Endworlds - Nicholas Read [57]
Queen Fae’Elayen remembered that some families were reunited, though it was quickly apparent the population was greatly reduced; once a world of billions, the Fae’er now numbered only several hundred thousand.
It was a strange world. Identical to the one they had known, with the same technology but few of the same cities, and all in different locations on a different landscape that was no longer one landmass.
Tribal groups were formed. New Families and Houses rose. Priorities were set to understand what had befallen them, and fleets of perfectly functional skycraft took off from the surface to pierce the constant cloud cover and get their bearings.
Three discoveries came from that venture. First, no hoped-for gas giant greeted them; the best they could tell Earth had inserted itself in a temperate zone, third planet from the sun and far from the bands of home. Second, attempts to leave the atmosphere were thwarted by an unknown force; try as they might, ships once capable of reaching other moons were able to view the galaxy beyond but not interact with it. Third, as instruments failed and caused some of their scout ships to tumble back to the surface, pilots and crew walked away unscathed from the twisted metal and flames.
Collectively they realized all Fae’er hospitals were empty and there were no sick among them. It hadn’t taken long for people to test their new condition. Slamming fingers in doorjambs with no effect led to experiments with mallets, kitchen knives, then macabre tests involving highspeed ground-cars and building ledges. Even their sacrifices hopped off altars and walked home, to the astonishment of all.
This is how the Fae’er learned they could not die. Nor, they discovered within the year, could they create life to restore their numbers.
After these discoveries, the Builders had returned.
BLINKING HERSELF BACK to the present, Queen Fae’Elayen reminded herself that she had dignitaries waiting in Conclave. This was why she rarely indulged in memorials anymore; having lived for millennia, a light paddle in the shallows of memory could so easily tumble to the fathoms.
Tightening her grip on the Scepter of Balance, the young ancient queen drew a deep breath and turned her back on the rising dawn.
Passing through to her round antechamber, Stormers on detachment from the High Command stood at salute flanking both doors, their crisp uniforms pure white to distinguish their royal service from the High Command’s standard gold and blues.
At her entrance, six Chakanni-khi maids stood from their prayer cushions atop a more ornate rug of thick woven cords that laced the floor.
Wearing their own simple mauve coveralls and black mop wigs that shadowed painted eyes under deep fringes, two efficiently removed her sandals and exchanged them for brown linen slippers, two draped Fae’Elayen’s shoulders with an embroidered cyan mantle that bore glyphs denoting the names and deeds of past queens and kings back to the days of Anu himself.
Two replaced the queen’s simple white cowl with a more elaborate yellow disc that clipped to latches behind her collar. So adorned, the queen’s very garb denoted unity between sun, moon and earth.
Wordlessly falling into step beside her, three to a side, the Chakanni-khi moved with Queen Fae’Elayen through the forward doors to Conclave as four Stormers followed ceremoniously at the rear.
The Chamber of Conclave rested atop the longest spine of the tower, a glass bead with the Monarch’s Throne centered in one hemisphere and House Chairs in the other, arranged in three receding concentric circles so all twelve representatives could face the ruler and each other with direct line of sight at all times. In the Galleries on each side were the court recorders, politicians, media and various commercial scions. Yes, even in immortality, trade remained a constant, and with trade came politics.
Brace Hurcan Aragenti of the Fae’ro opened the session, stepping forward from a row of three seats below the Throne in which the tripartite sub-presidency of Fae’ro, Fae’rst and Fae’qua Nations were