by Joe Jackson
“You have truly come a long way, old friend,” Karinda said. “I will be very interested to hear of these many gods whose power flows through you.”
“I’ll be happy to tell you about it, but we should get back to the others,” Kari said.
The archmage agreed silently and the land swirled around Kari in a nausea-inducing blur again before they found themselves returned to Reese’s level of the tower. Immediately, Kari stumbled forward and collapsed into one of the chairs, using every last ounce of strength she had to get comfortable. She knew she could keep the power flowing within her, but her body needed time to rest and recover, and there were some things she was content to do on her own. She only hoped the gods didn’t take that as a sign she appreciated their aid any less.
“Aaron?” Karinda called once she had her bearings.
“Here,” he said, peering around the edge of the door to the destroyed study. “Is it gone? Did you vanquish it?”
“The clone is dead, as is the demon that was in control of it.”
“Where did you go?” Kari asked.
The human archmage came out of the room and his cheeks flushed a bit. “I, erm, turned into a statue again. It’s usually the first defense that comes to mind when my body’s about to get mangled in some fashion.”
Kari chuckled, but it didn’t last. “Are Maelstrom and his kids all right?”
“Quite,” came the voice of the archmage as they entered Reese’s level from the stairwell. “Though I wish explaining this entire mess would prove to be so easy as dismantling the portal. Karinda, I take it you had little issue dealing with the demon?”
“I left that to the Avatar of Vengeance,” she said, indicating Kari. “Fortunately, it did not seem to know much with regard to how to control and properly use Reese’s talents. I suspect I may know part of the reason why. Gareth, is there something you would like to share with all of us, especially your children?”
The elder archmage nodded, though to Kari, it looked as much like a defeated bow of the head as a gesture of agreement. The archmage made a few casual gestures and the damage to the area began to repair itself. He indicated the many chairs in Reese’s living space, and everyone else took a seat as they waited for him to explain. In the soft light of the chamber, the weight of all that had happened in the last hour pressing down on him, Kari could see the age of the elder Maelstrom written in the somber features of his otherwise handsome face. He now looked every one of the hundreds – or was it thousands? – of years he had lived.
He yet hesitated, and Karinda sighed and glanced at each of his children. “There never was a missus, was there, old friend?”
Several confused stares were turned on Karinda, but the elder Maelstrom answered with a simple, “No.” Once all eyes were back on him, he folded his arms across his chest and sighed. “I was always too busy, too invested in the arcane and my research. By the time I began to give consideration to my legacy and desire to have children, it was far too late. I was too old, too much of a mystery to the people of this city, an old hermit whispered about in tales of wonder and conspiracy.”
“You adopted children, then?” Kari asked, confused.
Gareth shook his head. “No. Do you not see the family resemblance?”
“You cloned yourself?” Aaron asked. His words sounded more curious and impressed than shocked, and he began looking back and forth at Reese and Andrea.
“Father?” Andrea prompted.
Gods, they’ve never even known, Kari thought. She tried to imagine what it would be like to find out she was created rather than born. True, it had been the case with the entire first generations of rir created on this world, but that was different. They’d been created by their deity, not as some sort of arcane experiment. Reese and Andrea were just duplicates of their father, and that left Kari a very strange question about whether they were their own separate people, complete with souls.
And I am so very not interested in pondering that, she thought.
“Yes,” he answered after an uncomfortable silence. “I created Reese first, as he was the easier of the two, being a direct clone. Andrea I created later, after much research, such that I was obviously able to alter her gender.”
“Reese cloned a clone,” Karinda said with a nod, being answered by one in turn from Gareth. Kari was glad to see she wasn’t the only one who didn’t understand the significance of that, and so Karinda continued, “Cloning is a delicate process. When a clone then makes a clone of itself, corruption invariably takes root. Reese obviously had no idea that he was a clone, and even if he did, it is unlikely he would have understood the dangers in further cloning himself. The corruption of Reese’s clone likely drew the attention of the demon.”
“I… am a clone?” Reese muttered, still coming to terms with it.
“Father, why?” Andrea asked.
“He wanted a legacy, as he said,” Karinda answered, apparently sparing her old friend the embarrassment of trying to explain it. “Andrea, Reese: Do not take this too much to heart. Your father has always loved and raised you as his children, and has taught you much of what he knows. Though the power of the arcane extends our lifetimes, we are none of us immortal. And this changes nothing. Your blood is simply purely his, more so than had he produced you with a mate.”
“You mean normally?” Reese asked with an exasperated sigh.
Kari’s heart skipped a beat when she saw the hurt that comment splashed across the face of the elder Maelstrom. The awkwardness was brought to a swift end when there was a bang on the door of the tower downstairs, and Reese left to go answer it. He glared at his father as he left, but Andrea approached the elder and wrapped him in a hug. She drew away after a short time, though, and Kari cringed as she realized the question that was coming.
“Father, am I… am I an actual person?”
That actually made the elder archmage smirk. “As real as the man who made you, my daughter,” he said. “You know I have never had much time or inclination for theology or even philosophy, Andrea, but despite all of my knowledge and power, I do not believe it was solely I who gave life to you. All I can tell you is that I created you of my own flesh and blood, and love you with every fiber of my being. If you have questions about your soul, those would be best put to those who know and understand the ways of the gods better than your… me. But I look at the vast differences between us – at least in terms of our personalities, likes, and dislikes and so on – and I know you are not just an extension of me.”
Reese was frozen in the doorway to the stairwell, listening to his father’s words, but when everyone else took notice of him, he cleared his throat. “The, uh, duke is here, Father.”
“The duke?” Gareth asked, his brow scrunching up.
“Yes, Father. He seems a tad upset with the goings-on in our tower today.”
“Ah, let me handle this,” Kari said, struggling to her feet. The others tried to get her to sit back down but she waved off their protests, leading them down to the lower level.
The duke fixed his eyes on Kari first and foremost when their party reached the entry level sitting room. “I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised to find you here,” he said.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked, doing a double-take.
“Do you really need to ask after the events of last night?” he asked, but then he waved dismissively as his eyes settled on the many archmages behind Kari. “Gareth, my family has long been tolerant of your presence for the knowledge you share and the work you’ve done in protecting this city, but am I to understand this very tower has been the source of the attacks on my city?”
“It is, Your Grace, but the issue has been dealt with. I can offer only my most sincere apologies, and recommend that your thanks go specifically to Lady Vanador for her efforts.”
“If by efforts you mean her repeated trips to the underworld to kick the hornets’ nests, as it were, then I think I need not explain why I won’t be thanking her for anything.”
“Excuse me,” Karinda said, making her way to stand before the duke. “In addition to your thanks, you now owe Lady Vanador an apology.”
“And just who do you think you are?” Bosimar shot back. It seemed uncharacteristic for him, and Kari wondered if there was something more behind his ire than the prior night’s attacks.
“Your Grace, this is Lady Karinda Bakhor, the head of the High Council of Wizardry,” Maelstrom said.
That certainly changed the duke’s attitude in a moment. Kari wasn’t sure what authority the Wizardry Council had over non-arcanists, but Karinda’s power was without question, even to the duke. He made no gestures of welcome or apology, either to Karinda or Kari, but finally found the willpower to keep his mouth closed for a moment.
When he finally overcame the shock of the introduction, he turned an impatient gaze back on Maelstrom. “Would you care to explain exactly what has been going on?”
“How are you even aware something was going on?” Kari blurted, her suspicions over the fact that the duke had spies in her Order overriding her better sense.
“I have a court mage, Lady Vanador,” he answered, putting a good deal of venom into the saying of her name. “Contrary to your desires, I am aware of a great many things that go on within my city.”
“That’s interesting,” she said, sitting forward in her seat with some effort. “Maybe it’ll interest you to know that the very person you had spying on my Order is the reason your city was attacked last night.” That silenced the entire chamber, eyes swinging back and forth between the two of them. “Yeah, I thought that might shut you up, Your Grace. But I’ll tell you what: You can pass sentence on your own spy. I suppose I owe you that courtesy, at least.”
The duke smiled, and it was one of the most unpleasant things Kari had seen in years. “I do wonder how you plan to pay the taxes on your land with your house in ashes,” he said, and the utter callousness was something Kari might’ve answered with a punch – if she could move. “As to the informant? Execute him. He is of no use to me, and if what you say is true, he has earned that and more from the both of us. Now, Gareth owes me an explanation, I believe.”
The archmage laid the story out for the duke, not bothering to hide or deny anything, not even the fact that his children were clones. The admission perturbed Bosimar only slightly less than Maelstrom’s own children, and the duke looked angry by the time the tale was finished.
“So, I expect you will be getting rid of your children, then?” Duke Bosimar asked.
Andrea and Reese both straightened out at that. “What? Why…?” Reese blurted.
“I will not, Your Grace,” Maelstrom answered, arms folded tight across his chest.
“Then you may remove yourself from my city as well,” Bosimar said.
Kari gasped. What was the duke playing at? He could be a manipulator and his mood swings were often terrifying, but his entire demeanor seemed so off since he’d arrived. The attacks on the city could only explain so much of that; it seemed more like the attacks actually played into some power-grabbing scheme he had been building toward for some time. That his own spy was part of the mix really began to grate on Kari’s soul. If he was throwing Maelstrom and his children out of the city, how long would it be before Kari’s strained relationship with the noble got the Demonhunter Order thrown out of the city?
“Your city?” Karinda said, finally breaking her silence. “You seem to be mistaken when it comes to your position as duke. You serve the people, Christopher Bosimar, not the other way around. This man has done more to safeguard this world and this city than you will likely ever know. But it is far more than your well-storied family ever has or will, of that I assure you.”
“You try my patience, Archmage,” he said, turning that venomous gaze back onto Kari’s niece. “Your friend and this demonhunter, through negligence or outright foolishness, nearly cost this entire city’s population their lives last night. This is not a situation I care to ever see repeated, and if that means I must remove the four of them from my city by force, so be it.”
“No need,” Reese said. “I’ll leave.”
“As will I,” Andrea agreed.
“Children, no…,” Maelstrom said, letting a rare bit of raw emotion show.
“They can come with me, Gareth,” Karinda said, and she gestured to Aaron. “We can help them come to understand their place among things, and they may continue their training with other members of the council, or perhaps even Rexis De’Tourga in Castle Tenari.”
Karinda, if you can hear my thoughts, the duke is up to something. We need to figure out what that is, Kari thought.
Quite right, came the answer a moment later. Let us resolve this situation first.
Kari had to make a conscious effort not to smile, even in the face of the tension. Hearing her niece’s voice in her mind left a warm feeling in her core, a tingle in her brain that reminded her so much of her old friend Carly. Karinda’s mother had been telepathic and empathic, a bit like Sonja but much more powerful in those regards, and she had apparently passed those traits on to her daughter in spades.
“Master Maelstrom had nothing to do with the attacks themselves, Your Grace, and the one directly responsible was eliminated by Lady Vanador. If I take Reese and Andrea with me, it should alleviate your concerns about Gareth and Kari, your strained relationships with the two of them notwithstanding.”
Bosimar didn’t look happy with Karinda’a assessment, but neither did he argue with it. “Have all of the threats been eliminated?”
Karinda looked to Gareth, who nodded. “The portal by which our enemies were coming has been destroyed, permanently, and I have no plans to erect another. Though it will be of very little comfort to the people, Your Grace, I offer my sincere apologies, as well as my services to help right the wrongs committed.”
“I will hold you to that, Gareth,” the duke answered. “As for you, Lady Vanador–”
Kari rose to her feet, and he stopped speaking. “Your Grace, I think in the interest of helping you remember, you should address me as Avatar going forward. I’m not one of your citizens anymore, and I don’t have the time or patience to play political games with you. You want to strip me of my land and title? Fine. But you will not spy on my Order anymore, and you will not tell me what to do, ever.”
“He cannot strip you of your land and title under the Succession Accords,” Maelstrom put in, seeming to gain a bit of confidence from Kari and Karinda’a confrontations. “At worst, he can raise your taxes until it is simply not financially sound to remain on your land, but that would be rather petty, would it not, Christopher?”
“As I was saying,” the duke said coldly, “Lady Vanador–”
“Avatar,” she corrected. There was a silence so absolute Kari thought she could hear other peoples’ hearts beating.
“…I would see you in my court at your earliest convenience. Given your… physical condition, I expect that may not be for some time, but we have many things to discuss.”
“We certainly do,” Kari said evenly.
The duke left without so much as a goodbye, and once he was gone, the others all stood around looking at each other.
“Gareth?” Karinda prompted, getting his attention. “Go fetch a bottle of bourbon. Make sure it is a large one.”
Chapter IV - Declarations
Kari was glad to have the assistance of the archmages. While Aaron had left with Reese and Andrea shortly after the meeting, intent on taking them to the council’s hidden fortress off the coast of Terrassia, Karinda and Gareth stayed with Kari. Both were just as incensed as Kari was at the duke�
��s cold and deliberately rude behavior. With the agreement that something else must be going on behind the scenes to cause such a dramatic change in Duke Bosimar’s normally professional – if not exactly warm – demeanor, Karinda and Gareth agreed to help Kari try to root it out. After all, the duke had no issues spying on Kari, so she thought perhaps she would give him a taste of his own subterfuge.
Karinda, of course, would be the more helpful of the two, armed with telepathic and empathic abilities to augment her incredible arcane prowess. There were lines she couldn’t or wouldn’t cross, as a great deal of responsibility came with the ability to read others’ thoughts and emotions. Still, Kari expected her niece might have better luck figuring out what was going on in the city simply by walking its streets and opening her senses to the ebb and flow of the population’s feelings.
Gareth, meanwhile, planned to make good on his promise to help fix the damage caused by his portal, if indirectly. Arcane power could only replace old-fashioned labor to a certain extent, but he would be invaluable in aiding the rebuilding in the wake of the attacks. The elder archmage wasn’t sure the common people would be all too keen on talking to him – he was quite intimidating to the average citizen, apparently – but he assured Kari he would glean what things he could from casual conversation.
Kari sighed as she walked the main boulevard of northern DarkWind toward the campus of the Order. At least with the portal destroyed and Reese and Andrea sheltered away from the city, she could theoretically relax where attacks from Mehr’Durillia were concerned. Now was the time to prepare a counterstrike, to assess the damage done, and to begin the healing process, physical and otherwise. Kari knew her body was close to giving out on her completely, but she had a few more things to put in place before she could rest and let Sakkrass’ gift do its work.
