Crown of Crowns

by Clara Loveman

  “It’s true,” Hanchell said sadly. She had read my thoughts. “Lordin turned down the offer to become queen. She thought Zawne didn’t have what it would take to be ruler. Sad, really, the way we had to kill her.”

  “She’s a Min now,” Riedel told me. “Min are spirits that can move between our worlds. When someone who knows the Great Secret dies, they become a Min and work for us. This means we give them tasks, and then they are free to roam habitable planets, like Geniverd, and even inhabit another human’s body. The only rule is that a Min may not influence people’s ideas of their dead self, or ever reveal the Great Secret. If they do, they die an irreversible death.”

  I had so many questions, so many feelings. Two omnipotent beings were flipping my perspective of the world on its head. I stuttered, trying to ask everything at once. “So that means … If I were a … Does anyone else …? What about my …? Do you think …?”

  Hanchell laughed. “Calm, Kaelyn. All these questions will be answered in time. Firstly, yes, we do believe Zawne has what it takes to be king. And secondly, we don’t seek overtly virtuous people. We instead search for pure and incorruptible hearts, like yours.”

  “Oh.” That made me feel better. Maybe I wasn’t as virtuous as Lordin was, but my intentions were certainly pure. I was more unnerved about Zawne discovering the reason for Lordin’s death. I wondered how he would react, if he would turn on me or even turn on himself. I worried that he would hate Lordin for not having believed in him.

  “I have another question,” I said.

  But Riedel cut me off before I could ask it. “Yes, your mother is at peace. But no, we cannot tell you anything more than that. The ultimate knowledge of what happens after death could alter your purpose in life.”

  “All right,” I said. It was enough just to know Mama was at peace. “How will I get back to this place tomorrow night to give you my decision?”

  Riedel said, “Spell Shiol over your heart as you lie in bed. Your ethereal self will be pulled into our mirror dimension. For now, when you awaken, you are going to hear glass shattering. Zawne will then come into the room with blood on his finger. The current king and queen will have invited you both for lunch at one p.m.”

  “This will prove to you that we are real,” Hanchell said in her soft voice. “Now go to sleep, Queen Kaelyn. Tomorrow will be a hard day for you.”

  With that, the light of Hanchell and Riedel faded. The clouds above churned, and my vision got fuzzy. Everything went black.

  I woke to the sound of shattering glass. My eyes burst open and I sat upright, the memory of my time in Shiol flooding my mind. “Zawne?” I called out. “Zawne, are you all right?”

  He appeared in the doorway, blood trickling down his finger. “Sorry,” he said. “I cut myself on a wineglass. I’m trying not to get blood on my suit.”

  He looked good despite the blood, and it made me smile. I was glad we had spent the night together. Still, I was exhausted. My body was heavy, and there was an itchy burning in my eyes.

  “You look beat,” Zawne said, “which is weird, because you slept in quite late. It’s almost noon. The only people I’ve ever seen sleep so late are my parents.”

  I wanted to say, Because they’ve been visiting Shiol throughout their reign! They were being given orders on how to run the kingdom by the Crown of Crowns! Instead, I said, “Do we have any plans today?”

  “Yes,” Zawne said, a little surprised. He was bandaging his finger with a roll of gauze. “How did you know? We have a lunch date with the king and queen in an hour. We’re supposed to be there at one o’clock. I told them you were still asleep, and they both grinned at each other like they were in on some personal joke.”

  They know, I thought. The same thing happened to them forty years ago. “Cancel it,” I said. “Your parents will understand, trust me. I have a lot of thinking to do.”

  And that was exactly how I proceeded to spend my day. Zawne didn’t understand, and I didn’t expect him to. Before he left my apartment, I probed him a bit. “Would you make a good king? … What do you think of the current model of Decens-Lenitas? … Would you allow me to change the world for the better? … Could we reform the system of monarchy to better benefit the people, spreading the wealth throughout the entire population? … Would you be up for promoting some of the older forms of tradition and society, bringing purpose back to the world and taking some of the overwhelming power away from the royal bloodlines?”

  All his answers came back positive. “Anything you want, my love.” His eagerness to help with my vision for Geniverd made me confident I could trust him as an ally. I was sure I would make a decision by the end of the day. I was getting more and more amped up at the thought of a new Geniverd, shaking the system to its very core!

  I almost called Nnati to tell him the news, then remembered what the Crown of Crowns had said: No humans aside from the Geniverd rulers may know the Great Secret.

  I couldn’t risk telling anyone. I sat curled on my sofa and deliberated alone. Could Lordin really have thought Zawne so worthless? The thought made me bitter toward her. How could she have thrown away her life and jeopardized Zawne’s chance at the throne? He had been so in love with her. Was Lordin not the woman she had seemed to be?

  I forwarded all my calls from GMAF to Nnati, adding an apologetic message and informing him that we needed to double the staff immediately, but I refrained from telling him why. If I was to become queen in three weeks, the foundation would need a new boss. Someone would have to look after things while I busied myself with my royal duties and spent my nights in Shiol.

  As I ate an early dinner and spun these ideas around in my head, that was when it hit me. Lordin had transferred her charitable works to me the day before she refused the Crown of Crowns. She had planned it all out. She had wanted her important work to go on but didn’t want to take on the responsibility of queen, because she had thought her future husband was unfit. Instead, Lordin had entrusted me to look after things, and now I was in the same position, only I was going to make Zawne my king.

  Lordin must have been blind. Zawne was the perfect man for the job. As I lay down for the night and spelled Shiol over my heart, I knew exactly what I was going to tell the Crown of Crowns.

  “Hello, Queen Kaelyn,” Riedel’s powerful voice boomed. “We sense you have made your decision.”

  “I only have one question,” I said. I was apprehensive. I needed to hear that the Crown of Crowns believed in me as much as I believed in Zawne. “How do you know I will be a good queen?”

  “It won’t be hard,” Hanchell said. “We do most of the heavy lifting. Before we intervened hundreds of years ago in the choosing of Geniverd’s rulers, men warred with each other, were killed constantly by infectious diseases, ravaged the countryside with pestilence, and even acted out genocides. They prayed to false gods and sacrificed children. It was chaos. Then we stepped in. Now everything is fine. We foresee immediate events and plan accordingly. You, Kaelyn, will be our commander in the physical world. You are here to heed our warnings and act accordingly. You are our adjudicator.”

  I pursed my lips and narrowed my eyes at the insubstantial light masses. “Which makes you the bosses?”

  “Yes and no,” Riedel said. “You can say no to us …”

  “But we wouldn’t recommend it,” Hanchell finished.

  “Okay.” I took a deep breath. I had already made my decision. The needs of Geniverd were too great for me to ignore the call to the throne. Zawne was a good man and would rise to the occasion. We would do away with the corruption, the mass boredom, the uselessness of the strife. I couldn’t wait to ruffle some feathers among the clan leaders. Even if Zawne wasn’t as keen as I was for change, it didn’t matter. I needed to fix the class system before our world regressed into peasants and kings, like in the ancient days. I needed to fix the dwindling middle class and bring peace to the agitated sections of the world, like on restive Nurlie Island.

  Also, being queen next to Zawn
e, waking up in a palace every morning … it couldn’t be that bad.

  “I agree,” I said, back straight, eyes firm. “I will be the queen.”

  “Excellent!” Hanchell cried. If I hadn’t known better, I’d have said she was clapping.

  “The next step is to inform Zawne of your decision,” Riedel said. “Do it tomorrow, when you wake up. We can bring you both back the next night for a debriefing. We don’t want you coming back too often, Kaelyn. You will be too exhausted to complete your duties. Rest for tomorrow, tell Zawne, then come back the next night.”

  I nodded. “Got it, boss.”

  Hanchell tittered. “You don’t have to call us that. Oh, and before you leave, there is a visitor for you. It looks like you have some friends in the spirit realm.”

  “Who?” I asked. “Is it Mama? Is it Lordin?”

  But Hanchell and Riedel had vanished. Everything was still for about three seconds. Then I sensed a different scent, a scent I knew very well. My head lifted, my chin sticking out. My eyes searched as I spun. It was a man who answered me finally, his shape forming in the distance of the vast, clouded plain.

  “Kaelyn.” The voice was low as it danced my name.

  I choked, overwhelmed with emotion. And then my tears brimmed over. “Roki?”

  Chapter 7

  We stared at each other for over a minute, unblinking, unflinching, utterly mute. I studied his hair, the soft handsomeness of his face, his muscular frame. Roki hadn’t changed that much in three years. He was the same man I had adored before the world fell apart, back when I was an ignorant little girl.

  What was he doing in Shiol?

  Roki came to me, floating across the ground like a spirit. He took my hands in his and said, “I’ve missed you. I was looking for you just now. I saw your body lying in your bed, but you weren’t in it. Your body was empty. I flew directly here and saw that the Crown of Crowns was speaking with someone. I couldn’t see you inside their bubble, but I knew it was you. I signaled to them that I wished to meet with you. I told them we used to be friends.”

  “You were in my bedchamber?” I said, a little scandalized. “You were watching me as I slept?”

  “Yes …” He made a face, probably realizing how creepy that sounded. “But it’s not weird. I do it all the time. You see, I’m not a human, Kaelyn. I’m a Min.”

  I gaped at Roki, speechless. I would have torn away from him, but I liked the warmth of his hands over mine. I moved my mouth, but no sound came out. How could Roki be a Min? All our time together, and he was a spirit? I had given my heart away to a spirit!

  “It’s tough,” Roki said with a laugh. “I get it, I do. I’ve been alive for a long time, and I have never once told a human being what I truly am. If I let the information slip, I would suffer a final death, and the person I told would be killed. I have always expected this kind of reaction. It’s great seeing it from you.”

  “I’m funny to you now?” I had started crying. I was mad that he was here, mad that he had lied to me about being a spirit, mad that I loved the feeling of his hands enfolding mine.

  “No,” he said, becoming serious. “I’m sorry. You’re not funny to me. You’re adorable and radiant, even now when you’re crying.” Roki delicately wiped the tears from my cheeks. He had always been a gentleman. “It’s just, I use laughter as a medicine, you know? It’s why I always jested with you, always tried to make you laugh. It felt appropriate now, in this strange moment, you here with me in the spirit realm. I just want to make things right.”

  “Okay …” I sniveled, trying to hold back my tears. It was hard to stay mad at Roki. “But why now?” I said. “Why didn’t you make things right before, when I needed you the most, when I was at my lowest low? If you’re a spirit, you could have visited me anytime—”

  “And I did!” Roki said, suddenly enveloping me in his arms. He said in my ear, “I’ve visited you every night since the fateful day your mama died. I sat on your bed and watched you. I walked with you through the quiet halls of NordHaven. Then I followed you to the capital. Sometimes I watched you at work. I wept tears of joy when I saw how well you were doing with the foundation. You’ve helped so many people climb out of poverty. You’ve given so many young children meaning and a future. You even helped to save all those turtles and that coral reef.”

  “Then why didn’t you reveal yourself to me?” I demanded. My face was pressed against his chest, and I clung to his shirt for dear life, as though he might evaporate. “I could have used a friend like you. I’ve spent so much time wondering where you went. You could have made it easier for me!”

  “I wanted to,” Roki said, “but in those first days, I felt your heart and heard your thoughts. You didn’t want to talk to me. You blamed me in part for the way it had ended between you and your mama. You had chosen me over your own family, and then death came like a wrecking ball to demolish your emotions. It would have been wrong of me to go against your wishes.”

  I tore away from him, feeling dumb for crying like a child. “You could have tried,” I said, hardening my expression. “It would have been nice knowing that you did everything within your power to see me again. Instead, you abandoned me. You left me alone.”

  Roki pouted, stepped back, and hung his head. “I stayed by your side. I followed you into your dreams. I let my scent linger in your room. I know it feels like I deserted you, but I didn’t. I never lost my feelings. I never forgot about you. Instead, I let you grieve. I gave you the space I thought you needed. I didn’t want to ruin your life by getting you mixed up with a Min.”

  “I wouldn’t have cared if you were a space alien!” I launched myself forward, pulled Roki’s arms around me, and hugged him fiercely. “But I forgive you. I understand now you were doing what you thought was right. It’s the reason I was so crazy about you, because your soul is pure.” Then I laughed. “I guess it has to be. All you have is a soul!”

  Roki smiled and pushed me gently away, looked down into my eyes. I knew right then I would believe anything he said. His eyes sparkled with sincerity. “I know you’ve changed,” he said. “You’re not the same naive girl who followed me, laughing, through the fake market. You’ve gotten stronger over these last three years. You’ve become wise and selfless. You’ve become a woman. You’ve also gotten engaged, so I know we can’t be together like we used to be …”

  “Not necessarily,” I said, hating myself as I said it, as I began to scheme in my brain. “It’s true, I am engaged to Zawne. We are set to be king and queen in three weeks. It doesn’t mean I can’t have you for a friend. It would mean a lot to have you around. You know, giving me moral support, telling me jokes, letting me confide in you. It will be frustrating not being able to talk about Shiol with any of my human friends.”

  Roki brightened. He had an air of mischief about him, the same excitable energy I remembered. “I would agree to that!” he said. And right then I knew my life was about to change. Nothing could be simple anymore. Roki was back. This time, I knew he was back for good.

  Roki was rubbing his hands together. “Let’s start right now,” he said. “Let’s forget all the other stuff and start over. How can I be of service, my queen? What do you want to know about Shiol or about Min? I’ll answer anything.”

  I thought about it for a second, stroking my chin. Then I said, “Tell me everything.”

  Roki was biting his lip, trying to contain his excitement. I now believed everything he had told me, about how he had watched over me, about how he had only wanted what was best for me. It made me think of him as my watcher, as my guardian. I wasn’t mad anymore.

  Roki said, “I’ll start with where we are: Shiol.” He waved his arms like a magician, and the emptiness of the void rippled and changed. I suddenly saw in the distance a land unlike any on Geniverd. There were tower spires of gold, cities nestled in the clouds, odd gaseous auras moving freely throughout the mystical empire, humans flying as if they were birds. It looked peaceful and divine, the radiant sun sh
ining over the otherworldly civilization.

  “Wow …” I had no other words.

  “It’s just a fragment,” Roki said, and waved his hand. The vision faded, and we were back in the endless void. “Where we are now is like a meeting hall the Crown of Crowns uses to parley with various monarchs. But that, what I just showed you, is the space Min call home when they aren’t out on missions or goofing around in other realms.”

  “There were so many,” I said. “How can there be so many? Geniverd only has four billion people. And what were those weird electric auras I saw floating around?”

  Roki laughed. He hunkered down on the ground and smiled up at me. “One thing at a time, Kaelyn. The universe is bigger than you think. There are worlds, dimensions, planets. There is more than just human life, and the Crown of Crowns presides over it all. They use Min as their servants of order. We keep the scales balanced in these different worlds. We all have assignments, and for the past five hundred years, I have been assigned to Geniverd. It was where I was born, died, and became a Min. But that’s a story for another day.”

  My jaw had hit the floor some time ago. I felt woozy, overwhelmed by all the information. I kept picturing the Shiol city, the magnificent structures unlike anything I’d ever seen. Who had built such a place? How long had these spirits been pulling the universe’s infinite strings? Could Geniverd evolve into such a futuristic place one day?

  “As for the auras,” Roki said with a smile, “those are Min without bodies. Like I said, we’re just spirits. Most Min don’t have a special upbringing. Some are created in Shiol, some on other planets, and some are born to other Min. Yet each Min has the ability to possess a life-form within his or her zone of assignment. In simple terms, we take over bodies and use them to do our jobs. We need them to infiltrate governments, become authority figures, influence the masses to keep civilization from imploding. In truth, most of the successful people on Geniverd are Min: the athletes, celebrities, serial killers, businesspeople. There are no restrictions on what we can do, and some Min have a mean streak. Some of the worst Min like to murder because they enjoy the way it feels.”