by Frank Morin
Queen Dreokt rounded on Ailsa, her expression hurt, like a young child whose parents had just killed her kitten. She whispered, “Tell me this is a lie.”
“It’s a lie,” Ailsa said calmly as a headache blossomed in her mind. The queen was reading her thoughts deeper than usual. She made sure to fill those thoughts with astonishment and outrage by the false accusation. That helped ease the queen’s sadness a little, but she did not stop digging. If she kept going, she might pierce the boundary between Ailsa’s surface thoughts and her real persona.
So Ailsa held up the small, rolled paper the server had brought her. “Interesting tale, Craigroy. You really are a master of deceit.”
“What are you talking about?” Craigroy snapped, clearly upset that she hadn’t been obliterated yet. He eyed the rolled paper suspiciously. He must sense he’d made an important mistake, but it was too late to retreat now. He’d committed himself, something he usually avoided.
“I’ve wondered if you were holding back information from your source in Merkland, so I made a point of acquiring the full transcripts of every recorded communication, and today that paid off. You left out the rest of the message.”
Queen Dreokt looked from Ailsa to Craigroy, her brow furrowed, looking more puzzled than Ailsa had ever seen. The queen said, “Craigroy knows nothing of any additional message.”
“How else could he deceive you?” Ailsa asked. “If he leaves the recording room prior to receiving the full message, he can use the information to his advantage.” Before Craigroy could dispute that, she added, “And in the rest of the message, the last statement is expanded. The full quote is, ‘This should poison the queen’s confidence in her most trusted advisors and sow discord among her leadership right before they begin the march.’“
Craigroy gaped, and it was Ailsa’s turn to point at him. “Brilliant execution, Craigroy. You almost convinced our queen to destroy me and Rosslyn both on the eve of battle. You nearly crippled the effectiveness of the leadership team and placed the lives of every soldier in our army at risk.”
Craigroy’s gloating sense of victory evaporated. His face had drained of color and he started shaking. When Queen Dreokt fixed an angry glare on him he stammered, “I’m so sorry. It was an honest mistake.”
“Honesty has not been one of your virtues since you have come to my court, but I shall cure you of that lack,” she growled, making a grasping motion with one hand.
Craigroy staggered back with a scream. It cut off abruptly, and he relaxed, his fear draining away to absolute calm. Queen Dreokt nodded in satisfaction. “It’s a pity to lose one who had served with such distinction for so long, but I cannot afford to allow such disruptions in my court. Take him away for reeducation.” She made a shooing gesture and one of her silent servants took Craigroy by the hand and led him from the hall.
Ailsa watched him go with a sense of relief, but it was mingled surprisingly by a sense of pity. He had been very clever, and could have become a valuable resource if he had not insisted on challenging her.
Queen Dreokt clapped her hands in joy and exclaimed, “I haven’t celebrated a birthday in over three hundred years! Tonight we celebrate. Tomorrow we embark upon the great quest of your lives. We will snuff out this annoying rebellion and bring peace again to our lands.”
Ailsa cheered with everyone else, absolutely convinced the queen was right.
The upcoming battle would indeed define their age.
21
The Unrivaled Power of Second Helpings
By late morning, Connor joined the rest of the core team assembling in Shona’s tower suite. Her extensive apartment included a study with a polished table, long enough to seat a dozen people. Some of the group still looked groggy from staying up all night, but no one complained. Ivor sat at the head of the table beside Shona, who was dressed more casually than usual, in a black skirt and light, rose-colored blouse. Since they were meeting in her rooms, she wore only a pair of wool slippers on her feet.
Wolfram escorted Lady Briet into the room after most of them were assembled. She looked tired, but in good spirits, dressed in a brightly colored skirt and matching blouse. Connor wanted to ask Wolfram about his aunt’s note, but Rory arrived. His battle leathers were smudged, as if he’d just left a training session with Anika. Everyone rose to cheer, and he beamed like a child.
As soon as everyone sat around the table, Ivor said, “I hear you’ve got important news.”
Connor and Kilian took turns relating the contents of Ailsa’s letter and what Connor had figured out during his run, interspersed with lots of comments from Verena, Aifric, Hamish, and Jean.
When they finished, most of the group looked shocked. Ivor asked, “You’re really confident we face dire risks from associating too closely with the elementals?”
Shona added, “It’s hard to believe. First we lose fire, and now we learn that the other elementals have been conspiring against us this whole time.”
“It’s only a risk now because I’m ascended and the Builders have been searching for ways to reach the Builder threshold,” Connor reiterated. “For everyone else, the risk should be minimal.”
“Except everyone else doesn’t hold the key to our potential victory,” Wolfram pointed out.
“We’ll be careful,” Connor promised.
That didn’t help as much as he had hoped it might.
Aifric said, “We need to highlight the most important consequence of these new insights. If Connor is right, then our primary focus of attack needs to shift to tricking the queen into tapping an activated sculpted stone.”
“That’s right!” Verena exclaimed. “We could potentially yank her right out of the third threshold.”
“Which might make her vulnerable to the elementals, just like my father,” Kilian pointed out solemnly.
“But would also block her from fleshcrafting,” Connor added.
“So we could finally kill her!” Hamish cried exultantly, holding aloft a warm sweetbread like a victory banner.
Ivor asked, “How confident are you in this hypothesis?”
Kilian spread his hands. “Nothing is certain, but it’s the first time all the clues seem to fit. The good thing is, if we’re wrong, then tapping an activated sculpted stone might shatter all of her affinities instead. If we’re right, even if she suffers a similar reaction to my father and is consumed in an elfonnel, we know how to fight elfonnel.”
“How do you propose we trick her into doing this?” Lady Briet asked.
Connor was happy to see most of the group seemed convinced enough to seriously consider the idea. With the queen and her army heading toward Merkland, they needed a plan, and as much as news of the risks associated with the elements concerned him, the idea of pulling the queen down to the second threshold offered a tiny ray of hope.
An empty chair on the other side of the table suddenly slid back toward the wall and the floor peeled away with barely a sound. Evander rose up from below and the floor sealed beneath his feet, returning to its previous pristine condition. He was still dressed in the fine tunic he’d worn for the wedding, although he wore his huge leather jacket over it. He was carrying several scrolls and sat down as the chair slid forward to support his weight.
The man was a master. Connor was technically more powerful, but he would not have dared entering Shona’s suite in that way.
Everyone was so accustomed to Evander’s grand entrances they barely paused the conversation. Kilian smiled at his nephew and said, “I’m glad you joined us. I’m assuming those scrolls suggest you have something to add to the conversation?”
Evander placed the rolled scrolls on the table and nodded. “Time and constant repetition allow the tireless sea to wear down the mightiest stone, but the bird that dares to leap from the cliff face before it is ready is soon consumed for its folly.”
Hamish commented, “That’s not exactly encouraging, you know?”
“Truth is neither encouraging nor discouraging. It simply is, and
I seek to coax it from hiding through gentle inquiry.”
Connor was glad he switched to almost normal speech because they needed clarity right now. As much as he loved great Sentry speak, they had no room for error.
“We believe we may have discovered a little of that truth you’ve been hunting for,” Verena said, and quickly related what they had just told the others.
Evander did not look surprised, or impressed. “Your hypothesis carries the weight of potential, but it is not convincing enough to ignore other possibilities.”
Kilian said, “What have you found? We’re always open to more ideas, especially when dealing with my mother.”
“Recent events have spurred my renewed search through ancient archives. The pieces of new insight I gained in recent days have borne additional fruit.”
Hamish grinned. “We can always use more fruit. Rory and Anika ran off with all the Torcish Delight yesterday.”
Jean rolled her eyes and shushed him. Evander said, “The truths of the sylfaen and the process by which that energy is filtered through the ramverk by way of sculpted stones has helped illuminate additional fragments of notes I’ve collected over the years. As Connor discovered, the sculpted stones are key to the filtering process. What was not clear before was why an elfonnel was also required to slumber at the convergence point.”
Connor hadn’t considered that.
Evander continued. “It is my belief that the sculpted stone alone would filter sylfaen into the lower, red-frequency energy. I suspect the elfonnel is the part of the equation that facilitates the filtering of the sylfaen into the higher, green frequency.”
He let them digest that for a moment. Jean spoke first. “So are you saying that if there’s no elfonnel at a convergence point that the green energy for that affinity would get snuffed out?”
Evander nodded. That was fascinating and potentially very important. Connor said, “Wait a minute. You killed an elfonnel at that convergence point where he was guarding that slate sculpted stone, right?”
Evander nodded again and drew the long sculpted slate from a deep pocket inside his jacket. He placed it on the table, and Connor could again feel vast amounts of energy radiating from it. Amazing to think that stone was the key to the slate affinity.
Verena frowned. “Have any of you felt the green energy of slate fading?”
Connor shook his head. “Earth seems normal to me.”
Hamish paused in the act of shoving an entire pastry into his mouth. “Says the guy who has affinities and elementals playing around in his head as imaginary friends.”
Connor shrugged. “He seems as normal as any of my other imaginary friends.”
Evander asked, “Have you indeed studied earth?”
“Not really. I honestly tend to talk with water and fire more.”
Evander nodded slowly. “Because you ascended with fire and water.”
True, but Connor wasn’t sure what that had to do with anything. He had noticed the green and red energies flowing over all of the elementals.
Evander added, “When the sculpted stone taken from a convergence point is broken or spent, the red energy power dissipates very quickly.”
Connor nodded. “Yeah, we saw that with serpentinite and marble.”
“The red frequency is based upon the governing laws of the planet. That energy has form, limitations, and expected courses of life. When the sculpted stones were shattered, I studied the effects carefully. I believe the red frequency of power that spreads throughout this land from those sculpted stones and infuses the stones that we tap for our affinities acts like a faucet filling vessels that are not watertight. “
“What are you saying?” Kilian asked as the rest of the group listened intently. Connor had never heard the red frequency defined so clearly. If Evander was right, what other truths could they glean from that understanding?
“When the faucet is turned off, vessels that are not watertight quickly drain, leaving them empty and of no use. We experienced this effect after those two sculpted stones were destroyed. The latent power infusing the stones necessary for our affinities drained away even though we were not using it.”
Connor nodded slowly. “That part makes sense, but how does that explain the elfonnel?”
Evander tapped the scrolls on the table in front of him. “The green frequency filtered through the elfonnel is a different type of power. I now believe the green frequency is the power of entropy.”
Connor was not familiar with that word. Verena asked, “Entropy?”
“It is a state of the world defined by chaos,” Evander said.
That was a little unnerving, but it did sort of make sense. Green energy was very difficult to control and almost always destructive. Fleshcrafting seemed to be one of the few exceptions.
Hamish asked, “Is that like the power of seconds?”
Connor laughed, Verena shook her head, and Jean turned to Hamish and asked, “The power of seconds?”
“Yeah. Everyone gets first helpings. That’s kind of the normal way of things. But not everybody can handle getting seconds. When you can, it opens up a whole new level of culinary experience.”
That made sense to Connor, although for the analogy to work Hamish probably should’ve said the green energy was like the power of fifth helpings. Very few people had the willpower and the stomach power to make it to fifth helpings, but when they did that’s often when things got really interesting.
Jean said, “I don’t understand the connection between chaos and convergence points and elfonnel.”
“Elfonnel are creatures of entropy,” Evander stated.
That made all sorts of sense. Connor could not imagine an elfonnel rising that did not create tremendous destruction. He thought of the stones tied most closely to the green frequency. They were all weird, all broke the rules that other affinities followed. Pumice absorbed elemental power, obsidian enhanced people but also messed with the mind, and porphyry . . . well, porphyry embodied chaos.
As he thought of it, Porphyry’s last words from that morning came to mind. With a sense of wonder, Connor realized what Porphyry meant when it talked about the elements abandoning their hunting grounds and invading his. They were trying to escape the restraints of the laws of nature, their normal hunting grounds. They wanted freedom from the limitations of the red-frequency sylfaen. They had already pushed into the green frequency realm, hunting that freedom. By breaking out of their natural state, they had stepped into chaos, which was Porphyry’s realm. They were foreign to it and Porphyry recognized that, understood somehow that their efforts to break away from the laws of nature that governed their existence would plunge the entire world into chaos.
If he was understanding things right, that confirmed his new fears of the dangers of close association with the elementals, and suggested that Evander’s interpretation was correct. Elfonnel were linked to the elements, which were now beings of both red and green energies. They could filter the green frequency power and would want to make it available to Petralists because it would push the Petralists into the realm of chaos, the place where they hoped to build a bridge to freedom.
While his mind raced with those thoughts, Evander said, “When I destroyed the elfonnel slumbering at that convergence point for slate, I destroyed that conduit, but it’s my belief that green energy does not simply drain back into the natural world like red does. Green energy is not natural to the common state of the world, so is foreign to it. Therefore, the green energy of entropy would remain locked in the affinity stones that we tap until it is fully spent.”
“So you’re saying we’ll lose the green level of slate eventually?” Connor asked. Evander nodded, and Verena asked, “So what does that mean? What green-only powers are associated with slate?”
That was a very good question. Connor had experienced a lot of new abilities, but most of those been tied to the other elements. He wasn’t sure he dare ask the elementals for any other favors. How many more would it take until his de
bt to them sealed him to their will and allowed them to try rising through him?
Evander said, “I do not believe significant advances in our affinities with slate would occur unless one ascended through slate first, and eventually reached the third threshold. My grandfather did so, and his earth powers far exceeded those of anyone else, including my grandmother.”
Kilian nodded, looking thoughtful. “He’s right. My mother was always fiercer as a battle Petralist, but there were things my father could do with the earth that not even she could match. That’s another point that supports our theory of what happened. If he hadn’t been dragged back through a threshold, I’m not sure we could have defeated him.”
Evander said, “I’m confident my understanding of these energy sources is accurate and that we will see the green energy of slate diminish, although admittedly we’re unlikely to see dramatic impacts to the slate powers we exercise.”
“I believe you’re right,” Connor said, and outlined the realizations he’d just had. As the rest of the group digested those ideas, he added, “But I don’t see how this helps us.”
“Because I propose that we destroy the green energy associated with sandstone,” Evander declared.
“Whoa,” Connor breathed as the ramifications of the idea struck like one of Rory’s fists.
If Evander was right, then by killing the elfonnel slumbering at the convergence point with the sandstone sculpted stone, they could destroy the queen’s fleshcrafting ability without breaking all healing.
The group spent several minutes discussing the pros and cons. No one but Connor could tap fleshcrafting, so they were far more willing to consider it since their own healing powers would not be impacted. If they could drain away fleshcrafting, the queen would no longer be invulnerable. And if they could trick her into tapping an activated sculpted stone, they might be able to force her to descend one threshold. Either solution might give them the edge to defeat her.
