Chapter 22 #3
“Especially not then,” she said, smiling sadly.
“I saw up close just how hollow such a life is. Fae, she spent so much time perfecting and wearing the mask of a princess. I saw how it ate at her and how it hardened her heart. It was only when it was just the two of us that she could set that part aside and just…be. I have never envied her that life. And given just how my own time as a princess has gone, that reluctance hasn’t changed. ”
She needed more time. He needed to find a way to give that to her.
And he needed to find more reasons for her to crave the power a queen could yield.
She’d already had a small taste when they’d journeyed through Aureum.
Perhaps he should begin by asking her opinion on matters of state.
Once she got a taste for doing good on a grand scale, he had no doubt she would find the life of a queen more enticing.
“What is the rite Polydorus and Canthus spoke of?”
He blinked, surprised by the question.
“The Rite of the Consort? It is the magical rite that binds a royal spouse to the magic of Aureum. It is what would give you the ability to pacify the spirits. Why do you ask?”
“Maybe I just need to know more to make a decision.”
Hope blossomed in his chest.
“I won’t let anyone pressure you into a decision before you’re ready,” he said, still gladdened that she was considering it.
“Becoming a queen in truth is not as simple as sitting upon a throne and placing a crown atop your head. It is not even having the authority to command an army, make laws, or pronounce judgements in court.”
“Then what does it mean?” she asked, frowning.
“Think of it as being akin to a position in a temple, like a high priestess. Except the deities a monarch serves are the elder gods, their spirits, and the tangible deities. A true king or queen is a high priest or high priestess in the cult of the elder gods. There are others, clerics of the elder gods, who keep the rituals and rites alive, but their power is limited. Your most important duties as a monarch are the religious rites required to pacify the spirits and bring good weather and fertility to the lands you serve.” He plucked the nearest fragrant blossom and tucked it behind her ear.
“In Aureum, I serve the great dragon’s heart.
In Niveum, they serve the great dragon’s head.
Just as the other realms serve the great fairy, the giant, and the unicorn. ”
As he spoke, she leaned in closer, her expression rapt. She barely paid any mind to the flower adorning her.
“Truly? I thought the cult of the elder gods was a fringe cult,” she said, her eyes sparkling.
Ah, there was his little scholar of a wife.
“Hardly,” he said, chuckling. “Every royal family is part of the cult, and so are most of the nobles. Everyone with wild magic is welcome in the cult.” He leaned back, enjoying the warmth of the sun on his face.
“Why only them? Why not people without magic, or those with divine magic?”
He furrowed his brow, confused by her questions.
“Aurora, there are very few people who exist in Trisia who do not have either wild magic or divine magic. And those with divine magic are expected to serve the Triad, not the elder gods.”
She raised her brow and blinked at him as if he’d grown an extra head.
“What are you talking about? Most people don’t have any magic. And in any case, why can’t someone serve both the Triad and the elder gods? You certainly do, in your role as king, do you not?”
“I’m saying that only a small fraction of Trisians are born without the propensity for either wild or divine magic. Why do you think otherwise?”
“Because that’s simply not true. The few who have wild magic in my time are either nobles or serving in the palace. Many times more people receive divine magic, but even then, most never awaken any kind of magic,” she explained.
It was like an arrow to the heart. How had Trisia come to such a state?
“How is that possible?” He leaned forward, relaxation forgotten.
“That’s just how it is.”
“In your time, perhaps.”
“Are you trying to tell me that most people in Aureum today have magic?” she asked, bewildered.
“Yes. Because they do.”
She seemed surprised to hear it. And that surprise sent a wave of dread through him.
“That’s so…bizarre. I wonder what changed.”
That was something he would like to know as well.
“Perhaps you should tell me about the Trisia of your time. We may arrive at the answer.”
He had a bad feeling about what might be the cause.
“Well…there aren’t any spirits in my time, and admittedly, I didn’t learn much about wild magic either.
Not that there are many who have wild magic, mind you.
All I know about the elder gods are the legends told to children, and all I know of their clerics is that their cult is small and they blame both the temples and the dualists for the cycles of chaos and calamity. ”
His heart stuttered in his chest. To imagine such a world was to imagine the ruin of Trisia. It shouldn’t be possible. Birdsong was replaced by the sound of his own racing heart thrumming in his ears.
“The spirits are gone?”
“Yes.”
“You’re certain?”
She nodded.
“Then Trisia itself must be dying in your time,” he said, considering her again.
Perhaps this was part of her fate. Perhaps she had been sent to him to correct a terrible imbalance. Was Drakon part of this? Had the beast contributed to the death of Trisia itself, silencing even the spirits of the land?
“It’s not…dying…” she hedged, frowning.
“You don’t sound so certain of that.”
“Well, I’ll admit, when I first came here, I was struck by how bountiful everything was. I’d never seen trees so tall, or so much wildlife. And…things definitely look different in my time, but…”
“Your monarchs must be weak indeed if such things surprise you. They must have been weak for a very long time.”
She bit her lip and looked away. His gut sank.
“You do have monarchs in your time, do you not? You said yourself you befriended a princess.”
“I…are you sure you want to know?”
No, he wasn’t. The more he learned about the future of Aureum—of Trisia—the more horrified he became. But she’d been sent back for a reason—to change the past. And he couldn’t help her do that if he was ignorant of the future.
“I suspect I will dislike the answer, but that is no reason to remain ignorant. You came here to change the past and save your friend. If you succeed, you will have steered Trisia on a better course. Perhaps you are also meant to change the fate that befalls the elder gods and their spirits.”
Aurora let out a sigh.
“Trisia doesn’t stay a collection of kingdoms and queendoms. In my time, it’s an empire, with a single empress on its throne.”
“That’s…”
An abomination. Inconceivable. One woman could not possibly sustain the fertility of the whole of Trisia. She could not possibly appease the spirits of every land alone.
“Is everything a desert in your time?” he asked.
It was the only possible outcome. The fact that Aureum had a desert strip near the Between had long been a kind of humiliation for the monarchs who reigned here.
Unproductive, barren land was a sign of weak monarchs.
One former monarch had taken upwards of twenty husbands and wives as kings and queens trying to give Aureum the power to turn that strip of parched land verdant, only to fail.
He could only imagine how barren Trisia had become with a single monarch’s magic left to provide for a whole continent’s needs.
“Not everything.”
She looked away.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
“You won’t like it.”
“Of that I’m certain.”
“I don’t want to upset you.”
He sighed.
“Whatever I feel, it is not your burden to bear. I promise you that no matter what you tell me of the future, I will not quarrel with you simply because it displeases me. I may wish to tell you why such a thing is terrible, but it will not be because I find fault with you.”
“We’ll see about that,” she said under her breath. “Aureum is…well, it’s a desert, except for a small strip next to the Dragon’s Tail Mountains. And the empire is…Viridian.”
He nearly choked on his next breath. That scheming, flee-bitten bitch would have her empire.
Maybe not anytime soon, but in the far future, her land-grabbing ambitions would bear poisoned fruit—and all of Trisia would suffer.
His kingdom, a desert. Theron’s heart sank to his toes.
Merciful Triad, he felt sick. His gaze wandered across his verdant garden and he couldn’t reconcile the scent fragrant flowers or the sound of leaves rustling in the breeze with what his kingdom would become.
“Theron?”
“I need a moment.”
He put his head in his hands. His kingdom would be laid waste.
Turned into sand dunes and lifeless rock.
The spirits would be so weakened as to go silent, starved of magic.
All at the hands of Viridis, a land so damned rapacious they thought nothing of burning Trisia to the ground so long as they could rule over the ashes.
He had to change that fate.
“The picture you paint is a dire one.”
“It didn’t feel dire living in it, you know.”