“Oh yeah. Sounds like a load of fun.” Chris didn’t think any of the challenges Wessel had just outlined sounded all that hard so he was cheered up considerably.
“Of course. Those are challenges for us regular people. The trials for royalty tend to be a bit more complex and dangerous. You’ll do fine though your highness. Keep your head down and practice and study and the trials will just seem like some unpleasant homework by the time you get to them.” Wessel stopped to see if Chris had anything else to add or ask about the trials. When he didn’t say anything Wessel launched into the second part of the question.
Chris listened as Wessel spoke and came to understand that the two worlds were tied together a lot more than he had first suspected. All of the modern countries leaders knew that magic existed to some extent and that there was a group of very wealthy individuals who basically ruled the world. Anyone who had dared divulge these secrets had been set up to seem crazy and cast to the wayside as an eccentric. There was still talk that bubbled up but most common people put it to the babblings of the paranoid. Illuminati, Masons, the Knights Templar were all organizations that had been bandied about by the conspiracy theorists for years. The sweetly ironic part of it was that the core of those stories was true.
There was a group of extremely wealthy and influential people who basically ruled this planet. Chris was now the king of that group. There was a group of knights who had controlled the banking system in the old world. Chris now ruled over that group as well. Adepts of all three schools routinely maintained membership and leadership positions in secret clubs. Clubs such as the Masons and other more secretive ones that common people only suspected exist. Very few leaders actually knew for a fact that there was magic in the world. Most of them knew only that there was a very powerful society that could bring them down any time they felt like it.
Wessel and Chris talked the details of some of the political connections Wessel knew of and Chris learned even more about the influence he could exert. As was becoming customary at the end of the session they talked about whom Chris should get an audience with for his next hour of question and answer. Wessel suggested he speak with the members of the team responsible for safeguarding and growing his wealth. It was the kind of money that could be used to exert influence over entire nations. As Wessel put it Chris was not normal rich. He was not even super wealthy. He was Vatican rich. He was a decent sized European country rich. Chris made a note to get someone to explain his fortune to him and then stood up to leave as it was time to head to his next class.
Classes complete for the day Chris walked out into the hallway and looked around for his bodyguard. The knight jogged over to him. Chris asked him if he had seen anyone since he was supposed to be met to be taken to dinner with the council. The knight said he had not seen anyone so they both started walking towards the main hall. Halfway there they were met by a young warlock who had probably only recently passed his trial. He let Chris know that he was there to escort him to the dinner. Chris followed the young warlock as she led them over to one of the buildings that surrounded the manor but were not attached to it except by the covered walkways.
The warlock led him to a set of stairs on the side of one of the buildings and they walked the stairs to the top. On the landing at the top there was a large wooden door with a golden knocker handing off it. The warlock held the knocker out and let it fall one time. It was opened almost immediately by another adept. Chris was escorted through another door which was opened to allow him into the inner sanctum. Here was a large round table set with golden dishes and exotic foods. The chamber itself was round and hung with family tapestries depicting the noble families and their lineage. Several fireplaces were set in the stone walls surrounding the table.
At the table were seated representatives from the noble families and the heads of the orders of magic. As head of the high protectors Omasa had a seat at the table as well. When Chris entered the chamber all stood and bowed deeply. No one raised their head until Chris had given his leave for them to do so. Chris walked around the chamber until he found an empty chair which he pulled out and sat in. He’d read the chronicles of King Arthur so he knew the concept of a round table and knew by sitting down he was saying he was among equals. The room grew quiet except for some hushed whispers from around the table.
“Members of the council. I am here tonight to seek your counsel and to provide you with instructions. I sit with you at a round table so that everyone may speak openly with no fear of repercussion. For my first question to the council I’d like to ask why you invited me to this particular dinner?” Chris sat and waited for a reply. He may have looked poised and regal sitting there but his heart was beating like a rabbits being stared at by a hungry pit bull. He’d just discovered the need to shave this morning and here he was trying to control the conversation among a group of the smartest and most powerful men on the planet.
“Thank you for coming your majesty. I apologize for the late notice. We put this dinner together on the fly. I am Tazmin, head of the council by your queen mothers grace.” Interesting thought Chris. Nicole had mentioned her uncle was on the council but had not mentioned that he was the head of it. “We set this dinner up to have a chance to speak with you your highness. We seek to understand more about your plans to see how we can best support them. We should have set up something sooner but none of us realized the events that were going to transpire so soon after you joined us. The battle at the Irish castle. The raid we understand you just ordered to take out the necromancer who killed your father. A raid where we are told you distinguished yourself greatly and took out one of our most powerful enemies.. How can we help you moving forward your highness?”
“Thank you Tazmin. This is what I need for the council to provide. A group of warlocks, mages and knights to be at my disposal to carry out raids against the horde as their hiding places are uncovered or when we see fit.” Chris paused and Tazmin nodded.
“If we set them up my lord are you going to be able to focus on your studies or are you going to insist on going with them?” Omasa spoke up. His job would be made a lot easier if Chris would remain on the island instead of constantly throwing himself into circumstances where people and monsters were trying to kill him.
“We’ll see on that one. I’m still thinking through the best way to handle it. I don’t want to send men to fight if I’m not willing to go myself.” Chris took a quick breath and launched into his next request. “I have charged my oldest friend with becoming a portal master. I ask that the council do everything in their power to provide him with the materials and instruction he needs. I am aware of why the study of portals was ceased but I think we’re going to need to understand them again sooner rather than later.”
“Your highness. It will be done.” Tazmin was busy taking notes and writing messages. He ripped off a page and handed it to an adept with some whispered instructions. “Just making sure there is a written record provided for Brent in case something happens to all of us. That way he isn’t lynched unnecessarily.” Chris waited as the adept who had taken the note bowed and left the room to deliver it.
“My plan is to win. I want to take this world back. I understand we can never truly eradicate evil but I want to destroy as much of it as we can. From there I want to keep on winning. I want to take back the universes. I want to make allies with other peace seeking worlds. If we do not spread out and grow stronger then we will sit here on the planet until we grow weak and the horde overwhelms us. Any ideas around that?”
A tall man with a scraggly grey beard stood up. He looked upset by the words Chris had said. He visibly took a second to put his thought together before he spoke. “Your majesty. You’ve asked that we speak openly. We’ve been playing cat and mouse games with evil on this planet for the last two thousand years. There are always more of them sneaking in through portals to replace the ones we kill. There aren’t any more of us coming though portals any time soon. I agree we should attack evil where we find it but I
doubt that we’ll ever be able to make a clean sweep. My fear, your majesty, is that by raising up a portal master and monkeying around with that kind of magic we’ll attract the attention of the horde sooner rather than later. I would counsel we stick with theory only for your young portal master candidate until we have discussed it more thoroughly.”
“Thank you mage for speaking so frankly. Unfortunately, we can’t hold off on the portal master. He needs to learn and practice in order to become a master at that lost art and we are going to need a master. It is true that we can keep quiet on this planet and probably escape the attention of the horde for a little bit longer. That’s just passing the buck though. They are coming for us one day. The reason they aren’t here right now is because they have other worlds to conquer. Those worlds could have been our allies. If we wait too long those worlds will all be conquered. We cannot stand by ourselves against an enemy such as the horde. We need allies.”
No one else had any objections they wished to voice out loud in front of their young king. All of them had already been filled in on how he was shaping up to be in the finest mold of the royal line. He’d already led successful raids and slain a necromancer and a giant spider. The knights who followed him into battle and had been linked in with him via the psychic battle net knew without a doubt that here was a king who was brave and virtuous. A king they would all follow into battle without hesitation.
Other topics were being discussed now at the table. Rebuilding the manor in Ireland was going to take more resources to be completed quickly enough to keep another member of the horde from trying to launch a quick attack. Better early warning systems and methods of alerting everyone were needed to help repel future attacks. The families of magic users did not carry electronics on them as a matter of custom. Their servants did and it was decided to setup a network of servants whose sole purpose would be to facilitate communication in the event of another surprise attack. The mundane tasks of collecting and tabulating information on the horde was assigned to various nobles in the room to even out the workload.
It was a very productive meeting even if it did get boring enough to have Chris struggling to keep his eyes open. After dinner, Chris left with Omasa to head back to his hall and grab some sleep. He had martial training first thing in the morning and Niko would kick his butt up and down the bluffs if he showed up sleepy and cranky. Omasa had laughed at him when Chris had told him that Niko spoke with respect to him but still managed to treat him like he was the lowest of the low. He’d told Chris he should give Niko a raise since she was so invested in his training. She wasn’t willing to risk Chris losing his life in a battle just to suck up to him during training.
“You did good tonight your majesty. Not every battle is fought against enemies on a battlefield. Some you have to fight against your own allies at the bargaining table and you set a mighty precedent tonight.”
“Thanks Omasa. I’ll see you tomorrow. If you’re free to talk some more around how we should setup the raiding parties.”
“Let your guard know when you would like to meet and we’ll get it arranged your highness. Also, I think you have some chocolate milk or something stuck to your lip. You might want to wipe that off before you go to bed.” Omasa turned on his heel and stomped off before Chris could come up with a good comeback. So much for being treated like an adult. He smiled as he scratched at the peach fuzz growing on his upper lip and slid into this bed to try and catch up on lost sleep.
Chapter 23: It’s the Size of the Fight in The Dog
The next year passed quickly for Chris. He spent most of his time either head down in a book or keeping his head down while Niko launched increasingly complicated attacks at him. After much discussion with Omasa and Randall and Wessel it had been decided to spend a year gathering info on the whereabouts of the horde members and then tracking them to see if they met with others. If they went straight into extermination mode it would just force the rest of the horde members into hiding or give them time to beef up their defenses. The current plan as Chris envisioned it was to get all the locations locked in and then plan out a series of fast brutal attacks to take out as many of them as possible. To help with his impatience Chris threw himself into his studies with complete abandon.
His teachers met with the administrators and heads of the schools and they marveled at the amount Chris had learned in such a short period of time. It had been almost a century since the last royal had come through the school. They knew their memories were dull as to how fast a royal normally learned but the rapidity with which Chris absorbed knowledge was still scary. The subject of his trials came up frequently and there was an increasing number of instructors that believed he should just be passed in a ceremony honoring the victories he had already achieved. Leading the force he had led at the battle of the Irish manor was the stuff of legends. Especially the way he had embedded himself in the giant spider and faced down the zombie of his real world father.
The subsequent raids and facing down of the necromancer pretty much beat most of the tests that were laid out for students in the trials anyway. To come up with something that would challenge the young king more than he already challenged himself seemed foolhardy. They knew they’d have to do it though in order to make sure Chris was accepted as the true and tried king of all of the Xandians. They just hoped Chris didn’t set the bar too much higher by any more acts of courage before they had time to get him through his trials.
Omasa and the high protectors marveled at the boys martial skills as well. He was already tried as far as they were concerned. They looked on him as a true warrior king and were ready to follow him anywhere. Omasa marveled at how quickly Chris absorbed all the lessons Niko threw at him. A lot of a warriors training was repetition to build the muscle memory of a series of movements that would be useful in combat. Chris seemed to naturally understand what the movements signified and to have committed them to memory after running through them just a time or two. Niko had moved on to weapons training after exhausting all her knowledge of unarmed combat and teaching him every kata she knew. Chris was currently learning the finer points of weaving battle magic into his sword arm. What he had done to the necromancer had been more because the necromancer had grossly underestimated him than out of any finesse Chris had. He’d basically used the same blunt force a knight would use when chopping wood to hack into the necromancer.
Omasa would be the instructor for the next series of classes with Chris. These would deal more with military strategy and tactics. Things a king needed to know. Chris had spent a good deal of time this past year going over scenarios on how to attack the horde. The tricky part was going to be how to attack every member of the horde simultaneously across the planet. This included horde strongholds with hundreds of defenders down to individual members of the horde who had staked out and claimed their own patches. There were dark witches and shaman who lived alone in remote areas and there were dark witches and shaman who owned and ran casinos in major cities like Las Vegas. There were those scenarios and everything in between and Chris wanted to attack them all on some undisclosed date simultaneously and win every single battle.
As the numbers and locations continued to pour in from around the world it soon became pretty obvious that there was a lot more evil in this world than they’d planned for. All told Chris had a few hundred Knights at his disposal with another hundred warlocks and then a few hundred mages as well. These were his vassals who were in their fighting prime and could be counted on to win the battles he set them out on. Against this force of seven hundred they had reports from Randall showing over seven hundred suspected locations of the horde. There were numerous horde strongholds that held as many enemies as the total of the Xandian army. The more they planned the more Chris felt himself slipping into despair. How could they win over an enemy that outnumbered them ten to one on earth and a billion to one out in the universes.
Those numbers didn’t include the regular humans who worked for the Xandians. Their private secu
rity forces employed thousands of people who called be called on to do pretty much anything they were asked. Being in the employ of the Xandians was very lucrative and not many people would want to get off that gravy train. Chris and Omasa tried to think through ways they could utilize the security forces in their attacks. That fell short when they got to the part where they’d need to ask them to murder large amounts of normal looking people. To the security forces the illusions thrown up by the enemies charms would be convincing. It was possible to create charms to allow the bearer of the charm to see through illusions without having to focus. Those took a while to create and there were nowhere near enough laying around to support the thousands of security personnel they would need if they went that route.
Chris issued an order for a group of witches who specialized in making charms to start working up a way to mass produce charms of true seeing. They may never get the opportunity to use them but he figured it was better to have them and not need them than to need them and not have them. Chris wanted to know how come the horde had not already overrun them since they outnumbered them by so much. Omasa told him that the horde had basically been winning a war of attrition ever since they had chased the remaining Xandians to this planet. When the Xandians lost a man there was no way to recover that man unless he had a heir and then you had to wait for him to get trained. The horde had people in the universes standing around waiting for an opportunity to jump through a portal and wind up on earth.
Son of the Keeper: Book 1: Principles of Magic Page 19