Circe shivered as she waited in the transmission room. The space was like the inside of a planetarium, panels of indistinguishable hard-light presenting an incredible view of the universe. Circe just wished the lightshow didn’t require such cold running temperatures. Then, before her eyes, a body of obsidian rose into view. He wasn’t especially tall, but the emerald gleam almost reminded her of the man’s true glare, one she couldn’t forget. Since the recent upgrade to the projection room, it was as if the man was truly present. She stood rigidly at attention, despite the chill.

  “At ease, Ms. Andross,” the King said, and she took the appropriate posture. Circe didn’t quite get the expression - while not quite saluting, the “at ease” position it was appropriate to take, with her legs a bit past shoulder width and arms behind her back wasn’t terribly comfortable either. She snapped her mind back to business. She was still anxious from from the events of the previous day, but if she got distracted, the King would notice.

  “I have seen the recording,” the golem mused, “what did you make of the outcome?”

  “The prince has been humbled, per your instructions. He was passing the test. He did not lash out, nor did he run away from the encounter. However, Leonardo complicated things.”

  “As did you,” said the obsidian King. Cerci gritted her teeth.

  “I was not in the ideal situation, your majesty. I couldn’t have allowed Leo to insult me freely. It would have compromised the entire point of the encounter if Prince Xenron stopped taking me seriously. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have had an issue with a quiet student like him.”

  The King nodded, conceding the point. “Is that why you killed him, then?”

  The traumatic memory rushed back to her mind, and Circe trembled with fear and rage. Foolishly - but reason was lost to her - she stepped close to the King, into his personal space.

  “That boy is an anomaly. When he got close, I sensed my death - or worse - was imminent. It’s not just him! I watched the recording of Bruce’s test for him, and Prince Xenron shouldn’t be nearly a match for Anna, yet he blocked her attacks perfectly! How many more surprises are you hiding from us? Is this just a game to you?!”

  Her words were dangerous, but Circe went a step further and jabbed her finger at the King’s chest. She immediately regretted it. The next thing Circe knew, she gasped as she hit the wall. She felt the pain in her ribs afterwards. Cracked. They were cracked. She had been hit. When? She looked up as the King’s stone body walked towards her and knew she was going to die. When he got within a few paces, he stopped.

  “I do this as a lesson, Circe, because the broader world is unforgiving. My predecessor would have killed you for your aggressiveness.”

  Circe nodded numbly, and the king smiled, but she had a feeling it was not sincere.

  “Now then,” the King continued. “I shall concede that I should not have prodded the fresh wound. We will talk of other matters, then. Fornuft interrupted your conversation with Xenron, but how do you think Xenron was reacting to the situation?”

  “What do you make of the situation, majesty?” Cerci said hoarsely, the pain of broken ribs making it difficult to speak. “I mean no disrespect, but you have the recording. I would not venture to refute your assessment.”

  The moving statue waved its hand. “None of that groveling. I don’t want a recording. I want your assessment. Xexen intuition is worth much more.”

  Circe took a shuddering breath, made worse every moment. Only survival instinct and rigorous training kept her steady. “I find the situation hard to evaluate. I do not see the value in humbling Prince Xenron. He seems a skittish boy in the first place.”

  The king grinned a horrifying, jagged grin. “Ah, but ‘humbling’ is just your own extrapolation of my orders. I wanted him challenged harshly. The boy must be able to act rationally towards people who hate him and will not extend the same courtesy. And it will be sooner than he thinks. But go ahead, Ms. Andross. Speak. I see you disagree.”

  Circe almost swore, but complied. “You told me to pick at his abilities, as it would upset him. Was his performance not inadequate, leaving practically everything to Johan when he clearly has capacity?” Circe said. She probably shouldn’t argue, but she was genuinely confused.

  “None of you are adequate. If you were, I would have you on the battlefield, turning the tide of this war. As it is, I could incapacitate all of you mentors and your students besides without killing any of you. It would be… annoying, like herding cats, but not troublesome. The difference in strength between children at this age barely matters.” Seeing right through her sudden tension, the golem almost seemed to grin. “Unless, that is, you’re hiding a truly incredible technique, Ms. Andross.”

  Circe was hiding things from the King, same as anyone from a great family. It was her right to her own privacy. And yet, she felt powerless before that man’s thinly veiled threats, piercing gaze, and immense power he wielded. Fear gave way to anger. This indignity - the way he toyed with her - could not be permitted. If she went to her mother about it, the clan would take her side.

  Still - what he said about being able to casually take on three Tier III’s and dozens of their students was true, if half the stories held weight... Circe didn’t have any delusions about the practicality of ruining her family’s relations with that man. The great families of the empire held immense power, but joining them in rebellion had already been tried. In all of Xexen history, the only successful rebellions were against Emperor Reiner’s brat - easy because he was incompetent - and the Mad King - doable, if not easy, because he was despised by all, with the current King Verox himself leading the charge. He was infuriating and perhaps a tyrant, but despised only by some, and the furthest thing from incompetent.

  “I train the best I can, so that I may one day protect you and preserve your strength,” she settled on. She had to calm herself, hold her tongue. It would be troublesome for the King to kill an Andross heir, but if she provoked him enough, he might do it anyway. The King barked a humorless laugh.

  “Good! Good… just keep to your studies. That time is not yet. And just as you have time, so too does the prince - for now. I am pleased with the results of your test, as everything ended up to our benefit.”

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  “…Thank you, Your Majesty,” Circe said. “Is there anything else?”

  “Yes, Ms. Andross. I will be returning to Tronen shortly. Inform the castle, and have them make preparations. I expect the Xexherre day festival to be immaculate. They will know about the rest… there is much I must attend to. As for you, be sure to see a expert healer on the way out.” The obsidian man stamped a prefilled form. “Give them this, and they will treat you immediately.”

  Circe was taken aback. By the way he was speaking, she was the first to know he’d be returning - this gave her family a good deal of face. As for the healer, she was proud that her own magic had mostly restored her ribs by now. She didn’t need his handout - and wouldn’t play his mind games any more than strictly necessary. But Circe didn’t say any of that.

  “Yes, sir,” was her response.

  ***

  As Circe departed, Sarah Vale walked right past her, heedless of the fact she had not been invited for an audience.

  “Ms. Vale. To what do I owe the unexpected pleasure?”

  “I thought I’d interview Circe about her recent conversation with Xenron,” Sarah said, face taut, “but her emotions were leaking so badly I didn’t have to. I think even a young psychic like Vex would have had no trouble plucking whatever thoughts she wanted off the top without Circe noticing.”

  “So you come here to… report yourself for illegal use of psychic powers?” Verox asked.

  “Oh, come off it,” Sarah said, sitting in a plush chair unbidden with her head in her hands. “Why did you have her tear Xenron to pieces? What in the world are you thinking?”

  Verox glared at her, translated by a gleaming of his stone form’s eyes. “I think you forget yourself, Ms. Vale, to march in here and question me on my treatment of my own son.”

  Sarah stayed seated, legs crossed, as the king walked closer, and she spoke in a low growl. “Would you like me to bow and scrape and tell you what you want to hear, my liege? Like all the rest? Because I live to serve,” she spat. “I’ve always shown due reverence in public, you know that. I’ll do the same in private - if you command it. But if you command me to do so, I will become ‘Ms. Vale,’ the tutor, and leave Sarah, your peer that fought by your side to kill your mad father and seal a god, behind forever. Is that what you want?”

  The king’s glare remained a moment more before he plopped into a chair beside her, shaking his head. “No… no, that’s not what I want from you. Nor is it what I need. I do need the tutor, but the time is fast approaching when I will need Sarah more than her.”

  “If that’s the case,” Sarah said, “then please, meet me halfway on this. When you put me alone in charge of your son’s education, you indirectly made it my job to keep him together mentally, as well. I’ve been doing it with duct tape and shoestring, because I don’t have the first clue about how to answer his questions!”

  “It’s not so severe as that,” Verox argued. “I’m merely requiring the boy to make his own path.”

  “And he’s doing that,” Sarah said, shaking her hands at the air before letting them drop in her lap. “But I’m sure he doesn’t have the first clue what you’re thinking, because I don’t either.” Verox looked at her curiously, but did not interrupt as Sarah continued.

  “You forbid him any combat or magic instructors, then allow it when he disobeys you. When he tries a dangerous and experimental training regimen, you pretend not to notice and forbid me from interfering. When he complains of traumatic visions, you tell him to deal with the matter and, to my knowledge, do not investigate further. Doesn’t that seem bizarre from the outside?”

  “I recognize,” the king said with some annoyance, “that my methods are demanding. But it cannot be otherwise. Sarah, we lost another city to the Lucerna today.”

  Sarah counted off in her head. That was three this year, without any major wins. Seeing her grave expression, Verox continued.

  “We’ve still got hold of all of their spaceports… for now. But we haven’t found any way to get an upper hand in our continued skirmishes. Their foresight is incomparably stronger than ours, and it gets better the longer they fight us and learn our methods. Despite the advantage magical versatility gives us, we’re getting pushed back on every front. At this rate, we can’t hold out longer than a year - and then, they’ll take the fight through space, back to Learsi.”

  “Damn the spaceports.” Sarah hissed. “Don’t hold them. Just bomb them into oblivion.”

  “We certainly will, on the way out,” Verox said, “but I’m not sure it will make enough of a difference. We have intel that they’ve already started building new spaceships and ports in unoccupied territory. We don’t know the timeline, but it may be similar.”

  Sarah shook her head, standing and walking fast towards a monitor to pull up combat reports as they spoke. She doubted she’d come out with any shocking breakthrough, but she had to try. “Why are you coming back to Learsi, as you told the girl, if the situation is that bad?”

  “It won’t make a difference. Anywhere that I’m on the battlefield long enough for the War Song to escalate, the Lucerna are likely to set a trap. My very intention to show up at a battlefield creates obvious ripples in the timeline. By waiting until the last moment, I’ve been able to outfox them a few times - but as I’ve said, that’s gotten more perilous. And my War Song, which has never been strong, is getting worse.”

  “You need reinforcements. I can get a substitute for Xenron and depart tomorrow.” Sarah regretted the words - the boy needed her, she thought, after what’d happened to his friend. But the War Song was the Xexen Empire’s greatest weapon. It was how the Xexens impossibly defied annihilation and defeated the Prometheans after Xexherre’s death. If the Lucerna had subverted that advantage, they were in real trouble.

  “Don’t bother,” Verox said. “Buying some time doesn’t change the ultimate outcome. Right now, there are other things I need to clean up - right in our backyard. More importantly, there’s something I need to show you - perhaps I should have shown you years ago.”

  Sarah perked up, turning from the depressing statistics on recent battles - they’d lost two men for every one of the Lucerna. “Just tell me what you’re thinking.”

  Verox shook his head. “Not here. Suffice to say, it has to be in person.”

  Sarah frowned. “I take it it’s the same for Xenron’s situation?”

  He hesitated, then nodded. “For now, answer me this - have you ever seen that boy give up?”

  Sarah thought about it for a moment before answering. “When he came to me for a lesson a couple of months ago, he was having a panic attack and suicidal thoughts.”

  “But he still showed up for the lesson,” Verox said, and Sarah nodded her grudging agreement. “That boy is earnest to a fault, but he’s tougher than you think. I wish I had the had the luxury of treating him gently, but I don’t. He will either show the Xexens a more resplendent War Song than anything I have ever mustered… or he will fail, and I will find another way to save us.”

  Sarah didn’t like the sound of that. “I will trust you, for now. But remember this. He might have potential, but he’s still just a boy. He idolizes you, and he puts on a brave face after speaking with you but I know he’s hurting. He’s always hurting. You may not have had a good father, but that’s not an excuse. You can’t just stand there with a tough-guy expression and call everything a ‘test’.”

  Sarah had gone too far, but rather than lash out in fury, the king sat still, bearing the tongue lashing. His expression was inscrutable, and without his aura, the statue didn’t tell Sarah anything about his feelings.

  “Give him something, old friend,” Sarah said in a near-whisper. “Please. He would be so happy if you just acknowledged him.” She didn’t want to argue, so she gave a low bow, resuming her role as Ms. Vale, the tutor, and left.