The Once King

by Rachel Aaron

  When the sun finally peeked over the horizon, its golden light fell upon a circle of six hexagonal stone pillars, each the size of a school bus. Outside the ring, the air was full of the noise of the grasslands: crying birds, whistling wind, the lap of the remaining lake water, the distant yells of the jubatus who were just now finishing up the packing of Windy Lake’s yurts. But inside the circle of stones, all of that stopped, leaving only silence.

  At first, James had thought the lack of sound meant something was wrong with the ritual he and Gray Fang had designed, but there was nothing wrong. It was the stone itself. Rock that had lived for so long in such a deep, primal place exuded quiet like fire radiated heat. Standing in their shadows, even the rattle of the carts leaving for Red Canyon was quashed beneath the heavy, oppressive quiet of the deep, dark bedrock. James was appreciating the rare stillness when he saw Ar’Bati marching toward him.

  “Good morning, brother,” James said, stepping out of the circle of silence so Ar’Bati could hear him. “Nice armor.”

  His adopted brother grinned widely. The tall jubatus warrior was dressed from head to toe in brand-new plate-and-chain Berserker armor. He still carried the two-handed sword he’d picked up in Red Canyon on his back, but its blade had been cleaned and freshly sharpened, amplifying its magical green glow to a blinding shine.

  “Thank you,” Ar’Bati said proudly, turning around so James could see the back. “It has excellent ‘stats,’ as you players would say. It was a gift to the Claw Born from the new Baron Assets of the Treasury.”

  James felt a twinge of apprehension. “You’re sure it’s a gift? Not like a loan or anything?” Because if there was anything he knew about Bastion’s new accountant, it was that he could not be trusted.

  “He said it was ours to keep, along with many other treasures,” Fangs said proudly. “He has been very generous with gifts to our family. I think he wisely seeks to ally himself with the foremost clan of the Savanna.”

  Remembering Tina’s ultimatum about breaking off his marriage, James wasn’t so sure that was it. Before he could ask for more info, though, Ar’Bati tossed one of the two backpacks he was carrying at James’s chest.

  “That one’s for you,” Ar’Bati said with a fanged grin. “Sorry there’s no tent for you to change in. Everything’s already been packed, so the grasses will have to do.”

  Confused, James opened the pack to see a stack of newly stitched leather armor gleaming with magic runes. Breath quickening in excitement, he emptied the bag onto the grass at his feet. Inside were leather pants, a chest piece, and boots from the level-eighty Assassin set. It was all Agility gear, but someone had also included a shimmering cloth belt, cloak, and braces from the Heavenly Fire caster set. The magical golden silk was so incredibly soft and thick, James almost missed the +Intelligence amulet and rings that had been folded into the cloak.

  All the new gear was player crafted and level eighty. James couldn’t be certain without the item text, but he was pretty sure it was all rare quality, too. Nothing anywhere close to Tina’s Dead Mountain raid gear, but every piece of this new equipment was still ten times better than the hodgepodge of level-forty equipment he’d scavenged from Red Canyon and was still wearing. He was running his hands over the glittering pile in delighted disbelief when he found a note tucked into the left boot.

  Dear James,

  Please inform your sister that I have done as she requested on the issue of your marriage. I have successfully intervened with both families, and you are no longer engaged. As such, General Roxxy’s further involvement in this matter will not be needed.

  Signed and Sealed,

  Baron Assets

  Lord of His Majesty’s Treasury

  Head of the East Bastion Trade Company

  Given how Tina had “requested” his assistance—namely by lifting Assets off the ground and shaking him until he agreed—James wasn’t surprised that Lord Assets had had a very open hand in smoothing things over. But while he was very relieved he would no longer have to marry…whatever her name was, he was too overwhelmed by the epic pile of loot that had been dropped into his hands to feel much of anything else. Just looking at the beautiful set of armor with its gleaming enchantments and perfectly straight stitching made his vision go blurry.

  “I do not understand this crying-in-joy thing players do,” Ar’Bati said as James wiped his wet eyes. “Is it not disgraceful?”

  “It’s a little disgraceful,” James said, sniffing against the flood of unwelcome emotions. “Can I confess something to you?”

  “Anything,” Fangs said seriously. “I am your sworn brother. Our bond is stronger than blood.”

  James smiled in gratitude, clutching his new gear to his chest. “I gave up everything I owned to make the portals we evacuated through back in Bastion.”

  Ar’Bati’s slit cat eyes went wide. “Everything?”

  James nodded. “My entire bank vault. All my epic gear, millions of gold pieces, literal tons of irreplaceable items. Everything I’d spent the last eight years frantically collecting.” He sniffed at the memory. “I know I don’t need it since I’m eventually going home, but the loss still hurt. I’ve had to watch everyone walk around in their awesome gear and listen to them talk about how they’re gonna spend all their gold if the bank ever reopens while I’m broke and stuck wearing crap I stole from the dead.”

  James looked down at his mismatched armor, which still bore the bloodstains of the players he’d taken it from in that pit no matter how hard he scrubbed it, and his eyes closed in shame. “It feels stupid and petty when I say it out loud, but I’ve just been so…so jealous of all the other players. Especially the Roughnecks. I mean, that used to be me! I had all this amazing gear, and then…” He sighed, shoulders slumping. “I don’t regret what I did. Giving up my vault saved everyone’s lives in Bastion, but I still miss it. I know that’s selfish and petty, but…”

  He trailed off, and Fangs reached out to put a clawed hand on his shoulder. “There is no shame in missing things that are gone,” the warrior said solemnly. “I didn’t know you’d made such a sacrifice, but I am not surprised at all to hear it. Once again, you have done us all a great deed. I will make sure it does not go unrecognized.”

  “No, no,” James said frantically. “That’s not what I meant! I don’t need recognition. I just wanted…”

  To talk about it, James finished in his head. He’d needed to tell someone, to admit that he was mourning, even if it was for something as selfish as his lost loot. So many people had lost friends and relatives—actual living beings—and here he was crying over gear. Just thinking about that made him feel like a monster, but it was still a relief to get it out. He was opening his mouth to thank his brother for listening when Ar’Bati hauled back and socked him in the arm.

  “Ow!” James cried, jumping back. “What was that for?!”

  “For not speaking up sooner!” his brother said. “Your pain is my pain, but I cannot help you bear it if you don’t tell me when things are wrong! Also, what is this nonsense about not needing recognition? You must learn that it is good for a warrior to brag sometimes. How are we to feast in your honor if you keep your great deeds secret?”

  James had to laugh at that. “Sorry to deny you a party.”

  “Do not worry,” Fangs said with a murderous grin. “We will have the greatest celebration the grasslands have ever seen when we return home with the Once King’s head on a spear. For now, though, you should get dressed. The day’s trouble is already headed this way.”

  The warrior’s ears twitched back toward town, and James raised his head to see a large crowd of armed players walking their direction.

  Gasping at how much time he’d lost, James dove into the cover of the closest pillar and began stripping off his old armor. As always, it was a relief to remove the bloodstained pieces. Every time he touched them, he swore he could see the ashen faces of the dead players he’d taken them from staring back at him accusingly. The haunting im
age was so strong James didn’t even bother putting his old armor back in the sack. He simply abandoned the bloodstained leather in the grass, glad to be rid of it.

  Finally free of his old sins, James started shoving his body into his new equipment. When he put a leg into the pants, it felt like they were going to be too tight. That wouldn’t be surprising given that the armorer hadn’t had his measurements, but it was still a huge disappointment. As he wiggled more, though, James realized he was being silly. The pants weren’t too small for him. Form-fitting leather armor was just really, really hard to put on.

  Once he realized that, things went much faster. It was true the armorer couldn’t have known his exact size, but like every other player who’d gotten stuck, James was living in a stock body model. His measurements were the same as every other male jubatus player’s, and once he actually managed to get it over his limbs, the skin-tight leather fit him like a glove.

  The cloth caster pieces went on much more easily, but when he reached for the glowing tendrils to bind the new gear’s magic to his own in order to activate the enchantments woven into the silk, James was forced to stop and catch his breath. After so long in his scavenged equipment, donning proper level-eighty gear was a rush. With each piece he connected, binding the new gear to his soul so that it became his alone, James felt lighter on his feet. His mind and fingers became more nimble, and his head swam as his mana pool expanded exponentially. He wasn’t sure what it had been before, but he was certain his old maximum was less than half of what he had access to now. James grinned as he imagined what life was going to be like with more than twice his old mana pool and probably double his previous health. Definitely awesome, he decided.

  Feeling proud and powerful as only a giant upgrade could make someone, James emerged from the stone’s shadow just in time to witness the arrival of the player army.

  As always, Tina was out in front, towering head and shoulders over everyone else and almost painful to look at with the dawn light reflecting off her mirror-bright sun steel armor. Beside her was CincoDeMurder, the overmuscled Berserker with the bloodred skull-themed outfit. The two of them made an imposing spearhead for the column of more than a hundred armed and travel-ready players who marched behind them in orderly rows. When they reached the circle of the pillars, Tina held up her hand, and the whole procession stopped on a dime.

  “Morning, James,” she said, flashing him a marble grin. “You ready for this?”

  “Ready as I’ll ever be,” he replied nervously, eying the army she’d brought. “But T, you do know we’re just talking to them, right?” He pointed at the giant stone circle. “Gray Fang and I figured out how to ring the doorbell, so to speak, but I still don’t know how the Timeless Tunnels work or if the Bedrock Kings will even answer. There are a lot of ways this might not work.”

  “It’ll be what it’ll be,” his sister said with a shrug of her giant shoulders. “Whatever happens, we’re out of time. Whether we go to the Deadlands or not, we can’t stay here. The Once King’s army is only a day away, and hell if we’re fighting that mess on an open plain.”

  Ears drooping at the grim news, James turned and pointed at the low, flat boulder placed at the center of the stone circle he and the rest of Windy Lake’s Naturalists had spent all night raising from the ground. “Go stand there, then, and let’s give it a shot. Uh, just you,” he added when Cinco tried to follow her.

  “Why only Roxxy?” the Berserker demanded.

  “Only a stonekin can call upon the Bedrock Kings,” James explained. “Everyone else has to stay outside, or the magic won’t work.”

  The red Berserker looked nonplussed as Tina strode forward to take her place at the center of the circle. “Wow, it’s quiet in here,” she said as she hopped up onto the pedestal. “So what do I do now?”

  “Get their attention,” James replied, reaching out to touch the cold pillar pulled up from the deepest depths. “This circle is basically a giant magical telephone. I’m pretty sure the Bedrock Kings will be able to hear anything you say, though whether they’ll talk back is another matter. You’ll probably want to lead with something impressive. You know, a great and noble speech fancy enough to get the attention of multiple ancient kings.”

  “Great, I love speeches,” Tina said excitedly. “I’ve already got something in mind. Dial them up!”

  Trying not to look as nervous as he felt, James picked up his Eclipsed Steel staff from where he’d left it in the grass and touched it to the closest pillar of bedrock. The contact connected his mana to the large flows of amber energy in the ground, lines he and Gray Fang had spent all of last night anchoring into a spiraling pattern that tied the six pillars together. From there, though, it was up to him.

  James began to sweat. Back in Bastion, he’d learned that true casting—actually weaving magic, not just triggering the spells given to him by the game—was simple in theory but infinitely complex in execution. Casters used their internal mana to grab magic from the surrounding world, and then they wove or spun or mashed that power into the shape needed to achieve the desired effect. From there, the final component of any spell was the caster’s will. Will was the force that pushed the gathered energies out of their dormant state and into an active one. The caster also imparted intent, guiding the energies’ transformation in the desired direction.

  At least, that was how it went in theory. In practice, James had learned that form was tricky, and matching his will to it was even trickier. His huge mana pool made him great at grunt work like hauling up pillars or blasting things, but this was different. The spiral of magic he and Gray Fang had built was bigger and more complicated than anything else he’d ever attempted. Just getting the massive web lined up correctly so that it wouldn’t explode or cause a giant sinkhole when he activated it had taken most of the night. Now, he could only hope they hadn’t missed anything as he stepped into the circle with her, using his staff to sweep his mana toward the center.

  Tina gasped. The web surrounding her rock had multiple streams of energy that he and Gray Fang had purposefully left loose. Now James’s mana snagged them up. Once he had them all, he swung his staff through the air, using the weapon like a hook as he moved in circles around Tina, looping the glowing lines around his giant sister. As the magic settled into her, he realized he could see the flows of green and amber that made up her stonekin existence rising to meet them. That was totally expected, since stonekin were completely artificial magical creations, but what he hadn’t expected was just how many different types of magic flowed inside her. He’d never even thought to consider magic as more than its broadest categories—fire, water, air, and so forth—but there had to be a thousand different colors of amber, gold, and green coiled up inside her stone body.

  Any other time, James would have stopped the spell right there so he could study them, but magical investigations would have to wait. Tina was fully wrapped in glowing earth magics now, tied up like a fly at the center of a giant web of power that stretched between the six pillars. When James was certain she was as magically connected as she was ever going to get, he stopped circling and pressed the tip of his staff to the center of her chest, pushing on the giant spell as hard as he could with his own mana as he galvanized his will into a single word.

  “Speak.”

  Tina jumped like he’d dumped a bucket of ice water over her head. She looked at James in confusion next, but he’d already fallen to his knees, his chest heaving from the sudden expenditure of so much mana. This was it, though, so he forced himself to gasp out, “You’re on!”

  “Hello,” Tina said, her unsure voice echoing inside the stones like a drop of water in a silent cave. “Testing, testing?”

  “Remember, dramatic!” James hissed at her. “These are former Celestial Elves! They expect pomp.”

  Tina looked embarrassed for a moment. Then she straightened up and got herself together, projecting her booming voice through the unnatural silence of the bedrock circle.

  “Hear m
e, great kings of the deep strata! I am Roxxy the stonekin! Though I was not made by your hands, we share the same enemy. Lend me your aid so that we may turn history upon its head and defeat the lord of the ghostfire this day!”

  As his sister’s words echoed from pillar to pillar, she shot him a “Good enough?” sort of look. James gave her an enthusiastic thumbs-up in return, but he lost it a second later when the ground started to move, making him flail for balance.

  James had never been in an earthquake, but he was pretty sure this was what it felt like. All through the grasslands, the ground was bucking and undulating, causing the remaining villagers of Windy Lake to cry out and clutch their overloaded wagons. Players dove out of the way as the field they were standing on split open to form a giant ravine that ran straight through the middle of the stone circle. The crack actually ran directly under James’s feet, forcing him to leap onto Tina’s boulder before he was dropped into the void. As the chasm grew deeper, James was sure he’d just gotten them all killed, but the bedrock pillars were actually the only things that weren’t shaking. The ground around them was gone, but he and Tina were safe and secure on top of the flat boulder, the only steady point in a sea of quaking ground.

  Then, slowly, the six stone pillars of the circle began to move as well, their huge forms twisting and shaping into something new. The deep, hard bedrock moved like potter’s clay being shaped by a giant invisible hand working in extreme slow motion. James couldn’t even say how long it took, but eventually the towering stone pillars transformed themselves into three stone men and three stone women, each standing at least twenty feet tall.

  “Our stonekin has called,” they spoke, their six rumbling voices harmonizing to become one booming sound. “And so we have answered. Behold the Bedrock Kings!”