Aha. So that’s why the Liberators picked a three-year term for their conquest of North America.
“Same as the other continents?” Amanda wanted to know.
“Yes. They all run at the same time. Start April thirtieth at midnight; govern until April thirtieth at midnight.”
Keep going, Regi. You’re doing great. “Do the wizards’ councils on all five continents run concurrently?”
“Yup.” He sighed contentedly. “Keep scratching over there,” he pointed to his left shoulder. He hummed happily. “I remember when my mother would do that as she tucked me into bed, even if just for a few minutes. I miss it.”
“Why April thirtieth?” Amanda asked.
“I can’t tell you that.”
Shoot. Keep digging. “Why three years?”
“I can’t tell you that either.”
Don’t strike out. Think of something he can answer. “Remember when I asked how they picked you? Was it a special election, as decided by an assembly of wizards, or…”
Regi sat up, his face registering annoyance. “Amanda, you’re asking questions that go beyond what you need to know as Supreme Liaison.”
While she forced herself to maintain a cheery smile, inside she cringed. Keep your demeanor. She gently pushed Regi back down to the hammock. “Here,” she said soothingly, “let me give you a shoulder massage.”
“Oh boy,” Regi muttered, disbelieving his luck.
“Can’t you conjure up a woman to do this for you?”
Regi chuckled. “Yes, but this isn’t the same. When you get an automaton to do it, no matter how pretty she is, you pretty well know how she’s going to do it. Here, you’re surprising me. I like that. That’s what a massage is all about.”
“That’s a good boy, Regi,” Amanda purred, “now stay here and let me work on my magic.”
Regi spontaneously convulsed with laughter. Amanda stepped back and savoured the spectacle.
“Magic!” Regi held up his hands, guffawing. He settled back once more, prompting her to close in and rest her hands on his thick neck. She started kneading away, gently.
“So, Regi, do you remember telling me that wizards can make love to each other?”
Regi opened his eyes only to roll them up, and groaned. “Ye-aa-ahhh…”
“Why don’t you have a girlfriend?”
His eyes misted immediately and an appearance of foreboding enveloped his handsome features. Amanda frantically thought: What’s wrong? He continued to sit up, looking down into his lap, then glancing out at the waves crashing upon the shore. She waited patiently, with baited breath.
Regi attempted to speak, but wiped his eyes with his arms. He exhaled deeply. Finally he said, “There’s no point.”
Amanda’s eyes expressed shock. “Regi, you? Honestly, you’re such an incredible guy, any girl would love to have you.”
Regi’s irate expression cut her off. He slashed the air with his hand. “Look, there’s no point, okay? It’s not something I have control over.”
Amanda desperately tried to figure out what was bothering Regi. She stumbled onto a wild guess. “Are you gay?” She threw her hands up into the air. “If you are, it’s no big deal, I totally support you.”
Regi clenched his teeth and drilled his gaze into Amanda’s face. “No. I’m not gay. You just don’t know what it’s like to be a wizard. Nothing at all.” His voice rose in volume, and deepened. “You just have no idea!” He was practically shouting now.
Amanda totally backed off both audibly and physically. Wide-eyed, she stood there, not knowing what move to make next.
Regi glared at her for a few seconds, then he sighed and reclined once again in his hammock. He closed his eyes peacefully to rest some more.
“Amanda?”
Amanda gulped, and waited for his next bombshell. What next? “Yes?”
He pointed to his right arm, his eyes still shut. “More, please. Try to scratch harder this time.”
Chapter Thirty-One
“Hello, Demus,” Amanda said as she sat on her bed, reviewing her briefing notes. She didn’t even look up.
“Hiya, Amanda,” Demus said cheerfully, having materialized seconds ago. Same chair, same bedroom.
She grinned and closed up her folder. “So, this date you’re taking me on, where is it?”
Demus sported a wicked grin as he held his finger to his lips. “It’s a surprise. Just close your eyes and away we go.”
“Sounds good.” She did as she was told.
Instantly, she recoiled from the sense of – wetness – around her. She was submerged in the lukewarm ocean, wearing a jade-colored one-piece bathing suit. Startled, she thrashed about in the sea, and then calmly started treading water. To her left, she saw Demus, now in black boxer shorts bathing suit. His oval, tanned face gazed at her expectantly.
“Where are we?” she asked.
“The Great Barrier Reef,” he said proudly. “Thought I’d take you here for your first time ever.” He raised his eyes. “It is, isn’t it?”
Amanda nervously recalled the time she had been riding dolphins with Regi, in the same spot, only a week ago. “Right. This is my first time.”
“Ready to SCUBA dive? There’s tons of beautiful coral and tropical fish below. I’ve picked the best spots. And it won’t be too deep, either.”
Amanda looked down into the water. She couldn’t see any bottom, only vague off-color regions below the water. “Are you going to zap up some tanks and regulators?”
Demus laughed. “We’re wizards. We don’t need SCUBA equipment.”
“Demus! I’m not a wizard, and I can’t breathe under water!”
He tilted his head to urge Amanda to dive. “Try it. I’ve got what you need.”
She was puzzled, but took a deep breath, and using accomplished maneuvers, pushed her body backwards into the deep blue. She still held her breath, but now she noticed an orb of air surrounding her head. Amazing. Against her better judgment, she expelled the air she held in her mouth, and then breathed through her nose. Whoa! It worked! Demus had conjured up some sort of air bubble surrounding her head. Unbelievable!
She saw Demus gliding beside her, as playful as an otter. He was positively wiggling his body, as he propelled himself at an incredible rate. Must be magic. Amanda again felt so jealous of all the magic wizards possessed. Demus didn’t even have to execute any strokes.
She eagerly followed him down, down, down into the shimmering currents. For one hour, they explored, rapt with curiosity, the multitude of colors, shapes, sizes, and behaviors of the denizens of the deep. Loggerhead turtles. Turquoise blue damselfish. Weirdly patterned black, white, and blue triggerfish with these huge yellow lips, as if they were bio-engineered to test lipstick. Table-like and lacelike tabletop coral – some beige, some faint pink, and some a hint of purple. Amanda marvelled at the richness of the marine world before her.
The two of them surfaced, shaking their heads at each other in happiness. Then Amanda said, “Demus?”
“Yes?”
“Can you – you promised me – take me to the Fortress of Emerana?”
Demus chuckled, water dripping down his face. “You want to see it again, that badly? Okay, sure!” Amanda knew what to do: she closed her eyes, and held her feet out, treading water in the meantime and striking a balance.
In the blink of an eye, Amanda was wearing her regular clothes. Her eyes adjusted instantly from the burning sun bathing the warm waters of the Great Barrier Reef, to the dim light of the Fortress of Emerana. She nearly fell, but adjusted her weight and remained standing. Again, the marble floor. Crystal walls, gleaming with shining point of light. The rain forest canopy several hundred feet up. It was, as always, majestic and magnificent.
“What did you want to see?” he asked. He held out his arms to the side, obviously attuned to her desires. He so badly wanted to please her.
Amanda pretended to think. Craning her neck around to view all angles of the cavernous hideout, she sa
id, “Demus, I’ve always wondered. Here on Earth we Mortals have many different religions, many different gods. Do the wizards have a god?”
Demus walked around her, smirking. She could tell he was enjoying himself immensely. “Of course. Elsedor.”
“Elsedor?” Amanda repeated excitedly. Of course. She had heard that a few times before. So Elsedor was a god. “I’ve heard some of the wizards mention his name.” She covered her mouth. “It’s a him, right?”
“Right.” Demus was still gazing at her, as if he were smitten with her. Without warning, he walked over to her and put his arm around her back, resting his hand on her shoulder. He was breathing deeply, as if he were hyperventilating. Amanda stood tense, knowing she had him where she wanted him to be. It was time to move quickly.
She stroked his hand that rested on her shoulder. “Demus, tell me more about this Elsedor.”
Demus’ eyes sparkled with glee. He then walked over to the center of the huge fortress, with Amanda following close by, puzzled. Once he satisfied himself, he stopped and stood, facing down to gaze at the perimeter of a circle inscribed on the floor, containing strange mythic characters that Amanda couldn’t comprehend. The circle appeared to be twenty feet in diameter. Demus closed his eyes, deep in thought. He raised his arms dramatically and chanted,
“Elsedor, O Mighty Elsedor,
Greatness in all of us command,
Lead us toward the promised land.”
Amanda heard a loud hissing noise arising from within the circle in front of as mist – looking like dry ice – arose from the entire circumference of the inscribed circle. She gasped as she saw the outline of a six-pointed marble crown rise from the floor.
“It’s okay,” Demus assured her, grasping her as she stood behind him.
As she watched in fascination, the crown arose, then the head of a bearded man, then his neck and shoulders. She nodded to herself. It was going to be a marble statue. Within ten seconds, the entire sculpture emerged from the depths below the floor, and a rim of flowing lava surrounded it. The red-hot lava was flowing down a smooth granite slope that descended downward and outward from the center, into escape valves embedded within the floor.
Much like an eternal flame, Amanda thought.
In the midst of it all was the king, mounted on a pedestal. The king had a youthful appearance despite the beard, and rested his chin onto his left arm. His right arm grasped a scepter that culminated into an embellished orb at the top end. The orb appeared to be a complex geometric shape, composed of pentagons. Robes, masterfully rendered artistically by the graceful marble design, flowed down from the king’s shoulders. The giant statue towered; it was about twenty feet high.
Amanda, expressing awe, pointed to the likeness. “That’s King Elsedor?”
Demus smirked as he turned to her. “Elsedor’s not a king. He’s a god.”
“The god of the wizards?”
“Correct.” Demus remembered his sacred duty. Praying and kneeling, he then stood with his eyes closed, and proceeded to jab at the air in strategically located spots. Every time he withdrew a finger, a tiny ball of light – looking like a glowing marble – would form and stay suspended in the air, perfectly intact. Amanda watched, fascinated. Demus, his eyes still closed, miraculously guessed where each spot should lay, and completed a complex network of glowing dots. They all formed an intricate geometric shape. He opened his eyes.
At once, beams of light slowly but determinedly shot out from each glowing dot to the next closest one. A complex shape began to fully form.
“Oh!” Amanda said breathlessly.
Now complete, the shape in front of her, suspended in the air, was based on a platonic solid object, with twelve pentagon shapes all joined together – much like a crude soccer ball. The same as the one on top of the spectre, but much bigger.
“This is a dodecahedron,” Demus said proudly.
“A dod – what?” Amanda asked.
“A dodecahedron,” Demus explained. “It has twenty vertices, thirty edges, and one hundred and sixty diagonals.”
“English, please.”
“Well,” Demus said with a laugh. “It’s a religious symbol to us, much like the cross is to Christianity. I just place twenty dots in the air the best I can. It takes years of practice to do with your eyes closed. When properly done, the dots all connect properly and you get this perfect shape. It shows your devotion to Elsedor. If you don’t do it right, it collapses and you have to start over.”
“Incredible,” Amanda said. So the wizards had their own religion. The geometric shape starting rotating slowly, twinkling in the air.
“This is also the shape in which the Five Continents meet.”
“Huh?”
“You know the five wizards’ councils around the world? Remember NAM, SUDA, AFRI, AJI, and AFRI?”
“Oh yes!”
“Well,” Demus said, gazing at the rotating figure, “this is the shape in which we meet. Inside that. You see these pentagon shapes. These are all screens. So the five councils can all meet in foursomes, and still see an image of everyone speaking. No matter where you are. Look up, look down, look sideways – you’ll see the speaker.”
“Like watching a movie on multiple screens inside a geodesic dome – a planetarium?” Amanda asked.
“That’s right! But ours is a complete sphere.”
She stared, transfixed by the sculpture. “So this is Elsedor. I remember when a few wizards – like Justica – would call out his name during moments of inspiration.”
“We’re not that much different from you Mortals in that respect.”
“So Elsedor was a real wizard? Or someone derived from myth?”
Demus smugly expressed his pride. “He was a real wizard. He died nearly a thousand years ago and constructed this fortress as the home of all wizards.”
Amanda walked away from Demus, her eyes still trained onto the majestic statue. “Tell me more about Elsedor.”
Demus spoke in an admiring voice, which came naturally to him as he described his revered god. “Before Elsedor, there were hundreds of wizards, but we all had no purpose. We had no governing structure. We had no identity as a people. Elsedor was the only man of his time to realize that we needed a vision, an inspiration.” His voice slightly cracked during his adulation. “He inspired us all. He told us all that we were wizards, and that we were superior to the Mortals who still controlled the Earth. While he didn’t create the games we all played, he institutionalized them. He created the Ten Doctrines. All the wizards know them by heart.”
Amanda formulated her next question, thinking quickly. She had to ask more questions, to find their weakness – if there were any. “Did Elsedor create the wizards’ council?”
Demus stared at her in amazement. “Very good. Yes, he did. You see the emblems of the Five Continents over there?”
Amanda directed her glance quickly to where he had pointed. For the first time, she realized that the pedestal was actually a pentagon. She circled the spectacle, taking about a minute to walk around the very wide exhibit. She saw all the emblems of the Five Continents chiseled into the marble, secretly admiring the ornate details of each “flag.” She recalled seeing these symbols before, while reviewing correspondence between the wizards’ councils. Now it all made sense.
“So Elsedor created the Five Continents?”
“Yes,” Demus confirmed. “And, he set up the five councils. In that way, a new era of cooperation between wizards all over the world began.”
“Very interesting,” Amanda said truthfully. “It’s very admirable that the wizards have so long ago made peace, while we humans continued to fight each other.”
Demus nodded.
Amanda pondered some more, attempting to capitalize on Demus’ emotional and awe-inspiring moment. She had to be careful too, in building upon Regi’s revelations, while not revealing to Demus where she had extracted this information. “So, Demus, we all know you Liberators have set three years as the
terms in which you’d govern the world. Is three years also the same term for all the wizards’ councils?”
Demus shrugged, seemingly bored by the line of questioning. “Yup.”
Aha. The information had now been corroborated.
“And why three years?”
“Elsedor decreed that it be so.”
“So it was Elsedor’s decision. And do all the terms for the Five Continents run at the same time?”
“Yup.”
“Why?”
Demus held out his hands. “Honestly, Amanda, you’re such a policy geek sometimes. You should relax more.”
Amanda gritted her teeth, not wanting to lose this valuable opportunity. “I’m proud to be a policy geek.” She playfully held up her head high, making Demus laugh. “So,” she said in an alluring voice, “humor me. Tell me why they all run at the same time.”
Demus nervously chuckled. “Oh, okay. Elsedor wanted to wizards to work in perfect harmony. So he made the decision that we all start at the same time and enjoy the same turnover. It’s called The Transition.” Demus’ emphasis on the two words made it clear it was to be a formal, capitalized term.
“What day does it start and finish?”
“April thirtieth.” More confirmation.
“Why that particular date?” Amanda asked, scowling at him.
“It was Elsedor’s birthday.”
Ah. So Elsedor was a very powerful influence on the wizards of today and remained so.
“And how do the wizards get chosen to sit on council?”
Demus pointed at her in a playful, mocking way. “You’ve asked me that before. That’s classified information. I’m still not gonna tell you.”
Damn. This must be sensitive information, seeing that both Regi and Demus had refused to answer her on that issue. Try again.
“Oh come on, Demus,” Amanda protested in a teasing way, tugging at his arm, “What’s the big secret? Why are you afraid to tell me such a boring fact like how the selection is done? Maybe through a game? It must be quite a thrill, perhaps, to fight it out for the honor of sitting on council?”
The Four Kings Page 19
