by EF Joyce
"We use the army," he replied instantly. "My men have grown tired of Sebastian's demands, his arrogance and his lack of respect. After two decades in the military, fighting for this glorious empire, I have earned my men's respect by leading their charges, fighting beside them, sharing their meals and treating them as equals. To be blunt, your majesty, my men are warriors and they follow strength and camaraderie, not your flamboyant father prancing around the palace with his silk suits and pretty face and overly high opinion of himself. One word from me and the whole army of Yeraz will stand against him."
The military, of course, why hadn't she thought of that? Yerazi culture had forever been based on strength and ruthlessness. Her father could be brutal as anyone, but he was no Grand General Grayna with his muscles and scars and war stories. Sebastian plotted battles from his velvet armchair while sipping gras. He never left the capitol and busied himself commissioning jeweled temples and chiseled statues of his glorious visage. The stories of his days in the fighting pits spoke of his strength, but that had been eight-hundred-years ago. Her father was a creature of pleasure and arrogance, taking what he wanted and expecting respect that he didn't deserve and never bothered to earn. Sebastian Elspeth had sealed his own fate with his carelessness and hubris.
"Are you certain the military will stand with you?" she asked, desiring reassurance for a truth she already knew. Sebastian could command all the assassins and politicians, painted priestesses and palace guards that he wanted, but the true might of an empire lie in the weapons and will of its soldiers. With Grayna's legions behind her, the queen could not lose.
"They will, my queen. And with your power beside us, our victory is certain."
"The might of the military is a grand thing indeed. How do you suggest we proceed?"
"End the war," Grayna said. "Tell the troops to lay down their arms and we sign the treaty, regardless of Sebastian's opinion." Yes, end the war. Her thoughts exactly.
"In confidence Grand General, I may have already ended it," she smiled at his lifted brow. I'm more than capable of running my own empire, and by the time this war is over and my father is removed everyone will know it.
"I have met with Alaric Eide in a dream. We've agreed to a temporary cease fire. You may have noticed the shipments of food received yesterday claiming to be delivered from the Osimiri stores. That was a lie. Those ships came from Tibre. I have yet to meet with him and work out our next steps, but I believe we can avoid further bloodshed."
"That is wonderful news, my queen! With this information we can recall the troops–"
"Don't be too hasty, Grand General. Eide has not surrendered. This is a temporary agreement only and we still have 34 provinces to feed. Leave the troops where they are, but command your leaders not to attack unless provoked. I will update you once I speak with him again."
"Very well, your majesty. And Sebastian? When can we dispose of him? The sooner he is gone, the more at ease my men will be, even in the midst of a war."
"When the time is right, we plan a coup and throw him in the dungeons until a more permanent solution can be found. He might not be able to be killed, but we can still lock him up."
"When the time is right? Why not now?" Grayna pressed, his brown eyes gleaming, the scarred hand that rested on his sword hilt tightening.
"I've already told you, he has too many allies. Your soldiers are strong and numerous, but have little influence inside the capitol. There are fifteen temples in the capitol alone, each staffed with twenty or more priestesses. He continually bribes the Royal Guard with money and homes for their families and promises to take care of their children should anything happen to them. Any one of them would die for him in a blink. One-hundred-fifty men. On top of them, we have the assassin's guild, led by the woman who loves him – forty-seven assassins in the capitol, and lastly the Kan Sivid Administration. Could you imagine if all the men we needed suddenly died from approved contracts while our contracts against his allies were denied?
"My father may be a swaggering peacock, but he's is smart, and prepared. He knows what he's doing. When we strike it must come out of nowhere without warning. I believe I'll be able to placate the Royal Guard and my administrators, but the priestesses and the assassins will revolt, and we need to be ready for that." Grayna looked thoughtful as he digested her words.
"You're right, as always my queen. I will summon one of the legions camped outside Kinjia. We will strike immediately upon their arrival -"
"A bold gesture, Grand General, but once we have Sebastian who is to stop his many allies from breaking him free? He has held onto his position for eight-hundred-years. We will have to contend with his allies first. We need to proceed carefully."
"I agree, my queen. Spies to sniff out his allies, assassins to dispose of them, if need be. Outside the Black Hand of course. Which brings me to another matter...we will need to do something about the Handmaiden. She carries his child, a child that will grow up filled with her mother's hatred for what was done, and magic stronger than any but your own."
"What are you saying?" she snapped, warning him with his tone. Perhaps Anaka had stopped reporting on her father, but only because she loved him, not because she plotted against her queen. Elixa had let it go; the girl had served her well and still worked for the empire. The queen wouldn't imprison her dearest friend for falling in love.
"We need to dispose of her, your majesty. And her child."
"No. Absolutely not. I forbid it."
"I know how close the two of you were, but I implore you to see reason beyond your personal feelings. If we let them live, they will come back at us later. If you will not kill them, perhaps consider an alternate solution. We could imprison the Handmaiden with your father and take her child, have one of the courtesans raise her. She would never have to know who her parents were or what was done to them, and therefore would not be a threat. Furthermore, she would be able to take your place as Queen of Dreams upon your death."
"Hmm, an elegant solution. I will think on it, as well as an effective way to execute our coup. I hope you will as well. Nothing rash, Grayna. Make no moves without my approval."
III
The dead kingdom of broken dreams was exactly the same as it had always been – stale, dark, mysterious, haunting. Elixa waited for the enemy king, her new ally, staring once more at the black tower, framed in a halo of icy stars and tilted ruins, though none near as tall. The Kingdom of Dreams. What sort of place had it been? Judging by the wreckage it had clearly been grand – three times the size of Yeraz's capitol, at least. Sebastian never spoke of the time before his immortality, at least not to her. What manner of place this had been and how it received its destruction were both mysteries to the queen.
"Elixa, I am pleased beyond words to see you here this evening," Alaric greeted from behind her; she hadn't heard him approach in the slightest and nearly jumped out of her skin at the sound of his voice. His white horse stamped at the ground nearby, looking for something to chew on. The king was a handsome man; mischievous sky-blue eyes, hair like moon silk, pale skin and strong angular features. He was no southerner, that was certain. He'd been placed over Dalga by someone influential – his immortal father no doubt.
"My answer is yes, Alaric, I wish to join you," she said, deciding if he was going to throw around her given name like a family member she'd do the same to him. He smiled a reckless, beautiful grin. "How can I refuse when you've so generously fed my people? But first I want some answers. I want to know what the monster is, the one you say he unleashed on the world. If I agree to stand by you, what am I up against?" His grin fell away and he became serious and regal once more – every inch a mage king.
"As so many things do, the answer to your query lies in the distant past." Great, another history lesson. She felt like a girl again, back with her tutors and dusty books and boring tales. "Once, long ago magic ruled the world. It ran wild through the land and men were like gods, wielding power the likes of us could not begin to imagine.
Eventually there were some who craved order and society, who wished to pull mankind out of blindly fulfilling their every whim and desire, damning the future for the joy of the moment."
Elixa knew this story; her father had told it to her in her early days as queen. She'd curled up on the sofa next to the dying embers of the fire, sipping gras and allowing herself to be pulled in by the sound of her father's voice.
Long ago in a time faded from memory to myth, all three types of magic mingled together like the clouds and the breeze and the sunlight. So strong and wild were the powers of these magi they could reshape the world on a whim; raise mountains with a thought, fill valleys with oceans, crack the earth in two and fill it with the bodies of his enemies. The magi were few but godlike in strength. Wielding near limitless magic they tore the world into pieces, rebuilding it to their individual tastes over and over. The non-magical populace cowered beneath them, unable to throw off the magi's absolute control.
The magi infiltrated their minds and set them against each other in game-like wars to determine which mage was the strongest. The people were slaves to bored and spiteful gods able enough to create replacements for each life lost. However, constructing a complex life took years, a task the magi were too restless to bother with. Instead they made vast hordes of weak copies, empty-minded people that the natural inhabitants of the earth soon went to war with.
This continued for millennia with each new generation of magi carrying out the traditions of their parents, nearly wiping out the natural population several times over. Finally a mage called The Forger, for their real names were kept hidden, known only to them, stood up among the magi and declared himself a savior of the people. The Forger possessed the gift of Sight and with it he gazed into the near infinite futures of their universe and saw only oblivion.
We are the keepers of this world, he told the magi. Centuries it would take us to recreate these creatures in all their complexity. We must fight to preserve the life of this world or none of us will survive.
His rebellious views rejected by the leaders of the magi, The Forger was forced into hiding, using his rare gift of Sight and a handful of followers to carry out his battles for the non-magical people of the world. Fifty-years of brutal war shredded the world to nothingness – black pits of darkness yawned over the once glorious mountains, rivers and fields. Magi killed one another until only four of them remained, along with a few thousand humans The Forger had managed to save. Having lost their families, their world and their visions for the future, the remaining magi understood The Forger's predictions of the end would come to pass unless they agreed to stop the war.
The last of the magi grouped together and repaired the world, mending the tears in reality, rebuilding the mountains, oceans and farmlands. The natural, non-magical humans of the world finally live and thrive in peace. The Forger urged the magi to leave them be, to have no more children and allow magic to pass from the world, promising them such power would ultimately lead to destruction despite their intentions, but the rest of them would not stand for the absolute death of their powers.
The only possibility was to dilute the magic they possessed, so that no mage would ever have the power to rip the world apart again, and thus the Three Kingdoms were created. The last four magi built the walls, separating the rich land of the south into three, each choosing a component of magic to pass on to the people by having children with the natural humans. Outside the Three Kingdoms, a fourth wall was built to forever preserve the non-magical people from the taint of magic. The Dancer chose mind magic, carrying on the tradition of hidden names and thought control. The Dreamer gave his humans the power of illusion and The Maker passed on magic to manipulate matter. Thus was born The Kingdom of the Mind, The Kingdom of Dreams and The Kingdom of the Material.
The magi appointed leaders of the kingdoms to pass on their history and the reasons they must all remain separated so that the chaos of the past would never reemerge. The long sought after peace had finally settled over the world and The Three Kingdoms thrived, though not all were satisfied. Centuries later, a mage of the material called Sebastian Elspeth was born. He believed the leaders were squelching mankind's true potential and using their fear of the old days as an excuse to hold onto power. His destiny, so he decided, was to unite the three magics once more, resurrecting the gods of old.
Knowing the paranoia of the leaders, he kept his views secret. Elspeth studied endlessly and quickly rose through the ranks of the university, becoming one of the top scholars in his kingdom, the Kingdom of the Material. By fabricating an intensive research project, he gained access to the wall separating The Kingdom of the Material from The Kingdom of Dreams. For weeks he carried out useless, sham experiments until he finally gained a moment alone with the wall. The wall had been created to resist his magic, but he had planned ahead. The leaders of the kingdoms, those who resided in the High Places often came and went, flying over the walls in machines.
Waiting for a group to descend into the Kingdom of the Material, Elspeth lured away and murdered one of the men in their group, then changed his appearance with magic to take his place. When they flew back over the walls, it was with Elspeth in tow. Once they reached the High Places, he snuck into the Kingdom of Dreams to begin his plans.
Once on the other side, he pretended to be a weak dream mage, married and had a son – Sebastian Elspeth II, the first mage of dual powers born in over five-hundred-years, a mage of illusions and the material, able to sculpt the world to match his vision. Me. His wife knew the truth and with her help and connections, they formed the first of the rebellion – a group of magi who felt the leaders were withholding the potential for true power. The movement grew, but Sebastian felt it still was not enough.
You? What happened to your father? I'm getting there, darling. My father knew that soon the walls would be torn down and all Three Kingdoms would mingle. To protect me from mind magic, he gave me a secret name, known only to him, so that I could never be controlled.
When I was twenty, my father's rebellion exploded. Once I became strong enough, I imagined the walls to dust and The Three Kingdoms met. My father was a ruthless and ambitious leader who allowed nothing to stand in his way. He seized the Kingdom of the Mind by killing their figurehead king and offering his son Darian a place in our new world, should he choose to swear allegiance to my father. He did the same for the Kingdom of Dreams. Darian was an exceptionally talented mind mage and my closest friend. He I joined forces under my father's leadership and took control. No one could stop us. At least not until The Nameless.
She appeared from nowhere, tearing apart the unity we'd established throughout the kingdoms and creating unnecessary war. A relic from the past, a creation of the ancient, god-like magi, we never learned what exactly she was other than infinitely powerful. The Nameless ripped apart the world just like the chaos of old, destroying our progress, wiping out magi, snuffing out magic like a burned down candle. We finally managed to stop her, but it cost my friend his life and with her last breath, The Nameless swore to return for me.
That is what drove me to discover immortality – to protect my life from The Nameless, in order to stand between her and the destruction of the world she so desires.
Do you really think she will come back, Papa? Why does she want to end the world?
Don't worry, love, he'd said. Over three-thousand-years have passed and I have not seen her once in all that time. I'm starting to believe that last threat was nothing more than the empty promise of a dying mage. We are safe.
But Papa, you left out one part. What happened to The Forger? she had asked. Surely the leader of the new world would have a paramount destiny.
The Forger vanished, he'd told her with an air of mystery. But I know now what happened to him. I am almost certain. He established his own kingdom, far away from the walls and wars of the world, and gave the gift of Sight to a remote island tribe. A Seer's magic is the most dangerous of them all, you see. Separated from the world, the island
people would pass this magic down through the generations and able to see into the future, they would know when to share their gift with the rest of the world and when not to.
Hidden in the vast waves of the Mugarik Ocean, The Forger created his fourth kingdom; The Seer's Islands. The Seers, who had lived when her father had told that story, were all dead now, killed by the Black Hand on the Ilahi's orders. What secrets might they have learned had they let them live? What dark futures could they have avoided?
"A mostly true statement of events, except for the part where my father bravely sacrificed himself. As I've told you, Sebastian threw him into the sea. His worst fear has now come to pass. The Nameless is free, and she possesses every kind of magic – she can bend time, shape reality, See the future. The only type she's missing is mind magic, the magic of my father, my seven siblings and I. We can control minds, thoughts, actions, armies of men.
"All we need is a name, a true name to control their victims. They have united the Isles, taken their minds. Seven armies, each with one of my siblings at the head. Darian will sale to Yeraz as soon as I've weakened you, when I tell him the time has come."
"That's a lot to take in," the queen admitted. "What will happen if I don't join you?" Seven magi, seven armies, but she did not miss the threat lingering in the spaces between his words. Should they gain the names of Yeraz's soldiers, her forces would become his – Yerazi destroying Yeraz.
"Then I will fight this war in earnest, I will burn Tibre and your people will starve. I don't want to, but I cannot allow my father to win. I cannot fight against you and the Nameless. Even if you manage to defeat me, my father will come to this land with my siblings, and without my help there will be nothing you can do to stop them."