“Garen, slow down! You know I am not athletically inclined!” Elurra called as she hurried up the twisting staircase.
“Now Princess, we must work on your stamina! I promise the view up here will take your breath away!” he called down. She stopped for a moment and indulged her burning lungs.
“I will not have any breath left to take by the time I get up there,” she growled, although she doubted Garen could hear her.
When she finally reached the doorway five minutes later, she sighed happily and closed her eyes as a strong breeze brushed over her sweaty face. She had to tighten her grip on her parasol to make sure it didn’t blow away. Garen offered his hand and helped her ascend the last few steps to the roof of the outer perimeter tower.
“Come to the edge. The view is always best from here,” he beckoned.
She discovered the tower overlooked the outer town and the vast landscape beyond it. He was right. The view did take her breath away. The tall grasses in the plains danced in the wind like waves on the open sea. Mountains rimmed the horizon, and Mount Erok smoked in the distance.
“Are you impressed now?” A wide smile dominated Garen’s face.
“I must admit this is much better than the courtyards, kitchens, meeting rooms, servants’ quarters, and long stone hallways. Why did you not show me this a week ago and save yourself the trouble with the rest?”
Garen grinned, gracefully rested his elbow on the top of the wall, and cradled his chin in his hand, focusing his green eyes on Elurra.
“If I had shown you this first, then I would have been deprived of your company for the last week, and I could not have that.” If he was attempting to strike an attractive pose, he was successful.
Elurra laughed and turned away from his piercing gaze. She had enjoyed spending time with Garen. Without his company, she would only have her mind to occupy her, and she’d gone to painstaking lengths to avoid dwelling on the person who consumed her thoughts when she was alone.
“Are you going to show me anything else today, or are we going to spend all afternoon up here?” she asked, mimicking his flirtatious manner.
“As much as I would adore watching the sunset with you up here, Your Grace, you unfortunately have other places to be this afternoon.”
“Oh?”
“The queen asked to see you in the throne room after lunch.”
Elurra tried to hide her excitement. Lira hadn’t sent for her since their last encounter, and she’d started to wonder if she would ever be summoned again. Garen noted her expression and put his hands on his hips.
“The downside to seeing the queen is you not only have to travel down that staircase, but you must also be parted from me, which I am sure will be a traumatic and painful experience,” he said with a dramatic sigh. A huge smile spread across his face when he couldn’t hold the pose any longer.
“A few hours away from your theatrics might do me some good,” she told him, a smirk playing on her lips. “Otherwise, I will forget how real people act.”
Garen clutched his chest in mock horror as if she’d stabbed him.
“Such harsh words! How could you say I, the great Lord Almasi, am overdramatic? Here I try, to the best of my ability, to give you enough drama to light up your day, and you repay me with insults. How could one so beautiful be so cold?” He turned away and touched the back of his hand to his forehead in a perfect stance of woe.
Elurra couldn’t help but burst into laughter. “You were born to be an actor, not a lord.”
Garen dropped his pose and smirked at her. “And you were born to be the sun, for your presence lights up my day.”
“Careful. Excessive flattery will make all your compliments sound hollow.”
His overzealous adulation reminded her of Rowan, although Garen’s compliments were more eloquent than anything the honey-worded redhead would ever utter.
“Complete poppycock. If a bell were not hollow, we would be deprived of its chime, and I have been told I am as handsome as any belle.”
Elurra grinned.
“I should probably leave. I do not wish to make the queen wait.”
“Give her my regards,” Garen said as he took Elurra’s hand and kissed it.
Elurra was finally accustomed to his excessively romantic farewells, and she no longer blushed at his theatrics.
“I shall,” she assured him.
She made her way through the castle, her thoughts traveling from Garen to Terrin to Lira and back around. She was so distracted she missed a turn and had to retrace her steps to make it to the throne room. The guards opened the doors for her just as the bell tower struck one. Lira was already inside, waiting for her. When Elurra entered the room, the queen stood and descended the steps to meet her.
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“I apologize for the stretches between our sessions, but running a kingdom is a full-time job. I trust Lord Almasi has kept you fairly entertained, and you have made use of my personal library?” Lira inquired.
Elurra bowed her head in agreement. “I appreciated his company, and I have learned much from my studies.”
“I am glad to hear it. I have a meeting with my advisers in an hour, so we must make this lesson quick. I would like to see what you have already done with your connection to magic and your nanite functions,” Lira said briskly.
“My what?” Elurra asked, trying to follow Lira’s fast-paced babble. The queen sighed.
“What you call ‘magic’ can actually be divided between two different powers. Actual uses of Magic—the Macro Analytical Global Interface Computer—are large-scale uses of energy fueled by complex machines the Guardians called ‘computers.’ They left them behind at the end of the war. They are in underground bunkers all over Incari. They control things such as force fields, tractor beams, teleportation, and other energy consuming tasks that would kill any person who tried to use their own. Then, there are the nanites installed inside you, which can do a wide assortment of things on their own. They can create light, download information, help with viruses or illness, telepathically communicate with other people who have nanites, regulate internal temperature, create electric pulses and low impact armor, predict trajectory, and more. Without them, a Guardian could not use their weapon or connect with Magic. Nanites are the secret to everything,” Lira informed Elurra.
Elurra gave her a blank stare for a couple of seconds.
“What exactly are nanites?”
“Nanites are microscopic inorganic creatures that can communicate and listen to all commands given in the language of the Guardians. You have trillions of them in your body regulating your internal temperature right now, making sure you do not overheat. You can also transfer energy to your nanites from outside sources to keep running at full capacity. I had to do such a transfer when you first got here because you used too much energy. Your body was in danger of shutting down because your nanites were trying to draw energy from your organs in order to continue functioning.”
Elurra nodded, trying to process all the information. She wrinkled her nose in disgust thinking about trillions of little things floating around inside her.
“I want you to tell me about the ‘magic’ you have used so far, and if you think it was actual Magic, nanites, or both,” Lira clarified.
Elurra pondered for a moment. “First, we used a location spell to find Unérith. That was…nanites?”
“What exactly happened when you said the command?”
“Nothing happened initially, but when I touched the book we used as a reference, I could see a golden path which led us through the woods.”
Lira smiled. “Actually, that one is rather complicated. When the Guardians first came to Incari, they did mass documentation of the animals, insects, plants, and geography to discover any advantages they could glean from local life. They sent out flying droids that looked like bugs to document everything they discovered. These tiny ‘insects,’ which they called cybugs, are still in action. The Magic computers manufacture them and send them out to regularly update the maps inside the bunkers. What you did was transmit a query to the closest bunker, which did a search, found a match in the database, scanned the area around you, and sent the directions to you. Then your nanites transmitted the map to your brain and accessed your vision to show you where to go. Understand?”
Elurra blinked a few times and nodded her head slowly.
I do not understand most of what she said, but I think I get the gist.
“Next?” Lira prompted.
Elurra spent the next hour picking out different things she’d done and having Lira explain them. She learned that “Ťo nobi maş” was a teleport command, which relayed through the closest bunker and moved a person or group from one location to another, invisible walls were force fields, and even the secret to Nitiri’s spiders.
“The spiders she uses are versions of the cybugs. Nitiri must have discovered they will listen to Guardian commands. All the documentation creatures were installed with basic defense mechanisms to detain Incarians if needed. Not all Incarians supported the Guardians during the war, so occasionally they needed a way to stop locals without killing them. Those spiders, and other cybugs, are programmed to inject a controlling agent into your bloodstream. Often, the Guardians used this technology to keep Incarians out of their control centers. Anyone who got too close would attract one of these devices and would be forced to walk in haphazard directions until they were well away from the base. Of course, the reason you and Terrin were able to speak, and in some cases overcome, the spider is because you already have nanites in your system. Terrin was able to completely escape it because he has more Guardian in him than you do. His father was a Guardian, whereas your grandfather on your mother’s side was a Guardian. The spider had a harder time controlling him, I imagine.”
“My grandfather was a Guardian? How do you know that?” Elurra asked, stunned.
“As I mentioned before, your parents came to visit me a few years ago. Together we shared our knowledge of Yamoi, the Guardians, and the Demons. Your mother was born in the northern islands. Small rifts sometimes open there unpredictably. Guardians came to stop the Demons and evacuate the islands, but it turned into a full-on battle, with enough blood to appease even the war god Bast. Your mother was born sometime within that period of chaos.”
Elurra was dumbfounded to realize how little she knew about her family. By the time she recounted all of her and Terrin’s magical endeavors, her hour was up. Lira looked slightly impressed by the lengthy list.
“I am astounded you did not put yourself into a coma with some of those stunts. Feats using nanites, like those heat pulses you sent into the ground to create vapor or the electricity creation you pulled off, are hard to sustain for long durations. You could have easily hurt yourself,” Lira told her gravely. “When we next meet, I will give you lessons on regulating your energy and sustaining nanite usage. Endurance is a key skill when using Magic. If you will excuse me, I must leave for my meeting. Before I go, I want to give you this.”
She ascended the steps to her throne, bent down, and took out a package wrapped in cloth. Elurra unwrapped a Guardian’s weapon. She glanced at Lira in disbelief, but the queen motioned for her to pick it up. With shaking fingers, Elurra touched the cool white metal. As soon as her fingertips met the surface, swirls of blue light came to life across the blade. She felt a connection with the sword immediately. Ancient knowledge flowed through her mind, whispering secrets of swordplay.
“It’s beautiful,” Elurra breathed, completely awestruck.
“I discovered more Guardian weapons deep in my father’s armory after his death. I figured you would need one. Each is programmed to instill the knowledge of how to use it. Be cautious. As you know, it has other forms outside the sword, but it is not wise to use them quite yet. We have both witnessed what happens if you do not properly charge your weapon.”
“Thank you, Lira. I cannot express how much I appreciate this.”
The queen bowed her head in acknowledgment and escorted her out of the throne room.
“Have you had lunch yet?” Lira inquired after they left the chamber.
“Yes. Lord Garen and I ate around noon.”
“Good. In that case, your next class starts when you find Lord Almasi. Take your sword. You will need it,” Lira said before parting ways.