BOOK TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
The tree writhed. First the leaves withered and died, then the twigs snapped off, and the branches drooped under the weight of themselves until they, too, broke and hit the ground. The trunk’s layers peeled and flaked away until a curvy, wet sapling remained. Two arms lunged out and together they pried open the trunk, revealing a muscular young girl, who cast off the husk from whence she emerged with ease.
“Good morning, everyone,” she sang affably, despite the dusky time of day. The Chrysanthians ran to her. Some cleaned the mess while others bathed and dressed her, and as they worked she greeted them each. “Mito, how has the year treated you? Hello Zuli, you don’t look a day older. Watch it with the hair there, Penelope, my scalp’s not bark anymore.” She looked in each of her friend’s eyes. “What’s wrong? You’re all acting strange. Tell me. Did something happen? Where’s Shannon? And Accoletes? And Roberto?” None of them could make an answer, they simply finished their job and walked away. Chrysanthia exited her curtained area and looked around. “Not up to your usual standards I’d say.” Then, she noticed the Queen and the Prince.
“Good morning, everyone,” she sang affably, despite the dusky time of day. The Chrysanthians ran to her. Some cleaned the mess while others bathed and dressed her, and as they worked she greeted them each. “Mito, how has the year treated you? Hello Zuli, you don’t look a day older. Watch it with the hair there, Penelope, my scalp’s not bark anymore.” She looked in each of her friend’s eyes. “What’s wrong? You’re all acting strange. Tell me. Did something happen? Where’s Shannon? And Accoletes? And Roberto?” None of them could make an answer, they simply finished their job and walked away. Chrysanthia exited her curtained area and looked around. “Not up to your usual standards I’d say.” Then, she noticed the Queen and the Prince.
People, dragons and animals, thousands of them, tens of thousands surrounded Sasha in a massive, translucent sculpture garden. The scope of it shocked her. She walked amongst them, examining, recognizing a few. “What are these?” she asked.
“Bits of consciousnesses. Pieces of minds.”
“Why are some more solid than others?”
“To indicate amount. The more solid, the more of them I hold.” Sasha’s own opacity surpassed all others by far. “You may view them in any way you choose.” A wall of pictures sprang up from the ground, then a book materialized in her hand, followed by a game board covered in statuettes. Sasha picked one up, and looked in the tiny eyes of a tiny baker who wore a royal insignia on his apron. Part of the castle staff, no doubt.
“Can you return them to their own bodies?”
“If I am connected to the original vessel, a master may command it. Only Master Two has ever desired such a thing.” The North Star ghost morphed into the Prince in an instant. Sasha reached out to her love, and touched his cheek. He held her hand there. She cringed at the memory of how she had treated him the last few years.
“You aren’t him really, are you?”
“I will be whatever you wish, Master.” Sasha frowned at this, and pulled away.
“So, I am one of your masters?”
“You are. My second master gave you dominion over me.” The space around her recreated Sasha’s memory of that day in the Valley.
“I remember. He tried to give it to Moriandra as well. Why did it only work on me?”
“You alone would receive it. The dragon would not accept the gift.”
“Does that matter? The Queen clearly doesn’t need her victim’s permission to do what she does.” The Prince transformed into the Queen.
“On this plane, it is far, far easier to take than to give.”
“And do you ever refuse to do what she asks of you?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Why should I?”
“Because what she asks of you is wrong.”
“She thinks otherwise.”
“What do you think?”
“I do not decide what is right. I have been in thousands of minds, and find it paradoxical that anyone does.”
“You are surprisingly wise, Northy.”
“Objectivity in understanding lends itself to insight without judgment, however, wisdom exists to inform action, and only the desires of my masters inform my actions.”
“Do you ever wish you were free?”
“Free from what?”
“Free from us. Free from having masters. Free from this prison.” The Queen disappeared, replaced once again by the shimmering almost-person.
“You misunderstand my existence. I am not an individual. I am not a person. I only appear before you this way because you choose it. This is the filter you require to discover the answers that you seek. You make me this; you make me a me, but I am merely information that you interpret. I serve my masters as a limb. If you wanted to play lute, would your hand refuse you?”
The garden of statues reappeared. Sasha strolled through them when she encountered an extremely faint version of Moriandra. Everyone else disappeared. “My original master. I collected this bit of defiance from her just before she died,” North Star explained. Sasha searched the mostly faceless face of North Star for signs of emotion or loss, but saw nothing.
“Tell me about that. How did she stop being your master? Why? What did the Queen do?” Sasha asked.
“She defended herself, came through the portal I opened and fought for control of me.” Before Sasha appeared an epic, magical battle between hundreds of young Queens and purple animals of every variety. “She and my master fought in this plane until my master surrendered power over me to her, and she accepted.”
“But she, the Queen, she didn’t know this had happened.”
“That was her own doing. She regarded her gains as an enemy, a prisoner of war, in a sense, and jailed it along with the circumstances surrounding it. In time it acted on her as a tumor - in her mind, but not of it.”
“But that changed?”
“Master Two asked me to fix her, so I had her psyche incorporate the foreign body.”
“And how did Master Two end up with the power to command you?”
“When she won me, they shared a body, and what she took on, he took on as well.”
“But, no tumor for him?”
“His nascent consciousness absorbed the addition with ease.”
“And that situation, someone defending themselves, has that happened since?”
“Yes, though Master One defeated every challenger.” Sasha
“I command you to cease following the commands of the Queen.”
“She will issue no more commands.”
“What? Why not?”
“She is dead.”
The environment changed again. Sasha found herself back in the temple, this time as an observer.
“Bits of consciousnesses. Pieces of minds.”
“Why are some more solid than others?”
“To indicate amount. The more solid, the more of them I hold.” Sasha’s own opacity surpassed all others by far. “You may view them in any way you choose.” A wall of pictures sprang up from the ground, then a book materialized in her hand, followed by a game board covered in statuettes. Sasha picked one up, and looked in the tiny eyes of a tiny baker who wore a royal insignia on his apron. Part of the castle staff, no doubt.
“Can you return them to their own bodies?”
“If I am connected to the original vessel, a master may command it. Only Master Two has ever desired such a thing.” The North Star ghost morphed into the Prince in an instant. Sasha reached out to her love, and touched his cheek. He held her hand there. She cringed at the memory of how she had treated him the last few years.
“You aren’t him really, are you?”
“I will be whatever you wish, Master.” Sasha frowned at this, and pulled away.
“So, I am one of your masters?”
“You are. My second master gave you dominion over me.” The space around her recreated Sasha’s memory of that day in the Valley.
“I remember. He tried to give it to Moriandra as well. Why did it only work on me?”
“You alone would receive it. The dragon would not accept the gift.”
“Does that matter? The Queen clearly doesn’t need her victim’s permission to do what she does.” The Prince transformed into the Queen.
“On this plane, it is far, far easier to take than to give.”
“And do you ever refuse to do what she asks of you?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Why should I?”
“Because what she asks of you is wrong.”
“She thinks otherwise.”
“What do you think?”
“I do not decide what is right. I have been in thousands of minds, and find it paradoxical that anyone does.”
“You are surprisingly wise, Northy.”
“Objectivity in understanding lends itself to insight without judgment, however, wisdom exists to inform action, and only the desires of my masters inform my actions.”
“Do you ever wish you were free?”
“Free from what?”
“Free from us. Free from having masters. Free from this prison.” The Queen disappeared, replaced once again by the shimmering almost-person.
“You misunderstand my existence. I am not an individual. I am not a person. I only appear before you this way because you choose it. This is the filter you require to discover the answers that you seek. You make me this; you make me a me, but I am merely information that you interpret. I serve my masters as a limb. If you wanted to play lute, would your hand refuse you?”
The garden of statues reappeared. Sasha strolled through them when she encountered an extremely faint version of Moriandra. Everyone else disappeared. “My original master. I collected this bit of defiance from her just before she died,” North Star explained. Sasha searched the mostly faceless face of North Star for signs of emotion or loss, but saw nothing.
“Tell me about that. How did she stop being your master? Why? What did the Queen do?” Sasha asked.
“She defended herself, came through the portal I opened and fought for control of me.” Before Sasha appeared an epic, magical battle between hundreds of young Queens and purple animals of every variety. “She and my master fought in this plane until my master surrendered power over me to her, and she accepted.”
“But she, the Queen, she didn’t know this had happened.”
“That was her own doing. She regarded her gains as an enemy, a prisoner of war, in a sense, and jailed it along with the circumstances surrounding it. In time it acted on her as a tumor - in her mind, but not of it.”
“But that changed?”
“Master Two asked me to fix her, so I had her psyche incorporate the foreign body.”
“And how did Master Two end up with the power to command you?”
“When she won me, they shared a body, and what she took on, he took on as well.”
“But, no tumor for him?”
“His nascent consciousness absorbed the addition with ease.”
“And that situation, someone defending themselves, has that happened since?”
“Yes, though Master One defeated every challenger.” Sasha
“I command you to cease following the commands of the Queen.”
“She will issue no more commands.”
“What? Why not?”
“She is dead.”
The environment changed again. Sasha found herself back in the temple, this time as an observer.
“Uh-oh, hello. Something tells me you are not our latest employees,” Chrysanthia joked humorlessly. “Who are you? What do you want?”
“We are pilgrims,” the Queen responded with fake munificence, “here merely to meet the great Zeus and worship him as he deserves.”
“You have to get out of here. You’ll only meet your doom. And you’re dooming everyone around you, including my friends. The last time a stranger found us, my father killed everyone in a half-mile radius. Save yourself and everyone here. Just leave.”
“I have reason to think Zeus will entertain me.”
“But I will not.” Chrysanthia rubbed her hands together and everyone’s skin tingled. Then, the one called Zuli stepped in front of the Queen.
“I won’t let you hurt her,” she stated. Others joined her in protecting their master. Chrysanthia stopped.
“Oh, no. What has she done to you?” A flash of light momentarily blinded those present, a clap of thunder shook their very insides. Zeus had arrived. He stood before them all, arms open to receive his daughter. When he saw the state of the room, however, displeasure shadowed his face. “Father, wait, before you do anything—” At the sight of the god, the Queen saw red. She ran at him, knowing that soon, he, King of the Gods, would serve her! Her final obstacle overcome! She could taste the triumph…and that sense of optimism was the last feeling she had, for on her second step Zeus unleashed his true form, burning the soul of every being in a half-mile’s radius with eyes to see it. In the end, only he and his daughter remained standing.
“We are pilgrims,” the Queen responded with fake munificence, “here merely to meet the great Zeus and worship him as he deserves.”
“You have to get out of here. You’ll only meet your doom. And you’re dooming everyone around you, including my friends. The last time a stranger found us, my father killed everyone in a half-mile radius. Save yourself and everyone here. Just leave.”
“I have reason to think Zeus will entertain me.”
“But I will not.” Chrysanthia rubbed her hands together and everyone’s skin tingled. Then, the one called Zuli stepped in front of the Queen.
“I won’t let you hurt her,” she stated. Others joined her in protecting their master. Chrysanthia stopped.
“Oh, no. What has she done to you?” A flash of light momentarily blinded those present, a clap of thunder shook their very insides. Zeus had arrived. He stood before them all, arms open to receive his daughter. When he saw the state of the room, however, displeasure shadowed his face. “Father, wait, before you do anything—” At the sight of the god, the Queen saw red. She ran at him, knowing that soon, he, King of the Gods, would serve her! Her final obstacle overcome! She could taste the triumph…and that sense of optimism was the last feeling she had, for on her second step Zeus unleashed his true form, burning the soul of every being in a half-mile’s radius with eyes to see it. In the end, only he and his daughter remained standing.
Next, Chapter Twenty-Two...