BECMI Chapter 269 – The Code of the Black Rose Spreads

“Mister Glaufson, please have a seat,” I waved him to a floating chair there.His soft cap crushed into large hands used to working a plow or wielding a shovel, the big farmer hesitantly and a bit gingerly took his place across from me. The office was spartan, well-lit, with wooden tones, bright light, and an ebony desk wrought with ornate crimson roses and dark vines, totally in keeping with my character and known colors.

I stayed on trope for a reason. The place exuded discipline and efficiency, and hidden power, not wealth and glitz and glamour.

“Have you been informed as to why you are here, Mister Glaufson?” I asked for openers, calm and supportive without being pushy. That I was a bit overwhelming and famous was a given, and he was completely in awe, but I could buttress his determination with a touch of in my words, so he found himself answering with spirit.

“Uh, no, ma’am, Lady Edge, ma’am,” the former soldier replied. “I just know two of my old mates are keeping my farm down while I was sent here at the king’s orders, while I’m to take care of business and return as quickly as possible.” He was more than a little confused.

“Excellent, you shouldn’t know a damn thing before you get here. Proper discipline. You remember how important that was.”

“Ma’am, yes, ma’am,” he acknowledged quickly. He’d seen enough over the last few years with the changes and advances in Darkmoor to appreciate tight information discipline. Letting some of the knowledge here out could be very dangerous, he was certain.

“You are here today under royal orders, and all that is relayed to you will be held under . This is a mandatory order, direct from the King. Do you accept the responsibility of what you are about to learn, Sergeant Glaufson?” I asked him, very seriously.

He looked at my ebon and ruby eyes, and swallowed. “I do, ma’am, and am hoping that I don’t regret it!” he was not slow to add.

“It is definitely a mixed blessing,” I assured him. “You are about to join what is being called, quite tongue-in-cheek, as the Order of the Black Rose. You’ve certainly heard about the men getting the Tats from me. You are about to join them.”

“Uh, yes, ma’am.” There was a whole lot of concern about what the Tats were all about, but it was just waved off as a special recognition or reward, and nobody said more of it.

He was already under with his agreement, so I just went on. “Sergeant, another thing you’ve not heard of are the Code Black protocols. Let me show you something.”

I flicked up an illusion between us. It was of us, this very room, and I pulled it back and outside to show the quietly elegant Black Rose Hall that stood near the outer walls of Darkmoor University. What went on in here was naturally of great curiosity to those outside, as only the elites of the kingdom came in and out regularly, and normal folks escorted within changed their lives.

The view drew back, and back as the former soldier leaned in with fascination, showing the university and quarter, then all of Darkmoor City and its surroundings, back and back to show the surrounding lands, then the nation entire and countries and territories he’d both ridden and hopped Circles through in service to his king to visit.

And then a light came down from the sky in a slow and deadly arc, and it blew up.

His jaw dropped in horror as fire tore apart the nation, and waves of fire scorched everything for scores of miles, while cyclonic winds ripped the world asunder for hundreds of miles beyond.

What was left beyond was a transformed world, a great crater with the sea flooding in where once the nation had been, and nothing left of Darkmoor at all.

“This… is the trigger event for Code Black. Its appearance is a guess. But we know it is coming.” He looked to me, his face ashen, questioning. “Yes, it is coming. We don’t know exactly when. We don’t know exactly how. But this is the Doom of Darkmoor, it is coming, and we cannot stop it.

“We can only prepare for it.” I fixed him with my eyes. “You, Sergeant, are part of those preparations now.”

He swallowed again. “Begging your pardon, Lady Edge,” he whispered hoarsely, “but how does one prepare for he asked.

“Fire removes all traces of flight. We run, Sergeant Glaufson,” I stated matter-of-factly. “The explosion covers the fact we are doing it. We run very far away from those who are doing this to us, and we survive.

“We cannot run NOW. If we try, we bring disaster upon those here and there alike. We are preparing a place on the Far Shore, readying a refuge for tens of thousands of our citizens and more.

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“You’ve heard of the people offered a chance to move to a new land?” He nodded hesitantly. “We have several of them, colonies here and there about the world.” I flipped up a globe, displaying the continents and waters of the whole planet. He’d seen them before, they were common items of interest to everyone, even if not all the lands they represented were known.

“There are a dozen Far Shore colonies. Most of them are just covers for the true emigration taking place, trading ports we’ve opened for settlement for the ambitious as we expand Darkmoor’s name and legend, exactly as we are supposed to, puffing up on our own good fortune and arrogance.

“But when it comes time, all those colonies will die, too. Our enemies will make sure of it.”

“Enemies, Lady Edge?” he asked, his face turning grim. “Who is doing this to us?”

I eyed him frankly. “The only ones who can, Sergeant Glaufson. The Immortals themselves.”

His jaw dropped in horror at my statement. I could only nod at him.

“Fire covers all tracks,” I repeated to him. “They are going to arrange the utter elimination of Darkmoor and what it is becoming as a threat to themselves, their power, and their status. If we want to survive, we run.

“And that is why you are here, Sergeant Glaufson. Guilty or innocent, you and your family will die with everyone else when the Doom comes. As you could see, the Immortals did not care. , when they decreed it so.”

His big fists tightened. “What do I have to do?” he asked, grimacing.

“First, you will never curse the Immortals for this.” He actually blinked in shock. “They might hear, Sergeant. You will give them normal platitudes, but those platitudes are nothing without belief. Without faith, they mean you are falling from them, but all that tells them is that you do not believe in them, which is fine. Perhaps you are moving on to another Immortal, perhaps you’ve just lost faith and become a cynic, but you will curse the Immortals for this.”

He could feel the order set into his bones. “Yes, ma’am,” he acknowledged roughly. “What else?”

“You are going to receive a Black Rose Mark. There are distinct benefits to receiving one, which, again, you shall not talk about, and you will learn more once you do. The biggest of them is this: When the Code Black order is issued, the Mark will transport you and up to a dozen others with you to the Portal through Time of the Thisbean Inn, so that you can evacuate with your family to the Far Shore.”

His eyes widened, darting to the which I’d shrunken down and was off to the side now slowly replaying what was going to happen now. “And fire hides all traces…” he repeated in understanding.

I smiled at him coldly, in mutual understanding. “Exactly, Sergeant,” I encouraged him.

“How long do we have?” he asked carefully, dreading to hear the words.

“At the very minimum, three decades. If we are horribly lucky, five.” He almost slumped in relief. “Yes, we are preparing a LONG time in advance, Sergeant. You will hopefully be an old man and a grandfather of many children by the time we invoke Code Black… and your sons and daughters might be Black Roses themselves, if you raise them well and true, and can take their families along with them, too.

“We have thousands of families to save, of all the peoples in the Kingdom. This process is going to continue for decades. I hope in time to Mark your children, as you have earned the right to be Marked, and when the Code Black comes, to see you all on the Far Shore.”

The former Royal Marine let out a long, slow breath. “I’ll make ready when the time comes, Lady Edge! I promise the king I’ll be ready!” he swore fervently, knuckles cracking as he raised a fist.

“Excellent.” I rose from my own Disk-chair and glided around the desk, lifting a black-stalked, crimson-petaled rose from the window as I did so. “Lay back on your chair while I inscribe the Mark upon you.” A gentle wave of TK sent him leaning backwards as his Disk-chair remolded itself, staying wrapped to him and elevating his feet comfortably. His rough-woven wool shirt peeled open and back as if made of water, revealing a hairy muscular upper torso losing muscle definition in place of comfortable fat, but a different kind of strength still definitely existing in there. “The king also orders you to have a large family, be a good husband, a loving father, a strong role model, and show the valor and stout heart you displayed as one of his Marines.”

He had one of those embarrassed expressions men get when dealing with uncomfortable subjects, but he couldn’t help but smile broadly when I bent down and placed a kiss on his forehead. The smile was still on his snoozing face as black ink swirled up out of the floating flower pot from the jet black stems of the rose plant growing there, and I began to both Mark and Runemark him.

I had been spending a LOT of Karma on increasing the frequency use of the Rune of Spells, which was nominally restricted to once per week. I was a bit hampered by the fact that it had to build on a foundation of equal investment in the Runes below it, which meant a lot more uses of the lesser Runes, too.

Hardly a bad thing, of course.

A one-shot to a pre-selected location was not hard to do, and the winding stems of the Rune easily hid the Mark among the leaves and petals, too.

The default was a Rune of Wisdom, which helped immeasurably with the decisions average people had to make over the course of their lives. It would slowly increase in power over time, especially as they followed orders/were given minor Quests, accomplished them, and worked towards a higher Cause… all without needing copious violence to accomplish, yet more important than any one fight could be.

I could make exactly two of these a day, which the Cryptomancers back in Zanzyr would likely not even believe was possible. Well, except Belle. Upgrading my Sims to do the same wasn’t that difficult, and so we quietly had Marks and Rose Tats going onto eligible men and women of all races around the kingdom, preparing for Code Black.

The leaders of those races benefited a whole lot from the Wisdom boost, keeping silent on what we were doing, misdirecting the public intentions, encouraging families, looking for Good people to send along, making efforts to carefully preserve knowledge and culture that wasn’t tied to the Immortals. The dwarves in particular were quietly sending feelers down south to spread the Black Rose there, knowing what was coming.

In this world, at least, Clangyr wasn’t going to be getting near the numbers of brainwashed subjects He thought He was…