The Common King

by Brian Olsen

  So I didn’t suggest it.

  I think my father would understand.

  We’ve left behind the city’s outer settlements, the last dwelling now several turns of the road behind us. Everything is quiet. Just the sounds of a forest in the summer. A bird sings nearby, and an animal rustles in the undergrowth. Ahead, the stone road stops abruptly. The air around it has an odd shimmer to it. It’s almost imperceptible, probably easy to miss if you didn’t know it was there, but the forest beyond looks a little distorted, like a reflection in a mirror that’s oh-so-slightly warped.

  I swallow.

  Zane rubs my shoulder. “You ready?”

  “As I’ll ever be. Thanks again, Tannyl. I really wanted to see your home before…well, before.”

  “Of course, Chris.”

  We step off the end of the road and through the shimmer in the air. The forest changes around us. It’s still a forest, but not as dense, not as lush. The road behind us is gone, though the slight distortion remains.

  Without a word, we continue on through the woods. The way is familiar to all of us, except Tannyl. In just a few minutes the trees grow thinner, and the back of Charlesville Academy comes into view.

  “Is it a coincidence that the way to Sagebrush wound up here?” Nate asks. “All the other magical cities and habitats are scattered around the world.”

  “In suitable locations,” Alisa points out. “Places where the magical peoples will be safe, if they choose to reveal themselves, or if they’re found.”

  Zane shakes his head. “We hope.”

  “Yeah, we hope.” She shrugs. “We did our best. We can’t control the future.”

  We emerge from the forest into one of the small courtyards behind the school. It’s still summer for a few more weeks, so the campus is almost empty, but a few tables and chairs are set out. The heavy door leading inside the main schoolhouse stands open.

  “It’s weird.” Zane lets go of my hand and sits in a chair. “I don’t remember making many conscious decisions when we were casting the spell.”

  Nate perches on a table. “Me neither. I remember we were talking at first. Fixing buildings, healing people. Finding all the lost artifacts. Then…it was like we didn’t have to talk anymore.”

  I come behind Zane’s chair and drape my arms around him from behind. “The spell had a life of its own. Like the first Moment. What we did was too complex to leave to conscious thought.”

  Alisa nods. “Our overall intentions guided the spell, and the Logos sorted out the details.”

  “Yeah.” Nate narrows his eyes at Tannyl. “Still. Pretty big coincidence that Tannyl’s home wound up practically in Alisa’s backyard.”

  The elf smiles slyly. “I may have influenced its placement slightly.”

  Alisa laughs. “You know I’ll only be here for another year. Then I’m off to college, who knows where.”

  “Wherever you go, that is my home.” He kisses her. “But I wanted you to see my birthplace. I hope the Logos will excuse my selfishness.”

  “Speaking of selfishness,” Zane says, “who fixed things so that we’re on record as finishing our junior year? I thought we weren’t making any changes for personal gain.”

  I bite my lip. “Uh, that was me. I felt like that counted as damage I had caused as the Common King, so it was fair game to put it right.”

  Alisa tugs on some of her braids. “Maybe we should take summer classes, to catch up honestly?”

  Nate slaps his forehead. “Oh, Alisa. Honesty can be taken too far, you know?”

  Our laughter is cut off by a voice from the doorway into the school. “Hey, guys. How’d it go?”

  Tannyl breaks the awkward silence with a short bow. “It went well, Jasmine. Thank you. I am sorry you could not come with us.”

  Jasmine steps down into the small patio. “It’s okay. I understand.” She hugs herself, even though it’s warm out. “A lot of people are mad at me.”

  This is why Alisa wanted Emmet’s memory magic to be a part of the spell. Her idea was to offer everyone who existed before the Moment a choice. Their full memories were restored to them, and each and every one of them decided, individually, whether they would keep them, forget them again, or something in between.

  Jasmine chose to forget. She chose to be the funny, smart, kind, occasionally strange girl we loved rather than the selfish, cruel, murderous Nightmare Queen. She didn’t bury her alter ego’s memories. She erased them completely, everything up to the Moment. Beyond that, she remembers what she did since she first joined Mr. Miller, but only dimly. She says it’s like being tagged in a photo you’re not in. She can look at the picture, and describe it, but she feels no attachment to it. She knows she was once someone else, but Tes Tesbrunchild is a stranger to her. She is completely Jasmine O’Kane.

  Everyone else still remembers who she was. Well, not everyone. Somebody, not me, and I’m sure not Alisa, and nobody else is fessing up, but somebody who helped with the spell did a little unwilling memory tampering, even though we said we wouldn’t do that. Any memories of us held by anyone who wasn’t directly involved in events were removed, and any evidence of us as logomancers was erased. Videos of us and the lightning bird at the mall, news footage of us fighting Mrs. Wollard’s wolves in London, even the Common King’s threatening broadcasts to the world. Gone and forgotten. There’s no connection, in the human world, between Chris Armstrong and the Common King, and my friends can go back to living anonymously.

  For now. The magical species remember everything, and many people who decided to keep their memories from before the Moment will know my face. Someone will rediscover the connection eventually, but by then…well, it won’t matter. To me, at least.

  The elves, of course, all know that Jasmine was the Nightmare Queen, and they’ve made it clear that she’s not welcome in any of their lands.

  Our friends are still awkward around her. She and Nate aren’t back together, and he won’t talk to me about it. It’s been hard on her.

  To me, she’s Jasmine, Nate’s annoying girlfriend. But to another part of me, she’s Tes, my best friend in the entire world. Even if she doesn’t remember.

  I hug her. She rests against me, grateful.

  “It’s gonna be okay, Jaz.”

  “Will it?” She pulls back, sniffling. “Did I do the right thing, forgetting?”

  “You chose the person you want to be. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

  “But you didn’t forget.”

  “No, but I made the same choice as you, almost. I pushed Kirt back so Chris’s memories would be stronger.” I tap my head. “But he’s still in here.”

  She wipes her eyes. “It feels like they’re punishing you for something you didn’t do.”

  “It feels that way. But that’s not the truth.”

  “Maybe I should be punished, too.”

  “No.” I stroke her cheek. “Just me. The rest of you get a clean slate. You, Shonda, Dante, my mom, even Mrs. Kumar. That was my one and only condition for surrendering myself.”

  “But is that right?” She cups my hand in hers. “If you’re guilty, then so—”

  “Maybe it’s not right. I don’t care. You can make your own choices from here on out, and that’s on you. But everything you did in the name of the Common King, I’m taking that on me.”

  “Chris?” Tannyl stands behind me. “It’s time.”

  I give Jasmine one last hug, then nod. “Okay. Where’s Ihsan?”

  “Waiting inside,” Nate answers.

  As we move to the doorway, Jasmine steps aside to let us past.

  “You’re not coming?” I ask.

  She shakes her head. “I need to get home. My parents are…well, this has been a lot for them to deal with. They’re demanding an unusual amount of togetherness time.”

  “Okay.” I linger in the doorway. “Bye, Jaz.”

  “Bye, Chris.”

  Nate takes a step towards her, then stops. “I’ll…um. We’ll talk. Okay?”r />
  She smiles. “Yeah. Okay.”

  Nate and I follow everyone else into the school. We head down towards the main hall, into the entranceway by the front doors. I pause for a second and look out the front window, into the courtyard. It’s quiet and empty.

  Zane touches my arm. “You okay?”

  “Yeah, just…yeah.”

  I don’t know what I expected to see. I haven’t heard from Mom since New York. And even if she somehow found out what’s about to go down, she wouldn’t know to find me here. So it’s not like she’s going to come racing up at the last second.

  Would have been nice to say goodbye, though.

  As we approach Winston Hall, three people come out. One is a Charlesville student I recognize, although I don’t know her name. She was a first year, about to be a sophomore. The other two are elves. A boy, preteen, and an older woman. They look alike – mother and son, probably.

  The student holds the door for them. “So that’s Winston Hall. Morning assemblies are held there, and dances. Did you have assemblies at your old school?”

  The mother elf examines the portraits on the walls as they walk. “We lived in a human city in the old world. He attended a school much like this one.”

  “Well, you’re lucky to be in Charlesville,” the student says. “There are a lot of us here who lived in the world before. Have you ever been to Elkroot? I went on vacation there once.”

  “Why, yes!” The mother smiles. “I have close cousins in the Elkroot tribe. We’ve been many times.”

  “It was so much fun. I hear Elkroot is in England now.” The student nods to us as they pass. “Hi!” She jerks her head at the elves and explains, “Tour.” She turns back to her charges. “I’ll show you the Sports Complex. Do you play sports? There are a lot more types of sports in this world than I remember from the last one.”

  “Yes,” the boy says. “I am interested in lacrosse. It looks like an enjoyable pastime…”

  They reach the end of the corridor and go out through the front doors, then turn towards the path to the Sports Complex.

  I whistle. “The world is changing fast.”

  “With a lot more change to come,” Alisa says. “Governments haven’t figured out how to deal yet with sovereign nations suddenly appearing inside their borders.”

  “My dad’s talking to Queen Dyllic,” Nate adds. “Briefing her on human politics, to get ready for when Sagemoss’s location is revealed to the great state of Connecticut. It won’t be easy.”

  “We couldn’t solve every problem.” I push open the door to Winston Hall. “But we did our best.”

  We step inside. No sign of Ihsan anywhere in the rows of wooden chairs, but I know where he must be. Without speaking, we climb onto the stage and behind the curtain. Off to one side is a doorway, illuminated in the darkness by the light from the room beyond. We find Ihsan in the old prop storage room, where everything started. He’s sitting in the ugly green armchair, where Mr. Miller sat when he gave me my first magic lessons.

  Ihsan stands. “We’re ready?”

  Nate grabs my bag from the floor. “Brought this for you.” He hands it to me.

  I sling it over my shoulder. “I guess I’m all set, then.”

  Tannyl holds the tree medallion out, the cord pulled taught around his neck. “Do I need to take this off, Ihsan?”

  “No, Tannyl. I don’t need to hold it, you’re fine.”

  Tannyl lets the necklace drop, then pats it. “I will keep you safe, Chris.”

  “I know you will.”

  Tannyl is going to be both my protector and my guard. Ihsan is about to send me into the world inside the necklace. And I’ll never come out again.

  I try to swallow down the lump in my throat. “Time for last goodbyes, then.”

  Alisa, Nate and Zane look at one another. Nate raises an eyebrow and asks, “Why?”

  “Why?” I laugh, but it comes out like a sob. “Because I’m about to start a lifetime of solitary confinement, that’s why.”

  “Ah.” Ihsan raises a finger. “A lifetime of confinement, yes. But I don’t believe ‘solitary’ was part of your sentence.”

  Tannyl grins. “As your jailer, I am permitted the leeway of allowing visitors as I see fit.”

  Alisa wraps her arm in his. “And he’s going to ‘see fit’ a whole lot.”

  Zane throws his arms around my neck. “Starting tonight. We’ll be back after dinner. Lily’s coming, too.” He whispers in my ear, “And I might just stay until morning.”

  “Seriously, dude.” Nate flicks my chest with his fingers. “You think I’d be taking this so easy if I were never going to see you again? I’d have torn that fancy elf court to pieces.”

  I hug them. All three of them. We laugh together, at first, but then that subsides.

  This isn’t goodbye, then, and I’m grateful for that. But it’s not exactly a happy parting, either. They get to go home, go to dinner, see their families. I get to go live in a limbo dimension, cut off from the Logos, filled with a never-ending forest of fake trees and dead soil, with nothing to do but sit and think about my many, many sins.

  As we break apart, Alisa catches my expression. “Cheer up, Chris. There’s one more surprise waiting for you in there.”

  I start to ask what she means, but Ihsan says, “Imprison!” and I’m cut off.

  My body tingles. The silver medallion hanging at Tannyl’s sternum grows larger and larger, filling my vision until everything goes dark.

  The light returns. I’m in the necklace. But I’m not in a forest.

  I’m on a sidewalk. On an ordinary street.

  My street. I’m in front of my house.

  I take a breath. The air tastes fresh.

  The colors aren’t dull or muted. Everything looks just as it does in the real world.

  I bend down and touch some blades of grass in my front yard. They’re cool to the touch. Not brittle, like the plants in the world the elves were imprisoned in.

  Ihsan chose to take all his memories back. With them, all his power. I guess he decided to craft a more comfortable prison for me.

  Still a prison, though.

  I look up and down the street. Empty. Quiet. Not a soul.

  I wonder how far it extends? Did he make all of Charlesville for me? Connecticut? The whole world?

  I’ll have plenty of time to find out.

  But right now, all I want to do is collapse in my own bed. Or a reasonable facsimile thereof.

  I walk up the path, onto the front porch, and open the door. I step inside and drop my bag at the foot of the stairs.

  God, it’s just like home. There’s a slight sense of something not quite right. Like everything is too perfect – no little scratches on the walls or scuff marks on the paint. But that’s okay. That’s fine.

  I step into the living room. The time shines green from the cable box. There’s even electricity, then. I wonder if I can watch TV here? That’d help pass the rest of my life.

  There’s a light on in the kitchen.

  Something in there moves. I hear the refrigerator door close.

  It can’t be.

  I run through the open archway.

  My mother turns from the fridge, smiling brightly. She’s wearing a sweatshirt and a pair of jeans, and she’s holding a thin red cardboard box. “I’m thinking of heating up some pizza rolls. You up for a snack before dinner?”

  “Mom?” I whisper. Then, louder, “Mom?”

  Her bright smile drops a little. She puts the box of frozen pizza rolls on the counter. “I think I’d like to be. Yes.”

  We meet in the middle of the kitchen and hold each other tight.

  “I’m still two people,” she says softly.

  “I am, too.”

  “This won’t be easy.” We break apart. She rubs my forearms, smiling. “But I know which of my two lives was happier. I want to try living that one for a while.”

  I smile back at her. “Me, too.”

  “So.” She takes
a deep breath. “Pizza rolls? Yay or nay?”

  I laugh. “Yay.”

  I settle at the table and watch her fuss around the stove, preheating it and setting out the oven tray.

  “I start back at work tomorrow,” she says. “Commuting to and from Tannyl’s neck will be an interesting challenge, but I’ll figure it out. I’ll start moving our stuff over from our real house, too, a little at a time…”

  Another sound distracts me from her story. It’s faint. I tune her out to concentrate, to figure out what it is and where it’s coming from.

  I turn my head and look into the living room. No, not from there.

  What is it? I think someone else is talking.

  It’s in my head. Is it Alisa, talking to me telepathically? No, it doesn’t sound like her.

  I listen more closely. I can almost hear it.

  It’s my voice.

  Sun. Sun. Sun.

  Huh.

  I guess I’m not as cut off from the Logos in here as everyone thinks.

  “Chris?”

  I snap my attention back to my mother. “Hm?”

  She arranges the pizza rolls on the tray. “I said maybe I could set you up to be home schooled. You could finish out your senior year here. Does that sound like something you’d want to do?”

  “Yeah.” I nod. “That sounds great.”

  She puts the empty box in the recycling bin, then comes and sits with me at the table. “I’m sorry. I’m talking like this is all normal. How are you holding up with this?”

  “It’s pretty strange. I don’t think I’ve taken it in yet. That I’m going to be here forever.”

  She scowls. “It’s not right. You’re not responsible for—”

  “I am.” I lean across the table and touch her hand. “I always was. Even when I was just Chris. I was still him. Forgetting things doesn’t mean they didn’t happen, and it doesn’t take away my responsibility.”

  “I know.” She rests her other hand over mine. “I know.”

  The oven beeps. It’s preheated. Mom gets up to put in the pizza rolls.

  I stand. “I’m gonna put my stuff away. I packed for living in a forest. I might need you to get some different clothes for me from home.”

  “I can do that. You go ahead and get settled. I’ll call you down when these are done. Won’t be long. I was thinking we could watch a movie tonight?”