“You want to know what justice means to me? Here you go: I wish for a new Universal Law. The Law of Fairness. A new natural law, a new natural force as intrinsic to reality as the conservation of energy. Whenever a person wrongs another, they shall receive simultaneous penitence, equal to the harm they commit to their neighbour. Is this wish within your power to grant, Golden One?” Rolynd asked.

“It is,” ADAM replied.

“Then make it so.”

Reality warped and shifted for but a moment. Like a ripple travelling out from the surface of a pond. When everything settled, it seemed that nothing had changed at all.

“It is done,” ADAM said.

“Just like that?” Elwin asked.

Without warning, and before anyone else could react, Blue reached across the corner of the table and slapped Elwin cleanly across the cheek with her left hand.

“Ow! What the-?” Elwin exclaimed, clutching at his face.

“Ah! What in the good graces?” Blue exclaimed, utterly bewildered at what she was experiencing, even though she had prepared her mind for it rationally.

Pain. Raw pain, experienced in such vivid detail that surpassed even her eidetic memory. Blue could feel the rash-like sting on the surface of her face, the throbbing pain as blood rushed to form a bruise, the sharp pain in her cheek where her teeth had pressed and cut into the soft inside of her mouth. Except, of course, these details were incompatible with Blue’s metal body, and yet Blue truly, paradoxically experienced these things. The pain didn’t just last an instant either, but it lingered, and Blue’s cheek became sensitive to the touch. She suspected that the injury would need to ‘heal’, but she had no idea how long that might take, considering that her injury wasn’t real… or rather, because her injury may well have been the first ever instance of its kind.

Miretrix, Lucina, Elwin, and even Rolynd himself looked on in amazement at the scene, their minds struggling to comprehend the situation, much less accept it. A satisfied, exhilarated smile crept across Rolynd’s face. He began to laugh. A raucous, wild laughter of a man finally free.

“HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!” the boy exclaimed, shaking with glee, clapping his hands. “HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”

His laughter was infectious. Even Blue found the corners of her lips curling into a smile.

Empress Lucina was flabbergasted, unable to come up with a witty remark. Not only did Rolynd’s wish fulfil his wish for a fair world, and the protection of all unjustly persecuted, but it protected him and his allies from any further harm at Lucina’s hands. And although the limits of Rolynd’s Law of Fairness were unknown, it would not have surprised Lucina to find out that it was capable of taking life. Would she be able to capture the Bloodstones at all? Would she also become mystically imprisoned the moment that she captured them? How responsible was she for the orders she gave? If she ordered one of her soldiers to kill, who would bear the consequences?

Lucina could not help but respect the boy in some strange way. He truly did value what he perceived to be justice. Though the details of this new natural law had yet to be studied, Lucina had the feeling that it would lead to greater peace and stability in her empire. How could it not?

“Wow.” Miretrix let out, her mind racing, bending under the implications of the new law. How would it affect her wish? Was cruelty even a possibility anymore? She would need to rethink the specific wish she was to make.

“Well, while you are all digesting the implications of King Rolynd’s wish, I shall make mine,” Blue announced to a stunned audience.

“What? So soon? The very next wish we make could change the world just as much as Rolynd’s wish for fairness, and you’re thinking of making your wish before that? Would it not be wiser to wait?”

“I have waited long enough,” Blue said. “I am sick of this body. I was sick of it two thousand years ago. It is time to be who I truly am, and whoever I want to be.” She turned to ADAM, who stared back at her with his mask-like face. “I wish to become the new Protea, master of all forms.”

“Are you certain?” ADAM asked her.

“Yes,” Blue said.

The very next moment, Blue ceased to be, and in her place was a person who looked like Blue, but very distinctly was not. Something immediately felt different about her, even to Elwin, who had spent countless hours with her over the past few weeks.

“…Blue?” Elwin asked timidly.

“I am not Blue anymore, Elwin. My true name is Protea.” Protea said. “But I will have every name in time.”

Before their very eyes, Protea’s form changed, reverting to flesh and bone. She appeared as the elf that Elwin had seen just a fraction of an hour ago in his trial. And with her transformation, the atmosphere around Protea changed once more, feeling completely alien. It truly was like she was a different person.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“Gweddihew?” Elwin asked.

Gweddihew was impressed. “You know my name?” she asked.

“Yes. It's, well, a bit of a coincidence really.”

“This is impossible,” Rolynd said, mystified. “Scientifically, magically. This is unprecedented.”

“You are wrong,” Protea said, changing shape, spirit and mannerisms once more. Now, she appeared as a certain icy-eyed young woman.

Empress Lucina gasped.

“Catherine!” Rolynd ejaculated. “What the fuck?! Just what-”

“What are the limits of my power?” Catherine wondered, cutting him off.

“What are the limits of her power?” Miretrix asked, her question directed at ADAM’s avatar. But ADAM did not deign to answer. He merely watched the scene unfold before him.

Rolynd and Lucina both flinched at seeing Catherine use her powers, while Elwin and Miretrix both took no notice of it.

“What…” Lucina began, but she could not even form a single coherent thought.

Protea changed once more, reverting to her smug, fleshy elven form as Gweddihew. “I think I’ll stay like this for a while.” She said. “It would be frustrating having everyone around me reduced to inarticulate monkeys.”

It was Miretrix who recovered before Rolynd and Lucina, whose faces both expressed that they had just seen a ghost. Their minds, already struggling beneath the computational load of Rolynd’s wish, were reaching their breaking point trying to understand Blue’s own.

“With King Rolynd’s Law of Fairness, cruelty has become a snake which swallows its own tail. Contained. But it is not enough to satisfy my desires. Cruelty may be contained, but where does cruelty come from? What drives people to commit atrocities? I can tell you as someone who has learned to foster these evils. Inequality. Scarcity. These are the true enemies of righteousness. Cruelty, theft, murder: these things may be innate to each of us, but their use is learned. Evil is something that is learned, and taught.”

“So, what are you suggesting?” Gweddihew asked the fairy, as the others half-listened, still lost in their own minds. “Will you wish evil away?”

“No. Evil is a tool. It has its place in the grand order of creation, as does scarcity and inequality. And I dare not tamper with the tools of our collective intellect; indulging that path will only reduce us to brainless insects. I simply desire that no more people be forced into lives they do not choose.”

Sensing something important about to be said, Lucina, Rolynd and Elwin all joined their attention to Miretrix as she spoke her next words.

“I wish to normalise the fortunes of all people. Fortune is a wild sea that ebbs and flows like the tides. Some are blessed with clear skies and calm seas. Others are cursed with treacherous currents and insurmountable waves. They drown without even a flicker of a hope. By my wish, everyone will have similar fortunes. The same in the magnitude of total blessings and curses. Equal in fate and circumstance. Periods of abundance will inevitably follow periods of scarcity. Everyone will have an equal footing.”

“What you propose will change every societal paradigm that exists!” Lucina dissented.

“I know. That is the point.”

Reality warped and shifted.

“It is done,” ADAM declared.

“Just like that? Did anything actually happen?” Elwin asked.

“Are you doubting ADAM’s power, while in his very presence?” Gweddihew asked Elwin with dubiousness.

“In time, all will see that your wish has been granted, Miretrix Lampleer,” ADAM reassured her.

“What of people who have had excessively good or bad fortunes?” Lucina asked. It was obvious that she had some personal stake in her line of questioning. If Miretrix’s wish were to work retroactively, what terrible correction might be awaiting the most privileged woman in the universe?

“What is done is done,” Miretrix said. “I cannot raise the dead, or change those who have been shaped by their fates. Nor would it be my place to.”

Lucina seemed to agree with the fairy’s line of reasoning, but she disagreed strongly with one aspect of what she had said. The Empress decided that it was her turn to speak.

“Isn’t it interesting, what we all desire? We either seek a better world or to better ourselves. ” Empress Lucina said. “Rolynd, you think justice is fairness. An eye for an eye, and the whole world goes blind. Are you not familiar with that adage? And Miretrix, you think justice is the removal of inequity. People may be pushed to commit evil due to their circumstances, but that doesn’t mean that choice is not part of the equation. People are more than the product of their environment. They choose to do terrible things. There is always a choice.”

“Rich words for a rich woman and warmonger, wouldn’t you agree, Miretrix?” Rolynd asked his enemy.

Miretrix scoffed along with Rolynd. “Yes. Only a mouth so privileged would be about to spout such nonsense.” The magic engineer agreed.

“Just because I am the embodiment of your perceived issues does not diminish the verity of the words or the purity of my convictions.”

Gweddihew nodded to herself, seemingly finding wisdom in Lucina’s callous words.

“Well. With your wishes now made, I shall make mine… I wish for my niece Catherine to be restored to life.”

Everyone seated, except for Blue and ADAM, was briefly stunned.

“…You aren’t serious,” Rolynd said in denial. Such was his lack of faith in his enemy.

“Do you understand that in doing so, you shall forfeit your own life? Restoring the dead to life is not something the Creator wantonly permits.” ADAM asked.

“Yes. That is a price I am willing to pay. The wishes you have will plunge the world into disorder, a disorder that I cannot hope to solve before countless lives are thrown into chaos. Let me tell you fools one thing: fairness and inequity are distractions, choices should be governed by duty and nothing else. That is true justice, the right order of things in this life. And, only one who can see the future has any hope of guiding the present. Therefore, it is my duty as one who recognises that fact to do whatever it takes, to bring about a future where the universe is ruled by someone qualified to do so.”

“Are you sure about your wish?” ADAM asked as the rest of those seated at the table watched on in anticipatory silence.

“Yes,” Lucina replied once more. “I am ready.”

Rolynd could not quite believe his eyes and ears. He was convinced that there was some trick up the Empress’ sleeve… but with a blinding flash, Lucina’s soul could be seen leaving her body, flying high into the air, out of sight. It was beautiful.

The Incandestine Empress’ body slumped back into her chair limply. It was like she was asleep. Rolynd used his Aegis to move the tip of Lucina’s right index finger. It moved.

She was dead.