by JF Smith
He wasn’t sure if it was fate, or his father in the stars above, or... or perhaps nothing but his own imagination. Yet, he could not shake the unmistakable feeling that something outside of him was directing events down a road that allowed no forks or intersections. What events exactly, and what road, and where that road was supposed to lead eventually, Gully had no clue. All he could do was take the one way given to him. All that seemed to explain it was a phrase that would intrude on his thoughts instead — that the circle must complete — which meant nothing to him.
He had thought about this while he sat for days in his cabin in silence. There before him, all the pieces had been put in place, he merely needed to see them together as the whole. They all came together so perfectly it was impossible to mistake the intent. It had been frightening and simultaneously a relief to so easily, so plainly, see his path forward.
All he could do was to take the one way given to him.
And so that was now what he did.
Gully turned, the charcoal still in his hand, and crossed the courtyard swiftly until he passed the armillary sphere and reached the front of the Throne Hall. Without his asking, the King’s Guards at the doors opened them for him and he swept in confidently.
He had kept those invited delayed long enough.
He strode into the hall, past the curious faces waiting for him. Gathered were the heads of the noble families of Iisen, and Roald, and Thaybrill, and many of the primary members of the Mercher clan as well.
The brilliant light of day filtered through the faceted glass of the hall’s windows, throwing sparks of daylight and small bits of rainbows across the carpets and stone walls. He ignored their questions as he walked past them. Two things were not lost on him as he crossed to the middle of the hall. One was that, despite his order that enough seats and benches be provided for everyone gathered, no one was seated. Second, and more discouraging, was that the Iisenors and the Balmoreans had mostly separated to opposite sides of the hall.
Rather than go to his throne at the far end, Gully stopped in the open space in front of where everyone was gathered. The throne behind him at the distant end meant little to him today.
Brythe veOusthendan demanded, “Who has ordered seats be brought into the Throne Hall, Your Majesty? Sitting in the presence of the king in this hall is strictly forbidden and the very presence of these chairs and benches is an affront to the royal court!”
Commiserative whispers sprung up, and Gully stood motionless until silence fell around the noblesir’s question. Everyone finally looked to him for some sort of an explanation as to why they were there and the meaning of this breach of protocol.
Gully said, “It was I, Brythe. I asked that they be brought in. Rules and ceremony have their place, but not today. Today supersedes all of that.”
Brythe, and many others, looked at the king in confusion and the murmurs began to resurface.
“Please, everyone, be seated,” invited Gully.
“Sire! We cannot and will not sit in your presence in this hall!” said Holm veDellersean.
Gully stepped out among them until he reached Holm. He took him by the elbow and gently led the nobleman to the bench nearest him. Holm looked at the king nervously, but Gully nodded at the bench with a smile.
“Holm, all of you, please be seated. Today is not like other days, and we have much to discuss,” said Gully, earnestly.
He wasn’t surprised to find that several of the Balmoreans, the patriarch, Encender, and Exoutur, were among the first to sit. Thaybrill followed, and soon everyone took a seat as Gully had requested.
He stepped to one side of the hall and took out the block of charcoal he had in his hand. With it, he drew a thick black line from one side of the hall to the other, in front of where the assembled group had seated themselves. His action, as he expected, drew very perplexed stares from everyone in the large room. Dunnhem, standing guard in the hall rather than actively participating, was against the wall where Gully finished drawing his line. He took Dunnhem by the shoulders and moved him across the line so he was standing on the side along with everyone else. He clapped Dunnhem on the shoulder a few times and gave him a smile, too.
Back in the center of the room, Gully surveyed everyone for a moment and collected his thoughts. He had known what he wanted to say, but now the words seemed to want to fall over themselves into a worthless pile. He took his time, though, staring blankly at the black line separating him from everyone else in the hall until his thoughts had sorted themselves out.
“Since I have been crowned king, and honestly even before that point, I have struggled with my place here. None of this was my choosing. I was confused by what I thought my life was supposed to be and what it had instead become. This was hardly helped by discoveries about the truth of the father that raised me in the Ghellerweald, the only man I have ever known as my father. I will be honest with you — possibly one of the worst weaknesses a king can show, I imagine — I have been terrified of what my life had become and what was expected of me. Terrified... at least until recently.”
“Between myself and many of you here, we have had our differences of opinion. Worse, I have felt pushed and pulled in one form or another by many. I have disappointed or annoyed many of you in the process of trying to please everyone,” added Gully.
He paused and looked across the crowd. Most waited patiently for him to get to his point. Roald’s brow was drawn into a curious look, not understanding the intention of his soliloquy. The patriarch, both human and ocelot, was almost leaning forward in anticipation, almost as if he had been waiting for this for quite a while. veWarrnest had a gleam in his eye and a pleased smile on his lips at hearing of Gully’s pain and doubts, the smile of a wolf circling a wounded deer of the woods.
“When Krayell tried to attack me at the top of the oratory tower, he did me one fundamental service. As evil a person as he was, I owe him the little bit of gratitude that I am willing to spare for that. Krayell insisted that I could not be both Iisen and Balmorean. In fact, he scoffed at the idea that I would align with the gypsies of the woods. And indeed, he is right in his own way. For one, Balmorea does not exist.”
Encender stood and insisted, “Balmorea is not dead! As long as one of us—”
Gully said sternly, “Encender! This is not a discussion. This time is for you to listen. Hear me out.”
Encender glared at him, but sat down on the bench to a reproachful look from his brother, Exoutur.
Gully resumed and said, “There is no Balmorea, and there hasn’t been for plenty long enough for you to let it die in peace once and for all!” He felt a pang at having to utter such words, but they needed to be said.
veWarrnest seemed to almost be floating on air at his words. Gully frowned at the giddy expression on the nobleman’s face, feeling soured at making that man so happy.
He said, “And Iisen, for all of its good intentions, is too weak to stand against neighbors that will one day find their way to invade. Iisen is fated to be overwhelmed. That is the future that awaits Iisen, if it does not rot from within before that day. We have only barely avoided such misfortune in the last few weeks.” Gully watched rather pointedly at veWarrnest and saw the glee on the nobleman’s face fade rapidly.
Gully stopped again, turning the charcoal over and over in his hand for a moment.
“The solution...” said Gully quietly while every ear in the hall was fixed upon his words, “The solution is to destroy Iisen ourselves before it crumbles around us or is destroyed from the outside. Iisen must fade into the past, just as Balmorea has.”
There was not a single sound from anywhere in the Throne Hall. Even the faintest whisper would have reverberated from the stone vaults of the ceiling above and been heard as if it were a shout, but there was none. Gully glanced across the blank stares, the incredulous looks, and disbelief that answered his statement.
Ionor veKinn was the first to find his voice. He said, “What? Your Highness, are you feeling well? Forgi
ve me, but what you say makes no sense! We are to destroy ourselves to prevent our destruction? What do you mean?”
“What Krayell insisted as impossible, is instead the immutable truth,” said Gully as he glanced down at the faint scar in the palm of his left hand. “I cannot separate the Iisen and Balmorean blood in my veins. What I am is the future of this realm. What I am must be for all. The people of the Iisendom and Balmorea cannot remain separate. It is time that the two join into one.”
Gully stepped back several steps and raised himself to his full height, standing as straight as he could. From underneath his doublet, he pulled the pendant, the overlapping circles inside a larger one, and held it up for all gathered to see. The light from the windows somehow caught and reflected in the heart of the crystal, throwing off flashes and glints throughout the massive room. The pendant now took on a far deeper meaning. “Balmorea is no more. Iisen is no more. What comes now is Bal’Iisen, the dual kingdom. Two bloodlines that now come together to form one new people, better than what they were when separate.”
“When winter claims its last day and a new year arrives on the first day of spring, we will forevermore be one people and a new kingdom. One that respects and values the people and culture, the best, of each. The two brought together as one.”
At this point, there began to be murmurs from among those gathered, shocked and doubtful.
Gully shouted at them, “You wanted a king! Well, here I am and you will now have one! There is no debate on this course of action! This is not up for discussion over too much wine... a quaint idea to be dismissed and forgotten about in the aching heads of the next day!”
The murmuring stopped and Gully tempered his voice once again.
“At my coronation a fortnight ago, each of you noblemen of Iisen came forward and pledged fealty to me as the rightful king of Iisen. It was a meaningless gesture and part of a play act in a rehearsed ceremony. Today, this hour, all of you, not just the Iisen nobility, will now approach this line I have drawn and you will pledge true and sincere loyalty to me and to Bal’Iisen. No rote words spoken with the mouth but not the heart, no empty gestures, no rehearsed ceremony. You will pledge this allegiance in full sincerity, right now, or you will leave this land. Be warned, crossing the line I have drawn and joining me on the side of a new realm and a new people means there is no going back! But I give you free choice to join me or not. You will not be forced into this.”
Gully paused for a second, then stood tall. He said, “Who will now join me in this? Who will help me make a land and a people better than what has been in the past? Who among you is on the side of Bal’Iisen?”
Roald did not even hesitate. He stood, stepped forward swiftly and knelt at the black line separating him from Gully, his cloak sweeping around him as he dropped to his knee. He lowered his head and said, “Sire, I am yours to command. In heart, and in mind, and in soul — you know well that I am yours and always will be.”
Gully exhaled in relief. The very hardest part was over. He even had to bite at his lip at the deeper meaning of Roald’s commitment. He was glad that Roald was the first.
“Stand, Lord Marshal Roald Delescer, and join me.”
Roald lifted his head with a bright smile. He stood and stepped across the line to be with Gully.
Thaybrill was the next to step forward. He knelt as Roald had and said, “Your Highness, my brother, my twin... You have redeemed it and my life is yours, gladly. It is my duty and my deepest desire to follow where you go!”
“Thank you, my dear brother,” said Gully. “Take your place with me.”
Even before Thaybrill could step across the line, Gallun and Gellen had stepped up to Gully. They both knelt down in front of him, then stood again. Both held up their left palms to Gully, who pressed his own to theirs in turn.
Gully said, “Both of you... you are welcome to join me. And your friendship and loyalty has never been in doubt, ever. Thank you, my good friends.”
Gallun and Gellen took their place immediately behind Gully.
The patriarch of the Mercher clan, both human and ocelot forms, had stepped to the black line on the stone floor the same as Gallun and Gellen had done. He began to kneel, and Gully began to protest as usual.
Aian said with a shake of his head, “Nay, Your Highness, nay. If there ever was a time when I should kneel, it is this time.” The patriarch knelt down, his walking staff still in his hand, and said, “Sire... Your Highness... it is my true honor to serve you however I may and to stand with you in the creation of a new kingdom. The joy this day and this moment brings me could fill this hall many times over, Di’taro.”
Gully smiled and held out his hand to help the patriarch stand. He became alarmed because the patriarch, in both forms, was trembling, but he helped him up anyway. The patriarch was smiling, but there was also a tear in his eye. “Rise, Aian, Patriarch of the Mercher clan. Your wisdom and counsel in all things will be much needed! Please, join me.”
To Gully’s surprise, the next to step forward was Holm veDellersean. He knelt and said, “Whatever doubts or trepidations I might have had about you as the heir to the veLohrdan line, you have long since expelled them, Your Majesty. I am with you, and I, and my family, am with Bal’Iisen fully.”
The line continued as everyone present committed themselves to Gully and to the new kingdom of Bal’Iisen. Exoutur crossed to join him, then Strennor veAhnderdan, and then most of the rest of the noble lords of what was left of Iisen.
Encender finally made his way up to the black line that Gully had drawn, looking quite miserable. Gully wasn’t quite sure if Encender would bring himself to do it, but to his surprise, Encender knelt and said through choked words and sniffles, “I am not so proud, Your Majesty... that I cannot admit when I am wrong, and I have been wretchedly wrong about you. I never would have thought that you would have something of this magnitude in you. I never would have believed it possible that you would be the one to give those of my blood... forgive me, our blood... a true homeland once again. I am glad that you do have this in you, and that you have given us a home after far too long. It makes me ashamed of so much, and I humbly beg your forgiveness for far more than I have any right to ask, for far more than you realize. From this moment on, you have my absolute and unwavering support and loyalty, if you will accept it.”
“Thank you, Encender. Stand now, and cross the line into Bal’Iisen.”
Encender stood, wiped at his eye once and crossed the line to where everyone else now stood. Out of the corner of his eye, Gully even noticed that Dunnhem, up against the wall where he kept watch, had quietly crossed the line to be on the side with him. Gully gave him a smile and winked at him to welcome the swordsman to the new kingdom.
Among the benches and chairs, Gully turned and faced the one man that remained seated.
He said, “What say you, veWarrnest?”
Strafe’s face was red and angry, but he hesitated to reply.
Gully said, “You may speak in total candor, Strafe. You need not turn your head to spit on my account, noblesir.”
Strafe leapt up out of his chair and stormed up to the line without crossing it. Gallun and Gellen wasted no time in tearing off their tunics and kilts and turning to their wolf forms. They stepped up to either side of Gully, warning growls coming from deep inside their chests.
veWarrnest ignored the angry wolves and snarled at Gully and the rest on the other side of the black line, “You spit in your ancestor’s faces! All of you! This joining with these monsters is an abomination, and you prefer them to your own people! This acceptance of the perverted and swayed will destroy us all, and all of you back there have pledged yourselves to it as if it were blessings from the stars above!”
He came right up to the line, barely a finger-length away from Gully’s face, and shouted at him, “And you! This path you lay out is worse than the corruption of which the Domo Regent was guilty! He may have opened the door and invited in a conquering nation, but you... you ‘join’
our people with this filth, knowing in all what that really means. You give us over to these creatures! You look up at the starry night sky and curse our ancestors with this action! You would destroy all that they have built over the centuries! You have destroyed the honor of your family! All of you have! All of you will spend eternity drowning at the bottom of the sea for this!”
veWarrnest leaned forward and almost reached out towards Gully. Gallun and Gellen began snapping at him and growling so loudly that veWarrnest had to step back.
“Even now! Even now you surround yourself with these dogs! You turn this land over to the unnaturally swayed, and to these murderous and naked animals! You defile and pervert this very hall with your profane ideas! I imagine because you are one yourself! I want no part of this! I want no part of you or your reign!”
veWarrnest turned his back on the king and sat in the nearest chair, his arms crossed over his chest.
Gellen, being the more hot natured, began to step across the line to attack the man, but Gully knelt and put his hand on the wolf’s neck, pulling him close and stroking him to calm him. He whispered to him, “Gellen, thank you, but I am fine. And I pushed hard enough that he now spreads his true wings.” Secretly, Gully was amazed at the fierce devotion the two wolves were willing to show for him. Gallun and Gellen stepped back behind Gully and resumed their human forms, but the angry scowls did not leave their faces.
Gully faced Strafe again and said with a sadness in his voice, “You are wrong, Strafe veWarrnest. You are wrong in all you say. The Balmoreans are a good and a principled people, and we would not have come through our recent crises without their assistance. My father, Ollon, is... was... is...”