by Nyk Nova
“I don’t care! I am their Emperor and they will do as ordered! Bring me the sword, sorcerer, and my sister’s hand is yours.”
33
Dragon’s fire struck the wall, interfering with the feed screens along it. The holographic displays flickered and spasmed as the flame dissipated through them. The arcane study was rife with books and amulets. Bones of animals and trays of ingredients only found in nature were arranged in particular orders as other magic users had been spell studying.
The flame blast from Epok as he’d stormed into the room interrupted the training of all who were there.
“Out! All of you!” he yelled.
None of the other magic practitioners of Lugaz had achieved as high a rank as his. Their faces were uncovered for all to see. And all any of them saw amongst each other was fear. The students rushed out of the obsidian colored door, scared for their lives.
Epok took one look at the feed screens as they returned to normal. The glow from the holographic screens was unnatural as far as he was concerned. And they certainly didn’t belong in his place of study, polluting the ancient arts. He held up his hands and conjured a stream of lightning at them. The tendrils of light danced and arced all over the wall but had no greater affect than the prior flame.
Epok halted his attack and stared at the technology as it reformed, good as new. It was useless trying to get rid of them. The circuits were integrated into the wall. Unless he were to blow up the stone, the screens would stay. And an attack such as that could damage the tokens and tomes within the room. Items he treasured. Even his disdain for the science wasn’t strong enough to push him that close to the edge.
“How could she?” he asked aloud. “How could she choose an Oscerian?” He paced around the room. “Does your heart flow that greatly toward him that you would not even give your own people a second glance?” His rage boiled back up, igniting his entire being.
“No,” he said. “I will not let my emotions consume me.” He walked to one of the many book shelves and selected a small manuscript. The little book was made up of no more than fifteen pages. Epok flipped through them until finally finding the spell of his search. “Five hairs from her head—” He slammed the book shut and placed it back on the shelf. “No. I do not want her a puppet. She must choose me over him.” His eyes dropped along the shelf, still searching for something that could tun her to him.
The many trinkets in the room held great power when in the hands of the right user. And Epok was the right user for all of them. A storm or the stopping of someone’s heart were easy magics for him. He could bring a golem to life with ease and end one’s life just as quickly. Destruction and even some creation were child’s play for him. But to win the affection of another would take more than a spell. Unless he wished her to be nothing more than a puppet who answered to his every whim.
He shook the thought off. Puppets had no desire and he wanted her to desire him. “But that Oscerian is in the way. As long as he…” His hand reached into his cowl and stroked at his chin, an idea forming. “Jer’ren would have my head if I were to kill him. But if it were not my hand that did the deed. He retrieved the stone. Perhaps it is time for the Oscerian to perform a second labor.”
Epok walked to a table in the middle of the room. Unlike the others, this one was empty but there was a strange energy that surrounded it. Epok placed one hand on the surface and pressed down. His hand passed through the top and disappeared. “Where is it? Ah, there we are.” His muscles tensed as he gripped something and pulled it up.
A stack of three circular shelves rose from the table as if pulled from another realm. Epok walked around the shelves, his eyes scanning for the object of his search. He stopped and reached for one of the old texts on the third shelf. The text had only a brand burned into the spine. Epok turned it over in his hand. The front was blank. Had it sat on a table, it was possible it would have been heeded no mind. “The others do not know about you, do they?”
A simple wave of his hand sent the other shelves cascading back into the table where they disappeared under the top. Epok set the otherwise normal looking book on the table, his fingers shaking. “The Tome of Aurtune. Never before or since had Osceria been ruled by anyone such as the old Argus.” Epok took great care when opening the book he so revered. “It was going to happen eventually,” Epok said as he thumbed through the pages.
A single page came to rest and he skimmed over it, searching for a key phrase. “My Blade of Dominion,” he read the passage out loud. “A better name than the one history went on to call it. The Sword of Aurtune. Tell me where you reside beyond your silly riddles.” He placed a hand on the page and his fingers began to vibrate as if threatening to shake off the skin that covered his bones.
Suddenly, Epok threw his hand into the air, pulling the words and letters straight off the page. He watched as the words spun and danced in the air. “I have no time for codes and cyphers. Give me what I seek.” He flicked his wrist, knocking letters and words back into the book until a single sentence remained. “In the holding chamber beneath the pyramid of Yult in the world of Dinrall, lays its sharpened form.” He sent the rest of the words back into the book and placed it within his own robe. “A dangerous planet, I fear. Worse than Osceria’s own Razen. I wonder if the guardians are as savage as the Emperor who tasked them with the deed.” He smiled at the thought. “Such an impossible task, I fear the great General Kade will not survive. Poor Ler’ren. She will need a comforting shoulder to cry on.”
34
The holographic display of a planet rotated above the war room table. Jer’ren tried to zoom into the planet to get a detailed look at its terrain.
“Apologies, my Lady,” Epok said. “This is as far as we’ve screened the planet Dinrall. Its conditions are not hospitable.”
“And yet, Aurtune Argus managed to not only occupy the planet but hide his famed weapon inside of a pyramid on it?” Jer’ren asked, trying to make sense of the image in front of her.
“We have scans below the atmosphere but feeds taken from the surface, there are none.”
“How do you even know the sword is still there?”
“There is but one way to find out,” Epok had trouble hiding the scheme in his voice. Fortunately the tone went unnoticed by the Empress.
“Send a platoon to the surface. I want them dropped right on top of the pyramid.”
“Perhaps another suggestion, my Lady,” Epok said. “The stealth actions of Kade’Tor Lorenth worked so well on Tagle, would they not be of use in retrieving the fabled weapon?”
“I would not have such a thing in his hands.”
“It is merely a trinket without the Spirit Ignition Stone. No greater than any other weapon in the hands of a warrior or even a child. And certainly no threat to your power, Empress,” Epok said, trying to salvage his plan. “There is also the risk of alerting Osceria. I’ve little doubt they are aware of the…attack on Tagle. They will be on the lookout for our movements. And this close to the end of the war, it would not be wise to create another. A smaller squad will not be on their radar.”
“Does Osceria know where the sword is?”
“An unknown variable, I am afraid.”
Jer’ren changed the display to Osceria. She looked it over with feelings of worry and ambition.
“What would My Lady wish?” Epok asked.
“You have a cunning mind, Epok,” she said.
“You’re compliments are too much.”
“We do not like it. It is twice, now, that you have suggested Kade be sent on missions that any one of our ranks might succeed in. Why? We hope you are not working at some cross purpose with our desires.”
“Of course not. I am your humble servant, eager to please. This is all about trust, my Lady. If the Oscerian is to lead your forces to victory over his very people, we must know that he will not turn on us.”
“My enemy is to win out over my enemies,” she muttered. “But could turn on me at any moment.” She spun
around to Epok. “Send only he and his group.”
“There are only three of them left.”
“All the better. If the sword is still there and they find it, we will send a larger force to retrieve it. We do not wish to give Kade any means of betrayal.”
“Perhaps an incentive for his cooperation is needed. Something that will ensure his loyalties.”
“What did you have in mind, sorcerer?”
“Nothing short of My Lady’s greatest desires and their fulfillment.”
35
Kade scoured through books in the palace library. His attention fell to nothing within them. Most were works of fiction. Others were historical accounts of the past. Many of which he was sure were made up.
His thoughts were not on his surroundings or even the woman who followed closely behind him. Ler’ren had appointed herself as a sort of keeper while Kade traversed the grounds. The former Oscerian General thought of home and how he missed the suns of his world.
“Where are your thoughts, my love?” Ler’ren asked.
“I am not…Please, do not call me that.”
“As you wish, for now,” she smiled.
“I miss my home. I miss the light and the people.”
“I understand.”
“Do you?”
“Of course. If I were somewhere else, told that I could not go home, I would miss it as well. And yet…” she trailed off.
“What?”
Ler’ren stopped and leaned against the bookshelf. “There are times when I feel I am not home.” She turned to the shelf and grabbed a book at random. “Tell me of Osceria.”
“It’s nothing like Lugaz,” Kade said.
“I did not ask that.”
“I’m sorry. That was rude of me. Let’s see.” Kade stepped to the other side of the aisle to face her. “It’s bright. There’s color everywhere and the people are free to make their own choices.”
“You do not have laws? Rules governing the people?” Her question was one of confusion. The word free was not one that was widely used on Lugaz.
“We have laws. But they are in service to the people. They ensure that an individual does little harm to another.”
“And they work?”
“Mostly,” Kade smiled at the question. It wasn’t one he’d ever considered. “I used to enforce those laws.”
“Before you were a General?”
Kade nodded. “There was one time I had to leap from one building to another but I wasn’t going to make it. My partner had to use a leap spell just so I could jump a second time. I hadn’t thought about that in a long while. That was the only mission I failed at.”
“The lawless got away?”
Kade nodded then laughed. It was a sound Ler’ren was not used to hearing. A laugh of humor and joy as opposed to one of malice and ambition. She lunged at him and pressed her lips to his. For a moment, Kade relented and returned the gesture before pushing her off him.
“Ler’ren. What are you— No, this isn’t right.”
“But why? I have studied enough to know when—”
“You are Lugazian. Where would such a thing work?”
“Why do you hate us?”
“I don’t. But our worlds…They’re enemies. Lugaz is cruel and cares only of domination.”
“Is that not how all societies are built? The strongest leads the rest?”
“Not all. You make deals and trade fairly— That is the foundation of a strong society. Conquering only leads the people to resent you and then they overthrow you.”
“Then why does Osceria constantly improve their military? Why do they employ other planets as allies, further strengthening themselves? Why was a weapon created by Aurtune Argus that could grant its wielder untold power?”
Kade stood, stumped at her line of questions. It was true, Osceria’s military had grown vast throughout the years. And it had won more allies than Lugaz. He had always thought it was because of agreements between worlds.
“Have you ever been on one of these trades?” she asked.
“No. They existed even before I was born.”
“Who arranged them?”
“Osceria, but…” He lost any attempt at finishing his own thought. The answer was one he didn’t like and went against everything he’d always known.
“Domination is always the prize, my love.”
Kade shook his head, trying to make sense of her words and her questions. The idea that Osceria could have been anything like Lugaz was such a far off concept for him. He looked around the library with its dreary walls and plain shelves. The place was as depressing as many of the buildings outside. It was so far away from what Osceria looked like, with its brightly lit spaces and its various colors and hues.
“Why has there been war for as long as I’ve known?” he asked.
Ler’ren rested her head on his chest. “A question I have asked many times.”
“Osceria has so much. And Lugaz, so little. But the Empress— your mother is—” He stopped himself, suddenly not wanting to hurt one of his enemies.
“You can say it. Empress Jer’ren is a tyrant. And you’re right. She is. But do you know why? Mother actually has the people’s best interests in mind. I can understand how that must look to you. And if Lugaz was the aggressor in the wars, then I would agree with all of the thoughts you must be having. But who has declared these wars?”
“We were always informed of attacks from the Guilds.” Kade’s shoulders slumped at his own words. “That’s why…”
“What is it?”
“The others. My team. They were banished because of attacks on the Guilds. Could that be possible? Could our planets have been warring all this time because the Guilds have manipulated us? But why? What do they gain?”
“Perhaps they seek to unify us? Lugaz has always spoken of Unification between our worlds,” Ler’ren said. “But it has never worked.”
“How would we unify?” Kade asked.
Ler’ren looked up at him. She said nothing but the look in her eyes told him everything.
The doors to the library suddenly burst open followed by the stomping of boots on the floor. Ler’ren and Kade parted and rushed out of the aisle into the open.
General Tare stood with a group of armed guards behind him. “General Kade, you are to accompany me to the Empress. Jer’ren has another mission for you.” His smile was gleeful and full of malice. Whatever was going on, Tare was eager for it.
36
“General Tare, you cannot storm into every room as you see fit!” Ler’ren yelled.
“You’ll forgive my bluntness but in matters of the state, I will do as I please. Or have you forgotten, I nor the military answer to you.”
“What does Jer’ren want?” Kade asked.
“It seems the Oscerian forgets his place as well. As I recall, you are a soldier in the Lugazian army. You do not question orders.”
A major part of Kade wanted to put a fist in Tare’s smug face. But a quick glance at the armed guards, swayed his decision.
“But if you would like to continue acts of insubordination,” Tare went on. “I would be more than happy to oversee your reassignment to Lugazian basic training. And hear your cries for death afterward.”
“By her own decree, I am leader of the Lugazian army—”
Tare rushed up to him, leaning directly in Kade’s face. “On the ground and in a conflict, maybe. But in the Capitol, you are no more than a faceless grunt who does as told. Do I make myself clear?”
Kade’s eyes narrowed as they stared into Tare’s. It was the second time the two had found themselves locked in a silent battle of wills. Kade had already proven the better but could tell that Tare was itching for another showdown.
Suddenly, a surge of heat erupted from behind Kade. He could see, through a reflection in one of Tare’s various awarded medals, the green flame coursing around Ler’ren’s hand. He was fairly sure he could take Tare down. The armed guards might have been a problem. The real
uncertainty was just how powerful Ler’ren was. And whether or not she would use the magic to dispose of Tare or to simply break them apart.
“You speak boldly with armed guards at your back,” Kade said. “I recall that same bravado from the safety of a Siege Machine. And look where that got you.”
The flame dissipated and Kade turned to Ler’ren, whispering in her ear. “I need a private word with the general.”
Ler’ren hesitated. She didn’t know what Kade had in mind and had no desire to see him getting hurt.
“All will be fine.” He backed away from her. “When this is over, I’d like to hear more about bringing our people together.”
She nodded as he made his way toward the door.
“Shall I attend the Empress myself, or is my escort to present me?” Kade asked, an insult to Tare. He knew it was just the thing to rile him up, treating the general of the Lugazian army like a lap dog.
Tare snarled and stomped heavily to the door.
The two rivals stepped through with the guards mere feet behind them. Before the first guard could exit, an invisible force slammed the door on him, separating the generals from them.
“Open the door!” one of the guards yelled.
They all turned to Ler’ren who only shrugged her shoulders.
In the hallway, Tare looked at the closed door, then in the rest of the passageway. He was alone with Kade.
“I don’t ever want to hear you take such a tone with her, again,” Kade warned.
Tare smiled and pulled out his side arm. “And what will you do about it, Oscerian trash?” He tossed the gun down the hallway. “Jer’ren would have my head if you were to die on Lugaz.”
“You’re going to regret relinquishing that weapon.”
“Do I look like I’m stuck in the hatch of a Siege Machine?” Tare rushed at Kade, leading with a sharp elbow to the gut.
The strike doubled Kade forward where his chin was met by Tare’s knuckles. It was a strong hit but Kade had been hit by stronger.