Duels did have some similarities to the Kelpie challenge ritual. Each of us invested a part of our magic to create a force barrier. This barrier would draw enough magic from us to contain whatever spells we might cast. A talented duelist learned to straddle the fence, gauging just how much power it was safe to use in attacks before their magic pools were drained by the barrier.
It was perhaps the only time magic pools had any real effect. System menus allowed an individual to track the depth of magic, the amount they could draw upon, but in everyday life, spells and skills had no casting cost. There were only a few instances where the magic that our bodies contained were used.
Procreation, Investiture, and Duels. Birth, Growth, and Death.
Queen Mab would have had a larger magic pool than me if not for my Regalia by virtue of her level. But the Regalia had enchantments that increased my Int, Will, and Strength by ten, and my agility by five. Mab probably had her own trinkets and enchantments, but with those stats added to what I'd earned leveling, it would give me a chance. Perhaps not an equal playing field, but close.
There was no spell that needed to be cast for the barrier to be created and the duel to begin. I simply had to agree to the System prompt, and the magic would be drained from both of us. A small amount at first, barely one percent of available resources. But as we began to fight and cast spells, System would respond by increasing the strength of the barrier, stripping of us our magic pools as our attacks gained strength.
Tracking the magic drained was a method experienced duelist used to anticipate their opponent and gauge how much will and intent they should imbue their attacks with. System was constantly drawing on your magic pool before spells were released, and it was able to react in real-time, instantly to increase the draw on your available magic. Using the energies collected and expending that magic to buttress the barrier, for some, they were able to monitor how much magic was drawn to understand and react to their opponent.
This was my first duel, the fight with Thom was the closest to an actual duel I'd had before this. But that had been done without the strictures and ritual of dueling. It was combat, Thom's decision to involve others in our dispute elevated our confrontation. Because this was my first real duel, I didn't have the experience to anticipate what Mab would do. I would have to react and attack intuitively.
The only advantage I had was knowledge. I knew Mab's domain was light, that her most powerful spells were an illusion, and that she liked to wield whips, a carryover from her depravity with torture as her weapon of choice. What little information she had on me, or what she had been able to collect from torturing my people was outdated, the information they had when I was only a Ranked Prince.
The force barrier formed, and at what seemed the same instant, Mab struck. Her frequent duels giving her an innate understanding of the timing and flow as events unfolded. I'd expected her to create an illusion, to attempt to hide or confuse my senses as her opening gambit. I'd never seen her fight, and although I knew what abilities she had, I wasn't sure how she would use them. I was wrong, her opening gambit revolved around her control of light.
Light was one of those Universal constants that conformed to certain laws. Just as fire could be used to heal or destroy, the light had the same duality of purpose. It was the blue frequency of light that helped plants to grow, while ultra-violet light could cause burns and cancer for those who failed to protect themselves.
She controlled all aspects of light, all the power of the electromagnetic spectrum. That included X-rays, infrared, and gamma rays, the entire scope of electromagnetic radiation. If she had used the invisible light spectrum, I might have been taken unaware, but she hadn't. As her hands lifted above her head, a point of light began to blossom, that grew into a beacon of light that gained in power and intensity.
She was attempting to use the luminosity of light to blind me, making it impossible for me to defend or attack, as well as the damaging rays that the naked eye could not detect. She was wasting her time.
It was true that she controlled the domain of light, but I was a child of Beleros. The God of the Sun and that lineage came with all the advantages and perks one would associate with the Sun. I'd used my power and Beleros Aura mostly for healing, burning, and shielding, but those abilities used the heat the Sun produced to create fires that burned.
In truth the Sun does not burn, it glows. The process of nuclear fusion, fusing hydrogen into helium was a reaction that occurred when atoms smashed together, combing and becoming a new element, there was nothing to burn in this reaction, it was a collision of atoms that sparked the reaction that gave the Sun energy and function. Heat and light were the byproducts of that fusion.
My control of heat manifested as fire, but it didn't need to be. I could generate warmth, elevating the surrounding temperature, increasing that heat until it reached over 5000 kelvins. I wouldn't. Talahm might survive if I were to do anything so idiotic without protections in place, but that amount of heat would boil the oceans dry in a second, scorch all plant life from the planet, and leave whatever life remaining the inhabitants of a lifeless melted slag of earth and metal. Danu would certainly have something to say if I created a conflagration that destroyed her body.
But the heat was only one aspect of the Sun. The light was the other. In order to merge science and magic, there were people that understood and could devise formulas to determine exactly how bright the sun was. These craftsmen and tinkers had posited that the total light produced by our sun was 32,000 trillion-trillion lumens.
The only thing brighter was a quasar which was believed to produce the same amount of luminosity as 600 suns. I doubted that she could release even as much light as the sun before the drain on her magic pool became too much. Not that it mattered. Her use of light was a waste of effort against a son of the Sun.
I ignored her attack, concentrating on my own strategy. The ice column bombs had been effective, but I doubted it would work a second time. Still, it didn't hurt to litter the dueling field, so I created four. I had to be careful with any explosion because I couldn't use the trick where I hid inside my Ring of Hidden Depths. The System would consider that action the same as a forfeit, I would be in effect deserting the field, so System would award the win to Mab.
Deciding to employ my own powers of glamour, I recreated the doppelgangers I'd used against Puck and Bodb. I gave them movement and had them weave and bob, always changing location and position, leaving one always where Mab was most focused, I began channeling fireballs and ice spears through the lookalikes, using a different illusion as the source of the spell. I wasn't sure if Mab had an artifact that allowed clear sight, but I was betting she didn't. Lugh Clear-Sight would have had that ability covered for her.
It was one of the things I was banking on. She had been a part of a team, one side of a triumvirate of power. That partnership had been both a strength and a weakness. Over the years it was easier to just let the other two handle weapon attacks, as well as stealth and poisons. She had defined her role as the Queen of the shining court and used her light as both weapon and illusion. My resistance to what she was most adept at, made her more vulnerable than I'd thought.
I soon discovered I was correct about her possession of artifacts. All the fireballs and ice spears I threw her way came up short. A personal shield created to deflect those attacks. By relying on the artifact for protection, she was freed up to continue using light as a weapon. Lasers, gamma-ray blasts, and microwaves rotated to keep me on the defensive.
Those attacks might have worked if she wasn't wasting her time and energy destroying simulacrums that reformed as fast as she destroyed them. The speed of light was a powerful deterrent, it simply wasn't possible to dodge anything that traveled that quickly, but it wasn't necessary.
I had cloaked myself in illusion, maneuvering so that I was in her blind spot, waiting and watching, as frustration set in when her attacks were shrugged off one after the other. I began having the illusions speak and taunt her. Offensive gestures, even going so far as to have one of them drop his pants and moon her.
It was this insult that saw her lose all reason; she equipped her whip and began slashing and tearing at anything that moved. Her bosom heaving, sweat gleaming as she ignored her magic. She needed the visceral, the physical action of destroying my body. The angrier she became, the more random her attacks. It was this lack of coherent decision making I was working toward because I had one final trick, one ability that was mine that was the natural counter to light.
The only thing faster than the speed of light was the speed of dark. Thought experiments had long posited that nothing could break the speed of light, and that remained true, a constant no matter what Universe.
But shadows are the absence of photons, those particles of light that make movement and speed possible. There's nothing that's actually traveling the distance, the only thing that's "moving" is an area where photons aren't. There's no information that's being transmitted faster than light, only a blockage of information.
It was this blockage of information that I planned to take advantage of, this chink in Mab's armor. I had not used them until now, but the Cu-sith were bonded, they were a part of me; they were mine to call. Once Mab was so lost to anger and madness, unable to understand what the summoning of the Cu-Sith might mean, I invoked that call of blood and allowed them to use the ties that bind us and my body as a vessel for travel.
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Their ability to enter the dueling barrier without my forfeiture was only possible because of that bond. They didn't need to cross or break the limits that the System had defined for us; they traveled through me. Springing out fully formed, leaping from my shadow, understanding my intention.
Light can not exist without dark, and as both Seelie and Unseelie, I embraced the fundamental truths of both. The Cu-Sith had become mine because of that connection to the dark that my Unseelie nature embraced. My understanding of the dark was as instinctive and part of me as my understanding of the light.
I re-doubled my casting of fireballs and ice strikes, but now I aimed with purpose. Using the fire, the light that each orb generated to make a strategic placement of shadow, I had the Cu-Sith engage and take advantage of the shadows I created.
And as they moved, ripping and clawing at her, they vanished, returning to the pools of shadow to re-engage from a different position. Each claw and bite delivered with natural weapons that had been tested and honed, stronger than any weapon, their claws were sharpened on the hardest stones and bones of prey.
Between the Cu-sith attacks and my magic, we began to whittle away at Mab's health. She had used Danu's blood to heal and restore her body, but even with the debuff to healing temporarily negated, she was not able to heal fast enough. Perhaps if she hadn't become so frenzied, so angry, and determined to take my life, she may have fought differently. At the very least, she would have tried to heal herself.
But she was too lost to the inner voice that called for my death. Too lost to anger. Angry at my effrontery. Angry that by my action the loss of her son was exposed. Angry that the creation of a third faction put an end to the stalemate that had existed between the Seelie and Unseelie for a million years.
Darkness is the absence of light. And as the Cu-sith fought, they consumed. Her luminosity falling with each attack, until in her desperation she embraced the light of Quasar and unleased a luminosity that was 600-fold stronger than the Sun.
And in so doing over-extended herself and the magic she was able to supply to the barrier. As the barrier began to waver, she became inundated with System messages warning her, warning her that if she released that spell the barrier would break.
Finally, sanity returned. Her eyes cleared as she read messages only, she could see. And in that instant of stillness, that moment of indecision, the Cu-Sith and I unleashed an unrelenting plethora of attacks. The Cu-sith moving so quickly it appeared as if they were teleporting from one point to another, each aware of where the other was going to be, a rolling mass of shadow that left behind darkness as it consumed the light.
I began forming ice spears that were seeded with the spark of fire, the same type of construction that I had used on the columns that exploded so effectively. And as my spears hit, as they exploded and forced Mab back, step by step, her shield shattered, and her wounds mounted. Blood streaming, an arm blown off, the once proud and beautiful symbol of Seelie perfection was destroyed utterly. Her face and body ravaged by our relentless onslaught.
In any battle, there is that one moment, that one second of misjudgment that decides the outcome. For Mab, it had been when she embraced the full extent of her abilities and broke covenant. If the barrier had fallen as she released that spell, she would have destroyed her Court of Light.
Maybe it was a reckoning, an understanding that all she had worked to build would be undone that gave her pause. I would never know because I refused to relent. I would see Mab dead. It was no panacea for Irvin, but it was closure. She had taken and tortured a son of House Teigh, the first of my Vassals, and that would be avenged. The oaths that I had sworn would not allow compassion or forgiveness.
And as I created a globe of ice multi-faceted that captured and reflected Mab's light back at her, a prism of scintillating colors, I fused the growing ball of ice with the spark of Beleros' fire; I felt no pity, no remorse as I lobbed the explosive construct that would end her life.
[System Message: King Teigh Mac de Beleros y Cyronax has defeated Queen Mab de Midr in honorable combat. The Seelie throne stands vacant.]
[System Message: You have defeated the Seelie Monarchy; do you wish to claim the Seelie throne as yours by right of battle?]
[Yes/No]
That was a hard no.
[System Message: You have refused to assume the Seelie throne; would you like to absorb the Seelie Kingdom as part of the Tuatha de Danaan Kingdom?]
[Yes/No]
I didn't even hesitate before hitting no, again. I had enough to deal with, without worrying about every Seelie potentate sharpening knives to stab me in the back.
"You're not going to claim the Seelie faction?" Queen Bodb asked in shock.
"No," I said determined to not regret my decision, but turning to face the Morrigu, recognizing that the Unseelie Queens may still intend to continue our battle.
"Why not? System has confirmed your win," asked Queen Macha.
"Mainly because if I claim Seelie faction as spoils, I would have to claim the Unseelie faction as well in order to repair the damage both Courts have done to the Sidhe. The Seelie and Unseelie have proven a two-faction system doesn't work. The Sidhe have been allowed to stagnate because neither party was willing to compromise.
"Nothing of substance has been accomplished in how long? You spend more time with your petty one-upmanship games, worrying more about appearance than substance.
"I have two choices," I continued. "I can continue to battle in the small chance I can defeat the three of you and claim both factions, whereby I create a political system with myself as the sole-ruler, claiming the entire planet. Or I can allow the Seelie faction to rebuild, to move forward so that we establish a true triumvirate of power and help build a coalition government based on our three factions.
"I am choosing the second option because if I tried to claim the entire planet as spoils, I would spend more time defending than ruling. And because the Ranked Monarch instituted the triumvirate for a reason. Marriages using this method has worked, as a means of parity, with a voice of sanity and diplomacy when dissension between spouses occurs. It allowed disparate personalities to rule fairly with one person always serving as a tiebreaker in the event of disagreements.
"I think that the same philosophy should be embraced as the standard of government and attempted on Talahm. The Seelie and Unseelie may never agree, but if proposals and policy can be implemented and succeed when two out of the three factions join together, it should break the stagnation and apathy that you have encouraged," I concluded.
"What is it you are hoping for?" Queen Moriggan asked.
"Talahm needs to move from the world stage to Universal. I intend to put forward and implement policies that give our people access to not only goods and services that we have been long denied, but a chance to expand."
"You intend to try to claim other worlds to increase Sidhe territory?" She wondered.
"Yes," I agreed simply.
"It can't be done," Queen Macha warned. "The Tuatha de Danaan made concessions before they entered Sleep. They are proscribed from expanding their sphere of influence."
"I agree," I said. "The GODS are proscribed."
"But where in those treaties that bind the Tuatha de Danaan from expanding does it limit the Sidhe people?" I asked pointing out what was glaringly obvious to me.
"The Gods will remain in Sleep, that is a given. But the people. There is nothing restricting their movement or claiming of territory for the Sidhe people, even if they claim those territories as protectorates of the Gods themselves.
"I would have our people adhere to the letter of the agreements signed. But for too long we have been stifled, those Pantheons that forced their will on our Gods taking advantage of agreements and stretching treaties to the breaking point. They have used the Sidhe apathy to grow. That apathy has only led to persecution, as our Government is vilified and ignored our people despised.
"Why have we allowed this to happen? Because the Seelie and Unseelie were so busy trying to out-do each other, that they lost focus on the bigger picture. Seelie. Unseelie. Both labels for the same thing. We are all Sidhe," I concluded.
"Even if you are correct," Bodb argued, "and the Seelie and Unseelie had joined forces, marshaled their collective will to oppose and expand, the Olympians and Asgardians would have blocked any expansion we may have attempted."
"I agree they would have tried," I said, "but would they have succeeded?
"We are the only planet in the entire Universe that has Silinium deposits. We are the only species in the entire Universe that can use dimensional pockets of space by seeding Sitherns and fostering their growth.
"I wonder," I mused, "in all these years, why no one has merged Silinium production with a Sithern's creative nature?
"If Silinium is a rare commodity, and we have absolute control over production, why haven't we leveraged that monopoly? It seems something that Queens of War would have considered. Instead, you have narrowed your focus, crippled your battle instincts, and limited your abilities to make war.
"You have ceded the economic war, and I would change that policy. I will use our monopoly over Silinium to approach other Pantheons. The Olympian and Asgardians are only two of the multiple factions that have seats in the Universal Senate.
"What of the others?" I suggested. "I wonder how the Egyptians, Sumerians, Shinto, or Hindu would react if they were offered a distribution or processing partnership?"
I believe they finally were beginning to understand my argument; it was a start, five minutes of conversation wasn't going to be enough to break a cycle of systemic policy that had endured throughout their entire tenure as Monarchs. What really caught their attention was my suggestion that they had failed in their persona as Battle Maidens. Pointing out that economic battle was an aspect of war, an aspect that they hadn't even recognized was maddening and humiliating.
"How do you suggest we restore the Seelie Monarchy?" Macha asked.
"I don't," I said holding up a hand to forestall any arguments before they could complain so that they would hear my reasonings and suggestions.
"Any interference on either of our part will always be looked upon suspiciously. There will be those convinced, no matter the Oaths or covenants that bind us that we put our thumb on the scale to help the eventual successor gain their throne."
"Then what?" Moriggan wondered.
"I think the answer lies with him," I said drawing their attention to Irvin.
"Your House member?" Moriggan wondered. "How would that be any different?"
"Not him specifically, his race and class," I explained.
"I suggest we contact the Kelpie Herd Patriarch and ask him to supply the venue and judges for a System sanctioned tournament."
"Why the Kelpie?" She asked.
"For two reasons," I replied.
"The first because the Kelpie have access to Belisama's arena. Those arenas are tamper-proof, are summoned when a challenge is made, and cannot be used to cheat, there is no way to suborn someone into tainting the field. The duels would be conducted within those arenas, safe from interference or tampering.
"And secondly, Irvin's class. Not all Kelpie have forsaken the teachings and role that Belisama envisioned for them. The Peace-maker class still exists, and for those few that follow the precepts and tenants of Her teachings, their defining goal is to broker a successful peaceful outcome.
"System will reward the Rank, the Kelpie Patriarch will supply the arena, and the Peace-makers will stand witness. Everything controlled by Seelie. Our role will be to observe and welcome the new Monarchs of that faction when the contest has concluded."
Before we could get into the nuts and bolts of how the tournament would commence, we were interrupted. The voice, rolling thunder, and timeless age made a pronouncement that may make our discussion moot.
"That will not be necessary," the voice thundered. "I will be Queen."