Yue

 21st January

20:42 GMT

"It's been less than a day."

I smile at Ms Thal as the thanagarian part of the party files into the Vengeance of Kalmoran's briefing room, joining those of us who journeyed downside as well as Mr Cantrell and Ms Parker whose tour was rudely interrupted.

"I am an innocent victim of circumstance." She glares. "This time."

Mr Pul makes a gesture of affirmation. "Suspicious though it is, his claim has been corroborated by the surviving witnesses."

Being a thanagarian briefing room, there aren't any seats. Instead, we're standing around a holopit as Mr Andar calls up a cut-away image of a Man-Hawk.

"As Silver Scarab observed during his impromptu field investigation, Man-Hawks have Nth metal laced bones and enhanced synaptic Nth metal deposits. Our studies of their brains suggest -and as we've never been able to interrogate or fully test one, I stress suggest- that they also have enhanced senses, proprioception and reflexes. However, in addition to their lack of arms several parts of their brains which should be responsible for higher reasoning are atrophied or shrunk."

Kara frowns. "Should be? Just because they use tools, that doesn't mean they're not sub-sophont."

Mr Hol's gaze is steady as he regards the hologram. "Sir? Have we determined their point of origin?"

"Oh come on, Mister Hol. I understand following the party line in public, but do you seriously believe that they're aliens?"

Mr Cantrell nods. "Given the physical similarities, I had been wondering if they were some sort of evolutionary throwback. But that wouldn't explain them having fewer limbs."

Ms Parker takes a step closer, her eyes slightly unfocused. The image clearly means something to her. Probably something other than a reference to Ancient Kahndaqi mythology.

Mr Pul gestures, and the Man-Hawk image is shrunk and paired with that of a thanagarian. "Though their genetics appear to.. resist analysis, studying their bodies eventually revealed that several of the Man-Hawks we examined have signs of old injuries which matched those suffered by people on the missing persons list. Our initial supposition was that someone was performing biological experiments. However, now that Orange Lantern has confirmed that they were altered by magic-."

"No, the stone detects magic. I can't tell you whether or not magic is the underlying cause."

"But you could identify the same magic again?"

"I could identify similar magic again. You'd need an actual practitioner to be sure."

Well, an actual practitioner and some of Sephtian's analytical equipment, but a practitioner could be ninety-plus percent sure.

Hector gestures at the holograms. "Why haven't you warned people about this? Or at the very least, put a garrison in your undercity?!"

"My job is to investigate threats to the state. And until recently, the Man-Hawks were sufficiently few in number that they did not meet that definition."

"The police-!"

"The police patrol downside, but have suffered an increasing level of disappearances themselves." Breath hisses through Mr Hol's teeth in response to Mr Pul's statement. Those were his colleagues. "I will be clear: the recent increase in Man-Hawk numbers, their recent brazen activity, is anomalous. And I am dealing with it." A slight -and probably staged- ruffling of his wings. "But learning who is producing them is more important in the long term than killing the ones which presently exist. A single undetected individual could travel freely and spread this menace to all parts of the Empire. And that is not something I will allow."

"You know, I'm.. pretty sure that Hyathis would-" The thanagarians present glare at me. "-lend you a few druids if you asked."

Mr Pul shuts off the hologram. "And infect us with something else." He sweeps his left wing. "And even if she would help, we would never offer her what she would demand in return. And she would not believe it if we did."

Lantern Dul glances at me, then returns her attention to Mr Pul. "It should be perfectly possible for the two of us to scan the entire Empire for these creatures in a matter of days."

"You haven't had the pleasure of running into anti-detection wards yet, have you?" She returns her attention to me. "Oh, sure, we could do it, but forget days. If the one doing this is even vaguely competent we'd be looking at months for Thanagar alone. Assuming whoever's doing this felt a desperate need to stay in one place."

"Sharon?"

Mr Cantrell lays his right hand on Ms Parker's left shoulder as she continues to stare at the holopit.

"Though it is true that Thasaro tests those who gives themselves to him,

And true that they are made stronger by it,

His joy is not in those who stand,

But in those who fall."

That's an odd.. phrasing. Ring, analyse rhyme structure of the original language.

Original language is a now-extinct thanagarian language. Verse employed a traditional rhyme structure appropriate to the language's height.

"To move closer to Thasaro by your own wing and will is to flee yourself,

To move further into the mountain-storms by his side,

And he will watch and laugh,

At all those who fall."

Our party's thanagarians are staring at her-.

"Everyone understood that, rig-?"

Mr Hol nods at me, while Mr Cantrell puts his right arm around Ms Parker's side in an attempt to reassure her in the face of something that is clearly disturbing her. Mr Pul looks at her curiously-. Oh, that's why Ambassador Klus was asking me about them. Given what's been happening on Earth recently, I suppose that it only makes sense that they'd be interested in trying to get some sort of superbeing on their side. It's a shame that none of their other religious practices survived into the present day.

"Sharon Parker, do you recognise what has been done to them?"

"Chay-ara." There's a slight.. shift in her posture. She's-. Taking into account the lack of muscular connections to her wings… That's thanagarian body language. "I think you should start calling me Chay-ara now. And yes, I remember them."

"Chay-ara, what is it? You've never mentioned-."

"It was either brain damage from the crash or I just repressed it really hard. But seeing them… These things were living memory in my time. The last hold-outs from the time of the Seven Devils." Her shoulders move as she tries to rustle her wings. "I can barely believe that they still exist. We were trying to exterminate them."

"How are they created?"

"I don’t know exactly, but it isn't complicated. A few prayers and an Nth metal knife if that's what you're actually trying to do. Usually Thasaro's followers were trying not to change, just to make themselves stronger. But in the end, that happened to all of them. Thasaro laughs at mortals."

Ms Thal gazes at her for a moment, taking in the alterations in her posture. "Do you know where they make them?"

"I know some places. We destroyed as many as we could, but some of them were built as fortresses."

Mr Pul looks mildly pleased. "Excellent news. Give us the co-ordinates and I'll assign ships at once."