by Rain Oxford
That was not an easy language for dile to learn, but I always tried to learn what Nano taught me. “That is Tiamat world, is it?” I asked in English.
“Yes.”
“Nice to meet. Call me please Nila.” Learning the vocabulary of a new language was easy; memorize words. Grammar took time, and usually a decent understanding of the culture in question.
“Nice to meet you, too,” he said, shaking my hand. I made a mental note to add a “you” to the end of my introduction. His English was clear and elegant, but not soft or feminine. He pronounced the words slowly compared to Dego, but I assumed that it was just for courtesy. As he touched my hand, I felt something odd, like a rush of adrenaline. If I didn’t know better, I would think it was what sensing someone’s energy felt like.
Obviously, Dylan was either a poor wizard or knew very little magic, for he didn’t react at all to my void blood. Normally, a wizard was horrified to realize my very presence would consume and destroy the magical energy around me, and they could always sense it.
Dylan just smiled kindly.
Nano said he was a Guardian, so he must have been very new, because there was no way a goddess would allow a weak wizard to serve her.
As Adre began arguing with Nila over bringing a human to see me, I contemplated this young Guardian. There was something so eerily familiar about him. By the time I could finally get the human alone, my brother and uncle were ready to duel. It didn’t matter to me.
Dylan was friendly and funny, young and innocent, but not too horribly naïve. I explained to him to the best of my linguistic abilities, the history of my world. He had a curiosity about him though, and the subject of my curse surfaced in our conversation.
It wasn’t until we left that I began to suspect something else. I didn’t understand it, not even a little bit, but I could feel what he was. I asked him to do something impossible, but since he didn’t know it was impossible, he attempted it… and succeeded. The skill with which he could control magic was uncanny.
While my blood destroyed magic energy, I never actually felt it myself. I did have a connection with the void, and that was why I could feel what Dylan was. Unfortunately, that meant others of my kind could as well. Testing him was just conformation of what I already knew.
When it was time to say goodbye to Dylan, I didn’t fret, because I knew I would see him again. Before they left, Nano whispered to me that Adre confessed to killing my father and promised he would be back to dispose of the man. Then he left me alone with the one who was responsible for my curse.
Finally, I knew for sure.
I opened the door as Adre moved to intercept me. With one arm, I blocked the blow, and with the other, I beckoned the guards in. I closed my hand firmly around Adre’s wrist in a grip he couldn’t break. The guards restrained him, despite his shouting and thrashing, but all it took was the barest touch from me and he was powerless.
We led him to the dungeon, which I thought was redundant in an underground castle, and I called for a physician. Adre renewed his efforts to escape when he realized I wasn’t waiting for Nano. Adre was my brother after all; my responsibility.
The physician arrived and Adre began pleading. He begged over and over for mercy, promising to leave and never bother me again. I told him it was okay, that I wasn’t bothered by him or angry with him. After all, he was my brother. I was responsible for him.
The Dios people had the disposition to kill for power and wealth. It was my responsibility to keep people from that, to give people the chance to return to a good life. All the survivors of the war except for Nano were long dead, and I hoped they took their greed with them.
The doctor drew some of my blood into a needle and handed it to me. He knew I took my responsibilities seriously. The guards held my brother in his chair.
He shook his head. “Don’t do this. You don’t want to hurt me.”
“Of course I don’t. This will not hurt you, it’ll just keep you from hurting anyone else.” Once a killer always a killer, brother.
“Please.”
“Tell me you did not kill our father.”
I leaned my head against his, waiting for the lie to come from his lips. He would lie, I knew, because he always did. The needle was warm in my hand, and I clutched it tighter, waiting, knowing what he would say.
“He wasn’t my father.”
“Tell me you didn’t kill him.” Please lie to me. Just this last time, I want to hear the lie.
“He deserved it. You never knew him. You never knew how horrible he was. He was a horrible person, a horrible king, and a horrible father. You don’t know how lucky you are that I killed him. He kept your mother imprisoned, and he would have done the same to you.”
You couldn’t even give me this once. “And the attempts on my life?”
“You are his son. I was trying to rid this world of a king who would grow up to be just like him. The world is better off without you.”
I stuck the needle in his arm and pushed the plunger. He screamed, as if in agony, so much that I wondered if it hurt. Energy that was destroyed in my body never hurt, so I was curious if he was screaming in pain or just fear. It couldn’t have been regret, because my brother was a murderer. Surely he could have no regrets.
Dios had suffered enough at the hands of murderers; I couldn’t let even one slide, even if he was my brother. Oh, I wasn’t horrible enough to actually inflict him with my curse; wizards could use magic on him just fine. My blood was not bonding him to the abyss or anything so drastic, merely destroying his bond with magic. From that moment on, he would never be able to so much as feel nominal energy again, let alone use it.
I may not have taken the instinct to kill out of my brother, but he would never be able to use magic do it. The process left him very weak and he had to be carried to his cell by the guards. Obviously, I couldn’t let him go just yet; he was to remain locked up until I knew for sure he was powerless.
Nano returned and I told him Adre ran away. Nano would have killed him for sure, and that would have made him no better than Adre. Instead of being upset, Nano seemed entirely unsurprised.
“I need to ask you something,” he said. “When you were alone with Dylan, did you notice anything suspicious?”
“Something to suggest he is working against us?”
“No, nothing like that. Tiamat trusts him, so that’s good enough for me. I just think there might be something weird about him. His father told me before he was even born that the gods wanted him dead because he was so powerful. There are prophesies about him and his power… but he didn’t seem all that powerful to me.”
“Zer didn’t tell you? I thought he told you everything.”
“He is being pretty private about the young Guardian. Now, as the son of Ronez, I expected the guy to be unusual… but there’s something about him.”
“Like his magic comes from inside him and not from the book?” I asked. Since I was High King of Dios, it only made sense that Nano would confide in me the secrets of the Guardians as his god confided in him. I was very interested in these prophesies, but that could wait.
“It’s exactly like that; like he’s more powerful on the inside than he should be. But I saw him, and felt him, draw energy into himself.”
“Maybe he doesn’t know his true power yet.”
“That makes sense; he’s so new to this. But just how much power is he holding back? What did you see of him?”
“He is more than a Guardian.”
“Do you think Dylan is a god?”
“No. I think he’s something else, but I don’t know what yet.”
* * *
Five years ago…
Being a void was often a curse. I could never do even the most basic magic. If I were a child in school instead of the king of the entire planet, I would have been teased severely. Still, most people either thought of me as a cripple or a demon. During my gloomier days, I would often fantasize of being able to move something with my mind or even li
ght a candle with magic.
I woke up one morning feeling empty… and not. The void was always there, like a field of darkness looming over me, but it was actually inside me. On this particular morning, it was like something new was there, and it seemed even darker than the void. I was afraid and anxious, but there was no explanation.
The next day, I could feel the void even less. Something was overtaking the void in my blood and it was horribly wrong.
My guard handed me clothes and told me to get up as politely as a goblin possibly could. If it were a person who woke me early to make such demands, I probably would have ordered him to be set on fire. Unfortunately, I couldn’t fire my goblin guards.
I shuddered as the rough skin brushed across my more sensitive flesh, before the creature grumbled and left. I got out of bed slowly and took my time getting dressed. My people would wait for me, because everyone knew I was liable to hang someone who talked to me too early in the morning.
I reached for the door, my eyes slipping closed with lethargy. It was the sudden and close explosion, not the odd jolt of adrenaline which shot up my spin an instant before, that made me open my eyes. The door was gone, revealing nothing more than a pile of wooden rubbish before me. A bomb? An assassination attempt? What a foolish perpetrator.
The guards came running, but what good were they now?
My bedroom was elegant compared to others, with soft textures and rich colors. It was not by my design but my father’s, and so the bed was far bigger than anything I would ever need. While growing up, I thought it would help my image and relay to people that I was powerful. Instead I was known as merciful and silly most of the time. I learned not to be concerned with my image.
The important thing was that when there were problems, my citizens would obey me without questions. I hated that everything was my obligation, but I took the responsibility seriously. I wanted to have fun, pull pranks, and skip out on boring meetings, but I could be afforded that. I was High King, in charge of the entire world, so as long as I did my job well on the important things, nobody cared if I escaped to a library when they wanted to talk about proper vegetable growth.
Most of my people thought it had something to do with my curse anyway. Really, I just wanted to be happy, and being responsible for the remaining population of Dios would never make me happy, so I had to try to be optimistic.
My people usually frustrated me; it was their fault Dios was almost destroyed. They expected me to fix it all on my own without taxes or resources or people to build the tools I needed, and when I succeeded despite everything, they thwarted my plans with war. They didn’t trust my judgment because I was young and they pitied me because I couldn’t use magic. But the void inside me also prevented people from using magic on me, and that gave me control nobody else had.
Against the wishes of many of my people, I continued to rebuild the surface, because I could see what was right even if they couldn’t. Of course, there would be new problems I would have to face, and ruling the surface and under cities would be twice the work for me, but I knew it was worth it. The children deserved to breathe fresh air… and I knew what we had would never last.
I had been told over and over again that we had enough resources to survive for another hundred years underground, but I could see the truth. Others were blinded by the power they trusted. They believed that if magic could create light and make plants grow, it could make up for having no sun. We had machines to make oxygen, but it wasn’t the same. Our world was dark and not even worth ruling over most days. Outlawing something was making it a game to most people.
Only my uncle, Nano, was old enough to even remember life above ground. For everyone else, there was no hope, because they never knew what could be. I had to have enough optimism for everyone, because I couldn’t be king of a hopeless society otherwise.
I left my chambers to attend a meeting. Often the city kings wanted to make plans on who would take over should I die before I could have a child. Since I was still very young, they never bothered me to find a wife. Fortunately, they also realized that if pressed, I could appoint Nano as my guardian and acting king. Nano was known for his lack of caring and his short temper. He was often downright rude. Of course, it was a farce, but their fear of him being High King, prevented the masses from insisting I was too young to rule.
It was of no surprise that when I arrived at the council chambers, I was met with false pleasantries and mock praise. But I was High King; it didn’t matter what they thought. I was young, not a fool.
“My city has had difficulty this month with rationing water. Our population has outgrown our rations. We are productive people who pay plenty of taxes.”
I really didn’t want to talk about money. Money was never the issue; it was resources. We never had what we needed; there was never enough water, food, air… And the people tried to survive despite that fact. We were a dying race and we just multiplied anyway. The trolls and goblins knew it. We were invaders to them. Until people destroyed the surface with war, the underground belonged to them, and they had enough resources before we took over.
I sat heavily in my seat and gently grasped the guard’s arm as he passed me. Nausea threatened my composure, but my headache would not be ignored. Odd as it was, the goblins seemed to be the only ones who ever understood me. He nodded and I let him go. They never bothered me with pretty titles or flattery, and I liked it that way.
He returned a few minutes later with bread and fruit for my breakfast and herbal tea for my headache. Unfortunately, because of my void blood, no potion could help my head when it hurt, so I had to rely on outdated treatments.
The king of Kedif continued talking, proud of his city’s growing population. The ability to breed like animals and bring innocent children into this time of suffering and famine was nothing to be proud of. What I found very sad was that his kingdom had more water than most, yet the king horded it for his family.
I contemplated my own food. My entire kingdom ate well on the same rations everyone else had, so why did I get so many complaints? I had a cup of water or tea twice a day and the working class usually had as much as they needed. This was the High Kingdom, but I ensured that rations were shared equally with all kingdoms, taking into account their own resources, taxes, population, and duties. We never seemed to be doing badly when I visited other kingdoms. Then again, I rarely did so.
“What about the Noquodi? Why does Zer allow him so much power to waste while we suffer with nothing?”
I glared at him and he leaned back. “My uncle has more important matters to deal with than lazy people. If you want your city to have enough water, stop having children. If you can’t afford to feed the children you have, stop making more. Nano saves your lives every single day and you dare question him? If he did not do his job, you would not be around to have children.”
As it was, I didn’t know if I was truthful or not. My uncle was a great man, but for the last year or so, he had been very morose. When I asked him about it, he would only tell me that he had chosen a wife that he couldn’t be with for a while.
I shuddered at the thought. I never knew the love of a woman myself, but I could see what it did to people when they couldn’t be with their loved one. The bread was soft as I touched it, even warm from the ovens, but before I could lift it from the plate, it grew hard with an odd coldness. Ice was once a natural phenomenon, but now it only occurred from magic.
I was startled into silence that the food in my hand was becoming frozen.
It was impossible; magic was nullified by my touch. I looked up at the gasps of the men around me as they, too, saw what was happening. Hesitantly, I reached for the fruit. A shiver ran down my spine, my adrenaline spiked, and the food froze.
I was doing this. I was doing magic.
The guards started removing the men from the room. It looked like it was for their safety, but my guards were smarter than most people thought they were. If I could do magic, it was because my link with the void w
as breaking down and magic could be inflicted on me.
Kseve, the same guard who brought me my breakfast, led me back to my room, vigilantly glaring down anyone who looked at me. He was the guard I trusted more than anyone else, dile or goblin.
I sat on my bed and waved him away when he tried to comfort me. I knew I was the only dile he ever showed kindness to, and he would only do so in private. For some reason that morning, I just wanted to be left alone. I didn’t know what to think or feel, but I didn’t want company right then, not even from a goblin who treated me like his son.
Everything that I understood was crumbling. I was a void.
* * *
The next morning, I could no longer feel the abyss at all. Everything I touched either turned to ice or exploded, so I especially avoided anything living. I wouldn’t even let Kseve in my room to give me food. It wasn’t like I could eat it anyway; ice hurt my teeth.
My clothes became covered in frost to the point I was constantly shivering from the burning cold. If I had such a power to create ice, it was only reasonable that I should have an immunity to it. Still, it was better to freeze than to make everything explode.
I tried other magic, like fire and water, but nothing responded in any way but to freeze or explode. I couldn’t be a void and I couldn’t even be a half-decent wizard. The guards sent for Nano, but he had just left for Earth.
By the next afternoon, I couldn’t stand to see my room for another minute, so I left for the throne room. I wouldn’t risk going to my library because I didn’t want the room collapsing down on me if something exploded. I loved that library.
Kseve insisted on bringing me food and left Creso in charge of me. Creso was never so respecting of my personal space and took his duty to protect me seriously. He was growling at the door as if someone would enter through it when I tried to sit. Since my clothes had yet to frost over, I assumed I was getting a grip on these odd new powers. My throne froze instantly and I stood, shrieking from the sudden cold. My clothes froze just as quickly, so I tried to claw my shirt off, frustrated with whatever was happening to me. Panic was a new emotion for me.