by Riley Storm
“Do you deny that your mission was to eliminate the rogue mage in Plymouth Falls?”
“I would counter, my Queen, that while that is the most common interpretation, those were not my exact orders.”
The Queen stared at him impassively. Kasperi swallowed, but forged ahead. You’ve come this far already, you may as well keep going now. It ain’t like you’re going to end up in more trouble.
“My orders were to find and eliminate the threat, which was believed to be a rogue mage, but could have been any number of other magical creatures.”
“What is your point, Kasperi? Clearly, she is a magic user. You saw it. Do you deny that?”
“I do not deny that she is a magic user, no.”
His Queen, the Queen, narrowed her eyes, the hardened blocks of jade trying to understand what he was up to. “But you deny something. Obviously, because she is here, and breathing. I am listening.”
“I deny that she is a threat, my Queen.” Kasperi whirled and stabbed a finger at the tiny, frail blonde, who had only just stopped shivering a few minutes ago. She was cloaked in a single blanket, the greatest concession he’d been able to wring from the guards. “Look. Does this look like a threat to you?”
The assembled Title Holders of Ursa looked as one at the young woman, who in turn tried to slip further under the blankets, eyes wide, hair still damp. She was terrified. If Kasperi opened up his senses, he could smell the fear from her. Whatever she was, she was no threat.
“She has no idea where she is, or what’s going on,” he continued, before anyone else could speak up.
“You may be right,” the Queen said slowly. “But I repeat my question. Why did you bring her here?”
“Because she’s not trying to hurt anyone. Hell, she doesn’t even know what’s going on inside her, or what she is. When I made mention of it, she scoffed at the idea. Like she’d never been told.”
“So?” Kvoss snapped, breaking his silence. “Your mission was to eliminate her. She tore up a biker bar, the latest of a dozen incidents over the past year that started far south of here. Used magic in public. That is punishable by death.”
“She is dealing with something she cannot control,” Kasperi snapped back, fighting down the seething hatred he was developing for his boss. “She is innocent. I am not in the business of killing innocents, and I hope that the rest of my House is as well. We are better than that. We are the Ursidae. Would you have us now slaughter anyone that doesn’t conform to our perfect little ideal of the world? Then we’re no worse than the bloody Canim!” he finished with a shout.
Voices clamored out around him as he compared the bear shifters to their notorious rivals and current enemies, the werewolves of High House Canis.
“How can you claim she is innocent?” Kvoss shouted over the cacophony of outrage from shifters in the audience. “You yourself admit she has practiced magic in public. Unlawfully. People have been hurt because of it. You know as well as I do, that it’s only a matter of time before she kills someone with it. Then she’ll get a taste for it. She’ll kill more. Until she becomes too strong for us to stop.”
The Queen finally raised a hand, and silence rang out through the room.
“Kasperi, how do you respond?”
“I respond,” he growled, facing Kvoss. “That she has no idea what magic is. I respond that she should be trained. Given a chance to show that she isn’t what you all have judged her as being. Show her what world she is now a part of, and let her decide if she wants to fight to stay a part of it or not. Give her a chance.”
Kvoss stood up from his stone seat. The other Title Holders turned to watch as he walked down the stairs to the center of the room, where the woman was seated in a chair. “She had a chance,” he stated, pulling a sword from his hip in a smooth, fluid motion. “It’s too late. The punishment is set.”
Kasperi moved without thinking. One hand reached up above his shoulder. The smooth leather grip of his blade came to his fingers, and suddenly it was an extension of his body. He flowed like liquid, interposing himself between Kvoss and the woman, blade crashing against blade as he stopped the killing stroke from happening.
Kvoss’ eyes went wide, first with surprise, then with fury. “You dare?” he hissed.
What the fuck are you doing? What the fuck are you doing? What the fuck are you doing?
The question repeated over and over inside his head at a frantic pace as Kasperi tried to come up with an answer that would satisfy all parties involved.
“Move. Now,” Kvoss said icily. “If you don’t, you’re done with the Asps.”
And just like that, the decision was made for Kasperi, and he had his answer.
“If you and your gang do little more than go around killing innocents, then the Asps aren’t worthy of me,” he spat back, standing his ground confidently, knowing full well Kvoss didn’t have the skill to challenge him with the blade.
The Throne Room was balanced on the edge of his blade. Others had risen, hands to their waists, including the six bodyguards of the Queen’s Own who had moved to form a cordon between her and everyone else. The bystanders on all levels around the edge of the room were tensed, ready to spring into action. Kasperi had no idea if he had enough support to win or not, but this wasn’t what he wanted. The House was already divided. The last thing he wished to be doing was fostering further division.
It still boggled his mind that Kvoss would go this far, to try and kill her in front of all the Council and dozens of assembled shifters on the three-level viewing area surrounding three sides of the Throne Room. It was madness. Yes, he was the Assassin of the House, but this was unnecessary murder. His position was actively inciting the tension right now.
It’s not like Kvoss has been working toward unity in House Ursa lately. This is just more of the same.
“Kasperi.”
The Queen’s voice rang out strong and true, pulling all attention back to her with practiced ease.
“My Queen.” He didn’t move his blade. Neither did Kvoss.
“What would you have done about this situation? If we were to let the woman live, what next?”
Kasperi chewed his lip. He hadn’t thought this far ahead, truthfully. His main goal had been keeping her alive. After that? Shit.
“I’m listening,” the Queen said. “You are in no position to help. This isn’t your strong suit, despite your recently-discovered aptitude with magical artifacts. Nor will the Mage Council accept her for training; she is too old. They would kill her just to protect themselves from us.”
He was in a bind, and he knew it. There wasn’t much he could say, or do, to prevent them from killing her. Not unless he could come up with an idea, and soon. A damn good idea at that.
As the seconds ticked by and his Queen waited impatiently, Kasperi realized he had no answer. No magical way to solve the situation. They were going to kill her.
I can’t let that happen. It’s…wrong.
Kasperi couldn’t identify why. All he had was the fact she was innocent, that she didn’t deserve to die for something she just didn’t know about. She wasn’t using magic. The magic was using her. How could nobody else see that?
They can see. They just don’t care. Too many people hurt by magic lately. Too many dead.
Every muscle in his body screamed out that stepping aside was wrong. He had to do something. Now.
Inhaling deeply, Kasperi reached up with his other hand, preparing to draw his second sword, ignoring the gasps from the assembled crowd as they realized what he was doing. He was setting himself against his House. Against Kvoss. Against his Queen. For this woman.
It’s the right thing to do.
Kvoss tensed. The Queen’s Own readied their swords. The Asps in the far corner clutched their weapons and their artifacts.
Then a voice rang out.
“I’ll train them.”
5
She looked around wildly for the source of the voice as the rest of the crowd shifted uneasily.
Amber hadn’t been able to pick up on much. Too overwhelmed by everything that had happened in the past few hours, her brain wasn’t functioning at anywhere near one hundred percent.
There was one thing she did understand, though, and that was that she’d just been granted a lifeline. Someone had stood up and offered to help her understand what the hell was wrong with her. She silently pleaded for the Queen of this weird group of overly-muscular genetic freaks to allow it to happen. Anything that didn’t result in her dying by the sword had to be a good thing.
Standing, she tried to speak, to say that she wanted to go with the man who had offered to help her. Before she could utter a word, however, her protector glanced over at her and shook his head slightly, begging her to say nothing and be quiet.
“Is this acceptable to you, Kvoss?” the Queen asked once she’d regained control of the room with another lifting of her hand.
“No. We risk too much with this foolishness.”
Amber glared daggers at the man who wanted her dead so badly, thankful again that her protector was willing to stand up for her. This Kvoss was practically radiating hatred toward her. Amber wanted nothing more than to ask him what she had done to him, to make him hate her so much? She was fairly positive she’d never met the man before. It was certainly the first time she’d ever been around anyone by the title of Queen.
Where am I?
Nobody had been willing to tell her that, leaving her mostly in the dark whilst they argued amongst themselves about her future, as if she was nothing more than an inanimate object, and not a real person.
“Kasperi, do you accept this?”
Her protector—his name was Kasperi—nodded. “I do.”
“And you, miss?” The Queen directed her gaze at Amber. “Do you accept it?”
Amber stood straight, still clutching the blanket around her, and returned the look as strongly as she could. “Excuse me, ma’am,” she said politely. “But what, exactly, am I going to be trained in?”
A hooded figure seated up on the raised dais stood from his stone seat. Amber couldn’t make out much about him, except that he seemed older, perhaps even a little frailer, than many of the others in the room. His movements were a little slower, and there was just the barest hint of a hunch to his shoulders. Nothing about his face could be made out under the deep purple hood he wore, but she felt his aura almost immediately as he turned to face her. Something inside her reacted to it. This man was powerful, she knew it instinctively.
“Magic,” he said, his voice a near rasp.
Amber looked around the room, waiting for someone to laugh. Nobody moved. Most eyes were on the man, but a significant number were on her, waiting for her answer to the Queen’s question. Was she okay with this?
“Magic doesn’t exist,” she said slowly.
“Ha. Ha, ha, ha. Ha,” the man cackled. He took out a wooden stick perhaps three feet long from within the clutches of his robe. Whirling it twice, a length of green…stuff, emerged from the tip. The man gestured with his other hand, and it formed into the shape of a miniature bear. With a tap on the behind with the rod, the bear galloped around the room, until it headed right for her. It grew larger, and larger, until Amber looked around, panicked, backing away.
Just before the bear reached her, it exploded, and a green blizzard of flowers descended around her. They gathered on the floor, then began to spin, slowly at first, then faster and faster. Wind whipped at the blanket and Amber clutched it tighter. Then all at once, she was lifted from the floor, and pulled across the room. There was nothing between her and the floor except the whirling green flowers.
“What the hell is this?” she yelped as she was deposited at the feet of the man in the robe.
“Magic,” he intoned.
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “You don’t understand. I’m sick. I need to go.”
The Queen raised her hand, and the swirling green flowers disappeared in a flash.
“It is not sickness,” the woman said, coming over to her and giving her a hand up.
Amber nearly flew from the floor. The woman was much stronger than she looked, barely exerting any effort to help her up. Who were these people?
“You are a mage,” the Queen continued. “Or you will be, with training.”
“Mage.” Amber repeated the unfamiliar word. She’d heard it in stories and television, but this was real life. Wasn’t it?
“A magic user.”
“You’re insane.” The words just sort of slipped out.
The irate one, Kvoss, barked with anger and advanced on her, but her protector once again slipped between them, lifting his blades to block the man’s advance.
Okay, maybe insulting them isn’t the right thing to do. Try humoring them. Pretend you believe what they’re saying. That you’re going to go along with it. Buy yourself time to figure out a way out of here.
“Come on,” the man in the hood said, grabbing her wrist and dragging her after him. He walked past the angry Kvoss, keeping himself between the two, and snatching up Kasperi as well. Then he snapped a word, and a door opened in front of them. A rip, more like it.
Amber tried to back away, but the man was strong despite his somewhat wizened body, and she could no more escape than a fly from a spider’s web. The man dragged the three of them through the opening, and at once they were in a different room.
She fell to the floor, her stomach roiling at the abrupt transition. “What the fuck was that?’ she gasped, thankful that—for once—there was nothing in her stomach to bring back up, even as it tried hard to prove her wrong.
“That was a rent,” the man said. “A magic portal, basically. It makes travel easy for those of us with the power, like you and I.”
“Who the hell are you?” she snapped, her stomach somewhat back under control. “All of you? Who the fuck are you people, and why do you think you can just determine my fate?”
The old man laughed at the word fate. Her guardian ignored her, turning to speak to the man in the robes.
“Korred, what the hell did you mean by train us both?”
“In magic,” the man, Korred, said, filing that away, snapping at her protector. “Did I fucking stutter?”
“I’m not a magic user though. Not naturally, like you are.”
Korred’s head moved in a slight circle, and Amber realized he was rolling his eyes.
“You’re an idiot then, Kasperi. Nobody without natural talent can use artifacts as easily and quickly as you. The magic is in there, but it’s locked away, somehow. I don’t understand how it hasn’t manifested, but you are a mage-level strength as well.” He pointed at Amber. “Not as strong as her, I’d hazard, but still strong.”
Anger began to slip through Amber’s defenses, like a dam that was slowly cracking. The more it pushed through, the weaker her barrier grew. It was only a matter of time before she lost control.
Standing up, she pushed her way between the two of them, gathering their attention just as the dam gave way. “I want some answers now,” she snarled, pushing her hands out wide, one at either of them, palm up.
The old man stared at her, cocking his head to the side. Kasperi, by contrast, leaned back, eyes going wide.
“Interesting,” Korred said, observing her through the depths of his hood. “You do know how to use it.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” she snapped.
The mage didn’t answer. He just waved a hand in front of her, and as he did, the air grew thicker, more opaque, until it reflected an image of her back to Amber. She gasped. Her eyes were fiery orange-red, as was her hair! The end of her hand glowed with some sort of energy. Amber whipped them around to stare, to see with her own two eyes, the light in her palms.
“What are you doing to me?” she shrieked, shaking her hands and head, trying to put the strange energy out. Orange flickered past her vision as her hair flew everywhere, it was so long.
Her hands grew brighter red, and she stuck them into her armp
its in desperation, hoping to keep it contained. It was growing harder to breathe as visions of herself in that mirror image played through her head over and over again. Who was the person staring back at her? It looked like Amber, but those eyes…those horrible, horrible eyes. They yawned with darkness, turning her into someone else. Something else.
The room began to grow dim and spots appeared in her vision. She fell to her knees, wavering unsteadily, desperately trying to breathe, to suck in air. Her body wouldn’t respond, it was locked up with panic and terror. The emotion was growing, and the power returned. Amber yanked her hands from her armpits, staring as the glow began to encompass her fingers and reach for her wrist.
“What did you do to me?” she screamed with the last of her oxygen, just as something cool and solid settled around her neck.
There was a distinct click, and then suddenly the power was gone. Amber fell to her side, chest heaving as it labored to bring in frantically-needed air. The room still spun, and she fell onto her side, but she was breathing again, and that was what mattered most.
“What is this?” she asked, reaching up tentatively to feel the band around her neck. It was cool, solid to the touch. Metal of some sort, with enough weight to it that it wasn’t light, but not quite uncomfortable either.
“It’s a training aid,” the old man said calmly. “Until you learn how to control the power, it will do it for you, ensuring there are no unnecessary…outbursts.”
She tapped it wryly. “Why do I get the impression this isn’t actually a training aid?”
The man laughed softly. “Because it’s not. We use it to keep mages imprisoned when we need to question them, or punish them. But it’s purpose will work just as well for you.”
Reaching up behind her, Amber felt the lock holding it closed around her. “I’m sure it will,” she said softly, still fearful for her life, but happy to know she didn’t have to worry about losing control of the darkness inside her again, even if she had to wear the collar at all times to make it so.
Some things were worth it. She hadn’t felt this relieved since before her first incident.