Heir of Magic Chapter

Chapter 06

Dinner with The King

As Alexander rushed into the room Dante glanced over the top of the huge book he was reading while he reclined on a cushion.
“Alex, what’s wrong?” Dante asked.
“Something happened.” He launched into telling Dante what had happened when the phoenix flock had arrived. To Alexander’s frustration, instead of providing answers, the wizard asked him to repeat the words of the phoenix’s song three times.
“What does it mean?” Alexander asked.
Dante turned his face up into a mask of concentration. He stared into space for a few moments of silence before he said, “It’s called a Phoenix Prophecy. Only a phoenix near death can give a prophecy, and only if a person with a strong effect on the flow of destiny is present. Only the person whom the prophecy is about can hear it.”
“So what it said, all of that was about me?”
“Without a doubt. You could hear the song, not to mention, the first line of the prophecy is without a doubt about you,” Dante said. “As for the rest—I do not know what any of it means. It’s probably better that way.”
“Better? How in Tartos can it be better? Dante, maybe I’m overreacting here, but this doesn’t sound like my future will be very pleasant,” Alexander said, almost hysterical.
Dante looked into Alexander’s eyes and put a comforting hand on his shoulder. “My Prince, it will be all right. Prophecies have a tendency of being over-dramatic and filled with metaphors. Trust me, there is no use in worrying over any of it. Besides, only a fool places too much stock in a prophecy, no matter who—or what—it comes from.”
Alexander didn’t feel all that reassured. While Dante could be right about most of the prophecy, the phoenix’s last few words were fairly straightforward. But he is right about one thing, there isn’t much use in worrying about any of it now. In an attempt to distract himself from the horrible fate the phoenix had promised him, he asked, “Why did they collect the phoenix’s tears and ash in that room?”
“Ah, well that’s far simpler to explain. It’s because of their magical properties. I don’t know what they intend to do with the ash, but phoenix tears can heal any wound, cure any disease, and counteract any poison. It is the most effective of medical treatments in all of existence. One drop is all you need to cure the most devastating of battle wounds.”
There was a knock on the door. One of the parrot-moondrakes stepped inside and greeted them with a friendly voice. “Prince Alexander, Lord Dante, the King has sent me to invite you to join him for dinner before the phoenix rebirth celebration that will take place from midnight.”
“Thanks, but I haven’t had—”
“We would be happy to join him. At what time will His Grace expect us?”
“I shall return within an hour with a gondola to escort you to the palace, Lord Dante,” the servant said and bowed before leaving their chambers.
“Do we have to? I can barely keep my eyes open,” Alexander complained.
“We have to attend, My Prince. If we refuse, we might insult our hosts,” Dante said.
Alexander sighed in frustration. Once tonight is over, I’ll sleep for three days.

An hour later, as Alexander and Dante stepped outside their chambers, the parrot-moondrake returned in a flying gondola. The two men had barely squeezed into the slender boat when it shot back into the air. It darted between the buildings as it climbed ever higher into the sky, until, it was on a level with the King’s Summit and the Moondrake Palace. As palaces went it wasn’t that big but it was stately. It was an opal blue that seemed to glitter even in the dark. There was a lot of plant life on top of the King’s Summit, with trees, shrubs, and flowers that couldn’t be found anywhere on the land.
The gondola skid to a halt near the front doors of the palace, next to a large statue of a shapely woman covered in feathers and with the head of a phoenix—not a strange mixture of human and avian heads like the moondrakes, but a true phoenix, beak and all.
“Who’s that?” Alexander asked Dante.
The septim looked furious. In a strained calm, he said, “She is Bennu. One of the Smiths of Life. The moondrakes believe she is the one who created them by combining the power of the Hesperian source and the sun half of the Jördai source.”
Alexander followed Dante’s gaze and frowned. What about this statue is upsetting him so much? Or is it the statue? He thought as his gaze fell on the slick black stone in front of the phoenix-woman. It was a larger version of the Optohedral Obscuroveil they had used on the flying ship—only, no one provided this device with thaumaturgic energy. Instead, it seemed to draw all its power from two identical rings made from a crystalline substance, each placed on a cylinder that protruded from the top of the device. As he looked at the rings he was overcome with a sudden sense of vertigo, as if he were standing on the precipice of a near infinite drop. Whatever those rings were, there was more to them than meets the eyes. At first glance they were normal and small, but to Alexander’s angelian eyes they occupied more space than was natural and contained and unnatural amount of thaumaturgic energy.
“Welcome, my dear friends,” the king’s voice boomed from the palace front doors. “I am so glad we have a moment for a quiet meal before the phoenix rebirth ceremony later.”
“We are grateful for the hospitality, Your Majesty,” Dante said, the anger that had been so obvious in his eyes a second ago, completely gone.
“Come in, come in. Let’s make ourselves comfortable,” the King said, gesturing for them to follow him through the palace doors.
They followed him into the entrance hall which was a large open space enfolded by the arms of two winding staircases. Moondrake armor and weapons through the ages adorned the walls of the entrance hall and stood vigil on either side of the seven doors. The king led the way through the second door on their right and into a dining hall where a table overflowing with vegetables, exotic fruits, and flasks of wines, all arranged in an aesthetically pleasing way.
A small army of servants stepped out of the shadows and before Alexander knew what was happening, he was seated at the table, had a goblet of wine in his hand, and was wearing a bib.
“Eat! Eat, my friends. We can talk as we eat, can we not?” the King said, picking something up that looked like an apple but was a bright purple color.
Alexander frowned at the contents of the table. As delicious as some of it looked, he would have liked to eat some meat for once. The Amobiel Monks had been strict vegetarians, not even willing to harm a spider, and it would seem the moondrakes followed a similar philosophy.
“I hear from Claus your first day of training was a staggering success. He says you reached level one in only a few minutes. That is impressive, prince Alexander.” Ogie’iso seemed lost in thought for a second before he said, “Only one other person ever did it that fast.”
Alexander took one of the strange purple apples as he asked, “Really? Who was that?”
“Your forefather, the mighty Angelus Primus,” Ogie’iso said.
“The same man whose rings are powering their Optohedral Obscuroveil out there,” Dante said in a cold tone.
The King seemed taken aback by the wizard’s tone. He looked nervous as he cautiously said, “I believe they were his, once.”
“Tell me,” Dante spat, a harshness in his voice Alexander had never heard before. “How did you come to possess them? They were passed down in Tír na Angelus for centuries for the royal family to use as wedding bands. I remember Queen Milara wearing both rings after her husband died.”
Ogie’iso squirmed under the intimidating stare Dante gave him. When he spoke, it was with the unmistaken sound of a terrified man trying to sound braver than he felt. “When we heard of the city’s fall, we went to investigate. The rings were the only artifacts we could retrieve.”
“Then you admit they are the property of the line of Angelus? Can I then assume you will hand them over to their rightful owner who is sitting next to you this very moment?” Dante said.
“No, I won’t. They are now the property of Moondrake.” Dante leaped to his feet, livid. The King stammered, “I am sorry. I would give them to you if I could, but I cannot. They are the only things powerful enough to power the device that is the sole reason Cain has not found our city yet. If we give them to you, we are as good as dead.”
Dante exhaled as he tried to reign in his temper. A lot calmer, he said, “Fine. Then what if Alexander and I offer you replacements. Together we can make a pair of argentari rings just as powerful as those.”
“do you think me a fool?” Ogie’iso said. “I’ve had the rings inspected by a mage from Wánggá. He assured me that those rings hold a power so vast and dense than no one—not even Cain—can make something to match them. if Cain can’t, there is no way you can.”
“No, we can’t. Those aren’t argentari, they are something more. But the argentari Alexander and I can make will be able to power your device for at least four to five years. By then we will have—”
Dante cut off as Ogie’iso laughed scornfully. “Are you mad? You think you and this boy can defeat someone like Cain in so little time?”
“With those rings we can,” Dante said. “Return them to Alexander and use the argentari we will make and you will have helped free all of Primoris of Cain.”
“The people of Primoris are not my responsibility, old man. The people of Moondrake are. I will not gamble their future in the hope of a chick scarcely hatched and a doddering old fool can defeat the most powerful being in Primoris.”
Alexander slammed his fist on the table as he leaped up and the flames of the candles in the chandelier above all went out in unison. “What happened to everything you said in your little speech yesterday? You said you were helping me because Moondrake wanted to help the entire world. To make up for the self-serving cowardice your people showed during the War of the Prime. It seems to me you’re still every bit as craven your ancestors.”
“You go too far, boy,” Ogie’iso snarled, half deranged by Alexander’s words. “I will hear no more of this. If you insist on pressing this matter, I will have no choice but to expel you from the city before you can finish your training. If you think your odds are hopeless now, how much worse will they be without our training. Or perhaps we should just cut our losses. We can have you restrained and handed over to Cain as a peace offering.”
“Very well, King of Moondrake,” Dante said, standing up and walking to the curious guard who peered in through the crack in the door. “We will not force the issue. But with those rings we consider Alexander’s training paid for. We owe you nothing more, not even courtesy. We will return to our quarters now.”
The guard stared wide-eyed back at the King for answers. Ogie’iso nodded, and the guard vanished from sight to fetch the gondola.
Alexander hesitated for a second. He stared at the king of Moondrake with incredulity and disgust as he said, “You condemn everyone else, just so you can throw a party every opportunity you get. Fine then. Keep the rings, but they won’t protect you from Cain forever. The day will come when he finds you; when he does, you can stand alone as you’ve always done. Neither I, nor anyone else will stop him from doing to Moondrake what he did to Tír na Angelus. When he’s turned your city into rubble, that’s when I’ll come get my rings.”
Alexander turned to leave and grinned with satisfaction at Ogie’iso’s expression of pure fear.

The trip back to their quarters was extremely uncomfortable. The moondrake steering the small boat back to the ground constantly shot them dirty looks but never said a word. Whether his silence was the result of propriety or because of Dante’s obvious fuming rage, Alexander didn’t know, and quite frankly, he didn’t care. He was just as outraged as the wizard. Due to his abrupt flight from Tír na Angelus, he had no keepsake of his mother to remember her by, but those rings had once belonged to her.
The small boat set down a few yards from the room Alexander and Dante shared. The moondrake ferryman barely wanted for them to get out of the boat before he sped off once more.
Dante stomped off so fast in his fury he didn’t even notice. He vanished into their room and seconds later, Alexander heard curses accompanied by flashes of red light.
“Dante, by the chains of Tartos, what is going on?” Alexander asked as he entered their rooms. “I understand why I want those argentari back so much, but why do you?”
“They’re not argentari, My Prince.” Dante said through gritted teeth. he sighed and the anger that had possessed him a second ago seemed to just fall away. “Those rings are two pieces of the most powerful magical object ever made,” Dante said.
“Those two little rings?” Alexander said skeptically.
“Technically, they’re not really rings, we only perceive them as such. In reality, they are two of the seven radiances of Enlil’s Armor.”
“Radiances? Enlil’s Armor? Dante what are you talking about?” Alexander said in frustration.
“A technical term. A radiance is a pocket dimension, forged into physical form, similar to how homunculi are made, only objects instead of living beings.” Dante said as he produced a dimensional gate and stuck his arm, shoulder deep, into the gate. “These dimensions are used to store thaumaturgic energy which the pieces constantly siphon from all around them, from the air, from magic used near them, and even from a person who wears them. But with a clever bit of trickery the energy can be drawn out and used to power devices, such as the Obscuroveil. The flow of power is fairly weak, but near endless. Ah, here it is.”
Dante pulled his arm back out of the dimensional gate, a large and ancient scroll clutched in his hand. he handed it to Alexander and said, “While you were away on The Golden Spear, I did more than just find people to teach you magic, I also searched for ways to help you defeat Cain. This scroll was one of the things I discovered during this time. it tells the story of a suit of armor, so powerful that it was split into its seven radiances wo seal most of its power.” He handed the scroll to Alexander. “Read this, and you will understand. If we can collect all seven pieces the power of that armor will be at your disposal, Alex, and your uncle will be as good as defeated.”
Alexander looked down at the scroll in his hands. “The rings are two of the seven pieces. Where are the other five?”
“They were in Tír na Angelus as well. Your people served as the protectors of this land for a long time. The Adamantine Vaults overflowed with dangerous magical objects that were better kept out of reach. And among them, without anyone ever knowing—except perhaps Angelus himself whom I suspect is the one to place them there—were all seven radiances. A crown, two rings, a pendant, a belt, and a pair of ridging spurs. I have managed to find the location of all the radiances except for the rings—until tonight that is.”
“Where are they,” Alexander asked, noting the concerned look in the wizard’s eyes.
“Cain has them,” Dante said and Alexander’s heart sank. “Fortunately for us, your uncle is ignorant of their true power. He gave them to his four most trusted generals as a sign of their stations.”
So before I face Cain, I’ll have to take out his four generals, Alexander thought. Well, I suppose that doesn’t change much. I would have had to go through them to get to my uncle anyway.
In that unnerving way he had to seem to read a person’s mind, Dante said, “Whatever you do, you shouldn’t underestimate them, Alex. In the last sixteen years, these men have wiped out armies and slaughtered entire civilizations. One in particular terrifies me to my core.”
“Then we had better get those radiances off them before they figure out what they have,” Alexander said, clutching the scroll tight.