Queen vs. Big City
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Eydis's amber eyes sparkled with... alright, she had to admit, a grudging fascination. After a three-hour drive through a never-ending rollercoaster of winding mountain roads, soundtracked by Cleo's off-key serenades to lost loves (with Anthony sitting right there, talk about rubbing salt in the wound!), they finally reached the outskirts of Alchymia City.
Mileage-wise, she realised, St. Kevin's wasn't that far – simply tucked away behind the snow-covered Southern Alps. The secluded mountain ranges served as a strategic fortress for the Elites and the Gifted.
A helicopter ride was a mere 40 minutes. But of course, that was a privilege reserved for those with deep pockets.
Eydis, with her decidedly not deep pockets, was at the mercy of Anthony's defensively proclaimed “scenic-detour” route. The resulting drive crept through a twisting series of roads, testing the very limits of her patience and eardrums.
At long last, the peaceful countryside of weatherboard cottages and endless grass fields gave way to a view that even the Queen of Shadows couldn't deny was impressive. Alchymia CBD stretched before them, a chaotic metropolis of gleaming chrome towers cutting into the clouds, their tinted glass surfaces catching the dying embers of the setting sun.
Back in Mythshollow, her obsidian palace had been handcrafted by skilled artisans. But in this world, most construction work was carried out by–
"Check out that golden skyscraper, kiddo!" Anthony said, mercifully turning down the music. "Helped build that beauty a couple of years back, right after you left for St. Kevin’s. We were all sweating bullets for a minute there, thinking those fancy 5D printers were gonna put us construction workers out of business. Turns out, your old man's crane skills are still top-notch! Nothing beats experience, eh?”
Cleo muttered, "Speaking of 5D printing… There's no heart left in this city. Real artists are extinct, replaced by soulless machines that can mimic creativity but never truly feel it. Doom, Ant, we are doomed!”
Eydis, distracted by a high-speed sky train gliding silently overhead, mumbled, "If these machines and artificial intelligence are truly the harbingers of doom you proclaim, then why haven't the masses risen in revolt? Everyone seems rather blissfully ignorant, despite…” She glanced up through the panorama glass roof, where The Eye continued to just exist.
“...Surely, such widespread automation would lead to unemployment, to chaos. How is Cl—I mean, Mom—still working? This city looks peaceful enough,” she finished.
The car fell silent as Cleo and Anthony exchanged wide-eyed glances. Had Eydis just casually yanked open Pandora’s box?
Before Anthony could respond, the car, which had been cruising on autopilot, slammed on its brakes as another impatient driver swerved recklessly through traffic. He let out a sharp breath, clutching the steering wheel and deactivating the autopilot.
“These darn algorithms can’t be trusted.”
Eydis's lips twitched as her eyes caught the explosion of neon lights against the fading light. How artificial... yet oddly mesmerising. These humans in this world had truly touched the stars, their advanced technology twisting reality to their will.
It made her wonder why the Gifted were still held in such high regard. Unless, of course, there was more to this world than met the eye.
"You can't trust people," Eydis responded absently.
Anthony glanced at her in the rearview mirror. "That's my girl! Always one step ahead, just like your old man!"
Eydis hummed in response, her eyes continuing to scan the city street. Men and women in business suits hurried past, weaving through the crowds like determined ants, before disappearing en masse into the underground Metro.
Their car, on the other hand, moved only inches, stuck in the rush hour gridlock. Even so, the Queen found a strange sort of comfort in this slow-motion urban life as there was so much for her to take in and analyse.
But the tranquillity was short-lived.
Abruptly, the billboard in front of them, which moments ago had been displaying yet another inane advertisement, shifted to breaking news: a live feed of Thomas Blackwood's crusade against a swirling smoke monster.
Leaning back with a smile, Eydis’s amber eyes twinkled with delight as she observed the mayhem her familiar had stirred up.
‘So true to their nature. Just as predicted,’ she mused.
‘You were right, Your Majesty. How did you know?’ Envy slithered mentally in Eydis’s mind as it watched the video footage through her eyes.
‘Logical thinking, my dear serpent. The Blackwoods are delicious, after all. So sinful… so…”
‘Utterly human,’ Envy hissed back in agreement.
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Eydis smirked. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Cleo’s hand creeping toward the music app—again. With a quick flick of magic, she sent a tiny zap, making Cleo's hand jerk back as if she’d just annoyed the world's pettiest bee.
Or Queen, depending on semantics.
Before her mother could even whimper a complaint, Anthony fumbled with the radio, switching it to the news channel broadcasting the billboard’s live feed.
"Sir Thomas Blackwood has graciously allowed our reporters to join him and his alliance with the International Vanguard Watchers, otherwise known as the 'Council,' a renowned international league of heroes dedicated to making 'corrections.' The Council's Chief Advisor has dispatched his elite field agents to address the crisis. We now bring you live footage of their investigation..."
‘The Council? International? Now that’s intriguing,’ Eydis mused, her attention fully captured by the live broadcast.
The camera panned across a group of grim-faced men in suits, finally zooming in on a breathless Thomas Blackwood. “We have wasted too much time already," he declared urgently. "The children's safety is paramount."
The broadcast followed the group into a half-built construction site before an unexpected burst of energy obscured the video in a purple fog.
"The smoke monster! It’s here!" one of the men shouted.
The agents reacted instantly, their hands crackling with energy as they took a fighting stance. Fire danced in the air, water surged from unseen sources, and objects levitated with a thought. Their magic collided fiercely with the smoke monster’s shadowy energy.
Eydis was drawn to a particularly composed figure amidst the chaos. Dark-skinned with piercing brown eyes, he was dressed in a sleek, tailored grey suit. Keeping to the sidelines, he appeared to be assessing the situation.
As a thick, smoky tendril lashed out towards him, he reacted with effortless grace. With a sweep of his arm upward, he raised a solid wall of rock from the earth, halting the attack.
‘Interesting,’ Eydis thought. ‘A geomancer, perhaps?’
Seizing the distraction, Thomas, despite the direct order to stay back, dashed towards the rear of the site. The camera struggled to keep up, finally catching him in a different section of the construction zone. The smoke monster abandoned the fight and surged after him.
"Sir, hold your position! Do not engage!" The man in the grey suit barked.
But Thomas was already too far gone.“I see them! The kids—they’re in there! Aaaggh!” His scream was devoured by the swirling vortex of purple smoke. The camera feed shattered, the image warping and twisting under the force.
"Cease attack! Prioritise Sir Blackwood’s safety!” The leader's voice echoed last time before the screen went black. The city street, once abuzz with life, fell into a stunned silence.
“What… Just happened?” Anthony and Cleo exclaimed in unison.
Eydis's grin widened, revealing a hint of her sharp canines. ‘Envy, it seems Plan B is no longer a mere contingency. Meeting this infamous doctor will be a pleasure.’
‘Indeed, Your Majesty. Indeed,’ Envy hissed in agreement.
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Eydis pushed open the door to her bedroom, and Her Majesty's royal retinas were instantly assaulted by shades of pink she hadn't even known existed. Unlike her own bland, oatmeal-coloured dorm, this teenager's room certainly had...
Personality. An explosion of it, in fact, that the Queen of Shadows considered a war crime against good taste, especially when compared to the aesthetically refined realm of Mythshollow.
Alright, perhaps 'war crime' was a bit hyperbolic, but 'mildly nauseating' was perfectly apt.
Exhaustion, however, had finally caught up with her. After enduring a car journey that felt longer than the lifespan of a star, filled with Cleo's tone-deaf renditions of every love song known to humankind, followed by a dinner where Cleo's hands and puppy-dog eyes seemed permanently attached to her, Eydis, despite her years of navigating the viper's nest of court politics, found herself waving the white flag of surrender.
‘Seriously, has someone perished?’ she wondered for the thousandth time.
Before Eydis could collapse into the marshmallow-pink embrace of the bed, she had one more task: investigating her teenage counterpart's life. Who was she, beneath the layers of pink and unreciprocated love? What secrets did she keep?
Despite the drive being a test of her self-restraint, it wasn’t entirely without its rewards. In addition to her rogue familiar’s amusing theatrics, Eydis had made some intriguing observations.
Take her so-called parents, for instance. She'd spent enough time with them to understand they were genuinely ignorant about anything of importance. No malicious intent, no hidden agendas, not even a whiff of Envy or Gluttony that her familiars could detect.
Which made it all the more perplexing that someone raised in such an ordinary household could know about the Queen of Shadows.
Eydis sifted through the teenager's belongings. Neatly folded clothes, school achievements, a small collection of physical books, and some childhood photos — a mirror image of the queen herself, but...
Laughing. Unburdened, carefree laughter captured in a moment frozen in time.
"At least you knew happiness,” Eydis breathed, dismissing the unexpected sensation in her chest.
‘Was this... envy? Preposterous!’
"Indeed, it wa—" Envy's nosy response was cut short by a mental zap from Eydis.
As she continued her search, her hand landed on a small device, roughly the size of a student ID card, but far heavier than its appearance suggested. The matte black surface was smooth to the touch, interrupted only by a single button on the side.
When she activated the button, an eight-digit code appeared on the tiny LCD screen. A second tap changed the sequence. "Intriguing.”
"What's so fascinating about it? It seems rather unremarkable, Your Majesty," Envy whined, still nursing the sting of the mental zap.
"Unremarkable? Please." The Queen purred, slipping the device into her bag. "Have a look around this room. Apart from the... unique design choices, everything here serves a purpose: clothes, toiletries, a few mementos. No trinkets, no silly stuffed animals. Everything is practical. Except for this... anomaly."
"Anomaly? But it just gives you random numbers?"
Eydis chuckled. “Envy, Envy, we both know randomness is a matter of perspective. And that is precisely why this contraption is important. It’s out of place. It doesn't belong. Perhaps... this is the key to accessing that Obsidian Legion Adam mentioned. A secret society of hackers."
The Queen was thrown into a frenzied search for information after learning about the Obsidian Legion. Thanks to Birgit's superior tech skills, she uncovered their true identity: a notorious band of hackers intent on exposing the world’s darker truths.
Although they insisted they weren’t ‘black hat’ hackers with profit motives, their tactics were undeniably dubious.
"Blackmail, extortion, criminals..." Eydis whispered, a shiver of excitement running down her spine. "Oh my dear doppelgänger, you are getting more and more fascinating."
Accessing their deep web forum was no easy feat. It required not only a username and password, but also a hard-coded encryption key. Could this device be it? But why was it here? Her counterpart hadn't been home in three years…
A dangerous smile stretched across Eydis’s face. “This is where it gets interesting, and I mean truly interesting.”