by Dena Nicotra
The room was more like a cathedral with marble floors and vaulted ceilings. Embedded within the octagon angles, I noticed enormous fan blades that turned within gear-like structures. I was equally impressed by an assortment of clocks built into the walls. Aside from the ticking sounds they emitted, it was unnervingly quiet. To my dismay, I realized that thousands of people sat in elaborate grandstands that went from floor to ceiling. I felt like I’d entered a deranged Roman gladiator arena. Seven people were seated on a vaulted, glass stage before us. Torvin had a higher chair in the middle, with three women to his right and three men to his left. I had a momentary surge of panic and debated weaving myself out of this place. Somehow, I just knew if I tried, it wouldn’t work so I continued toward the Elders until I was directly in front of them.
I curtsied as low as I could, and then took a position on my knees before them. I was still holding the stupid tissue to my nose and feeling less than confident. The crowd murmured and despite my handicap, I sensed that I’d behaved as expected to their surprise. Kalan was escorted by two young boys dressed in puffy pants that were stuffed into knee-high boots. Both of them had bronze colored tubes that twisted down their arms and fluted into smooth bands that wrapped around their wrists. I thought it was odd that they were both wearing round sunglasses indoors, but that wasn’t the weirdest part. They were wearing what looked like over-sized oil filters around their necks! At first I thought they were going to perform some sort of musical number, or maybe a dance routine but as they continued I realized they were guarding Kalan. I thought they were directing him toward me, but they lead him instead to an ornate throne bedecked with an assortment of machinery that looked like gears and spiky clock hands. I hadn’t noticed it at first because it was placed just to the left of the glass stage. I watched in astonishment as he abandoned me before the crowd, taking his seat on the crushed red velvet. He’d promised not to leave me! I’d never felt so betrayed!
“Let us not waste time as we all know its value. Every moment is but an empty vessel, a haphazard trinket of misguided fate unless we unravel the threads that define them, and make them something more. Something resonant, meaningful, and right. This is the sacred work of weavers and has been for all of time.” You could have heard a pin drop as that man spoke. All eyes were on him now, mine included. “In this moment in time, we will unravel the misguided efforts of those who threaten not only the light threads of our work, but the very sands of time!” A seriously huge knot formed in my stomach when he turned his attention to me.
“Master Weaver Joey, do you understand the charges being brought against you this day in this instance of time?” Torvin’s voice was commanding, and reverberated painfully in my head. I was absently aware of the tears that began to course down my cheeks. This was not what was supposed to happen! I turned to look up at the faces of those seated on the stage. A woman, maybe my age wearing an elaborate powdered wig, adorned with sparkling crystals sat fanning herself and glaring at me. Her pink satin gown had a low cut bodice, revealing more of her pale bust line than I ever would on a hot summer day. She reminded me of a cross between a cupcake and Marie Antoinette. The older woman seated next to her looked like a grandmother straight out of the 1950s, and the last one looked like a cross between an Amazon warrior and a pin-up girl. Her chiseled arms were covered in intricate tattoos, but they did little to take away from the sultry curves poured into her black leather cat suit. Her legs were crossed at the knee and her expression exuded obvious disdain. None of them looked like they liked me. The men weren’t much better. One looked like a cross between a troll and a miner from the old west. His clothing was tattered and his umber beard rested neatly upon his over-sized belly. To his right sat a scrawny little bald man wearing the ugliest plaid pants I’d ever seen. The last man was…Kess.
His hair was longer now but I’d recognize him anywhere. I blinked hard several times to make sure I was seeing what I was seeing. I wasn’t having a nightmare; he was right there in that seat starring back at me with those chocolate eyes. I focused on the familiar tattoos on his arms, the rough stubble on his chin, the complexities of his bone structure. Whatever I was facing now was not going to be good. I’d walked willingly into the flames this time, and seeing him sitting there was as overwhelming as seeing Kalan seated on his throne. I felt like somebody had just punched me in the gut. Nothing was making any sense. What in the Sam hell was he doing here? Torvin’s voice boomed at me again, yanking me from my distraction. “I’ll ask that once more, do you understand the charges?”
I brushed a tear from my cheek and cleared my throat. “No, I most definitely do not understand the charges! I came here for your help! I was told that you were knowledgeable, and that you could help me. Time has been playing tricks on me, but I’ve done nothing wrong!” My voice came out in a quaver, but I was glad it hadn’t cracked. Whatever this was, I wasn’t about to show them any more weakness than I already had. I turned to Kalan, “I don’t understand any of this. What are you doing? Why did you bring me here?” He turned his head and ignored me completely. I looked from him to Kess for some sort of indication of what was going on, but Kess had shifted his attention elsewhere. I was sure it was on purpose.
“Very well. We will begin with a history of events, you will then hear the charges against you, and you will be sentenced accordingly,” said Torvin, in a dismissive tone. He waved his hand to summons warrior lady, who stood with a hand-held computer device that she began to read from —“In a time of great turmoil within Era, Queen Genessa was kidnapped while vacationing as a child from our kingdom. She was then manipulated by a dark weaver to give her powers to a mortal. That plebeian mortal extended the gift to you, his granddaughter, Josephine May Akers. Shortly thereafter, her majesty’s son, Prince Kalan was trapped in a state of death by a dark weaver. It was only through the cunning skills of our Prince that these efforts were thwarted, restoring his majesty to his former state.” Finished with her reading, warrior lady discarded her electronic device by flipping it into the air and it disappeared before hitting the ground.
“Thank you Chloe,” Torvin said with a grunt before drumming his fingers on the arm of his chair. “The history clearly reveals a connection of Ms Aker’s family to the dark weavers.” The crowd shouted out in agreement. Oh, I did not have any friends in this room. The magnitude of the betrayal began to hit me full force. I’d been set up! I’d deal with my heartache later. Right now, I was plain and simply pissed off. Screw the protocols, I thought and got up from my knees. The crowd didn’t like that much, but I didn’t give a big, hairy rats ass what they thought.
“Okay, first off let me tell y’all something. Kalan’s momma wasn’t forced to do a damned thing. She gave my papaw her ‘gift’ of her own free will. She felt a deep love for him, because he rescued her from a quartz mine on my family property.” I moved closer to the Glass stage, “You were right about one thing, a dark weaver did put her there, but my papaw had nothing to do with that – and as for Prince Kalan’s…what did you call it?” I turned to Chloe and gave her my nastiest smirk, “oh yeah ‘cunning skill’ well let me tell ya a thing or two. He lured me to him under the pretense of love.” Here my voice failed, and I choked back a sob that threatened to knock me back to my knees. I looked at Kalan and all that came out was a hoarse, “Why?”
He jumped out of his seat and flew across the room getting just inches before my face before he screamed, “because you stole my birth right!” His eyes were burning with fury and his spittle hit my cheeks.
I physically jerked back at this. Who was this guy? I was stunned beyond comprehension and it took me a moment to absorb the situation. I wiped my cheek and shot back, “I did nothing of the sort Kalan and you know it!”
“You took the master weaver ability away from me, and from my kingdom, and my beloved mother is dead because of your useless family.” His voice was flat now, completely void of emotion.
“How could you pretend to love me?” I sobbed, not caring that
an arena full of weavers looked on.
“I…would…do…whatever was necessary to protect my lineage!” The rage in his voice cut me like a knife. This was not the Kalan I knew. Everything had been a lie. He turned his back on me and strolled back to his thrown. I felt my body go numb, but I would not fall apart in this place in front of these people. Instead, I turned on Kess.
“And you!” I was poised and ready to turn on him like a rabid dog, but just as I was ready to let him have it, he reached up and touched the brim of his bowler hat — and I saw the wink. It was quick, but it was there. Abruptly I knew that there was more going on here than I understood, and for reasons I could not explain I instinctively corrected my approach. I’d intended to verbally shred him for assisting in this drama that had become my life.
“You must tell them the truth Kessler! Tell them that it was your sister that trapped Kalan. Tell them that you helped me to be a better weaver so that they will know I do everything I could to restore him.” My eyes pleaded with him for help, but I didn’t receive it. Instead, he laughed. “Is that how you see it M’lady?”
“How else could I? It’s the truth!”
“Things, are not always what they seem,” he said flatly. I flashed back to my phone call with Pepper and when I looked up at him again, he had that one eyebrow cocked up. I’d seen that expression on his face before. It was that look that said trust me. He then stood up to address the crowd and I sank back down to the floor because my legs were so wobbly I was sure they wouldn’t hold me up much longer.
“She speaks the truth when she says that I did everything I could to help her become a better weaver and thereby assist Kalan. Everyone here knows that my sister Railey is a dark weaver who studies under Lela.” He placed his right hand over his heart before continuing, “Though it shames me greatly, it is what it is. I was in servitude to my sister and she expected that I would assist her in drawing out Joey’s abilities for her own use since I carry both dark and light weaver traits. Unbeknownst to her or Lela, I was also commissioned by Prince Kalan to teach Joey the ways of the weavers so that her power would reach full potential – thereby his majesty could be restored and regain what is rightfully his.”
Torvin interrupted his speech, “If I may pause you Kessler, please explain to the community here how this quest actually began.”
“Oh of course, my apologies. You see, After Queen Genessa passed, all efforts naturally channeled in to locating the mortal that had gained her powers. Kalan found her first, but her abilities were sorely lacking. His majesty worked to bring her up to speed but everyone knows that royalty never trains on the art of weaving. This is work that drains their power, and let’s just be honest – it is work that is beneath them.” The onlookers laughed at this. Kess took a bow and then continued when they simmered down. “My sister was able to track her down by increasing her own powers. She did this by absorbing the skills of another master weaver – albeit his powers were less than optimal when she absorbed them. He was no more skilled than Joey.” He was no more skilled than Joey…Did he really just say that?
That power his fiend of a sister sucked up belonged to Peter, who was Pepper’s brother, and I realized with a terrible sense of sadness that there was no way she would ever get her brother back now. The onlookers murmured and you didn’t have to be a weaver to feel the fear in the room. Kessler paused while Torvin instructed everyone to calm down and then he continued, “Let’s face it, my sister is a serious threat to Era thanks to Lela, but that’s why we’re here isn’t it?” He gave the crowd a chance to echo his sentiment. “Okay, so where was I? Oh yes, so naturally, she threw a dark weave over the entire situation to stop the progress his majesty had made. In short, she sent Joey right back to her former existence and stripped her of any memory of Kalan. She and Lela then trapped Kalan in a state of demise in an effort to buy time and keep him from Joey. His majesty, being as clever as he is, of course used even this unexpected turn of events to his advantage.”
Kalan crossed his legs comfortably while Kess blew more smoke up his royal ass. His nose was up in the air even higher now – and if I could have spit that far I’d have done it just to wipe the smugness off of his face. Since I was there, I saw firsthand that Joey was able to summons him from death.” Here he spread his arms out and looked up at the stands of people. “I’ll tell you all, it was a sight to see! Naturally, I swore fealty to his grace the moment he materialized in front of me. It was his grace’s desire that I seek her out, and begin the process of rebuilding her abilities so that she could then use them to restore Kalan. This was a plan fraught with peril because I had to keep this information hidden from my sister who was busy working on her own plans to unlock the secrets of the gift Joey possessed. When she came to me insisting that I should be the one to retrain Joey so that I could get her abilities strengthened and ready for her to absorb – well let’s just say I was relieved. I was working both sides as they say.”
I guess folks found that funny because of his light and dark tendencies because it stirred a round of chuckles. Even Kalan offered an obligatory chortle at my expense. I wasn’t amused personally. Hearing how I was set up, played, and ultimately betrayed wasn’t my kind of humor.
Marie Antoinette spoke up, her voice high and nasally, “Kessler, can you explain for us all again how you prevented your sister from stealing Prince Kalan’s birth right? I find that so gallant and I think it is important for everyone here to understand the lengths that you went to.”
“I’d be happy to Jazelle.” She batted her eyes at him and I rolled mine.
As you all know, ultimately Lela and my sister succeeded in drawing out all but the barest essence of her abilities before she restored Prince Kalan, but their victory was short lived. I reversed that by robbing from the sands of time.” Those seated on the stage nodded their approvals. “My reward for that effort was the trust I earned with you all.”
Torvin cleared his throat and I noticed Kess glanced over at him before continuing, “In addition to that our most benevolent Elder, Torvin offered me a seat on the council and a permanent reinstatement into the light weaver kingdom of Era.” To this, the crowd roared with applause.
My jaw just dropped open. I was a damn fool. If Kalan had commissioned Kessler, he was never as weak and helpless as he would have had me believe. My mind raced frantically backwards to those conversations I’d had in my head with Kalan. How he’d told me to learn from Kess, and not the other way around. Kess knew about Kalan all along so why did he bother to make me think there was some danger in mentioning him? Then it hit me, Kalan must have wanted to make sure I wasn’t attracted to Kessler instead of him. He tried to squash that with the pretense of fear and danger so that he could make sure that he was the one that owned my heart. That way I would trust him, and then he could take his time gnawing off pieces of my power like a spider feasting on the wings of a fly. Eww! I felt like I was going to be sick. Everything had been a scam, or a lie, and I was the idiot that bought it all.
Kess took his seat and folded his arms across his chest. I just shook my head. This was like a living soap opera and I didn’t want my part anymore. I closed my eyes and thought of my home in Arkansas. I wasn’t going back to that stupid duplex, and I didn’t care a damn about school anymore. I just wanted to go home to my family. I focused on the familiar creaking of the screen door and imagined my hand on it…
But nothing happened. I’d felt this before and I spun around to face Kalan. “You’ve taken what you wanted from me, didn’t you?”
“Oh yes baby, I most certainly did, but I’m not entirely through with you yet,” Kalan said in a cloying voice that made me want to throw up. If there was ever a time that I wanted to kick a man’s behind it was right here, right now.
“I hate you!” I spat, and boy did I mean it.
“Trust me, the feeling has been mutual for a long, long time,” he said with a smirk. All I could think about were all of those times he’d called me baby, all of those cryi
ng jags he’d had, and those stupid words…please remember me! I swiped at a tear with the back of my hand. “You made me think we’d had something special. You planted those memories didn’t you?”
“Well, that’s what weavers do Joey, but you wouldn’t know anything about that now would you?”
“I’d never do anything like that to someone!” I cried.
“No, of course you wouldn’t, and that’s why you shouldn’t have the skills of a master weaver. You’re just an emotional, impractical, mortal and you lack the backbone necessary to be a weaver.” I had no come back to this. He’d just slapped me so emotionally hard that all I could do was sit there while the tears slid down my face.
Torvin cleared his throat, “shall we continue with sentencing then your grace?” Kalan nodded his approval and my sentence was read. I was formally stripped of all of my abilities as a weaver — which they had actually already done on the glass block, while Kalan held my hands and drew my power out. I guess they had to make it look formal. Afterwards, I was led to a chamber where I was told I would remain until every weave I’d ever made was investigated to ensure that none of my “sloppy” treadling had caused any inappropriate breaks in time. How insulting could they get? It was hard to believe that these were the light weavers! I’d been discussed as if I’d masqueraded as a physician and performed bogus surgeries on people. When the door locked behind me, I turned to look at my accommodations. At least my room was nice. There was a small window that I could look out and see their strange city.
