Of all the arrogant, full of themselves nobles that Arcanist Rhea had escorted to the local jail during her last three years as a lawkeeper, no one quite matched the attitude of the little girl walking ahead of her now. She had interrupted the lawkeeper’s arrest for just long enough to ask a musician what their name was, then returned to the group like the sole focus of attention despite the fact that no fewer than five fully gemmed arcanist's were staring her down the whole time. It was either an audacious feint to throw Rhea and her co-workers off their game, or it meant that the little masked cretin bouncing up the street honestly wasn't scared of them. Rhea was only hoping that it wasn't the latter situation.

She'd never seen someone else escorted by five fully trained arcanists, much less more than three at once. No, that fact alone told Rhea as well as everyone around her that something very, very dangerous was happening that night as they led their charge through the city streets. If only that matched up with the bubbly, if mute, personality that was lurking behind a mask with no eyelets.

Everything was just so strange about the girl. From the fact that she was more than willing to give up her sword, but refused to take off her mask. To the awkward form of speech she used writing on the black piece of stone instead of talking. To the flowing gait of the tall masked man that followed her everywhere yet hardly seemed to be in charge between the two of them. Just what the hell was happening here?

Rhea’s thoughts tumbled together as they walked the trio of captives under a massive iron portcullis that seperated the Monarch's palace from the rest of the city. Soldiers in various types of armor from lightly covered runners to heavy maulers all saluted the group as they walked up to the main palace entrance and did one last pat down on the convicts before proceeding.

Solid footsteps across the open paved stone of the outdoor ramparts soon turned into the soft pelting of feet as they transferred onto cushioned red carpets. The customary golden statues lined the walls of the palace corridors every five feet or so on either side, and Rhea took great care not to look any of their faces too closely in the highly detailed eyes. A couple of short turns later, mostly intended to disorient their charges more than anything else, they came to a set of massive black-iron doors inlaid with golden detailing.

Rhea took up a spot alongside the rest of the arcanists as she kept her eyes forward and her back straight as they silently ushered the strange masked pair and their blonde friend into the open gateway. As soon as they were through the entrance the twin guards on the side of the door started pushing the gates closed, and the arcanists sighed with relief. No matter what that girl might be, no matter how much bravado she felt, there was nothing that could save her from that room other than the favor of the Monarch himself.

—

Dei walked into the massive chamber trailed by Charity and Xei to either side of her. The long red carpet continued to unravel up the center of the room, up a short set of steps and ending under the feet of a massive golden throne that was twice as tall and wide as any normal chair Dei had ever seen. The golden statues that had punctuated the walk through the palace were now lining every open sliver of wall in something of a gaudy display.

Strangely, instead of golden statues of heroes and soldiers, they instead looked like the portrayal of everyday citizens lining the walls. Some of them cheered, stuck with permanently raised arms in either joy or triumph, while others looked out with eyes of sheer terror and pain. That would be enough to set anyone off to be sure, but it was the fact that they all looked just a little too realistic for good taste, every tooth carved out in intricate detail, and every hair an individual strand.

Halfway across the room Dei finally drew her gaze away from the wall decorations long enough to take in the people waiting for her at the other end. Three plain looking men in ornate robes stood to the left of the throne, while a single heavily armored woman seemed to tower over them on the right side of the throne. Dei took particular note of the gray opal that hung from her throat within a golden chain before she turned her head to the center to take in the man waiting for them on the throne.

A shock of blonde hair parted into a bedraggled mane surrounding the man's head behind a receding hairline, even as he looked out on them with a single golden eye. No pupil remained within the golden hue of the iris, but that was only juxtaposed against the dark leather eye patch where a ruby gemstone had replaced the location where his other eye should have been. Below his disapproving glare at the oncoming visitors, his body spread out like a sack of flour to fill every inch and crevice of the golden throne he sat upon.

Ta-ta-ta-ta-tap, ta-ta-ta-ta-tap! Pudgy fingers lined with several bejeweled rings rapped across the arms of the chair in a five fingered rhythm as Dei continued to close the distance. The guard to the right of the king called them to a halt, ten feet from the staircase leading up to the throne, and leaving Dei to look a good six feet or so at an upward angle just to meet the king's gaze.

Silence settled over the large room as they all stood there for what felt like ten seconds before Dei chose to make the first move. With thin leather gloves she took hold of the sides of her oversized robe and made a curt curtseying movement, followed by a short bow from Xei behind her and a hurried curtsey from Charity as she caught up to their actions. The king smiled at that, massive lips spreading across thick golden teeth that Dei could only describe as repulsive.

His smile never wavered as the armored woman started to address the group.

“Young mage. You stand accused of murdering an earth arcanist in one of the elemental temples. Trespassing within the lands of the Golden Kingdom. And obscuring the truth during an arcane testing session performed by a senior arcanist. How do you plead?”

Dei slowly unwound the small slate square from her belt to answer the woman, unaware or uncaring of the nearly bulging eyes of the aides to the king's left until one of them spoke.

“Come now, are we really going to let an enemy mage pretending to be a mute put on a performance in front of the Monarch?”

“This is the lawful way of things Marcus.” The woman replied.

“Sure, but why does our lord need to be bothered by the lawful way of things when he is the law itself?”

The king raised a hand, putting a stop to the exchange even as he rolled forward in his seat to squint his one good eye towards the slab of stone the girl had raised.

A moment passed before the king breathed a single command, “Read.”

The aides looked between one another before Charity chose to step forward and slightly ahead of Dei to bow her head once more to the King.

“I will speak on my Herald’s behalf.” Charity looked back at the slate held within Dei’s arms as she read, “I have an offer for you, Monarch.”. Dei started moving as she finished speaking, erasing her words to start writing more. Xei finally moved then to stand next to Dei as he too took out his slate board and set to work writing by her side.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

“I will tip the balance of the war.” Charity switched from one slate to the other as Xei lifted his board to continue the sentence.

“I can help you kill another shard-bearer.”

“But I need your support.” Dei added on before they stopped writing.

The king’s smile had dropped at the mention of a shard-bearer as he took them in with a single piercing gaze.

“And how do you plan on killing a shard-bearer hmm?” he asked the room.

“I’ll prove it to you.” Dei wrote, “Give us a small-”

“No. You will prove yourself to me now or you will die with the rest of the beggars.”

Dei thought for a moment as she looked over at Xei and the larger skeleton handed over his slate board to the girl. He gave her a short nod then charged up the room towards the throne.

The armored woman spun a spear out from behind her back, but a single hand gesture from the Monarch made her pause. Instead, a wash of golden liquid seemed to splash down the steps to meet Xei’s charge. The skeleton tried jumping past the streaming liquid, but the golden ooze bunched up under his airborne figure and snatched upward to catch both his legs.

Instead of pushing through the golden liquid, Xei’s momentum was cut out from under him as he lurched in mid-air, not even traveling a single inch further. The golden liquid continued to spread out passively across the red carpet towards Dei and Charity, but the speed of the liquid had slowed down considerably after it caught Xei.

Looking down, the skeletal guard could see that not only were his legs caught in the metallic substance, but it looked like everything from the shins downward had turned to gold. Barely concerned with the loss of his body parts, Xei caused an audible cracking sound as he broke off the lower half of his legs where they turned to gold and pushed off of the platform to start flying the last five feet or so to close with the king.

With a flick of his left hand the king caused a slab of earth carrying himself and his aides to shoot into the air ten feet within a second before several smaller pillars of earth punched out of the rising platform to impale Xei’s airborne body. A golden glow spread out from the impact marks to envelope nearly his entire body except for his head before everything stilled once again.

The king was looking downward, watching the events play out though his slippered feet. A slight twitch of his finger formed a crescent movement like it was pulling something invisible out of the air, and a small tube of water extended like a tentacle to surround Xei’s head. The water plucked his head off the golden corpse like a grape popping off the stem before it was raised to eye level with the Golden Monarch.

His single golden eye appraised the skeletal head as the water still surrounding the skull pulled away its mask, revealing the burning eyes within. Dei thought she saw surprise on the golden King’s face for the first time that meeting, genuine surprise as he stared into the half living skull of a man that had just tried to kill him. Then Xei winked at the king in an expression the embers had been practicing during the weeks of travel. The water imploded around the skull in a sudden increase of pressure, causing the skull to bend and fracture into a thousand chunks and pieces.

Dei continued to stare up at the king even as Charity dropped to her knees with a shocked expression upon her face. The Herald of death however was much less worried about the situation as she reached up and removed her own mask to finally meet eye to eye with the king for the first time since they entered the room.

The king let his position drop as the massive stone pillar that raised his group into the air descended back down into the ground again. The golden liquid formed into a ball around the remains of Xei, before it seemed to wash across the bottom of the floor towards the back corner of the room and out of sight. Charity chose to watch the golden liquid disappear behind a massive red tapestry that hung loosely from the ceiling before returning her gaze to the conversation at hand.

Everything was relatively back to how it used to be within the throne room except for the fact that the massive red carpet that led up to the throne looked like it had been eaten away by an acid wash all the way down to the foot of the stairs. Dei left her burning eyes looking up at him even as she set to writing once again, wiggling the board a bit in Charity's direction before she remembered to keep reading.

“So, what do you think?”

The King mulled on things for a moment before he responded. His face settled into an expressionless gaze once again.

“I think it'll take you at least a decade before you can really hold a candle to one of the five original shards, but.” he raised up a single large finger with an impossibly large emerald jewel sitting at the base of it to punctuate the point. “But I think you have a good chance at being an annoying little thorn for anyone I send you to.”

The king nodded to himself before continuing. “You've got your wish, I'll back your bid for power. Just don't forget that you couldn't kill me today, and that fact isn't going to change for a long, long time.”

That ugly, stupid grin spread across his face once again as Dei took the chance to give the man a curt bow then turned around to leave the grand room the way she came. Charity practically ran to catch up with her as a rolling chuckle escaped the throne and followed them out the doors.

—

Ozwald looked out on the massive group of farmers cutting their way through the nearby fields as he waited his turn to enter the city proper. Felix was by his side as the two had long ago ditched their armor to better blend in with the nearby travelers on the road.

It had been hard work following the undead creature without getting so close that they tipped her off over the course of several weeks' travel. Thankfully the group they were following had a strange habit of nearly always setting a fire up every time they made camp for the night. Once Ozwald realized this strange tick of his prey, it was just a matter of traveling each night until they saw the distant fire, supplemented with a couple of requests for information from the other travelers and encampments along the long road.

The only major hiccup in the trail had been when they had to skirt around that ominous stone block out in the middle of nowhere, especially after a report with the higher-ups told the sergeant to avoid the attention of the large structure at all costs. It had left their clothes soaked, and their open skin was eaten up by bug bites from the passing swarms they ran into while moving through the marsh, but they hadn't been noticed.

Waiting on the line to move, it dawned on Ozwald that they might perhaps be deeper into enemy territory than any other traditional troop from the Princedom had been in several years. Sure, he knew there were many spies spread throughout the five shard countries, but for a simple rank and file like himself to be sent out this far? What a strange turn of events.

Felix grabbed Ozwald lightly by the shoulder, grabbing his attention then nodding towards the front of the line where he saw five strange figures walking towards them. He noticed the dangling gemstones a moment later and both of them quickly averted their eyes to stare out on the nearby fields like there was nothing more interesting in the world. Ozwald contemplated running, or at least walking in the other direction, but it would draw attention if someone halfway through the line suddenly turned around to make their way out of the city, so instead he waited and prayed.

Five confident strides walked past the two soldiers, then stopped as the arcanists turned inward to face the two unarmored men. Ozwald sent a small shake of his head towards Felix, hoping it indicated his intent not to fight back in the moment.

The sound of an unsheathing sword rang out in an unspoken threat behind the man as an even voice called out with the efficiency of a well practiced order.

“By the authority of the Monarch you will come with us immediately.”

Ozwald raised his hands slowly while his mind whirled down tethers that stretched far off into the distance to relay the situation

No response came back for the soldier who had gone in too deep.