by Billy Wong
An ancient delegate with a shaven head, who somewhat surprised Julianna when she turned out to have a female voice, said, "That does sound reasonable. Perhaps we should pause our research involving magic use, at least until the safety of it can be determined."
"What does the council think?" Gilbert asked. "Do the rest of you agree with Madam Poirier?" Words of assent went up around the room, outnumbering the voices in disagreement. Probably the fear of conflict had something to do with their lack of resistance too. Even with only Kureau backing them, Aerilea still possessed significantly more military power than Ostuh, and they knew her own reputation well. She'd never been overly reluctant to coerce others' cooperation by force, if she had strong enough feelings on the issue. "All right, fine. We'll assign some of our best to investigate this, and report to us and you what they learn. Is that acceptable?"
"It's just what I asked for. On another topic, is Ostuh ready to return to its longstanding arrangement with Aerilea?" She put on a cool tone. "I sense it was a somewhat rash decision to forsake our patronage, and one you might regret especially with me being back. If you're attacked for example, especially now that your magical weapon experiments are to be stalled, who will come to your aid? If you wish to be friends again, we won't hold the past against you and will happily accept you back into the fold."
Mumbling filled the air as the council debated among themselves, much less one-sidedly than before their concession to look into the decrease of magical energy. "We'll probably have to put that to a formal vote," Gilbert said.
"That's fine, I wouldn't expect for such a vital decision to be rushed. We will patiently await word from you. Until then, Premier, I thank you for hearing us. One other favor... can you write me a note certifying that I am indeed the Princess Julianna of Aerilea? It might save us some trouble confirming my identity in the future."
#
"That didn't go so badly," Keith said while they rode away from the city of innovation, "other than them not immediately falling back in line. But I wager if we get the other nations on the same page, they won't hold out for long. Where to next then great princess, Severil or Plasbias?"
"Severil's closer, aside from that other matter. So we'll go there first."
"By the way, is your body okay? Those hits you took back there would've hurt even your old self."
She waved a dismissive hand. "They would have mildly hurt me. They were fairly painful, but I'm fine. I'm good at rolling with the blows."
On their way west, they encountered monsters a couple more times, but dispatched them easily as before. "So when we have our long delayed wedding," Keith asked while they crossed a windswept plain of tall grass, "what do you plan on wearing? A traditional dress, some kind of formal outfit that conveys authority, or just your armor?"
"I think I'll stick with the armor, polished extra bright." She looked down at herself, and marveled even now at the skill of the armorer to craft such a suit perfectly contoured to her body. "It's more majestic in my view than any cloth outfit."
"What color will you paint your lips and nails?"
"Paint myself? I never do that."
Keith smiled. "Yeah, but it's a special occasion so I thought you might try something different." He touched the back of her hand. "It's fine if you don't, though. Your little hands and lips are beautiful either way."
"If I do paint them, I don't know... silver to match my armor?"
"Why not gold, like the magical energy you filled the sky with at the hour of your great triumph?"
It didn't give her the most pleasure to recall trying to keep going when she'd only been a head, an arm and part of a torso, but she brushed the memory aside after a passing chill. "Maybe gold. I'll think about it."
"What kind of ceremony should we have, a big public affair or one in private?"
"You'll probably want me to make all the aesthetic decisions, so that one I will leave to you since you should decide something."
They eventually made it to Severil, a hilly land sparsely populated yet the most formidable in war next to Aerilea among the five nations. Every male citizen was required to serve in the military for several years, and many women served or trained as well. When they reached the imposing clifftop fortress where Severil's monarch dwelt, however, a massive gatekeeper in a horned helm informed them Queen Becca was not present. Keith asked where she had gone to be told she was out hunting at the Divine Crater, a wound in the earth where a fallen star said to be a wayward weapon of the gods had once landed.
"Should we wait for her?" he asked Julianna.
"The Divine Crater isn't that far away, and we don't know how long she'll take. Let's just go there, it'll be a magnificent sight anyway."
They traveled a day north to the parched-looking bowl nearly a mile wide to behold an alarming scene. Becca, the voluptuous young queen of Severil in her mid twenties wearing a leather dress, rode a horse across the center of the crater. Over a score of beasts like musclebound dogs with boar-like heads chased after her. The majority were roughly wolf sized, but one would have dwarfed most any ox. Becca twisted around in her saddle and shot three arrows at once from her bow, dropping the two small creatures closest behind. Others jumped over them and gained ground on her. She flipped backward off her steed, loosing another spread of five arrows at the peak of her arc. Three more monsters went down while she landed on the big one's back, causing it to squeal and buck wildly in rage. She kept her seat without visible difficulty and continued to shoot, killing a few more dog-boars before her ride tried to dislodge her by ramming into a tree. Becca leapt off at the last moment, landing atop a thick limb of another nearby tree while the giant crashed through the trunk to lie stunned. She whistled for her mount to return to her, then spotted Julianna and Keith coming down into the crater.
"This is what passes for hunting for her?" Keith said quietly.
Julianna shouted, "What are you doing taking on so many alone, you idiot? You're going to get yourself killed!"
Becca slew more beasts with her arrows. As the big one recovered and charged the second tree, she jumped off onto her passing steed and put a shaft into the eye of a small one which sprang at the horse's rear. "Me get killed? I'm the invincible sun queen of Severil... wait, I know Keith, but who the hell are you?"
"Recognize the spear, and the armor?"
She rode the horse a short distance away, wheeled around and nocked more arrows while glancing towards Julianna with one eye. After a second, her lips parted in surprise. "Old lady?! I don't know how you're back, but I can't say I'm that shocked."
"Old? I'm thirty-five. And look younger..." Though at least she seemed to accept her identity readily enough.
"I did notice," Becca said with a slight eye roll. "And where are your scars, are you that vain?"
"Erm..."
Keith rode through the pack of dog-boars from the side, hacking them down with his massive blade. "Will you two save it for after we finish off the monsters?"
"Hey, don't steal my kills!" Becca increased her rate of fire, trying to claim as many as she could before he got to them. She rode directly into the thick of the pack and looked for a moment to be at risk of being killed, but dodged the lunges of the creatures or shot them down before they touched her without much trouble.
She seemed immature, but Julianna remembered when years ago before the war, she had fought an inconclusive duel with King Galen that lasted an hour. There was something to be said for the dedication it took to become so good so early, though Becca seemed a tad too in love with her image as a supreme warrior. Even Julianna followed tradition in appointing a High Knight as her champion, though she fought more than a fair share of her battles herself, while Becca acted as her own. It might be amusing to mess with the proud youngster a bit. She spurred her mount towards the large dog-boar, which pawed at an arrow lodged in its snout after Becca had dodged its rush and shot it. It turned towards her while she hopped up to stand on her horse.
"Princess," Becca began, "wha
t are you-"
She leapt off with a diving kick, crushing the beast's cranium into the ground. It wobbled to its feet, tried to shake its head clear. Becca interrupted whatever she was doing to put a shaft into its ribs, but it showed no sign of noticing. It pounced and Julianna fell back, thrusting up. She pierced its throat as it flew over her, then the pole was ripped from her hands. She rose to find the monster kicking weakly on its back, walked over and twisted the spear in its neck. Blood jetted as she wrenched it out, and it soon stilled.
"Damn you, old lady!" Becca griped while Keith chopped up the handful of smaller creatures that remained. "I was enjoying myself."
A short time later, they had finished off the dog-boars and stood facing each other. "Why would you have your country break away from Aerilea?" Julianna asked. "I thought we were friends?"
With haughtily crossed arms, Becca replied, "I suppose we were a bit. It's your useless son who gets on my nerves. I just asked him to let me know about any significant monster migration from his domain—a simple request, right? But somehow he forgot or screwed up the communication or something, and a huge herd of these boar... dog things crossed the border from Aerilea proper without warning. My men scattered them, but due to lack of preparation many escaped and we're still hunting them down to this day, as I was doing. So since many of my people already resented your family for placing yourselves above other royals just for being magically talented and denounced your boy as a meritless ruler, I decided to declare our independence both out of annoyance and to placate them."
While Julianna didn't enjoy talk of Julian being useless and without merit, he was newer to his position and she could understand why his missteps might anger others. "Do you think I have no merit outside magical ability?" she asked.
"No."
"Then since I'm back—though I'm uncertain if I'll retake the throne, I'll at least provide strong help with Julian's duties until he comes into his own—will you reconsider breaking our alliance? It seems like an overreaction to end a relationship that has lasted a thousand years, over the neophyte mistakes of one young monarch."
Becca touched her chin in thought. "You yourself were highly regarded among my people, despite their history of questioning Aerilea's authority. I suppose if you've returned, it might not be too hard for them to accept being under your banner again. And sorry about bad mouthing your son before. I know firsthand it isn't easy to take up the mantle of a parent so soon."
She smiled. "So we're allies again?" Becca nodded. "Good. You have some wisdom in you for a young one after all."
"I hear your son is pretty good at those holy ritual dances of yours. I would've expected them to look strange being done by a man, but I guess I'll have to see it for myself."
"Eh, they've been done by plenty of my male ancestors in the past."
Becca shrugged. "Even you looked odd enough performing them. Maybe it's just that I don't see much purpose in doing them, though."
Julianna wasn't sure how much purpose the public dances Aerilean rulers did in tribute to the continent's guardian spirits served either. They certainly hadn't seemed to help their luck much lately, with respect to either the outbreak of war or decline of magic. Still, they were tradition and didn't do any harm either, even comforting the populace regardless of their effectiveness, so Julianna and now Julian carried on with them. "Maybe they'll be more effective now since the current Saint Prince is actually a virgin... I think."
"By the way, we should fight sometime. You may have defeated Galen, but it's not like I couldn't have if I had more time. You're certainly more powerful overall with your magic, yet it would be interesting to see which ruler's martial skills are truly the greatest."
"It would be unseemly for the princess of Aerilea to battle one of her vassal monarchs for no good reason." Julianna started away towards her horse. "But since that question interests me too, maybe we could do it in private sometime."
#
As they left Becca to collect her trophies in the crater, Keith said, "She's a good girl all in all. This is going rather smoothly."
Julianna frowned. "I'm not looking forward to Plasbias, though. Just thinking of that man makes my skin crawl."
"I'm surprised he broke away at all. He hasn't given any reason for it, so maybe he just did it to signify his heartbreak at your loss."
"Ugh! Mad king indeed... I just hope he won't make any unreasonable demands in exchange for rejoining Aerilea."
Keith scowled. "If only he wasn't a king, I'd hand him a beating if he says anything like that."
"Heh, I'm perfectly capable of handling myself."
He nudged his horse closer to hers and touched her hand. Looking at her small fingers she sometimes wondered herself how she could be so strong, magic or not, but she didn't resent the pain and hardship associated with the responsibilities that came with being powerful. Being blessed with such gifts, she should do her utmost to live up to them. "I'm tempted to question again why you even bother having a High Knight when you're as good at fighting as me, instead of just being your own like Becca. But I guess looking after all of Aerilea with its complex politics is different from reigning only over little Severil."
"Or maybe I just gave you the title out of pity so you could be recognized for your skills." She grinned. "I'm kidding, of course. You do plenty of things for me besides fight duels, so even if I don't need a 'champion' in that sense having you around makes life much easier."
They journeyed towards Plasbias, the fertile southwest land ruled by fickle King Rudolph. Though it was mostly stable, thanks in large part to his advisors keeping him in check, many often wondered if it might fall into chaos at a moment's notice. Following Aerilea's lead helped before, but now concerns must be at an all time high. Julianna had sometimes wondered if its residents might not even mind the king being deposed that much, but she couldn't do it for fear of losing the other nations' trust. Perhaps if Plasbias stayed unaligned with Aerilea, it might not be that much of a bad thing... but no, that was the same kind of shortsighted logic she had chastised Becca for, and fostering cooperation between the five nations for their mutual benefit took priority over her personal distaste for one man.
After initially laying eyes on Plasbias' rich fields, they still had to walk on a long time as the royal mansion lay at the very fringe of the country. They eventually spotted it on its "island" connected to the main land mass by a narrow bridge of rock. That they made their home away from any city or populated area also spoke to Plasbian rulers' history of eccentricity, even if Rudolph himself hadn't put it there. Though Julianna knew other realms existed far below their continent which floated in the sky, it felt like they stood at the edge of the world being able to look out past where the ground ended and see empty air. It made her head light just to think about it, and she clutched it.
"Julianna, are you alright?" Keith asked.
"I'm fine. It's just a little overwhelming, that's all."
"The woman who survived—well, sort of—getting blown into a one-armed torso scared of heights?"
"I am not scared. It's more awe. To think there's some force that could hold all this up here, whatever it is... the world is a marvelous place."
He mussed her hair, making her laugh. "I do love it when you talk like that. Makes me feel like we're young again."
They started over the thin rock bridge. "Imagine if somebody crossing this had a secret grudge against their companion," she said. "They could easily grab them by surprise and throw them off, and no one would be the wiser."
"Maybe I'll throw you off and usurp the kingdom."
"That's not funny."
He chuckled. "So she is scared."
"Am not! Besides, that wouldn't work anyway since I can fly, waste of magical energy aside."
They reached the doorstep of the mansion. Though large, the grandiose building didn't look particularly defensible, nor did they see any guards outside. For a practical-minded person like Julianna, such a setup for royalty seemed awfu
lly negligent. If something bad did happen to Rudolph, it would likely be his own failing. She knocked on the thick doors and waited. A minute passed with no response, and she knocked again. "What kind of king doesn't even post anyone to watch out for visitors?" she muttered.
Keith sighed. "We knew it would be like this."
"Still, doesn't mean I can't comment on it." After a few more minutes, she kicked the door. There was a crack, and she put a hand to her mouth. "I think I might have done it too hard."
It seemed she finally got somebody's attention though, as a lazy-eyed man in his forties wearing a bathrobe opened one side of the double doors. Julianna recognized him right away, but the crown resting crookedly atop his messy curls still made her blink at the absurdity of it. "You're seriously going to answer the door like that not even knowing who it is? Where are your servants?"
"I sent them away not wanting them to share my misery at the loss of my beloved Julianna." What the..? His obsession with her sure was unhealthy. King Rudolph did a double take. "But my oh my, you are quite the lovely young one yourself. Even your taste in armor and weapons is exquisite."
"If you've hiding out here alone, who's been running the country? And for three years?"
"I think perhaps we should let His Majesty get a little more prepared before we talk in earnest," Keith said.
Rudolph gave a bashful chuckle. "Indeed, I fear I am not at my most presentable. Please give me a moment to gather myself while you wait in the entrance hall, my youthful beauty."
Julianna sat with Keith on a bench in the mansion's lobby, feeling light with the surrealness of it. It wasn't her first time interacting with the mad king, but having not seen him in more than three years she'd forgotten how awkward dealing with him was. "So he hasn't seen to his duties for this whole time I've been gone?" she asked. "You must've known about this, what has been going on?"
"I believe his advisors, such as Duke Malin and his High Knight Sir Roland, have been taking care of the country's affairs while he hides in mourning of your death."