Flashing lights at a certain frequency and wavelength were also used by cyborgs going after magic users, but they weren’t doing it in that moment.

  He managed to get off a second bolt of lightning that again, failed to overload their shield systems. It seemed the best option, using fire or plasma was just asking to burn down the room, if not the building. A nimbus of force left the bed from Riesa’s device, and slammed into the female at the last second. It didn’t break her shield either, but it did redirect her momentum so that she’d land next to the bed.

  His heart was pounding hard in a staccato beat, as he fought for his life and the women at his side.

  The man fired the laser in his left hand as he landed with a sharp kick, and then a hard punch.

  His shield strained but held. Cyborgs could hit hard, much harder than concentrated light, or even exploding plasma. He had to assume at that point, since their shields were so strong and they were fast and incredibly strong physically, that they were almost all synthetic. Probably from the neck down, and to look so real they had to be filthy rich assassins, very successful mercenaries, or very high-level government agents of some kind. Most cyborgs looked like cyborgs, and they couldn’t afford that level of technology.

  The shields were already coruscating against each other, as the assassin sat on his. Shields were also one of his fortes, so he didn’t even hesitate to launch a sustained lightning bolt, tuning his shields to absorb the inevitable feedback which would only make them stronger.

  The female operator was hardly down and out, and in that moment, she’d adjusted and started to fire her weapon and kick at the side of the shields. She’d obviously been hoping to kick the shield and them off the bed and into the wall, but he had it wrapped around the whole bed. The room filled with the sound of wood dragging against wood, as the bed slammed into the dresser. Given they only slid on the soft sheets a foot or so on impact, there was no brain shaking going on.

  The third cyborg was almost certainly fast enough to have arrived at the party by now, so he assumed the third was their lookout and standing ready to stop anyone that tried to interfere.

  His lightning took down the male’s shields finally, and the cyborg landed on his shield and started to fry because he’d tuned it to absorb the lightning which also made it deadly to the touch. Something he didn’t usually do, but they’d left him little choice. His magic also verified what he already knew, the man above them was pure technology save the brain encased in the synthetic head. He looked real though.

  The second nimbus of force that Riesa launched took him in the chest, and he shot across the room and slammed into the wall. He didn’t move, the shield had completely shorted out his systems without his shield as protection.

  He looked at the woman who had a hateful look of venom and murder in her eyes as she continued to pound on his shields.

  Almost any magic user would’ve lost by then, under her continuing punishing assault, but he was a celestial knight, and had a lot more magic at his beck and call than most. He was also lower on magic than he liked and had to put the bitch down fast.

  He put his hand on Riesa’s and modified the energy leaving the device, adding a potent electrical charge that manifested in a ball lightning. With the first one down, he knew exactly how much energy to put into it, and to tune it to be most effective. The assassin was hit with both that and the nimbus of pure kinetic force the device usually fired, sending her flying back against the wall while her systems started to short out.

  He’d have loved to have question them, but all their life support for that brain was based on technology. Technology that he’d just trashed to save their lives. Both cyborgs were down now, for good. It made them formidable, and harder to kill, but a cyborg with replaced arms, legs, eyes, and other discrete systems wouldn’t have died if their tech or power source failed. It made them almost impossible to capture alive, because if they were alive, then they had active and formidable weapons tech. There was no one without the other in a complete synthetic upgrade.

  Riesa said, “That felt amazing, how did you do that?”

  He just winked, explanations would have to wait.

  Mostly because number three had just tossed six active grenades into the room, no doubt driven to act when he detected his partners going offline. Dacen was powerful, but the two cyborgs had taken most of his magic in their powerful frontal assault, and he’d need time to recover. On top of that, even at full power he wasn’t sure he’d be able to take the explosive power of six grenades, that were each as powerful as about five of those plasma pellet shots each.

  They had a few seconds for the fuses to count down and ignite, so he closed his eyes and cleared his mind, then teleported everything inside the shield. He hated leaving a party early, but them sticking around for the end seemed like a really bad idea.

  He was sure it was quite a shock for the guards as a king-sized bed filled with a naked guest, a naked sister, and another naked woman appeared in the temple. Fortunately , they didn’t seem to run services in the middle of the night.

  He pulled up the sheet quickly, to cover the ladies’ most salient features. During the fight, it’d been pushed down around their waists.

  He chuckled at the look of mortification on Leanne’s face, which he’d no doubt have to pay for later. He couldn’t really help it, at the rush of still being alive as the adrenaline energized him with no one left to fight. He turned to one of the guards with a casual lilt in his voice.

  “So, assassins in my room. Sorry about this, but it was the first room that came to mind big enough to hold a king-sized bed and far enough away from the room. We got two of them, but a third cyborg is still on the loose. Extremely dangerous, a full synthetic upgrade.”

  The men stared, mostly at the nipple bumps Leanne was causing in the sheet he thought, which he had to admit were quite impressive standing on those vast mounds of delightful flesh.

  Leanne rolled her eyes, “Clothes, and an alert would be nice. There’s an assassin on the loose in the temple, if you didn’t hear Celestial Knight Black’s words.”

  The guard seemed to snap a little straight, “Yes, sister Leanne. At once.” And turned his body while he started to talk low over his earpiece.

  Of course the man recognized her, what man wouldn’t? Her face, he meant.

  One thing was for sure, they were going to need a new suite. Six grenades must’ve destroyed the master bedroom, and probably all the rooms around it. The advanced fire suppression technology in the building would no doubt prevent further damage to a spreading fire.

  He felt a little strange in the black robes of a cleric, but it was all that they had. They were fabricating a replacement of all his clothes, Daisy had sent them the designs, but it would take a few hours. It was only about midnight, so they hadn’t been asleep very long before the assassins had infiltrated the room.

  A cleric walked into the room, or the ranking equivalent of one, Calvin was the leader of their internal security force for the temple.

  Calvin frowned as he sat down, and he studied the three of them for a moment.

  “You’ll be out of here shortly, and you’ll be in a new suite. We haven’t found the third assassin yet, but I don’t think that’s a problem. The three of them had wetware that made them ghosts to our security scanners.

  “But we were able to identify the two dead ones based on your descriptions. The grenades didn’t leave enough of them behind for an I.D. Anyway, it looks like they were part of the Ambassadorial party from the confederacy. Which leaves a lot of questions unanswered, as to why they tried to kill you.

  “Regardless, I don’t think they’ll be a problem because a confederate ship left orbit an hour ago now, and it seems likely the third assassin is on it. They obviously decided they weren’t going to stick around to answer questions, and they were scheduled to leave in the morning. So, no flags were raised by the rest of the group returning to their ship and preparing for departure yesterday evening.

  “So, can you think of any reason they’d want you dead?”

  He nodded slowly, but it was Leanne that answered.

  “The last thing the confederates would want is the two other interstellar governments growing closer. That would put them at a disadvantage politically, and perhaps threaten their sovereignty at least in their minds if they feared us joining forces against them. Preventing the treaty was probably their aim. Especially since they’d rejected the prelate’s offer.”

  Leanne left off the idea that it had probably been someone internal to the communion that had tipped them off to the danger. One of Prelate Aria’s enemies must’ve had agents on New Blessing. It seemed obvious to him anyway, the Leshien’s wouldn’t have acted so precipitously without some kind of internal support. The fact the ship was getting away clean just verified that in his mind.

  It was a clever approach, all the blame on a third party, but he knew it was actually Prelate Aria’s enemies and the expansionists that wanted him dead, and the treaty stopped. He was sure they’d found sympathetic ears in the Leshien ambassador.

  As to the prelate offering something similar to the confederacy, he wasn’t all that surprised. That would’ve been another nineteen worlds to send her missionaries to. In the end, that was her business, but he’d be sure to include it in his mission report. It even made sense given her goals and ambitions, to spread the word of the goddess to all human planets.

  He wondered why the confederacy said no. Probably their dislike of magic and magic users in general, no doubt the missionaries will be wizards and healers.

  But Leanne wasn’t wrong. The treaty wasn’t mutual support or alliance, but it was the first step in that direction. That would make any government nervous, he thought. Especially if Aria’s enemies exaggerated the danger when betraying and working against their prelate’s wishes for the future.

  Calvin replied, “I figured it must be something like that, but we have no proof of it.”

  He shrugged, “I can’t think of another reason. Even if I was a marked man in the confederacy, which I’m not, they wouldn’t burn down political bridges between your governments just to take down one kingdom celestial knight agent. The stakes would have to be high to risk making you their enemies.”

  Calvin nodded, “Maybe, or they were so arrogant they thought their assassin team could take you down without leaving a trace. If you hadn’t fought them off and escaped the last agent, they would’ve succeeded in that.”

  He nodded reluctantly, admitting that arrogance was a possibility for taking such a risk. Just not likely.

  In the end they had no proof either way, and he also didn’t think it overly mattered. The results were the Leshien’s had failed to kill him and prevent the treaty from going forward.

  The Leshien’s leaving didn’t mean he was safe. If anything, it meant that Aria’s internal enemies would just get desperate and try harder. He’d have to remain vigilant.

  “Dacen,” Daisy said in a wheedling tone of voice.

  He rolled his eyes as he emptied his bladder, but to be fair this was probably the first time he’d been alone since the last time she’d bugged him about it. At least she hadn’t been harping at him while he was with the others.

  It was early, not even sunup, but he’d managed to get a few more hours of sleep after the three of them had worked off the adrenaline crash. The new suite was almost identical to the old one, though the artwork was subtly different it was still surrounding the same theme. The one goddess.

  He was getting ready for his early breakfast with Prelate Aria. He’d let Riesa sleep, but Leanne had showered with him and was getting dressed in the other room, since she was his escort.

  “What is it, Daisy?”

  Daisy sighed, “You need to open up to me, Dacen. You’re an explosion waiting to happen, and you’re hiding something about your indiscretion with Daniella. Work with me, I’m trying to make up for my mistakes, none of this is your fault.”

  He rolled his eyes like an annoyed teenager. She really did bring out the worst in him.

  He couldn’t open up, didn’t even know how, and he’d risk exploding if he did. The ball of rage in his chest wouldn’t just go away if he talked it out. Hell, he wasn’t even sure what he was so angry about all the time, he just knew he had to control it. Poking at it sure as hell wouldn’t help or be wise. If he lost control people could die, and he couldn’t allow that to happen.

  As for what he was hiding, he’d sooner die than share it, and in the end, it wasn’t anything that would reveal misconduct. It wasn’t really about him at all, in truth.

  His voice was angrier than he liked, but still had the general air of casual confidence it usually did.

  “Enough, Daisy. There’s nothing to tell, and I’ve got it under control.”

  Daisy replied, “Barely. You need to trust me, you don’t have to live the way you have been, it’s not too late to heal and learn to accept and feel love.”

  He snorted, “I have to go.”

  He was in a bad mood when he left the bathroom, but the warm smile on Leanne’s face as she handed him a coffee soothed it partially.

  “Thought you might like a coffee.”

  He smiled, “Thanks… before breakfast?” His tone a little teasing, as if saying he’d be having coffee soon enough anyway.

  She laughed, “Yes, you should have your wits about you before you share morning coffee with the prelate.”

  He chuckled, and then surprised her with a warm but mostly chaste kiss.

  “Thanks, Leanne.”

  She winked, “No problem. It’s all part of the service.”

  They didn’t have a lot of time, so he cooled it just enough that it wouldn’t burn his throat or tongue with a whisper of magic, then gulped it down.

  “Ready?”

  She nodded, “Thanks for last night, if I didn’t say before.”

  He mistook her meaning purposefully, and said, “That was all my pleasure, Leanne.”

  She giggled, “You know what I meant. They were so fast, and insanely violent and powerful, but you just calmly held me and kept me safe while fighting back.”

  He nodded, “Panic kills in a situation like that, and it didn’t hurt I have power to burn. You’re welcome. You’re quite a woman, Leanne.”

  She smirked and cocked her hips sexily.

  He winked, “That too, but I was talking about your sweet exuberance, obvious faith, and your desire to make my day a little better with all the small things.”

  She blushed, and stepped forward with a smile, “It’s nice to be appreciated.”

  It was clear she liked serving others, but that didn’t mean she didn’t have steel in her where it counted.

  “You have beautiful eyes, and we really need to go before I decide staying with you is more appealing than a state breakfast.”

  She snickered, and then casually took his arm as they started for the door.

  Leanne led him to the prelate’s private dining room. His first impression of it was that it was as richly decorated as the rest of the temple, but also somehow homey. This was where Aria lived, and the room reflected that. Aria the woman, not the prelate.

  He noticed the six person table was already set, and there was only two sets of plates, in the same seating arrangement they’d ended up in during the conference. She waved in invitation to the seat directly to the left of the head of the table, and Leanne bowed her head and left them alone as he sat.

  She had on the robes of her office, but they weren’t nearly as covering as they had been the other day, revealing a bit more of her upper chest and neckline. She truly did look exquisite. He wondered if it was a different style, he’d only seen her twice after all in as many days. Perhaps the prelate’s robes weren’t one set style, just white in color. Or, maybe she just didn’t pull it tight and cover up to her neck until she was starting her day in the eyes of the public.

  “Good morning, Aria.”

  She smiled at him using her name, “Thanks, Dacen, but is it after last night?”

  He nodded, “Most definitely. I am in good company and ready for breakfast.”

  That was quite literal, he was always starving after coming close to exhausting his power. It took a toll on the body, and he needed the fuel.

  She chuckled, “Maybe it’s just me feeling guilty then. I invited you here knowing there might be attempts on your life, while hoping your talents would be equal to the task. But the reality of it actually happening is disturbing.”

  He said, “It’s not the first time a cyborg tried to kill me, and probably won’t be the last. It’s a small price to pay to forward the agendas of his majesty and yourself.”

  She smiled, “I’m glad to hear it, and let’s not speak of it further then. I’m afraid Benjamin couldn’t make it, so it’ll just be the two of us.”

  Before he could respond to that, a servant carrying a large steaming tray walked into the room, and he started to load the table up with fancy bowls of eggs, plates with bacon and sausage, and a basket of biscuits with a jar of white gravy. While he was still doing that, a female servant entered as well, holding a carafe of coffee and orange juice in one hand, and a tray of two coffee mugs and glasses in the other. She started to arrange them on the table, and she poured them both a coffee and orange juice before leaving the carafes on the table.

  He also felt Aria reach out with her magic, no doubt checking for poisons with it as none of it touched him. She had a light touch, and a casual control of it, making it look easy. He knew it wasn’t easy however, her casual mastery spoke of many years of practice and discipline, a casual verve with magic that he didn’t quite meet yet at his younger years.

  He replied after the servants had left.

  “Perhaps another time then, though I’m far from disappointed with just your company.”

  Her blue eyes danced as she looked into his, then they started to fill their plates. She seemed to like his casual demeanor in her presence, as well as his poorly veiled flirting, so he was going with it. He felt welcomed, and quite comfortable alone in the ruler’s presence. Even the momentary silence between them felt comfortable.