The Unconquered Mage

by McShane, Melissa

  Eventually I felt whole again, body and memory, and I stretched and felt the strands move with me. I almost began to worry I wouldn’t be able to find my way back to the…not the real world, because this was realer than anything I could imagine, but the place where my human body belonged. But I knew the magic so well at that point I couldn’t feel afraid of anything related to it.

  Even so, it took me a few tries before I figured out how to make my awareness of it fade so I could see anything else. And when that happened, I opened my eyes and found myself in an enormous, too-soft bed, covered by a heavy down comforter (and feeling overwarm) and wearing only a thin nightgown with nothing underneath (as I discovered when I moved). I felt incredibly weak and hungry, as if I hadn’t eaten for days, and achy, but I stretched and began to feel better.

  I was able to get up and totter across the bedroom, which was as enormous as the bed, and found and used the chamber pot outside the equally large kiorka, though my bladder wasn’t very full. When I came out, I startled a woman with a basin of water and some towels. She dropped everything, and without thinking about it I took hold of one of those strands and used it to stop the basin from spilling. They’re at the edge of my vision all the time now, though if I bend my will I can bring them into focus without completely losing my normal sight. I’m not sure I can manipulate them consciously yet, now that I’m awake, but I expect—I hope—that will come with practice.

  Anyway, the woman gasped, dropped her burden, said, “Your Majesty!” and ran out of the room before I could say anything. I followed her to the door and looked out. It opened on a wide hallway lined with pedestals bearing vases of fresh flowers between other doors, all of which were painted a soft blue and outlined with gilt.

  It was opulent and a little intimidating, and I shut my own door and contemplated my nearly-naked condition. Then I went into the dressing room and rooted around for something less revealing. Someone had put what few clothes I own away in the drawers, and the Imperial getup was hanging in the closet, so this was clearly my room, but I’d never seen the place before and it made me nervous.

  I’d just put on underwear and was debating between two shirts when the door banged open and Cederic shouted my name. “I’m in here,” I said. “Do you think—”

  That was as far as I got before Cederic burst into the dressing room, snatched me into his arms, and held me so tightly I squeaked. “You’re awake,” he said, then kissed me as if he hadn’t seen me for a year.

  “Yes, and I have so much to tell you,” I said after a few long, satisfying moments. Then I said, “You look terrible.” He did. He looked as if he hadn’t slept well for the same year he hadn’t seen me, and while I don’t think Cederic is ever less than impeccably turned out, he was as close to looking unkempt as I’d ever seen him.

  “Sesskia, you were unconscious for more than three weeks,” he said. “I thought…I was afraid you might never wake again.”

  “It didn’t feel like three weeks,” I said, stupidly. Then I remembered I was still in my underwear, and while I normally enjoy that when my husband is around, at the time I didn’t feel up for anything more vigorous than hugging. “Let me get dressed, and I’ll tell you—wait.” I was filling up with questions. “Is the God-Empress dead?”

  “Renatha Torenz is decidedly, thoroughly dead,” Cederic said, grimacing, “and I hoped you would be able to tell us how she and three others were found contorted into near-unrecognizability when you lay unmarked nearby.”

  I shuddered at that and finished doing up my trousers. “I only know what happened to me,” I said, “and I’m hungry.”

  So Cederic made me get back into bed while he called for food, and right about then was when people started crowding in at the door, Audryn and Terrael and Jeddan and Mattiak and about a thousand others, all wanting to see me, and they all seemed so happy and relieved it made me cry. Then Cederic shooed everyone away and said they all could have the day off, and we sat together talking while I ate, and then talked some more. I told him everything I’d experienced, and he asked a few questions, chief among which was, “Can you show me how the magic works?”

  “I don’t know,” I said. “I felt as if I made it work by accident, not by conscious thought. It was just—like making my hands move. You don’t have to direct them, you just do it.”

  “By instinct,” he said. “That may well be the desired end state, but achieving it will have to take deliberate effort.”

  “I only know when I bend my will, it becomes visible,” I said.

  He pulled his knees up beneath his chin, disrupting my tray, and clasped his hands loosely on them. “Our mages have learned to perceive the magic, if that is indeed what those colored ribbons are,” he said. “But they have yet to make it do anything. Of course, it has only been four days since they discovered its true nature.”

  “It apparently took me three weeks to learn to perceive it, and to use it on some level,” I said. “Maybe I can turn that to our advantage. If I can figure out how to teach it. I don’t know if three weeks is fast or slow, but it felt like only…actually, I didn’t have any sense of time. But what matters is learning it, period, even if it takes some of us years.”

  He moved my tray to the floor and put his arms around me. “I am glad it took you no more than three weeks,” he said. “I had no idea it was possible to feel as bereft as I did while you were unconscious. We could none of us work magic to even discover what was wrong with you, let alone bring you back out of that state—”

  “That would have been a very bad idea,” I said, “if it had interrupted what I was doing. It might have killed me.”

  “Just as well magic did not work, then,” he said. “We hoped your unnatural slumber, in which you did not eat or drink yet stayed perfectly healthy, meant there was still magic and we simply could not access it.”

  “And now it’s combined again, and the worlds are fully united,” I said.

  “Yes. Though it is only the beginning of bringing our countries together,” he said. Then we talked about what he’d been doing during those three weeks. The details are all in the pages I can’t read yet, the ones he wrote in Castaviran while I was unconscious. It breaks my heart to think of him struggling, unable to tell anyone about his doubts and fears without making himself look weak when he needs to be strong for everyone. I hope I can learn about our government quickly so I can be a true help to him. I foresee a lot of reading in my future. In Castaviran too, if I can collar Terrael long enough for lessons.

  We spent most of the day in here—there was so much to talk about—and I ate a lot, and then Cederic had to go take care of some business (I don’t think Emperors get days off) and I wrote all of this. I feel as if I’ve left out too much, because we had such a long conversation, but I think I remembered all the most important things.

  Tomorrow I’ll teach the mages what I know about working magic the new way, what I learned while I was in that state. I can’t wait to work with them again, with this new direction we all have. I wonder if this really is how they used to do magic before the divergence. If it is, I’m stunned they could ever want to change it. Though…it makes more sense now, that they’d want to make it available to everyone, because it feels like touching life itself. So maybe those long-dead mages weren’t so self-centered after all. Not that I think they were right. But I think of Terrael, and I can understand how it feels to want to share this with the people you care about.

  Cederic’s right that this is an important part of our history now, the convergence and how we all worked so hard to keep our worlds from destroying each other, but I hope he doesn’t suggest my books go into a library somewhere—how embarrassing for all my pettiness and mistakes to be on public display! Even when I thought of myself as keeping a record for others, it was always only other mages I thought would read it, and I wasn’t really serious about it then.

  But even though we’ve started something new—building an Empire, bringing people together, changing the gove
rnment, fighting wars small and large—it feels as if this is the end of something old. It’s not as if this book is full—there are maybe twenty pages left—but this is what we set out to accomplish, all those months ago when I first came to Castavir. And nothing went the way any of us expected.

  When Cederic comes back, I’ll share my most wonderful, beautiful secret with him. I never did tell him I stopped using the contraceptives after the assassination attempt, when I was afraid we might need an heir, if the worst happened. I didn’t actually think anything would happen. It’s a measure of how desperate we all were I didn’t even realize something had.

  If it’s a boy, I want to name him Alenik.

  Pronunciation Guide and Glossary

  General note: in Sesskia’s language (Balaenic), long A and long O are usually written “ae” and “oe,” and she writes Castaviran words and names as they would be spelled in Balaenic (i.e. Coell (Coll) River)

  aenemica (ay-NEM-i-cah) – in Balaen, a name one uses for one’s enemy to avoid referring to that person in a way that might indicate a positive or friendly relationship

  baezrel (BAYZ-rel) – two-wheeled transport like a bicycle, but for one to four passengers

  Balaen (bah-LAIN) – Sesskia’s home country

  Barrekel (BEAR-uh-kel) – second largest city in Balaen; in conflict with Castaviran city Teliarne

  Castavir (CAS-tah-veer) – Empire formerly ruled by the God-Empress Renatha Torenz; also the central country of that empire

  collenna (coh-LEN-nah) – engine, either self-propelling or attached to a loenerel

  Colosse (col-LOSS) – capital city of the Castaviran Empire

  Darssan (DAR-san) – combination school and research organization for Castaviran mages

  Edmonti (ed-MON-tye) – Castaviran month equivalent to Balaenic month Dorinet (May)

  Endellavir (en-DELL-uh-veer) – country annexed a century ago by the Castaviran Empire

  Helviran (HEL-veer-an) – country in the Castaviran Empire

  Karoli (kah-ROH-lye) – Castaviran month equivalent to Balaenic month Shelet (April)

  kathana (ka-THAWN-ah) – ritual or spell composed of th’an

  Kilios (KEY-lee-ohs) – “highest master”; a mage who has mastered all known th’an and all kathanas that can be performed by a single person

  Lethess (leth-ESS) – coastal Balaenic city, resort town, ruled by Granea Amelessar

  loenerel (LOH-neh-rel) – a train-like vehicle that runs on any surface, not on rails

  Pfulerre (FOO-lair) – coastal Castaviran city, ruled by Daenen Radryntor

  pouvra, plural pouvrin (POW-vrah, pow-VRIN) – a form of magic requiring no words, gestures, or th’an, that is instead manifested through the mage’s will

  praenoma, (plural) praenomi (pray-NO-ma, pray-NO-mee)—Balaenic first name; reserved for the use of close friends and family

  Sai (sigh) – “great master”; a mage with advanced knowledge of magic

  Teliarne (TEE-lee-arn) – capital city of Helviran; in conflict with Balaenic city Barrekel

  th’an (TH-AWN, with a glottal stop at the apostrophe) – magical pictogram or rune; may refer to a single rune or a simple combination of three or four

  thanest (THAWN-est) – in Castavir, a place where magic is available to the public, usually for a price but sometimes for free

  Venetry (VEN-uh-tree) – capital of Balaen

  Viravon (VEER-uh-von) – country annexed by the Castaviran Empire over a century ago; in rebellion to gain their freedom

  THE BALAENIC CALENDAR

  Winter:

  Hantar (30 days)

  Jennitar (31 days)

  Teretar (30 days)

  Spring:

  Shelet (30 days)

  Dorinet (31 days)

  Auret (30 days)

  Summer:

  Evray (30 days)

  Senessay (31 days)

  Lennitay (30/31 days)

  Autumn:

  Coloine (30 days)

  Nevrine (31 days)

  Seresstine (31 days)

  THE BALAENICS

  (NOTE: the surnames of the noble houses all end in –ssar; these are the people who are allowed to serve as Chamber Lords and as Lords Governor of the major cities of Balaen)

  Sesskia (SESS-key-ah) – Balaenic mage of ten years’ standing, Cederic Aleynten’s wife and Empress-Consort of the Castaviran-Balaenic Empire

  Jeddan (JED-un) – Leader of the Balaenic warrior mages, Sesskia’s friend

  Mattiak Tarallan (MAT-tee-ack tar-ALL-un) – Commander General of the Balaenic Army

  Alenik (ah-LEN-ick) – Sesskia’s father (deceased)

  Cessily (SESS-ih-lee) – Sesskia’s mother (deceased)

  Roda (ROE-duh) – Sesskia’s older sister

  Bridie (BRY-dee) – Sesskia’s younger sister (deceased)

  Garran Clendessar (GAR-un CLEN-des-ar) – King of Balaen

  Caelan Crossar (CAY-lun CROSS-ar) – Chamber Lord of Defense

  Merdel Lenssar (MUR-del LEN-sar) – Chamber Lord of Commerce

  Jarlak Batekessar (JAR-lack BAH-teh-keh-sar) – Chamber Lord of Agriculture

  Debarra Jakssar (deh-BAR-uh JACK-sar) – Chamber Lord of Transportation

  Relania Phellek (ruh-LAIN-ee-ah FELL-eck) – mage of several years’ standing, pacifist and spy

  Tobiak (toe-BYE-ack) – mage created by the convergence, spy

  Jerussa (juh-RUE-sah) – mage created by the convergence, master of the flitting pouvra

  Arron Domenessar (AR-un do-MEN-uh-sar) – Lord Governor of Barrekel

  Roebart Gradden (ROH-bart GRAD-un) – General in command of the Black Army at Barrekel

  Soessen Ellert (SOH-sun EL-ert) – General in command of the Brown Army at Barrekel

  Granea Amelessar (GRAY-nee-ah AM-el-es-ar) – Lord Governor of Lethess

  Orenna (or-ENN-ah) – mage in the service of Granea Amelessar

  THE CASTAVIRANS

  Cederic Aleynten (SED-er-ic ah-LEN-ten) – Kilios, Sesskia’s husband and Emperor-elect of the Castaviran-Balaenic Empire

  Terrael Peressten (ter-RAIL per-ESS-ten) – mage who can no longer work magic, Sesskia’s friend, married to Audryn; Cederic’s aide and inventor of kathanas

  Audryn Engilles (AW-drin en-GIL-is) – mage and friend of Sesskia, married to Terrael; Terrael’s partner in invention

  Sovrin Ustanz (SAW-vrin uss-TANCE) – mage who can no longer work magic; head of the translator corps and Sesskia’s friend

  Jaemis Quallen (JAY-mis QUAH-lun) – mage, expert in transmutation kathanas

  Dugan Lerongis (DOO-gan leh-RON-gis) – King of Helviran in the Castaviran Empire

  Joena Lerongis (JOH-nuh leh-RON-gis) – Queen-Consort of Helviran, Dugan’s wife

  Lelaena Osther (leh-LAY-nuh OSS-ther) – Queen of Endellavir in the Castaviran Empire

  Moerton Taissatus (MOR-ton TIE-sah-tus) – Consul of Colosse; chief of the consuls of the Castaviran Empire

  Veneta Amaleten (ven-EE-tah ah-MAH-leh-tun) – chief Sai of the Firtha thanest in Colosse; Cederic’s former teacher and most high priestess

  Renatha Torenz (reh-NAH-tha tor-ENCE) – deposed God-Empress of Castavir

  Gael Regates (GAIL reh-GAH-tes) – Commander of the Castaviran Army; former conspirator against the God-Empress

  Perce Aselfos (PERSS ah-SEL-fus) – Renatha Torenz’s former spymaster, responsible for removing her from the throne

  Brisson Rialen (BRIS-un rye-AH-len) – consul of Teliarne, Dugan Lerongis’s cousin and heir

  Raewyn Garatssen (RAY-win ga-RAHT-sen) – Commander General of the Helvirite Army, Dugan Lerongis’s half-sister

  Daenen Radryntor (DAY-nen RAD-rin-tor) – consul of Pfulerre

  READ ON for some bonus scenes from Cederic’s point of view!

  Bonus Scenes

  The Coronation (15 Hantar)

  Cederic examined the Imperial crown where it rested on a purple velvet cushion. It was burnished gold lined with white satin, studded with pearls
the size of his thumbnail. A single central diamond that would look like the wearer’s third eye winked in the low light of the reception chamber. The satin lining was yellowed toward the bottom, where it had rested against Imperial heads over the centuries. Emperors, Empresses, down to Renatha Torenz, who had betrayed its trust in her evil madness.

  And now it was his.

  He put his hands behind his back to keep himself from picking it up, feeling he ought not before he’d actually been crowned. He had worn it briefly, very briefly, when Veneta Amaleten had put it on his head to test the fit—he didn’t want it slipping down over his ears during the ceremony and distracting everyone from the gravity of the moment. It had been a perfect fit. Veneta hadn’t made any comment, but he knew her well enough to read her expression. Like it was made for you, she’d been thinking. Cederic tried not to feel superstitious about that.

  He felt he was, if not the last person anyone would have chosen to rule an empire, certainly far down on the list. His family was of modest means, he was scholastically gifted, he’d spent his life in magical pursuits. Had the convergence and Renatha Torenz not intervened, he would have founded his own thanest and pursued his studies until old age forced retirement on him. It was not false modesty when he felt himself inadequate to the role he now intended to fill. He played the part well, but in the dark of night, when his doubts tormented him, he wondered why no one else saw how much he still needed to learn.

  Someone stepped up beside him. “The Consort’s crown is far too big for me,” Sesskia said. “They had to pad the lining so it didn’t fall off. Some of those Emperor-Consorts must have had enormous heads and ears that stick out by a mile.”

  Cederic smiled at the image. “The Consort’s crown is not so gaudy as the Emperor’s. It suits you.”

  Sesskia shuddered exaggeratedly. “I never wore jewelry in my life until about four months ago, but I like to think I have better taste than that.”