Diankoran Lord in the style of William Blake, as interpreted by DALL-E in February 2025.

  Chapter 40: Alien

  Special Circumstances headquarters, Mikla metropolitan area, Confluence dimension

  Year 42 of the Confluence Republic (local time)

  Finding themselves in the middle of a media storm, the SC agents responded by not responding. They moved into the headquarters, rearranging things with transmutation magics so they had some personal space, and tried to ignore Confluence society as much as they could. This involved not looking at what various acquaintances had to say about them on live shows and not watching the numerous documentaries that were produced about them. They still participated in the daily meetings with their global groups, and while some of the other group members seemed a bit overwhelmed, at least they now understood why the agents had said nothing about their work lately. None from the groups had gone public with anything. Meanwhile, the Erd author wrote Chapter 36, where the agents could read about their own meeting, and 37 and 38, which were about the book going public and Isengar and Nurgle’s reaction to it. None of this was critical to the tasks on the agents’ table, so they mostly ignored it.

  Interestingly, the conversation between Nurgle and what was presumed to be the Diankoran person Scelera Ignosce continued as if both parties were entirely unaware that what they had said so far had been published for all the world to read. This was obviously subterfuge on Nurgle’s part, who had perhaps started to understand who he was talking to; he spoke innocuously of Erd music in messages embedded in the launch of the IBM Personal Computer and Magnetic Resonance Imaging. Scelera responded in kind, embedding messages in particularly gruesome episodes from Khmer Rouge’s genocide in Cambodia and the Cultural Revolution in China, although it was not clear if this too was subterfuge or if Scelera was oblivious of what was happening in Confluence society.

  The agents were basically just waiting for something to happen, longing for something to do to get their minds off all the media attention, when a high-priority message ticked in from the Expedition headquarters. Someone was approaching the energy hoard in Erd. Sharing the surveillants’ Transmission field, the agents observed a tall and lanky creature looking rather like a crossbreed between a reptile and an insect. The creature moved carefully up the hill towards the religious building housing the energy hoard; they watched it in silence, Sophie breathing very slowly and the others holding their breaths.

  Dolores Sana moved carefully forward, hoping their obfuscation would hold. With the downfall of Mori, Dolores had been deprived of their main Council ally and would soon have to either grovel before Scelera or face expulsion from the Palace – or somehow shake up the game board. Going for the Erd hoard was a desperate gambit, but with all this energy it might be possible to change the dynamics of the losing game Dolores found themself playing. Without a shake-up, the game would anyway be lost, so why not take a risk?

  Watching the insect-reptile approach the hoard with careful but determined steps, the agents had little time to deliberate. It was a historic occasion: the first time Confluence citizens observed an alien being. Had it been possible to freeze the moment in time, one might have spent many long meetings debating what was the right course of action, but the creature was steadily moving forward and would soon be in position to take control of the hoard.

  How much did it matter at this point that the agents were hungry for some action to take their minds off other things? It would be unfair to exaggerate the influence of this factor: had it been clear that non-interference was the best path ahead, the agents would have ignored their hunger and let events play out as they wanted to. But allowing some Diankoran faction to get their hands on a trove of energy was also interference of a sort, and there were benefits to provoking some sort of response from the insect-reptile. If they could get it to talk, it would be the first time the Confluence encountered an alien language. If it set up defenses, they would get a first look at alien defenses.

  On a feeling level, an agreement started forming among the SC agents that it was time to act, but with diplomacy rather than aggression. Within half a second, they had determined that the projection of an illusion depicting an insect-reptile similar to the one they observed was both the least risky approach and the one that had the highest chance of leading to some sort of communication exchange.

  Dolores was startled to observe a being resembling themself manifesting a short distance ahead. They froze, calculating options and tactics. It would be possible to effectuate a return to the Diankoran dimension within a very short period of time, but the other party would probably notice the attempt and might react swiftly to it. Raising defenses was also possible but might be seen as hostile. Going straight for an attack might surprise the enemy, but probably not.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  The being mirrored Dolores’ smells and body noises so closely that it was obviously not real. Then foreign sounds emerged from it. Dolores, who had lived for many yugas and had partaken in many conquests of weak realms, recognized the sounds as an attempt to communicate. While not immediately recognizable, the structure of the sounds it produced resembled something encountered previously. Recognition arrived in a flash: the sounds were similar to those Dolores had heard in the Council-chamber from the beings they had infected. The beings from the dimension they were attacking. Cursing, Dolores expended a modest amount of energy to decipher the communication. It said something like, “Hello there.” In response, Dolores very carefully clicked mandibles and shifted armor pieces to produce a formal Diankoran greeting-response.

  The SC agents did not curse as they threw a variety of Divination magics on the movements and sounds from the insect-reptile. Most of the magics identified the communication as a greeting, while some others recognized a warning and yet others an outright threat. With lightning decisiveness, they agreed to follow up with the question “Who are you?”

  Dolores did not perceive any overt signs of aggression from the fake Diankoran being. It seemed feasible to use the exchange of communication as a cover for dimensional magics. As they raised energy to decipher communications, it should be possible to raise a dimensional shift at the same time – perhaps too quickly for the enemy to observe. Dolores decided the element of surprise would be strongest a few further steps into the communication, responding “Peaceful wanderer explorer, seeking foreign realms, meeting new friends.”

  “Welcome to Erd, peaceful wanderer explorer. We are the guardians of this realm, protecting it from those who want to harm it but happy to receive peaceful guests.” The agents did not have the time to study the insect-reptile magical flows in detail, but their overall structure resembled that of the magic employed to form the Diankoran shadows.

  “This realm empty, no one here, what to protect?”

  “This realm is being born and we are guarding its birth. Is it your first visit here?”

  Dolores prepared an innocuous response to what they understood to be the other party’s underlying query – why are you approaching this hoard of energy – while saying “Yes first visit, never before seen, why being born?”

  “We don’t know why. Where are you from?”

  At this point, Dolores decided that enough is enough. They raised a deciphering flow with a few extra components, then started moving as if to communicate while boosting those extra components into a full dimension shift. Dolores knew that the enemies would probably be able to trace the dimensional shift back to Diankoran, but they could probably do so from the arrival point as well, and Diankoran was anyhow well defended. If Scelera or anyone else in the Council found out what had happened, Dolores would be harshly punished, but Dolores was already in trouble, so why worry about more of that, and anyway no one should be able to trace the transgression specifically to them.

  The agents watched the insect-reptile disappear in an extremely quick dimensional flow that they would have had very little chance to interfere with. Also, even if they had the opportunity to interfere, they were not at this time prepared to take hostile actions against the creature. It would take a long time to fully understand the magics the creature had employed, but one thing was already clear: this magic resembled the full-body dimensional magic employed by Soth. Most likely, either he had learnt it from them or they had learnt it from him. After surveilling the area carefully for a while, the agents contacted the SC board, discussed the matter briefly, then jumped into Erd to study the Diankoran dimensional magic more closely. It was not difficult to identify the destination dimension specified in the insect-reptile’s magical flow.

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