by AJ Martin
“They just stared at me. But then as I went to speak to them I was pulled away. I began falling and the stars span around me. And then I heard a word. It was repeated a half dozen times before I awoke in a fluster.”
“What was the word?” Matthias asked with interest.
Josephine thought a moment. “Asternabai.”
“Asternabai?” Matthias repeated, screwing his nose up.
“Yes, that is it. Over and over again.”
“You are sure it was Asternabai you heard?” Matthias asked.
Josephine nodded. “I am certain. Why, what does it mean?”
Matthias shook his head. “There is a ‘celestial event’ known as the Asternabai.”
“Celestial event? What is that?” the princess asked.
“The stars above us are more than just fixed points of light in the darkness. They move around the sky in many ways. A ‘celestial event’ is when the stars change their positions to a way that has some consequence or impact on our world. My people have spent centuries trying to decipher them. They’ve named some of the known movements according to their effects. The patterns tend to repeat over time. Asternabai is the name of one of them. I remember it from my studies.”
“What did it mean?”
“I don’t know. It was a long time ago that I learned their names and even then there were two thousand known patterns. The problem is that my people still haven’t figured out what many of the patterns do, if anything. The problem is trying to sort out cause and effect.” The princess looked blankly at him. “Have I lost you?”
“About a minute or two ago,” she smiled. “But that is alright. What I would like to know is why I was being told about one of them.”
“Oh what I wouldn’t give to be in the Mahalian archives right about now! Thousands of books and parchments and repositories of information at my fingertips.”
“I thought wizards were supposed to be wise and all - knowing?” Josephine grinned.
He tapped his head. “There’s only so much information I can fit in here,” he rebuffed. “I’m not a walking library!”
“You disappoint me. The more time I spend with you Matthias, the less superior you seem.”
Matthias smirked back. “I never claimed to be superior.” He shook his head. “You’re certain it was an Akari you saw in your dream?”
“As sure as I can be!” Josephine replied. “How many blue skinned creatures can there be? Surely it can’t be a coincidence.”
“It could have just been a dream, I suppose,” Matthias said doubtfully, and his eyes narrowed.
“How could I have known the name ‘Asternabai’ if it were just a dream of my own making? What I saw of the world wasn’t like the drawings of the land you see in maps either. I really was looking down on Erithia.”
Matthias nodded. “No, I suppose you are right. People have been known to have visions like that before. Especially people who have looked into seeing stones. They say that for one unprepared to look into the stone, into the eyes of their gods, the images can turn them mad. The effect of looking into it stays with them for the rest of their lives. But then, you’ve never looked into a seeing stone.” He shrugged and took a deep breath. “It could mean that the gods are trying to talk to you directly somehow. It’s never been written about before, but then there is a first time for everything.”
“But if there was an Akari in my dream then maybe it was them trying to talk to me.”
“The Akari are all dead,” Matthias replied.
“I thought you said they all vanished?” the princess asked.
“That’s right,” Matthias nodded.
“Well in my vocabulary vanished is very different to being dead, is it not?”
Matthias nodded slowly. “I suppose. No - one was ever known to have found their bodies. From all I have read it’s like they’ve were… torn out of the world.”
“Then if the Akari are still alive, then they might be able to talk to me.”
Matthias shook his head. “You can’t be sure of any of that.”
“Then we need to find a way to be sure!” the princess said excitedly. “Although… why would they start to speak with me now? After all the time I spent struggling with the powers, why would they choose now to speak with me?”
Matthias shrugged. “Perhaps we have awakened something within you. In training you we might have opened a door in your mind that you have kept firmly closed. Maybe if we keep training we might be able to find out more.”
“Then we had best work quickly,” said Josephine. “Because I do not want to keep having bad dreams!”
Desperation
129th Day of the Cycle, 495 N.E. (New Era)
Josephine and Matthias spent the next two days in constant tuition, locked away in Josephine’s compartment. The first day they managed to advance to a point where Josephine could control the strange, sphere - like structures she had seen again. She seemed to see more of them this time and pointed out that they sat on everything and everyone as if they were made up of them. Using instinct she reached out along a line of them and managed to pick up the candle from her bedside table and suspend it in mid - air. It fell to the floor a moment later and Matthias had to snuff it out with his boot, but it had been enough of an advance to boost her confidence. The next day she grasped her power much more quickly. She was able to switch between seeing the structures and seeing the world that lay beyond them, as if she were focussing back and forth on them like distant objects. Holding on to the sight of them for longer made it possible for her to begin exploring what she could do with them. She and Matthias practiced together, the wizard telling her how he saw his own power and how he used it in different ways. For a time Josephine tried to recreate the invisible wall that she had subconsciously made to repel the flying demon before. It didn’t work and instead she sent the door bursting off its hinges.
By the time Providence made the final leg of its journey she had managed to discover another ability. Focussing on the lantern that hung on a hook by her bed, she lit it using the power and then carried it across the room, placing it onto the table beside herself.
“See? I knew I could do it this time!” she smiled and folded her arms proudly.
Matthias nodded. “You were right. I’m impressed. But can you extinguish the flame?” he grinned.
Josephine smiled. “Easy,” she said, and turned to the lamp. She squinted at the wick, let her mind focus and then stopped. “Alright, I haven’t a clue.”
Matthias laughed. “With your power, your guess is as good as mine. But if I were going to try and extinguish the wick, I would be able to pull threads of the earth power together until they formed bonds that can create water.”
“But how do you know what threads to put together?” Josephine asked.
Matthias thought about it a moment. “You know what, I don’t know. I just sort of… know. It was quite a while ago I learned all this, and most of what I do is instinct now.”
“Well, you’re a fat lot of good as a teacher!” Josephine retorted. “I’ll find out myself, shall I?” She shook her head and focused at the wick again. “I wonder?” She concentrated again and the lamp and the air around it began to buzz with tiny, swirling balls. As she thought of what she wanted to do, the air shimmered, and the balls began to grow green and then a vibrant turquoise. She outstretched a hand, to help her concentrate, and pointed at the glowing orbs, took them with her mind and moved them on to the wick. There was a splutter, and then the flame snuffed out, and a few droplets of water splashed onto the table.
Josephine smiled. “I did it!” she exclaimed.
Matthias nodded happily. “That was great,” he said, and nodded his head to the lamp. The flame reappeared with a puff. “But don’t get too confident.”
Josephine slumped back on the bed, folded her arms, and grumbled at him.
Providence docked at the final harbour soon after Josephine and Matthias had finished their training for the day. They bid goodb
ye to the captain, alone now and ready to make his return trip.
“I half wonder if he knows who I really am,” Josephine said. “He was bowing to me and preening away back there.”
“I am just surprised Lady Eliza did not remain on board with him, with all the doe-eyes she had been showing him,” Thadius chuckled.
“How much did you pay him for that door you broke anyway?” Luccius asked.
“I gave him three marks,” Matthias answered.
“Three?” Thadius exclaimed. “That’s enough for him to buy a new boat!” He turned round, and the captain was still waving them goodbye. “I’m not surprised how happy he is now!”
“It was the least I could do for all the chaos he’d been put through since we boarded. He was nearly killed after all.”
“He was scratched!” Thadius scoffed. “ My back got ripped open by that creature and I haven’t seen so much as a groat from your coffers! How much money do you have in those bags of yours exactly?”
“Anyway, here we are!” said Matthias, ignoring him, and threw his arms open theatrically to distract them. The others looked to the scene in front of them with less enthusiasm. Cracked yellow bricks paved the ground haphazardly in the small gap that constituted the dock, sandwiched between two crumbling houses.
“And just where are we again?” asked Luccius.
“Tanavern,” said Thadius. “Not the most pleasant of places to arrive in, unfortunately.”
“It’s a little run down,” replied Luccius, looking around the way in front with saddened eyes.
“Shh!” hissed Josephine. “The people will hear you!” she said, as several of the townsfolk continued to stare at them as they walked on. “May I suggest we make our way through town instead of standing here in judgement of it?”
They walked through the cramped little village, if it could even be called a village, warily. The houses were in disrepair: the roof tiles of many houses were cracked and missing in places, parts of the stone - bricked walls crumbled into piles around their foundations and doors were splintered and warped.
“What happened to this place?” asked Josephine sadly as she looked around, carefully sidestepping the cracks in the broken cobbled pathway, where weeds popped up in clusters. “I cannot believe that this is part of Aralia!”
“This is a poor village, princess,” Thadius replied quietly.
“How so?” she whispered, as they continued.
Thadius continued awkwardly. “Farmers and peasants have suffered here of late with the enclosure laws that have been put in place. The nobles in the countryside nearby do well out of the land worked by these people, but the people who till the land struggle to make ends meet out of what is left. Many people have left this region in the last few years I believe.”
“That is awful!” Josephine exclaimed. “Who put in place those new laws?” she asked.
“Ah, it was your father, princess,” Thadius said awkwardly.
Josephine stopped a moment and looked up to Thadius. Her eyes were saddened. “Of course,” she said after a pause and her jaw tightened. “How silly of me.” She shook her head. “Well, I think I shall have to look into this more upon my return. What was it you were saying about life being a series of conflicting morals, Matthias? How can this be fair when I live in such luxury?”
Matthias nodded. “This would be an example, Josephine, yes,” he said flatly. “I’m sorry you had to learn it this way.”
She shook her head. “Perhaps this is the only way to truly learn humility, to experience its cause first - hand.”
“There’s an inn up there,” Luccius pointed to a crumbling building, which was subsiding into the ground.
“It might be best if we skip that inn,” Matthias said, listening intently as they approached. He looked to one of the upstairs windows, where the curtains were drawn. “I think the goings on in there would likely scar Princess Josephine for life.”
Luccius’s ears twitched as he listened too, and then, eyes wide, his cheeks blushed. “You may be right,” he whispered.
Josephine looked at them both. “What do you-”
“Come along princess,” Thadius said hurriedly and placed an arm around her waist, directing her on swiftly.
“Are you sure we don’t have time for a visit?” Luccius smiled as they followed.
“We already have our hands full with you for a companion. I’d rather not take syphilis along for the ride as well,” Matthias said sarcastically. “Now come on.”
They passed the building and continued to walk through the town. The locals that gathered outside the inn didn’t look particularly friendly, especially to the group of well - dressed newcomers who they eyed as they passed by.
“I must admit I had thought Captain Rilam was at least exaggerating a little when he spoke about this place,” Matthias said under his breath.
“There’s little chance of acquiring horses here, I would wager,” Luccius added. “Most of the villagers probably can’t even afford one, and where they can they certainly aren’t about to go selling them out to us.”
Matthias nodded. “We’ll have to continue to Gormal by foot then, I’m afraid,” he said. “I-” They were stopped in their tracks as four men appeared in front of them, gliding in from an alley to their right. They were the same men who had been gathered around the inn behind them moments before. Thadius stopped dead and instantly slipped in front of Josephine and unsheathed his sword. Matthias looked behind them. Two more men stood behind, blocking their escape.
“Nice sword,” one of the men said to Thadius: a large man, a head taller than the knight and with beady eyes and a beard that left his upper lip bare. His hair was ruffled and his blue waistcoat torn and unravelling.
“Yes it is,” Thadius said, his jaw clenched. “It would be a shame if I would have to use it.”
A smaller man, wiry but with noticeably large biceps beneath his cotton shirt, leaned forward. “I’d like to use my own sword on your woman,” he smiled. “How’s about you let us have a fiddle with her?”
Thadius started forward, his face burning with rage. “How dare you talk about my charge that way! If you don’t shut your mouth I’ll chop your ‘sword’ into tiny pieces!”
“We want no trouble,” Matthias said, stepping forward and holding up a hand. “Why don’t you all step aside gentlemen and we will forget this?”
“Why should we?” One of the men behind them sneered, his face red with spots. “You come into our town dressed in your fine clothes, strutting around the place! And you expect to pay no toll?”
“There is no toll in this town!” Thadius barked. “I am a soldier of Aralia and I will have you all hung for theft if you deny us passage and try to extort money from us!”
“A soldier of Aralia?” the burly man repeated. “How’s about that boys? A soldier has come to pay us a visit from the king!” They all began to laugh. “Looks like you’ve left your battalion behind, soldier! A bad idea, coming to Tanavern on behalf of the bastard of a king right now with no backup.”
“His highness is none too popular around these parts,” another man in front, with thin, grey hair brushed to one side and a scar on his lip, added. “His laws have torn families apart here.”
“Matthias,” Luccius whispered. “Perhaps you should do something.”
“Not yet. I want to try to avoid a scene,” he whispered back.
“Whilst I respect that, the last time you tried to avoid a scene I ended up soaking wet in a river!” Luccius retorted.
“If you’re here on behalf of the king,” the burly man rumbled, “then you can pay us what is owed by him to us.”
Josephine stepped around Thadius. The knight grabbed her and tried to pull her back, but she shrugged him off and held up a hand to stop his advance. Then she turned back to the men and drew herself up high. “You are correct, you are owed a great deal,” she said loudly and clearly. “You have been dealt a great disservice here, and I will see that things change for you all.
You have my word.”
“And who are you? The king’s whore?” The wiry man snorted.
“Josephine-” Matthias said, but it was too late. Her face had fallen and she scowled at the man.
“I am Princess Josephine Arwell, the heir to the Phoenix Throne! And whatever your situation, your language is not acceptable!”
“You’re the princess?” the burly man said, staring the girl up and down. He chuckled. “Pull the other one. The princess would never set foot here!”
“Wait!” the grey-haired man said, and his eyes narrowed. “I recognise her! I was in Rina several years ago when the princess was visiting the sick. She’s a bit older, but it’s the same face! I know it!”
“Alright,” Matthias said, shaking his head. “This has gone on long enough. We don’t want trouble, but if you don’t move right now then you will be in a great deal of it.”
“The pretty boy’s angry!” the wiry man sniffed. “What you going to do to me, pretty boy?”
Matthias sighed. “You asked.” He raised a hand and the man shot backwards, landing in the mud and sliding until he hit the wall of a house some way away. The others followed his path, and then turned back to the group in front of them.
“What did you just do?” the burly man started.
“I don’t want to have to hurt anyone else,” Matthias said.
“He’s a wizard!” the grey haired man hissed.
“We hate your kind even more than the king!” said the large man, his beady eyes narrowing and his jaw clenched. “Freaks, the lot of you! You think you can take us all on then, wizard?” he retorted.
“I’d die trying,” Matthias responded with a smile.
As they continued to banter with the men, Josephine concentrated and tried to find her power. Perhaps she could help Matthias in some way. She was nervous, and her heart was pounding, but she managed to find the energy and pulled it into focus. As she did, she felt compelled, as if by some instinct, to approach the large - set man who blocked their way. She started forward to him and placed a hand on his arm before the others could stop her. Thadius froze mid - step, paralysed in shock at what she was doing.
