The Raven's Apprentice - Chapter 29

"A lot of fuss, over a storm," Gwen said.

She stood for a moment, in the doorway, looking at everyone.

"Are you OK?" Cassie asked.

"I'm fine." Gwen smiled sadly. "I'm embarrassed and I'm sorry for the way I acted."

"It's alright," Mariah smiled back. "Family stuff can be... complicated."

"Was it just a storm?" Miranda put in. "Or did Lucius really call it up?"

"I honestly don't know," Gwen admitted, taking her seat again. "That night, it didn't matter. The belief that he could was enough to motivate Bella to act, and I'm glad she did. My time with Section 6 was... uncomfortable."

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Section 6 Research Lab, 2000

Agent Hand brought me to an office building on Magnolia Prominade, and to what I gathered to be a hidden facility under that building. 

I was given what I now know was a quick and indifferent medical examination. All I knew at the time was that I was stripped, given a simple shift and then weighed, measured, poked, prodded and stuck with needles. I was cold and afraid, but I held onto the hope that at least Cas was safe.

When they were finished, I was placed in a cold, bare cell and left alone.

For better or worse, I wasn't left alone for long.

"Ms. Gwenivar Silveroak, I must say it is rare and special honor to be in the company of one of the renowned Guardians of Glimmerbrook," he said. "You may refer to me as Doctor Key."

"Unusual name for a svartalf," I replied.

"Svartalf." Key seemed amused. "It's been a long time since I heard that particular name for my species. Here we are more commonly called aliens or Settlers. Some even, accurately in my view, call us Colonists."

"Where am I? Why am I here? What do you want from me?" I asked.

"Three excellent questions, Ms. Silveroak. I commend you," Key smiled. "You are in the custody of Section 6, a division of the Strategic Intelligence and Multinational Security Agency dedicated to monitoring and containing extraordinary threats to peace and stability. 

"As a powerful psychokinetic active you are, indeed, an extraordinary threat," Key continued. "The fact that you caused a dangerous interdimensional breach is the official cause of your containment in this facility. Incidentally, you will find your psychokinetic abilities severely limited while you are within the containment cell. We have been dealing with your kind for decades. We are very capable of restraining you.

"However, the most interesting question is your last," Key smiled. "What do I want from you? I believe you, Ms. Silveroak, are the answer that I have been seeking for years. It is you, not I, who will truly be the key that unlocks this world for my people."

"As I am sure you are aware, neither of our peoples are native to this dimension." Key took on a lecturing tone. "We have both come here from other realms. We established the Colony here decades ago, using our wormhole generators to bridge the realms. However, our wormhole generators cannot, yet, create a stable wormhole inside a planetary gravity well. Our interdimensional travel requires the use of spacecraft, and so carries with it all the considerable risks of space flight. 

"What we achieve with technology, you alfar achieve with your psychokinetic abilities... what you primitively call magic," Key explained. "We have observed that certain powerful Psychokinetic Actives are able to create wormholes between this world and your own native realm. 

"Most critical to my research, however, is the existence of the Glimmerbrook Portal... a stable wormhole," Key continued as he walked over to a strange arch within his laboratory.  "The very wormhole your people used when you, yourselves, colonized this realm centuries ago.

"Unfortunately, as you can no doubt perceive, our own attempts to create such a stable wormhole to our home dimension continue to be unsuccessful."

"You, Ms. Silveroak, are one of the Guardians of this Portal. Indeed, if my information is correct, you are the last Guardian," Key said, returning to my cell. "Your particular psychokinetic abilities allow you to maintain and control the Portal. I believe, if I can understand these abilities, I can create my own stable wormhole to my home dimension, opening a path for my people."

"You want my help?" I said, shocked. "You've got a strange way of asking."

"You misunderstand, Ms. Silveroak," Key said coldly. "I am not asking for your help. Your cooperation would simplify matters, perhaps, but it is ultimately unnecessary. I have been collecting and studying members of your species for decades, and I have rigorously documented the genetic basis of alfar psychokinetic abilities. 

"Once I have mapped your psychokinetic connection to the Glimmerbrook wormhole, I will extract from you the necessary genetic codes and graft them into an engineered hybrid. I will, in effect, create my own Guardian to stabilize this wormhole.

Key's expression turned rapturous. "With a stable wormhole to our home dimension, we will at last be able to bring through a Birth-Queen and sufficient Protectors to secure our colony."

"You're talking about an invasion," I said, stunned.

"Spare me your moral outrage," Key snapped. "I'm sure the Natives considered the arrival of the alfar and the formation of your so-called First Empire to be an invasion. We will bring peace and stability to this world."

"You're crazy!" I shouted.

"As I said," Key sneered, "your cooperation would simplify matters, perhaps, but it is ultimately unnecessary."

The Raven's Apprentice - Chapter 28

"I had fully expected to come home that night to listen to Bella shouting," Cassie said. "I'd just thought she was going to be shouting at me."

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"I want to know who authorized the containment order," Bella demanded into her phone.

"Of course, Key signed the order," Bella shouted a moment later. "Who gave Section 6 clearance to interfere in my op?! 

"No, not tomorrow. Now!" Bella continued. "Well, if you don't want to wake up tomorrow assigned to a listening post in the Arctic, you find out. No, you won't call me back. When I say now, I mean NOW!

"Damn it," Bella snarled, hanging up.

"Who?" Felix asked.

"Councilor Friend," Bella sighed.

"Damn it," Felix groaned. "Hand said he was acting on orders from the Leadership."

"Bella, what's going on?" I demanded.

So, she told me.

-------------------

"Wait, so you're not a sales rep for TransWorld?" I said, shocked. "You're a spy... for the Agency... and he's an alien?!"

"We prefer the term Settler," Felix said.

"Aliens have infiltrated the Agency," I continued. 

"We work in collaboration with our Agency partners," Felix clarified, "to promote peace and stability."

"...and they have an entire division that hunts witches?" I pressed on, undeterred.

"Section 6 monitors and contains all kinds of extraordinary threats," Felix said.

"... and these witch-hunting aliens have abducted my girlfriend?!" I shouted.

"Yeah," Felix sighed. "That's about right."

"Girlfriend?" Bella blinked.

"Kind of... maybe," I said. "I mean, I was going to ask her... if we hadn't been interrupted by an alien abduction!" 

"I checked on Alexander," Edwards said into the uncomfortable silence. "He's in bed. I've called Mr. Brown and told him at least some of what's happened. He's on his way now, but this storm blowing in is getting bad quickly. It might take him a while."

The rain had started while Felix was bringing me home. Now it was a full thunderstorm.

"The greatest weather-witch in the world," I breathed, not really sure why I said it.

"What?" Bella asked sharply.

"This man Gwen met this morning," I said. "She said he was a friend and she wanted him to help us with... a thing... but he wouldn't. She said he was the greatest weather-witch in the world. I just thought..."

"His name... did she say his name?" Bella pressed.

"Lucius..." I started.

"Tempest," Bella gasped. "She said he was a friend?"

"Yeah, but I think... from something she said, I think he might be her father," I said. "Is that possible?"

"We were so focused on the damage she might do by accident," Bella said to Felix. "We never considered what someone might do on purpose to protect her."

"It can't be him," Felix said. "He's... he's a myth."

"What are you talking about?" I said.

"Lucius Tempest is an ancient and powerful witch," Bella said. "The old druids called him Taranis the Thunderer... a mythological hero."

"Gwen said something to him about being the hero of some war," I said. "She said he destroyed Lord Sloth's fleet..."

"Lord Sloth's invasion fleet pursued Princess Cordelia after the fall of the House of Thebe," Edwards, who was something of a history buff, put in. "The fleet was destroyed by..."

"... a hurricane," Bella finished.

Outside, the storm raged.

"What are you planning?" Felix asked.

"That might just be an early winter storm blowing in off the sea," Bella said. "But, if the legends are even half true, Taranis has the power to single-handedly destroy all of Willow Creek, and the Agency just abducted his kid! We can't wait for the Committee to rescind the containment order. We need to get Gwen back tonight."

"I'm going with you," I said. "It's my fault they took her."

"Cas, it's not your fault," Bella said. "The Agency has been worried about Gwen since she arrived. She's a very powerful witch and they were concerned of what she might do if she lost control of her powers."

"...and she did just cause a dimensional breach," Felix put in.

"But that's what I mean," I said. "She didn't cause the breach. I did."

"Cas, it would take a powerful Psychokinetic Active to cause this kind of breach," Felix said. "You're a psychic sensitive but you're not an Active."

With a deep breath I stood up and called fire into the fireplace.

"You... you're..." Felix stammered before turning to Bella. "She an Active! You faked her test results."

"Of course I faked her test results!" Bella snapped. "I wasn't letting Key or Section 6 anywhere near my daughter!"

"I'm going with you," I insisted.

"Right," Bella said. "Felix, you're going to Director Bridges. Tell her everything... emphasis on the 'we just pissed off the Lord of Storms' part. We need her to back me up. Edwards, hold down the fort. Look after Alexander and bring Doug up to speed when he gets here. I'm going to Key's lab and getting Gwen."

"I said I'm going with you," I repeated.

"Go upstairs," Bella told me. Before I could object, she continued, "Get changed into something that you can move in and that won't give an opponent a way to get a grip on you. Meet me at the door in five minutes or I leave without you."

Author's Note

For the uninitiated, Princess Cordelia Thebe is a well-established historical figure in Sims lore... noted for her love of music, her furniture and her many pirate boyfriends. Her unnamed kingdom was destroyed in the otherwise largely unexplained Great Sloth Invasion. 

Me being me, I've put my own spin on this... transforming a semi-comedic invasion by Sloths into a more serious invasion by "Lord Sloth" and his armies. What can I say, I like putting my own spin on Sims lore.

Lucius Tempest is my own original character.