“Ah, just when I thought things were going to be easy.”
“You should stop thinking that. It’s never right.”
“The Jarls and earl’s offer is too good an opportunity to pass up, though.”
“You should send a proxy. This reeks of a trap.”
I shook my head. “I need to show them I’m not the old King Below.”
“That may not be who they’re looking for. The prophecy warned them against the new one.”
“Then that’s their problem.” I paused, knowing there was more to it than that. “I also have to kill Redhand and Hellsword.”
Serah was silent. “Yes, you do.”
“Is that a problem?”
“How would you feel if I said you had to kill Jassamine?”
“That you were stating the obvious.”
Serah smiled. “I thought I loved Hellsword but after all the black magic, murder, and experiments we performed for the so-called greater good, I realized I loved Regina more. By that time, though, she’d moved on. Now my homeland is reduced to rubble and he’s trying to manipulate our past relationship to kill Regina’s sister. Would have done so if I’d agreed to let him murder her. You will not kill Fel Hellsword, Jacob, because I’m going to.”
How did I get married to such formidable women?
Fortune favored me there, it seemed.
And cursed me because I would have to ask for a favor now. “I wish to meet with the Oghma.”
We reached the end of the hallway where Serah stopped, holding her staff close. “That is an extraordinarily bad idea. The Oghma was founded for the purposes of fighting the King Below and you’re going to walk into the dragon’s den?”
“I…saw things in the future,” I said, still remembering the terrible visions of the world destroyed and Regina killing the Lawgiver. “I need to consult with the prophecy you mentioned to see if it really does refer to me.”
“Prophecies have a way of making themselves come true,” Serah said, shaking her head. “Destiny is a force that exists only in the abstract. People born poor are likely to remain so. People born rich are likely to be entitled. Circumstances push us in certain directions and divination just collates that knowledge.”
“I need to know, Serah.”
Serah looked at me, unhappy. “All right. I will take you to meet with their leader.”
“Thank you.”
“The Oghma does not meet through normal methods. It summons its members through the call of its leader, Ethinu,” Serah said, lifting up her palm and the ring on it. “This is my means of contacting her. She lives in a castle of glass in the Astral Plane.”
“Impressive. How long until we can meet with her if you do so now?”
Serah extended her finger and a glowing rift in the fabric of reality appeared in the center of the hall, this one leading to a misty green haze beyond. “Now. Don’t ask me why it’s easier to tear a hole in dimensions than teleport around the World Between.”
“I’ve stopped asking questions about why magic works. I just study how it does.”
“A wise decision.”
I stared at the rift and took a second to catch my breath. This was a large decision to take on at the drop of a hat, but time was not on our side. If we were going to press our advantage into Winterholme, then we needed to do so now before the opportunity passed us by. But I needed to know just what I was up against too.
“What do I need to know about this woman?”
“Ethinu is an ancient elf, older than perhaps any other in the world. She is one of the original high lords and a sorceress without peer. She appears young and beautiful, but do not be fooled, because she is a woman who causally destroys kingdoms. Ethinu is greatly confident that everything she does is in the name of the greater good but….be warned, her ideas of that will not be easy to understand. Also, she is the former lover of the Lawgiver.”
I soaked up that last fact. “Great.”
“And the Trickster.”
I did a double-take then chortled. “Now I want to meet her.”
No, you really don’t, the Trickster said. Believe me.
“Don’t let her manipulate you. For the longest time I believed I was serving a greater cause as an agent of the Oghma. It took Regina’s and your arrival to make me realize all I was doing was making the world worse.”
I thought about Serah’s ill-fated uncle and his attempts to foster a rebellion against the empire in the former Lakeland territories. He had been a cowardly sort of fellow with only the petty ambitions of a traitor. I couldn’t help but wonder if another hand had been guiding him to the destination that had gotten him and his nephew killed. If the Oghma were truly playing at the games of kings then they could have done worse than arranging such a thing. “You’re coming with me, correct?”
“I wouldn’t dream of leaving you alone with Ethinu. If she turns against us we’ll have a long fight ahead against the Oghma but we can win if we engage them one by one. It will be a long and hard battle, though,” Serah said, walking to the edge of the rift and stopping. A strange look passed across her face and, for a moment, I wondered what she was thinking.
“Is something wrong?”
“Just contemplating something,” Serah said. “Have you ever considered just…leaving?”
“And go where?” I said, avoiding her question.
“Away from this. All of this…responsibility and conflict. The three of us and perhaps a few other friends with whatever mementos we wish to take with us.”
I was surprised by her words for she, of all of us, had been the most power hungry. “There’s no place the Lawgiver wouldn’t find us. He is capable of viewing all nations in the World Between simultaneously.”
“There are other worlds, Jacob. We could go through a moongate to some other planet and start anew. Find some world where humans live and rule them—or just live together in peace.”
I paused, thinking about that. “Sometimes I think about that. Other times I think about the fact it is good to be the king. I grew up as nothing more than an inconvenient extra mouth to feed by my father and an embarrassment by my sisters. But—”
“But what?”
“It would not be honorable.”
“Honorable.”
“Strange how a concept popularized by the nobility and scorned by peasants has become so important to me.” I paused. “Earlier today, you were fine with going to war. Eager even. Why the sudden reversal?”
“I have never had so much to lose before. Regina lost everyone and everything at Whitehall. I lost my brother. Regina will never stop seeking revenge and all I can think of is what life would be like without the two of you. Now she has her cousins back and it’s possible she might heal. We could let this go. Strange, but I can’t help but think you’re actually more important than being Queen of the Shadows.”
I put my arm around hers. “We will talk about this at length. I promise. But first, we need answers. Answers only your former employer can provide.”
“All right.”
Serah held me and together we walked through the rift.
Chapter Ten
I had seen many wondrous things on my journeys. I was almost three hundred years old and while I had spent the majority of that time as a mind-controlled slave, I had witnessed many things both beautiful and strange. The crystal palace of Ethinu was not the greatest of them, but it was an impressive spectacle. The palace was formed, as the name attested, of living crystal that had a brilliant inner luminescence that my attire contrasted to strongly. Everything was made in shades of white, light, or brilliance without actual colors.
The chamber we were in was thirteen stories tall with free-floating display cases, bookshelves, and furniture, as if gravity was not something expected of the residents. A seventy-foot-long iris-shaped window was present to our side, showing the vast endless blue-silver void of the astral plane along with the thousands of pale-white stars within.
I stood awed.
&nbs
p; I’d never felt smaller looking out into the blue vastness and wondering if there was another world out there with another Jacob Riverson, Regina Whitetremor, or Serah Brightwaters. A world where I was dust and bones so there had never been anyone to save Regina on the Storm Giant Mountains or Serah from the sacking of Lakeland. A place where they had not been there to save me from the despair I’d felt following my freedom from the old King Below’s service. Alternate timelines, places, and people that showed what might have been or could be.
Yes, there are, the Trickster said. You are not unique.
As Serah says, we are all unique.
How would you know?
I chided myself for once again paying attention to the madman inside my head, god or not, and looked to Serah. She was looking wobbly, motion sick really, and I extended my hand over to her. Serah took it, surprising me, since she had always disdained help. “Thank you, Jacob. This is not a place for those of flesh and blood.”
I blinked at her observation for I felt surprisingly good. Better, indeed, than I had felt in a long time. I could taste the world on my tongue, the air on my face, and countless things around me with senses I didn’t even know I had. I felt, for lack of a better word, more real. Some philosophers had speculated there was a universe of true forms where ideas had a perfect semblance. I’d always found that to be nonsense but, again, it seemed today was a day for opening up my mind.
You are a god, the Trickster said. This is the realm of ideas. The backstage of the universe. Where else would a god be able to manifest fully?
“I wonder why Ethinu chooses to live in such a place,” I said, looking up to the room’s ceiling. “Extra living space aside.”
“It is said after the First Humans left for the higher planes, the Lawgiver stayed behind and created the elves. Ethinu was one of these elves who wandered the universes, seeding countless planets with life and teaching them the way until the Lawgiver settled on this planet with the rest of the sidhe.”
“And they were all but eradicated in a pointless war with the Formor,” I said, finishing that thought. “I suppose I’d want to live in another reality too.”
“The sidhe are not gone yet, Jacob.”
“Their time has passed. Not because they choose to live but because they choose to not. The sidhe do not dream of a better tomorrow but ruminate over past glories and lost wonders. I am dead, Serah, but they are the ones who act as ghosts.”
Serah took my hand. “You feel real enough to me. You are alive, Jacob, no matter the form of it, and where there is life there is hope.”
“That hardly sounds like the professional cynic I’ve always taken you to be.”
“Perhaps you are a bad influence.”
I chuckled. “I admit I have had bad experiences with the sidhe in the past. The high lords I’ve met have all been arrogant and condescending at their most polite. I do not expect this meeting to go well.”
“Do you truly think the prophecy will allow you to avert your fate?”
“I don’t believe in destiny or fate. There is but one ending that is predetermined for all beings, god or mortal, and that is death.”
“And I’m the cynic?”
“I consider that rather optimistic actually. It means everything until that point is our own responsibility.” I walked around the room, looking at the strange objects and items around me. “Does she know we’re here?”
“Undoubtedly. That doesn’t mean she’ll see us. Ethinu and I are not equals in the Oghma, assuming they still consider me after marrying the heir to their greatest enemy. She makes kings wait on their knees to visit her, just a few of the petty mind-games she likes to play.”
“I see,” I said. “Maybe we should start smashing things and see if she comes then.”
Now it was Serah’s turn to laugh. “I would pay good money to see that.”
I looked at a nearby statue of an elf maiden reaching to the sun, about two feet in height, freestanding in the air, and causally knocked it over.
“Jacob!” Serah said.
“This is a place of the mind,” I said, watching the statue disintegrate and reform. “None of it’s real.”
Serah frowned, seemingly considering that fact for the first time. “True. I remember how impressed I was when I first came here. However, it’s like my illusions, nothing but mummer’s tricks and flash powder.”
“You were with Hellsword when you first came here?” I tried not to sound jealous.
I failed.
Serah frowned then shook her head. “You wish to know about my relationship to another man?”
“No,” I said. “And yes. Such is the province of human emotion. We often want what’s worst for us. I trust you and do not—”
“You shouldn’t,” Serah said. “I’ve said I’m untrustworthy and I meant it. I cannot control my feelings towards you and Regina. It makes me act…unwisely. Hellsword is taking advantage of our past to manipulate me. Do not trust my decisions as long as he involved in events.”
“Serah—”
“Fel came to me at my most vulnerable. He proclaimed that it was not I who should be afraid of them but other people. He was ruthless, amoral, and hedonistic. He broke down my resistance to using my powers for my own benefit, using methods that were…unkind. In the end, once I unleashed them, I relished them and relished him. I found I preferred to be evil than good as the latter had made me nothing but miserable my entire life.”
“I know that feeling.”
“Do you? I find that hard to believe.”
I had spilled far too much blood to judge her for her past actions. She could admit to any number of crimes but nothing she did could match what I’d done as a slave of the King Below. There was only one crime I was not guilty of and I held fast to that. “You speak of admiration but say you won’t hesitate to kill him. What changed between you?”
Serah looked at me. “I…fell in love with Regina, admiring her often simple-minded worldview of light and dark. In the end, I don’t think I realized I had changed until after our marriage and that I cared whether this world lived or died. It separated me forever from my previous lover because he believed in nothing.”
“If Hellsword was so nihilistic, why did he join the Nine Heroes?” I asked, confused by her description.
“I don’t know. It’s out of character. That bothers me.”
“It bothers you he believes in a cause?”
“It makes me question what makes one of the evillest men I’ve ever known decide to become a hero.”
“Perhaps the fact that he’s a monster impressed by them should cause you to think about their cause more negatively.”
“Perhaps.”
Shaking my head, I turned around and searched for an exit. Any exit. There was no point in searching this place, since it might be miles long and full of infinite halls since it didn’t seem like there was much in the way of physics limiting a world built on thought. It felt good, however, and I found myself departing into a gigantic circular chamber surrounded with ionic columns and a balcony overlooking it. A mural of the Lawgiver’s All-Seeing Eye was in the center of the floor.
Serah followed me, continuing to talk even when it should have been clear it was a better idea to let the matter drop. “The Lawgiver, Jassamine, and the Nine will not leave you alone. Therefore, you should strike first and annihilate them. If not, then you should leave and go far-far away from them. You cannot do as you’ve done and just try to live in peace. They will not leave you be.”
“And if our conflict destroys the world?” I asked, thinking about my vision of the future.
“I care about that less than I care about you and Regina surviving.”
“I find that frightening. Do not live for others, Jacob. Live for me and Regina and our family to be. We will be here forever at your side if you want.”
“Nothing is forever.” I wasn’t here to debate philosophy but get answers. Ethinu’s absence was starting to bother me. What was she waiting for? I
decided to risk asking Serah more about the Oghma. “You mentioned Jassamine’s relationship to Hellsword, which means you knew she was alive the entire time we were getting to know each other. When I was falling in love with you and mourning her death.”
“I knew she betrayed you long before you remembered she was a child-killing psychopath.”
“And yet you didn’t tell me.”
“No.”
“How much do you know you haven’t been telling me?”
“Much.”
I took a deep breath, trying not to become furious. “Can you promise me that you will stop lying to me? Hiding things from me?”
“Would you believe me if I did?”
“Yes.”
“Then that is your mistake. I am sorry, Jacob. I am what I am.”
I turned around to face her. “Then perhaps Regina is—”
Serah pointed over her shoulder. “There’s a monster slithering down the balcony.”
“Gods dammit.”
The sight filled me with a terror that chilled me through my soul. It had an expansive serpent’s body entirely covered with feathers made of star metal. Six wings came out at various points, and two of them from the side of its head and folded over its eyes. It was repeatedly speaking a holy invocation the word ringing in my ears like a deafening temple bell.
A glowing nimbus of light radiated from it, pure light magic, draining away my powers as if I were a strigoi in sunlight being forced back to its tomb. I recognized the creature for what it was due to my studies of the Codex. I knew of grand priests who, flush with the hubris of the self-righteous, used forbidden texts to summon such creatures. They were the highest messengers, created as weapons for the Lawgiver, and could flatten cities with their power or deliver judgement on whole armies.
And Ethinu had sent one to kill me.
Drawing Chill’s Fury, I drew comfort from the weapon’s power even as I knew this would be a fight I would probably not win. God or not, there were simply some things beyond the power of a man to triumph over.
“Get behind me or flee!” I shouted, hoping to at least die in the good cause of defending someone I loved.
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