by Rick Field
Her friend smiled faintly. “You chose well,” the Empress encouraged from the sidelines.
“Thank you, My Lady,” Milor spoke to her, then faced Liane once more. “Yes, just for the duration of this crisis, My Lady.”
The Pillar drew a breath, held it, then noisily let it out, trying to get it to carry her stress with it. It worked, somewhat. “Very well, My Lord; I accept the position.”
He seemed relieved, and smiled slightly. “Kneel, My Lady.”
She was about to remind him that he was the one who taught her a Noble should only kneel to the Emperor, then remembered belatedly that he was the Emperor. It was going to take her some time to change her perception of him.
Liane went down to one knee.
Milor stepped closer, standing just outside of her personal space but still uncomfortably close while she was in a supplicated position. “I offer to you, Liane known as the MagicWarper, the position of Champion of Kiria. Do you accept, completely, unequivocally, of your own mind and free of coercion?”
The analytical part of her mind wondered at the reworded repetition of both clauses. “I do, My Lord.”
His right hand dove down to the handle of his weapon, and Liane tensed. She knew she was within striking range of his sword, she had built it herself. She knew DawnBreaker better than Milor knew it. The blade came free of its scabbard, as unblemished as Liane remembered it being when she had first created it, when she warped it out of pure magic, desperation, and two swords taken from fallen enemies. It had been her Masterpiece, the one item that showed her worth of being called a Master Mage.
And now that same weapon was being brought up. Curious, her eyes followed its tip when Milor brought it up. “Then, in my name and the name of my ancestors, rise and take up your position as Champion of Kiria,” the sword came down, tapping her right shoulder. “Voice and Hand of the Emperors,” she was aware of the sword being lifted and moving over her head to tap her left shoulder. “And all of the rights and responsibilities it entails.” The sword tapped her head, and Milor sheathed it with the fluid motion of someone who had spent countless hours practicing.
“You may rise, My Lady,” her Emperor instructed.
She rose, yet barely heard him. Deep inside, she could feel the magic, her magic, connecting to something else. Almost as if she touched the Great Barrier, yet somehow not, she felt herself expand. She could feel the magic of Kiria, taste it; smell it; hear it; see it. As if suddenly the three primary colors had gained a fourth, the world around her was more than it was.
She drew a breath as if it were her first ever, accepted the magic of Kiria filling her lungs, diffusing into her body. Milor, standing before her, glowed with this magic, and she could see the tendrils of his magic diffusing into the surroundings. He was of the island as much as the island was of him.
Something else tickled her expanded senses, like a strange combination of heartbeat and breathing rhythm. She looked down, beyond floor and basement, to something... else. Something that slumbered deep beneath the surface of the country. It slumbered deeply, as if in a coma, and yet she knew that it had detected her newly found scrutiny, had weighed her, judged her, and determined her to be insignificant of its notice. She could see it, feel it, understand it – its energy did not come from anchors. It came from something else, something... different.
Something subtle, yet familiar. Suddenly, it clicked. The Druids had explained to her how they transformed the energy of nature, using that energy to fuel their spells. This strange and powerful magic was running on similar principals, transforming energy from one type into another. Liane blinked; it was exactly what Danulia's traps were doing. She took a long, hard, look now that she had the opportunity to study the process in detail.
Whatever it was, it was draining a minuscule amount of energy from every primary and secondary element around it, and gathering it inside of itself. Its stores were vast, Liane could feel. All of that power, all of that energy, lay resting beneath her feet, guided by a sense of intelligence that slept continuously.
Continuing to stare, the Pillar whispered, “What is... that?” her voice sounded tinny to her own ears, her heart beat in her throat. Whatever it was, she could feel its intent despite its slumber; the powerful malicious drive to unmake, to destroy, to rend. The stores of energy made it powerful, its intent made it supremely dangerous.
The first Empress let out a breath that sounded like a humorless chuckle. “That, lass, is what we could not divulge without the Champion's bond of secrecy upon you. Lad, you'll want to listen carefully because you don't know this either.” Liane looked up from her study of the thing beneath the ground, and focused on the strange magic that synchronized modern Kirian speech over the ancient Latin of the Templars being spoken by the Empress. It was beautiful and subtle.
Milor dipped his head, focusing on his ancestor. “When I ascended the throne,” the ghost began, “my rule was far from secure. I faced adversity, both from inside and outside the nation. What I needed was a failsafe, a last resort, something that would allow me to do what was required to defend my rule. I gathered my finest battlemages and together, we built what you detected, lass.” The ghost came to a standstill and faced them. “It is no less than a guardian magic, primed with near-sentient intelligence. It will awake only for those of my blood. Be warned; once awoken, any may command it. It was designed as a safety measure, in case of attack and should the ruling Emperor fall.”
“How is it that I did not know of this before, My Lady? I believed my honored father already explained all of Kiria's defenses to me,” the young Crown Prince turned Emperor asked.
“That is for a very simple reason, lad,” the Empress stated calmly. “Your father didn't know. I'm well aware that security through obscurity is not a good practice; however, obscurity makes a good first line of defense on its own. Your father did not tell you because your father did not know. The true secret about Kiria's sleeping guardian is known only to those that built and guarded it in the early days, or those that needed to use it. Case in point, Barrion knows, as do the four rulers after me.”
Milor dipped his head, while Liane nodded to herself. Even if the guardian was well protected, keeping it a complete secret would increase its security even further. The Pillar looked at the two ghosts and the rows of urns in the wall. Especially if the secret was kept by the dead, and revealed only when necessary.
“You wish for me to awaken this guardian, My Lady?” Milor asked.
“Only if you see no other option, lad. You must face this usurper and destroy her. Repairing the damage will be lengthy but doable. Should that prove impossible, you must awaken the guardian magic and turn it loose upon our enemy and her cronies. The guardian magic owes no allegiance safe to the one who commands it, it does not adhere to chains of command or magical authorizations. Shields and wards will be brushed aside; it has been collecting energy for over seven hundred years, its reserves are so vast they may well be infinite and its power so large it may be described as omnipotent.”
Liane noticed a tiny frown line creasing her friend's forehead, a frown line she recognized from school. “How would you have me go about awakening the guardian magic, My Lady?” he finally asked.
“There is a door, now that you know of this secret, lad. This door is located in the living area of the ancient imperial quarters, the ones that I had built seven hundred years ago. Open this door, descend the stairs. It will be deep. You will find a large cubical stone room. On the floor is a large runic circle, in the exact center of it stands a pedestal. You will stand in front of that pedestal, place your hand upon it, and command the guardian magic, the incarnation of the will of the island, to awaken and obey your commands. A drop of your blood will be taken. You will feel the magic judge you and determine your lineage. After you have been accepted, the guardian will awaken. It will take half an hour to do so; you cannot move nor take your hand off the pedestal until it is done,” the Empress explained.
The ghost
turned to Liane, not giving Milor another chance to speak. “Lass, should it become necessary to awaken the guardian magic, the lad must go down alone. It'll take about half an hour for the guardian magic to awaken. You must prevent anything else from following him; should anyone else manage to command it, all will be lost.” the Empress sighed visibly. “It was always envisioned that the magic would be employed before the enemies breached the palace. Its ability to accept any order was designed as safety in case the ruler fell after awakening it. It was never thought that the enemy would overwhelm us this completely and without notice.”
“Let's hope it does not come to that, My Lady,” Liane replied. “Somehow, the guardian's intent seems incredibly focused. It wants to destroy, to tear life asunder.”
“It has been asleep for seven hundred years,” the female ghost answered. “Its focus drives its intent, and after that period of time, intent must have become obsession. Do not worry, it will still listen to its orders. It will be extremely enthusiastic about executing those orders, however, so word them carefully, lad.”
Milor dipped his head to his ancestral ghost. “I will, My Lady.” He looked at Liane. “Shall we depart?”
The Pillar frowned, and thought. “It is transforming energy, My Lady,” she said, addressing the first Empress and ignoring her friend's suggestive question. “It is similar to what Danulia is doing in her traps. How is this possible?”
The Empress looked impressed, despite her semitransparent state. “I can see why the lad is so taken with you, lass. That kind of intelligence and knowledge of magical theory is invaluable.” The ghost sighed. “I would love to explain the process to you, unfortunately, we do not have time. After this crisis has passed, I would be glad to educate you in what we did and how we did it. For now, just remember that all energy is the same, and it can be transmuted as easily as matter can. Of course, just like transmutation of matter, each energy state has its own nuances that must be taken into account.”
Liane nodded, ignoring the statement about Milor being taken with her, and swallowed her disappointment at received only a partial answer. She understood the need for time and speed.
Remembering Milor's request to go, she glanced at the door. The magic of the palace was still there. Broken, but the remnants of it flashed before her expanded senses. She couldn't repair the palatial protections, not this quickly, but she may be able to... her right hand moved, her lips formed words. Energy channeled itself into the Ward Hammer portions of the protections. Without them being tied into the overall protective scheme, Liane had to drive it manually while pulling energy from the palace's anchors and routing it herself to the necessary intake runes. It was a quick and dirty patch, temporary until she released her focus, but it activated the Hammer nonetheless.
Danulia's traps were designed to halt personnel, under the assumption that the palace's protections would be inactive. They were never designed with a Ward Hammer in mind, and it took just a few seconds' application to shatter them completely.
“I have broken the traps placed in our way, My Lord. I manually took control over the Ward Hammer and was able to temporarily route energy to it from the core anchors. The traps are rendered into dust,” she stated.
Barrion gave a raspy chuckle. The male ghost had remained quiet for so long that Liane had forgotten the previous Emperor was even there. “And there is that impressive control over magic that you have described, Descendant.”
Liane gave Milor a subtle look, and did not give him the opportunity to say anything. “It seems that you have been telling quite a lot about me, My Lord.”
“I merely explained the unusual circumstances and the companion I found myself with, My Lady,” Milor protested, yet he had turned to face the door.
It was a decent enough explanation, but his evasive body language irked Liane. Maybe it was the after effects of the Panacea running through her body. Maybe it was her exhaustion. Maybe it was her mind that had finally had enough after a week of constant life-or-death struggle. Whatever the reason may be, annoyance flared in her magic, and before she realized what she was doing, she said, “Perhaps I may remind you, My Lord, that it was I who came to the Capital, and it was I who woke you up. I believe that should make you my companion rather than the other way around.”
The first Empress laughed loudly, and Barrion curiously turned away with shaking shoulders. Milor stiffened, and turned to face her. “You are correct, of course, My Lady. My apologies.”
She shrugged, and decided to let him off the hook. “Let us depart, My Lord.” Without giving him a chance to reply, she turned to the unnamed first Empress and Lord Barrion. “My Lady. My Lord. It was my honor to make your acquaintance.”
“The honor was ours, lass,” the Empress replied, nodded at Milor, then fell apart in ghostly whiffs of smoke that returned to her urn. Barrion just nodded, still looking very amused, and vanished in similar fashion.
For a few moments, both Liane and Milor stared at the wall, before leaving in silence. No words were exchanged; they were completely unnecessary.
Liane trusted Milor to get them where they needed to go, and simply focused on the magic. A tantalizing problem had been dangled in front of her nose and her obsessive drive for knowledge simply refused to let it go. How did Danulia, and the battlemages of the first empress, change one type of energy into another? She knew alchemy and transmutation; she had graduated the course after all. And yet, neither transmutation nor alchemy ever implied it was possible to simply transmute one form of energy into another. Store magic, yes. Convert matter, ditto. Energy? Not so much. The closest she could guess would be the infamous Philosopher's Stone, the Stone of Magi that was the pinnacle of alchemy.
And even that was a mere physical representation of the magical energy used in creating it, useful only for those few limited applications that needed a boost.
That sent her off on a tangent. Magical energy could be used to form physical elements. And yet, they remained magic at its base, without magic there was no element. She remembered her magical theory, and flashed back to when she had asked this exact question of Amy's unusual male mage Assistant. Magical energy propped up the physics to create the elemental representation desired. Without magic, no fireball, blade of wind, or shard of ice.
And yet, Danulia's trap broke that fundamental rule, using magic to draw from the physical world to create a spell's result. It was still magic, yes, but on a fundamentally different level. Normally, one used magic to create fire. Danulia used magic to gather heat to create fire. One took a lot of power. The other used a lot less, and caused the world to create the ball of fire. The amount of control that required was... astronomical.
She honestly debated which was stronger, and then realized that she was thinking about this all wrong. The idea was to use less power to get the same results. When the same amount of power was used, Liane could imagine drawing a lot of heat from the ambient air, enough to make it intolerably, unbearably cold, and create a ball of fire that was as hot as a furnace.
The implications of that were staggering.
And yet, she had no idea how it was being done. The magic she had been taught did not allow for it. She would have to look further, broaden her scope. The guardian slept far beneath her feet, and she looked at it, studied it; tried to unravel its secrets even while Milor guided them ever closer to Danulia.
The Pillar frowned deeper, struggling to understand what she was seeing. Suddenly, it reminded her of the Druids, who drew energy from nature, only to return it. She didn't know how they did things, either. So far, all she had been told was the what. They converted energy from one form into another. What she hadn't been told was the how – how did one transform one type of energy into another? For a moment, she imagined explaining the color green to a sightless person.
Hang on... diametrically opposed angles, she reasoned. She had been going at this from the completely wrong angle. The first Empress had given her the answer.
All energy is the same,
just as all matter is the same.
They aren't converting energy. They are changing energy states. Energy is energy, just as matter is matter. She closed her eyes, trusting her ears to keep her next to Milor, and focused on her magic, trying to increase the strength of her mystical sight while staring at the guardian magic.
It was drawing energy from the nucleus of Mount Sina. It was drawing on the strength of the rocks and on the fluidity of the ground water. It was taking that energy, and storing it. It was all still energy, energy in motion or at rest and yet still energy.
She cupped her free left hand. Her spell was long and complex, and was basically her chanting the runes out loud instead of forming them into a proper spell. Milor startled when she started to chant, yet resumed his rapid pace toward their goal.
The magic took hold, reaching not for the elements or for the physical world, but rather, reaching out for the energy state of the world. It ignored the air, but touched instead of one of its properties; the energy it contained in the form of heat, and called it to gather.
