“I need to speak with you,” Kheled thundered before the room could devolve into multiple shouted conversations again. “Preferably alone.”
“Of course, my friend! Is there a room we can borrow?” Raimie asked of the elders.
“Take this one!” the middle-aged woman offered. “I’m sure us Qenans would rather return to our projects than repeat our request. Unless you require another recap?”
“No, I think I understood after the first repetition,” Raimie replied. “Go to the tear. Determine what’s wrong, and fix it. Only close it as a last resort.”
“Good to know our future King can use those enormous ears to listen to his subjects,” the old, wrinkly woman murmured, “but remember, this isn’t a local phenomenon. Several other towns have come to us asking for help with their smaller tears. This isn’t a Qena problem. It’s one for all of Auden.”
Raimie glared daggers at her while the elders shuffled out. “I’m so glad to see you, Khel,” he said once the room emptied. “It’s been what? Four months since your visits to Uduli matched up with mine? Please tell me you’ve found something in that time.”
“Not a trace of a whisper,” Kheled answered with a grimace. “What about on your end?”
“Not much since we last spoke. Doldimar didn’t keep records while he was in power. I’ve trudged through several years’ worth of documentation from those Enforcers inclined to keep them in his stead, but I haven’t found anything useful. Just a disgusting number of reports tallying babies born versus the death toll in each region,” Raimie replied, “but Doldimar held dominion for almost three centuries. I’ve barely scratched the surface.”
“At least you have open avenues of investigation,” Kheled said. “I’ve run out of ideas for where he might’ve hidden.”
“There is that.” Raimie blew out a long breath. “Gods, I’ve missed you, Khel. It's good to talk about this without someone looking at me with pity or like I’ve gone insane.”
“Don’t I know it,” Kheled groaned. “I tried to ask the townsfolk about unexplained deaths or wanton destruction, but when I told them the reason for my inquiries, they laughed at me.”
“I think you may have gotten your revenge just now. That was a neat trick with the light,” Raimie chuckled. “The looks on their faces were priceless.”
Kheled had forgotten how easily his friend could distract him.
“Speaking of Ele, Raimie, I’d like you to meet someone.” He beckoned the wide-eyed teenager hiding in his shadow forward. “This is Miranon, aspect Creation. Miranon, my best friend, Raimie, aspect Order.”
Nervously dipping into a curtsy, she clasped her hands before her.
“Hello!” Raimie awkwardly said. “I'm pleased to meet you.”
Kheled bit back a laugh. He hadn’t considered how placing two socially awkward people in the same room could play out.
“Miranon? Why don’t you show him what you can do?” he prompted.
She flashed a blanched face and pleading eyes at him.
“It’s all right, I promise. I know how hard this is after years spent hiding, but I swear to you you’ll be safe even if I need to protect you myself,” he told her.
Raimie’s gaze bounced between them during the exchange, but his mouth formed a perfect O when Miranon took a deep breath and made her hands glow.
“Should I show him my splinter as well?” she asked Kheled.
“That won’t be necessary,” he answered. “Raimie’s never been one to rely on formality.”
“You can access Ele?!” Raimie asked to which Miranon lifted her hands and crooked an eyebrow. “Right. Of course, you can. Forgive me, you come as a complete surprise. I’d thought primeancers were supposed to be rare.”
“They usually are, but every so often, a surge of them spurts into the world. It comes in cycles,” Kheled stated.
“You mean-?” Raimie began.
Kheled nodded. When Ele and Daevetch sent their Champions forth into the physical realm, a host of splinters soon followed, seeking out potentials with whom to attach.
“Will you attack me?” Miranon asked Raimie in a matter of fact manner.
“No!” Raimie exclaimed. “I’m pleased to meet another Ele primeancer. Why would I attack you?”
“Because you’re attached to Daevetch, and my splinter doesn’t like you at all,” Miranon answered. “The last time a Daevetch primeancer visited Qena, she tried to Harvest me, but the last person my splinter hated was my best friend. Past experience makes me wary of you, but it also tells me to give you the benefit of the doubt.”
“I won’t harm you, Miranon, unless you try to hurt me first. I don’t know how I can prove that to you except by maybe…”
Raimie bit his lip, eyes growing distant. Kheled internally sighed at the appearance of the expression. Either a brilliant idea or a staggeringly dangerous one was sure to follow it.
“You said a surge?” Raimie asked him. “How many do you think currently live in Auden?”
“How should I know?” Kheled said with a shrug. “But I’ve heard rumors all across the kingdom of primeancers in hiding.”
“Hmm. How would you like to learn control of Ele from someone who’s mastered it?” Raimie asked Miranon.
“Greater control is something I’ve wished for since Creation first came to me,” she conceded. “Soon after her appearance, I began practicing with Ele. I accidentally jumped too high over a fallen tree and broke my arm in the fall.”
“You want to build a school,” Kheled stated as realization hit.
“Think about it, Khel!” Raimie murmured. “We gather primeancers together, give them what they need to master their respective energies, and when Doldimar eventually returns…”
“We greet him with an army of Ele wielders,” Kheled breathed.
The idea was audacious, breathtaking, and utterly brilliant. In the past, gathering a group of Ele primeancers ended in slaughter, prompted by either Daevetch wielders or norms burdened by fear. Both Raimie and he had worked tirelessly since coming to Auden to prove Ele wielders were beacons of hope, and with Doldimar currently vanished, a school for primeancers might for once prove feasible.
“Until Doldimar makes his move, we can create a haven within the palace for Ele and Daevetch primeancers,” Raimie said. “Alouin knows there’s room-”
“Daevetch primeancers?!” Kheled exclaimed. “Why would you want them anywhere near you? When they’re not insane, they’re bloodthirsty!”
Raimie flinched from him. “Ouch! That smarts, Khel! Besides, what they can do is much more conducive to combat than Ele’s granted abilities,” he argued, “and I believe in offering protection to anyone who might suffer at the hands of our enemy, including primeancers most typically associated with evil.” He paused. “Dim wants me to add Ele primeancers aren’t any better. They’re self-righteous to the point of rigidity, unwilling to recognize a creative solution if it bit them in the ass. His words, not mine.”
“Even if it’s possible they deserve or need protection, you can’t put primeancers from opposite sides within proximity of one another!” Kheled exclaimed, heat building in his body. “They’d rip each other apart! You’d have a massacre on your hands!”
A knock interrupted the argument, and Kheled gratefully retreated. He didn’t like disagreeing with Raimie in the first place, but over a concept which shouldn’t be in question?
A niggling piece of his heart which had solely belonged to Lirilith found the idea of Ele and Daevetch primeancers working together intriguing, but the Champion of Ele had too many years’ experience dealing with primeancers to find it viable. He’d never met anyone burdened with a splinter who could stand to be in the same room as a primeancer of the opposite side. Except for Raimie… Kheled had no issue being near his friend.
A teenage boy poked his head around the door, eyes roaming until they landed on what they’d sought.
“Miri!” He pushed through the door. “They said you’d be here. Why aren’
t you in the lab? We planned to test those new materials, remember?”
The teenager’s close-cropped, black hair turned his head into a fuzzball, and spectacles perched atop a thin nose bordered by hazel eyes. His baggy clothing poorly hid the well-defined physique beneath.
“’jesper! You’ve perfect timing, as usual!” Miranon exclaimed, rushing over to grab his hand and usher him inside. “This is Kheled and Raimie. We’ve been discussing some intriguing ideas, or rather, they have. I’ve mostly watched and stayed out of the way. Raimie, Kheled, this is my best friend, Tejesper.”
“Pleased to meet you,” both Kheled and Raimie intoned, both utterly confused.
“Wait. Miri! Raimie as in soon to be King, Raimie?” Tejesper asked, eyes lighting up. “Oh, my gods, you’re my hero!” He blushed. “I suppose you get that a lot what with being Auden’s liberator. Is it true you control both Daevetch and Ele?”
“…yes?” Raimie answered.
“How?!” Tejesper moved forward, adjusting his spectacles. “Please tell me how you do it! I need to know.”
“I was born with both splinters,” Raimie told the desperate young man.
Now that, Kheled hadn’t known. As far as he was aware, people weren’t born primeancers. They had to do something to attract a splinter. Add another oddity to the list of peculiarities which made up Raimie.
“Oh,” Tejesper said, his shoulders slumping.
“Why did you want to know?” Raimie asked.
Tejesper hesitated, and Miranon prodded his side.
“Show them!” she whispered. “I did, and I’m alive. I think we can trust them.”
“I trust you, Miri,” Tejesper told her.
He resignedly closed his eyes, and the room darkened as shadows slithered over every surface. Revulsion and hatred choked out any sprigs of doubt and acceptance which might have sprouted from Raimie’s friendship. Kheled immediately shot Ele forward, pinning the enemy primeancer to the wall, and the shadows vanished. His adversary struggled, kicking against the wall and trying to jerk his hands free, but it was futile. No one could escape his Ele grip. Kheled reached for one of his many daggers, but a hand stopped him.
“Let him go, Khel!” Raimie commanded.
“He’s the enemy! He needs to die!” Kheled snapped.
“Khel. Look at Miranon.”
The girl trembled, but white light filled her hands, aimed at him. Her eyes were very wide, and a single tear rolled down her cheek. She was prepared to attack him, her ally, to protect a primeancer who belonged to the enemy?
Suddenly, Kheled immobilized, not an enemy, but a terrified teenager to the wall. A boy barely out of childhood whom he’d planned to murder. Ele returned to him in a rush. Tejesper collapsed to his hands and knees, gasping.
“I’m so sorry,” Kheled said. “You can’t understand. I’ve fought Daevetch for so long it’s almost an instinctual reaction-”
“I don’t blame you,” Tejesper interrupted, “and I do understand. What do you think I feel every time I look at Miri? But she’s my best friend. I won’t let Daevetch control me. I control it.”
Easy for you to say when your source doesn’t keep you alive, but…
“I take your point,” Kheled murmured.
“When I broke my arm while performing Ele experimentation with ‘jesper, he used Daevetch to obtain the strength necessary to carry me home,” Miranon said.
Good gods, such a feat was impressive! Both restraining the desire to kill her and employing Daevetch, the energy which prompted that murderous desire, simply to help her? Tejesper must be extremely strong-willed. He and Raimie would get along famously. Or kill each other.
“Out of curiosity, which splinter did you attract?” Raimie asked.
“That’s right. I suppose I should greet you properly.” The young man got to his feet and laid a fist over his breast. “Tejesper, citizen of Qena, aspect Destruction.”
His twin flashed into view, hungrily leering at Kheled, before disappearing.
“I hope you don’t mind,” Tejesper said. “I’m not fond of my splinter.”
“No, dismissing it was wise, given Khel’s reaction to you,” Raimie murmured. “We shouldn’t bring a Daevetch splinter into the mix. Kheled can barely control himself around Dim. Chaos. Whatever he’s called.
“So, what do you think now?” he asked Kheled. “Is a school enrolled with Daevetch and Ele primeancers possible?”
“I think it’s worth trying,” Kheled reluctantly agreed. “If only because they’ve a better ability to kill our enemy. We’ll need to be extra cautious when wielders of opposite sides meet. Keep them separate for the most part.”
“Do we get a say in this?” Miranon asked with a huff.
Raimie blinked. His friend probably hadn’t conceived that some might not want what he suggested.
“You always have a say in your future.”
Or he could simply be surprised the two thought they might not get a choice. Raimie might have liberated Auden, but he could never understand what his new subjects had lived through since birth.
“Would you like to live in Uduli’s palace and learn to control the energy you wield?” he asked. “You’re welcome to stay in Qena if that’s what you desire.”
Miranon and Tejesper glanced at one another, wordlessly conversing.
“I think we’d rather come with you.” Tejesper smiled, holding Miranon’s gaze.
“Wonderful,” Raimie said, joining in on the teenagers’ grins. “Go pack a bag, you two. Once I’m finished with the tear, you’ll travel home with me.”
Tejesper bowed. Miranon curtsied, and only Kheled and his friend occupied the room.
“If this idea works, who’ll teach them?” Kheled asked, eyes fixed on the closed door. “You?”
“Are you kidding?” Raimie exclaimed. “Along with running a nation, searching for Doldimar, and researching solutions for your curse? I wouldn’t have the time! Besides, I’m not a master of either side of primeancy, but I know someone who is.”
“You’re going to make me a teacher, aren’t you?” Kheled groaned.
“Oh, don’t give me that! You know you’d love it!” Raimie said. “Besides, if we take the 'Doldimar comes to us' route, you’ll have plenty of time on your hands. I know you don’t like being idle.”
He made a good point, but…
“I’ll accept your offer to head the ‘college of Ele,'” Kheled teased, “but who will teach the Daevetch students? Certainly not me, and you said you couldn’t.”
“I have someone for the job, but I’m not sure where she is,” Raimie answered. “Do you remember Nessaira and that Overseer you spared at the Birthing Grounds?”
“I recall the Overseer of Da’kul and her crossbow bolts of doom.” Kheled grimaced. “I also remember both of them couldn’t access Daevetch, hence why they were Overseers and not Enforcers, but I’ll indulge you. Whatever happened to those two?”
“They were simultaneously released after a thorough interrogation. I found it unlikely they’d return to their Dark Lord knowing what would happen to them after spilling his secrets to the enemy,” Raimie explained.
“A reasonable assumption,” Kheled said.
“I thought so,” Raimie agreed. “In any case, about six months ago, I received a request from Nephiron’s mayor. A number of his citizens had been murdered in a manner reminiscent to the days of Doldimar’s reign. I headed out, thinking the culprit a rogue Kiraak missed in the sweeps, but when I arrived, Nessaira approached me, requesting asylum.
“Before the incident, she and the man you spared, Wilphanas, had lived together for some months, drawn to one another by their similar backgrounds. From the way she described it, their relationship encompassed more than mere kinship. Just when she’d begun to adjust to her life of normalcy, a group of Nephironians recognized Nessaira as the former Overseer for Teron. Understandably irate she walked alive and free, they attacked her. She attempted to flee, tried to reason with them, but they rejected
her pleas, refused to let her escape. She took her beating, prepared to die, but Wilphanas came to her defense and died in her stead. You can guess what happened after that.”
“A Daevetch splinter came to her, and she massacred her attackers?” Kheled guessed as requested.
“That’s essentially what she confessed. I took her into my custody and dropped her with Gistrick at Da’kul,” Raimie said. “I lost track of what happened to her after that, distracted by the next catastrophe someone insisted only I could fix.”
“Why do you think she, a woman who put a crossbow bolt through my neck and who we both know is unstable, should teach impressionable primeancers?” Kheled asked.
“We don’t have our choice of Daevetch primeancers, Khel, and while she may have only months of authentic experience, she had years observing Teron’s mastery of the shadows,” Raimie said.
Kheled kept his lips tightly sealed, hating the conclusion at which his friend forced him to arrive.
“You know I’m right,” Raimie said, crossing his arms.
Kheled nodded, refusing to audibly agree, but that didn’t stop Raimie from beaming at him.
“Have we formed the first school, the first haven, for those of our kind?” he asked.
Dear Alouin, but that enthusiasm was infectious. Despite his misgivings at the prospect of working with Nessaira, he couldn’t help joining his friend in an enormous grin.
“I believe we did,” he said.
“So many details to work out!” Raimie exclaimed. “We’ll need to allocate quarters in the palace for the students and determine where they can safely practice with whichever energy they draw upon, and of course, there’s the problem of recruitment. How do we convince people who’ve been hiding for years to reveal themselves to the world?”
“You can worry about those problems once you’ve returned to Uduli,” Kheled said with a laugh. “Don’t you have a task to accomplish here? Something to do with the nearby tear?”
A King's Caution Page 41
