by Philip Blood
That stunned me for a moment, and then I said, “Who took me?”
Finnabair looked sad, but replied, “I don’t know who, or why, Nicholas. It has been the mystery which has colored my life for many years. Though I do not condone, I can understand a House ending a mage’s line as part of their Ascension Quest, but why kidnap a child? Were they planning on using you as leverage later? I didn’t know and still don’t. I’m just happy to finally get you back and to know you are safe and free. I look forward to getting to know you, son.”
So, I have some unknown enemies, or my mother does, which is the same thing as far as I’m concerned.
We ate in silence for a few minutes, each of us in thought, and then Finnabair said, “Nicholas, why did you come here, now. From what you said, you are trying to save this saeran child you befriended.”
I nodded, “We came seeking aid so we can rescue her, and for that I need information. By learning more about my past, I hoped to understand my place in these crazy worlds so I can better believe in my powers, and hopefully use them better with that understanding. I also hoped you might be able to help in some way.”
The White Enchantress nodded. Then she said, “Let me think about it, perhaps we can have some time to talk, just the two of us, as mother and son.”
I gave her nod and a small smile.
Toward the end of the meal, I said, “So, why do you call yourself the White Enchantress?”
She laughed, and the sound was musical. “I needed a title so I could hide my real name and House. People around here think it derives from the white stone at the tops of these mountains, the same stone which makes up my castle. But truthfully that’s not where the name came from. I spent a lot of time on Earth, with your father, some time ago. We were hiding from prying eyes. I have had many versions of my name translated into different languages over time. On Earth, I had English, Irish, and Welsh versions. My current name really comes from what people call us on my home World, White Fay. On Earth, the Irish translation was Findabair, or Finnabair, which also translates to The White Enchantress. It seemed to fit in many ways, so that is what I adopted here on Abal.”
When dinner was over the others retired, but I went to a library with my mother, and there we talked alone.
She was seated with a crystal glass sipping a drink, and I was looking at the books when she said, “You are not telling me everything, are you, Nicholas?”
“Not everything,” I agreed. “There are things I have even kept from Toji and Myrka.”
She smiled, “But not Hydan?”
“I told him pretty much all of it early on, but he cautioned me to be more circumspect.”
“He is probably right; information can kill you as easily, or more so, than a dagger.”
I nodded, and then said, “There is, however, one thing I have held back, even from Hydan.”
She pondered for a moment, and then said, “I know you have your reasons for holding things back, but I have to ask, are you planning to tell me the rest, or do you feel you can’t trust me that far yet?”
That was a good question, and I didn’t answer as I thought about my possible replies.
She waited patiently, taking a sip from her glass, before saying, “I want you to know I am willing to wait, and will not take it poorly if you choose to hold things back. However, I must caution you, taking on Medrod and Morgain will be extremely dangerous. I couldn’t handle them both, and with the army they have built, well, you can see I am barely holding onto my castle. The more you tell me, the more likely I can give you aid, but it is your decision.”
Ah hell, Hydan knows anyway, and so does Fiona, what’s one more joker in the deck? So I turned to her and said, “I have lost my memory.” Then I explained about the spell which Fiona told me about, the memory eater.
Finnabair sat silent for a time after that, considering. Then she said, “You were likely hit with a sigil, one with a very rare spell, most mages would rather just kill you than take your memories away. There has to be a reason they would do that instead of just killing you. If they could get you with that spell, then they should have been able to end your line.”
I furrowed my brow in thought, which didn’t really do me all that much good since nothing came to mind, so I asked, “Why would anyone do that then?”
“Well, let’s walk it through, if they didn’t kill you when they could, it means they wanted you alive. But, they didn’t want you alive with whatever knowledge you had. Since silencing you would be much easier with your death, the only reason I can think for taking your memories is so they could use you in some way. Something you knew would have stopped them from doing that, so they got rid of that issue. Otherwise, they would have just killed you.”
I guess that made a strange kind of sense. “What possible use can I be without my memory?”
She pondered, “Well, as a hostage, for one. Another would be to keep your line alive, yet have you forget something you learned.”
That made me think of The Dragon, I’d stolen some secret from him, maybe a third party didn’t want that secret out, but needed me alive.
Then I said, “I told you there was something I haven’t told anyone, but I will tell you.”
She smiled slightly, and waited silently, just watching me with her dark saeran eyes.
“I remembered something, in a dream.”
She nodded, “Missing memories might come back to you that way.”
“Well, in this case, I didn’t see who I was talking to, but they gave me an order to steal some information, and I believe it was from The Dragon. Since this was some kind of order, I assumed it was my Archimage, and I came to Abal, not only to find my parents but to seek out my Archimage to see if he could restore my memories. I had no idea my Archimage and my father were one and the same.”
My mother replied, “Rescuing your father will be extremely difficult, Nicholas. I can help you by teaching you how to use your power. You are strong, and if you believe in your powers they can save you. However, no matter how much I teach you, there is still Medrod, and from what you told me, he is now wielding Caliburn. Then there is his wife; she is a powerful Dokkalfar sorceress, make no mistake. She will have many strong necromages at her call, and her own powers of darkness.”
I laughed, “Wow, you don’t make a good cheerleader, from the sounds of it, you’re telling me even if you teach me what you can, they are going to clean my clock.”
She smiled, “A strange euphemism for death or destruction, but I guess life is a kind of clock, since we’re are all counting time to our end, and in cleaning a clock you must take it apart, and therefore stop that clock. I am telling you the truth so you do not go in with false bravado and unrealistic expectations. You aren’t going to fight your way in, end Medrod and then ‘clean’ Morgain’s ‘clock’, which in my opinion has run far too long.”
I started to speak, but she held up a finger, “What you MIGHT be able to do if you are stealthy, smart and very lucky, is reach the place where they have your father imprisoned and set him free. Once you have an Archimage on your side, the balance of power may shift quite a bit, you might have some hope of winning.”
“So, rescue dad, and then take on the dark duo.”
She smiled, “It will not be easy, trust me. If you do release your father, the best thing to do is retreat, make a new plan, and start a coordinated offensive.”
“Really, I would rather just cut off Medrod’s head, grab Ziny and go.”
She shook her head, “That’s your father’s blood speaking. If you took after me, you would do a lot more planning before taking any action.”
“So that’s an Albus thing?”
“Very much so,” she said. Then she added, “You know, rescuing your father isn’t going to be easy, he was rescued once before, and because of that, I’m sure Morgain put a lot of protections around him this time.”
“What do you mean, ‘he was rescued’?”
She shrugged, “I don’t have all the
details, but a spy reported about another Archimage who came and released your father. That’s when he battled Medrod and eventually ended his son’s line. However, while he was weakened from battle, Morgain managed to recapture him and put the Archimage of Sivaeral back in his prison. As to what can hold an Archimage, I have no idea.”
I thought about that, and then said, “Which Archimage helped to free him the first time, maybe we can get them to help us again, or at least tell us how he freed my father the first time?”
“I don’t know; my spy did not get that information to me before he was killed. It would be very foolish to ask all of the Archimages, which would inform them of your father’s imprisonment. If they learn the Archimage of Abal is helpless, some of the others might come to conquer this House and this World.”
“Like Earth,” I said.
She nodded, “Earth has been a House battleground for thousands of its years, though no one has managed to wrest control permanently. There were a few close calls, the empire of Rome was a bid by the Hentans, and they gathered in a large part of the world. Then there were the two attempts by the Dokkalfar, called the First and Second World War.”
“Hitler caused the Second World War,” I noted.
She shrugged, “I never liked that Dokkalfar wizard.”
“Hitler was a wizard?”
She nodded, “You don’t think he swayed all those poor German minds with just his oratory prowess? And why would anyone follow such an ugly little human, unless he was governing their minds?”
I shook my head and then said, “Well, I’m glad Hitler is dead then.”
“Oh, I don’t think his line has ended, his mother, Kali, the Archimage of House Dokkalfar, stepped in and pulled him out before the allied Houses of Argoth and Tarvos could end him.”
“And you’re going to tell me the Japanese…”
“House Bakemono,” she finished for me. “One of their Seconds, Jiro, saw a chance to rise above House Argoth and Tarvos, so he temporarily allied with House Dokkalfar. In the end, they would have had to fight another battle against the Dokkalfar if they had won the war. I always wondered about his decision to do that, it seemed rather rash, and in some ways dishonorable, which is not very much like the Bakemono House.”
“So, you are afraid Abal will end up a contested battleground, like Earth?”
Finnabair nodded, “It is one of the reasons I have kept your father’s imprisonment a secret, as did Morgain. However, at this point, Morgain must feel she is powerful enough now to hold off the other Houses if she is allowing Medrod to talk about your father’s imprisonment.”
“Or, he’s an idiot,” I noted. “Maybe he only told me because he didn’t believe I could escape.”
She smiled, “There is that. Medrod is not the most intelligent of your father’s offspring; perhaps my genes have helped you there.”
“Medrod is my brother, isn’t he?” I suddenly realized.
Finnabair answered, “Half-brother, yes. However, regardless of Medrod’s mental acuity, remember that Morgain is smart enough. Do not underestimate the Dokkalfar sorceress. She is Adolf’s sister, and some argue he came closest to conquering Earth, though Alexander Hentan might argue with that. He made a very good push right after the Terran Archimage was ended. Personally, I think House Argoth has made the greatest inroads to conquering Earth to this date, though they aren’t really winning.”
“Really, and who are they, the Kennedys?” I joked.
“No, the Kennedy clan is of my House, the Albus. I’m talking about Jesus Argoth.”
I tilted my head down and said, “Jesus, THE Jesus?”
“Yes. House Argoth started their program early, when Gaia was barely gone, back during the time of Rome, and their influence is still spreading to this day.”
“Jesus,” I said again. It was both a statement of disbelief and a curse.
“Religion is a powerful tool; it can conquer a people more completely than a war. If you conquer by force, the people may fight a guerilla war against their foreign invaders, but if they give themselves over willingly, by belief, well, then they are putty in the hands of those in charge of that religion.”
I had to agree, a whole lot of people have died in the name of religion.
“Of course, religious takeover is a slow method, but it does work. In this case, the Argoths are doing exceedingly well, though some of the other Houses have countered their gambit in an attempt to stop their play. The Friare House countered with Buddhism; they always did go for the concept of Nirvana. My House saw what the Argoth House was attempting early on and tried to keep the status quo by creating a competing religion, Islam. The Argoths introduced the Bible, so we made the Quran.”
I snorted, “The Argoths wrote the bible?”
“Some of it, they also just collected a lot of stuff written by true believers once they seeded the concepts into the population. You have noticed that the bible isn’t all that… consistent?”
“I guess,” I said slowly.
“The thing is, much of what is attributed to ‘God’ is not really godlike. He gets angry, decides to murder people…”
“I thought one of the Ten Commandments is, ‘Thou shalt not kill’?”
Finnabair smiled, “Proving God of the bible is a hypocrite. For example, in Exodus 4:24-26, it states, ‘At a lodging place on the way, the Lord met Moses and was about to kill him. But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son’s foreskin and touched Moses’ feet with it. Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me,” she said. So the Lord let him alone.’
I laughed, “It says God went to a bar to kill Moses? That sounds like the beginning of a bad joke.”
“Yes,” she agreed, “The thing is, there are many MANY such inconsistencies in the bible, but this collection of writings wasn’t written by some divine guidance, it was put together by House Argoth, and they didn’t even do a good job. However, those people who embrace a religion can always find some way to explain away something, even if it is written in black and white in their own holy book. The Quran isn’t any better, even though my House put it together. For example, in the Quran, in the fourth chapter, it states: ‘Allah instructs you concerning your children: for the male, what is equal to the share of two females.’ I always found that passage annoying, and I had some words with the Albus third who put that part in there!”
“I bet he was a male,” I said with a laugh.
“He is still ruing the day he wrote that! I should note, not all Earth religions were purposely created by one of the Houses, though almost all of them are influenced in some way. For example, Hinduism comes from the Dokkalfar presence in a region of Earth, though their House did not make up the religion. However, due to Dokkalfar influence, what they created and believe is flavored by that House. Their Archimage, Kali, is even mentioned directly.”
“But if the Argoths made up the Christian religion, you are telling me the Pope is a wizard?” I exclaimed.
“No, I don’t think so, at least not the current one. Most of those in charge of the various religions are true believers; it works out better that way. Nowadays these religions have a life of their own, and the mundanes mostly keep them going without the need of our magic. The Houses no longer have to do anything obvious to reinforce their beliefs at this stage; what the Terrans call ‘miracles’. Not that the Houses aren’t involved, why do you think there are so many conflicting denominations even within the same basic faith? Mormons, Catholics, Baptists, Lutherans, Anglicans, Calvinists, Presbyterians, it goes on and on.”
I shook my head sadly, “So that’s why there were so many documented ‘miracles’ back in olden times, but not so many, or obvious ones, in the modern era. From what you say, those miracles were all mage created magic.”
She nodded.
“Why don’t you think the Argoths are winning on Earth with Christianity?”
She shrugged, “I think House Argoth believes they can win on Earth with their religion, but I’m not so sure. At my
last look at the census of Earth’s religions, Christianity, including all its myriad forms, holds 33%, and though that is the largest religion, it is not a majority. Muslim have 23% of the world, so my House, though not winning, has kept the Argoth House from taking over completely.
“Surprisingly, Hindu takes up 14%, which is amazing since it was not a religion engineered specifically by one of the Houses, though I believe the Archimage Kali helped it along once it came into being. Buddhists, Jews, and many other small religions total to about 18%. Just to show you how successful these religions are, Atheists only have 2% of the population, though those who don’t claim to believe anyone, Atheist or Religions folk, I’m talking about the Agnostics, have 10%. There is clearly no winner. Look at it another way, even though Christianity holds 33%, it also means 67% of the world does not believe in House Argoth’s Christian religions.”
I thought about that and then said, “And what do YOU believe?”
She smiled, “I believe in God; I just don’t know whom it is yet.”
“So you are Agnostic?” I inquired.
“Sort of, I know there was once something greater than all of us, and they created this universe, and I believe someone will assume that power in the future, so I’m not completely Agnostic, for they claim to have no idea if God exists at all, though they don’t deny the possibility.”
“Aren’t the Houses the same thing as a religion? You all believe in your Archimage, and fight the other Houses in this Ascension Quest.”
She smiled, “Very good, but there are a few holes in your comparison. First off, not all Houses are out to destroy the rest, the Sivaeral, Friare and Albus Houses are three good examples. The Friares just don’t give a damn about the Ascension Quest, the Albus House is neutral, and, up until Morgain’s and Medrod’s interference, the Sivaerals attempted to keep the status quo.”