by Ross Dupree
in thought. "Go on."
Cassian told him the rest, and Linus listened without further interruption. After he had digested the appearance of the old man and his wagon, Linus did not seem surprised by any of the rest of the story. When the tale was done, Linus asked to see the feather, the shell, and the egg itself.
"I would like to keep the shell fragments, Cassian, if I may."
"Of course, Master. And the egg as well belongs to you. This is your laboratory and I am your apprentice."
"No," Linus said. "No, I am no longer your Master. You have been chosen. And by John himself!"
"I don't understand."
"Come now, Cassian. You are a clever man. You know that John did not happen across you by accident."
"Yes, I know he came to Sera and I to give us the protection we needed from the phoenix's incineration. He gave Sera the feather so that we could live through that night."
"And he picked you to be guardian of the egg, Cassian."
Cassian stared ahead blankly, not meeting Linus's eyes. He knew that Sera had been chosen, he had just happened to be there. An accident of fate.
"We have to send you to the King now. He has to know about the egg, and about you."
"What about me?"
"He will appoint you to a court position, give you a title. You are responsible for the egg until it hatches, and he will want you in his court."
Cassian frowned at this. "I'll have to move into the court? Are you saying I'm no longer your apprentice?"
"Cassian. No. You are no longer anyone's apprentice. You are the chosen guardian of the egg."
This was not going as he had expected. He did not want to give up his studies to sit around in court.
"I don't want to leave here, I want to continue my apprenticeship and study alchemy."
"You can continue to study alchemy, in fact it will be a requirement for your position. But you will not be an apprentice. You will have your own lab, and full access to the royal libraries."
Cassian was angry. "I won't be able to leave the city. I won't be able to see Sera."
"No, you cannot leave the city. You must stay with the egg at all times, and the King will of course insist that the egg not leave the city."
Cassian ground his teeth. He was going to be trapped! "I didn't ask for this."
"You were chosen, Cassian. And given this opportunity. This will be what you make of it. Approached correctly, you will come to have considerable influence and authority in court. In time, all arcane subjects can come to be under your domain. Perhaps this is even why you were chosen."
Cassian saw there was no choice, that this would be his path to tread. He could fight it, but this was now his fate, and he had studied enough history to know that fighting fate would merely waste his energy. He'd still end up in the same place or much, much worse off.
Later that night, he sat at his small desk in his room. The desk was bare except for his research journal and the egg.
He stared at his reflection in the egg. He knew the traditional lore, what the phoenix's arrival had meant to Correndrum. In a way it was like what the feathers had meant for him and Sera. It meant the kingdom was protected, that it would survive. But it also meant that difficult times lay ahead. Times of chaos. Destruction. War was coming, only the wilfully blind could deny it. Correndrum would survive whatever was coming, and rise again, but it may be reduced to ashes first.
He wasn't sure what the egg itself meant, though, what role it might play. That was a new twist in the legend. His responsibility now was to find out.
Well then, he would do just that. He would move into the court and study in the royal libraries and use the King's resources to build his laboratory. He would call in favors he was not even owed, send aids to faraway lands for research, call on the assistance of every other student of the arcane arts in the Kingdom.
He would become the chosen, even if that had not been fate's original intent. He would be ready for whatever came. His journey had shown him a wider world, more possibilities. He wanted more, he had more ambition.
Cassian opened his journal and began making plans.