Chapter 2
Sen's head banged against the console again, harder this time.
How had things gone so wrong?
He looked at Damni as she stood over his seated form. Even after all his failures, there was no doubt in her eyes. Her unwavering strength let him believe that everything wasn't hopeless.
Perhaps she was right? After all, it wasn't as if Sen's failings had been as bad as full-on 'lost his place in the hierarchy' or 'find a new iteration of origin' levels of failure. No.
Not yet anyway.
Still, in terms of how much his entire situation was screwed up, it didn't feel like the distinction mattered all that much.
It had all started when the Immortal Masters—a loosely associated group of Immortals whose goal was to prevent the probable extinction of all sapient-mortal life in the multiverse— had asked Damni to go to this Essence deprived, backwater of the multiverse and determine if an adharmic–
"That's 'evil,' Dear, 'evil.'"
"Evil ... Yes, Damni ... evil." Sen mumbled back reflexively at Damni's persistent corrections.
They'd been sent to search for an evil Immortal who was wrongfully shaping the local timelines. Altering them to foster mortal genocide in order to collect the soul energy for personal gains. Such Immortals that attempted to harvest mortal sapient life for power–and thus violated the Immortal Master's decrees were agents of chaos and destruction. Often referred to simply as Chaotics.
Damni believed in the Master's goal. So, Sen did as well. Such was the nature of their Ka bond– Marriage... yes ... marriage, Sen auto-corrected– and Damni was a worthy Ka bond– Wife... yes... wife.
She was far more worthy than Sen was, the young Immortal was certain of that.
Together, they'd arrived and used their Ethos Combi to scan for other Immortal Ka signatures… And they had found one!
Good! This hasn't been a completely wasted trip!
Damni stood from the controls of their transport and peered at Sen as if confirming he was ready to follow her translocation to the Chaotic's location ...
Holding up a finger, Sen held her. "Damni, I know that you think this soul harvester is likely an Immortal who didn't have the combat skills or acumen to advance its Ka with honor ... but are you prepared for what might happen if he ... refuses the Master's orders to stop collecting mortal spirit Essence?"
Damni seemed taken aback by the question, and a perplexed expression rose on her narrow features. She held her hands open as if attempting to grasp the impossible concept, "... Do you mean ... if he tries to resist ... with combat?"
Sen rolled his eyes at the need to specifically say so. He responded with a slight chuckle, "... Well, yes my love."
A knowing smile came over Damni, and she caressed the side of Sen's face as she spoke to him as if to a child. "Sen, honey, that is ridiculous. The Principal Master himself backs everything I do... What would it buy him? A few more Ka Nexus rotations before the Master's combat forces routed him out?" It was Damni's turn to roll her eyes at Sen's naivete, and she held a thin hand to her lips to suppress a small laugh. "... No one is that foolish, Sen ... Besides, you're here. Just being here is more than enough to convince anyone not to fight. Right?"
Damni embraced Sen with her long arms that wrapped all the way around him and cradled his face up to her taller frame and her wide eyes blinked down at him. "... I have my strong Ka bond to protect me, don't I?"
Sen gulped, "... Of course ... Of course you do. I just wanted to be sure that you had thought this through. I know um ... that you know ... what you're doing ..." Sen stammered to a trailing finish at how she had turned this around on him. "... Well then, if you are ready ..." Sen coughed. "We should get going."
Damni backed up with a loving smile and translocated them to the Immortal signature located on the only life-bearing planet in this system. Blue and green with all the markings of mortal life, it circled a lone midlevel yellow sun.
The adharmic or rather 'evil', that's right. The evil Immortal was wearing a physical matter avatar in the form of the sole local sapient lifeforms–humans, I think? He was tall and dark complexioned, and obviously ready for Sen's arrival–the Immortal hovered over the center of the largest body of terrestrial water–an ocean, he recalled.
Despite the Immortal clearly expecting their arrival, Damni moved with authority and confidence to confront him. "Adharmic Immortal, you are ordered to cease all mortal Essence harvesting and return immediately to the Polar Neutral iteration for judgment by the Masters as empowered by the Principal Master. Your immediate compliance will be viewed favorably. Anything else will result in the amplification of your punishment, possibly leading to complete reversion of your Transcended state."
Her authority was so absolute that Damni wasn't even looking at the Chaos Actor as he adopted a business-like expression and straightened his back. "Is that so ..." He spoke in a deep voice with an entertained tone. "... I'm just going to stop because you ask me to ... then what? Run away? Turn myself into the Master's imagined mercies? I think not!"
The Chaotic advanced on Damni in a surge with raised fists. Damni, whose Immortal Ka focus was fostering the interconnectedness of spirit beings with eternity, reflexively flinched and turned away ...
Damni may have gone into this meeting with her eyes wide shut, but Sen had kept his unblinking gaze on the other Immortal since arrival. In less than a nano he had shed his physical avatar and his Immortal Ka exploded into the mortal reality, restraining the Chaos Actor.
"You end now!" Sen's chilling Intent broadcast through reality. The ocean below them froze as the clouds in the atmosphere above them stilled in the sky.
The Chaotic sneered up at Sen but didn't resolve to his Immortal Ka form. Instead, he squirmed and struggled in the bind of Sen's will, yelling. "I knew that all that vaulted talk about the Master's non-escalation principles was nonsense!".
Ok, this will be easier than I thought.
Sen didn't care if the Chaotic wanted to be captured while ranting or fighting. It made no difference. He concentrated his focus on obliterating the adharmic Immortal's physical Avatar and then to moribund his Immortal Ka from transport back to the Immortal realms–
"--Stop! You have to stop now!" Damni was screaming, and it took a micro for Sen to realize that she was yelling at him. Reflexively, Sen dropped all his active Intent, freeing the Chaos Actor for the moment.
"Transform back to your physical avatar! Now, Sen, I mean it!" Damni had an enraged expression on her face that Sen didn't quite understand, but the heat in her tone left Sen with no doubt that she did mean what she said.
Confused, Sen transformed back to his top-knotted human form and faced Damni with an innocent expression. "... Is something wrong honey?" Sen spoke in a quiet voice.
Damni's look smoldered at him, and Sen wilted under it. Then it softened, and Damni spoke through strained patience, diffusing her anger through rapid hand and arm movements that showed how distraught she really was. Regardless of her calm tone, Sen knew he was in trouble.
"Sen, I am bound by the Penta Protocol's requirements of non-escalation!" Damni rolled her whole head in disbelief at Sen's behavior. "You cannot just explode your Immortal Ka all over the place in the mortal realms because you don't like how the Chaos Actor is treating me! Your escalation will result in his escalation. Entire iterations have been lost because of Immortals acting just like that!"
Marine creatures began to bob to the surface of the water all around them. Large individuals and smaller ones, appearing in schools. All were dead and floating belly up.
Damni shook her head and opened her arms to the seas below as she looked at Sen with remorse. "... See, with just an aggressive thought, you have killed every creature in this ocean. Immortal combat has no place in the mortal realms Sen."
Sen looked around him and saw the evidence of his overreaction. Dead marine life was surfacing in the ocean's swells as far as he could see ...
There was no denying it.
Immortals were limited by the Principal Master's Penta Protocol. The Immortal Master's only immutable requirement. It was universally followed and obeyed due to the Principal Master's great power, which no sane Immortal would attempt to contravene. But, more than this, Sen had to admit that the Penta Protocol was important. It was generally considered the best course of action for overall mortal protection. In brief, the Protocol was clear that a pursuing Master could not escalate the violence potential in a mortal iteration beyond those of the Immortal they were pursuing. In this case, the Immortal Sen was confronting had limited himself to a physical avatar. Sen was also limited to combat in the form of a physical avatar.
While Sen wished the Protocol wasn't necessary, it was undeniable that before its enactment, Immortals had caused so much damage to the involved mortal iterations that many times the complete collapse of all currently known temporal probability models had occurred. Prior to its advent and adoption, many mortal iterations had been reduced to imploded primordial singularities from the interventional 'help' of both free-acting Immortals and Masters. Adherence to the Protocols did prevent irreparable damage to temporal and spatial iteration dynamics.
Sen was trapped between the rock of the Protocol and the force of his feelings for Damni. He responded like the trapped spirit beast he felt like. "What do you want me to do? Stand by and watch him beat you?-- I can't do that! And you can't fight!" Sen glared at the chaos actor, who hadn't tried to escape but instead was looking at their argument with interest.
"I don't know, Sen! You have already violated the Penta Protocol. When the chaos actor informs the Master in charge of his review about what you did, they will likely pardon him, and I will be dismissed." Tears welled in Damni's eyes, and she wiped them away with a long-fingered hand.
A deep red blush of shame covered Sen's face. Damni was right, he was jeopardizing her standing with the Masters, maybe even her Karma with his interference. Sen looked up, pleading to his Ka bond. "There has to be something I can do?"
Damni's hurt expression grew into a considering one. After several moments, she looked wearily at Sen. "... I suppose that if you formally took over the assignment, the disciplinary action would fall on you instead of me. I would get off with a reprimand for your actions ..." Damni finished with a hopeful expression on her face.
He agreed to this instantly. Sen knew how important her role with the Masters was. He also didn't care if the Masters formally dismissed him from their ranks. It had no bearing on his Seedency as Heir. All that mattered to the Marztenaks was strength and power, which he had adequately demonstrated here.
Damni's relieved expression at his decision was all the assurance that Sen needed that his decision was the right one. Now in control, Sen turned to the Chaos Actor, who was oddly still standing by. But definitely not advancing for open combat. That's ok ... I can make the first move.
But first things needed to come first.
Sen cast a dark look on the hovering chaos actor. "Custom dictates that I Introduce myself before making a formal provocation. I am Senyak Marztanak, second-seeded heir of the Polar Neutral Iteration and the Marztanak Hegemony. The Immortal Masters have empowered me to enforce censure upon your actions in this iteration and the surrounding cuboid to prevent the wrongful harvesting of mortal soul Essence at the multiversal level. I issue a formal challenge of duel to you. Prepare for combat."
Sen slipped into a physical combat stance. The position felt foreign and incomplete. He'd trainedwith physical combat very briefly. But he had never actually used it. But that didn't matter. Sen let a grim smile touch his face. The adharmic—Evil... Yes, evil cultivator, could clearly sense that Sen was at least one full stage more advanced in his cultivation level. This confrontation would be remarkably short regardless of who struck first.
But, instead of fighting, Chaotic bowed his head and spoke. "I accept and agree to the duel. I sense that you are not an unreasonable being. Please hear me out before we begin." The Chaos Actor looked up and adopted a friendly smile with his hands spread wide in anticipation.
Sen shifted uncomfortably at this turn of events, though he nodded for the Chaotic to continue without moving from his stance.
"Excellent! I'm not an unreasonable man either–and I admit that your arrival at this time had caught me at a delicate time. I request only that you allow me a short interval, two Ka nexus rotations, to prepare for our duel in order to ensure that it is an honorable one." The tall, brooding avatar nodded in concession to Sen's superior combat abilities. "As you are aware, I'm not a combat specialist. I am sure you agree; there can be no glory for you in crushing a weaker opponent who is also unprepared." The Immortal finished placatingly with his head bowed and hands held palm up to his sides.
Sen looked intensely at the Chaotic. While all that was true, Sen had no doubt the Chaotic wanted the extra time to consolidate his ill-gotten gains.
That was unacceptable.
Sen shook his head negatively and advanced–
The chaos actor held up both hands and backed away as quickly as he started talking, "And in concession for the needed time to fight with honor, I will agree not to mention to my Master review panel that a certain someone attacked me with unprovoked Immortal force!"
That got Sen's attention, and almost without thinking, his body stopped moving forward. This would keep any stain from Damni's records. Sen needed that to clear up his mistake. He straightened in front of the cowering Chaotic. "You would swear a binding Ka oath to not mention that ... unfortunate misunderstanding?"
A wide smile spread the chaos actor's dark features. "Of course! The standard twenty-five percent?" He asked, extending his hand for the exchange of Ka to perform the oath."
"Thirty!" Sen barked, extending his hand.
"Before Karma, Balance, and Reality, I bind thirty percent of my Immortal Ka to the agreement between us. In exchange for postponing our duel two Ka nexus rotations, I will not inform anyone that I was attacked with Immortal force by you."
"Agreed." Sen clasped his hand, and a small portion of his Ka was transferred to the Actor along his meridians to serve as witness to the binding oath. Sen looked on with a raised brow. If the Chaotic ever did tell anyone, Karma would remove the bound Ka, thirty percent of his cultivation permanently.
Sen thinned his lids and tilted his head at the Immortal. "Very well, two Ka Nexus rotations, Fifty solar rotations of this planet at this location. Sen leaned forward to the Immortal who still stood in the same position. "... Don't make me come looking for you!"
The Chaotic bowed his head again. "As you say." Then, translocated away.
Sen looked up to Damni with a sheepish expression. She gazed back with an unreadable look.
Sen did need to wrap up the mission quickly before anyone got even a hint that he might have been lax in his responsibilities as a seeded heir. While he could spare a handful of Ka Nexus rotations, each being twenty-five of the local life-bearing planet's solar rotations or 'years.' Any more than that, and his superiors and inferiors both would begin to question his actions. Before he knew it, his seedency seat would be vulnerable to a challenge from those under him. All eighteen of his younger siblings would be desperate for the chance.
Despite the gnawing feeling that the Chaotic had come out ahead in the postponement of the duel, Sen couldn't deny that it would be a simple matter to 'take care' of such a minor character. Time wasn't going to change that, especially such a short window of time. The evil cultivator would never be Sen's match. Not now, not in two rotations. Not in two hundred or two thousand. Senyak, like all in his father's line, had focused his Immortal Ka as a combat specialist. And even among such specialists, Sen was a particularly capable warrior. He would trounce the adharmic– evil genocidal cur in a duel. Once defeated, Sen would beat the Chaotic until he was in a state of Ka exhaustion and then moribund him back for review by the Masters and likely loss of his Immortal Transcendence... probably permanently. Sen would then return to the Immortal Core iterations before he was missed. Whether it happened now or in two Ka Nexus Rotations…What could go wrong?
Sen glared for one more moment at the chaos agent to establish that he meant business, then translocated back to Damni and put the evil Immortal out of his mind.
The truth was that he and Damni could use the fifty solar rotations–
"That's years, Sen-honey, years..."
"Yes, Damni...years–" for much-needed time alone to get away from it all. He would also be about to focus on his physical combat techniques. Sen had to admit they were sorely lacking.
During this time, their union could truly grow strong. Damni, who had Transcended to Immortality by rising through the levels of mortal cultivation from a physical-matter iteration like the one they were presently in. She showed Sen many things concerning physical communion with their Ka bond, Marriage... yes Damni... marriage, that were unique to existing in physical form.
Unlike Damni, Sen had been actualized as an Immortal through the joined wills of his progenitors. He didn't have her past mortal experiences and had certainly not known that such physical joining was possible. Whether in the dense core of a singularity, inside the swirling tempest of local gas giants, even between the galaxies and free of all forces... the variations were all unquestionably worthy! As their time waiting for the duel came to an end, they made a promise to each other to take the time to come back to this backwater iteration and further explore these joining aspects.
Chapter 3
Fifty Years Later
Well-rested and ready to move on, Sen returned to the blue planet at the time marked for the duel. It was precisely then that Sen realized his plan had fallen to pieces. The chaos agent hadn't shown up for the duel. He had also diffused his Ka signature to untraceable levels with some mortal-level Techno-Lord device so they couldn't track him again. How could mortal-grade technology obfuscate an Ethos Combi? It was unthinkable!
Ethos Combis were constructs that linked an Immortal's Ka with all matter, energy, context, and meaning in an iteration or surrounding iterations. Combis calculated the probabilities of events, provided locations of all items, as well as being capable of providing knowledge of all outcomes from any performed or anticipated actions. In short, the information and knowledge provided through the Combi's link via the Immortal's Ka was a large part of what made Immortals so much more powerful than mortals.
Unfortunately, this was only the beginning of Sen's troubles. Unable to track the chaos agent, Sen physically searched for him on all the planets in the local iterations. Despite their best efforts, over the next five hundred… 'years', that was the word–Sen continued to be outwitted. Always one step behind, he failed to stop the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. His death led to the inevitable rise of a despot and a particularly distasteful mortal, Adolf Hitler, with a 94% probability of occurrence. Sen also failed to stop the rise of mortal leaders who were almost equally dissatisfactory and went by the names of Stalin, Pol Pot, and Hussein.
It was the constraints of the Protocols that were causing Sen the most problems. He could only act directly against another Immortal. He had no authority to directly impose his will on the actions and activities of mortal lives, or he would expose himself to the same retribution that his target had, with the very important exception that the Immortal sent against Sen would be able to find him. That led Sen to shift his focus on finding the technology or organization that was hiding the Chaotic–all with similarly disastrous results.
After 20 Ka Nexus rotations, 500 years... Yes, Damni... 500 years, it was becoming clear that the dark and brooding chaos agent was finalizing his soul Essence collection. Ethos Combi estimates were that the evil bastard had filled approximately 92 percent of his soul-gathering array from the local multiverse iterations.
In true iterational balance, Sen was also nearing the end of his abilities and hopes. Ultimately, Sen turned to Damni for help—who, until then, had been letting him lead their floundering mission while she quietly bid her time. It was unspoken between them that the shame would be just as great for Sen whether he failed or Damni was responsible for the chaos agent's capture... But at this point, Sen just wanted him stopped. He needed her help to do it, and he needed it right now.
And like the best of Ka bonds, she was ready to step in and help him.
"It's about time, honey," she said in a kind tone while rubbing his shoulders. "You know, you're cute when you're playing detective." Her smile was bright and uniquely endearing as she flattened his nose gently with an extended finger. "You're absolutely terrible at it but still cute. Alright, lover mine," her smile transformed into a simultaneously serious and playful smirk. "You'd better clean out your ears because we've got a lot of catching up to do."
Sen returned her caring gaze as she looked down into his eyes from her oval face. The form she chose in this physical iteration had pale blue skin with an elongated head that gently swayed on a thin, elegant, telescoping neck. The entirety of her avatar continuously waved as if gently pulled in an oscillating underwater current.
Sen eagerly listened as Damni continued.
"I have high probability data on where the chaos agent must move to finish his plans. Currently, his Anima Array is 92 percent complete per Combi assessment. I have also trended the occurrence and total Anima absorption of the ongoing genocide events over the last seventy-five years.
"There is one positive thing of note. It seems that the effort spent hiding from us has slowed the chaos agent. As the current time stream plays out, there will be a significant downturn in Chaos and overall lives lost to genocide. In fact, the probability models predict that there will be a complete cessation of genocidal events in this iteration by the year 2035. This downturn is due to globalization of commerce, media technology, and decreases in the at-risk population of victims. His need to avoid us has denied him enough time to destabilize these native trends, so stabilization against genocide is on the upswing. The result is that he is now facing diminishing returns on his investments in this iteration and the cuboid as a whole."
Damni paused and checked a data stream she had transferred over to his tablet after he'd finally caved and asked for her help. "If these current trends remain unchanged, the chaos agent will be forced to retreat with an incomplete Array. This will cost him a lot of Essence when he moves to harvest it. Likely more than half of what he has gathered. Either that, or he will again have to make a move to enhance and increase the probability of genocide events." She winked at Sen. "I'll give you three guesses which one the models predict he's going to do, and the first two don't count! This is our chance."
Sen was very good at battlefield strategies, assessing the capabilities of enemies, and hitting things. He was very good at hitting things. However, for complex matters of multiversal physics that included probability assessments of future actions, Sen relied on his Combi and Damni. To put it simply, Sen's strengths began and ended with combat and tactics. As to his capabilities of strategic analysis and implementation? Well, Sen would never say that he'd married Damni for her brains–not if he wanted to keep his insides on the inside, but he'd be banished from Transcendence if that beautiful mind of hers didn't factor into his fascination with the incredible Immortal that she was.
Blinking, he shook off the strange thoughts and returned to being thoroughly flabbergasted at his wife's debrief. Trying not to let his avatar's mouth gape like a water-dwelling creature Fish... yes Damni... fish beached on the shore. He sat on the edge of his seat in anticipation of learning precisely what Damni's interpretation of the situation would be and what he needed to do about it.
He nodded, attempting to look thoughtful and informed. "Of course. That's our chance to…"
That was as far as he got.
The fact that Sen was out of his depth had obviously not escaped Damni. She chuckled good-naturedly and smiled as she spelled it out, "All of the models point toward a lone human woman as the single most potent pivot point in the shift away from Chaos and toward stability. Assuming the chaos agent doesn't want to lose half of his Essence harvest, he will have to expunge this woman who goes on to create an organization that funds education, provides medical access, and feeding services to the victims of poverty. These very populations are the ones that historically and statistically go on to upset a given status quo of a civilization. It is the young and disenfranchised who see their 'only option' to a better future is to burn down the existing societal structures and start over to create a 'better' one. Her actions greatly reduce the number of potential victims of genocide and, thus, the total number of souls the chaos agent can harvest. She is the origin motivator who decreases and ultimately eliminates genocide in this corner of the multiverse! If the chaos agent wants to reach his goal, he needs to eliminate her."
Sen's eyes bulged out as he swallowed with a dry throat. Even he understood that the greedy bugger wasn't going to lose half of his ill-gotten gains.
We have him at last! Or at least we know where the end game was going to take place. Sen also knew that knowing where the chaos agent would have to focus his efforts would allow their Combis to once again detect his Immortal signature.
Sen tasked his Combi to track the chaos agent with Damni's data... it chimed immediately.
Sen's face went grim. The Chaotic was currently on the move. He had already expunged the young woman Damni had just told Sen about in four of the twenty-seven iterations that composed the local cuboid.
Anxiety tinged Sen's voice as he informed Damni that they were again falling behind the chaos agent. "Damni, we are almost too late! The chaos agent has started eliminating her in the nearby iterations and has already expunged–no, 'killed'... yes... killed, the female origin motivator four times!"
Damni's head jerked up, jolting her thin blue braids. With several rapid communications to her Combi, she confirmed Sen's data. Her eyes narrowed, and her thin jaw set stiffly, "The Chaotic is moving to remedy the diminishing Anima returns by forcing her death to become the native result in the rest of the local multiverse via iterational overflow! It's going to work, too, if we don't act now and save the majority of them in this cuboid!"
The principle of iterational overflow followed the concept of a simple majority. In this case, if the young female origin motivator's existence continued in a majority of the iterations that formed the local cuboid, then the native Fate of stopping genocide would continue. Even if the origin motivator were not present in the minority of iterations, in the fulfillment of time, Karma would move in all twenty-seven of the iterations of that cuboid to adopt the majority outcome. There was a saying among Immortals because of this phenomenon that 'Karma finds a way'. Regardless, simply keeping the woman alive in the majority of iterations would be enough to thwart the chaos agent's plans. That meant Sen had to save the origin motivator's life and continue her existence in at least fourteen of the twenty-seven iterations of this cuboid.
Not that I'm even going to allow things to get that far, Sen thought to himself, closing his fists so tightly his knuckles popped. I've got the cowardly bastard cornered, and it's my turn now!
As usual, Sen was running out of time. The chaos agent had already eliminated four of his targets. Sen was down to only twenty-three living young women in the local cuboid's twenty-seven iterations. It went without saying that with his imposed limitations, he could only be in one place at a time ... If Sen failed to protect this young woman ten more times, all was lost.
They needed to move fast. Sen jumped up and flew to the pilot's chair. He began to quickly flick various toggles and switches as sweat beaded his forehead.
"Sweetie…"
A voice cut through his emotional turmoil. Uh oh. That tone never works out in my favor.
Where are you going?" Damni said, too innocently.
"Huh... I'm... we're going to stop the chaos agent...Aren't we...?"
"Of course, not honey ..." Her voice lowered into the octaves that indicated Sen was in serious danger of being tragically wrong about something he was also completely unaware of. "You didn't let me finish my debrief. You did want my help after all, didn't you?" Her voice regained that deadly too-innocent quality that simply screamed a warning, 'Just try and answer this question wrong. I dare you.'
Sen did a double take at Damni's response, and she continued. "He's not directly interfering with the time stream, is he? No, he's not. You know the Principal Master's Penta Protocol as well as I do. We can only interfere in the mortal iterations to the degree that the chaos agent does. If he doesn't appear in a physical avatar, neither can we—."
"Wait, you mean he's not actually–"
"Of course not." Damni scoffed. "Based on the analysis of whatever technology has been hiding the Chaotic's movements up until this point–if he'd have taken direct action, we'd have found him long before now. Which means…"
Sen's shoulders slumped, one finger stilling against the ceiling panel that would have activated their transport. "... It means he's been using cat's paws, manipulation, and proxies."
Damni patted Sen proudly on his head. "—So far,the Chaotic is only instigating Ka dominion of mortal minds. And by possessing the minds and souls, he is having the onsite mortals kill her. Unless and until he moves directly... here we have to stay, sweetums." Damni finished with a raised eyebrow, her arms crossed over her chest.
The infrequently seen but well-known recalcitrant posture of Damni destroyed Sen's short-lived hopes with more finality than a fleet of Star Negators.
Sen dropped silently. She was right. He had no viable objection to what she had said.
Hopeless, his head banged against the console in front of him.
Sen and Damni would have to defeat the chaos agent from right here... by basically talking the nearby involved mortals through it.
Sen's head banged the console again, harder this time... He was... absolutely fucked ... Yes, fucked.