Her gray-colored dragon walked over from its resting spot, fluttering up just enough that Zelda could climb it with ease.
“Where are you going?” Yeva asked.
“I just need some time alone,” Zelda said. “To think. It’s been a long day.”
“I’m actually in agreement,” Eric said. “I can’t wait to put my head on my pillow tonight. I probably should have thought that before agreeing to be king.”
“And making me queen,” Yeva teased.
All three shared a laugh cut somewhat short by their exhaustion. Yeva, in fact, curled up on Eric, resting most of her body parallel to the wall.
“How long are you going away for?” Eric asked casually.
“A few hours, maybe longer,” Zelda said.
She wished she hadn’t said the last two words, knowing it left open the possibility she’d disappear. But she had spoken the truth.
“If you need anything, Zelda, you know where we are,” Eric said. “Seriously. You’re as much in charge of this kingdom as we are. We have the titles, but you have the power.”
Zelda nodded in appreciation, but she’d had enough conversation about power. In fact, the very word told her where she needed to go.
Eric gave his well wishes before Emera rose to the sky. Soon, the celebration beneath her vanished. She could not hear the revelers below. The clouds made it difficult to see anything more than the faintest outlines of fire. It was like she had moved to an entirely new world.
But in this new world, even though she was alone for a period, she also felt free. She didn’t have any more fights. She didn’t have to wonder if she’d used her magic for good or not, because one, she had, and two, she wouldn’t need to use her magic this high in the sky. She didn’t have anyone to answer to or a mission to serve. She had no responsibility and could just take in the rush of cold air on the back of Emera, the gentle sloshing of the sea below, and the stars glittering above her, some of them seeming to twinkle like magic.
Perhaps she could only have this time during the night, and perhaps it would not last forever. She had not forgotten Iblis’ words to her from earlier in the day. But she had this moment and absolutely nothing that could impinge on it, and Zelda couldn’t think of any other time in her life when she could make that statement.
Thus, when she felt the first rush of wind as Emera reached her top speed, Zelda lifted her hands off of the dragon’s neck and breathed in the fresh air. Freedom. What we’ve earned for what we’ve done.
How sweet it is.
It took about half an hour for her and Emera to reach the other continent. Bodies remained, but to her surprise, a significant number had seemingly vanished. Perhaps the other monsters of Ragnor had come to claim them, or perhaps the loss of magic in the air had reduced their presence. Either way, the space felt far more open than expected.
But even with this open space, she knew what she’d come for. The essence of the true form of Ragnor. The power of Iblis.
It didn’t take her long to find, the one thing on the ground that reflected the light of the stars above her. She had Emera land about twenty feet away, a soft land that seemingly belied a struggle that rose within her.
The struggle to take the essence for herself and protect it, to hide it, or perhaps even destroy it.
The first choice seemed like the least likely when Zelda had left Mathos. The second seemed the most likely, while the third seemed the most desirable, although she had no idea if it was possible.
But when her feet touched the ground, it almost felt like the crystal called to her.
Zelda…
The faintest of voices echoed in her mind. It sounded like Iblis at first, but then just became an unrecognizable whisper.
Take… take it!
The whisper came so quickly that distinguishing the voice would prove futile. Almost certainly, it was Iblis speaking to her, but the lack of utilized magic made the connection weak.
Zelda took her steps deliberately, trying to give herself all the time in the world—perhaps even slowing the seconds down if she had to. Yes, she knew hiding the crystal somewhere made sense. But what if someone found it? What if she wanted to find it herself later and knew where to get it?
Take it! Say yes, Zel…
Her hands shook. She had not anticipated the mere rediscovery of the essence of Ragnor would cause so much consternation.
She remembered that the crystal would give her visions of the future. Perhaps it would do some good to take control. She could understand what she had seen. She would know what was real, what was possible, and what was fake.
She gulped as she came within touching distance. All she had to do was squat or bend, lower her arms, and the essence of Ragnor would come into her possession. She would have the power of a goddess, perhaps even rivaling that of Chrystos or Iblis. She would have both their powers, along with the elemental force of Indica, and nothing living would stop her. Perhaps not even anything spiritual.
Such power.
Such potential.
Such danger.
Destroy it! Throw it into the ocean. Let no man ever see it again.
Zelda, though, found her curiosity getting the best of her. She knelt before the crystal, as close to it as she would be a plate of food at a dinner table. The essence called to her, the whispers now nearly nonstop, so frequent and so many that it just became a blur of incomprehensible begging.
Her hand hovered just over the essence. With a single motion, she would have it, and its power.
Take it.
What sounded like Iblis’ voice came through as clearly as it had since she arrived. She pulled her hand back, but only a couple of inches.
What would I do with this power?
What could I do with this power?
What should I do with this power?
All of the answers came back to the same point—she could do anything. No one, not Eric, not Yeva, not dragons, nothing could stop her. She would become omnipotent, if not omniscient. The forces of Hydor would stand no chance against her. Perhaps even Chrystos and Iblis would fall before her. She would become the new goddess of Hydor, worshiped and praised by all.
Which sounds a lot like what Artemia and Rufus wanted.
She knew if she had the power, for right now, she would use it for good, whatever that meant in the future. But she also knew how many times she’d contemplated how much darkness she had within her. How she’d used the dark to save Tetra and Yeva. How she’d used part of her dark side to kill the monsters of Ragnor, and perhaps even Ragnor himself.
Who was to say that a decade from now, half a century, or even longer—if she let herself live that long—she wouldn’t use the magic for evil? Who was to say what was good today might lead to evil consequences down the road?
She moved her hand back down to the crystal, hovering just a couple of inches off of it. As she got closer, the power seemed too enticing to resist. Yes, the voice of Iblis stood out. Mold Hydor into your image. Do what your mother said. Use it for good.
Sweat poured down Zelda’s forehead. Her breathing got heavier as the pull of the essence felt literal. Try as she wanted to resist, the temptation to grab the crystal felt too strong. She could not just leave it.
“I have to do it,” Zelda said.
She closed her eyes and felt sure of her action. In the long run, she could handle what would happen.
She lunged forward, her hand gripping the crystal.
She felt the surge of power course through her arms, the complete power of Iblis consuming her soul. She opened herself up, creating a pathway for the power to flow through.
But it was not for the power of Iblis to consume her.
It was for the power of Chrystos to destroy it.
The battle within her soul raged as the powers of Chrystos collided with that of Iblis. Zelda, using what power she had, helped Chrystos’ essence push the tide against Iblis.
“Zelda!” Iblis said, the voice definitively his. “Do y
ou not know what you are doing?!? Take my power. You will never fear for anyone hurting you again! No one will dare to kill the magi. You can save the magi by doing this.”
Zelda shouted as the stress and physical pain bore on her. She felt the surge of Chrystos reach her fingertips, just seconds away from penetrating the essence of Ragnor.
“I already saved the magi!” she yelled through gritted teeth.
“Wrong,” Iblis said. “Those visions you have seen? They show your future, Zelda. Would you like to know what the future of the magi holds?”
Do not give him any space. Destroy that crystal!
“I will tell you what it holds, Zelda. A great fall is coming. It will be marked not by violence and struggle, but defeat. And when that defeat comes, the magi will cease to exist.”
“No!” Zelda said, more defiant of Iblis speaking to her than his actual words. She heard them, but she did not try to comprehend them. “Vanish from this world, Iblis!”
The magic surged out of her fingers and into the crystal. Within, the power of Iblis had hunkered down, and a great battle that Zelda could not see with her eyes but could “see” with her spirit erupted. The forces of Chrystos and Iblis charged at each other, and the resulting chaos made sense only in metaphorical form.
Their attacks came together like a Bahamut and a Ragnor of equal size colliding. Zelda felt like Indica, a powerful force but a pitiful, marginal one in the context of this very battle. For every action, there felt like an opposite reaction that canceled it out.
Zelda let out a shrill roar as she concentrated even more of her power into the crystal.
“Zelda!” Iblis shouted.
He’s weakened. He has less of a chance of victory. Keep fighting!
“You do not know what you do! You cannot defeat me!”
“I’m here to prove you wrong!” she shouted.
But soon, the magic required became so great that Zelda could not even speak. She could only communicate telepathically.
“You will not defeat us, Iblis. You may have been right about evil. But there is a reason humanity and the magi live still, and that is because good triumphs.”
“You know not what you speak of, for you are too young to even understand human behavior, let alone that of the gods!”
Iblis, though, had all but lost control of the crystal. What little power he had had retreated as far back as it could.
Time to end this.
“Destroy it!” Zelda shouted in her mind. “Chrystos! End Iblis’ presence here!”
Seconds later, a blinding light filled the air. Zelda fell onto her back as she held both hands up to deflect the luminosity.
When she came to, she quickly sat up and looked around.
Three smaller crystals scattered within about a dozen-foot radius of the crystal’s original resting point.
“You cannot kill evil for good,” Iblis said. “I am impressed with your drive. You will not join me as easily as I had hoped. Fair enough. It will make your eventual turn all the more rewarding.”
Zelda ignored Iblis, reaching for one such crystal. When she grabbed it, she felt a gentle surge of power, but it did not have nearly the power she had feared. In fact, it felt about the same level as the power they had taken from Artemia.
Such power, in the hands of the magi, might allow for some basic summoning powers. In the hands of a human, it would only control existing summoned creatures, not bring about new ones.
If Zelda could not destroy the essence of Ragnor, she would accept this degradation of it. If she could not kill evil for good, she would leave it in such a weakened state that the union of all that was good could easily send it back into hiding if it chose to rise back up.
“Zelda, some day, you will seek these crystals again,” Iblis said. “And when that time comes, you will make for a useful ally.”
Zelda again ignored the taunting of Iblis, choosing not to engage. Iblis would not stop pestering her, but when the intensity of the magic faded, he would have no way of reaching her.
But he had made one good point. It did not take much to imagine the crystals coming back together and Zelda using that crystal in some fashion. She had to make sure they spread far across the land.
But she had to also make sure no one knew of the location of the three bits.
She needed help in scattering them across the land.
***
“You’re sure of this?”
Eric spoke to Zelda as Yeva rested peacefully at the top of the wall. In the distance, the bonfire itself continued, but most of the people had either passed out or gone home. The celebration had ended, and life would go on in the morning. But at least it would go on without any immediate existential threats.
“Positive,” Zelda said. “I can’t know where the pieces are. No one can. That power is far too much power to entrust in the hands of one person.”
“I understand,” Eric said. “I just… I don’t know. We needed your power to save the world. What if we need it again?”
Zelda understood the point. She had debated that very thought. At the very least, no magi could have it.
“Nothing like what we experienced is coming any time soon,” she said. “I can’t see it. Even if Iblis has a trick up his sleeve, it will take him some time to create. And Chrystos watches closely. He will not let Iblis run amok so easily.”
“I know,” Eric said. “I know. I just worry about letting all of this,” he said, moving his hand across all the land the two of them could see. “Suffer once more. They’ve been through so much.”
“And they keep pulling themselves up so much,” Zelda said with a reassuring smile. “If we find evil, we use good to defeat it. If we see struggle, we fight through it. If we encounter an obstacle, we go around it. My hiding the crystals isn’t about crippling humanity against a real threat. It’s about crippling the worst in us from becoming such a threat.”
Zelda could tell Eric didn’t quite get it—no, he didn’t agree with it. Even she didn’t feel sure of her decision, at times thinking she should just put the crystal back together.
But she knew this was the right choice. Already, she contemplated splitting apart the essences of Indica and Bahamut, the better to further diminish the risk of one person garnering too much power.
“How would you have us do this?” Eric said.
“The three of us, we have to take one piece and scatter it atop a dragon somewhere,” Zelda said. “Maybe we can bury it. But if the temptation feels too great, just toss it atop the dragon from thousands of feet above.”
“I see,” Eric said. “But why not the ocean?”
It was a question Zelda had no good answer to. If pure eradication of that was what she wanted, she needed to make sure no human ever reached such a crystal.
“Maybe one or two, I’ll decide,” she said. “But just as we’re trying to reduce the worst in ourselves, we need to give humanity and magi the chance to save itself if such an evil ever arises. Maybe I’m trying to have it both ways. I don’t know. I’m just doing what feels right. I want us to have almost no chance of reuniting these crystals, but I don’t want it to be no chance, I guess.”
“It’s gotten us this far,” Eric said, his turn to reassure Zelda with his smile. “If you told me to make you queen and Yeva and I prince and princess, it wouldn’t take any convincing on your part.”
Zelda laughed, a bit more loudly than she intended to, for seconds later, Yeva awoke.
“Ready to go back to Caia?” Eric said teasingly.
“Ready go to back to sleep,” Yeva said as she stretched. “You’re back, Zelda.”
“I am, and I need your help.”
Just as she had with Eric, she explained what she wanted Yeva to do. When she finished explaining, Yeva looked eager to get to the crystal shards.
“Sooner we can get rid of them, the better.”
“No time to waste, then,” Eric said, whistling to get Margol over. Zelda did the same, and within just minutes, leaving
the joy of celebration behind, the three of them rode back to Caia.
Zelda found herself getting strangely emotional as they crossed the sea. This might be our last time doing this together. I’m going to go and study magic on my own. Study what Garo said in his journals. We may just return to Mathos on our own time.
But she didn’t say anything. Any words which might allow for a way out of what she needed to do would die in her throat.
As she neared the remains of Caia, the three split crystals glittered, making finding them easy. She landed ahead of Eric and Yeva, dismounting her dragon and running to the first shard. The very fact that she ran instead of hesitating created some discomfort for her.
She stopped herself short, reaching into her robes for the other two crystals. The essence of Indica and the essence of Bahamut had warm auras to them. Chrystos. Would I commit an unforgivable sin to remove this power from me? It isn’t enough to rid myself of Iblis’ power.
She looked to Eric and Yeva, who dismounted and marched to the crystals. Zelda held up a hand, asking for room. When they paused, she turned, and closed her eyes.
I do not know how to meditate. Chrystos, if you can sense this, please show me something. Show me what it means to see visions like the ones Garo saw.
For several seconds, nothing happened. A light wind blew her hair to the side, but no vision, no peculiar sensation, no moment out of the ordinary came.
A minute passed. Nothing happened.
Chrystos, she thought. If you tell me nothing… what am I to do? I don’t want this power. I don’t trust myself with it. I don’t trust anyone with it.
Another minute passed. Again, nothing happened. Behind her, she heard the shuffling feet of Eric and Yeva, though they did not get closer.
In a flash, she saw one image.
Unlike before, she had not seen this image before. It came so quickly that she did not know exactly what she had seen, only the rough outline of it.
But in it, she stood on a cloud, looking down upon the world. A great rally was taking place, for she saw many people gathered together as they had during the late emperor’s speeches.
And she heard only four words.
“Praise be to Zelda!”
Legends of the War (War of the Magi Book 3) Page 40