The Goblin and the Empire

by JD Cole

  “So if I tell you to take a hike, what?”

  “That, I cannot do. We are one.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “I am bound to you. Until the day you die, I will be here, protecting you, serving you.”

  “Why?” With a great effort, Derek forced himself to push her away.

  Undine sighed, and walked to the window to stare out at the city. “Because alone, I am weak. Because I am flawed. Because the sprites did not know what they were doing when they created me.”

  “What are you?”

  “I am Veylsa’s guardian. The first of the elemental weapons forged to defeat Ercianodhon.”

  “Ursee-who?”

  “Your friend Kelli’s mortal enemy. The Bringer of Death, the father of goblins and the bane of sprites. He is the Immortal Goblin King.”

  “What exactly is this weapon you guard, what does it have to do with me?”

  “I am the source of its power. The sword is just a focus; through it, my master has access to my magic. And it belongs to you.”

  Derek shook his head and began pacing the office. A large wooden desk, adorned with a computer and other office sundry, was situated near the far wall, and he rapped his knuckles on it, thinking. “So you’re not real. You’re like… a sprite program. An artificial intelligence.”

  Her beautiful eyes narrowed. “I find that very rude and offensive! My intelligence is-”

  “You’re not alive.”

  She blinked at that, then adopted her former shy demeanor. “No, I suppose not. And yet I feel alive. As I said, I am imperfect and flawed.” She looked back at Derek, her expression almost sad. “I am no more than a thing to you, now. Just as I was to Uther.”

  “You are confusing the crap outta me. What exactly do you want? Every time we meet, you have a different attitude. First you stalk me, then you want to control me, now you act like you wanna date me?”

  Undine let out a small laugh, and shook her head. The innocence in her face was a shocking contradiction from their earlier encounter. “I am conforming myself to my new master. It takes time. Uther turned me into an executioner, and his personal plaything. Arthur, for all his kindness, molded me into a huntress, and even named me his friend. That is what they needed from me. You, on the other hand, are remarkably self-reliant and self-fulfilled. More so than either of them could ever have hoped to have been. I have learned that power and glory do not interest you. In fact, you still have not found a solid meaning for your life, which is why you spend your time helping random people, or filling your mind with more and more knowledge. But what you are, is very lonely. And you work hard at ignoring it. The Hood is good at that, he revels in his abilities. But Derek needs a companion… one who you do not have to lie to, who you don’t have to hide things from, someone completely devoted to you, and above all, someone who understands you, what it’s like to truly be superior while struggling to avoid bigotry against the inferior people around you.”

  “So what, you’ve appointed yourself my own personal escort? I find that fairly insulting. Like I couldn’t get my own girlfriend if I wanted to?”

  “I apologize if that is the impression I give.” She looked down and hefted her breasts with her hands, seeming to consider her choice of form.

  Derek’s jaw slackened as he watched her. Holy crap.

  Undine looked at him, apparently not realizing his reaction behind his mask. “Perhaps I could be a simple friend, then?”

  Derek shook his head clear, then threw his arms into the air, grunting with exasperation. “Perhaps you could gimme a friggin’ clue? What does this binding mean? What did you do to me? And why?”

  Undine twisted her lips in a pensive manner, then took a seat in one of the large cushioned chairs facing the desk. Derek leaned back against the desk, waiting. Undine clasped her hands together over her knees, which were pressed tightly together like a child awaiting a scolding. “Veylsa was an experiment. Trapping elemental magic was not a new thing for the sprites, enchantment had been an age-old skill before I came along. But most enchantments fade, needing to be replenished or simply replaced. We guardians were an effort to overcome that limitation. I can restore my own strength over time, and my intended purpose was to make sure Veylsa was used in defense of the sprites. The guardians they created after me are better at that than I. I was the initial… what would you say? Prototype. The biggest learning curve.”

  “Why would they need that kind of weapon?”

  “When the Goblin King came to power, he was a threat the sprites could not ignore, and so the weapons were created, along with guardians to keep them out of enemy hands. This was long ago, at least two thousand years before the humans arrived in their Sen’giza ship.” Undine went on to explain Ercianodhon’s necromancy, and his seeming immortality.

  “The elemental weapons exist solely because of him?” Derek asked.

  “Yes. Veylsa was the first. I command water element. My power is not limitless, but it is considerable. Of the nine guardians, only two are stronger than I. I can wield magic independent of my master, however, something none of the other guardians can do. But my flaw, at least as the sprites see it, is that I have a… a dependency problem.” She looked at Derek. “I need a master, I crave being bound to someone. Nearly anyone will do, save for the Goblin King himself. Because of this, creatures have fought for possession of me nearly since my creation. The Watched War, which you experienced in your Lifishi’un trial, the war began because I bound myself to Uther Pendragon, who became a bloodthirsty tyrant.”

  “You helped him slaughter all those people?”

  The elemental shrugged. “I adopt the character traits of my masters. I had no problems submitting to his desire to use my magic the way he did. I submit myself just as freely to you, in any way you choose to use me.”

  “Wait, in the dream, Uther acted the way he did because Kim —Celina— manipulated him. But Celina never existed in real life.”

  “That’s the way it happened in your dream trial, but Uther was always that kind of man anyway. Somehow, during your trial, you broke the stasis spell the sprites had put on me, chaining me to the Ythsimerin.”

  Derek thought back to the trial, looking for a correlation. “I destroyed the dream-world Excalibur, trying to get the Watchers out of my head.”

  “Perhaps that was it. If the sprites were wrestling with your mind, you could possibly have tampered with the magic that kept me imprisoned… but that would mean manipulating energies in the real world through shi’un dreams that were imposed on you...” The elemental paused. “If that is truly what happened, you have incredible willpower to manage such a feat without magic of your own. Whatever the case, you freed me, and so I chose you as my new master.”

  “Were you imprisoned because of what happened with Uther?”

  “Partly. Veylsa was a mer heirloom when the faeries migrated to the Faery Realm. The sprites had given the sword to one of the mer kings to keep me from the vampyres and irenaks, and I remained bound to that family for generations. Owned by the peaceful merfolk, I was no threat to anyone.”

  “Why would they leave such a powerful weapon behind if they needed it against the Goblin King? That makes no sense.”

  “By that point, the sprites no longer needed me. All of the other weapons had been forged, and the knowledge gained from our creation culminated in the Birthright, which was their goal all along. The Sprite Queen is much more powerful than I and the other guardians combined, or she will be once she has been properly trained. The Birthright needs no elemental guardian because it belongs solely to the sprite who inherits it. The sprites had hoped that with the Birthright, they could defeat Ercianodhon. That has not been the case so far, but I was left behind in the human world, and Uther eventually gained possession of Veylsa.”

  “How did you end up in England?”

  “Merfolk move and travel as much as anyone else does, and eventually I wound up in the waters between mainland Europe and the English Is
les. My master at that time, Prince Wurson of Ittalon, had a daughter, Erille. She was captured by the human wizard Mehdlin, and taken to the English shore. Wurson and I followed, deep inland, to save her. But despite my efforts he became geragun…”

  “Geragun…?”

  “Humans called them gorgons. Merfolk who remain on dry land for too long go mad and become vicious animals. To my knowledge, that only happens when humans drag merfolk from the seas, which is why you do not see them very often near the surface. Mehdlin did not know this; he meant no harm beyond studying Erille to satisfy his curiosities. But she turned, as did my master.”

  “You couldn’t keep your master wet?”

  “Being wet has nothing to do with it. Mehdlin kept Erille in a pond, and appeared to take good care of her, as best as he knew how, anyway. She was geragun by the time we found her a week later. Merfolk are tied to their oceans, and I cannot recreate the sheer amount of magic —call it nutrition— they require to remain healthy… not indefinitely. They must be immersed in oceans, or the lakes of the Faery Realm. I protected my master as long as I could, but our bond was broken when he became geragun. He and Erille both perished, killed by the humans, and I fell into human possession. Specifically, the man named Uther Pendragon, who used me to become King. Mehdlin spent the rest of his life trying to thwart Uther, rightly blaming himself for the merfolk deaths and my presence in England.”

  “Wait, how could Mehdlin even use magic? He was human. Or was that just the sprites manipulating history in the dream?”

  “Have you not guessed it?” Undine chuckled. “Do you not remember the defining features of Mehdlin’s appearance?”

  Derek paused, then shook his head when he realized what she meant. “White hair despite his youth, and bright emerald eyes. So that’s why they chose that era for the Lifishi’un trial. The sprites had Kelli being raised alongside one of her ancestors.”

  “He did not inherit the Birthright, but he was more in tune with his sprite blood than any of Arii’s descendants before Kelli. His magical prowess was laughable compared to a sprite, but it was enough to impress humans of the time. Anyhow, the chaos of Uther’s conquest drew the sprites’ attention even from behind the Ythsimerin; it is called the Watched War because the sprites watched it from afar, waiting for a chance to capture me, secretly warring against me and my master from the shadows. When Uther fell, I immediately bound myself to Arthur, who I knew was an innocent in their eyes. Imprisoning me would have meant imprisoning him, and so they waited. Obviously, when that bond ended, they finally caught me.”

  “How?”

  “Arthur knew of my history, and of my weakness, through Mehdlin. They both thought that if Veylsa was cast back into the depths of the ocean, given back to the merfolk, humanity would be safe and the sprites would leave me alone. I had thought so, too, and when Arthur was mortally wounded, he had his most trusted knight cast Veylsa into the sea. Our bond faded as Arthur died. But a trio of mystics ambushed me, burying me in the Ythsimerin before I could find a mer to bond with. There I slept until you freed me.” She meekly brushed a length of fiery hair from her brow, her movements somehow the most enticing thing Derek had ever seen.

  “You couldn’t have just bonded with one of the mystics?”

  Undine shook her head. “They had no interest in allowing me to remain free, even in sprite custody. I do not fault their thinking. Anyone who hates the sprites could potentially use me against them. But I have no wish to be imprisoned, even if it means battling with my creators.”

  “And now they’ll have to wait until I’m gone before they can capture you again.”

  “Yes.”

  “Although, if I do something they don’t like, they could just as easily decide to imprison me, so all you’ve given me another headache to deal with.”

  Undine looked thoroughly miserable now. “Yes.”

  “Why didn’t you just bond to another merman when you woke? Why drag me into your mess?”

  “I wanted the person who freed me.”

  “The person who freed you is pissed.”

  Undine looked away, nodding slowly. “I know. And I am sorry. It is not my wish to anger you.”

  “Was that even a consideration before you bound yourself to me?”

  “No.”

  “This binding can’t be undone? Can you reverse it or pass it on to someone else?”

  “No. A Dragon could, perhaps…”

  “I happen to know a couple of those.”

  “Please! Please give me a chance to serve you! Think on this, master,” Undine’s voice quivered with desperation. Derek could not decide if it was genuine or simply part of her new guise. “Bound to you, it is all but certain that my power will not be misused, not the way it was under Uther. But if I were to fall to someone with less integrity or morality than you-”

  “You need rehab, is what you need. Elementals Anonymous or Betty Fjord—”

  “Does my magic not intrigue you? Don’t you want to experience the power of Veylsa, to take command of all water magics?”

  Derek pulled his hood back and removed his helmet, to make sure Undine could see his angry scowl. His voice came as a snarl. “Here’s the problem. You yourself have said you’re flawed. That could mean anything, and since you’re essentially a computer program, that’s bad news. You call yourself an advantage I can make use of, but ignore the fact that you are also a vulnerability I never had before. The magic equivalent of a hacker could exploit your loopholes and totally ruin my day. You did not ask me about any of this, you walked in and took me hostage. I don’t care how you try to justify it, you attacked me. For all I know, you’re still trying to influence my mind, beyond taking advantage of my hormones. Why should I believe a single word you’ve said? I am not an idiot, and being treated like one makes me angry. You have not given me a single reason to trust you, therefore, I don’t. I want you gone.”

  Tears ran down Undine’s face. “I have taken a form that I hoped would please you, but I have not again tried to control you since you awoke. Truly, I am more considerate now of who and what you are, what you need from me. I understand if you do not believe that.” She met his eyes, and a glint of hope sparkled in her that Derek could almost feel emanating at him. “I will earn your trust. If it takes me the next hundred years, I will earn it.” She stood, dragged her hood over her head, and pulled a tight mask over her mouth and nose, leaving her beautiful eyes visible under a pair of heavy, black eyebrows and curtained by that incredible orange hair. There was an opening at the base of her hood that allowed the rest of that loose hair to fall past her hips. “We are bound. There is nothing I can do about that now, and I do not want to be bound to anyone but you. I am always with you, but you do not need to see me. You have my word that I will not violate your thoughts again. If you wish to speak to me, call my name and I will appear. Until then, master.” With that, she turned and ran toward the window wall and, jumping, passed right through it and dissolved with the rain outside.

  He wondered why she needed to do that rather than simply vanishing, then realized the dramatic exit was yet another attempt to please him. Undine was now a comic-inspired superhero, just like him.

  I can’t trust her, his mind said.

  But she’s so freaking cool, his gut replied.

  She’s still here, his mind warned, probably lied about not invading my thoughts, too.

  But… what if all her magic really is mine?

  Derek walked to the wall and pulled one of the plywood boards away, leaving several broken portions screwed into the frame. The wind immediately howled and sprayed rain into the new opening. Derek replaced his helmet and pulled the hood back over his head as the nanomesh mask reformed over his visor. The rescue efforts were long finished here, but there were almost certainly other things for a frustrated vigilante to occupy his time with in the battered city.

  The Hood leapt into the rain, hoping the Boston crime element would be out in force tonight. He needed to vent.

/>   ~

  One of the natural effects of having parts of the city destroyed was that hoodlums migrated to less hazardous areas. Authorities With Guns had clamped down on looting and rioting over the previous weeks, and so criminals left the marginal comfort of relief shelters to find illegal ways of enriching and entertaining themselves by spreading misery into places that had not been visibly touched by the Chek’than attack. The first set of sirens Derek chased led him to the scene of a car wreck, where the authorities had things well in hand. The Hood moved on, happy to note that the rain was dying off. Was that Undine’s doing?

  I don’t need her. I’m my own man, and she’s up to no good.

  I don’t want her magic. I manage just fine on my own.

  The temptations Undine had waved before him were hard to ignore, but Derek Hawkins was a very proud individual. His life, his destiny, was his to control. Undine had forcibly taken some of that control away, and he wasn’t about to believe her claims of submission. What was most frustrating was the complete lack of power he had, something he was unused to. This was unlike rescuing Kelli from a deadly alien; there he had been outmatched, but his limitations were his own, and he had gone into that battle fully expecting to die. It had been his choice.

  Now? Undine had proven that she could impose any limitations on him she wished. He couldn’t even protect himself from being physically manipulated. The binding might or might not be permanent, and Undine’s true motives were completely unknown. For all his genius, he had no way to verify or dispute anything she’d said, and it was driving him crazy. He needed to slip back into his element, where he was in control of something.

  Using his tractor beam, he swung through the air like Tarzan the ape man, but with more grace and skill than any jungle primitive or chimpanzee had ever possessed. The sound of loud music perked his audio sensors, and he angled into a small neighborhood populated by aging apartment buildings to find some teenagers blaring a stereo that probably cost as much as the car it was installed in. The hatchback was open so that the enormous speakers were in plain sight. This was a poorer residential area; it still had erected telephone poles to carry data and electrical lines. More modern areas installed all that ugly copper and fiber optic cabling underground. But the residents here deserved peace and quiet at one a.m. just as much as anyone else. Inconsiderate punks like these irritated Derek. Using lampposts and telephone poles to swing from, he crashed himself onto the hood of the car, surrounded by five boys not much older than Derek, three of them puffing on joints, all of them holding cans of beer. The decibel level emanating from the car’s speakers almost drowned out the angry shouts from the boys, but the Hood would have ignored them, anyway.