The Airagos Complete Series

By Shannon Muir

Get the book FOR THE LOVE OF AIRAGOS and its prequel novella THE FALL OF AIRAGOS in one value priced collection. FOR THE LOVE OF AIRAGOS features Heather Candor, who grew up playing RPGs with her friend Abe and a regular group of college friends. One day he mysteriously disappeared, but tried to keep the game going as Play By Mail turns - until one day those turns also mysteriously stopped. THE FALL OF AIRAGOS follows Dishe, and the events that set the series in motion.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Shannon Muir
• Release date: Dec 1, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463206201

Shannon Muir

SHANNON MUIR's short stories include suspense and mystery elements such as those found in her first full-length story from Pro Se Press, CHARLES BOECKMAN PRESENTS DOC AND SALLY IN "THE DEATH OF BUDDY TURNER". Additionally, she's written short stories for Pro Se Press such as “Tragic Like a Torch Song” in THE DAME DID IT from Pro Se Press, "Pretty as a Picture" in the anthology NEWSHOUNDS, “Tropical Terror” in CRIME DOWN ISLAND and “Hidden History” in EXPLORER PULP. She’s also written the Single Shot New Pulp tale “Ghost of the Airwaves,” a short story offered in electronic format only from Pro Se Press.From her personal self-published projects, her best known titles in this area include the rural crime series THE WILLOWBROOK SAGA.In other genres, Shannon's published short stories include “Meeting the Monster” in the Emby Press anthology SUPERHERO MONSTER HUNTER: THE GOOD FIGHT and "Cover Story" in ARIA KALSAN: MYSTERIES OF THE FUTURE.Shannon holds a BA in Radio-TV and English from Eastern Washington University in Cheney, Washington, which she considers to be her hometown. She also holds an MA in Communications from California State University, Fullerton, along with additional education in screenwriting, project management, library technician studies, and most recently a certificate earned with distinction in General Business with Emphasis in Marketing from UCLA Extension. Currently, she is working on a Masters of Library and Information Science at San Jose State University.She is married to FLYING GLORY AND THE HOUNDS OF GLORY collaborator and fellow author Kevin Paul Shaw Broden. They live in California in the United States.She is a member of Sisters in Crime (national, Guppies, and Los Angeles, where she also served on the Los Angeles board for a two terms beginning in 2018), as well as the Toastmasters4Writers Chapter of Toastmasters International (where she serves as chapter Secretary), Women in Animation, and a Professional member of ASIFA-Hollywood.

Book preview

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COPYRIGHT

THE AIRAGOS COMPLETE SERIES

Copyright 2018 Shannon Muir.

Includes:

THE FALL OF AIRAGOS Copyright 2018 Shannon Muir.

FOR THE LOVE OF AIRAGOS Copyright 2012. 2014 Shannon Muir.

Smashwords Edition - First publication December 2018.

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords or a Smashwords partner vendor and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

COPYRIGHT

TABLE OF CONTENTS

AUTHOR’S NOTE FOR THE AIRAGOS COMPLETE SERIES

THE FALL OF AIRAGOS – AUTHOR’S NOTE

THE FALL OF AIRAGOS – DEDICATION

THE FALL OF AIRAGOS – PROLOGUE

THE FALL OF AIRAGOS – CHAPTER ONE

THE FALL OF AIRAGOS – CHAPTER TWO

THE FALL OF AIRAGOS – CHAPTER THREE

THE FALL OF AIRAGOS – CHAPTER FOUR

THE FALL OF AIRAGOS – CHAPTER FIVE

THE FALL OF AIRAGOS – CHAPTER SIX

THE FALL OF AIRAGOS – CHAPTER SEVEN

THE FALL OF AIRAGOS – EPILOGUE

FOR THE LOVE OF AIRAGOS – AUTHOR’S NOTE

FOR THE LOVE OF AIRAGOS – DEDICATION

FOR THE LOVE OF AIRAGOS – PROLOGUE

FOR THE LOVE OF AIRAGOS – CHAPTER ONE

FOR THE LOVE OF AIRAGOS – CHAPTER TWO

FOR THE LOVE OF AIRAGOS – CHAPTER THREE

FOR THE LOVE OF AIRAGOS – CHAPTER FOUR

FOR THE LOVE OF AIRAGOS – CHAPTER FIVE

FOR THE LOVE OF AIRAGOS – CHAPTER SIX

FOR THE LOVE OF AIRAGOS – CHAPTER SEVEN

FOR THE LOVE OF AIRAGOS – CHAPTER EIGHT

FOR THE LOVE OF AIRAGOS – CHAPTER NINE

FOR THE LOVE OF AIRAGOS – CHAPTER TEN

FOR THE LOVE OF AIRAGOS – CHAPTER ELEVEN

FOR THE LOVE OF AIRAGOS – CHAPTER TWELVE

FOR THE LOVE OF AIRAGOS – CHAPTER THIRTEEN

FOR THE LOVE OF AIRAGOS – CHAPTER FOURTEEN

FOR THE LOVE OF AIRAGOS – CHAPTER FIFTEEN

FOR THE LOVE OF AIRAGOS – CHAPTER SIXTEEN

FOR THE LOVE OF AIRAGOS – EPILOGUE

ALSO BY SHANNON MUIR – THE HEART’S DUTY COMPLETE SERIES

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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AUTHOR’S NOTE FOR THE AIRAGOS COMPLETE SERIES

This collection brings together a story first written for National Novel Writing Month 2010, along with a small follow-up novelette that began teased on Goodreads in installments but ultimately completed in e-book form. The type of story proved a bit of a departure for me, and as such may not be one of my strongest attempts.

However, as a character in the novelette tells us, the timeline we see isn’t the timeline that was meant to be. Maybe at some point in the future, it will clear how to tell the story that puts all of history back on course, at least from that character’s perspective.

For now, thanks for going where this interstellar prose adventure may take you.

Shannon Muir

December 2018

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THE FALL OF AIRAGOS - AUTHOR’S NOTE

This particular project was something I began as a mini-chapter project on Goodreads in 2012 and 2013 and for various reasons abandoned. I added some more in 2018 but still didn’t quite close it off. This publication brings that storyline to a close, and makes it available for non-Goodreads members. It sheds some more light on the back history of key players in the book FOR THE LOVE OF AIRAGOS, and while not required to navigate that text, I believe is helpful.

Largely, the text remains intact from the Goodreads version, though only a few lines have been added for clarity and the Epilogue is new.

FOR THE LOVE OF AIRAGOS began as a NaNoWriMo project in 2010. Eight years later, I’m pleased to bring this additional glimpse into that world to its conclusion during NaNoWriMo month.

Shannon Muir

November 2018

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THE FALL OF AIRAGOS - DEDICATION

To all those who struggle to see a project through, and ultimately succeed.

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THE FALL OF AIRAGOS - PROLOGUE

Every able-bodied man and woman would serve the unified world of Airagos.

Airagos began as two distinct races, with one eventually enslaving the other. Centuries earlier, the survivors instituted some harsh policies towards compensation for the lost population. Female prisoners of war became brood mares, and their male young to be raised as the grunts of the next generation army, and the young women to expect a similar fate as their mothers. Women whose bloodline remained pure of the winning race became encouraged to marry men of the colony and their children became raised to not only be military officers but those that managed all of civilian life.

Things worked well for a long while on Airagos, until the leader of Airagos found himself and his wife unable to have a child, and he took it upon himself to choose the most beautiful of this second class of women as his childrens' mother, but not as his queen - or at least, not at first.

With one such decision, Airagos would find itself in horrible, horrible turmoil.

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THE FALL OF AIRAGOS - CHAPTER ONE

The first steps to freedom would be born in the land historically known as Katiya.

Dishe didn't know how many brothers and sisters she had on Airagos. All children of their status were taken away and raised in groups at birth. Only citizen children could be raised by their parents.

She did know however her mother's code number, G284B46Y5. While these pieces of information didn't mean much, to those that mated them it gave information to allow the most desirable matches to be made. Her own was D3865G284B46Y5. Dishe didn't know why the codes kept getting longer. She, like all women of her class, wore the code on a tightly fixed bracelet.

Dishe grunted and turned over in bed. The doctors told her it wouldn't be long now before the child would be ready to come out of her. Months ago, upon graduation from their studies, Dishe and her classmates underwent their first implantation procedure. Rumor had it not that many generations ago, women were taken by men using force. At least a medical procedure brought a measure of dignity.

Dishe D3865G284B46Y5? an older doctor called out her name across the ward. Please report.

Dishe wondered what anyone would be needing her for. Her time came so close that the doctors usually checked her from the bed. With great difficulty, Dishe turned herself to a sitting position and got up off the bed, letting out a great groan of effort. Her medical gown, tied in the back, wore tight and hardly provided modesty.

Obediently, Dishe walked up to the front where the doctor waited.

What do you wish of me? she asked the doctor.

For you to serve your country, he said.

Dishe knew enough of the history through the secret oral tellings to know that truly Airagos was not her country. She descended from the aristocratic families from the world Airagos fought with and defeated generations before. Part of her wanted to snap back and tell the doctor that the best way for her to serve her country would be to betray Airagos. Yet, for the safety of all her people, she dared do nothing.

Legend held that eons before, the two races were subdivided into even smaller countries. However, in a survival of the fittest, weaker countries absorbed into stronger ones, losing their identities in the process, until only the two remained. Like night and day, completely opposing they fought, until one finally came out victorious. The name of the conquering land, Airagos, now applied to all - both as country and planet. That was why the doctor reminded Dishe of duty to country, as a reminder of the sovereign crown she served, not the soil on which she stood - since once the soil belonged to others.

Suddenly everyone in the room snapped to attention in a way that Dishe never saw before, not even when the head of the hospital came to visit. Puzzled and fascinated, Dishe watched as a well-poised but portly man entered, holding a gleaming bracelet in his arm and flanked by what appeared to be two guards. He wore a matching bracelet on his wrist.

The man handed the bracelet and a key to one of the guards. In turn, the guard removed Dishe's bracelet using a special unlock device she'd never seen before; it appeared all he need to do is touch the surface and it fell away.

What are you doing? she screamed, as this man stripped away the only identity she'd ever known.

The guard put her bracelet in one pocket and drew out another. She'd seen one of this kind before. Instead of her plain metal one, this one shone not only from brighter metals but from being decorated with jewels - more than she'd ever seen on any citizen's bracelet except the man who entered with it. 

Dishe stayed quiet in her awe as the man's guard fastened this new informational bracelet to her. She wondered what gave him the right. Dishe also wondered what it meant; they hadn't learned about this in school.

You are Dishe D3865G284B46 no more, the portly regal man told her.

Who am I then? She aked, puzzled.

In a surprise move, the regal man turned the bracelet up for her to see. She understood Dishe but not the rest.

Can you read? he asked thoughtfully.

Just my own name.

Tenderly and lightly he ran his fingers over her arm and then across each word on the bracelet as he read it.

Dishe, Duchess of Visallia. Visallia is our new moon colony. Right now it amounts to a small exploratory base and its civilian families, he told her.

Dishe didn't understand most of what he talked about.

I see you don't quite seem to follow. Dishe, Duchess of Visallia, I have given you title over some of the lands of Airagos. This now makes you a member of the citizen class that is eligible for the ruling elite. No one has been given such an honor for a very long time.

What gives you the right?

I am King of Airagos.

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THE FALL OF AIRAGOS - CHAPTER TWO

After that day, Dishe never saw the inside of the hospital life again. She spent the rest of her pregnancy in seclusion at one of the King's estates, learning the manners and ways of one of the citizen population.

At the retreat, Dishe gained no exposure to any outside media. She knew nothing of how media rumors swirled everywhere of the mystery woman glimpsed briefly being rushed into a royal hovercraft and then later rushed into the estate. The whole world wanted to know who she was. Quite a trick given Dishe herself sought a similar answer.

By changing the bracelet, the King changed Dishe's name. It felt as if the person she grew up as, servant to her country-planet, died that day. Yet she had no idea who this Dishe, Duchess of Visallia person was.

Apparently neither did her new handlers.

Dishe looked at dishes laid out in a strange arrangement before her at a very elegant table. The whole setup differed greatly from being handed trays in feeding lines or in beds when women could no longer walk.

A woman, one of her own people dressed in the garb of the servant class and past childbearing age, brought a plate to Dishe and placed it before her. The plate poured over with bright green, orange and purple things. Dishe never saw anything of their like before.

Can I eat this? she questioned the servant woman.

The servant woman nodded.

It is called a salad, the servant woman told her struggling with the last word.

Where does a salad come from?

There are big glass buildings where the items in the salad are grown. Then they bring them to the kitchen where we have been trained to mix them.

Dishe stared at the colorful arrangement again. This did not resemble the grey nutrient soup of her people.

Citizens eat this? How? Dishe asked.

At that moment, one of the handlers stepped in.

Stop gossiping, woman, and return to the kitchen. Or you know what will happen! he snapped at the old servant woman. Shrieking, the older woman ran back towards the kitchen.

I do not know this salad, Dishe told the handler, whose name she had not been told.

The handler pointed to the fork.

You eat a salad with a fork. I know you have never seen one before, because your kind only use the spoon. Starting today, you will begin to learn the ways of a citizen woman until the child you carry for service is born.

Dishe wanted to ask what would come after, but she knew that would be forbidden.

You are not curious what comes next? asked the handler.

I am not allowed to say, Dishe told him, her head lowered.

Of course you are! snapped the handler. Dishe, Countess of Visallia, the King has made you a citizen now. You have citizen rights by law. And we are here to teach you to be a citizen.

Slowly, uncomfortably, Dishe looked into the man's dark black eyes.

What comes next? she struggled to say.

Dishe, Countess of Visallia, you will give birth to the heirs of all of Airagos.

Dishe couldn't believe her ears. She wanted to question it. These people told her asking questions was acceptable. Yet she did not dare for fear it would be taken as a sign of disrespect.

She understood enough to understand the meaning. The race she knew from the legends and tales that she descended from, the last conquered race, had not legally been allowed in the bloodline for generations. She could only guess the Queen must be barren, and that perhaps she needed a surrogate for her eggs. War ravaged things enough that technology hadn't yet brought artificial wombs to Airagos but insemination was another matter. Some young women like Dishe might be hired out to bear for the rich versus breeding the servant class.

Then she realized in those cases, even the surrogate women received servant like treatment. They weren't made citizens. Unless things were handled differently in the royal house this made no sense.

The same routine continued until her son was born, destined to become part of the working class.

But as the Duchess' son he will be raised for a good high position, one of her handlers assured him.

Dishe gave her baby boy the only kiss he would know from her.

Farewell, Colonius, she said as a nurse took him away. 

The training on etiquette and customs continued, along with the regular ritual she knew where the doctors made children happen.

This time though, it would be her egg coming together to make the heirs of the King.

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THE FALL OF AIRAGOS - CHAPTER THREE

And now introducing Dishe, Duchess of Visallia!

Dishe at first didn't respond. She still hadn't become accustomed to her new name, or her new clothes, despite all the training over the past six months. Mow that conception could be confirmed, it became time to formally announce Dishe's role to the planet. Her handlers instructed her when her name was called to step out on the protective glass balcony, wave, and reveal herself to the world.

Dishe got up, walked slowly to the window where the King of Airagos already stood.

Though still unable to completely visualize how this would work, or why she'd been asked, Dishe started to raise her gown. When asked to reveal in the hospital, it meant showing off her physical wares to people considering her services. Dishe