Holly, Eliza and Auggie had retired to Eliza's office to compose a letter. Which left myself, Veradrimel and Solarea to figure out just what brilliant mental breakthrough Vera had stumbled upon. Even she was flummoxed. And the arcane kittens, of course. So, we retraced our steps, and put them in a more logical order.
1. Earth, after encountering an intergalactic waystation, is investigated for intelligence and is asked to join the Intergalactic Council of Worlds. No one said anything about membership fees, annual dues or costs at all.
2. Earth introduces its terrestrial brand of codified witchcraft to the universe, and soon witches become a universes-wide phenomenon.
3. Earth Sports is introduced in its most ancient, bloody form and in less than a millennium is the largest business in existence. The business conglomerate OSSS begins buying planets rich in minerals and precious metals, as well as rare resources of plants and biotech. They then turn the barren planets into stadiums.
4. The Universal Witches' Union (UWU) discovers how to capture and render harmless the universes' billions of Dangerous Things, making planets safe for their current or former inhabitants.
This last point implies that UWU deprived the OSSS of the steady stream of profitable planets with literally zero competition to minimize the extraction of planetary mineral and biological wealth, due to the prevalence of Dangerous Things living there.
Solarea, looking through the documents provided by Auggie, threw them on the table, where they slid, knocking several biscuits off their serving plates. This woke the kittens, who pursued both biscuits and paper with a single-minded purpose: shredding, devouring or both.
"The Council does not reveal either the nature of the debt or, stranger still, the exact amount."
"If you ask me," Vera replied, "they're just lying about the debt."
"They can't just...I mean, no one can...how would they...arrrrgh!" I grumbled. Yes, it shook the entire room. Probably in several dimensions. But I didn't care. "This is so unfair!"
"What's worse is that there's nothing here about the History of the Intergalactic Council – no stories of its founding; no minutes of its meetings, no charter of organization, no statement of its laws and purposes, its goals or failures. Nothing." Solarea shook her head. The most important organization of worlds and universes in history – and it has no historical records."
"There must be records of other worlds 'owing' the IGC money," I noted. "That's a matter of public record."
"Nope," my sister answered. "Earth is the first in over 150,000,000 years."
"You know," Vera said, "Just because we can't find any information at West Throckmorton, it doesn't mean there's no information anywhere else. A regular library, maybe?"
"Are you suggesting that someone is deliberately blocking us from accessing the information?" I asked, growing angrier by the minute. The kittens surrounded me, demanding to be pet.
Solarea had her phone in her hand. "Hello, Millie? Hi, it's Sola. Yes, that's right. I sit in front of you in History class. Can you try to look up a history of the ICW? If you find something, could you screenshot it all and send me your photos? I'm getting bad reception here. And anything on the planets held by the OSSS would be super cool. Thanks, you're a sweetheart."
When we all saw the photos a few moments later, I was furious. There was a blocking spell on our library – which meant all the other Watcher-specific libraries had one too. Turning to Veradrimel, I asked if there was anything in common all Watcher libraries had, and would the spatial frequency be identical.
She thought for a moment, then nodded. "I'm pretty sure every one of them has a special edition All-Beverage Dispenser made by Witches' Brew Goddess Inc. Oh, that's brilliant!"
Wand out, she announced, "Repeat after me, Fluffster, and Solarea after you. Like a roundelay. Keep it up until it cracks."
"Break the spell, Restore the sound,
This block spell we now tear down.
Renew the flow, the blow reflect;
The Caster's will, we do reject.
In our defense, we didn't know just how far that block spell's influence sphere went. So, when it cracked, there was spell dust everywhere. Even in the rest rooms. And every other location in the Milky Way Galaxy that had a Witches' Brew Goddess special edition All-Beverage Dispenser.
Have I mentioned that Veradrimel is a prodigy? She's named after 3 of her most famous Aunts: Veraloy, Adrielle and Melisande. Holly was beaming and Eliza, of course, was steaming. Auggie just kept saying 'Awesome!'
I was looking over the photos Solarea's friend had sent and found what I had feared.
"Ah, guys? You might want to see this." I handed the photo to Eliza, who shared it with the others. It was a lot to take in, and the implications for the Intergalactic Council of Worlds were dire. And we'd just blown the block spell that was keeping everything hidden to smithereens.
Elder Holly, who despite her age was always the most sensible one of us, went to put on more tea. The list of planets that were currently under the control of the OSSS, through its control of the ICW, was in the millions. When the Universal Witches' Union came into being, the number dropped by 40 percent. Most of those were worlds that had been taken into the OSSS' trusted care until the DTs problem could be addressed.
The Watchers had lost the OSSS its control and the raw materials of over 600,000 planets. No wonder they wanted to get rid of us. Earth's witches – and the hundreds of thousands of trainees across the universes – were a direct threat to their control of, well - everything. And everyone.
"Mom," pleaded Solarea, "What can we do?"
"First, we must get all the books to safety. Then, we need to inform all the Watchers, everywhere – warn them who the enemy is, what we're facing, then..."
A very loud, boisterous, and unswervingly cheerful voice boomed over every loudspeaker in the library.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, Xes and Xems and those who don't fit into any gender or just don't give a damn, you better have my drink ready before I touch down in your teensy-weensy woods. Holly, have the Strawberry Mollusk Mojito ready and waiting, okay, my sweet-fingered Nana? All is not lost when your heart is still beating, my beauties! Make sure that library door is open because I've brought presents!"
"How did she...we just...m-m-minutes ago...h-h-how?" stammered an astonished techno-mage.
Eliza was wearing a sky-spanning grin. "She's Amber, that's how. Get a move-on, Hol – she doesn't like waiting."
YOU ARE READING
The Intergalactic Watchers of Dangerous Things
Ciencia FicciónThe West Throckmorton (UK) Library holds a secret - it's an Intergalactic storage facility for dangerous creatures, magically kept in its tens of thousands of books. But there are those who would release its frightful inhabitants upon Earth. Enter t...
