Stunned silence filled the room. Some of the soldiers started to shift, wanting to take a step back, but fear of retribution from the stone hanging over their heads kept them in place.
Nodel’s eyes were wide with surprise, and her expression was complicated, though it showed less fear than I expected. Instead, it felt like a combination of wonder, confusion, sadness, and pain.
That makes sense, I thought. I guess she just learned that I killed her first master.
She clearly was not mourning the king, because she looked over at his body in disdain before looking back at me. Then she stood and grabbed me by the shoulders, leaning in and whispering urgently.
“Claim right of might.”
“For… what, the crown?” I asked, and Nodel nodded. “I can’t do that. Can I do that? We’re inside the city. That was the king, not some bandit in the wilds.”
“It’s the only way. From the origins of what is now the Kingdom, right of might began as a legitimate way to gain power. Land traded hands over and over as various factions warred. It was not until the Kingdom came together under the united banner of Horuth that it grew strong enough to eventually take the south, and at that point the original concept of might by right had been stamped out of the idea of it applying to those in power, because those in power created the protected cities. Its legacy lives on in the wilds, but its origin remains.
“More to the point, you must. Rugnor was… not kind, when he took the crown. You already know he dueled his siblings for power, and in killing them took the position of King, the only remaining formal way to claim the throne with right of might. It is generally believed that only those who are heirs to the throne can do this, but technically, anyone could, if the crown actually allowed it to happen. Still, Rugnor… cleaned house. There are no other known heirs to the throne, and he had… not yet taken a wife,” she whispered hurriedly. “We must position you to become the king, before others come from the woodwork to try to claim the throne, and if they do… well, unless you plan to flee to the north again—which we will be talking about later—you will be hunted forever by the next king for your part in this.”
I absorbed everything Nodel was whispering while keeping my eyes on the others in the room. I was curious how she had learned all this, but either it was known within the nobility or she had learned it while in the capital or from within the palace itself. I would have to ask her about it when things calmed down.
“I’m not sure I want to be king,” I said softly.
“I’m not sure you have a choice,” she answered, putting her hand on my cheek. “For the good of the Kingdom, you must, or it will face an era of power fragmentation and civil war, possibly even breaking into disparate states. The walled cities will war with each other for resources and power, and the common people will suffer for generations.”
“Shit,” I muttered. I took a few steadying breaths, then nodded.
Nodel spun, projecting loudly to the others in the room. “You all bore witness. For his reward as victor of the tournament, Pilus requested a fair and legal duel with the former king for the throne. He was victorious, and as such, through right of might, has taken the throne. The transfer of power is complete and inalienable, and a new king is crowned. All hail King Pilus of Horuth.”
There was some shuffling across the unwitting spectators, and the silence stretched for a moment until one of the soldiers looked up at the stalactite hovering above and then down at the steel which had effortlessly been stripped from their bodies. Slowly, the man took a knee, and tucked his head. “All hail King Pilus.”
One by one, other soldiers followed, and as they did, I removed the hovering threats from their heads, setting them down on the ground at the edge of the room to be dealt with later. After a moment, it became clear not everyone in the room would accept what had happened and bow. Several loyal soldiers remained standing, as did the mage who the king had conferred with through our meeting, who seethed at me.
I looked down at the 4-point circle in my hand which allowed me to control the stalactites above them, and saw Nodel’s hand cover it in mine.
“I’ll do it.”
I frowned, and shook my head, but she took my wrist in her other hand and gently but firmly pulled the magic circle from me. I felt my connection to the hovering stone vanish and they sagged slightly before Nodel could take control.
“Thanks,” I whispered, and she nodded. I closed my eyes, and Nodel finished the transfer of power.
* * *
The following days were beyond hectic.
In order to keep the peace, we had to be sure the story of the “fair” transfer of power went unchallenged. Those that bowed their heads were individually sworn to secrecy by me, and during the ceremony, I secretly held my 3-point magic circle.
My power at information magic had grown when I had double-advanced the skill, and I was able to push more magic into the circle in order to identify truth against lie. I could also further appraise someone’s feelings and surface thoughts by pushing even harder, but it was impossible to do without the receiver feeling something probe them. Nonetheless, it was necessary, and we confirmed who was speaking the truth about their allegiance and which soldiers could not be set free.
Nodel had offered to silence them all permanently, and I told her no. I could not explain to her why I was unconcerned about further risks from those that we released—and even if they believed to keep the silence, that could change in the future, so there were still risks—but I told her that in the short term it was better to have witnesses who would corroborate the story as opposed to a room full of dead bodies and no one to speak for us.
I hoped that in time I could give those people reasons to be thankful they had helped make this happen by helping the Kingdom become the best version of itself that it could be.
The mage who had bowed was just a decently powerful mage that had worked for the king and was not opposed to working for the new king, but was not an advisor the same way that the other mage had been. In addition to that mage, the king had other advisors, and once the room was unsealed, they were sent for and I began the process of vetting them.
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Some accepted the change rather easily, as Rugnor was a new, largely untested, and mostly unliked king by those that worked in the palace. Several advisors had been hand-selected by Rugnor and had to be removed, and several others were just too war hungry and were continuing to push for taking the north no matter what, even though they were not loyal to Rugnor. Since the north’s freedom was the crux of why I had caused a shift in power, those advisors were also removed.
The remaining advisors began arranging a coronation ceremony that would help the public accept the transition, and I left them to that while I caught up on the actual state of the Kingdom and Rugnor’s machinations with regards to the north.
I started taking notes about how I wanted to reallocate the soldiers and supplies that he had already been preparing for another offensive, and took other notes about the parts of the Kingdom I felt were suffering and could be improved upon. Nothing would happen overnight as I had a lot to learn about all the various aspects that went into running a Kingdom, but I knew that once I had spent a little more time studying the materials available to me and discussing things with the remaining advisor team that we could make progress towards making things better.
My beasts were relocated to the palace grounds. I wanted to go get them myself, but instead I had needed to send them mental commands to follow the escorts sent to retrieve them, as it was not yet safe for me to leave the palace, according to Nodel. I needed to “consolidate my allies and power” in the palace first, which had made me laugh, as that was what I felt Rugnor had been trying to do with the tournament, and it had not worked out for him.
At the end of the first wild ride of a day, Nodel and I sat down somewhere quiet in the palace. I found a couch which Rika could fit on so she could sit up next to me and set her head down in my lap, so I could comfort myself and quiet my anxieties petting her soft fur. Nodel sat in an armchair opposite the couch, leaning forward to set a cup of tea back down on the table, before settling back and looking me over.
“So. The infamous Metaleater. Before I even touch on how, let me ask… why? I know you grew up in Mirut, that you’re Horuthian with no ties to the northern barbarians–”
“Velgeins. The Velgein people. Not barbarians.”
Nodel raised an eyebrow. “Velgeins. As far as I can tell, you had no contact with them at all, and then somehow, during your apprenticeship, became their mage savior and repelled an entire army, including somehow defeating Master Vorel. When I was eleven,” she said, pausing. “So how, exactly, did you defeat Vorel when you were twelve?”
“I thought you were asking why, first.” Nodel glared at me in annoyance, and I sighed. “Well, the why is actually easy to answer. I was there, and I could do something. To ignore what was happening would have made me complicit. It’s really not any different from the reasons behind why you convinced me to take the burden of leadership today.”
“What do you mean?”
“The Velgeins north of the mountains… they’re just people, Nodel. Despite the differences in how they look and their lack of magic potential, they really aren’t any different than you, or me, or anyone living in the Kingdom. But, for a single resource that Tobar wanted, their Velgein steel, our Kingdom was willing to kill them in droves, force them to live in horrible conditions, enslave them—which, by the way, we’re going to talk about, as I will not tolerate any slavery in this Kingdom moving forward—and… I mean, some of the soldiers were raping women. I couldn’t stand by.
“And, I know, or at least I know now: right of might and all that. The Kingdom took it because they could, because they had the power to. Well, I had the power to stop them, and so I did. By that same notion, then, I was in the right to do so. Although… I’m sorry about Vorel. I did not want to have to do that, but he seemed to be a true believer in his mission from the Kingdom, and I couldn’t talk him down.”
My fists had clenched up as I spoke, and I willed them to relax, steadying my breath and trying to dull the heat in my face. Nodel listened attentively as I spoke, and did not respond immediately. She spent a few minutes thinking about my words before sighing.
“I only trained with Vorel for a year before he died, and much of that time was on the road to the capital. He was my master, and I liked the man well enough, but I gained new magic teachers when I was left behind in the capital. I do not hold a grudge that you killed him… though I might hold a bit of a grudge that I had to travel across half the Kingdom in winter because he was called to the north due to your actions,” she said with a shake of her head. “Which brings us to the how.”
I sat back, scratching my chin. “I’m not sure what I should tell you about how. Lost, ancient Velgein metal magic, a precursor to their steel industry, perhaps, which I discovered while in the north and used to defeat the invading Kingdom. Would you believe me if I told you that?”
Nodel considered it, but shook her head. “Someone who knows less about you and your past might, and it is a decent cover story, but the air blast you used to win the tournament, the stone disc you made as a child—just the fact that you must have been practicing magic at, what, six? If not earlier? No, something else is at play.”
Rika lifted her head out of my lap and pushed it against my chest, and I switched from stroking the top of her head to rubbing the length of her jaw. She closed her eyes in contentedness as I hit a spot that must have been itchy, her back foot twitching a bit as I scratched it for her.
I mulled over what I wanted to say. I had not really prepared any believable falsities to cover up my magic and abilities in their entirety. The more I debated it, the more I felt like I did not need to hide the whole truth from Nodel. The whole day had shown me that she had taken my side and was willing to support me. She had already had a number of opportunities to either bail on me or even strike me down when I least expected it, but instead she worked hard to make sure that I had a path forward, and was working hard for the Kingdom as a whole.
Her trust earned some trust of my own in return.
“I… when I was born, or rather, when I was three or four years old, I realized I had… knowledge. Memories of a different life. The memories… helped me learn things faster, and push myself harder as a child than a normal child would. The gleaned insights from the memories helped me with my magic. Helped you with your magic, too, for that matter.”
I studied Nodel’s expression as she parsed my words. Her eyes were slightly widened, and lips slightly pursed, but she was trying not to let too much surprise show as she debated what I had said. I had no idea if she would believe what I said, and if so, what her response would eventually be. I waited, twitching slightly in my seat in discomfort, and focused my attention on Rika as a distraction.
“Sand is just tiny rocks,” Nodel said softly, snapping my attention back to her.
“What?”
Nodel picked up her rod and pulled a stone out of her pocket, which did not surprise me because I had carried stones in my inventory for years. I was willing to bet most 4-point magic practitioners probably carried at least some amount of stone on them. She performed a small bit of magic, and the stone began to float, then started to divide, one stone splitting into two, then two into four, until a cloud of dust swarmed above her hand.
“Something you said to me as a child. ‘Rocks are just small pieces of bigger rocks,’ and that sand is just tiny rocks. Not a single one of my teachers ever spoke like that. Controlling stone with magic was all about shaping the essence of the stone, and that larger stones had more powerful essences which was why it was harder to control them. None of them ever mentioned anything about what rocks actually were, or about controlling sand, or breaking rocks down into sand like this. You were the only one.”
She squeezed her hand into a fist, and the sand recompressed into a rock, which she tucked back into her pocket.
“I believe you. It’s the only explanation that makes sense, even if it sounds impossible on the surface. But then, it seems like you’ve been up to impossible things your whole life.”
I let out a breath, surprising myself at how relieved I was. “Thanks, Nodel. So… so we’re all right? Will you keep helping me with all this?” I asked, waving a hand around the top of my head. “Or… do you want to leave?”
A laugh escaped Nodel’s lips, and she gave me a cheeky grin, the kind I had not seen on her face since childhood. “And miss out on seeing more impossible things?” She leaned forward, a glint in her eye. “I’m not running away, and I won’t let you run away either. You’re stuck with me now, Pilus.”