BECMI Chapter 260 – New Paths in Life
“Our people want better lives, and are willing to work to get them,” King Antius continued his response to the younger King Brucall of Aetla, who was listening as if spellbound.
“Your Druid advisor’s claim about alien magic is actually about science, the magic of the non-magical, the other side of the alchemical equation from magic. Knowledge of how the world really works… the world of the warrior, the rogue, the peasant, and the craftsman. It isn’t the side of the world she sees, and so she fears it, as is her right to do so.
“But it does not mean we are going to knuckle under to her beliefs.
“Join our Council of Regents, King Brucall, and we’ll rope you, and more precisely, all your people, into this effort, too.”
Brucall visibly swallowed. He could FEEL the sincerity and Truth in every single word the other man was saying. No doubts, no deflections, nothing evasive. It was all out and in the open, and it was True.
“You are destroying all my faith in career politicians, King Antius,” he managed to rally, and earned himself a wry chuckle from his opposite number.
I held up a hand. Sama rolled her eyes, flicked out a platinum coin, and thumbed it my way. It tumbled through the air precisely into my palm, where I stowed it away without batting an eye or looking at it.
Brucall’s eyes were dancing at the easy camaraderie before him. “I think I would be a fool to turn you down. Are there… rankings on this Council of yours?” he asked carefully.
“Antius is a first among equals, because someone has to be a tie-breaker,” Sama intervened coolly. “King Antius is a highly moral man, takes the job very seriously, hates it properly, hates the need for it more, and does a magnificently fine job at it,” she declared, to which Antius only sighed in resignation. “He stays as head of the Council because he isn’t a power-seeking glory hound; he’s a man devoted to his people, and his position is the best way to help them!
“Those of us on this Council rightly think political ambitions for power are real, real pains. Please don’t aspire to be head of the Council for purposes of glory. Those who aspire to such positions are usually the last people who should have them.”
“With rare but possible exceptions,” I noted dismissively. “Being worthy of the position is much harder than wanting it, after all, and if it were that easy, King Antius would hand it off in a heartbeat and run off to do Artificing full-time,” I noted flatly.
“Oh, I totally would,” King Antius agreed wistfully, clearly dreaming of the day. “Sama?” he asked leadingly.
“He has an incredibly strong Forsaken bloodline, but it’s too late to key it,” she answered the unspoken question. “I’ll be able to work with his children, but in this case his diligence for self-improvement worked against him.”
“For, Forsaken?” The word was both dreadful, and at the same time exciting to hear. “What are Forsaken?” King Brucall had to ask, unable to hide his eagerness.
“Some like to say they are the universe’s answer to Powered, the people who can wield magic and other energies,” I began lecturing. “Forsaken bar their bodies and souls from pure magic, using its pressure as a tool to temper their minds and bodies. They are not anti-magical, they are not destroyers of magic. They are simply very and aggressively non-magical, and resisting the magic only makes them stronger, and helps reinforce the natural laws of the world that magic actively bends.
“Sama there can walk through the spells of any Overmagus on this planet and completely ignore them. She can likely do so to the power of most Immortals, too. She is basically immune to farseeing, cannot be timesighted to determine her future goals, and her life is temporally locked, so she is unaffected by time travel shenanigans, locking down her past as absolute.
“She and her husband Briggs are the two most potently non-magical beings on this whole planet, the most skilled wielders of the Sword and Hammer respectively, and fantastically dangerous and competent individuals by any measure you care to use.
“They are Forsaken, forsaking and forsook by magic, grounded against it.” I weighed his shocked and hungry expression. “Unfortunately, the path of the Forsaken can only be taken at two points in one’s life for humans. One is when very young, and that first Level is gained. The other point is at Seven, when one can become an idealized Human. You are far beyond those points, and you are and will remain a Primos… without Immortal intervention.”
He straightened again. “You alluded to something before…” he said slowly.
“Do you know of the Emertaltan Rangers?” Sama asked him directly.
“Rangers. A special unit of Siricil, men who have the ability to fight with sword and spell, as elves do?” he remembered his lessons. “My father had a wary respect for them, as dangerous and flexible agents of Siricil. Delpha has nothing similar,” he noted after a moment.
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“That is because the elven Immortal who dominates the elves of Delpha is not Corellin, the maker of the Trees of Life, but Mealyn the Trickster, who ascribes to a more hostile and fey view of life and living with others. Only those clans with a Tree of Life venerate Corellin, and in Delpha, they are vastly outnumbered by the clans who prize only themselves and their isolation from humans.
“Thus, there are no Rangers among the elves of Delpha, as the very idea of sharing elven magic with humans is repugnant and servile to them.”
“...I see,” Brucall admitted after a moment of thought. “My tutor on things elven did note the prevailing attitude of elves in the empire was irritated tolerance because of the Council of Overmages. They would have vastly preferred to close off their forests to the empire entirely and pretend we didn’t exist at all.”
“After an Overmagus fused a hundred of them to pegasi to create pegataurs for his amusement back then (and caused the deaths of at least two hundred others while experimenting), I can’t imagine why they might feel hostile to human magic, truly I cannot,” I observed coolly, the lie just dripping scorn.
“Ah, yes, Overmage Calladrel’s magnum opus,” King Brucall nodded with a knowing grimace. “And he’s still around, pointing out that his creations are all proud servants of the empire, reproducing among themselves, and so forth and so on.”
“Probably blithely unaware just how badly his creations and all elves want to kill him,” I agreed. “Preferably by fusing an Overmagus to a pig and failing utterly.”
Brucall nodded slowly. “And none would raise a hand to defend him, I daresay. Yet, what does this elven magic mean to me?” he asked carefully.
“An Immortal can’t give you the ability to use magic like humans do without reincarnating you entirely… although that is also within their power,” Sama said coolly. “However, giving you the ability to use magic like an elf without turning you into one? That is a direct gift from an elven Immortal to those with the status as elf-friends. It can be done.
“Would His Majesty like to become a Ranger?” she asked him directly.
His mouth actually fell open in shock, looking over all of us. “I… could learn to use magic?” he asked faintly, as childhood dreams long shattered rose up again with the eternal power of Hope.
“As elves do, which includes Elven Wizards, amusingly enough,” I informed him. “Your fighting skill will not improve much beyond what you’ve already attained without great effort, but you could eventually gain the power of a Grand Archmage… and even Wishcasting,” I said calmly.
Sama interjected strongly, “The stick being that you are then obligated to the Elven Immortal Corellin for your gifts. So far, He has not been onerous of His requirements for those humans He has so blessed, and likely has been rather impressed by them. Busybusy humans running around helping and inspiring the elves around them and all, you know.”
“In other words, work together with elves with enthusiasm and harmony, and you should be just fine,” King Antius said dryly. “At least in our experience.”
“I, I…” King Brucall slumped back into his chair. “I do not know what to say to all this,” he admitted in a voice much smaller than usual. “My siblings and I, even Fergil, dreamed of having magic for so long…”
“This will not change what your children are,” Sama cut through his haze of almost giddiness coolly. “Your Forsaken bloodline is very strong. None of your children will have the natural ability to Cast. They will thus be obligated to take the road of the Ranger and seek the Blessing of the Tree, as it is called, or they can become Forsaken, and embrace their own strengths.”
He looked at her a long moment, then closed his eyes and took a deep breath, obviously steeling himself.
Opening his eyes, he said calmly, “Were I able to, I would embrace being Forsaken before asking an elven Immortal for such power. But you say this is beyond me.” Both Sama and I nodded immediately. “Then I will indeed seek such power, if you will show me the way. But my children… they will have the choice that I did not, I think.” His face twisted slightly. “Tell me more of what it means to be Forsaken, Grandmaster Sama. I am very, very curious of this road I did not know of and can no longer take.”
“Interestingly enough, it is probably far rarer among your people than the ability to wield magic,” she answered smoothly. “Here are the particulars…”
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“Delphax?” King Antius asked, as we entered the Portal home. The roses and stairs to the underworld were nice touches, I thought.
Behind us was left a kingdom that was going to be undergoing some changes in governance rather soon, with Courtier Sim Nine, Enin, soon to arrive to help out the king, while those with first loyalty to Brucall’s parents were openly encouraged to return home and be rewarded for such loyalty by them, instead of by him.
Magister Markoll wasn’t going to be too happy to lose his position to an Elven Wizard, but that was his problem to work through, not ours. He had lost the respect of his king completely, and with it his trust. Let him take his fellows and hie off to complain to the Empress.
The Catcher actually had a couple apprentices and agents who would be happy to work for the King on Aetla-specific duties. Brucall was probably going to have to rebuild his Royal Guard once Enin was done going through it.
Sama still had some business here, so she had stayed behind for a bit. She could get back without incident, even if we had to pop up a Mirror Portal for her.
“Entropic Immortal of some stature. Kind of a specialist in blowing up kingdoms, nations, worlds. Pyromaniac and explosion lover, megalomaniac, tyrant, over the top arsehole who can do no wrong and anything going wrong is the fault of everyone else, not him. Now Descended to status as an Entropic Immortal, and the virulent and seething hater of the Delphans and all that they were. Probably because they obliterated his followers, his Empire, and their shared world because of His stupidity in calling all of them inferior. He wants them all dead, and He followed them here just so He could be responsible for finally killing all of them.
“He’s got an island almost directly across the Dawnbreak full of His followers and worshipers. They’re going to cause trouble for us, that’s a guarantee, because trying to get Delpha to go to war is literally what they are all about.
“I’ve got a Sim over there who has basically been watching them for centuries. They’ve got no idea how compromised they are...”