Battle Mage Visions (A Tale of Alus Book 12)

by Donald Wigboldy

  "Still despises, I think," Palose replied to her musings.

  Shrugging, Narissa answered, "We will see. I know what he wants people to believe, but I am not as sure as you say you are."

  The servant glanced at the two of them spurring the pretty seer to smile back at him only to receive a scowl, though Palose thought it was forced. His eyes sparkled slightly at the woman's attention, but the man was trained to appear aloof from the guests who went to see the emperor.

  Guarded doors appeared before them, but the servant slipped through to bring Kolban the message of his unexpected guests. Even Palose hadn't been called to the castle, which made everything involved with the visit more awkward.

  Once the man reappeared, he told Palose and thus the guards in their overhearing him, "The emperor will see you now."

  They moved past the servant and guards. He was often with the emperor by himself and they looked on Narissa as someone that he could restrain if Kolban couldn't just dispose of her by himself. The thought made the mage wonder if she would be approved by the emperor or destroyed as he had just considered. While Dorgred seemed infatuated with her, Palose was less so and only cared to find out if Kolban found her satisfactory, so that he could consider this mission finished.

  Kolban stood in one of his war rooms. Two men were speaking with him. One was the powerful warlock leader of the wizard hunters who held one of the most powerful magical auras Palose had ever seen. Even with his strength, the man paled before Kolban and his siblings.

  "Greetings, Palose," the boy said looking from the mage to his attractive compatriot. "And who is this enchanting woman by your side?"

  "If I did my job correctly, your majesty, she should be able to answer the questions that you have."

  "That is all for now, gentlemen," Kolban said waving off men who looked slightly annoyed by the interruption and curious as to what answers Narissa would be answering for the emperor in his youthful body. Palose could sympathize with them if they found it odd to take orders from a boy, while still knowing that he was the same man that was now close to a millennium old.

  Kolban moved from behind the table to meet them while Palose and Narissa closed the distance. When the mage stopped, he was surprised to see Narissa move within arm's reach of the emperor. The boy was barely taller than the seer, though the woman wasn't that tall either. Palose had nearly half a foot on both of them.

  Reaching for the emperor's hair as if she was familiar with him like she was his sister, Narissa mussed his hair saying, "Hmm, I thought that you would be taller by now."

  "I have grown most of an inch this year, I think," Kolban replied showing remarkable control. He was an emperor and a warlock unlike any other Palose had ever seen. Either point could lead the boy to disdain anyone beneath him. Touching a king had the possibility of having one thrown into prison, though perhaps that was a bit of an exaggeration, the mage mused to himself watching the two in front of him. Killing off or imprisoning your people for loving you enough to risk touching you might be a negative way to keep your population happy.

  "Well, that isn't bad for someone newborn less than a year ago," the seer agreed. "You are certainly different from what you were."

  Kolban's face darkened slightly and he asked taking hold of her wrists to remove them from his head, "What do you mean?"

  Before she could answer, a side door was thrown open and a girl burst into the room in a fury. Acheri cried out, "I was told that Palose brought a woman to see you, Kolban! What kind of insanity is this?"

  Narissa smiled looking at Acheri with that strange sideways tilt to her head that the seer used to value the person before her. "Your sister is even prettier than I could see in my visions," she proclaimed almost in awe of the pretty, dark haired princess.

  The compliment caused the girl to pull up short in confusion. It lasted a moment and Kolban introduced her, "This is a seer that I requested Palose to look for. She's... hmm, I wasn't given your name," the boy finished glancing to the mage over the woman's shoulder.

  "This is Narissa, a visionary, as you requested, at least as far as I can tell," he answered the emperor.

  "A pretty name and you dress quite interestingly for a seer. I was kind of envisioning an old, sightless man actually," Kolban said with a chuckle.

  "I hope that I don't disappoint you, your majesty," Narissa said trying to curtsey, though the boy hadn't released her right wrist yet. Her left arm was free but seemed unsure of where she should put it.

  Kolban let her arm go and assessed the woman with a neutral look before replying, "I hope not also."

  Feeling a bit of a chill, Narissa moved towards the princess a little more reserved.

  "The second of the vessels you grew as a sister," the seer said examining Acheri, who appeared self conscious, a look that Palose had never seen on her before. "Only the one who was inferior is not here. He acts as your right arm in the war, but you couldn't trust him to lead it all."

  "My generals would have questioned my turning over my armies to a boy. With me, my power is evident and my knowledge is intact. Lanquer is new, like my sister. They are adult, yet children."

  Narissa nodded admiring the princess. Dark blue eyes looked back from porcelain skin. Flawless, even for an early teenage girl, Acheri had only months of life making her skin more like a baby's than a woman. Her dark hair was thick and luxurious dropping nearly to her waist along her back. Her figure though slim, had curves that most women would long for and appreciate, while men would have trouble looking away from her beauty.

  There had been reports of men disappearing who had been too overtly admiring the princess. She only had eyes for one man, which made it difficult for Palose since he had little interest in the girl.

  Turning away from the princess, Narissa asked the emperor, "You have questions for me, your majesty, something only a seer might be able to answer?"

  Kolban looked at Palose and Acheri before saying, "I do. Palose, why don't you take Acheri for a walk? Acheri, you could take him to the observatory. I doubt that Palose has ever made it there."

  Suddenly brightening at the offer, the princess grabbed the mage's hand dragging him from the room through the guarded doors. The surprise of the exiting princess made the guards check on the emperor immediately. Kolban waved for them to close the doors before offering Narissa a seat off to the side.

  "I do have some questions that only a seer can answer, but not just any kind of seer will do," Kolban said to the woman as he sat in a chair beside her. Both were angled towards each other, but the boy found himself leaning towards Narissa staring at her surprising beauty. "What has Palose told you so far?"

  "Very little, sire," Narissa assured him. "He doesn't know the questions to ask, so I answered only what he needed to know. You have an important decision to make in your life, perhaps the biggest one in any of your lives."

  Kolban replied, "Any of my lives, you talk as if this isn't the same life as the last."

  Narissa stood once more making the boy join her. He didn't like giving anyone a height advantage on him, which was a problem in his new body. His power was great, so he shouldn't need to feel that way; but strangely Kolban noticed that insecurity in himself and didn't remember it from his past lives as Narissa called it.

  "You changed bodies and decided to create siblings by recreating much of your knowledge in them. Am I correct?" the woman asked taking off her borrowed coat.

  Eyes narrowing slightly as Kolban became suspicious of her intent, the emperor decided to speak candidly. "I had three viable candidates for my mind and magic to inhabit. Lanquer was strong, but not strong enough. Acheri's body and this one came from the same source, but my warlocks chose to make one female and one male, in case it wasn't the source but the sex of the body that might be stronger.

  "When I saw my choices, I was driven to create siblings even as I left my old body for the new."

  "What drove you to share your power this time, your majesty?"

  Narissa sat onc
e again and pulled off her boots. Her comfort level was surprising to the boy, but he considered her question as thoughtfully as he could while retrieving a pitcher of prapple juice and a pair of glasses that the emperor placed on a tray to put on a small table between them. Pouring both glasses, he handed one to the seer noting her bare legs and feet.

  Sitting once more, the boy stated, "I was an old man with no one to pass my legacy on to and cheating death once more. With centuries to consider and the last couple spent as a withering old man, I came to see things differently, I suppose."

  "You decided to try making a family and you also built a bond with the resurrection man, Palose," Narissa stated before sipping from the glass. Her nose wrinkled slightly and she added, "I could have used wine, but this will do for now."

  "My body is still growing," Kolban said with a smile as he lifted his glass to his lips.

  "Wine wouldn't hurt a boy," she countered.

  Standing once more, Kolban began to pace and he said to the seer, "I didn't have Palose bring you here to talk about my past, Narissa."

  Shaking her head, Narissa placed her drink back on the tray before standing up to join him. "They say that those who forget the past will likely repeat it. You aren't doing anything in this life like you did before, are you? You have that knowledge, but something made you try something different to defy those old patterns."

  Without her boots on, Kolban noticed the woman was slightly shorter making it seem like he had grown. Her dress was a warm red making her hair seem like it was part of a fire. Shaking his head, the boy felt a strange urge inside of him, but chose to answer her. "I told you. My time in this world gave me time to think. I wasn't satisfied with my life even before I needed to get a new body. I had my warlocks immediately looking for an answer after opening the doorway to this world."

  "You shattered much of the world," she prompted placing her fingers on his war table. A large map of Litsarin sat flat with markers sitting on the paper indicating where their forces were and those of his enemies. "You wanted revenge on the Grimnal and the immortal wizard. Even a dwarf king had helped and he came from this world.

  "Did your revenge settle you to become complacent? You had time and the power to drive the nations from this continent if you had fully committed to it."

  "Finishing them off wouldn't get my revenge," Kolban replied sounding more like he recounted someone else's thoughts. It had been his old body, his old anger, and that had withered with time and the change. "Crushing them over and over again was supposed to ease my anger, but that gave them time to grow stronger as well."

  Narissa nodded, "And you came to respect their descendents, didn't you? You attacked them because that was your plan and those serving you wanted to defeat them to expand your territory; but without your full intent the war just continued without end."

  Looking at the seer, Kolban moved closer to her. He looked slightly down meeting her blue eyes.

  "Where is the answer?" he questioned vaguely.

  "Where do you think, your majesty?" Narissa refused to answer.

  "I have been having dreams that unsettled me," the boy stated turning away from the seer again. "Though they were mostly different from one another, one stands out as being similar to them all.

  "A shrike minds its nest and young. When a snake slithers up to try and eat the young, the shrike strikes at it. It drives him away, but there are more coming from above and below.

  "The shrike creates a new nest, but not all the young choose to flee the first nest. They fight and breed more driving back the snakes. The first shrike protects her remaining young, but growing older they force her from the new nest as well.

  "Looking for a new nest, the shrike flies away."

  Narissa approached the emperor from behind and placed her hands on his shoulders. She spoke into his left ear and asked, "Do you know what it means?"

  "I was going to ask you, a seer, to interpret them for me."

  "I think you know, but I will tell you anyway, your majesty. You are the mother shrike. You made your nest and fought the vipers, but that nest wasn't safe. This city and the empire in the mountains will survive without you, your majesty, and it no longer feels like home.

  "The second nest, I believe, is the island of Listarin. Your brother and the generals know the land more than you. The first settlers paid tribute to you, but they don't know you. Given time, they will wish you gone."

  "So I am just supposed to flee from both of my lands?" Kolban said stiffening under her touch. His shoulders knotted, but Narissa tried to ease the tension massaging his shoulders while they continued to talk.

  "I have had visions also, your majesty."

  "Tell them to me or their meaning anyway," the emperor commanded though he wasn't forceful in his demand.

  "First, I see three different colored stars in the night. The one that shines the least takes the place of the one that shines the brightest. A comet flies through the sky towards the three stars. The first one that was brightest moves to the south traveling wherever it wishes to go. The second star, the one which was the middle brightest drops to fall in a spider web becoming an egg from which other stars grow, while the third star is struck giving itself for the others before winking out of sight.

  "My second dream was of a glacier that lingers. It grows and shrinks with the summers, but it seems unending. When night comes again, fires drop from the sky burning into the glacier striking great furrows into the ice. Parts break away while some remain until the sea rises to push back the fires."

  "I like the shrikes better than yours," Kolban replied without moving from the woman's hands. "What do yours mean?"

  "The first has to do with you and your siblings, I believe. You and your sister will disappear from the north to reappear in the south, while your weaker brother takes your place in the north only to disappear from sight."

  "He dies?" Kolban asked thinking of Lanquer. He had not become as close with his new brother as he had hoped, but the emperor certainly hadn't made him to see him destroyed. If Lanquer must give up his life to save the other two, perhaps it would still be for the best.

  "I don't know. Dreams are rarely precise.

  "I would groom him to take your place. Have you thought of traveling much of late?"

  Kolban nodded. "Other dreams have sent me flying to see more of the world."

  "Well, there you have it then," Narissa replied. "You aren't meant to just sit in this cold cave until you wither away and choose to die or make a new body again. You have a boy's body and the heart of the young. This empire will exist whether you are here or not. Your dreams tell you this too."

  "It will change," he worried more for his cities than because they might not need him. Leaving the empire would mean freedom for both him and his people. No matter what he did, Kolban had the power to conquer and create new empires or retake the old. It wasn't even a concern for him, and perhaps that was what made the boy he was now bored with Ensolus and his worries.

  "All things change, your majesty, even if it might be subtle at first. Your empire is made of elves, orcs, monsters and men. It is different from the empire of the old world, isn't it?"

  He nodded. "Tell me of this other dream."

  Sighing, Narissa stated, "More change comes and this one will be something that you may or may not have to deal with yourself. Palose said that you wished to know about the world and your place in it, though not in so many words.

  "My second dream shows an arrival that will change this world again. Like your Cataclysm, the north will become scarred with a new arrival, but I have yet to see it clearly."

  The woman stopped rubbing his shoulders and Kolban turned lifting her hands to hold her wrists again. Her eyes were looking up in thought. Looking back down on him, the seer replaced her hands on his shoulders draping her palms onto his upper chest.

  "I guess that I am not as good a seer as my predecessors. Some of the histories say that they could meet a person in an exact point along their de
stined path. If you choose to leave, I am not sure that I could do that."

  Kolban's brow furrowed and he asked, "Why would you try?"

  Looking surprised, Narissa replied, "Because I am destined to join you on your journey, at least for a time, your majesty. Why else would I have come here?"

  "I sent Palose to find a seer."

  She shrugged and pulled his head closer. Placing her lips upon his forehead, the seer stated, "I was placed in his path to find you. Time will tell us more. Nothing is completely set, but I will do what I can to guide you on your path."

  Her words comforted Kolban in a way that he couldn't explain, but they also made him fear that the preparations he had already been considering must continue. He had other dreams that the emperor knew were visions. Kolban had never had them in his past forms, but this body had concealed other treasures besides its ability to hold his power.

  Now he had to ready for change.

  Chapter 28- The Rescue

  Sebastian locked his attention on the wizard that he had been sent to find. Jana had changed her clothing. Wearing a dark pants and blouse under her black leather jacket, the girl had a pair of long knives belted to her sides. Drayden stood behind them, but wore no jacket and looked like he was planning on sitting down for an evening meal.

  "You're sure that you want to do this?" the captain asked as if the answer didn't change anything.

  "I can use Istrias to get us inside the castle for the first time," Sebastian answered looking away from the magic that would draw him to the wizard. "I am not sure about bringing Jana though."

  The girl drew out a small pouch from inside her jacket. "I have your stones. Two I carry to draw you to me. The talc rock I break if we are separated and I need to call you to me."

  "She can take care of herself and can change clothes to blend in too," Drayden added with a nod to the mage. "If you really want to make the most of this opportunity, Jana can do more than you. I doubt that you can blend in enough with all the warlocks he has in there."