by T.M. Nielsen
***
“Nothing?!” Alric yelled.
“Sir,” Trox said, trying to calm him down, “it’s not that easy to find someone who can shift. If it was easy, we would have known about dimensions before.”
“It’s not just that,” Finn added. “We also don’t know where she is. Terrahaut Dimension? We’ve never been out of Paragoy. How are we supposed to find it among what Sithias said is an infinite number of dimensions?”
“I have to at least try,” Alric said. “The priests are sure she’s pregnant, and not only is she out there alone, but she’s mad at me and may not even return.”
“Have you asked Sithias to simply take you to her?” Trox asked.
Trox took a step back when the fury in Alric’s eyes turned toward him. “Of course I have! Sithias can’t find her, and Daemionis isn’t helping at all.”
“Of course he’s not. He was enjoying that fight,” Finn said.
“I can’t sit here while she’s out risking her neck for a demon that doesn’t care about her.” Alric sat down slowly and sunk his head into his hands.
“We have to trust her right now. She knows those dimensions, plus she’s a powerful magician,” Finn reminded him.
“I can’t trust her right now. She’s too mad to see straight, and that’s going to get her killed. If she doesn’t come back, we’ll never know if it’s because she chose not to or if those bloody Consortiums got her and killed her.”
“We can keep asking, but so far, no one’s ever picked something up off of the ground and saw a door appear.”
“Keep looking. Go to Qualsax if you have to.”
“We can’t go around Qualsax asking about dimension shifters,” Trox said. “We’re doing all we can. The people of Valhara are scared though. They know Kyrin has disappeared, and they know you are furious.”
“Of course I’m furious! This is my fault.”
“It’s not…”
“Yes, it is. I was so afraid she’d leave, that I let it get too far without telling her the risks.”
“She would have run,” Finn told him. “You did what you had to. It was just bad timing.”
“If she dies…”
“Trust her.”
“I guess I do. It’s the others I don’t trust. I can see Daemionis turning her over to the Consortiums just for fun,” Alric said.
“Daemionis ordered her to marry you. He has some plans for that union, and I don’t think he’ll be happy until he sees that through,” Trox said.
“If what he wanted was a child though, then we’ve given him that.”
“Maybe”
“The priests are usually right about such things. Though they didn’t run any tests on her. They were afraid she wouldn’t allow it.”
Finn grinned. “She would have fried them.”
“Yeah, she would have,” Alric said, deep in thought. He tried to find enough hope and faith in her abilities, but his stronger feeling was that she was too mad to return.
“Right now, the people need their king,” Trox said. “I understand the need to return Kyrin, but we have Qualsax attacking.”
Alric decided that was a good way to vent off steam, so he grabbed his sword and followed Trox and Finn out to the waiting knights.
