by Pirateaba
Only one person moved next to her. Gazi’s leftmost eye swiveled and she nodded her head once as a tall, serious man walked away from a conversation with a baker to join her. He had once been gaunt, but flesh had filled withered skin again, and now he walked with a lord’s grace and the poise and surety of his station.
One long mustache met well with his dark, somber clothing. Only an edge of faded gold brought any life to his garments. He looked much as Gazi remembered him; stern, unwavering, and formal. It was good to see him too, but she did not slow her pace, only nodded her head.
“Orthenon.”
“Lady Gazi. You have been away for a very long time.”
“Longer than most?”
“That remains to be seen. You are not the only one who has returned this day.”
That surprised Gazi. She turned her face so all four eyes could focus on him for a second.
“Who else has returned? Amerys? Drevish?”
“Lord Drevish and Lady Amerys have not yet made their way back. But Lady Mars and Lord Takhatres have both joined us. Mars arrived mere hours before you.”
Gazi wasn’t happy to hear that. Part of her was of course overjoyed that more had returned to lend their strength to her liege for the trials ahead. And yet, at the same time, a large part of her wanted her return to be the only event of the day.
And yet, not for one second did Gazi think of slowing, or having delayed her arrival. It was far more important to see him, to be there. And yet—
“How is he? How has he—changed since that time?”
Gazi stumbled over her words, uncharacteristically for her. She tried to ask the question that wormed its way through her heart, drowning out even the hope.
To answer, Orthenon just smiled. Their quick progress through the massive castle and winding corridors had taken them to the place both knew most well. The massive throne room.
“He is as he has always been—only more.”
“More?”
It was a word that banished shadows, a word to cling to, to light a fire from. Orthenon smiled, and she saw the flames burning brightest in his eyes.
“He has returned, and it was as if he never left.”
And then, they were there. Gazi stood in front of the massive doors, and heard her heart pounding. If she had use of her large eye, she could have looked inside herself to see that odd event for herself. And yet, Gazi was sure that even if she had her main eye, she would still not know what lay beyond those doors. She would have been too afraid to look.
Orthenon waited, silent, patient, waiting for Gazi to make the first move. She stood in front of the door and drew a few deep breaths. Then she placed her hands on the wood, and pushed the doors open.
The first thing Gazi heard was laughter. Deep, booming laughter that filled the massive room. It stopped her heart in her chest, and it might well have done the same for Orthenon.
How long? How long since she had heard that sound? Gazi moved forwards slowly, as if in a dream, feet taking her into the room. To see—
Flos, King of Destruction, her liege and sole light in the world, stood in the center of the throne room and laughed. He was six years older than when she had last laid eyes on him, yet those years had only made him more vivid to behold.
His golden-red hair was still like the sun, and age had only faded the colors slightly. He still moved with all the passion and vigor of a younger man, and despite his long slumber, his body had not given way to fat or decay. And his eyes—
They burned.
Gazi halted as Flos laughed, nearly doubled over from mirth. He was standing in the room, with four people surrounding him. Two—an armored woman with a massive round shield strapped to her back and a sword at her hip and a bird-man, blue and green feathers mixed with light clothing and a bird’s face with a curved beak—were known to her. But the other two people Gazi had never seen before.
One was a girl, the other was a boy. Perhaps it should be ‘young man and young woman’, but to Gazi, they were still children. Their features were similar; enough so that she automatically assumed they were twins, or at the very least, brother and sister. But there was another quality to them that made Gazi instinctively think they were like Erin and Ryoka.
They had that aspect to them, in the way they stood, the way they watched her lord, and their very presence in this sacred space that made Gazi think they were not from this world. If she had her eye she could have verified the truth of that at a glance, but all of her gaze was focused on one man, and one alone.
Her King.
He laughed and laughed, caught up in mirth. And then he turned. He strode towards the massive windows that faced out onto the city and threw his arms out wide. Nothing had changed.
“‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’”
Flos roared the words to the heavens, and laughed again, deep and long. He whirled, eyes full of fire.
“And naught remains. Nothing left but rubble and dust and words. How wondrous. I have not heard such words to stir my soul in years! And you say that was written by a poet? Would that I had the privilege of meeting her once.”
Still chuckling, the King went back towards the two small humans. And then he caught sight of Gazi, and the world stopped. For her, and for him.
Gazi did not remember kneeling, did not know when he crossed the distance between them. It felt like an instant, but then she sensed his presence. A hand reached down and placed itself on her shoulder as she stared on the ground, too timid to look up.
“Gazi. Faithful Gazi. I beg of you; rise.”
And she did. She would have followed that voice into oblivion, obeyed any command. Gazi looked up, and saw the face of her King.
He was smiling, even as tears stood out in his eyes. He said not a word, but enfolded her in a crushing embrace. She held very still, memorizing it, inhaling his scent. She wished this moment would last forever.
But then he released her, and she opened her eyes again. He was there. In front of her. She could reach out and touch him. And he was back. Yes, she felt it in her bones, in her very soul and every beat of her heart now.
He was back. Her lord had awoken once more.
“Gazi.”
“My lord.”
She smiled up at him, noting the way his eyes flicked from her closed eye, crusted with yellow liquid, to her dusty armor and face with concern. She savored it.
“It is good to see you again. But your eye—”
Gazi shook her head. An eye? What was her eye in this moment?
“A minor thing, my lord. I wish to tell you of it, and more.”
He smiled, and her heart skipped again.
“And I wish to hear every second of it. Come; Mars has just arrived, and I wish to hear your story with all to listen. Orthenon?”
The other man approached, bowing efficiently. Flos walked with Gazi across the long room, and she walked with him. Her King.
The two who knew her nodded as they approached. Mars the Illusionist, and Takhatres, Lord of the Skies, inclined their heads and Gazi did likewise. It was odd; she was almost glad to see both of them as well.
Perhaps Gazi frightened them, because the twins only stared at her. If that was the case, Gazi would have assumed Takhatres’ bird-like form and long, wicked beak would be more frightening, but perhaps they had become accustomed to him. She was hardly more different, with her orange-brown skin and odd, four-fingered hands, but perhaps it was the eyes. Humans always stared at her eyes.
“Gazi, I present to you Mars and Takhatres, who have both travelled countless miles to rejoin me. But also to Trey and Teresa, two twins who I have chosen to be my attendants. To all, this is Gazi, my eye and one of my hands and dearest friend to me. Returned at last.”
The others murmured their greetings, and Gazi heard a cracked voice from the boy. The girl just stared at her, wide-eyed and fearful. She looked at them pleasantly for her lord’s sake, but instantly, Gazi decided she did n
ot like the two humans.
They had made her lord laugh. They stood here, in this place, at this time, and that meant they were trusted, favorites even of her King. For that, and that alone, Gazi hated them with all her soul.
But that was nothing. Nothing at all. Gazi turned her attention back to her King, and smiled again. He smiled back, full of life, and she knew that he would never go. A decade stood between them. Now, and then. One decade they had fought together, and she had been his sworn sword and led his armies to victory. Another decade he had lain quiet, slumbering, and her heart had broken and she had searched for that which might bring him back.
Now he had awoken. And so Gazi could finally say the words that she had carried in her heart for years. She looked into his eyes, and felt her own eyes growing blurry.
“My lord. I have returned.”
How both of their souls thrilled to hear the words! But her King only smiled. He placed one hand on her shoulder.
“Yes. And just in time. We have much to do.”
—-
His name was Trey, and he was afraid and confused. That was normal to him, but today, especially today, he was even more so. Normally, he would have loved to talk to his sister quietly by themselves in their private language, but they stood in front of a King.
His name was Flos, and he had come into Trey’s life and shattered everything the young man had believed in. True, it was Trey and Teresa who had been summoned to this world by magic or…or something, but Flos had pulled them out of the skies, and taken their lives in the palm of his hand. Like a current he had swept them along with them.
The massive man stood in the center of the throne room, larger than life, talking to the strange woman he’d introduced as Gazi. She looked…vaguely human. She had no nose, but she had long black hair turned into dreadlocks and she had a humanoid form. Her skin was dark orange, what Trey could see of it around her segmented, dark brown armor. It looked vaguely like scales, and it rippled and flexed as she moved, like a second skin more than metal.
She had four—no, five eyes. Four eyes surrounded a central eye, but that one was closed, and a yellowish substance had crusted it shut. And yet, the four eyes that did work were pupil-less, or perhaps the pupils were so faint that they couldn’t be seen. Because Trey was sure that at least one eye was looking at him.
He shivered, and felt his other half, his sister and twin, Teresa, do the same. She was just like him, and the two mirrored each other’s emotions and thoughts quite often.
It was an odd thing. Not all twins had their depth of connection at such a late age. They were both sixteen, although nearly seventeen in truth. And they were two of a kind, separated only by gender.
Both Trey and Teresa were from England, which their features clearly indicated. They had moderately dark blonde hair, fair skin, and they were the exact same height of 5’10. That was odd again; because they weren’t identical twins, at least genetically.
The correct term was fraternal twins, which just meant that they’d been born together, two babies growing in the womb instead of one. But that was vastly different from identical twins, who were the same egg that split into two.
No, Trey and Terasa were simply two children from the same mother and father who happened to look disconcertingly close to each other even late in life. The doctors had simply called it an unusual set of coincidences that their chromosomes aligned in so many ways; Trey thought of it as luck.
Because they were alike. The twins still remembered the secret language that they’d invented as kids, and they still shared thoughts even as they had slowly become different with age. Of the two, Trey was most likely to speak up, and Teresa was most likely to wait and observe. She had the good ideas and he usually ended up being the one to try and carry them out while she helped.
She preferred being called Teres, which was a better sounding name anyways, in Trey’s opinion. It was also the name of some muscle in the shoulder, but that wasn’t important.
They were alike. Alike and different. Trey liked video games; Teres preferred to draw and read. Both could play sports fairly well, which meant Teres was popular in team sports since she could keep up with her brother.
Neither one liked baseball, and the both preferred to leave jams in the fridge, way in the back where they could rot forever. They both liked movies, and music, and normal things, and both agreed that this world was terrifyingly scary.
Trey could see Teres’ pale face out of the corner of his eye. She was handling all these sudden changes a little worse than he was, which meant that she might start screaming at any second, really. Flos kept them in the throne room and by his side most of the time, but both twins could really have used a few days—weeks, months, really—to sit in a corner and try to make sense of everything.
But they had to be attentive. If they had not sensed it already, the surge of life that had flooded into the city and palace over the last month had told them that something big was happening, and Flos was at the heart of it all. He was a King, one that had woken up a city full of despairing people and dying hopes with words alone.
No offense to the Queen, or the royal family, but Flos was a character out of legends for Trey. He resembled the image the young man had of Alexander the Great, or perhaps King Arthur himself if Trey was honest. He seemed to radiate a massive presence at all times, and you couldn’t help but hang on his every word.
Now Flos was done speaking to Gazi. Trey jerked, and felt Teres nudge him ever-so-slightly. He hadn’t heard a word the King had said, but hopefully she could tell him later. Flos put both hands on Gazi’s shoulders and stared into her eyes with genuine warmth and love.
“You must tell me all of it—all!—later. But for now let us speak of this kingdom’s future and what has happened in my absence. I had not yet done so with Mars, and now is an opportune time.”
He turned, and looked at the twins. They felt a jolt down their spines, but no fear in their stomachs. This wasn’t an angry adult or boss to be afraid of; it was just that his stare was electric.
“Trey, Teres. To me.”
Obediently, they walked over, and Trey chanced another glance at the Gazer—no, half-Gazer named Gazi. She stared impassively back at him, and he shivered and looked away.
Flos clapped his hands together, and Trey thought he might actually wet himself. Everything the King did was so loud.
“There is much that has changed since you left, Gazi. These two who stand before you come from another world. I will explain more, but they have told me of another land, filled with armies and weapons which would humble even the greatest monsters of our world. It is they who reignited my flame, and so I have chosen to make them my wards and personal attendants. Treat them kindly, and teach them, I ask of all of you.”
Mars nodded immediately, as did Takhatres. Trey tried to avoid looking at Mars; he was still wary of the bird man, or Garuda as his species was known, but he’d gotten used to the calm Takhatres over the last few days.
But Mars on the other hand…Mars was not easy for Trey to talk to. He kept looking down. It was really hard! Teres had already kicked him twice, but—but—
Mars had huge breasts. There was just no way around it. But more than that, she had an amazing figure—she looked like a supermodel altered in photo shop. Her long, bouncing red curls of hair, her slender frame and unscarred skin, her luscious, bouncing—
Teres kicked Trey again, and he looked away. Mars gave him a smile and he turned beet red. Flos chuckled as Otrhenon rolled his eyes and Takhatres smiled quietly. And Gazi—
She was staring at the twins. She’d nodded when Flos had spoken his request, but she didn’t have the open air Mars did or the quiet acceptance of Takhatres. She stared at Trey, and he felt uncomfortable. Her eyes were like a laser peering into his head. Trey moved slightly back so he was closer to Teres. He could feel her shiver, and hoped she could draw the same support he was getting from her.
“Now, a formal council will be in order later,
as will much discussion. Over dinner, I believe. A banquet is out of the question until we have replished out stocks, but I would dine with all of you and speak with Mars and Gazi later.”
Flos began speaking again, and Gazi’s eyes shifted away. Trey looked at Flos too; he couldn’t help it. Whenever the man moved, he became the center of the room.
“My kingdom is weak. I have let everything go, in my despair and apathy. Only Orthenon has kept everything from crumbling, and yet my kingdom is still broken. And all of you—I let you down. That you have come back is a gift I do not deserve.”
Flos looked Mars, Takhatres, Gazi, and Orthenon each in the eyes, and they each returned his stare, silent, smiling, bowing their heads. The silence around them was intimate and deep as they hung on his words.
At last the King turned to the twins and smiled again, but with a trace of sadness. He bowed his head.
“I abandoned my throne and my people. For a King, there can be no greater shame. And yet—I would have lost all in any case had I continued on my journey. My kingdom would have been shattered by blood and fire. Perhaps it was best to let it fall away. We may never know. But I have returned, and so we will begin again. I only ask you this: are you with me?”
“Of course!”
Mars was the first to speak, and the others were right behind her. Gazi smiled and bowed like a courtier, one hand to her stomach, the other flung out behind her as her leg moved back.
“Our lives are yours to use, my King. If you desire your kingdom, ask, and we shall deliver it to you.”
Flos smiled. He looked at the four in turn, and nodded.
“Very well. We shall begin here. When Takhatres arrived, we had enough to begin rebuilding. Now that two more of my Seven have arrived, we may make a start of this.”
He turned and strode towards the windows. Everyone followed, as Flos stopped to point out at the distant horizon. Chandrar, the continent they were on, was a hot, dry place, much like Egypt or some middle-eastern country, Trey imagined. Even though it was winter, the sky outside was bright blue, and it was warm enough that he was glad to be indoors.