Change of Darkness (The Change Series Book 3) by Jacinta Jade (best new books to read txt) 📕

the id, or the super subconscious, thereby allowing the more base drivers of a person to take over.

A perfect mechanism to create an army that lusted for battle, took longer than normal to fatigue, and would never shy from the orders of their captains.

An army she would help to lead.

‘And what about the drug you put in the captives’ food?’ she asked him. ‘A sort of test?’ This was the other thing she had been curious about, and she wondered about the purpose behind it.

‘In a way. It lets us see how those being inducted into the program react to a milder form of control—in essence, it magnifies the lust for battle, but it doesn’t enhance all the base desires or block out the other reasoning parts of the conscious that can affect a soldier’s performance in battle. And it doesn’t last.’

Siraay nodded. ‘How long did it take to develop these?’ She waved her hand at the metal bracelets.

‘It took my father a whole lifetime to perfect them. He had a brilliant mind, you see. Perhaps if he had been leading the first army of Xarcon, we would not have lost.’

Chezran shrugged lightly, but Siraay could detect a deeper emotion running underneath.

‘After a number of cycles had passed and our side had recovered somewhat from our defeat, my father spent a lot of time analysing how the battle had played out. He came to the conclusion that, while a better strategy might have allowed us to triumph, an army that is stronger, that can react faster, and that can defeat the enemy quickly in one-on-one combat, no matter the environment or strategy of the enemy, was an army that could not be defeated.’

They walked down yet another row of technologists working quietly and efficiently.

‘First, he used stimulants on his own soldiers—those who wanted to fight for Xarcon. The results were mixed, but even after we refined the drug down to what it is today, doubt and other parts of the conscious mind fought against the parts we were trying to awaken. So my father kept pushing the science. He abducted a number of technologists from other cities, forcing them to help him develop something that could work with the drug.’

‘So you use this technology outside of the city?’ An obvious question, Siraay knew, but it needed to be asked—she wanted to know his stance on the tradition. Oddly, she was unsure how she felt about it, because the fact that it was illegal to use technology outside of city boundaries was ingrained in her—an inhibition that even her altered mind couldn’t get around.

‘We do—but can you really call it using technology when the bands are not working pieces?’ Chezran looked at her, raising an eyebrow.

Siraay frowned back at him. The bands, and her necklace, were not active pieces of technology?

‘We have not created these by using parts of other elements to enforce our will; we have simply shaped something nature already provides. Thus, it is purely a natural product of the Great Mother, which exerts itself upon those who wear the bands.’

Siraay nodded in understanding, appreciating the difference.

They reached the end of the room, and Chezran steered her towards one corner, where a glass cabinet contained a small, irregularly shaped object poised on a rotating frame.

As they drew nearer, Siraay began to see that the object was merely a chunk of rock, and she wondered why one piece of stone deserved such an honoured placement.

But as the frame continued to rotate, the other side of the rock was revealed.

Underneath the first layer of dirt compacted by wind, rain, and the weight of other heftier boulders was a darker, more consistent layer. And beneath that layer was what really drew Siraay’s attention—a roughly fist-sized piece of stone that glinted in the light.

‘Tarzneum,’ Chezran said.

Siraay glanced away from the rock and over her shoulder. ‘Tarzneum?’

Chezran nodded. ‘My father had tasked some of his miners to dig away from their usual site one day in order to find some harder stone for the foundation of a new part of the palace.’ The lord gestured off to his right. ‘They were digging up the harder black rock when they hit a new vein of material they hadn’t seen before. Curious, they mined a portion of it and took some back to show my father.’

Siraay straightened up from her examination of the rock to listen more closely as Chezran continued.

‘Then two things happened at the same time. The miners who were working the new material out of the ground would often touch it when they dug it out, looking at it and running theories past each other as they discussed what it might be. Turns out, some of the more interested ones pocketed pieces of it too, wanting to do a closer examination after their shift. Over the weeks, the miners became more productive and responded faster to orders but also became more aggressive.’

Chezran chuckled. ‘Apparently, the effects were only noticed after my father had to send out a number of security teams to the site in order to quell the arguments and fights that kept arising. Those with long, drawn-out grudges, or who had had never had a liking for someone else, for some reason began acting on all those urges.’ He smiled. ‘But they weren’t the only ones. Once the metal was brought to the palace and placed in the hands of the examiners, my father began to notice a change in those who were handling the material. They became more confident, more capable, more determined—and more cruel and exacting towards others.’

Chezran turned and gestured back towards the technologists that they had passed earlier. ‘My people now work with a more refined version, of course, and you will notice they do so wearing gloves to avoid direct contact. It took nearly a decade, but eventually my father and his technologists were able to work out the impurities in the material and begin creating these.’ The lord walked to a nearby bench and picked