by AJ Martin
Matthias nodded. “It was time of great confusion and terrible conflicts which continued for many, many centuries.” He turned to the princess. “You are correct princess, there are five powers. Only, there used to be only four. Back when the world was created, the gods wove four energies in an unending stream across Erithia. The power passed through every rock, every blade of grass, and every creature like a complex tapestry, weaving around everything and stretching on forever. From what we know they were never meant to be used how they are now. When the world was new the creatures that grew were simplistic. But then some of the emerging animals found ways to tap into the powers and drink the energy into their bodies. Some, like the first humans who became wizards, were advanced enough to wield them, whilst others, who became demons, were driven mad by the force of the energy flowing into them. They were angry, confused and they broke the world.”
"Your point?” The king growled. “I did not ask for a history lesson!”
“This is all relevant, I assure you, Your Grace. But it is complicated.” He took a breath. “The gods themselves couldn’t stop the emerging demons.”
“Why not? They’re gods, aren’t they?” Thadius asked. “They can control everything.”
“Not everything.” Matthias grimaced. “I don’t want to go off track, but from what we know, from ancient texts, the gods cannot control true evil. Even on their own creation, once the madness took hold of the creatures which had tapped into the powers, and they grew angry and hateful, they couldn’t control them.” Matthias shook his head. “The gods are still a mystery. No one understands them fully. Anyone who claims to is a liar. The history we have written down in the archives is that the gods weren’t prepared for what had happened. Their idea was to create a utopia. Erithia was meant to be beautiful. But they did not factor in the possibility of evil. They had never seen anything like it. And when evil was given an opportunity to grow, it spread like the plague. The entire world was being torn apart. Humans were born into the madness and though many fought back, just as many joined the cause of the demons, inflicted by the very same madness as the other creatures. And that is when the gods stepped in to try and fight back.”
"They made the Akari,” King Arwell nodded.
“You do know about the Akari then?” Matthias nodded.
“Of course!” the king scoffed. “You may have suppressed most of my people’s learning, but a few lucky ones like myself are still taught of the Akari and the Great Peace.”
“I have never learnt about them,” Josephine sniffed with a hint of disdain.
“That is because you never did like learning about history,” he smiled. “You were always more interested in learning about the here and now than about the past.”
Thadius coughed and interrupted them. “Excuse me, Your Grace, but I have to clarify something. You don’t mean to say you believe the Akari were real?”
The king nodded. “Of course they were.”
Matthias nodded. “They were as real as you are, Thadius,” he answered. “The gods created them in the hope of stopping the madness that was spreading across the world. They were made to be strong, but physical strength and determination on the Akari’s part wouldn’t be enough, and so with them the gods wove a new power into the world; the fifth power, or the pure power as it’s called by those who study them. The gods made it so that the Akari alone could use the new power and they made it an energy stronger than any of the others and capable of overwhelming the other four combined.”
“And with it they brokered a peace that lasted over two thousand years,” the king added, nodding.
“Until seven hundred years ago, when they all vanished,” Matthias added.
Thadius shook his head. “I can’t believe the Akari were real! I mean, I know I’m not a scholar, but I have read many books! At least six of them! You would think I would know the truth!” He exhaled. “Where did they go?” he asked.
“No one knows for sure,” Matthias replied. “In the space of a single day, they all disappeared as if they had never existed. People at the time assumed that the gods took them back, that they weren’t needed anymore.”
“But then came the Great War,” the King said. “And the Akari never came back to help.” He scoffed. “Humans have been left alone to fend for ourselves for centuries. We had to fight that war alone. We have been fighting against oppression ever since. In one form or another,” he added, casting a steely gaze over Matthias.
“I was a little surprised you didn’t know they were real Thadius. When you mentioned they were mythical yesterday, when we were studying the carvings of them in the entrance hall, I was taken aback a moment. But then I remembered that perhaps I am in an enviable position when it comes to knowledge.”
The soldier frowned. “I’ll try not to take that as an insult.”
“Time has covered over their legacy to most people here,” the king said. “But that’s mostly down to your kind again,” he said bitterly to Matthias. The wizard looked abashed. “They have become figures of myth and legend like many other creatures have over the years, since your kind denied my people the will to learn as they once did.”
Matthias took a breath. “I think, perhaps, we might be moving off topic.”
The king sniffed scornfully at the diversion. Then he nodded. “Are you going to tell us what this has to do with the prophecy then?”
Matthias nodded. “I needed to know how much you knew of the Akari and their power. You see, they haven’t left us completely, Your Grace.”
Arwell looked puzzled “You mean they’re coming back?”
Matthias shook his head. “Not quite.” He raised his hands to accentuate his next point. “This is what I had left to tell you yesterday. The part of the prophecy that I could not find the will in myself to speak of yesterday because it is almost too unbelievable to say.” He swallowed and looked to Josephine. “Princess, you don’t just have any power. You have the pure power. You possess the power of the Akari.”
“That is ridiculous!” She spluttered.
“The seeing stone has shown that you are the sole known heir to their fifth power. You are the only one alive this day with the ability to stop the dragon.”
“That’s insane!” The king barked. “Utter madness!” He seized Matthias by the collar.
“Your Grace!” Thadius exclaimed as the king shook the wizard.
“There is no way that any of this is true!” The man spat.
“The seeing stone told us,” Matthias said as calmly as he could. “They have never been wrong. Ever.”
“This is a trick,” the king hissed. “A Mahalian plot!” He let go of Matthias, who stepped back, feeling his neck. The king paced across the floor. He struck out a hand, pointing at Matthias. “Where is your proof?” he asked.
Matthias looked from the maddened king to the princess, who was watching him, glassy-eyed. “The proof sits within you Josephine. Don’t you feel it?” he asked.
The king spun his head to look at his daughter, who took a breath. Her hands were shaking.
“But I... I’m human!” she struggled.
“Your Highness, I am not even going to pretend for a second that you are actually an Akari creature. But you’ve somehow been given access to their abilities. There is only one way in my mind that you can have been given that gift. The gods must have chosen you somehow to undertake this task!”
“Guards!” the king bellowed, and on his command the soldiers returned, bursting through the door and running straight for Matthias. They grabbed his arms tightly. “I have listened to enough of these farfetched stories, given you far too much time to weave your lies into my daughter’s mind! I don’t know what the real reason is that your people have sent you here, but I am not going to let you brainwash me or my daughter into believing them! Take him away!” He barked, and Matthias was dragged to the door.
“You know what I’m saying is the truth!” Matthias yelled to them. “You’ve been chosen princess! You have to li
sten to me! Please!” The door slammed shut behind him. The king walked unsteadily to his chair and fell into it, his head in his hands.
“Your Grace,” Thadius whispered, kneeling by his side. “How can I help?”
The king shook his head. “Just go. Leave us Thadius.”
The soldier nodded and turned to go. Then as he was opening the door, he turned. “Whatever you need of me, Your Grace and Your Highness, I will do my utmost to help you.” Then he turned and left the room as the king hunched over and the princess watched the door with shock in her eyes.
Considerations
114th Day of the Cycle, 495 N.E. (New Era)
Matthias sat on the rotting, damp, moss - covered wooden cot of the cell he had been thrown into. He was still in the palace, but somewhere under the structure, and a small, barred slit in the brick wall beheld daylight beyond and showed him a small view of the palace’s exterior wall from below ground level. He had been dragged and thrown in the room by the guards and left for the better part of a day now. It might even have been longer.
He looked up at the sound of footsteps from the corridor beyond and the wooden door was unlocked and pushed inwardly. Thadius appeared in the doorway. He stepped into the confines of the cell and the door closed shut again behind him. For a moment he stood and watched Matthias silently.
“Afternoon,” Matthias said.
“Did you sleep well?” Thadius said and indicated to the cot.
“Like a damp old log,” Matthias replied acerbically.
“Why didn’t you stop my men from dragging you down here?” Thadius asked him.
“Was that what you were expecting?” Matthias smiled and shrugged, then shook his head. “I said I would tell you the truth about why I was here, and I have. I told the king and the princess everything they needed to know. If I were to break free from here, what would that accomplish? They need time for what I have told them to sink in. Besides,” he said, looking around the room. “It’s quite cosy in here, once you look past the dirt.”
Thadius chuckled. “I’ve heard it called many things, but never ‘cosy’.”
“Why have you come to see me?” Matthias asked. “Or are you here to kill me?”
Thadius paced forward a step, placing his hands in his pockets. “Was that what you were expecting?” He smiled. “Your people are idiots,” he said, and began to pace the room. “Asking you to kidnap the princess? How could that possibly have gone well?”
Matthias leant back against the cold, stone wall. “I must admit, it was not one of their saner requests,” he said. Then he shrugged. “I think they panicked. They believe there is danger nearby, and they wanted me to keep the princess safe.”
Thadius shook his head. “Don’t you think it would have been better if you had asked?”
Matthias chuckled. “You’re probably right, it would have been. That was the original plan. But there we go. These things happen.”
“Not often. Or ever, now I think on it,” Thadius smirked.
Matthias shifted in his seat. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry I betrayed your trust.”
Thadius snorted. “You assumed that a true trust existed between us.”
“And I assumed wrongly?” Matthias asked. “Because it didn’t seem that way when we were working on the plans to clear the catacombs.”
He shook his head. “I couldn’t trust you fully, even after you had impressed the king with your revelations. A young wizard sneaks into Rina with important news?" He shrugged. “I’m a sceptical man at the best of times. Something in my suspicious head told me not to let my guard down around you completely.”
Matthias smiled at him. “That is probably a sensible thing,” he said.
Thadius walked back to the door, and knocked three times to a guard on the other side. It opened at his instruction. “But… you’ve proven one thing to me,” he added.
Matthias brushed the floppy hair from his eyes. “What’s that?”
“You haven’t run away. Even when you had the opportunity to do so, when you could have killed me or taken the princess by force, which I believe you were very capable of doing, you stayed to face the consequences of your actions. So perhaps there is something that can be trusted in you. What that something is, remains to be seen.”
Matthias nodded seriously to him as he left the room and the door slammed shut again, and the sound of locks being barred filled Matthias’s ears. He sighed and looked out the window. “If you find out what it is, please tell me,” he whispered at the closed door.
Princess Josephine slumped heavily down onto her four-poster bed, before letting her body fall back onto the comfort of the silken sheets with a sigh. She had endured a long conversation- well, it was more an argument- with her father once the guards had taken Matthias away, and time seemed to blur together as the hours passed and she walked the palace corridors flanked by the ever - present guards her father had insisted be thrust upon her whilst Matthias was close by. Now she had retired to her room to think on the events.
Her father had been enraged by Matthias’s revelations to a point that no - one could reason with him. He could not bring himself to accept the story he had told them about the Akari creatures. The problem was she knew somehow that Matthias was telling the truth. Within her there seemed to be an instinctual confirmation that the power Mathias spoke of was that which she possessed. But the question remained how that could be so? And why would she, amongst all others in the world- all those more capable people- be selected by the gods?
When she had told her father she believed Matthias, he had exploded even more than when he called for Matthias’s removal from the room. They had fought for hours afterwards, going over every word of the story, re - living the years of terror within their minds. Now she knew what the energy was that dwelt inside her, she felt an inkling of gratitude in amongst her anger and distrust of the wizard, that he had given her some answers at long last. But there was much more that needed to be discussed with him, now the dust had settled and she had taken the time to gather her thoughts. But the king had demanded that she not go and visit the ambassador in his cell and going to speak with him would be tantamount to treason against a direct order of the king, whether he was her father or not.
She lay on the bed for a long time thinking, until she noticed that the sky had grown red-orange as the sun began another retreat beneath the horizon, and so she got up and made her way to her door. As she opened it two maids curtsied to her.
“Go and fetch Thadius, Lynna,” she instructed to the maid on the left. “Bring him here immediately.” Lynna curtsied and ran off. Josephine shut her door again, sat down in a chair by the window and waited, watching the sky turn to the deep - blue of evening.
Some time later there was a knock at the door and Thadius bowed his way into the room.
“Your Highness, you had asked to see me?”
The princess stood. “My good man, I am pleased that you have come. Thank you for seeing me.”
“Anything for you princess. You know that,” he smiled at her.
“How is your father?” she asked him awkwardly, rubbing her arm.
“Well, Your Highness. He is out of town at the moment, visiting relatives in Chine.” She nodded, and then they stood in awkward silence for a moment, before Thadius said: “Your Highness, forgive me, but I gather that you did not ask me here to ‘catch up’?”
“No. No I did not.” She exhaled. “I…” She paused a moment. “I need to see the wizard, Thadius.”
Thadius sighed. “Your Highness, the king has expressly forbidden you to go and see him. I can’t disobey those orders.”
“And so you should not,” she replied. “So I need you to bring him up here, to my chambers.”
Thadius looked puzzled. “But Your Highness just said-”
“I am not allowed to go and see him. But my father said nothing about the ambassador coming to see me.”
Thadius thought a moment, a look of complete disbelief on his fac
e. But then he sighed, and for a brief moment, a smile appeared on his face “As you wish, Your Highness.” He bowed again and left the room.
Another half-hour later, Thadius reappeared, and with him was Matthias, unbound and standing side-by-side with the soldier.
“Thank you for seeing me again princess,” Matthias said. “I was beginning to get cold in that dungeon, and there are only so many bricks to count to while away the time.”
“I need to know something,” the princess said without acknowledging what Matthias had said. “What will happen if I do not help you to stop the dragon?”
Matthias shrugged. “We will try and find another way I suppose.”
“Is there another way?”
Matthias smiled thinly. “I don’t believe so, Your Highness. Not unless my people can find the people who are breaking the dragon free. But time is running out for that hope.
Josephine sniffed. “I have a problem, ambassador,” she said, and began to pace the room.
“Please, call me Matthias,” he said. “What is it?””
The princess nodded. “I might not have been exposed to your people in their previous visitations to Rina, but I know full well what your kind do to women who use a power. Do you expect me to believe that your people, who abhor women who can wield energy, will simply let me continue to live as a princess without any intervention, when my part in this little quest is completed?”
Matthias paused as he thought. Then he continued. “There are far greater issues at hand,” he said.
Josephine’s eyes narrowed. “That is not an answer.” She shook her head and snorted derisively. “My father is right, you have a gift when it comes to speaking ambiguously.”
Matthias continued. “We must continue to try and find the people responsible and throw our efforts into that,” he said.
“And if you cannot find them in time? As you freely admitted, the sand is very much at the bottom of the hourglass in relation to this matter,” she said.
