The Common King

by Brian Olsen

  The melted dagger burns through the glass step. I cool it before it can do too much damage, turning it into a lumpy solid glob of metal. Huh. Cool shape.

  I flick a few solid beads off my skin. They ping against the glass.

  Tannyl tenses as if to attack with his bare hands, but Alisa restrains him. Smart.

  A cry near my feet attracts my attention. A cry of despair.

  Kenny, holding Lily. She’s dissolving. Her whole body is melting like wax in his arms.

  Poor Lily. She sacrificed everything for me.

  No. No, I won’t have it. We’ve lost enough.

  No more death.

  The sun is a source of life, after all.

  I crouch and touch her hand. Her fingers slip through mine like warm butter but I catch them in my palm.

  “Sun.”

  She shudders. A ripple passes over her, through her. Her fingers stiffen in my hand and she writhes in Kenny’s arms.

  With a gasp, she sits up. Solid. Whole. Safe. Lily.

  Kenny wraps himself around her, sobbing.

  Lily pats herself, gently at first, then smacks her fist against her sternum. “I’m…I’m real. Chris?”

  “It’s permanent. And you can use your logomancy safely. Consider yourself the original Lily now.”

  She leans back against Kenny’s chest. “Oh my god. I thought I was gone.”

  I grab the toe of her sneaker and shake it. “I’m not about to lose my favorite ex-girlfriend.”

  She grabs my hand and squeezes it. Her smile is everything.

  Bobby Pillman races up the steps and collapses next to his big brother, practically bowling me over in the process. I laugh as Kenny and Lily pull him into their embrace, but my laughter dies when I stand and come face to face with Tes.

  Oh, Tes. Jasmine. My Nightmare Queen. My friend. The terror on her face breaks my heart.

  I grab her in a bear hug before she can break and run. “Tes. Thank you. Thank you so much.”

  “Kirt?” She’s stiff in my arms. “Is that you? Or Chris?”

  “Both, Tes. It’s what you wanted all along. Both of us, merged. You were right, this is so much better. I should have listened to you.”

  “Oh, Kirt!” She hugs me back. “Oh, I’m so happy!”

  And we laugh together, like we have so many times before.

  Over her shoulder, at the edge of the steps, is Nate. I break away from Tes and open my arms to him.

  He takes a step back.

  Yasu, at his feet, rears threateningly, his elephant tail hanging straight down between his hind legs. He bleats a low warning at me.

  Nate puts a hand on the baku’s head. “Easy, Yasu. Let’s wait and see.”

  “Nate—”

  “This wasn’t the plan.” He looks from me to Alisa and back again. “You were supposed to shove him back in his box.”

  “We couldn’t.” I raise my voice, so everyone can hear, though I keep my focus on Nate. “It might have worked, temporarily, but I doubt all the logomancers in the world could have kept him in the floating room forever.” I tap my head. “I only had Alisa and Jasmine in there with me. This is the best we could do.”

  Alisa calls out, “But you wanted it, Chris.” She’s standing hand in hand with Tannyl. “It’s true, this was our only option. But you said you wanted to merge with him. That it was the right thing to do.”

  Yasu gives out another threatening bleat. Everyone’s wary of me now. Even Lily. Even Tes.

  I turn back to Nate. “Did you get me a birthday present?”

  He frowns. “What?”

  “Did you get me a birthday present?”

  “Your birthday was months ago.”

  “But did you get me a birthday present?”

  “No, I—” He hesitates, then says carefully, “I didn’t get you a birthday present.”

  “That’s all right.”

  And together, we say, “Your friendship is the best present I can ask for.”

  The fear on his face slips. Just a little.

  Kenny quietly asks, “What did they say?”

  Nate answers, “It’s just a cheesy thing we say on our birthdays.” He nods at me. “Me and Chris.”

  I step closer to him. He doesn’t move.

  “Nate.” I speak low enough so that only he can hear. “I’m Chris. But I’m him, too. And it’s new, and it’s strange, and it’s scary. And I need you.”

  His eyes widen. The doubt falls away.

  “Yasu,” he says. “It’s okay.”

  Nate hugs me. I hug him back.

  “I’m always here when you need me,” he says. “Always.”

  “I love you, Nate.”

  “I love you, too, Chris.” He breaks away, holding my shoulders. “Oh, dude, I was so afraid we lost you for good.”

  “No. Never again.”

  With one last smack of my shoulders, he lets me go. Now, who else? My heart is racing. It’s like I’m seeing all the people I love for the first time and it’s wonderful.

  Zane. At the base of the steps. Not a speck of doubt or fear or worry on his face. He’s just smiling. Waiting for me.

  I run down to him, into his waiting arms. Man, I’m doing a lot of hugging. As Kirt I was never much of a hugger, but Chris can’t get enough.

  “I love you,” I whisper in his ear. “Is it okay to say that now?”

  “I love you, too.”

  “You were right not to say goodbye.” I pull back from him and wipe my eyes. “I loved you before, you know. When I was Kirt and you were Desh.”

  “Really?” He raises an eyebrow. “My memory’s still foggy, but I thought we barely knew each other. We were sleeping together, yeah, but only for a little while. A couple of weeks before the Moment. Up until then, we only ever fought.”

  “I know. I loved you because you were the only logomancer to ever pose a real challenge to me.” I laugh. “I loved you because you almost killed me. And as Chris, you tormented me my whole childhood, and I loved you! That’s kind of messed up, don’t you think?”

  He looks a little troubled by that, but I don’t ask why. I give him a kiss, then scan the plaza. There’s somebody else I need to talk to before whatever comes next.

  But she’s gone.

  My mother is gone. Kelle, I mean. Kelle is gone.

  Run off. Again.

  Fine. She was Chris Armstrong’s mother. And I’m not Chris Armstrong anymore. Not entirely.

  Whatever. I don’t care.

  The older logomancers are all still unconscious. Ambrose. Ihsan. Wollard. I could revive them, but they’re fine as they are. I don’t need the distraction.

  Liefer and Andy are dead. I won’t lose sleep over Liefer, but I’m sorry about Andy. He was a good man.

  I shouldn’t have killed him.

  “Chris?”

  Alisa’s voice snaps me out of my reverie. “Hm?”

  “We have to decide what to do with these four.”

  She’s indicating my allies. Tes, Ope, Theen, and Chand. Jasmine, Dante, Shonda, and Kumar. Jasmine’s drifted closer to Nate. Dante and Shonda hang together near the side of the steps. Kumar’s on her own.

  “What do you mean?” I ask. “Do with them?”

  “They helped the Common King.”

  “So?”

  “So…we have to do something with them.” She looks to her elf boyfriend for support. “Don’t we?”

  Liefer’s son, Emmet, stands up from the side of his false-father’s body, where he’s been kneeling this whole time. He wipes his eyes with the back of his hand. “I could erase their pre-Moment lives. Make them themselves again.”

  “They are themselves!” I fly up the steps, my eyes burning. Hovering above Emmet, I extend a finger towards him. “You will do nothing to them, mind-thief. You’ve done enough damage.”

  “Dude!” Nate pushes himself between us, shielding Emmet from me. “Flame off! That’s evil-you talking!”

  I return my eyes to normal. “Yeah. All right. Sorry.�
� I land back on the steps. “But there is no evil-me, Nate. Not anymore. Just me-me.”

  Mrs. Kumar bows. “I have no wish to have my mind toyed with again. Thank you, Your Majesty.”

  “Of course, Baroness. Loyalty is rewarded.”

  Hm. Your Majesty. That does sound good, I have to admit. It suits me.

  Damn it. My friends are looking at me all scared again.

  “Relax, everybody. I’m in control.”

  “Yes,” Tannyl says. “But who do you mean by ‘I,’ exactly?”

  I snort and shake my head. “Somebody who’s not considering destroying the sun or nuking New York? Isn’t that good enough?”

  “And what are you considering?” Alisa’s voice is steady. “Chris…or Kirt…what are you going to do now?”

  She’s using her power on me. Trying to force the truth. I suppose I can’t blame her for being suspicious.

  I’d answer truthfully anyway, if only I knew what the truth was. What am I going to do? I have all this power. What should I do with it? And I have a clarity I’ve never felt before, as Chris or as Kirt. I can see their beliefs, their senses of right and wrong, from both sides now. There’s no conflict, just a broader understanding. The world isn’t as simple as either of me believed.

  I climb back up to the top step. “I’m thinking I had the right means.” I look out over New York. Over the pain I’ve brought to it, and the ruins I’ve made of Times Square. “But not the right ends.”

  I hold my hands out placatingly before they can freak out. “I’m not setting myself up as king of the world again, don’t worry. It’s tempting, but the cost is too high.” I smile at them. “I love you. All of you. I really do.”

  Alisa twitches.

  I roll my eyes. “All right, fine, Alisa, that’s not entirely true. I don’t love literally all of you. No offense, Emmet and Bobby, but I barely know you. But those of you who were my friends. You, I love.”

  Nate thrusts a fist into the air. “There you go! That’s Chris talking. The Common King didn’t love anybody.”

  Zane climbs the stairs to join us. “You’re wrong, Nate. He did.”

  I nod. “Yes. I did. I understand why you might think I only cared about myself. I was…” I swallow. “I was evil. But I did care about the people in my life. I loved them, even.”

  I see Kirt’s old friends in my mind. The people I loved when I was him. Those here now in their new lives. Zane, Shonda, Dante, Kumar. Jasmine. Those gone. My childhood friends from my parents’ lands. Irt, the servant who would comfort me when my father was cruel. My mother. Muln, my mentor. I loved them all.

  “But I loved myself more,” I say. “Always, myself more. Myself first. That was the real difference. Chris put the people he loved ahead of himself. Chris…I…love you all in a way that Kirt could never have understood.”

  My heart sings. There’s a symphony in my soul.

  I reach my arms up. “Can you hear that?”

  “Hear what?” Nate asks.

  “The Logos! Can’t you hear it?”

  “Of course we can,” Alisa answers. “All logomancers can hear it, a little.”

  “No, not a little!” I put my hands over my ears. “It’s so loud I can feel it in my bones. But it’s so beautiful! And look! Everyone, look!”

  Up in the sky. All those suns, shining down on me. Each one twinkling in time to the voices in my head. The suns and the Logos, reinforcing each other. Granting me their power.

  “All Chris ever wanted was to help people.” I shake my head. “Volunteering at Hope House. What a waste of my time. Filing? Answering phones? Tapping away at meaningless spreadsheets? If I had only known the extent of my power, I could have done so much more!”

  The Logos runs through my body. All words, in all languages, in all voices. But one word rings louder than all the others. One word conducts that chorus. My word.

  Sun.

  The sun is the source of everything. All energy, all life, all power. And with all those suns in the universe to draw on, I can do anything.

  I can help as I was meant to help.

  My feet leave the steps. I float up, towards the sky.

  “Chris!” Alisa shouts. “Chris, whatever this is, don’t do it!”

  “I’m going to put everything right, Alisa! Oh, my friends, I will make us all kings and queens!”

  “I’m good, dude!” Nate calls up. “I don’t even like being in charge of group projects, let alone a whole kingdom. Why don’t you come back down and let’s talk about this?”

  “I’m going to fix you, Nate!” The daylight feels so good on my skin! “I can give you the body you deserve, the body you should have had all along!”

  I gaze into the sun, my eyes wide open. No answer from below me. I think they understand now.

  “Fuck you, Chris!”

  The music of the Logos strikes a sour note. The sun suddenly seems too bright and I have to look down.

  “Fuck you, fuck you, FUCK YOU!”

  Nate’s face throbs with anger. His fists are clenched, his body tight, his teeth gritted. I’ve never seen him full of this much rage. And it’s all directed at me.

  “I like my body!” he screams. “I worked hard for it! Nobody changes it but me!”

  “But…but…” I jolt a little in the air, almost falling before I catch myself. “Nate, I—”

  “You’re not Chris.” Nate turns away. “Chris would never have said what you just said to me. Never.”

  Jasmine shoots me a nasty look and runs to him. He stands stiffly, but doesn’t push her off when she puts an arm around his shoulders.

  He’s right. I know Nate better than that. What the hell was I thinking?

  “Nate…” I say weakly. “I’m sorry…”

  He doesn’t look at me.

  I’ve hurt him so badly.

  I have to fix it.

  I float higher again.

  “I’ll make it better,” I say. “I promise, Nate. I can see into your hearts if I want to. The sun lays every truth bare. I can give you what you want.”

  “Yes!” Mrs. Kumar smiles up at me. “Yes, Your Majesty! You are kind and generous and we are not worthy of your beneficence.”

  I laugh. That’s better. “See? Mrs. Kumar gets it! Just wait! I’ll give you all whatever you want! Even if you don’t know that you want it!”

  “Don’t do this, Chris,” Alisa says. “Jasmine! Stop him!”

  Jasmine frowns. She looks to Nate, then to me. “I don’t know. If he really can…maybe…?”

  I shine light down upon them. They shade their eyes, but the light isn’t to blind them. It’s to help them see. To see that I’m not their enemy. I’m their savior.

  Only Zane doesn’t shield himself from my light. Shadows dance across his eyes. Beautiful. “Chris,” he says. “Kirt. Don’t.”

  No. No more hesitation. He’ll understand, when the two of us are together, living happily ever after in a world tailor-made for us and our friends. It’ll be perfect. They’ll all see.

  No more doubts. Shake it off. Tune them out. I have to be clearheaded for this.

  Even with all my power, it’s a tall order to remake the entire world.

  Forty

  Maybe I should make myself king.

  I need to take a moment and think this through. Tune out all the yelling below me. I close my eyes and bask in the light of the sun.

  I’d be a benevolent dictator, obviously. I mean, both worlds were pretty messed up even before I came along, but now I’ve got the power to fix that. Eternal peace, under my rule.

  I wasn’t a good king before. I see that now. I’ll be better this time. Kirt’s resolve, Chris’s morals.

  And my friends. Everyone I love. They’ll know happiness like they could never have imagined. No toil, no struggle, no want.

  I wonder how far I can go? The original Moment created billions of new people. Can I do that? Or maybe even… The Moment didn’t resurrect anyone who was dead, but – create a new person or bring
back an old one, is there much of a difference? And I’m stronger than all of the logomancers who cast the Moment put together. I’m sure I could do it.

  So what’s the harm in resurrecting one father?

  “Stay back, little one! It’s dangerous here!”

  Tannyl’s voice interrupts my preparations. Elves can be so annoying. Do we need elves in my new world? I mean, I guess Tannyl’s all right. He’s been a good friend to me. And Alyssa would want to keep him around. But I barely even know any other elves. Would we miss them, seriously?

  Let’s be brutally honest. Do we need anybody besides humans? I’m using this post-Moment world of science as my starting template, after all. Magical species don’t exactly fit.

  Following that train of thought…do we need so many humans? The world is so crowded. We could use a little more elbow room. If I cut the population in half, there’d still be, like, three or four billion of them. Although even that seems like a lot…

  “I want to help!”

  Hm. That’s a new voice. No, wait, not new. It’s not one of my friends, it’s too high and squeaky. But it’s familiar.

  I open my eyes. Oh, I floated pretty high without realizing it. I’m a bit above the roofs of the buildings surrounding the plaza.

  Geez, New York is really torn up. Even outside of Times Square. I’ll be sure to put it all back together. I like New York City, I want it in my new world.

  Stupid ghouls, stupid chimeras, stupid goblins. Destroying everything. Yeah, my world will definitely be better off without them. I’ll start there.

  I take in a breath to say my word and erase those three species from existence.

  “Chris! Down here!”

  Damn it! Who is that? It’s gonna nag at me until I figure it out.

  I float back down to get a better look at the annoying new arrival. He sees me descending and waves.

  “Hi, Chris! I snuck away so I could help!”

  It’s Fulmis. The goblin boy.

  “You’re flying and glowing! Did you win?”

  Oh.

  I was about to kill him.

  I was about to kill all of them. Every goblin, everywhere.

  Do I want to do that?

  The light shining from me sputters, then winks out. I drop, but catch myself just before I hit the steps.