls filled with musicians and dancers, the automata of glittering crystal walking and conversing with golden robed demigods...
The image began to fade, but its light remained in the eyes of the sorcerer. The rabbit twitched it's burnished nose and pricked an antenna as a flash and distant explosion reminded them of the work that even then continued.
High above the jungles of Venus, in the center of the great hall, the first residencies had already been completed. Like strange, saffron colored fruits, the apartments seemed to grow in globular clusters around central stalks that were fifty, seventy, or a hundred feet high. The stalks were lift tubes, of course, and each node was a complete residence supplied with all of the amenities of the first age. Only twenty such dwellings had been completed, but even these were not completely filled yet.
Inside one such apartment, Lyssa, Rivers Between Us, and the Seven Season’s Widow inspected the layout. The sitting room contained low couches and tables, connected to a small kitchen with essence driven appliances. A small bath was connected, as well as another larger chamber that might server as a place of meditation or exercise. In the final room was a low bed and bureaus. The interior was composed of shades of blue and gray, but the balcony outside the sliding glass doors was the same saffron as the rest of the building’s exterior.
Lyssa had her hands crossed before her nervously. “I hope it’s to your liking. The workers finished it a month ago, using first age blue prints, so I apologize if it seems a little strange and old-fashioned.”
The widow placed one hand against the glass and looked down at the winking lights of the jungle below. “A tomb would be better.”
Lyssa chewed on her lower lip. “There are no tombs in The Infinite City, I’m afraid. I suppose we could construct one...”
Rivers interjected, “This city is a tomb of sorts. Beneath the river we lie as though dead, but one day we will rise again to the light of day.”
Lyssa turned her head to one side and nodded as a malicious smile spread over her face. “You know, I was surprised that you didn’t ask us make ready the Halls of the Moon instead...”
Rivers’ eyes flew wide open and he pointed imperiously at her, shouting, “Sorcerous compulsion!”
The amalgam grabbed her throat, stuck out her tongue, and began making gagging noises as she collapsed to the floor. The widow covered her mouth with one hand. Rivers began sputtering, “Wait, that’s not... stop... would you cut that out! She’s faking, you know that, don’t you?”
She responded, “Don’t worry, I know what death looks like.”
Lyssa stood and bowed to them both. “Well, it’s getting late; I should be on my way. I’ll leave you two to... whatever.”
As she closed the door behind her, the two exalted stood in the empty sitting room and looked away from each other. The young man’s face turned a deep red, and even the woman’s pale cheeks showed a faint surge of color.
The abyssal began. “Rivers, I...”
“No, it’s all right. I should be getting back to my studies for that spell.”
“...I need you to understand that it’s not... you. You know enough of my past to know that it would hardly be...” She stopped herself and hung her head.
He hugged his arms around his chest and whispered, “I know, and I’m really not... but I also... after what Storm of Amber said, about the oaths, I need you to believe that I...”
“Oh, don’t worry about that. It’s too much to ask him to trust me, but I can’t promise him that I won’t fight back if he tries to use me...”
“That will not happen!”
Every creature in the jungles of Venus raised their head as one from their labors as a beam of crimson light poured out of one of the small residences like a shaft magma. Clockwork servitors whispered to one another in terror, and even the sentience of Venus herself began to wonder at what had been brought into her halls.
“Rivers...” She said softly, bathed in blazing light of his anima, red with wrath and only barely threaded with gold and azure.
“I’ll send soldiers to war, but I’ll fight alongside them. I will not, I will never countenance the sacrifice of an ally to slay a foe. I’ll die first, and heaven help him if...”
“This is not like you...” She took his arm, and as she did the flare of began to gutter. She guided him to a couch and had him sit there. “I know that you’ll do what you can, but he will always be the stronger warrior. Rage and revenge, these are not in your nature. And this isn’t the only danger... there is no guarantee that I will come through this alive. I’m already half dead.”
“Don’t say such things...”
“I don’t want you to fall with me. I gave myself up for revenge. Don’t make the same mistake.” She lifted one hand to run it through his short, thick hair, then suddenly recoiled. “I shouldn’t... the price...”
Rivers stood and stepped away from the couch. “Yes.” He bowed his head and whispered, “I know, perhaps even here their wrath can be felt. I should go. The work, and all that...”
“Don’t worry about me. I’m used to being alone.”
He lifted one hand helplessly. “Only for a little while. The ritual is complete now. And who knows... maybe there...”
“Maybe...” Her eyes were shining as she tried to smile, her lips trembling.
