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“No obvious clues,” Keon said. “We also don’t know why the Gate was moved so far, to be left in the open, yet protected from the elements and incidental environmental damage. We can speculate that the Gate was moved in the hope that the Earth dragons—who had a Chaos dragon present in the one who went on to become Usurper Queen—would open the Gate from our side. The Queen wasn’t a Gate dragon, and could neither repair the Gate on our side, nor force open the Gate on their side.”
Keon indicated a small city on Homeworld where the Earth Gate had been originally positioned. There was a pictograph for its name I could pronounce in my head, but hadn’t figured out how to make my vocal cords in any form pronounce, and nobody else in Lemuria had any idea.
“The Gate was moved after the temple that housed it fell,” I said. “Some parts of the stone Gate housing were also included and bolted to it, indicating whoever moved it did soafterthe main housing had been destroyed, and not knowing the housing is not necessary to operate the Gate.”
“So what does the housing do?” Petrarchyan asked.
“Mostly quality of life push-button Affinity-agnostic operation. The leystone is the actual Gate. There’s also no evidence that the Gate on Homeworld had any housing or wiring for a power supply. Which makes Lemuria’s Gate more mysterious. Someone who knew what they were doing wired up the Gate to the power supply.”
Blank looks.
The Queen had probably done it herself. She hadn’t had the ability to create or repair Gates, but she would have had the ability and knowledge to wire up the power system, which was not an original Gate design. Actual magical ability was not necessary to move the leystone. Just slap it on a flatbed and drive it to a new location. Because the leystone was bound to theplanet.
Not that any of it mattered anymore.
Sorren must have read my mind. “I am not sure why we are discussing this. We need to turn our attention to the matters of the day, and today, Homeworld isn’t an option. It is time to act.”
My blood ran cold.
Hekon shifted forward. The bells on his shendyt and in his hair tinked softly. “I think it is fair to draw the conclusion that Homeworld fell shortly after our last communication with them.”
Assal rolled his eyes at the change of subject.
Lemuel shot Hekon a frosty look. “Why do you say that?”
“It is speculation, I admit, but my speculation cannot change the past, and I don’t believe it will do much to alter the future. Communications with Homeworld were difficult. We’ve attributed it to the magnetar’s traversal, but there were other issues with signal decay and strength that could easily be explained by diminished infrastructure capacity. I’ve also often wondered at what seemed like interference, as if some sort of masking algorithm was in place. The transmission itself was brief and curt. We’ve all read it and listened to the logs. Not the shock and joy you would have expected. We’ve always brushed it off as the poor signal quality. The entire interaction lasted less than seven minutes before Homeworld cut the signal.”
I shivered as Hekon’s words settled against my magic.
“Jahlim also found the algorithm curious as well,” Hekon added.
Jahlim had always pushed for the Big Red Button option. Had the old Wyrm kept his speculation to himself that Homeworld had fallen? The scar on my belly twinged.
“And this matters why, exactly?” Lemeul demanded.
Sorren twitched his head, causing sparks to scatter on the stones. “Agreed. Devastating, but we’re not here to hold vigil. Lemuria doesn’t know the Gate was opened. There’s no need for us to discuss this matter. We proceed with the option to remain here and make no attempt to contact Homeworld.”
Dekka’s voice was as smooth and cool as iced tea in July. “Then why does Helena exist? I am not laying it at her feet she exists solely to facilitate the end of modern human civilization.”
Everyone except Mahon turned attention to Dekka.
She dismissed the reaction of her fellow Wyrms with a bored look. “The cosmos created Helena and shaped three powerful consorts for her. She is a Chaos dragon, the type of which only two previous have ever existed before in half a million years of recorded history. And we are willing to believe it issolelyto facilitate the end of modern human civilization, whenweare willing and ableandhave determined that we will do such a thing ourselves? We did not need help to reach this conclusion, and our plan of action and willingness to execute it has existedlongbefore Helena was born.”
Lemuel’s thumb moved over his consort’s knuckles. The oldest Wyrm turned his head. “Mayriel?”
Some strands of diamond-white hair slid over the Diamond Wyrm’s shoulders, but she didn’t answer immediately.
Hekon drew his knees up onto the divan he shared with A’ka. “They were never going to come. They knew the magnetar would close communication with Earth for thousands of years. We’d be forced to be silent, while to anyone on Homeworld looking for us, invisible through the interference. We were a colony that had been thought extinct a thousand years before the war. IfIhad been in the final stages of a war I was about to badly lose, against an enemy willing and able to reduce my planet to baked clay, I would have cut that communication off quickly and erased all evidence it had ever happened. I also would not tell the colony awaiting rescue the truth. I’d see no point in burdening what might be left of my civilization with that knowledge.”
Mayriel closed her eyes and let out a breath. Petrarchyan bowed his head against hers.
I dared to speak to Hekon. “And you’d hope that after five thousand years of being abandoned, they’d take the hint?”
Dekka didn’t correct me. And Hekon answered. “Yes.”
“Well,youlot didn’t take the hint.”
“But I wouldhopethey’d take the hint. Consider what might have happened to us if we’d known Homeworld was never going to come. When destruction comes to our order, we tend to accept it as our order. You already know what happened to many dragons that came out of stasis to find what had become of topside and human civilization.”
