One of our oracles is missing

Women working in the Oracle Palace consider themselves fortunate. Unlike their mothers and sisters, they are not forced to give birth every ten months; unlike the males, they are not required to serve as guards or soldiers.

Women used to work only as maids in the Palace, but the recent increase of demand for warriors has led to a shortage of male administrators; this means that the Oracle Palace is the only place on Myridia where a woman can make a career. One day there might even be a female Oracle, as it's whispered already happens on many worlds.

The major problem is staying alive when Talas Khanos pays a visit.

The main gate opens without anyone touching it. A freakishly tall man inspects the scene: a dozen handmaidens, all duplicates of the same young girl, are covering the floor with rose petals.

Khanos walks forward, stepping over the petals humming a cheerful tune; nobody else dares to make the slightest sound.

he comments, telekinetically lifting one of the duplicates off the ground enough to look her in the eye. Despite being over seven feet tall, Khanos isn't very imposing: in the low gravity of his world, his muscles are somewhat underdeveloped. But there's something sinister in his purple eyes.

she answers, shaking in fear.

he answers, ripping her left arm out of the shoulder. She has less than half a second to scream, before her body disappears with a popping sound.

Reilen Lal isn't hurt like her duplicate, but that doesn't make watching Khanos dismember her any easier. The giant then looks at her, breaking one of her ribs with his mind.

As she kneels in pain, all of her duplicates do the same in an almost instantaneous reaction.

Nabric Ges is lifted off the ground by an invisible hand. Khanos telekinetically squeezes his kidneys for maximum pain; since this is just a duplicate, he can't hit him or he will just pop out of existence.

– Khanos asks angrily.

Nabric answers through the pain.

Khanos looks the guard into the eye: he won't break easily. He quickly regains his composure.

The bricks of the wall disassemble themselves, opening a door where there isn't one. Khanos floats through it, carrying Nabric with him in the same fashion. As he talks, he passes through several rooms of the Palace; the walls close themselves behind him.

Now they have reached the prison. Nabric is wondering why Khanos is here…he's already received his share of test subjects for the year.

The Many is kept in custody inside a glass cylinder full of water. Her body continuously spawns more copies to break out of it, but since there isn't enough space for them she has to reabsorb them. The cycle gives the container a pulsating appearance.

Nabric doesn't really understand any of this. He's just a duplicate, created by the original Nabric as soon as he left the Palace with Null.

Nabric comments, calling his bluff – The Myridian people are personal property of Demeter. She values our lives.

Noriko's makeshift laboratory is fairly impressive, given what she has to work with. She had to manufacture everything: from the magnifying glasses to see the finest details of her newest invention, to the electric welder, to the bicycles that Nabric's duplicates are using to power the welder.

the original tries to compliment.

She takes off the glasses and wipes the sweat off her forehead, showing off her latest creation.

It's a gun. The body is in brass, the holster is covered in leather, and the whole thing looks more like a glorified paint gun than a serious weapon. The weirdest part is the muzzle: it incorporates the godstone that she removed from the Oracle. The one that granted him telekinetic abilities.

Nabric admits.

Noriko stands up, pulling back the gun's hammer. It makes a reassuring clicking sound.

Noriko answers, her eyes lighting up.

It's not the usual silver shine. Her eyes are now bleeding electricity and information.

People in Deka aren't used to new faces. Even though five thousand people live there, the same faces are everywhere: people send their own duplicates to run errands, use them to repair buildings or just to walk around. The result is that, no matter where you look, you end up meeting the same people over and over again.

Kari has created a dozen duplicates to help her new friends to stand out a little less, but it's easier said than done. Vesta's statuesque body can turn heads on any planet. Torn is covering his red skin as much as he can, but that only ends up making him stand out even more. But it's Max's own skin color that attracts the most attention; none of these people has ever seen an African-American.

he comments.

Torn says.

Vesta clarifies.

she adds.

Torn answers.

Vesta asks.

he answers.

Kari clarifies.

Max asks.

Vesta shrugs.

Torn answers.

One of Kari's duplicates holds his arm, smiling cheerfully.

Kari's duplicate disappears painlessly when Torn suddenly jabs her in the stomach with an energy dagger. The crowd doesn't even seem to notice.

<"Subtle"? You wanted to punch the whole city five minutes ago!> Max protests.

Kari says, standing on the shoulders of one of her duplicates and pointing at one of the skyscrapers.

She just saw a bright flash of light. After that, something inside the building explodes, blasting away the wall.

Vesta comments.