Foundation of Smoke and Steel

Chapter 160

DanielPlans were in place.

Daniel took a slow breath as he stood over the topographical map spread across the central table. The stone chamber hummed quietly with mana lanterns, the light warm and inviting, and the distant movement of a fortress preparing for war. Abnormally detailed colored markers and etched lines showed the placement of the flying carriages, the time they could remain in the air, and the response windows they would have if something broke or surged unexpectedly.

Everything that could be prepared had been prepared.

The Serans were resting in rotation cycles, their formations mapped down to recovery thresholds as the Li family healers helped their recovery through both dispelling arrays, elixirs, and mana healing. The Bowcasters were resupplying their bolts by removing pieces of a large log they called a Mother into slivers and, through a strange combination of mana manipulation and what looked like prayer, creating additional arrows through this process, which would have to be examined later. They also spent time checking their Heartline bows with the same intense mana manipulation and prayer. The militia had been given clear instructions, simple ones of stretching and mana cycling; it appeared effective in keeping panic from overwhelming them.

They had maybe two hours. Four, if the Iron Tide moved slower than expected.

Daniel reached down and pulled his Badnelli M2 free of its sling, checking the chamber, the glyph arrays, and the remaining ammunition with a practiced eye. He didn’t have many rounds left. He liked the weapon—too much, probably. It spoke to the American in him. It was brutally effective, and if he could ever figure out how to make it less catastrophically expensive to operate and improve its range, it could change what combat looked like for people without magical capacity when the demons truly arrived.

But that was tomorrow’s problem.

Right now, he needed to keep his mind occupied and understand why any of this had happened in the first place.

The door opened, and his twin sisters stepped inside.

They looked tired and wore matching looks of guilt.

Daniel didn’t look up immediately. He could feel his brothers-in-law still in the room, pretending very hard not to listen while absolutely listening.

“Now that we have a second, little sisters,” Daniel said calmly, “you’re going to explain to me why I had to come to the southern part of the kingdom to save your asses.”

The twins exchanged a look.

“Well,” Elise began, “you see, Big Brother, we were trying to help the Princess, you know, our civic duty, and it seemed like a good idea at the time—”

“You were trying to help the Princess,” Daniel repeated flatly. “Elise. Emily. You’re going to have to do better than that.”

“It’s my fault.” Princess Sophie stepped into the room, the blue-haired attendant Daniel had seen behind her earlier a couple of steps behind.

The attendant inclined her head. “Elizabeth. Charmed.”

Daniel nodded once. “Explain.”

Sophie met his gaze, her usual composure cracked by something that looked suspiciously like embarrassment.

“What do you know about the bloodline powers of the Imperial family?” she asked.

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Daniel raised an eyebrow. “Almost nothing. I know you have one. That’s about it.”

She took a breath, as if steadying herself.

“I know that you’re… special.”

Daniel waited for the rest.

A flicker of irritation crossed her face, then resolve.

Ethan stirred in the back of Daniel’s mind.

Daniel replied internally.

“Our family possesses a bloodline ability called Insight,” Sophie said. “It isn’t prophecy in the traditional sense. It doesn’t show us visions or fixed outcomes. It… nudges. It points us toward where fate is bending.”

Daniel’s eyes sharpened.

“I learned some time ago,” Sophie continued, “that the future of the Empire—its survival—intersects with you.”

Silence fell.

Daniel stared at her. “I don’t know what that means.”

“It means,” she said quietly, “that you’re going to save the world. And my Insight told me that we needed to come here to help you do it.”

Daniel leaned back slowly.

“Okay. So you have a magical ability that tells you I am special. Flattered, really, I am, but that doesn’t explain,” he said, his voice never losing its calm, “why you brought Marissa. Or my sisters on a mission like this.”

Sophie exhaled, the sound tight with frustration. “Because this was never supposed to be loud. Because it made the most sense in the moment. I was originally going to recruit you because I knew it had something to do with you, without knowing exactly what the parameters were, at least at the time.”

Daniel’s eyes narrowed slightly.

“Dathan messed that up. I was going to approach you at the Imperial Gala. I wanted to let you know I was here and wanted to help you. But besides that time at the Academy, you and I haven’t had a real conversation.”

Ethan said.

Daniel didn’t know. So he didn’t answer.

Sophie kept talking. “My Insight told me some of what we needed to do. It also indicated that we needed to accomplish our goals quietly,” Sophie continued. “Completely incognito, if possible. We intended to use the Zhou family estates as our primary base of operations. They’re politically insulated, well defended, and close enough to our intended goal to give us good proximity to our overall objective, which was the Cliffs of Moher. The Lin family trade routes were meant to handle transportation and supplies without attracting notice.”

Daniel considered this, even if it didn’t sit well, and nodded for her to continue.

Sophie went on. “It worked. At least at first. We moved cleanly, and from what we know, we didn’t run into trouble. We weren’t being hunted or anything.”

Her expression tightened. “The problems happened at the Cliffs of Moher when we realized that someone was chasing us, or at the very least was an active threat. By the time we realized our mistake, it was too late.”

Daniel was about to respond.

“That responsibility falls on me.”

Vivian entered the room.

She wore that incredibly striking deep purple dress, her vivid eyes the color of lilac under the ward-light. She bowed with flawless precision. Sophie glared at her.

“Husband.”

“Lady Li,” Daniel replied evenly. “Please explain.”

“I was recruited to fight a guardian at the active gate.”

She paused and gave him a soft smile. “I know that you’re going to want to ask about that, but later.”

She continued. “I should not have allowed the twins to come. We severely underestimated how dangerous this trip was going to be. We should have secured guards and informed you of our plan. I take full responsibility for placing the twins in danger. They are not combatants. And while their intervention with the disruptors likely saved our lives, this operation was poorly planned.”

The twins immediately protested. The Li brothers looked like an angel had opened the heavens and slapped them.

Daniel said sharply, “Elise. Emily. Be quiet.”

The girls fell silent.

Daniel looked at his wife. “You keep saying you came here to help me.”

The room stilled.

“If that’s true, then what exactly were you doing to help me? And if you believed this was important, why wouldn’t you simply come to me and tell me?”

No one answered.

They looked at one another, uncertainty passing between them. It was obvious the question hadn’t been considered this way before.

Daniel closed his eyes for a moment.

“Unbelievable.”

Vivian answered anyway, her voice steady. “As I said, the reason we came is because of a gate.”

Daniel opened his eyes.

“And we believed,” she continued, “that it contained something you would need.”

She unfolded her hand, revealing a small object resting on the white handkerchief.

Daniel stared at it.

The object was angular, with filigree he had only seen in one other place, but not here. It was something he had seen on his world, everyday since he started building computers when he was ten.

It looked like a computer chip.