Ardent

by Florian Armas

  “You look fine,” she threw an inquisitive stare at me. “I have a letter for you.” She proffered a rolled paper with the First Light’s seal, and I broke it quickly.

  ‘Fourth Light,’ I read.

  ‘If being punctual means something to you, be in Leyona three weeks before the Summer Solstice.

  Signed First Light.’

  From the First Light to the Fourth Light. Drusila likes me as much I like her. “Where are you going?” I asked Sybille.

  “That was our only task,” she pointed to the letter. “We will return to Alba now. The First Light was angry at your delay,” Sybille glanced at me, “but she was not … upset. And Splendra postponed my trip to search for you several times, even when most of the High Council’s Lights asked her to allow my departure.”

  “Thank you,” I patted her shoulder. “Drusila and Splendra did not want me to arrive in time for the Conclave with the Circle in Leyona.” I showed Sybille the letter; she was my closest sister. Why will they gather a new Council? They already have their bastard candidate King. “The solstice is in three weeks from now. I should be there tomorrow, and it’s a seven-day ride from here to Leyona. I even think that Drusila would not like me back at all. We will return with you. I was never so long away from home.”

  “You are late,” Drusila scolded me, the moment I entered her office. Her voice was flat, yet I sensed something derisive in it. Something hidden in its lack of inflexions; or it was the way her little finger was pointing up, or her relaxed stance? Yet it was derisive nevertheless. The other two sisters from the Inner Council were also present in Drusila’s office.

  This belonged to Valera… There was change in style too: Valera’s austere functional office had given way to Drusila’s fancy chamber. Painting and statues filled the room. Too many… Drusila’s taste leaned toward quantity more than quality.

  “Yes, I am,” I answered, in the same flat tone.

  “Should I bother to ask why?”

  “Only, if you want to show a polite mask, sister.”

  “Well, you are back,” she shrugged. “When will they gather a Conclave? It’s what Valera requested, isn’t it?”

  “The Conclave took place.” I searched in my knapsack, and proffered the letter with the Judgments. “The First Light of Arenia had a vision about the Fracture too.”

  “Ada was in Silvania,” Drusila murmured, reading the letter. “What did you say?”

  “The Fracture.”

  “Two visions. It may be true after all.”

  “You did not put too much trust in Valera.”

  “That is not your concern, Fourth Light. What are the Serpentists?”

  “A new sect with a new God. That is to say, the sect appeared more than a hundred years ago in the steppes east of Arenia. They believe the precession of the equinoxes will diminish Fate and create a new God.”

  “Nothing good ever came from the steppes. They recognized Baraki as regent.” Drusila massaged her chin, looking surprised and strangely, there was also a hint of enjoyment in her stare.

  “Codrin was allowed to keep the Wing Talisman.”

  “Do you think I can’t read a Judgment? Why did they recognize Baraki?”

  “He became too strong, and he learned about the Wanderers endorsing Codrin as the legitimate King of Arenia. The Hives of Arenia were endangered. They still are.”

  “Not much use for Codrin, anymore.” Drusila’s eyes gleamed for a moment.

  “On the contrary, he will be needed to solve the Fracture.”

  “None of your concern, again. This is a case for the First Light, if you bother to remember our Rules.”

  “You are too old to become the Seer,” I shrugged.

  “Fate will choose the Seer she deems worthy,” Drusila almost growled. “I am just a humble servant of the Wanderers, and have no such desires.” She recovered fast, her voice again finding its glacial coldness.

  “We all are servants of the Realm, First Light. We have the power to serve when we don’t desire power.”

  “Never forget that. What else I should know?”

  “The Serpentists want to invade the continent. They believe the Serpent God gave them the right to conquer and spread the new belief. That will be the Fracture.”

  “The Fracture will start in the east. Valera was wrong.”

  “Ada and the Conclave accepted the Divergence. They thought the Fracture would start at both ends of the continent. The external threat from east will meet internal dissolution spreading from Frankis and Arenia. From how it looks, Frankis is going in the wrong direction.”

  “You did not look well enough,” she dismissed me. “You’ve just told me that Baraki is strong and recognized by all as regent.”

  “Baraki may join the Serpentists. He has claimed the Khadate throne. His mother was a Timurid Princess. If successful, he will march west with two hundred thousand nomads.”

  “And unify the continent?” Drusila frowned. “No, that’s not possible, the nomads were not part of the Alban Empire,” she added.

  I should have kept that from her. “The Khad would be pleased to deepen our internal strife. We need to unify the Kingdoms...”

  “You must keep this secret,” she interjected.

  “We need to talk in the High Council.”

  “Of course. I will let you know when it will be convoked. Until then you are under the Rule of Silence. Nothing that was discussed at the Conclave should be told without proper preparation. Disrespect the Rule, and you will face the consequences.”

  “This is too important to be kept hidden,” I insisted.

  “She never understood,” Splendra, the Third Light, and Drusila’s closest confidante, gestured with distaste at me, “that we have rules, and we are working together for a greater cause. Unfortunately, Dochia plays the lonely runner.” She shook her head with affected sadness. “We need to confine her to her room for the protection of the Wanderers. Her unwillingness to play for a common goal is putting us in danger.”

  “Since when are we protecting the Wanderers by keeping the result of a Conclave hidden from our sisters?”

  “See what I mean? She wants to brag about witnessing a Conclave,” Splendra sneered. “She doesn’t care that Judgments are sensitive things and should be handled with care.”

  What are you afraid off? The Conclave or that I can spread the word that Bucur has never won a battle? Both? “If you don’t mind, I will retire to my room.” I stood up. They’ve caught me on the wrong foot. Derena, the Second Light, has said nothing. She was closer to Valera than to Drusila, but things might have changed. “Both Valera and Ada thought that Codrin may be the next Seer. Keep this in mind, before trying something against him.” Fixed on Drusila, my eyes caught a small tremor on the left side of her upper lip. You can’t say that I did not warn you. Bucur will make our next play.

  “Stay,” Drusila ordered. “Did you receive a Passing?”

  “I don’t know what makes you think that.” I shrugged innocently, and left the room before I could be asked again. I received two, I smiled, walking toward my room, but some things should be kept hidden.

  The Confinement Rule had one element that helped me: I was still allowed to eat in the Common Hall, the place where all the sisters were meeting. One of Drusila’s guards was waiting outside my room, ready to follow me like a shadow. She thought she was entitled to enter my room, but I just closed the door in her face, when she tried. One of my own guards was shadowing her – a thing that everybody resented. Drusila has two more guards, and Splendra brings another two. Mira and Irina will sleep less, but I have no choice. Watched by a hostile guard, my mouth was sealed on the way to the Common Hall. Once I was there, there were too many ears to be able to disrespect the Rule. I decided to eat in my room as long as the leftovers from the journey lasted. I needed at least three days to plan everything. Umbra may feed me, I smiled.

  Through the window, the descending sun was lighting my room. “Umbra, find Sybille for me. I ne
ed the Rulebook. If I remember well, the Lights are allowed to visit another Light in confinement.”

  “Redhead told me some stories,” Umbra said when he got back to my room – Redhead was Derena’s peregrine raven. “Things are not going well, here. From bad decisions being made, to hiding them.”

  “How much can we trust him? Derena did not try to help me.”

  “She is accustomed to obeying the First Light. Derena is not strong, just nice sister sitting alone in the Inner Council. I think we can trust Redhead up to a point. We must learn where that point is, and that would tell us more about Derena. Sybille is coming.” He cocked his head, listening attentively.

  “You can’t enter.” The voice of Drusila’s guard passed through the close door. “Dochia is confined.”

  “Do you think I am breaking a Confinement Rule?” Sybille asked. “Drusila should have trained you better. Read this.” Following some moments of silence, Sybille entered my room. “You were right. I am allowed to come here,” she winked.

  “Thank you. Tell me about the High Council.”

  “It is split. Drusila and Splendra are working together. They dominate the Inner Council too. Three High Wanderers are more or less neutral, but give some credit to the First Light. In some ways, we are a military order, accustomed to obey. You and me were trained by Valera and Livia,” she smiled.

  “There is something that I have thought for years and said to Valera in her last days, and she confirmed my intuition, after a brief vision. It seems that Drusila killed Livia. It was too late to act. Last year, on my journey here, a team of Assassins tried to kill or kidnap me. I am still not sure what variant is true, and due to other circumstances that Triangle is dead now.”

  “One head of the Fracture will grow in Frankis,” Sybille frowned.

  “We think that the Circle and maybe the Wanderers will weaken us further and open the chasm. If Baraki becomes Khad, the whole continent will fall into his hands. That would not be the Alban Empire we were sworn to rebuild,” I said, trying to remember everything I talked with Ada. “And I can’t tell if we are on the good or the wrong side. The Talant Empire existed before ours, and another one raised and fell before the Talants. It may be a cycle we are failing to understand.”

  “The nomads are not builders.”

  “They are not, yet they may be. In the end, everything depends on the Seer. I still hope that Codrin will be the one we are waiting for.”

  “What’s the other choice?”

  “Baraki,” I sighed. “And some slight possibilities for Drusila and me. And I think about Ada, too. But we are too old, if Fate keeps with the tradition. She likes tradition, if you ask me, and Codrin is the better choice anyway. Keep in mind that chance is a slippery fellow; it takes a long way to become a sure thing. Let’s go to more pressing things. Drusila put me under the Rule of Silence about the Conclave’s Judgments. I have to challenge her in front of as many as possible Wanderers. The only place I can think of is the Common Hall.”

  “Many are unhappy with Drusila’s lead. From hiding information to displaying a love for luxury that is disturbing. We were born to serve, not to be served. Yet, you are walking a tight rope. We are an order with a clear hierarchy.”

  “Drusila is noble born,” I shrugged. “Valera told me that our way of life was making her unhappy. She whined for years, and she had a long list of recriminations, from bed linen to clothes and missing perfumes. I was about to forgot those expensive wines from the south and the lack of valets. How could she survive without valets so long is beyond my understanding,” I laughed. “I need you to ‘prepare’ the Common Hall.”

  “Do you wish to unseat Drusila?”

  “I wish that all this had never happened, but it has. Apart from that, I don’t yet know what I really want. It depends on what Drusila wants too. Derena would make a better leader in good times. I don’t see anything good around us, and Drusila is stronger.”

  “You are the strongest.”

  “That has to be proved, and anyway I am only the Fourth Light. There is no way I can move to the first position. It’s Drusila or Derena. If I can see the slightest understanding from Drusila, I would like to keep her as our First Light, but Splendra has to go. She is both weak and ignoble. Keeping Drusila would be less challenging. To unseat a First Light is not an easy path. The fracture of our order may open the real Fracture.”

  “So,” Sybille sighed.

  “So,” I smiled. “Spread everything Drusila is hiding from the Fracture to the Conclave’s Judgments and Bucur’s appointment as candidate King to our Lights. My guards will do the same for our sisters who are not Lights.”

  “I can talk with some sisters too.”

  “Talk, then. Do you think it would make sense to invite Derena here?”

  “She may get scared and uncooperative. Better to surprise her.”

  “That’s what I was thinking too.”

  I ate the last chunk of food on the morning of my third day of confinement. I have to fast at lunch, I smiled. I have fasted more on my journeys. The rest of the day I spent walking around the room, waiting for the signal. We agreed that Sybille would not come to my room during the day.

  “You may go now.” Umbra flew inside my room through the open window. It was dinner time, when most sisters would be in the Common Hall. “All the others are already there. They are hungry,” he winked.

  I left my room, and Drusila’s guard waiting at my door followed me. I ignored her. Mira was there too, and joined me. Sybille saw me entering the Common Hall, and smiled thinly. Silent, I went on further until I arrived at the table reserved for the Lights.

  “Greetings, sisters. Well, we are eating with silver plates now,” I said loudly enough to be heard by everybody in the hall – there were almost a hundred sisters there. All the voices became suddenly silent, and all eyes turned toward me. “Like our dear friends, the Sages of the Circle.” I raised the silver fork lined up in front of my chair. “If this thing makes the food tastier, it should be given to all our sisters, not only to the Lights. It sounds nice,” I hit a crystal glass with the fork, “but I doubt that the food would taste any better.”

  “Nobody is forcing you,” Splendra said, her voice well controlled. “Eat with your fingers, if you like it.”

  “Nobody forced you either, Splendra. What will be next? Gold cups? The Master Sage enjoys them too.” Cantemir would curse me to hear that. I almost smiled. He was much like Valera, in that respect. He is no longer Master Sage, I suddenly realized – a new candidate King brings a new Master Sage.

  “Our sisters are eating,” Drusila said, a studied hint of worry in her voice. “Please, don’t disturb them.”

  “Why should I? They are happy to see you enjoying luxury.”

  “Where have you been all those months?” one Light asked.

  “I spent the winter in Silvania. There was a Conclave of the Wanderers.”

  “You’ve broken the Rule of Silence,” Splendra growled. “Send her to solitary confinement.” She nodded to her guards – a brusque gesture, revealing her nervousness. Drusila frowned; she looked ready to interfere, but let it go. “She will eat alone in a cell.”

  You fell so easily, Splendra. “I don’t see any reason for that,” I shrugged. “You’ve forbidden me to tell the results of the Conclave to our sisters.” I raised my voice, to be heard well. “And I have obeyed, so far. I don’t know why are you hiding this, but that’s for you to explain.”

  “There is nothing to hide,” Drusila said. “We’ve decided in the Inner Council to gather the High Council and hear the news.”

  “When would that be?” I asked.

  “We will announce it at the proper time.” Drusila swallowed hard, yet here voice was flat. The color of her face moved to light crimson.

  “There is no reason to postpone it.” Sybille stared at Drusila, and several Lights joined her in agreement. “There are urgent matters to be discussed because of the Fracture.”

  “Fractur
e?” more voices asked from the room.

  “You did not tell them about the Fracture either,” I said. “What else are you keeping hidden, First Light? That you played with the Circle and we now have a worthless candidate King who has never won a battle?”

  “Escort her out,” Drusila ordered her guards.

  “Let her speak!” Shouts erupted in the room, and most sisters stood up. A dozen sisters started to talk at once, each trying to drown out the others, and before long the Common Hall was filled with shouts.

  “You lied to us about the new candidate King!”

  “I am the First Light, and I order you to calm down.”

  “You lied to us.”

  “You hid the Fracture.”

  “You like silver too much.”

  “She likes gold too.”

  “Drusila is our First Light.”

  “The Fracture...”

  Slowly, three groups started to form: one behind Drusila, the second behind me, slightly larger. Each of us staring at the other from the opposite corner of the long table. A third group, less compact and spread out here and there, was made up of undecided sisters and Lights. It was the largest one.

  “Please, sisters,” I shouted. “We need to calm down. Drusila,” I stared at her, “let’s acknowledge that mistakes were made.”

  “Like disturbing our dinner for no reason,” she snapped.

  “We need to revert to the way Valera and all the First Lights before worked.” I ignored her, and several of the undecided came closer to me. “You were a reformist, and I can grant you some good intentions. Hiding the truth is not part of them. Confining sisters to keep them silent isn’t either.”

  “This is treason. I can’t accept such a thing. Put her in prison,” Splendra growled.

  “There is no treason, Splendra.” Derena spoke for the first time, and all the undecided gathered around her. “This is our way. Dochia was in her rights to speak openly.”

  “You are treasonous too,” Splendra spluttered

  “Splendra,” Drusila interjected quickly, and Splendra gaped in silence. “There was no treason. Let’s talk.” She glanced at Derena, then stared at me. “What do you want?”