Ascendant

by Craig Alanson

  "And ours." Mwazo added in a near whisper. "Somehow, they control our fates."

  "A boy and a girl?" Shomas scoffed. He rose from the chair to poke at the fire, pushing a log into a pile of glowing coals. "I mean no offense, Mwazo, but Koren is merely a boy, and Ariana a girl. They may very well become immensely powerful some day, but right now, Koren is mucking out stalls in the stables, and Ariana can't do anything without asking permission from her mother. A mother who says no to almost everything. Cecil, you are telling me these two children control my fate?"

  "No, Shomas," Mwazo pointed to the cards, "that is what the spirits tell us. The spirits see this world as it truly is, not this illusion," he tapped the wooden table with a finger, "that we perceive as real. You do control your own fate, what the spirits are telling us is that, whatever you do, what we all do, ultimately does not matter. Koren and Ariana will decide the fate of this world. We only matter in how we affect them."

  Shomas turned to Paedris in frustration. "You believe this nonsense?"

  Paedris nodded gravely. "I do."

  "I do, also." Wing added. She stood and began to pace in front of the fire. "More importantly, our enemy will. Our enemy has been as blind as we were to the future. Until a dozen years ago, when our ability to foresee the future began to fade, our enemy was content to bide its time, to chip away at our defenses, to be patient, for the enemy saw the same inevitable future we saw; we would be defeated, the barriers between this world and the underworld would be sundered, and demons would consume us. The demon is unspeakably ancient, it can wait, time is nothing to it."

  She took a breath, and looked up into the faces of her fellow wizards. "When the future became unclear, the demon grew afraid for the first time, for its victory was no longer certain, and it didn't know why. It could no longer wait, so it has been on the attack for a decade. King Adric died not because the enemy is bold and confident, but because the enemy is fearful. Now, we see our fates are determined by a wizard and a queen. Our enemy will see the same, if it has not already."

  Paedris nodded, his face grim. "Cecil, what has happened? Before, the fortune cards were blank. Now, they clearly show the images of lightning bolt and crown. What has changed?"

  Paedris expected Lord Mwazo to ponder that question a while before answering, perhaps take a sip of wine while he considered the matter. Instead, he answered right away "Because the spirits have now seen the futures of Ariana and Koren."

  "No one ever cast Ariana's fortune before today?" Wing asked, surprised.

  Paedris shrugged. "Her mother has always forbidden it, that is why we needed to manipulate Ariana into requesting Cecil into casting her fortune. Without her mother knowing about it. Cecil, I didn't understand your answer," Paedris exchanged a puzzled look with Shomas, "this is not my area of expertise," he admitted.

  "The spirits could not tell anyone's fortune before, because the spirits did not know anyone's future. We had not asked the right questions." Mwazo attempted to explain. "The spirits only look into the future when we ask them to; the future of this world is of no interest to them otherwise. Then, we asked the spirits to look into Koren, and then Ariana's futures, and the spirits now know that everyone's fate is tied to Ariana and Koren-"

  "The enemy knows this also?" Shomas asked with great alarm.

  "No, no, the enemy will only see what we have seen; a lightning bolt and a crown. The enemy cannot cast the fortunes of Ariana and Koren without their blood. I expect the enemy will assume the wizard is you, Paedris, and that the crown belongs to Carlana. There is no reason for the enemy to think of a young servant boy, and a girl who has not yet come of age."

  "Paedris, you and Carlana will be in great danger." Wing said, her voice half choked with concern.

  "I see no change there," Paedris said, "the enemy has long sought my death, and the Regent is as securely protected as she can be. For Koren, and for Ariana, their apparent unimportance is their best defense for now. No, I don't see that anything has changed there. Except, that I expect our enemy to grow more desperate to strike at us, to end this war soon, by force, before the future escapes its grasp. Now, Lord Mwazo, there is one final card to cast. You know the card I speak of."

  Mwazo's hands trembled when he reached for the deck of cards. "Yes," he spoke in a harsh whisper. "Do you think this is wise, Paedris? If I ask this question of the spirits, we will know, and the spirits will know. And the enemy will know also, for the enemy will ask the spirits the same question."

  "Cecil, we must know. We have waited so long. We must know if this is the path forward, if this is our fate, our fortune, if the destiny of the world rests in the hands or two people so young, so unready."

  Mwazo placed the two wild cards on the table, closed his eyes, muttered an incantation, and selected a card from the middle of the deck his fingers were so unsteady he almost dropped the card on the floor. In the tense silence, the sound of the card hitting the table made Shomas jump.

  Mwazo took in a sharp breath.

  Paedris bent over the table to look at the card and he, too, gasped. "Ascendant. Ascendant!" The card displayed a raging fire, reaching to the heavens. "Their power is ascendant."

  "They are so young," Madame Chu said in a whisper. "We must protect them until they can protect themselves-"

  There was a sound of feet pounding on the stairs, and the wizards became silent as Koren poked his head in the doorway. He had been walking back from visiting Ariana when he saw Cully, who told him about the fortune-telling. And showed Koren the shiny silver coin he'd been paid. "Sirs? Madam? Can I do anything for you?" For some reason, Koren felt guilty to be wearing the fine clothes he used for visiting the palace, when he was supposed to be serving the wizards. He glanced around the room in dismay to see how cluttered it was. It had been clean that very morning, he had gotten out of bed early to scrub that very room until the floors shined, and now every flat surface was piled high with books, scrolls, empty cups and dishes, glasses, jars and crocks of roots, herbs and potions! He didn't need a magical card to foresee his immediate future; he would be up late, and getting up early, to clean again.

  "Koren, hello." Paedris said, with a quick guilty look of his own, and averted his eyes to look at the fireplace.

  Uh oh, Koren thought, what have they been up to while I was gone?

  "Koren, come in, boy." Shomas called out, trying to suppress his grumpiness. He took a swig of beer from his mug, beer that had grown warm, and flat, and so Shomas made a sour face. In his fine clothes, clothes which were at odds with his current station in life as a servant boy, Koren looked to be play-acting. Shomas found it difficult to believe this good-natured, still fairly ignorant, innocent and clueless boy could somehow determine the fate of the entire world. "Did you, uh, have fun with the princess?" A sharp look from Paedris and the sudden redness of Koren's cheeks made Shomas hastily add "Mwazo says you two were looking at maps of the eastern border?"

  "Oh, yes sir, her mother has been wishing the princess," he avoided calling her Ariana as that would seem far too familiar, "to learn about the Indus Empire. Because their new ambassador is here, I suppose." Koren noted that all four of the wizards appeared uncomfortable, he suspected they had been talking about him. Eager to get away, he began picking up dirty dishes. The large tankard which held beer was almost empty, and the beer at the bottom smelled stale. "Could I get you a fresh tankard of beer, sir," he asked Shomas, "and see if the kitchens have something to snack on, as it is hours before suppertime? Sometimes the kitchens have hot rolls, or salty pretzels."

  "Ooh!" Shomas clapped his hands. "Yes, more beer, please."

  To Koren's surprise, Mwazo rose from his chair and added dishes to the pile in Koren's arms. "I would dearly love a fresh hot pretzel, and I think, as Shomas seems so fond of it, I would try some of this beer."

  Koren bowed as he backed out of the room, laden with dirty dishes. He could see that somehow, he needed to convince the royal kitchens to bake pretzels, whether they liked it or not.<
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  Shomas left three days later, while Madam Chu and Lord Mwazo stayed in the castle for another week, then reluctantly had to leave, before the coming winter snows trapped them away from their homes. Koren was sorry to see them go, especially Lord Mwazo. The tall, thin wizard had become positively friendly, insisting that Koren put aside his chores to study books with him; learning about history, and, to Koren’s surprise, wizardry. Mwazo did not, of course, show Koren how to cast spells, or create magical potions, instead they talked about the nature of light and dark magic, the history of wizards, and the rules that all good wizards had to live by. That seemed to be very important; Mwazo was very concerned that Koren learn about the heavy responsibilities of wizards, although Koren could not understand why a mere servant had to care about such things. Afternoons were spent in the cramped chamber Mwazo used as a study, reading books or scrolls in front of a warm fireplace, with hot tea and plenty of snacks to eat. Koren was sorry to see Mwazo leave, for it meant Koren went back to the drudgery of chores as the wizard’s servant.

  "Hey, Koren, ain't seen much of you the past fortnight." Cully said as he sidled up next to Koren in the royal kitchens, trying to squeeze in near the ovens, where it was warm. It was a raw, gray, nasty day outside, with rain, sleet, and freezing rain, thoroughly miserable weather to be out in. So Koren, and Cully, and many other servants, were taking any excuse not to be outside unless they had to. Koren had fed and brushed Thunderbolt, but the great horse had stuck his nose outside the stables, sniffed the damp, cold air, and walked back to his warm, dry stall. Having been warned about the coming weather by the wizard the previous day, Koren had plenty of firewood in the tower, so he didn't need to go outside to keep the stoves hot.

  "I've been busy." Koren said with a yawn. He was sleepy, both from work and from the combination of being outside on the walk back from the stables, with wet clothes, and now being lulled toward sleep by the over-warm air in the kitchens. "All those wizards kept me hopping."

  "What were they doing?" Cully asked curiously.

  "Talking, and eating a lot, and making a mess. I don't know why the other three came here, so late in the year, Paed-, uh, Lord Salva didn't tell me." Koren yawned again, he couldn't help it. "He went back to bed after breakfast this morning, the wizard, I mean. Said this weather wasn't fit for man nor beast."

  "Sounds like you need coffee, to keep you awake." Cully observed, trying to keep from yawning himself. Yawning was contagious, he thought.

  "Never tried it." Koren admitted. "It smells good, when I grind the beans. What does it taste like?"

  Cully shrugged. "It's bitter, if you drink it black. Put some cream in, and sugar, and it's good. You never tried it? But you brew it every morning for the wizard!"

  "So?"

  "So, you never took a sip yourself?"

  Koren was surprised. "That's Lord Salva's coffee. He has the beans brought in from his homeland twice a year, it's expensive."

  "Yeah, but, come on, you never took a little sip? The wizard wouldn't notice."

  Koren wasn't sure about that. Wizards had ways of knowing things. And that didn't matter. Koren owed the roof over his head, and the food in his belly, to the wizard. He shook his head. "That would be stealing."

  "Steal-" Cully stopped, when he realized Koren wasn't joking.

  "You don't work for a wizard, Cully. He could turn me into a frog, if he thought I was stealing from him. This isn't a time of year to be without a roof over your head."

  One especially dreary winter day, when the cold rain dripping down the gray stone walls of the tower had become such a commonplace sound that people only paid attention when it stopped for a blessed moment, Paedris put down his spoon, and pushed away the bowl with a sigh.

  “Is the food bad, Lord Salva?” Koren asked. The cooks in the royal kitchens said they were beginning to run out of fresh fruits and vegetables as the Winter dragged on, and the food had been less tasty recently.

  “No, no, it’s fine, I suppose. All this rain has me a bit out of sorts.” Paedris looked out the window and shivered. The sky had been dropping a sloppy mix of snow and rain for the last two weeks, and everyone in the castle was heartily sick of it. “Somedays, I very much miss my homeland, it’s warmer than here in the winter. Although, of course, that means it can be uncomfortably hot in the summer time.” Paedris picked up a crust of bread and chewed it slowly. “And food there is better. All the cooks here know is this,” Paedris made a sour face as he dipped a crust of bread into the gravy, then pushed his plate aside, “bland food of the north.”

  “Can I get you anything else, sir?”

  “No, no, Koren, I’m just an old man thinking wistfully about the past. And waiting for this dreary winter to end. It seems like this winter will never end. Like the war, I’m afraid.”

  “Will the war end soon, sir?”

  “What? This war has been going on for-” Paedris looked at Koren sharply. “Come here, sit down. We haven’t talked about the war, now is a good time. What do you know of our enemy?”

  “Uh.” Koren thought about the stories he’d heard, likely mostly lies and exaggerations. People told children stories about Acedor to scare them.

  “Let me guess,” Paedris said with a dry humor, “you heard that if you were bad, Draylock would come on his terrible dragon, and take you away?”

  “Yes, sir, something like that.”

  “Lord Draylock is a wizard named Mertis, he is a younger son of Duke Draylock of Savane province, in Acedor. Twin son, his brother was born a few minutes earlier, and so Mertis felt he had been cheated of his inheritance. Even though Mertis soon showed he had the power of a wizard, still he resented his brother, who would become Duke. Mertis grew jealous of other wizards in the court of Acedor, and went away for many years, it was later learned he had been studying dark magic. When he returned, he clouded the mind of the king, whispering of secret enemies, and under his spell, the king grew feeble and paranoid, he would not listen to the Wizards’ Council. Mertis arranged to become the king’s chancellor, then he became the real power in Acedor. He made plans to conquer other lands, but the Wizards’ Council and several of the dukes had grown fearful of Mertis, and rebelled. The war was terrible, wizard against wizard, province against province. And brother against brother, for Mertis’ own brother, by then the Duke of Draylock, had joined the rebellion.”

  “Why didn’t all the Dukes rebel?”

  “Because Mertis had cast spells on many of the dukes, so they were slaves to his will, but they didn’t realize they were slaves. That is the cleverness of such an evil spell,” Paedris spat out the words as if they made a sour taste in his mouth, “it makes the victims believe they are doing what they wanted in the first place. They actually believed Mertis was protecting the rightful king, and that Mertis’ brother was conspiring against Acedor. In the battle, Mertis killed his elder brother, and declared himself Lord Draylock. After he captured Savane province and subdued his brother’s remaining army, he turned and struck at his enemies, who had seized the royal castle, with the last of the Wizards’ Council. They had hoped to restore the king to health and break the spell, but Mertis was too clever for them. When they tried to break the spell, the king died, and they lost all hope. Most of the wizards stayed behind to fight Mertis, while the rebel army retreated to the east beyond the border of Acedor, carrying the Cornerstone with them. Those rebels founded Tarador, and continued their fight to this day. Mertis let them go, for he had much to do to consolidate his control, and fighting the Wizards’ Council drained his strength for many years.”

  “He defeated the Wizards’ Council by himself? Dark magic is more powerful than good magic?”

  “No!” Paedris almost shouted the answer. The power of dark magic was a subject that angered Paedris. “No, quite the opposite, Koren. Tell me, does it take more effort to plow a field, plant seeds and raise a field of corn, or to burn that field?”

  Koren thought for a moment, sure this must be a trick question. “To bur
n a field takes no effort,” he answered slowly, “once you get a fire started. Corn plants won’t burn much if they're green, they need to be-“

  “Yes, yes. My point is, it is so much easier to destroy, than to build. Dark magic is used only to destroy, it cannot create anything, it lack the strength to create, or to heal, or to build. Mertis didn’t defeat the Wizards’ Council by himself, he had an army behind him, and enough soldiers with swords, spears and arrows can overwhelm any wizard. And Mertis didn’t care how many soldier’s lives he wasted to destroy the Wizards’ Council, while the other wizards wanted as little blood shed as possible. Remember this, Koren, if you are ever faced with the enemy; know that many of their officers are under spells, and their will is not their own. They are slaves to Mertis, you should not hate them, you should pity them. The human soldiers of Acedor have their minds poisoned against us since the day they are born, they know only hatred, cruelty and fear. And the orcs, well, they needed no magical spells to join forces with Mertis.”

  “This Mertis is Draylock? And he’s real?” Koren had always thought it was only a story, that there was no real Draylock. “Not the same Lord Draylock, he can't be, can he? Didn’t this all happen a very long time ago?”

  The wizard looked out the window for a long time, lost in thought. When he spoke, his voice was low and sounded as if he were far away. “The same. Mertis seized power in Acedor almost one thousand, seven hundred years ago now. And he is still alive, his body a mere husk by now, his life sustained through the power of dark magic, draining the life from young slaves, killing them to keep himself attached to this world by a thin cord. By now, there is nothing left of Mertis the man, for one of the great dangers of using dark magic is that the demons of the spirit world cannot be controlled for long. When Mertis chose to use dark magic, without knowing the risks, he himself became slave to a demon of the underworld. He cracked open a sliver of a gate, through which demons are trying to enter our world. That is what I fight against. If Tarador is defeated, the demons will grow so strong, they will tear asunder the borders between the spirit world and our world, and our world will descend into darkness, forever."