by Aaron Oster
“We don’t have to go anywhere!” she answered with an excited whisper. “This isn’t a library Morgan. These are the Kingdom archives!”
“You’re kidding,” Morgan replied, looking at their surroundings with new interest.
What were the chances that they would immediately find the room they were looking for, and all without bumping into a single person? If he was superstitious, he’d think someone had guided him here.
“How can you tell?” he asked after a few seconds.
“Simple,” Sarah replied, walking forward and motioning to the closest shelf. “You see this marking here?”
Morgan nodded as she pointed to a triangular making carved into the wood, with the numbers 8474-6 marked inside.
“These are yea and month markers. We have similar archives back in City Four, though they’re much smaller and likely less extensive.”
Morgan nodded, looking to his right and seeing a shelf marked with the numbers 8841-12. Then looked to his left, and saw 8099-2.
“Guess we head right?” he asked, motioning to the shelves.
“Yup,” Sarah said, heading to the right at a brisk pace. “Right now, we are located by the archives of the seventh month of year 16,098. So we’re looking for records from the year 16,087, though I’m not sure exactly what month it would be.”
Morgan nodded again, his mind beginning to race once more. He couldn’t believe they were finally here. After wondering about it his entire life, he was finally about to find out who he was and what had happened to his parents.
Sarah began slowing down, counting the shelves quietly to herself. She walked past one shelf, then stopped and headed back to the previous one.
“Down here,” she motioned, and Morgan followed her into the maze of paper.
He looked around at the ancient and dust-covered tomes, noting that some shelves were sparse, while others were stuffed to bursting.
“Here we are,” Sarah said, snapping Morgan from his thoughts.
Sarah stood beside a shelf, marked with the first month of the year they were looking for. Motioning behind her, Morgan saw that the rest of the papers, folders, and books, were arranged in ascending order, with the last month likely being eleven rows over.
“I’ll start at the other end,” Morgan said. “If I spot anything, I’ll give you a shout.”
Sarah nodded her agreement and immediately began searching along the bottom-most shelf.
Morgan headed quickly down to the last aisle, the one marked with 16,087-12, and headed to the far side of the bookcase. This one didn’t seem to be too full, so he began all the way on the top corner. He began scanning over the labels placed under the books and folders, reading over names and places he didn’t recognize.
He wasn’t the fastest reader, so it took him nearly half an hour to clear the last row of documents and head to check the previous shelf. Looking down the long aisle, he could see Sarah already halfway through the third. Shaking his head, Morgan moved onto the next shelf, slowly making his way through, and still not finding any mention of Mitten or the Ruined City.
This shelf contained far more information, so it took quite a bit longer to clear through it. By the time he moved onto the tenth month, he could already feel his patience beginning to strain. Sarah had already made it to the sixth month, and he was sorely tempted to just let her do all the work. Then, he mentally kicked himself for being so lazy and began searching the next shelf.
About five minutes after he began, he heard Sarah’s excited voice calling out to him.
“Hey, I think I’ve found something!”
Morgan looked up from a document titled The Grempire, and headed quickly over to her. Sarah had pulled a massive folder from one of the shelves and was rapidly shuffling through it.
“Is this it?” he asked as she moved through the papers with astonishing speed.
“This is the only folder I’ve found so far that even remotely mentions the city of Mitten,” Sarah said distractedly. “It’s almost as though someone came in here and removed all the pertinent information on that time.”
“How right you are, my dear!”
Both Morgan and Sarah jumped, then spun as guards streamed in through every opening in the bookcases, completely blocking off their retreat. Grimacing, Morgan placed his back to Sarah’s and began examining the guards one by one. He couldn’t get a read on a single one of them, which did not bode well for their odds.
The guards didn’t move in to attack however, merely standing there and blocking off their escape. This gave Morgan an idea and his eyes flicked up to the tops of the bookcases. He felt his blood freeze when he saw several men standing up there as well.
“Someone set us up,” Morgan whispered as his mind raced to try and figure out who had done it.
“Without a doubt,” Sarah replied, voice grim.
Morgan’s eyes moved over the crowd of men dressed in black and silver, but not a single one so much as twitched. He also couldn’t spot the person who had spoken to them originally. Suddenly, a pulse rippled out from one of the men, and Sarah let out a low gasp.
Morgan knew why. The man had just dampened her ability. He could see it even now, a small, dense layer of red that wrapped itself around Sarah’s core. He saw it attempting to wrap around his, but one deep breath later and his core dispersed the chi.
Morgan kept any sort of expression off his face however. He wasn’t about to give away the fact that they were unable to bock his ability, even partially.
“Have their abilities been blocked?” The same voice came from the back of the crowd.
“Yes, ma’am!” one of the guards answered.
“Excellent. Move aside so I can speak to them face to face.”
Sarah turned on the spot and moved to stand next to him, her face tense and drawn. Morgan nudged her lightly. When she looked at him, he opened his palm and allowed a bit of reiki to leak out. She didn’t so much as twitch, but he could tell by the subtle shift in her demeanor that she was a lot more comfortable now that she knew they had an escape.
Morgan wasn’t so sure they could, though he was formulating a plan for their best escape options. For now, he would wait for whoever had ordered this ambush. They were both still alive, so they clearly wanted something.
A moment later, a woman appearing to be in her early fifties pushed through the last of the soldiers and gave them a wide, triumphant grin. She was wearing a long silver gown, and her iron-gray hair was done up in an intricate braid. Her posture was perfect, and she had an air of authority about her. However, the most telling detail, was the silver circlet around her brow.
“Her Majesty, Queen Hu Vah of the West Kingdom!”
One of the soldiers announced, as though expecting them to be impressed.
Neither of them reacted, and the Queen’s smile wavered, then vanished.
“Bow, you unworthy peasants! I am a Queen!”
“No thanks,” Morgan replied, keeping his tone neutral. “I’d rather not.”
She motioned to someone behind him, and a moment later, Morgan felt a hard blow to the back of his knees. It didn’t so much as make him budge, but judging by the cry of pain and Sarah’s knees crashing to the floor beside him, it had most definitely hurt her.
He whirled on the spot, lashing out with a punch, but the guards who had moved in were already back-peddling. Gritting his teeth, Morgan spun back to face the attack he was sure was coming from behind, but was surprised to see the Queen smiling again.
She brought her hands together in a slow clap, her smile growing wider all the time.
“Excellent! She was right about you. You do have some backbone, after all!”
Ignoring the Queen, Morgan bent down and helped Sarah back to her feet. She winced a bit as he helped her up, and he was sure that the guard’s attack would cause some bruising.
“She who?” Sarah asked, despite her obvious discomfort. “How did you know we were going to be here?”
The Queen stopped clap
ping, but the smile didn’t diminish in the slightest.
“That is none of your concern. Suffice it to say that I received some information that a person of interest would be breaking into my archives looking for information on the Ruined City. Naturally, I had all the information removed and stored in a safe location. I then set guards to watch the room, and low and behold, you showed up. They warned me that you were a slippery one, so I had to make sure everything was in place before I sprung my trap.”
Morgan felt his hands balling into fists as he tried to figure out who would have betrayed them. He was sure it wasn’t Katherine, which left him with only one other option. Gwendolyn. She would be the only other person who could have known they would be here tonight. The question still remained as to why she would do something like this to him. From his memories, he knew that she cared for him, so why would she send him here, only to rat him out to some foreign Queen?
“What are you hoping to accomplish here?” Morgan asked, moving just a bit closer to Sarah and preparing to spring his escape plan.
He would use his Explosive impact skill and his Advanced flight at the same time. That would give him the power and speed to bust through the ceiling and make his escape. Both he and Sarah would end up a little banged up, but at least they would be free.
“I’ve come to offer you a deal,” the Queen replied. “As you know, the Skyflare Tournament is set to begin in less than four day’s time. I have yet to submit my choice for champion, and I believe that the West would be best suited if you would represent them.”
“And why, pray tell, would you want me - a thief who snuck in to steal some documents - to represent your Kingdom?”
“Because,” Hu Vah said, her grin turning predatory. “None of the other Kingdoms will have a supermage fighting for them.”
26
Morgan felt his heart sink when he heard those words - metaphorically sink that was, as his reiki core no longer reacted as a normal heart would. His secret was out. Even if he escaped now, all of the Five Kingdoms would know who and what he was within a matter of hours. Or at least, the most powerful and influential people would, which was just as bad.
“How many people know?” he asked in a quiet voice.
“The entire palace. I had a runner sent to make the announcement as soon as my sentries spotted you. The other kingdoms have already made their submissions, and the deadline was just a few hours away. I had already selected my champion, but I’d been holding out just in case my informant’s information turned out to be correct.”
He felt Sarah’s arm interlock with his, as she pulled herself close, just as Morgan felt an emotion that had only surfaced once before in recent memory. Rage. It began boiling to the surface, clouding his thoughts and threatening to overwhelm his reason. The only thing keeping him grounded was Sarah’s arm wrapped around his.
“I won’t compete in your tournament,” Morgan said, after taking a few deep breaths. “I’m no one's puppet.”
“Really?” the Queen said with a raised eyebrow. “The way I see it, you don’t have a choice. You’re surrounded and while we can’t completely block your ability, it has been severely weakened. So, you can either fight for us or die here. Your choice.”
When she said those words, all the guard’s energies flared around them and they aimed their various attacks at him and Sarah.
“Alternatively,” she continued. “You can agree to fight for me and should you win, I will give you the information you’ve been after.”
“What about the prize for the winner?” Morgan asked, feeling his anger mounting, despite his best effort to keep it in check.
Who exactly did this woman think she was to trap and strong-arm him into fighting for her?!
“The prize will go to me, of course,” she replied with a light, tittering laugh that set his teeth on edge. “The other Kingdoms have put up a quarter-million platinum and an extremely powerful core each to give to the winning Kingdom.”
“I’m not talking about that prize. I’m talking about the Skyflare.”
The Queen’s eyes bulged when Morgan said that, and she quickly looked to her guards to make sure they hadn’t heard.
Morgan knew that the nobility actively worked to keep the Skyflare a secret from the masses, so announcing it to over thirty guards would make her very uncomfortable.
“That will go to me as well,” she answered after a few more moments of silence.
“So, you get all the money, three rare cores and the ultimate prize, while I get what? A stack of paper? Go find your own champion,” Morgan said with a snort, preparing once again to make his escape.
“You get to leave with your life! That should be reward enough!” Hu Vah yelled, her face going red. “You will fight for me, peasant, or both you and your friend will die, and I can assure you that your deaths will not be swift!”
Morgan snapped then, feeling his anger boil over. He disentangled himself from Sarah, and moved in front of her, facing the angry woman down. She was only doing this because she didn’t truly understand the kind of power she was messing with. He would teach her that lesson and then, he would kill them all.
Morgan used Aura flare for the first time.
His entire body was engulfed in an aura of flickering violet tinged with black, and his power pulsed out from him in waves, washing over the Queen and her guards. His eyes blazed with red and blue light, and his features took on a demonic cast.
Hu Vah’s face had gone white as a sheet, and she was visibly shaking as she took a step back. A few of her guards let out shouts of alarm, fleeing at the sight of him, but most stayed behind, although their faces said that they would rather be anywhere else.
“No!” The Queen said, holding her arms up before her face, as though shielding herself. “Your abilities are blocked, you can’t use them!”
“I don’t know where you got your information, but whoever gave it to you, clearly doesn’t like you very much,” Morgan growled, activating Goldfire barrage.
Six flickering flames appeared in a circle before him, their violet light adding to the dark look cast on his face, and Morgan prepared to use his attack. Before he could do so, however, he felt a soft tugging on his wrist. Turning his head fractionally, he saw Sarah, pale-faced and shaking. She didn’t say anything, just shaking her head back and forth. That alone was enough to make him pull up short, and release his skill. Everyone sagged in relief as the crushing sense of fear lifted in an instant, and Morgan staggered as sudden exhaustion threatened to topple him.
A few deep breaths got his core active again and sending revitalizing energy through his body. Morgan straightened, and for the first time, realized what he’d been about to do. He’d been about to attack a roomful of guards that were more powerful than he was, and all because he’d lost his temper. Even if he had survived, there was no way Sarah would, and it would have been all his fault. Giving her a nod of thanks, Morgan was quick to compose himself.
“I’ll fight for you under one condition,” he said, voice now steady and clam.
The Queen, still shaken by the assault on her senses, looked up to meet his gaze.
“I get the Skyflare.”
***
Loquin was reclining back on a chair in her suite, inside a very luxurious wing in the West Kingdom palace, when she sensed a disturbance in the air around her. Straightening in her seat, she quickly checked her appearance in a mirror she pulled from thin air, then plastered a smirk onto her face.
A moment later, Samuel appeared, glowering as usual.
“Sammy!” she said, rising from her seat and sauntering over to him. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”
“Don’t pretend that you don’t know why I’m here!” Samuel snapped, pushing past her and going to occupy her seat.
Loquin turned, pouting at him, but he just glared at her in return. Finally giving up, she rolled her eyes and floated up off the ground, reclining back in midair.
“Oh, pray tell, Sammy, what have I don
e to offend you this time?” she asked in an exasperated tone.
“Don’t play coy with me!” Samuel shot back. “You told the Queen of the West Kingdom that Morgan would be paying her archives a visit, didn’t you?”
Loquin shrugged.
“And?”
“AND?!” Samuel practically exploded, the power of his voice sending a fine web of cracks across the stone floor. “Is that all you have to say?”
“Calm down, Sammy. At this rate, you’re liable to give yourself a heart attack,” Loquin said, eyeing the floor.
She had to be careful to keep him from going overboard. Samuel had been good at keeping his anger in check over the last few centuries, but she and Gold were seriously straining at his patience.
This was not the correct thing to say, and the cracks in the floor spread up the walls and the furniture began noticeably shaking.
“I didn’t break any rules, so you can keep your pants on!” Loquin answered, finally losing her cool as well. “It was necessary to tell the Queen, as Morgan needed to be in this tournament. As a citizen of the West Kingdom, Morgan is qualified to fight on their behalf. This is the only way to ensure he receives the Skyflare.”
Samuel slumped back in his chair, shaking his head and rubbing at his temples.
“Why does it even matter?” he said with a long sigh. “The next Pinnacle King will awaken in less than two weeks. This entire world is doomed, so why? Why interfere with my plans to such an extent?
“Gold, I can understand. He hates me, and would see the world destroyed before allowing me to succeed, but you? I could have convinced Morgan to kill Edmund if given a few more days, but now, I have nothing to offer him.”
He stood from his seat and repaired the stone wall with a wave of his hand.
“Do whatever you want with him. I’m done interfering,” Samuel said with another sigh. Then he vanished, leaving a stunned Loquin staring at the place where he’d disappeared.
“Poor Sammy.”
Loquin turned at the sound of Gold’s cheery voice coming from the couch behind her.