Erin screamed as a searing pain spread through her head and down into her body. She felt Jechrin's magic seeping into her, so dazzling and intense that it felt like she was melting from the heat of it.
The dark ocean shattered and dissolved around them, replaced by a brilliant whiteness. As the magic enveloped her, the heat and pain faded, and she floated in a sea of dancing energy, suddenly feeling warm and safe.
She wasn't sure how much time passed, but eventually the light faded. Erin blinked and looked around her.
She was standing in a large ornate room that looked like it was in some kind of castle or cathedral. The walls were made of grey stone and decorated with colorful tapestries. Sunlight was streaming into the room through several tall stained glass windows set into one wall, which all featured images of Relians of various colors—red, blue, green, gold, and more.
Erin stared at the glowing colors for a moment before turning her attention to a small group of people in the center of the room. None of them acknowledged her presence at all, and she had the distinct impression that they couldn't see or hear her.
Was this another illusion created with magic? Probably. The whole scene felt vaguely out-of-focus and distant, like a dream.
Or a memory....
She moved closer to the group of people, trying to figure out what they were doing. Most of them were wearing some kind of black and white uniform, and they were bustling around a young man who was seated in the center of the group, fiddling with his clothing and accessories or plaiting sections of his hair into decorative braids.
Erin's eyes widened when she looked more closely at this man.
Grey skin. A narrow, angular face with prominent cheekbones and slightly slanted eyes. Long, pointed ears. Waist-length black hair.
He looked fit and healthy, not gaunt and starved. His hair was glossy and clean, not dirty and matted. And he was wearing a luxurious black robe that was heavily embroidered with gold and silver, not old grey rags.
But still...his overall appearance was undeniably similar to Wraith's. He even had the same star-like crest on his forehead, although on this man, the mark was a reddish color, as though it had recently been burned into his skin.
His attendants seemed to all be the same species as he was—they had similar ears and facial features. But their coloring was different. Their skin and hair were various shades of blue or green.
Erin heard the sound of a door opening behind her, and she turned to see another man enter the room. He bore a strong resemblance to the man with the black hair, but again, his coloring was different. His skin was a lighter shade of grey, and his hair was completely white, although he only looked a little older than the black-haired man. He was also wearing a robe, but his was silver, and it was less elaborately decorated than the black one.
He had what looked like the same mark on his forehead, but his was white, barely visible against his pale grey skin.
He walked over to the group in the middle of the room. Several of the attendants bowed respectfully and moved aside so that he could approach the seated man.
"It's almost time," the white-haired man said with a smile. "Are you ready?"
"No," the black-haired man said quietly. He looked down at his hands, which were resting in his lap. "How could I ever be ready for something like this...?"
Erin recognized the language they were speaking as Myrik. 'Relian tongue,' Sarah had called it. Were these people all Relians, then? Did they have another form besides the unicorn-like one?
But then...why hadn't Jechrin said anything when she'd described Wraith to him? Did he not know Relians could look like this, since he'd never been to Myrikar? Were these people some other species who happened to use the same language?
Or...had he known and not wanted to tell her...?
The white-haired man gave a wry chuckle. "I guess it would be hard to ever really feel prepared for such a big responsibility. But try to have a little confidence. I mean, this is you we're talking about. The Genius Crown Prince...well, we'll have to start calling you the Genius King after today, won't we...? But you'll be all right. And you know I'm here to help you out whenever you need it."
"I know." The black-haired man looked up and his tense expression softened into a smile. "Thank you, Lanien. I'm glad you're here."
The scene seemed to pause as the two of them looked at each other, both wearing friendly smiles. Then it faded and changed.
Now Erin was standing in a large, formal hall filled with people. She was up on a platform at one end of the hall, and the black-haired man was kneeling a short distance away from her while an older-looking man with faded blue hair placed a black and gold crown on his head. This man also had some kind of crest on his forehead, but it was a dark blue color and had a different pattern.
The white-haired man, Lanien, was standing on the other side of the platform along with a number of other people dressed in similar formal robes. Many of them had some kind of mark on their foreheads. Most were watching the coronation ceremony with solemn expressions, but Lanien had a faint smile on his face.
Erin turned her head and looked up above the platform, where there was a large, circular stained glass window. Like the windows in the previous room, this one had many different colored Relians. Most of them were smaller and arranged around the edge of the window. But in the center was a larger Relian that was completely black.
Just like Jechrin had been when she'd seen him last....
Erin frowned. But before she could process her thoughts any further, the scene faded again.
She jumped through a number of other scenes like this, always showing the same two men.
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She saw the young, black-haired king on a balcony outside the castle, giving a speech to a crowd of people down below while Lanien stood behind him and watched. He was the first person to start applauding when the speech was finished, a broad smile on his face.
Then she saw the two of them at what looked like a council meeting, where Lanien spoke up and defended the young king's ideas when an older attendee criticized them too harshly.
They sat together in a study that looked similar to Arturyn's, staying up late into the night in order to work through piles of paperwork and keeping each other awake with occasional playful banter.
Somehow, throughout all the memories Erin watched, she never heard the black-haired man's name. But she learned some other things about him and his relationship with Lanien.
The two of them were Relians, and they were first cousins. The previous king of Myrikar—their grandfather—had two sons. Lanien was the child of the elder son and was six years older, which normally would have put him ahead of his cousin in the line of succession. But the younger grandson had jumped ahead of all the other heirs and been named crown prince as soon as he was born.
The reason was simple: His black hair.
It seemed that Relian society had a sort of caste system. People were divided into groups based on the color of their skin and hair. Erin was incredulous when she first heard mentions of this in the scenes she was observing, but she eventually figured out the logic behind it.
A Relian's color indicated what kind of magic they could use, which meant that certain colors tended to be better suited to certain jobs. Most of the colors were actually considered more or less equal, but a few seemed to have more powerful magic than the rest, which made people view them as superior. Blue was one of these—the king's personal guards all had blue hair, as did many members of the nobility.
The royal family, including Lanien, were 'Silvers,' which meant they were various shades of grey and white. But occasionally, the Silver bloodline produced a child known as a 'Shadow,' whose hair was a pure, raven black. These children had the most exceptional magic abilities of all and were apparently so highly regarded that simply being born with that color was enough to secure your position as the kingdom's heir apparent.
In the scenes Erin was watching, there was no obvious sign that Lanien resented his position being taken from him by his cousin. The two of them acted like brothers, and Lanien seemed to be committed to supporting the new king.
But for some reason...Erin couldn't help feeling that there was something a little off about the way he smiled when he was watching his younger cousin. And that feeling only increased as she saw years pass, and the young, uncertain king gradually grew more confident and started relying less on the older prince, which meant that Lanien spent more time watching from the background.
Watching. And smiling.
Finally, Erin arrived at a scene that she guessed was about ten years into the black-haired king's reign. He'd traveled to an agricultural region in the eastern part of the country that was suffering from drought. Lanien, as usual, had accompanied him, along with several other mages from the capital city. They were planning to perform some kind of magic ceremony that would create a heavy rain to replenish the local reservoir.
The king had performed similar ceremonies quite a few times by now, so he waited calmly inside a tent that was set up near the reservoir, reviewing some official-looking documents while the other mages finished up the preparations for the ceremony.
"We just finished the final check," Lanien said, ducking in through the tent opening. "Everything looks fine. Are you ready?"
"Just a minute. Let me finish this."
The king read the rest of the paper he was holding and then set it down on the small table he was sitting at so that he could sign the bottom and stamp it with his crest. Then he stood up and stretched his arms above his head.
"All right. Let's go make it rain."
He followed Lanien out of the tent, with Erin trailing along behind them. The three of them walked the short distance out onto a cliff overlooking the reservoir, where a large magic circle had been drawn on a patch of flat ground. The two men took up positions inside the circle, along with five other mages, while Erin stayed on the side and watched.
They began the ceremony, and everything seemed to be going smoothly. Clouds started gathering overhead, white and wispy at first but gradually becoming darker and denser. Finally the first raindrops started to fall.
Then a flash of lightning streaked across the sky, immediately followed by a growl of thunder. The king, who was in the center of the circle, frowned when he saw it, as though it were unexpected. But he continued the gestures he was making as though nothing had happened.
There was another flash, and a heavy gust of wind blew across the cliff, sending everyone's hair and ceremonial clothing into disarray. The other mages were also looking around uneasily now, though none of them seemed to want to interrupt the ceremony.
But when multiple bolts of lightning started arcing through the clouds above them, and a fierce wind sent the rain lashing into their skin, the king had finally had enough.
"Something's wrong!" he called out to the others, shouting to be heard over the howling winds and rumbling thunder. "We need to stop the ceremony! Get ready to disperse the magic energy!"
He turned toward Lanien, who was standing behind him. Just like he always did....
"Lanien! I need you to help me—" The king's words suddenly broke off, and his eyes widened.
Lanien had left the magic circle. He was standing calmly off to the side, his long white hair blowing in the wind, watching the rising storm.
Watching. And smiling.
A huge pillar of lightning suddenly fell on the empty spot in the magic circle where Lanien should have been standing, along with a deafening crash of thunder. The bright flash forced Erin to close her eyes, but she could hear screams coming from the mages in the circle.
She opened her eyes again, blinking away the afterimage of the blinding lightning bolt. Then she stumbled forward as a blast of wind blew at her from behind.
What? She hadn't felt the wind or rain at all until just now. What was going on?
She braced her feet and squinted against the wind now tearing at her body, trying to look around and see what was happening. She heard a scream coming from close by and turned her head in time to see one of the mages actually get pulled off the ground by the wind and go flying into the air. Following the woman's trajectory, Erin widened her eyes in horror, completely ignoring how much the wind stung them.
Where that last lightning bolt had fallen, a large, dark crack had appeared in midair, as though the space itself had been torn apart. The woman that had gone flying was sucked into the crack and disappeared with another terrified scream. Then there was a yell from across the circle as a man went flying toward the crack and was sucked in after her.
Erin watched in shock, still fighting against the wind, as all five mages, along with several of the king's guards that had come running over to help, were pulled one by one off the ground and into the long, dark crack in the sky.
Finally, only she, the king, and Lanien were left.
"Lanien!" The king was on his knees now, hugging the ground to avoid being blown away and slowly making his way toward his cousin. "Why did you....? Why...? Lanien!"
Lanien didn't reply. But his smile widened as he watched his cousin, the rightful king of Myrikar, get torn off the ground by a violent gust of wind and pulled into the dark tear in space.
As he disappeared from view, Erin felt herself leave the ground as well, and with a yelp that no one else could hear, she went tumbling through the air after him.