The Goblin and the Empire

by JD Cole

  The blood chamber was a large amphitheater, situated not quite in the center of the castle, but close to it. The northern wall was a large shell that could be swung outward if the occasion demanded, opening the chamber to the Faery Realm outside. The other walls were packed with large, cushioned seats for spectators to observe and cheer the living sacrifices made here. Near a wide doorway on the southern wall that was sealed with a large stone and iron gate, stood another Solsdren goblin. It watched the irenaks with an eerie silence. The lead irenak moved to the large granite table in the middle of the room, and began preparing the manacles and restraints. His partner held Kirama tightly until he was ready, and they strapped her to the table, hardly concerned with her protests and struggles.

  With the little sprite bound and helpless, the irenaks glanced at the goblin, then hastily left. Ercianodhon gave them a few more moments before opening the large gate and entering the chamber. He walked past his goblin and strolled casually toward the table and the child-like figure it restrained. The goblin followed, and took a position on the opposite side of the table.

  Kirama looked up at the King, tears still streaming down her face. Her empty eyes stared at him with contempt.

  “Come now, Kirama, is that any way to greet your master?”

  “I did not choose you,” she whispered.

  “And yet you are mine. Can we dispense with the protests this once, please? This is happening whether you want it to or not.” Kirama shuddered as the goblin began tearing away her sackcloth coverings. The body beneath was sexless, nothing more than a hub for the sprite’s limbs and neck to attach to. Ercianodhon stared at her dispassionately. He gently cradled her head in his hand as he leaned over her. “I summon you, Incerra.” His black, leathery hand pressed against Kirama’s stomach, and he began chanting in the sprites’ tongue, Zerina. As the words intensified in tone and volume, Ercianodhon applied more and more pressure, ignoring the gasps escaping from the girl’s mouth. He closed his eyes, focusing his magic to overpower Kirama’s will.

  When he finished and opened his eyes, Kirama was gone. Where he had been pressing her stomach, the Goblin King now held a sprite-forged dagger, its blade as red as his blood, its hilt as black as his skin. The acid-etched designs in the metal work spoke of the artistry and care used in its creation. A pair of enchanted pearls on each side of the blade’s base resembled Kirama’s eyes, but they offered no evidence of consciousness. Ercianodhon squeezed the hilt tightly.

  “Incerra… the sprites forged you to destroy me, which you may yet do. But for now, you’re going to help me kill their queen.”

  « CHAPTER 4 »

  Because We’re Rangers

  “It’s been a week since the battle, Sorvir. I’m not trying to get out of my responsibilities, and I know you and the counselor are doing this all for me. But I can only take so much input before I need a break. I’m honestly not retaining very much of what you just explained, there’s so many other things on my mind.”

  “I understand,” Sorvir nodded, and offered his hand to Kelli, which she accepted as they descended a short flight of steps. “I was not trying to dump the world on you, forgive me. I am not exactly what one would call a teacher.” They were alone in one of Windham’s many lush garden balconies, this one on the highest level of the castle’s western wing. Sorvir led Kelli to one of the benches nearby, and they seated themselves. “Another bout of off-topic questions, then, while we wait for Dufangen to arrive?”

  “Maybe, if I can decide which ones to ask. There’s so many.” Kelli took a deep breath. Her strength was returning, day by day, but her endurance was not quite keeping up. Closing her eyes, she raised her face to enjoy the warmth of the sun as she sat with her cousin. The sun was not real, being a mere image in the icy shield encapsulating the Faery Realm below the Arctic seas, but Kelli could not feel a difference from the real sunshine she was familiar with. Unless…

  The Sprite Queen unlocked her sixth sense, which could indeed discern that this sunlight was not genuine. It was the product of a powerful illusion spell, something woven by Bennett and Devon’s “uncle”, Krin Ahgl, thousands of years ago. Kelli considered the wondrous ways that the Faery Realm operated, in contrast to the “human” world on the surface, where she had been raised. Plants and creatures here had somehow adapted to the lack of sunlight, relying almost completely on the pure magic of elements present in the realm.

  Kelli looked to the grass at her feet. It was green, but each blade was edged with a magnificent blue that flickered neon-like at different angles. The grass almost looked fake, like some contrived electronic decoration for someone’s garden. Her eyes continued admiring the faery nature on display, taking in the blues and reds, the yellows and whites, and all the other brilliant shades and hues.

  She was currently a victim of contrary symptoms, being restless while not having much energy to do anything about it. Still, as she studied the garden surrounding her, an urge welled up from the pit of her stomach to do… something magical. She noticed a bush that was beginning to bloom with a fruit of some kind. Some of the fruits were nearly ripe; she’d never seen this kind of plant before, but she could feel the state of each branch, leaf and bloom. Kelli’s green eyes began to glow mildly, and as she watched, the fruit all across the bush ripened immediately, while the bush itself nearly doubled in size and even more fruit sprang from its branches.

  “Brilliant, my Queen!” Sorvir praised. Standing, he moved to the plant and collected a pair of the round fruits. He handed one to Kelli before reclaiming his seat beside her. “These are called fusava.”

  Kelli turned the fruit around in her hand, regarding its bright orange skin, and the pair of red and white flowers at both of its ends. The fusava was roughly the size of a mango, and when Sorvir took a bite of his own fusava, Kelli decided that the fruit did not need peeling. Her teeth carved into the juicy flesh, and Kelli immediately discovered she had a new favorite fruit.

  “This doesn’t taste like anything I’ve ever had before!”

  “I imagine you will be able to say the same about most foods here,” her cousin smiled.

  Kelli giggled, and before she knew it she had eaten the entire fusava, minus its seedy core. There really was no comparison to anything in her experience, and Kelli considered herself practically a fruit connoisseur. It took a lot of self-control not to grab the rest of the fruit from the fusava plant. It would definitely be getting more visits from her in the future. Sorvir drew her attention with his voice.

  “You are progressing quite well with your magic. With no training, you are figuring many things out on your own.”

  “You think so?”

  “I could not do what you just did.”

  “That’s just the Birthright, though, isn’t it?”

  “Yes and no. I am no wizard, let alone a sorcerer-”

  “What’s the difference?”

  “Well, applied to faeries, a wizard is one who is skilled with inherent… I guess you could say they have well-developed instincts on how to use magic. We’ll use myself as an example. Sprites are naturally attuned to all elemental magic, but not all of us take the time to learn how to tap into it, manipulate it. It can take nearly half a lifetime of meditation, focusing on nothing but your mind and spirit, you see. Most of us prefer to just live our lives. If I were to dedicate myself like some do, at some point I would have the power and the knowledge to cast spells like the one I just witnessed.”

  “How old are you, by the way? If you don’t mind me asking?”

  “I will be two hundred and thirty-seven years old the next time we see the moon rise from the south west. About three months from now.”

  “Wow. So… you’re an old man, already,” Kelli laughed.

  “Old? I would suggest you not voice such an opinion around our elders!”

  “I’m just kidding!” she continued to laugh. He certainly did not look two centuries old. Not even close. “I know we all live for around three thousand years,” she assured
him. “I still can’t get over that. I am only eighteen, you know, so of course to me, you’re old. But for what it’s worth, Sorvir, you are the handsomest old man I have ever seen.” The way his brow furrowed made Kelli burst into another fit of laughter. She did not exactly find him handsome; Bennett was handsome, but Sorvir was… beautiful? Not in a girly way, either. There was strength in his beauty… like an eagle, she decided. “So tell me,” she tried stifling herself by continuing the conversation. “What is a sorcerer, then?”

  Sorvir grimaced, then smiled in a way that let her know he enjoyed the humor of the last exchange as much as she had. “A sorcerer is one who excels beyond instinctual magic. Every mystic is a sorcerer, as is every Dragon. Obviously, as holder of the Birthright, you are a sorcerer, as well. No one taught you to feed life into the fusava plant, you simply desired it and made it so. Wizards learn how to use spells. Sorcerers create them.”

  “I see. I have another question, about the faery migration that separated you from humans. Magic is drawn to faery life, right?”

  “Yes. We are all connected to elemental energies, they feed our life force, and our life force in turn feeds back to them. Now that most faeries live in this realm, most of the magic on the Earth is found here, as well. Especially in Earth element, which as you know is all but absent in your previous home.”

  “But what about the sun? How did that affect you on the surface before the great migration? How can you live without it down here?”

  “Ah, yes. Most faeries don’t realize our sun is not real, or where we really are. They just know the Ythsimerin separates our realm from that of the humans. Many faeries do not even know where the Ythsimerin is, believing it to be a large gate somewhere in the southern mountains.”

  “Yeah, but biologically is what I meant. Plants feed off of the sunlight. People and animals absorb nutrients from it, too.”

  “Hm. Life-studies were your specialty out there, yes?”

  “Well, I don’t know about specialty. I was good at my science classes, and I got a biochem scholarship at a university because of my grades and a paper I wrote-”

  “Scholarship?”

  “Yeah. It costs money to go to school where I’m from, but I-”

  “Why? Education should be freely available.”

  “Hey, aren’t you supposed to be answering my questions?”

  Sorvir laughed. “Forgive me, Highness. I find the human world as fascinating as you find the Faery Realm.”

  “It’s okay,” Kelli grinned. She looked downward, causing her silver hair to fall over her face before she brushed it away.

  Sorvir was momentarily entranced by her beauty, then shook his head clear. “I wonder where the Counselor is. She is not usually the type to be late. Come to think of it, she has been tardy to our sessions quite a bit this week.”

  Kelli gave him a sly look. “Don’t try to change the subject. I still haven’t asked my question.”

  An air of dull aristocracy swamped Sorvir’s features, and he dramatically bowed where he sat beside his queen, sweeping his arms and hands in garish flourishes. “Of course, your majesty, thine humble servant’s ear awaits thy noble, informed queries.”

  Kelli giggled in response. “I totally forgot what I was gonna ask, now.”

  “I believe the topic was the sun.”

  “Oh yeah! Thanks. So, okay, like I said, plants and animals, and people, too, we all need the sun. How come plants and animals and faeries down here don’t?”

  “I confess to not being as educated as you in matters of biology, but for faeries and plants, whatever nutrients we may receive from sunlight, we need them less than we need nutrients from elemental magic.”

  “I just don’t get that. I mean the sun is a significant source of energy. Doesn’t that affect magic? Isn’t it, like, fire element or something? The faeries were here before the humans were, and if we benefit from the sun, I would think you did, too. I mean, look at you, you need a tan more than I do.”

  They shared another laugh before Sorvir answered. “Again, I am not an expert here. I have never seen nor felt the sun. Not the real one. And I do not recall ever learning of rituals, modern or ancient, that required use of any magic derived from sunlight.”

  Another voice joined the discussion. “That is because you are a slacker whose only interest in magic revolves around immature pranks.”

  Sorvir turned and smiled. “Counselor! Late again! I suspect your intent all along was to make me look foolish in front of our queen.”

  “You need no help for that,” Dufangen replied, to Kelli’s amusement. “Forgive my tardiness. I had an important situation to attend. Before I explain, however, the queen is right. We do benefit from the energy provided by the sun. That is one of the many wonders of the Ythsimerin. I presume you have felt the illusion magic in the sunlight, my Queen?” Kelli nodded, and Dufangen smiled. “Master Krin Ahgl and the sorcerers who collaborated with him wove so many enchantments into the Ythsimerin, I will not explain them all now. But the illusion magic you sense is yet another illusion, itself; it masks all of the other magic at work, including the dispensation of energy drawn from sunlight on the surface, through the oceans above us. Sunlight, and even moonlight, provide us the same energy as what you will find outside the Ythsimerin. There is a reason for the illusion, but that is not important to the question.”

  “Okay, that whole process is too much for me to wrap my head around right now,” Kelli said. “Forget I asked. How in the world Krin manages all that… I guess I’ll settle, again, for accepting it’s all Dragon magic.”

  “His spell is already cast,” Dufangen corrected. “He is no longer involved in the actions of the Ythsimerin. It operates on its own, the way he designed it to. And to answer your other question, the sun does not fall under what we understand as fire element. Each primary element has lesser subcategories, which you will learn in time. The sunlight, for example, provides us with what is known as ‘hir santhinoniserasaidoneneehel’.” Dufangen paused. “What are you chuckling at, Highness?”

  “That word you just said, hir santhinoniserasaidoneneehel… that should be a total tongue twister, but… I don’t know, I was just sitting here amazed at what I can do with language. I can’t believe I understand every language, everywhere. I know I’m still speaking English out loud, even though other creatures hear my words in their own language, but then I go and pronounce big foreign names like the one you just said, as if I’ve said it a million times before.” Kelli repeated the endless-syllabic name seven more times in different musical tones, ending with a short laugh through her nostrils. “That’s amazing. I feel like Derek.”

  “You mean you feel like a sprite,” Sorvir countered, feigning offense that she’d not made that association.

  “Oh, yes, of course,” Kelli answered, her face mockingly serious. She held her finger in the air, professor-like. “That is precisely what I meant, and as a sprite with the same gift of language as me, Sorvir, you should have known that.”

  “I cannot argue, because the Queen is always right.” Sorvir flourished again, bowing in a manner so ridiculously self-effacing that Kelli burst out laughing once more, snorting in the process… which made her laugh even harder.

  Dufangen kept her silence for several moments. The sprite Queen was at her most vulnerable now, to dangers both physical and emotional, and Dufangen was confident that Sorvir’s innocent affection would carry him further than he intended. Romance was inevitable. At the moment, however, there were more immediate matters to be concerned with. The Royal Counselor cleared her throat. “Queen Kelli, the matter that delayed me this morning concerns the elf rangers who rescued you.”

  “Oh, Graon and the others! I haven’t seen them since the night of the battle! I totally forgot about them. Are they all right?”

  “They have been making requests of a serious nature, and while they have respected your recovery, I believe it would be churlish to ignore them any longer. They claim that you gave them the rig
ht to address you whenever they wish?”

  “Yeah, yes, of course. They saved my life, after all.”

  “I understand your gratitude, but it was unwise to grant such a blanket right to commoners.”

  “I don’t like that word,” Kelli replied instantly. “I’m not better than anybody else. Royals, peasants, that class-stuff ticks me off.”

  “You cannot compare class distinctions here to what you have seen among humans,” Dufangen advised. “It is not a matter of ‘being better’. All of our citizens enjoy equal respect. It is a question of priority of place, whose time is more valuable, the reverence given to leaders… but this is immaterial to the situation at hand. The elves have been very adamant about being released from the castle to join in a battle far from here.”

  “Why? And what do you mean released? Why would they need permission to leave? You don’t mean you imprisoned them?”

  Dufangen looked over to Sorvir. “Sorvir, may I have some time with the Queen?”

  “Of course, Counselor.” Sorvir bowed to Kelli, this time with genuine respect. Then two pairs of long, golden wings —resembling those of a dragonfly but composed of light— materialized on his back. He flew over the side of the balcony to a lower level of the castle. Kelli couldn’t wait until she was strong enough to take flight again, herself. Being able to fly was the best part of this new life. Dufangen paced casually before her.

  “You already know that the rangers were sent to rescue you, once I discovered you were kidnapped.”

  “Yeah, the elves, and Lumina, too.”

  “Yes, Paladin Lumina’s aid is greatly appreciated. But what you do not know is that the rangers were merely one aspect of your rescue. To conceal your existence from Ercianodhon, I and the general of the sprite armies, of your armies, conspired to start a war against the Goblin King.”