“They always come back.”

***The Eternal Battlefield***

***Nova***

“What did he mean by lap-dance?” Zane crosses his arms in front of his chest and glares at me as if I had just jumped another man directly in front of him. He taps his foot onto the ground and narrows his eyes, obviously displeased at something.

For a moment, I don't get what's wrong, but then I understand. “Are you jealous?” After watching his facial reactions, I am sure. “You really are jealous!”

“Don't I have the right to be!?” he snaps back.

“No,” Fae answers without hesitation. “Fin was talking about this Gwiaha, not about Nova.”

She turns her attention back to me. “And we are not going to kill my other relatives! I don’t have an emotional connection to them, but we are not going to randomly kill off strangers! Especially not if they belong to the royal line of the elven kingdom! Killing Fin is bad enough, but he tried to kill us, so I can forgive that.”

Brian covers his mouth with one hand, trying to hide his expression. “I don't think that it's that easy. Nova obviously has the ability to take over another's mind. Now I am actually afraid of her.”

Great. It wouldn't be so bad to play a little with Zane's emotions, but I if I don’t nip this developing argument in the bud, I might get a problem. Momentarily I don’t feel so well. My head still hurts and my body feels like I have bruises all over. It's enough that I had a public argument with Janice right before she presumably went on a suicide mission. My heart squeezes a little at the thought of losing her. Damn emotions.

“You don't have to worry, Zane. You will always stay my one and only, absolute best, boytoy. I never actually controlled Gwiaha when she had a tumble with Fin. It doesn't work like that with sleeper agents.” Seeing their confused faces, I continue to explain, “The cursed daggers create a connection to Illum's control network. It's kind of bad and evil, but I promise that everyone who suffered that fate tried to kill me, or did something that was deserving of a serious punishment.

“I can sense what the sleeper agents experience, but they stay in control over their bodies. I can see through their eyes and hear through their ears. They also kind of make their own decisions, though I can slip thoughts into their minds to nudge their decisions in one direction or the other. The transferred hex is limited in that regard. If I do take full control, they know that something is wrong. You saw how Alias flipped out when I released him.”

I look at Zane. “I can promise you that I was never with another man, since my time as a slave that is. What Fin was talking about was Gwiaha, not me.” There he has it, a perfectly white lie. Just for him.

Though I have to admit that I gave her the idea to seduce Fin. Maybe I also told her what certain men are into.

And I watched, enjoying it. Passively taking a ride on her sensations is at least as pleasurable as doing it myself.

Oh, and I humped that kinky girl, using that student’s body. She was cute and it was nice to be on the other side of the fence again. Too bad that I killed that body. I should have preserved it for future misadventures.

Now that I think about it, my deeds are all kinds of fucked up. Am I that much of a cheat? I better don't mention those slip-ups to Zane. Yeah... none of that happened with my natural body, so I didn't really do it. It’s like watching a good porn. That’s all.

I can live with that.

Zane narrows his eyes. “There is something you aren't telling us.”

Damn! He is getting better at reading me.

“Nah. I was just thinking about how I used Gwiaha and Alias to drop some hints for Fin, which ultimately resulted in his betrayal of the other reincarnated in his group. I just didn't anticipate that he would meddle with the spell. It almost got all of us killed.” I wave my hand, bringing Illum's secondary systems online.”

If I build a warship, I do it right. That means secondary and tertiary backup systems for every vital component.

“When Gwiaha's gathered intelligence showed me the scope of the political web and intrigues in this world, I decided that fighting everyone head on wouldn't change anything, or it would take decades, maybe centuries of lurking through the shadows. It wouldn't work out to simply assist one power in conquering all the others, so I decided to help things along. They already had their differences before I poked a finger into their festering wound of hatred. As long as they were fighting each other, they wouldn't realize that they were slowly nudged into a position where I could do them in all at once.”

The room tilts back into a horizontal position and the external view shows how the sphere lifts back into the air. Some dirt and rocks fall off the battered surface of the structure, but the hull kept its shape. It was worth the time to strengthen the entire structure with metal. Illum’s civilian part would have been busted into a thousand pieces from such a crash.

“The necropolis was a final piece to gain their attention, but I knew that it wouldn't be enough for all of them to gather in one place. That's why I infiltrated the elves and gave them all the pieces to easily deal with the pyramid. Though, I couldn't make it too easy, since I had to make them work together. The suggestion to take over the pyramid had to come from one of their own. Additionally, the plan had to be hard to achieve alone. It needed the cooperation of several countries so that it would ensure that at least some of my opponents are within the blast radius of the weapon.”

Tristen shakes his head, fighting with his conflicting emotions. “Aside from the fact that we have to search for Janice… why are you suddenly so carefree with sharing information. Things could have gone a lot smoother if you had just involved us in your plans.”

I close my eyes and sigh. “I had to be careful. You got a glimpse of my own spy-network. I can’t even imagine what possibilities the others might have. That’s why I never mentioned the vital details of my plan. Everyone knew that I was up to something, but they had no clear idea of my goals. I couldn’t trust anyone. Just imagine what would have happened if just one reincarnated found out about my plan? They would have joined their forces and crushed me.”

“You should have kept your mouth shut a little longer.”

A familiar voice vibrates through the room and I feel myself stiffen. Without warning, the whole room shakes and reality seems to twist around me. The walls fall apart and we land roughly in the desolate landscape of the recently nuked battlefield.

Brian draws his sword and turns, searching for enemies. “What happened?”

I slowly get to my feet and try to ignore my aching body. Several warnings are blinking in my field of vision, reporting the status of Illum’s control system. “Somebody hacked Illum’s controls and activated one of the safety features. The whole room was teleported outside.”

Out of nowhere, a mirror-like portal opens and Rufus steps through it, followed by Sirra and Jules. The technician is holding the spell projector in his hands and has a smug expression on his face. “I told you. Hopefully, you will believe me now that Nova has to be dealt with.”