Leslie Moore - Griffin's Shadow

“You seem so sure, Highness.” Seitan, who until now had remained silent, finally spoke up. “You know the mind of the king far better than any of us, but are you certain? ”

Raidan scanned the tense faces around him. He could feel the emotions of each blowing back at him like the dry wind off a wildfire: fear, anger, resignation.

Am I sure of my brother? he thought.

No, not entirely, but I am sure of myself.

If Keizo will not listen, there’s only one thing I can do to save Alasiri. It’s extreme, but desperate times call for extreme measures. I’ll kill Jelena with my own hand, if necessary, then step aside, and the Kirians’ plans be damned. Raidu will become Keizo’s Heir.

“Yes, I’m sure,” he said.

Raidan made his way back to his apartments through the late night stillness of the castle. The prince had always thought of Sendai Castle as something more than an inanimate structure; it felt like a living organism, with stone flesh and wooden bones. All of the myriad souls who made their homes within its walls were like the impossibly tiny disks he observed floating in his own blood when he examined it with his lenses. He didn’t know the exact function of the mysterious disks, but he knew they must somehow keep his body alive, just as all the maids, cooks, gardeners, grooms, and countless other workers kept the castle ‘alive’.

He paused outside the entrance to listen and thought he could hear the great fortress slowly, slowly, exhaling.

“What, still awake, Wife?” Raidan said as he entered the day room and saw Taya sitting on the couch, a thick book in her hands. She laid the frayed volume down on her lap and silently watched as he crossed the room to settle at her side. “You look troubled,” he murmured, then brushed her lips with his. She sighed. “What is it?” he asked.

“You’ve come from a meeting with your supporters.”

“Yes,” he replied.

She frowned, angry now. “Husband, you are playing a dangerous game! If Keizo discovers you’ve been plotting against him…”

Raidan held up his hand to silence her. “I am not plotting against my brother. I’m putting into place a plan that just might avert a civil war.”

“Your plan calls for killing Keizo’s daughter. That, Husband, you cannot do. It would mean utter disaster!” Taya’s green eyes blazed with warning.

Raidan felt his temper give way. “Damn it, Taya!” he growled. “What would you have me do? Stand by passively while my brother disinherits me and our son? No, let me speak!” he demanded as Taya opened her mouth to respond. “You know I trust you completely, but the time has come when blind trust is not enough. I must have a sound reason for staying my hand. Jelena harbors important magic, and the Kirians need her for a vital ritual, one that will safeguard our world as we know it…This much you’ve told me, but I know there’s more to it!” He met Taya’s hard-eyed stare with one of his own. “If you want my cooperation, Wife, then tell me the entire truth now.”

Taya rested a hand on the book in her lap. She stared down at its faded brown leather cover for several moments before she spoke. “I will tell you everything now, because you have a right to know, but from this day forward, you are sworn to our cause.”

Raidan took a deep breath to both calm and prepare himself. He waited expectantly for Taya to begin.

“This book,” she tapped the cover for emphasis, “used to belong to a former head of our Society, someone who was once very powerful but is now departed. It is one of the oldest volumes of the chronicles of the Kirian Society that we have. It helped me put together the pieces of the puzzle, so I now know who, or I should say what, Jelena is.”

Raidan frowned. “I don’t understand. Jelena is my niece…”

“Yes, this is true…Your niece, Keizo’s daughter. But she is also something more,” Taya continued. “The girl we know as Jelena Onjara is a flesh and blood vessel-a container, if you will-for something very old and extremely powerful. This I’ve told you already.”

Raidan nodded. “The Key.”

“Yes,” Taya replied. “Jelena’s life force is intermingled with the energy of the Key, which is why she must die in order for us to remove it.” She paused for a moment, eyes pensive, before continuing. “Iku Azarasha, Master of the Kirian Society over a millennium ago, was a mage of extraordinary Talent. He was the greatest Kirian of his age…perhaps of any age. It was he who first constructed the energy pattern that allowed the Kirians to master teleportation.” Taya shook her head in frustration and regret. “Sadly, the knowledge of how to construct new portals has been lost to our generation, though we still know how to use the existing ones. There are two right here in Sendai Castle.”

“Wait.” Raidan interrupted. “You said Master Iku and the Kirians hid this Key inside Jelena, but how…how could a group of mages who lived a thousand years ago put a spell into a girl who is a mere eighteen years of age?”

“Patience, Husband. I’ll explain that part later,” Taya replied.

She lifted the frayed cover of the book and thumbed through the yellowed pages with great care, pausing at a spot about midway through. “This section chronicles the only time Alasiri was ever torn by civil war,” she explained.

“I’m familiar with the story,” Raidan commented. “We all are. My ancestor, one of the first Onjara kings, battled his daughter for the throne. He lost and his daughter had his name expunged from all official records.”

“Yes,” Taya confirmed, “but there is much more to the story than is widely known. For instance, why was the name of your ancestor wiped away, as if to delete his very existence?”

Raidan shrugged. “Vengeance?” he said.

“That’s the official reason, yes.” Taya paused, her eyes darting across the pages. “Princess Syukoe went to war against her father because of his plan to unleash a magical cataclysm upon the material world. The king was a powerful sorcerer in his own right, with a Talent that may have surpassed even Master Iku’s. The Kirians discovered what the king meant to do, and they set about trying to stop him. Master Iku was once the king’s most trusted councilor, but he threw his support behind the princess once he learned the full extent of the king’s plan.

“The king constructed a spell so powerful, it qualified as a Great Working. Such magic is hazardous in the extreme to anyone who attempts it. Many steps and safeguards are necessary to avert disaster, and even so, there is a significant failure rate. Part of the Working involved the very ring your family has used as a symbol of its royalty.”

“The White Griffin.” Raidan looked down at the copy adorning the third finger of his left hand. As a scion of the House of Onjara, he was entitled to wear an exact replica of the actual White Griffin, until the day came when he took the throne and replaced his copy with the real thing.

Taya nodded in affirmation. “The other part consisted of a smaller component spell, separate from the larger Working, but integral to its function. The Kirians separated this small piece of magic, this Key that unlocked the main energy of the Working, from its original vessel, the White Griffin Ring.”

“And then they somehow placed it in Jelena.” Raidan nodded in understanding. “Just what was this Great Working supposed to do?” he asked.

“The exact nature of the king’s Working is not recorded here,” Taya sighed in frustration, “but whatever it was, Master Iku and the other Kirians deemed it so evil, they were willing to risk insanity and death to stop it from being carried out. According to this account, the Kirians joined for a Great Working of their own, and even after reading of it, even with the evidence of its success living and breathing before my very eyes, I still have trouble believing such a thing could ever have been accomplished!