The Immortal Queen Tsubame: Ascension

by H. D. Strozier

  Marcel glanced at MaLeila and then said, “Yeah,” before allowing himself to be led by Dominik back into the castle behind Tsubame, Jasmine, and Nika.

  For a few moments neither Marie nor MaLeila said anything to each other. As Marie sized her up, MaLeila regarded Marie with the same caution that she regarded all magic users who wanted to talk to her. Shoulders pushed back, chest out, arms at her side as a way to brace herself for whatever was said or done. She wished she had the cool nonchalant confidence that Tsubame always exuded. Always curious, but certainly never cautious.

  Finally Marie said, “Tsubame puts a lot of faith in you.”

  “Does she?” MaLeila asked.

  “Certainly more than I think is actually warranted. I have to wonder what she sees in you.”

  “The same thing the Magic Council sees in me I suppose, except Tsubame’s smart enough to make me an ally instead of making me an enemy by letting magic families send witches, sorcerers, and demons to destroy me,” MaLeila replied.

  Belatedly MaLeila remembered that they were trying to make an ally out of Marie, and that she was just skirting the edge of offending the woman. But Marie simply shrugged and came closer to her.

  “That’s true. Admittedly if it weren’t for the fact that you were already on Tsubame’s leash, I’d be trying to figure out a way to use you for my own purposes,” the woman finally said.

  MaLeila pressed her lips together, trying to keep in mind that for whatever reason, Tsubame wanted this woman as an ally. Marie seemed to sense she was holding back though and said, “Go ahead. Don’t hold back on my account.”

  Well, at least when Marie put them out MaLeila could say that Marie had goaded her.

  “I think it’s pretty funny that you’re pointing out that I’m on a leash when the Magic Council and the leading families have got you on theirs,” MaLeila said dryly.

  Until then, Marie’s grayish aura had been carefully controlled, giving no indication of her emotions. But suddenly, her aura withdrew slightly; an indication of readiness. It emboldened MaLeila that now the woman was as much on edge as was.

  “Tell me. If the Magic Council came calling for you today, would you go running to them like a loyal pet, pleased that you have the attention of your owner?” MaLeila asked.

  Marie didn’t have to answer. The answer was in her eyes.

  “And you wouldn’t?” the woman asked.

  “When they want me they have to find someone to find me,” MaLeila said with a shrug. “If I had a choice, I wouldn’t have anything to do with them. So maybe you should be asking them why I’m so special.”

  Despite her obviously wounded pride, Marie smiled and said, “I don’t need to. You’ve already answered my question. And confirmed that you and I shall definitely get along.”

  “So long as you don’t try to put me on your leash,” MaLeila said dryly.

  “I see my reputation precedes me.”

  MaLeila shrugged. That was true, but not as much as Marie probably liked to think it did. The only reason MaLeila was sure her hunch about the woman was right was that she had come across her type before. Someone who so desperately wanted acceptance in the magical world that they’d do whatever it took to please its dictators. And in no uncertain terms would betray whoever she needed to in order to get that prestige. It made MaLeila wonder what Tsubame really wanted from the woman, because Marie certainly had no interest in toppling the Magic Council or the leading magic families or leading the kind of revolution Tsubame seemed interested in, and if MaLeila figured that out after a short conversation with the woman then Tsubame certainly knew it before she even decided to visit Marie.

  Then Marie suddenly said, “Just as much as yours does I suppose.”

  It took MaLeila a moment to realize that Marie was talking about her own reputation now, but before MaLeila could ask what she meant, the woman suddenly announced that they’d had a long day and they would talk again after a night of rest.

  9

  “You’re out your damn fucking mind.”

  “Devdan,” Bastet said in an exasperated tone.

  “I’m not apologizing for this one, Bastet,” Devdan snapped back at her. “And I’d advise you shut your fucking mouth or I’ll group you in with the Magic Council so you’re on the receiving end of this too.”

  Bastet huffed but said nothing as she sat back in her seat with her arms crossed as they faced the Magic Council together after the disaster that was the almost complete decimation of the Middle Eastern rebel army that had fought against Tsubame by the Thorne’s demon army. Of course, that’s not the story mainstream media got and were giving to the broader non-magical inhabitants of the world. American news was calling it a genocide of Tsubame’s adopted people and what few managed to escape would only inevitably worsen the already horrifying refugee crisis. It was only the half-truth. The whole truth was that the Thorne’s demon assassins had infiltrated the rebel army long before battle had begun. Then not only did they decimate the army opposing Tsubame but her city as well, all while making it appear that the rebels and the Russians who had given them weapons were at fault.

  With the ever growing hostility between the Russian Clan and the Thornes as a result, not to mention the cries of world humanitarians growing louder and the target on Russia’s back to begin with, a war was simply inevitable. No it had been inevitable before all that. Tsubame had just sped things along and brought the next Great War to the present time rather than the future. And now, because the Magic Council was convinced that Devdan and Bastet held some type of responsibility, they wanted Devdan and Bastet to help rectify the situation.

  Devdan refused to hear it.

  “This whole damn conflict has been brewing for years. The Thornes and the Romanovs have been rivals and trying get the one up on each other since I was born. Hell, before I was born. You’re not going to try to fucking dump this on us like we owe you for it anyway. You want to find Tsubame and stop this war, then do it yourself.”

  “There’s no war,” Anya corrected.

  Devdan rolled his eyes. “Let’s not kid ourselves here. We all know the United Nations Charter was a fucking ruse to calm the non-magical world down and a way to keep rogue sorcerers and sorceresses in control so they wouldn’t ever think that they would be able to pull what Hitler did. Tsubame didn’t fall for it and reminded the magic families just who had the power. They may not declare it, but Russia and the U.S are at war now all because Tsubame wants to show how God damn incompetent you are because of your fucking greed. And though I’m not siding with her, I have to agree with her assessment. And there’s no way you’re getting me involved with that bullshit without one hell of a good reason.”

  That said, Devdan walked out the conference room. He went back to the hotel that the Magic Council had provided him and Bastet reservations with after their failed mission to capture Tsubame and promptly made his way to the bar in the lavishly decorated lobby on the first floor. By the time Bastet caught up to him, he was on his second glass of a dark red wine and when he saw her approaching ordered another. When she sat down, he slid the glass over to her.

  “Thanks,” Bastet said sniffing the wine and then taking a sip. “That’s one thing I know you’re good for. Choosing good wines.”

  “That’s one thing I can give Claude credit for teaching me,” Devdan replied dryly. He played with his wine glass as he waited on Bastet to speak again. She wasn’t a big drinker of alcohol like he could be when he got in a mood so he knew she definitely had something else she wanted to say.

  “I know what you think about me sometimes, that the Magic Council trained me so well to be their little bitch, whenever they ask me to jump I still say how high,” Bastet said.

  “Admittedly, the thought has crossed my mind,” Devdan said. He wasn’t going to spare Bastet’s feelings. One of the reasons she had taken a liking to him in the first place was because he never had.

  “It’s instinct. I don’t know how to do anything except making Ma
ssa think I’m willing doing what he wants me to do to protect the people I care about. We’re not in physical chains anymore but they’ve got us chained in every other way,” Bastet said.

  “They can’t do anything to us anymore.”

  “Yes. They can. That’s the problem. What they can do to us now is worse than a beating. I’d rather take a beating than go through what they can do know,” Bastet muttered. “You’re right to be outraged. We shouldn’t help them. We don’t owe them anything. But we can’t let Tsubame win either, not with the dirty underhanded tactics she’s using. Making the world go to hell and bow to her power and forcing her rule because there will be no other choice but to follow her.”

  Devdan stopped even playing with his wine now, setting it firmly on the table.

  “What are you getting at?” he asked bluntly.

  Bastet laughed and gulped down the rest of her wine before gesturing for the bar tender to pour her more.

  “We’re going to take down the Magic Council,” Bastet said as she brought her wine back to her lips and drank the second glass in one gulp, “And we’re going to beat Tsubame at her own game. Come on.”

  Bastet led them both out the hotel and into the streets of the Vatican. The last time Devdan had been to the city it was almost three years ago when MaLeila dropped a possessed wizard off at the doorstep of the Magic Council. After that, MaLeila finally decided that the next time anyone came after her she would end their life or seal them and they wouldn’t be answering the summons of the council nor asking for their help. Tsubame’s appearance and her non-existence in the registry was the first time MaLeila had given anything to the council without their prompting first in years.

  “The Vatican is the heart of the Magical World. There’s no major event that happened in the magical world that didn’t originate here or if it didn’t originate here that the council didn’t have some knowledge about if not all of it,” Bastet said. “We have to be careful. There are eyes and ears everywhere. Always someone who will rat you out to the council when you’re among them. Trust no one and after today, we’re not talking about this again,” Bastet said.

  Devdan nodded. There was nothing else to say. Bastet rarely went into this kind of protective mode. He was the one who was the natural protector, but Bastet could be truly fierce and manipulative when it came to people she cared about.

  “There’s a provision that was written into the International Magic Charter when the powerful magic families, whom the charter would regulate by way of the Magical council, were afraid that this new agreement was going to interfere with the unregulated ways that they had been ruling their non-magic subjects,” Bastet said. “It said that in the event of a crisis that the council proved incompetent or failed in their duty to not only regulate the magical world but ensure the prosperity of the families who put their trust in them, the council could be suspended and even disbanded and an international head of magic could be temporarily instated to govern the affairs of the magical world.”

  “A global reinstatement of the magical monarchy,” Devdan said. Certainly the Magic Council at the time hadn’t thought it would actually happen but promising the magic families the potential to rule the world in order to make them submit was a gamble worth taking if they wanted to get them under their control that badly.

  “The way Hitler had been felling countries back during the war I’m pretty sure that if he’d had more intimate knowledge of the inner workings of the Magic Council he would have been smart enough to try to get enough votes from those he had scared into submission to force the provision to get him into power in the magical world.”

  “What’s this have to do with anything, Bastet?” Devdan asked as they stopped to look at an intricate water fountain.

  “Everything,” Bastet said with her arms crossed, staring at a bird that had landed on the fountain like it had personally offended her. “We’re going to make sure you’re the one that’s instated as the international head of the magical world.”

  Devdan huffed. “Are you out of your fucking mind?”

  “No. I’m not.”

  “Yes. You are.”

  Devdan started walking again and Bastet followed, speeding up to get in front of him. She grabbed his arm and pulled him in to her.

  “We have to beat Tsubame. That’s for sure,” Bastet said. “But we can’t ignore that she’s right about the corruption and tyranny of the Magic Council and the Magic families. We’ve got a chance to change that. We are going to change it.”

  “Why do I have to be involved in this?”

  “Because even though I know how to manipulate the council into fucking up and the magic families into remembering the provision, I can’t trust myself to be in charge. Tsubame said it. In some ways I’m still their bitch. I can’t help it. I think like them, but I think despite the fact that you can be a major fucking asshole when you want to be and your love life is pretty fucked up right now, you’ve got the heart to do the right thing at the end of the day and fix the ruins Tsubame’s going to leave in her wake.”

  Devdan jerked his arm out Bastet’s arm and started walking again, this time slow enough for Bastet to be able to walk beside him. For a while they quietly walked through the streets of the Vatican together. Then Bastet stopped and said, “I still haven’t forgotten what you did back then, what you used to do for me. Let me return the favor.”

  Devdan turned to Bastet and looked her in the eye. He never knew how much she felt as though she owed him for all the time he spent keeping her out of harm’s way. They had been in the same boat, bound to the same master and unable to ever have a chance of freedom outside of him unlike the chance other slaves who weren’t magically bound to their masters had. It had been instinctual to protect her as far as he was concerned. What else was he supposed to do? He supposed maybe she had always wanted to pay him back, always hated feeling indebted to him, but the right situation hadn’t presented itself.

  “And how do you know Tsubame doesn’t know about it? Maybe that’s her plan,” Devdan said.

  “I doubt it. From what I’ve heard of it, Tubame’s ascension as queen in her own world was a series of flukes, wars, and a good bit of luck that made her the last capable sorceress standing. She became queen through trial and error and learned things along the way as she went. And if she was as vindictive against the council then as she is now, I bet she didn’t even bother reading their laws. She probably scrapped them all and created her own,” Bastet said. “Even if she does know about it, with all the trouble she’s caused, who will vote her into power?”

  They continued to walk for a while, Devdan’s hands in his pockets and mouth in a tight frown.

  Finally he said, “The only fucking reason I’m doing this is because you’re my fucking sister and the only one in this fucking world I can probably trust during this fuck up Tsubame’s created.”

  Bastet nodded and turned them back around to head to the hotel. By the time they were back at the magnificent building, Bastet had explained her plan. Devdan wasn’t sure they could pull it off, that he could get the Magic Council to trust him that much. So much of her plan counted on the Magic Council being too arrogant to even think that they were capable of tricking them to begin with because of their superiority complex.

  Seeming to sense his doubts, Bastet grabbed his arm and squeezed it right before they stepped onto the hotel grounds. Then she nodded her head, let go of his arm and made her way inside.

  Like she advised him, he lounged around the hotel a few days and used the time to catch up on the news. On American controlled news, the media was start to beat the proverbial war drum with a constant stream of propaganda against Russia for supplying terrorists with weapons and allowing them to commit genocide, making it a matter of right and wrong and that it was their humanitarian duty to stand against Russia and not just to protect those who couldn’t protect themselves, but to protect the rights and freedoms of their country because what was to stop Russian from providing weapons to
their enemies to harm Americans. Tsubame’s face flashed across the screen again and again as new casters speculated whether she was alive or dead as a fear tactic that they could be next, that it could be them facing genocide tomorrow. A classic fear mongering technique according to Bastet that had been used in all previous wars.

  Russian media was using the same fear mongering tactics to justify their actions. That people like Tsubame, who could kill her lover, usurp his power and put out his army were a threat to their borders. And that while Tsubame started with a nearly ruined civil state once, what was to stop her from doing the same in their own country.

  Other media were more or less reporting what they could of both the Russian and U.S. perspective and while they tried to remain mostly unbiased, it was obvious which countries would ally with who as a clear dividing line began to show.

  After four days of watching the crisis continue to escalate, Devdan asked for an escort to the Magic Council at the Apostolic Palace, the secret home of the Magic Council. Devdan shook his head to disguise the curve of a smile that briefly played on his lips. What the world would think if they ever found out that the existence of their beloved city and head of the Catholic Church was all because the Magic Council permitted it to be so in order to disguise their activities.

  Devdan followed the escort into the part of the palace that was normally blocked from visitation. The escort led them to the same large board room Devdan had been in days before with European art and paintings all over the walls and ceiling. Bastet was already there, standing in her usual stance with her arms crossed, shoulders back, head tilted slightly to the side in irritation.

  They offered him a seat. Devdan chose to stand. He couldn’t make it appear her was making this easy, when four days ago he’d cussed them out and stormed out the room.

  “I’ll help,” Devdan said without waiting for any of them to address him.