Ancient Ruins

by Benjamin Medrano

  “Odd. None of the main structural supports look too damaged. At least not from here,” one of the researchers murmured, intrigued. “I wonder how that happened? Maybe they were enchanted heavily enough to survive?”

  Sistina looked back at him and picked up a brick shattered into two pieces. She held it in front of them, and they saw the stone slowly meld back together until the brick looked almost new. Then she dropped it and shrugged, pointing at the building.

  “Oh. She repaired the building,” Phynis said, smiling at that. “Before unearthing it?”

  Sistina nodded, then wavered her arm upright, and then let it slowly seem to fall over.

  “Because otherwise it would have collapsed,” Desa translated, shaking her head. “We’d never have found this in a thousand years.”

  “That’s astonishing! Being able to rebuild all of this like that is absolutely amazing!” Farlon exclaimed, rubbing his hands together. “So how soon will it be fully repaired?”

  Sistina gave him a look, and then slowly, deliberately shrugged. Turning to lead the way into the building, Phynis giggled slightly at her attitude before telling him, “She was kind enough to unearth the library for us to begin with. We shouldn’t press for more. After all, I doubt that Sifaren would dig up an old structure just because one of our neighbors asked us to.”

  “A fair point, Your Highness. I just find her fascinating,” Farlon replied, glancing toward Sistina with an expression that Phynis wasn’t certain she liked. “She’s unique in this part of the world. In fact, I’m not sure that there are any other genius loci like her.”

  “True enough, I suppose,” Phynis replied, nodding slightly as she followed the main group curiously. She suppressed a hint of annoyance as one of the guards stepped in front of her, moving in front of everyone but Sistina herself.

  Unlike all the other buildings they’d been in, this one didn’t seem to be perfectly maintained. Thick layers of dust covered the floor, and fallen pillars and stones lay all about the entryway. The sight of a single, lonely skeleton in the corner silenced some of the researcher’s enthusiasm with a gloomy reminder that this was a piece of a city that had been murdered by the Godsrage. The library itself was different, though. Phynis could see flickering lights from enchantments about the stacks, and this area didn’t have the faint haze of dust in the air. Something had also kept the shelves filled with books, making the library appear almost perfectly preserved.

  “Oh, gods above. I can’t believe it,” one of the women gasped worshipfully, drinking in the view. “The library’s almost perfectly intact! This will change everything.”

  “Gods only know what forgotten knowledge is here. I can hardly believe what I’m seeing,” Farlon spoke softly, almost as awed as the others, but after a moment, he grinned and began snapping out orders. “Alright, all of you know what to do. Let’s go catalogue what the different sections are so we can figure out where to focus.”

  Phynis was startled at the speed with which the researchers scattered into the library, her mouth hanging open. She’d known that they were enthusiastic, but that was far more rapid of a response than she’d thought they’d see. They were acting like they’d been dying of thirst and just seen a pristine pool of water.

  “Damn,” Desa murmured from behind Phynis.

  But then Sistina turned and crooked a finger at Phynis, then Desa, and pointed at a door off to the side. From the look of the door and others like it, it was likely a reading room of some type.

  “Sistina?” Phynis inquired, blinking as she followed the dryad toward the room. Desa and Berys, her other guard, followed after her as well. Sistina didn’t reply, instead stepping into the room and waiting patiently.

  Once they were in the room, Sistina closed the door. The room was small, with a chalkboard along one wall and furnishings that were intact. From the look of the rest of the building, and considering how clean these were, Phynis suspected that they’d been repaired by Sistina. There were even four chairs and a table.

  Sistina stepped forward and looked Phynis in the eye, then tapped the princess’ chest and temple, and spoke softly but firmly. “Altered.”

  “What? What do you mean, altered?” Phynis asked, startled.

  Desa frowned and asked, “Was she altered by you?”

  Sistina shook her head, but waggled her hand back and forward, considering a moment before placing a hand on her own chest and speaking again. “Triggered. Accident.”

  “What happened, Sistina?” Phynis asked, suddenly nervous. Sistina held up a finger and gently gestured at a chair. Phynis obediently sat in the chair, waiting as Sistina picked up a piece of chalk and began to draw.

  The drawing was incredibly detailed. Phynis actually expected that the dryad was manipulating the chalk on the board, it was so detailed. There was no way that she’d drawn everything that she had with the simple movements she was showing.

  The figure was vaguely shaped like Phynis from the front, but it showed a diagram of the various mana veins flowing through the body as well, along with the seven focal points of mana through the body. One was directly behind the brand, which Sistina drew over in astounding detail, while the others were at the navel, solar plexus, behind the heart, in the throat, in the middle of the forehead, and at the crown of her head. And then she drew a complex magical diagram around the head of the drawing, and some sort of symbol inside the head, over the forehead, and stepped back. She looked at them expectantly, as if that was all the explanation that was needed.

  “Uhh…” Phynis paused, blinking a little and totally lost as to what the entire diagram meant.

  Desa studied it for a minute herself before sighing and shaking her head. “Sistina, I’m a master mage, but I can’t tell what even a quarter of those symbols mean. Is there any way that you can explain it in another way?”

  Sistina’s face fell, and she frowned, then paced for a minute. Finally, she picked up a rock, concentrating on it, and it turned into a thin spindle that looked like the symbol she’d drawn on the chalkboard. She pointed at the chalkboard and concentrated. The stone turned into a pile of dust, and the symbol slowly dissolved into specks that spread through the ‘head’ of the figure. Then they all made tiny, thin connections to the brand, and Sistina pointed at Phynis. “Altered.”

  “Oh. Oh dear.” Phynis’ eyes widened, and her heart thumped harder as she swallowed and asked, “What… what did it do to me?”

  Sistina seemed to deliberate for a long minute, thinking hard, and then slowly spoke, as if forcing out the words was exceedingly difficult. “Became… careless. Oblivious.”

  Then she pointed at herself, and blushed bright red as she continued, to the astonishment of everyone there. “Made you love.”

  Phynis blushed bright red, horrified and stunned at the same time… and yet, a part of her whispered softly that at least Sistina knew how she felt. It was a cold comfort as Desa’s face darkened with anger.

  Chapter 31

  “No,” Phynis said flatly, glowering at Desa. Her arms crossed as she settled back in her chair and clenched her jaw tightly. Desa winced internally as she recognized it as a sign of her princess entering one of her excessively stubborn moods. It wouldn’t make this conversation any easier.

  “Your Highness, Her Majesty is going to be upset enough when she hears what was done to you. Even if Sistina managed to reverse the effects of the obliviousness, which seems to have worked to me, she couldn’t safely touch the other part of the effect. I think it just makes sense for you to avoid her and try to get over your feelings,” Desa tried again, wishing she had a better way to explain why interacting with Sistina in the current situation was such a bad idea. The last thing they wanted was for Phynis to fall under the influence of Sistina at this point.

  “And I said no. For a number of reasons, in fact.” Phynis got out of her chair and paced around the room, her hands clasped behind her back. “And not just because I like her, mind you. I’ve been thinking ever since my mind went bac
k to normal, and trying to reason through this logically.”

  It’d been five days since the surprise of what had been done to Phynis had been dropped on them. It had also taken hours to get a full explanation from Sistina, whose frustration over trying to communicate high-level magical concepts to them had grown more and more apparent over the course of the conversation. Desa had never realized just how intelligent and knowledgeable the genius loci truly was, as her lack of speech had led her to think Sistina used instinctive abilities rather than refined magical techniques. Several hours of watching increasingly complex diagrams, mandalas, and other examples that none of them could more than scratch the surface of understanding had dissuaded her of that impression, however.

  Eventually they’d managed to figure out that Sistina could change the adjustments being imposed on Phynis. However, there were two separate parts to the changes. The first was the tendency toward carelessness and complacency. That one simply was minor adjustments to Phynis’ personality, and Sistina had been quite certain she could fix that. The main problem was the love issue. That had apparently been a massive change, designed to erase prior feelings and impose the new ones on Phynis. While Sistina could undo the changes, she couldn’t bring back what had been erased. And then, to further increase Desa’s headaches, Phynis had flatly refused to allow that part to be undone. Desa had, at that point, asked Sistina to fix the first part, and hoped to convince Phynis to undergo the second one when she was back in possession of her full faculties.

  Sistina had done as she’d asked, and Desa had sequestered Phynis away for the last few days. The results had been remarkable. While Phynis’ distrust of others hadn’t eased much, her acuity to minor details that she’d lost sight of returned quite quickly. But now that Desa had asked her to either keep her distance from Sistina or to undergo the other part of changes, Phynis was proving even more stubborn than before.

  And Phynis’ room had changed quite a bit as well. Now the bed was larger, with a soft mattress and fine sheets, and everything in the room was adorned with a nature theme. Compared to every other room in the large building, which Desa had to assume was originally a set of apartments, the room was far nicer. No more functional, perhaps, but nicer.

  “And what reasons might those be?” Desa asked, her eyes narrowing as she got back to the current disagreement with her charge. “I don’t suppose you’re going to try to claim that it doesn’t matter.”

  “Actually, yes. It doesn’t matter, Desa,” Phynis snorted, turning toward Desa abruptly as the princess smiled slightly.

  “What are you talking about? You’re the first princess of Sifaren!” Desa retorted, stunned by Phynis’ words. “What you do could make an immense difference to every citizen of the nation! You could still end up taking the throne, even now!”

  “And that’s where you’re wrong, Desa. I will never take the throne.” Phynis’ voice was oddly calm, Desa found, her anxiety growing stronger. This was the voice of the princess she remembered, and that worried her. Because if it was, Phynis had thoroughly analyzed the situation and was certain of her reasoning. And unless Desa or another could find a major flaw in the reasoning, Phynis wouldn’t budge.

  “Why do you say that? Aren’t we here to see if we can’t find a way to destroy the brands and free you so that you could take the throne safely?” Desa asked, then took a deep breath before asking, “Please, explain why you won’t try to keep yourself from her?”

  “First and foremost, mother dearest has already set Zanath in my place as crown prince. He was always the second in line, and in spite of his demure personality, he has the talent to rule. When he wants to be, he’s charismatic, and while he lacks some confidence, that’s changed as the Duchess has courted him. Additionally, none of the high nobles objected when he was selected, and you know as well as I do that they could have rejected the change if they’d truly considered it bad for the country.” Phynis began to pace again, her voice almost lilting as she spoke, amused despite herself. “Whereas me? Even assuming we break the brand, all it would take is the slightest whisper of this mental alteration getting out to destroy my chances at the throne. Kelvanis would probably inform everyone, just to sow chaos in the court. None of the high nobles would be able to trust that my mind was actually fixed once they knew. And so they would confirm Zanath instead of me. That isn’t even bringing Duchess Elina into the equation, either. She would call in all her favors to keep Zanath as the crown prince. Put simply, I have been mentally compromised on such a fundamental level they will never trust me to rule.

  “Which, of course, brings us to the second reason that it doesn’t matter. We assume that General Fairbrook was the one who betrayed me. Presumably he was the one who they altered me for. I suspect that if I hadn’t been rescued, he would have launched a ‘daring raid’ to ‘rescue’ me, and violated me on the way back. I did wonder why none of them so much as touched me before we left for Westgate, nor on the way there.” Phynis stopped pacing and her eyes went icy as she paused, taking a deep breath. “That means that I was either intended for him, or to grant legitimacy to any one of the other nobles who might have chosen to betray Sifaren to secure my ‘gratitude.’ Do you really believe that my mother would have denied my wishes and apparent love for whomever rescued me?”

  “No. I don’t think she would have stood in your way under those conditions,” Desa admitted, the sinking feeling in her stomach like a stone now. “She would have let you stay with them after examining you. And since none of the royal magi detected what was done to you while we were at the palace, they wouldn’t have noticed it then, either.”

  “Exactly. So linking back to the first reason, now that we know what has happened, if I fall in love with anyone it’s going to be assumed to be the alterations just finding a new outlet. And then Mother would be forced to disinherit me, if only because she couldn’t risk me ending up producing children that could legitimately try to make claims on the throne.” Phynis’ voice was bitter by this point, but she shook it off and took a deep breath, her voice brisk again. “So why bother? Sistina doesn’t care about Sifaren’s throne. She’s a genius loci, buried in the Godsrage Mountains. She’s safe for me. She can’t be manipulated by Kelvanis either, because she doesn’t have a body they can so easily brand or mark. Her desires are different than almost anyone else’s, so she doesn’t have the need for my position or status. And even better, she knew my family’s ancestors and liked them. Me having feelings for her won’t change anything in the end, Desa. And none of that overrules what I consider the single most important reason why I want to keep these feelings.”

  Swallowing at the reasoning, Desa took a deep breath before asking softly, “And may I ask what reason that is?”

  “It’s a bright spot in my life. She realized what happened, and she told us as quickly as she reasonably could. Unlike you, or my mother, or anyone else,” Phynis said calmly, looking at Desa.

  “That’s not fair, I—” Desa began.

  Phynis raised a finger to cut Desa off, her voice soft as she asked, “When did you notice that I was being more careless about my security?”

  “Ahh… about halfway back to the capital,” Desa admitted reluctantly.

  “And did you tell my mother about it?” Phynis pressed, her eyes icy.

  “Yes.” Desa swallowed as she looked down. “I… should have told you.”

  “You should have told me,” Phynis agreed, just as soft as she continued. “Instead, I now have to wonder what else you’ve kept from me. Because unlike me, you didn’t have a mind-altering rock stuck in your head.”

  “But I haven’t kept things from you! I’ve done everything I could to keep you safe!” Desa protested, raising her head abruptly. “I just didn’t want to worry you if it was just shock from the capture and branding.”

  “And how am I supposed to know that? How am I supposed to trust that’s all it was?” Phynis asked, gesturing northward as she snorted, her tone pointed. “You met with my mother what
, eight times that I know of? I met with her once. And she appears to have completely disregarded my suggestions and requests. I asked her about the priesthood of Vanir, and about sending priests here. She said she’d consider it, which obviously didn’t happen. And her lack of attention? It might be because of the stress she’s been under with the various attacks, but I can’t be certain anymore.”

  “That wasn’t intentional, Phynis! We were just trying to do what was best for both you and the kingdom,” Desa protested, a hint of desperation running through her. “I didn’t mean to shut you out! I was just so busy with preparing for the expedition that I didn’t even realize that you hadn’t met with Her Majesty. She just kept adding responsibilities, and I was scrambling to keep up.”

  “Be that as it may, I can’t fully trust you anymore,” Phynis replied with a shrug. “So I’m going to go sit with Sistina. I’m going to talk to her, trying to get her to learn to use words more easily. And I’m going to let things happen as they may. It’s a new chance at happiness, since my old chance has been destroyed by Kelvanis.”

  “But…” Desa tried to protest, but Phynis walked out of the room before she could think of how to respond. And all that Desa was left with was the taste of ashes in her mouth as she realized just how badly she and the queen had handled Phynis’ feelings.

  * * *

  Sistina blinked as Phynis sat on the grass next to her, tilting her head in confusion. After the better part of a week being absent, the princess’ sudden appearance was surprising.

  “I finally told Desa off, and told her I was coming out to be with you anyway. And that I was going to try to get you used to speaking more,” Phynis replied easily, grinning. When Sistina wrinkled her nose in distaste at the idea of talking, the princess laughed softly. “Don’t be like that! It’ll help. If you could speak more easily, you could have explained what had happened to me in a tenth of the time that it actually took. It would’ve been less frustrating for both of us.”