James didn’t remember falling asleep, but he must have done so at some point, because he woke at eight the next morning. He’d had a strange dream which he couldn’t quite remember. Something to do with the two trios: the Mages, and himself, Charles and Georgie. All he remembered clearly was Georgie begging him for peace, Charles begging him to do what was necessary, and himself caught in between, not knowing what to do.

Well, you didn’t need to be an expert on the meaning of dreams to tell what that one signified. It had all been so simple before this mission, before Theola. He fought with Charles, fought for the throne that rightfully belonged to his best friend, fought against the usurper. No conflicted loyalties, no blurring of the lines.

James dragged himself out of bed and went to find breakfast. He wasn’t invited to spar with his fellow bodyguards this time. Maybe he had gone a little far yesterday. Instead he secured himself access to the library in his free time – it wasn’t that complicated, really, just involved listening to another lecture from Captain Taylor – and spent a few hours researching the Mages.

He didn’t want to stay too long in the space between spaces, but it wasn’t too hard to smuggle out the books he needed disguised within a stack of books on combat magic. Those would be genuinely useful, it was just that this research project took priority.

It wasn’t too hard to find copies of the main sources: the story of the Mages as Temple doctrine decreed it and the epic poem known as the Lay of the Mages. Neither were contemporary accounts, but those were practically non-existent.

The two sources agreed on the main events: the slaying of the dragon that threatened the faraway mountain village, the resurrection of Prince Edmund and their taking the throne together, their role in the battles and negotiations that followed and forged the Kingdom of Rasin.

James was particularly interested in the accounts of the battles. Neither account went into much detail, but both made it clear that the Mages’ power had turned the course of many battles. During the First Battle of Confluence, for instance, they had caused the River Sirg to burst its banks and strand enemy reinforcements on the other side with no way to join the battle. They had gained the services of one of the great spirit-forests and used it to trap thousands of soldiers. Most interestingly, at a battle which bore no name, it was said they had turned day to night and caused the stars to rise at an unnatural time.

That was not a coincidence. Though surely an imposter would have done their research and mimicked a miracle performed by the real Mages?

The Lay of the Mages ended abruptly with the second, permanent death of Edmund, after the Mages had won their greatest victory at the Battle of Greyford. That was the ending of the story it set out to tell, the story of the chosen heroes who built a kingdom together. But the Mages ruled for seventy years, long after those early battles ceased.

For an account of what happened next, he was left with only Temple doctrine. After seventy years, the Mages chose a mortal successor, the man who would become known as Charles First-King, and then the kingdom needed them no longer, so they stayed no longer.

According to the ancient book, they had returned to the stars from whence they came. James hoped that was the truth, but he was sceptical; there was no evidence of any return to the stars. Certainly no-one had ever found a Mage’s body, and there was no record of their deaths, but… could they really still be out there? Could they have wandered the land for centuries, never making themselves known?

It wasn’t impossible, and that was enough to terrify James.

There was no description of anything the Mages could do that would be impossible for normal magicians, except the Esteral resurrection. And James guessed that wasn’t the sort of thing even a genuine Mage could freely repeat. What if he could kill someone important to Theola and see if she brought them back?

No, that was a foolish plan. She didn’t have close friends, as far as he could tell. Felix would have been dead already if James had a realistic chance of making it happen, Georgie was out for obvious reasons, and the only other person he knew she cared about was himself.

Dear Charles. I killed myself to see if Theola would resurrect me. If I don’t come back she’s probably an imposter. PS: Georgie says she misses you. He laughed. Even for him, that plan was more than a little stupid.

He set up a simple concealment ward to hide his research and set off for his shift. Theola was assigned to give a speech to a battalion about to leave the City for the front lines that afternoon, which meant James would be standing on the stage looking intimidating for fifteen minutes or so.

He wished he’d paid more attention to large-scale military strategy, so he could work out what this meant for the course of the war. Reinforcements were sent to the front lines all the time, weren’t they? This wasn’t unusual. It wasn’t a sign of preparations for a new offensive.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

But it had to come some time: after Clirith, Felix had momentum on his side. Any self-respecting general would be trying to exploit that. James missed his seat at Charles’s table and the detailed information that came with it.

He met Christopher and Will outside Theola’s room, as he had the previous day. She emerged sooner this time, dressed in a practical black outfit likely designed for combat. “Hello, everyone,” she said, smiling. James knew it was meant for all three of them, but he couldn’t help feeling it was his alone.

There was something wonderful about knowing they had a shared secret memory now. He sank into a bow. “My lady Mage,” he said, echoing his fellow bodyguards.

“Rise,” Theola replied. “Shall we eat before we go?”

That met with enthusiasm from all three of them; watching everyone eat yesterday without being able to share in it had not been fun.

Conversation over the meal was awkward: Christopher and Will were overly deferential to Theola to the point she struggled to get them to express their own opinions at all, and James felt obliged to act the same. He wasn’t even sure whether it was to keep in character as Jacob or to hide his afternoon with Theola any more.

He wasn’t sure why he wanted to be alone with her.

Stars, what was happening to him?

The speech was less tedious than he’d expected. The four of them waited behind a curtain at the back of the stage while the battalion’s Lieutenant-Colonel and his superior officer addressed the troops. The Lieutenant-Colonel was charismatic and well-liked by his soldiers, to judge by the enthusiasm of the crowd.

But when he finally announced “The Mage Theola is here to speak to you,” utter silence fell.

“Good luck,” James whispered to Theola.

She blessed him with a smile and tore back the curtain.

Six hundred soldiers stood just beneath the stage. As Theola strode forward to join the officers, every single one of them fell to their knees before her. The officers, too, knelt to her.

Stars. James had seen Charles address troops countless times. They had never once knelt to him like this. But Theola was something else, wasn’t she? She wasn’t their leader. She was an object of worship.

Was he imagining it, or did her step falter a little as she saw them kneel?

James shrugged and took up his position behind Theola.

“Please,” she said, her voice carrying easily over the silent crowd. “Rise. Thank you for allowing me to speak, Brigadier. Lieutenant-Colonel. And thank you all, for coming to listen.”

Thanks were hardly required; even if attendance at this event hadn’t been mandatory he doubted many of the soldiers would have missed the chance to see a Mage face-to-face. It was an effective rhetorical device, though, especially as she continued: “More than that, though. I thank you for your service.”

She paused for effect and then added “The stars thank you for your service.”

The comparisons he was making to Charles were unfair, he realised. His friend might be a good speaker, but he couldn’t just invoke the power of the stars in the same way she could. Couldn’t persuade them all of the righteousness of their cause in just a handful of words.

That was what James was supposed to prevent. For all he was pleased with himself for getting so close to Theola so quickly, he hadn’t really accomplished anything to that end. His hand twitched towards his sword.

Then he stopped. Was he really contemplating trying to kill her here and now? No. That was stupid. If she died like this she would be a martyr. Felix’s troops would only be inspired to fight ever harder.

That was why he let his hand relax and fall to his side. Definitely not because he was getting attached. He focused on her words to avoid focusing on anything else. She was a good speaker: calm and clear, words chosen for maximum effect. Then again, perhaps she didn’t write her own speeches. If she was really a Mage, though, she must have become a good public speaker somewhere along the line.

If he ignored the meaning of her words and let them flow over him, listening to her was surprisingly… nice.

Once the speech was done and they’d returned to the palace, Theola decided she would study in the library again. James was invited to join her. It was almost a surprise when he stepped into the space between spaces without vanishing somewhere else first.

“I make a habit of not disappearing in the same way twice,” Theola said. “It gets boring otherwise.”

James could relate to that more than he cared to admit, and indeed more than he could safely admit. “Have you ever considered just… not coming back?” he asked. It was a risk, but he had a deadline now. He needed to speed things up.

Theola stopped walking across nothingness and turned to look back at him. Her gaze was piercing, and he was struck with a sudden irrational fear that she could see through him, that she knew who and what he really was. James forced himself to meet her eyes.

“I have,” she said. “More than once. But… I have my duty.”

Which led neatly into the other risky question that needed to be asked. “Why?” he asked. “Why Felix?”

“He is the rightful king, is he not?”

James’s nails dug into his palms, and he bit his tongue. It was that hard to avoid saying no. Maybe Georgie had a point about his being a bad spy. “So I am told. But… I still don’t understand.”

“It is the will of the stars,” Theola said flatly. “And they are not in the habit of justifying their decisions to mortals. You do not favour him, do you?”

Yes. Definitely a bad spy. He forced himself to think why Jacob would feel this way, and found his answer: “I favour you, Theola. Who sits on the throne does not matter to me.”

He wished the light was a little better in the space between spaces, that he could see her face more clearly and tell whether he was imagining that faint flush of red on her cheeks.

“I appreciate your loyalty,” Theola said. “Really. I do. But this is my path. My destiny. This is what I must do.”

“I know,” James said. “I know.” And this deception was what he must do. They were both bound by loyalty to higher powers. It could never change, and the voice in the back of his mind wondering what would happen if it did needed to be silenced.