Season 3: Episode 7 – The Line We Cross
This series contains mature themes and is intended for adult listeners.
POV: Bryn Tal
Peace was restored to Baliya Island.
The remaining humans were taken from the island, implanted with technological nomen chips from Thantos so we could communicate, and placed across Landoris in environments suited to them.
We did what needed to be done.
I sat now at my desk in my office at the Council Hall in Teithia. We returned about a week ago.
Dahlfia sat by the door reading.
The quiet should have felt like relief. It didn’t.
Jeston’s words kept circling around in my mind. Specific points in time. Specific people. You could aim it. Not random.
The Porta Segreta was never a door to another world. It was a targeting system.
I watched Dahlfia, immersed in whatever it was she was reading.
We now control the Porta Segreta, Landoris, and Teithia.
Or so it would seem.
Strange anomalies continued to surface—small at first, but persistent—off-world traces where there should have been none.
How far had Emperor Daxingovan reached into our collapse?
His deal. His timing.
Mallaidh’s dying words.
The vision of him bringing Dahlfia forward. Her memory of them saying, “Not the one with the blue hair.”
The reports about Kylah in Che’el de Velg’lan, carefully placed, perfectly timed, meant to fracture us from within.
None of it felt separate anymore.
Our control was an illusion.
And illusions only hold until someone decides to break them.
A knock came at the door, and Oswalt peeked his head in as Dahlfia looked up.
“Bryn, the council is assembled and ready for you.”
I entered the Council Hall behind Oswalt, and Dahlfia trailed behind me.
We moved up to the dais, and I took the leader’s seat. Oswalt moved to the podium to open the meeting with updates and reports as usual. Dahlfia sat behind me.
All our chairs sat in a circle facing inward so we could see each other as we talked. I preferred this to Mallaidh’s setup with the dais and everyone else below, arranged like an audience.
Oswalt stood at the podium and confirmed what we already knew.
“The portal is shut down. No new arrivals. Jeston reports the systems are stable and have been scanned for any infecting code.”
None of us knew what that meant. We accepted it anyway.
“Jeston’s former team has been returned to Baliya Island to work under him again, protecting and monitoring the Porta Segreta.”
He paused only briefly before continuing.
“The Porta Segreta can be directed, programmed to pull people from specific points in time, with specific traits or other criteria.”
The room broke.
Voices rose over one another. Chairs shifted against the stone. Feet moved without purpose as councilors searched for something steady that was no longer there.
Myr stood up. “I think we should use it to give us an advantage. We’re up against something we’ve never come up against before. We need every resource.”
One of the new human councilors, Botildis Larsdotter, said, “Using that monstrosity is what brought us all here in the first place, ripping my people and me from our homes and families. Innocent people.”
Another commotion broke out, and I glanced up to Awyr standing quietly at the edge of the dais, watching, and to Dahlfia behind me. They were the only two holding the room.
Feeling grounded, I stood up. “Emperor Daxingovan didn’t promise us peace. He didn’t promise us limits. His contract says nothing about not attacking us or taking control of Landoris.”
Myr nodded at my words. “He’s got technology that Thantos cannot yet match. We have reports that he is buying Thantos technology as well, likely to reverse-engineer it all. You saw his army, the structure, the scope, the restraint. To the Emperor, we are not a threat because we are ten steps behind him.”
Awyr spoke without moving. “You are not ten steps behind him.”
Everyone quieted. “You are already within his grasp.”
Her eyes scanned our silent faces. “A Velg’lan has been compromised.”
No one moved.
“And if a Velg’lan is compromised, that means he is already in this room,” I added.
Myr sat back down and said, “We have a powerful tool. We cannot afford to be afraid to use it.”
Eiryn, the newly elected councilor from Linton, Gaffdyn’s former seat, said, “This sounds too much like the line Mallaidh and Murithir were already crossing.”
Awyr didn’t move but spoke up again. “This isn’t about greed or even what you want. You are still speaking as if this is a choice.”
The room went silent again.
“It is not.” Her voice revealed no emotion, but we felt it. “You have already been seen. Studied. Entered.”
Her words made my skin crawl with the truth that lay beneath them, but now I was glad I had invited her today.
I took a deep breath, remembering a time when I was silent and shouldn’t have been. I would not fail this time.
I was about to make more decisions that impacted more lives, for better or worse.
“We can pull over a controlled number, just enough to help us resist Emperor Daxingovan and slowly remove or sabotage his influence over Landoris. We will look for specific skill sets. One group will be an organized military. And the second group will be strategists, great thinkers, and people who are adaptable and flexible.
I pointed to a report Oswalt was now passing out to each of them. “We have information from the medics that the testing they were doing with genetic nomen chips works and appears to have no unwanted side effects, so we can make the injection happen while they are coming into the Porta Segreta.”
Botildis spoke up again, “So we are again plucking lives from Earth without regard to their families or homes?”
“No, I propose that we only pull humans that are about to die, not ones dying of old age or sickness, or who are unable to help us. This way, we are not pulling them away from anything they wouldn’t have already been pulled away from.”
Botildis spoke up again, “Unless they happen to believe in an afterlife, but I do think that’s a better option.” She still looked unhappy but accepted.
“We will give them one more stop before their afterlife.”
No one spoke.
Because there was nothing left to argue.
We had done what we said we would not do.
The decision had been made.
The line had been crossed.
No one argued.
No one stopped it.
We didn’t lose control.
We chose this.
> End Porta Cor imprint.<
Read the next episode.