Tiara & Tempest Read online

  “That is very sad. You told me before that he died when you were twelve (12). At least you knew him for a little while,” Victoria said. She didn’t really care about the girl’s father – he was a man, after all. Victoria very much cared that Taesa was sad – she was a gifted young woman, after all.

  “Not long enough. Again, time was short. I wonder if, had he read the right books, he could have had the knowledge to find a cure. But searching for the right books takes time, as well,” Taesa said.

  “Time, then, seems to be what you want to receive first, so that you can find everything else that you most desire,” Victoria said.

  “All the things we see and do must fit into the little time that we have,” Taesa said.

  “True enough. Unless you can find a way to make more time, or fit things more tightly into the limited time,” Victoria said.

  “I can try to do some things faster. For things that I’m good at, like studying music, that can sometimes work,” Taesa said.

  “With practice and focus, you can become good at many things,” Victoria said.

  “But I can’t actually sing a song too fast – the tempo of the music has to be right, or it won’t have the same effect – it could be different, or weaker, or too strong,” Taesa said.

  “That is actually very interesting – I never knew that the speed of the song mattered for its effect,” Victoria said. She knew that the girl was powerful, and she would have to depend on her expert knowledge of music later.

  “Then there’s the choices of other people – you can sing a song for them, but their own actions and beliefs get in the way. I left a song for my mother – to try to convince her to look at someone differently – but I can’t force her to listen or to believe, or if I did, it wouldn’t be real,” Taesa said.

  “Do you mean you wanted her to see Sebastian differently? She is still with him, isn’t she?” Victoria asked.

  “The last time that I saw her, she was with him. That was over a year ago,” Taesa said.

  “For her sake, I hope she sees the truth. You said that you left a song for her – what did you mean by that?” Victoria asked.

  “I sang a song and left its imprint in a book. When she read the book – assuming that she read it – she would have heard it the way it sounded originally,” Taesa said.

  “That is a quite powerful ability,” Victoria said, impressed. She began considering how she might use such a power.

  “Changing people’s minds is difficult – even with a song,” Taesa said.

  “It’s possible, though, isn’t it?” Victoria asked.

  “Sometimes. I hope so – in more than one case,” Taesa said.

  “Your mother. And the prince, right?” Victoria asked.

  “Yes. I don’t know if he remembers. He might think it was just a dream. Or he might not care to meet me. Would he even be able to find me?” Taesa said.

  “At the right time, he will find you. It’s dangerous in the world right now – especially for him and for you. He will seek you when he can, and find you. With your song, you planted a seed. You will just have to wait for it to grow,” Victoria said. She knew that the sunfire creature was in pursuit of Taesa personally, and had also attacked the Jenaldej Empire.

  The servant arrived in the Great Granddaughter’s Room and said to Victoria: “Your presence is necessary. Only you.”

  “I must be going now. Please wait here, my young friend,” Victoria said.

  Taesa waited and wondered what it was that Victoria was needed for. She knew that Victoria answered to the old woman, but not what the old woman had in mind or how she thought.

  ~~~

  Victoria left with the servant and went to the Matriarch’s Room, where Tanith Orenda was waiting. She was ordinarily not allowed in that room, but the old woman had the authority to determine who was allowed where, and when.

  “It is time, many thousands great granddaughter. Great things await you. The oceans shall be under your command, and you shall travel the world and assert your rule,” Tanith Orenda said.

  “What of the girl, many thousands great grandmother? If I am long gone, she will wonder,” Victoria asked.

  “Send her to the hidden city, so that her mind may be occupied. She seeks knowledge, so she shall have it. When the time is proper, we will make use of her in a fitting way,” Tanith Orenda said.

  “I will order that she be taken,” Victoria said.

  “Be quick. The time to rule is at hand,” Tanith Orenda said.

  ~~~

  Victoria left the room and made her way back to the Great Granddaughter’s Room. On the way, she found one of her servants who was a master of the darkness: the spy named Halina, who drank the waters of the Ikkith Tar Ocean. She brought Halina with her when she returned to Taesa.

  “Your curious mind will soon have much to satisfy it, and time to study,” Victoria said to Taesa as she entered the room where the young woman was waiting.

  “What do you mean?” Taesa asked.

  “I want you to go and study in the hidden city – to Thalkalana,” Victoria said.

  “How do I go there?” Taesa asked.

  “There is a way, across the oceans, through the darkness. Halina will take you,” Victoria said.

  “When can I go?” Taesa asked, eager and curious.

  Victoria was, for a moment, taken aback. She liked Taesa, who was half her age – twenty (20) years to her forty (40) – and related to her as a close friend, even a sister. They had discussed many things. Yet, the girl was all too eager to go on an excursion to study, rather than seeking to spend more time developing their friendship. The girl was, Victoria thought, very cerebral, perhaps at the expense of a deep commitment to any real interpersonal relationships.

  “You can go now. I think that you’ll enjoy it – exploration and study suit you just fine,” Victoria said, genuinely feeling a little hurt, and disguising it only slightly, in a distant tone of voice.

  “Take her now, and remain with her. Later, I will call you back,” Victoria said to Halina.

  ~~~

  At this, Halina drank anew of the waters of the Ikkith Tar Ocean that she kept in a vial, and she was energized. She exercised her powers and created an aura of darkness around her, and then extended it to cover Taesa. They left the temple and made their way out to the edge of Av’Tovenka Island on which the temple was hidden. The darkness aura was maintained so that no one else who inhabited the island might notice them. They then boarded a small boat in the Ikkith Tar Ocean that surrounded the island. The demon, Matatirot, sensed their presence on the waters, where his power was present, and he transported them from that ocean to another, far away.

  The other ocean was not one of the twelve (12) great oceans. Nor was it the Dead Waters Ocean. Those were all on the surface of the planet. This one was underneath the ground, inside of a large cavern.

  Then, the demon propelled their small boat, quickly, across this ocean to an island in the middle of it.

  When they arrived at the island, Halina eased her powers of darkness. This allowed the girl to see, as Halina had previously placed the cloak over Taesa’s eyes, so that she would not know where they had gone, or how they had gotten there.

  “This is Thalkalana,” Halina said to her.

  Taesa looked around and saw that they were on an island with an ocean around them, and a cavern ceiling above them that was hundreds of feet up. This, alone, intrigued her. “Since when is an island – and an entire ocean – inside of a cavern?” Taesa asked.

  “There are many mysteries for which there are no easy answers. Perhaps your curious mind will find some,” Halina said to her. She knew that the girl was smart.

  There were thousands upon thousands of buildings – some shaped as pyramids, some as cylindrical towers, some as strange spirals that made them seem almost like coiled snakes. There were also statues of various sorts – some of men, some of gargoyles. There were gardens of various configurations – some in stepped arrangements,
some with plants hanging from large stone archways. There was also a large fountain shaped like an arch. None of them reached to the ceiling of the cavern, however.

  The arch fountain was perhaps half that – at two hundred seventy (270) feet high, but Taesa could not measure it and simply saw it as being tall, yet not tall enough to reach the cavern ceiling. Over one hundred twelve (112) streams of water poured down from vents in the curve of the arch, some shorter than others as they began from lower points, and they flowed into a small pond in which the base of the arch was fixed.

  With almost childlike curiosity, Taesa put her hand into the flows of water and ran it back and forth, to see the pattern that she could create. The water flowed in a way that she did not expect – the streams she interrupted did not deflect nearly as much as she was anticipating. Instead, something seemed to bring them back to a vertical flow, each wrapping around her hand and returning to the vertical column it had previously been in, continuing its fall beneath her hand.

  “What are you trying to do?” Halina asked, as she was mystified at the girl’s intentions for her actions.

  “This is actually one of the most unusual fountains I have ever seen. It’s not at all like the ones in Emeth, and the water moves differently,” Taesa said.

  “Many people go to Emeth. Few come here. It is a very different city, with many different things,” Halina said. She had been here before, but Halina was a spy rather than a scholar, so she did not know many of its secrets or have a sufficiently thorough scholarly training to pursue the answers, despite having curiosity.

  “This fountain is quite beautiful, and clever. The waters returned to the vertical flow, even when I ran my hand through it,” Taesa said. Then, she had an interesting thought. She drank the waters of the Pirovalen Ocean that she kept in one of her vials and she was energized. She began to sing – music came forth, but there were no lyrics. She knew that sound had physical force, and she wanted to see what effect that it would have.

  The streams of water falling from the arch fountain danced to her song, being deflected by the sounds to form exotic shapes, yet returning to their vertical flow very quickly. The appearance was strange, yet fascinating. Halina even watched it, and found it almost hypnotic. The girl’s music – even without lyrics – was powerful. The fountain made this visible as well as audible.

  Then, Taesa thought to ask a question she regretted not asking sooner. She looked around as she asked it: “If we are in a cavern, how do we see? Where is the light coming from?” Her eyes scanned the area, and found what looked to be the source of it: the walls of the cavern – or what she presumed to be the walls, out in the distance – appeared to be glowing.

  “The light is coming from the walls of the cavern – out there, somewhere in the distance,” Taesa said in answer to her own question.

  “I see the light when I look in that direction. But I don’t think that’s where it is really coming from – it may be a reflected light. Luminescent materials would glow much more brightly than that,” Halina said. She was no scholar, but she did have a deep understanding of darkness, and, consequently, at least a little understanding of light.

  CHAPTER 7: Mission of the Chroniclers of Diamond

  In the time period twelve thousand four hundred twenty-seven (12427) years ago, Duke Hagan had already achieved fame as the greatest architect. He was known for castles and bridges, aqueducts and archways. His brilliance was evidenced both in his designs and in how quickly they were built.

  He had pleased many kings whose castles he designed. Some rewarded him with gifts of elaborate ornate vials, each filled with one of the great waters. Some gifts, however, were not of water: one was a sword, and another was a book containing complex knowledge. There were portraits painted of the Duke receiving these gifts, so as to capture, in some way, his brilliance in a form that would last through the ages. These paintings were commissioned by the kings, and painted by some of the few ancient Chroniclers who were actually gifted in artistic skills – not all of them had an eye for such things. The portraits were made in duplicate, with one copy being kept by the kings and one copy being kept by Duke Hagan.

  Students of architecture would study Duke Hagan’s works in the millennia after his death. Various structures were accessible as historical monuments in prominent and public locations, although some were still occupied by present day kings and off-limits to visitors. However, accurate and detailed miniature replicas of the castles and bridges and other structures were built in Emeth, in the Eleventh Hall. Some of the ancient Chroniclers were also gifted in architecture – usually, they were drinkers of the Kazofen or Medathero waters, although not always, as those waters would have limited them to a mere century of life. They could make such accurate replicas of the structures they had seen that, in addition to making written descriptions in their books, they submitted these as records in Emeth, supplementing the knowledge within their books.

  Duke Hagan only had a mortal lifespan of a century, at most, as he was a drinker of the waters of the Medathero Ocean, for their gifts of increased intellect. His innate potential for mathematical and logical thinking was second to none in his day, and the Medathero waters only multiplied this. He preferred to apply his mind to public works, such as aqueducts, to deliver waters to inland kingdoms, and to purify them to a high degree in the process. He did this by embedding small crystals and stones into metal rods, which were placed on pivots throughout the pathways of the aqueducts he designed. These crystals would attract the impure minerals in the waters and remove them from the water flow. This design was copied by many other architects, although it was the alchemists who provided the actual crystals, as they were Kazofen drinkers and could bend crystals and stones at the finest level to achieve better purifications than the raw materials could.

  Duke Hagan experimented with using crystals in various ways, and the aqueducts were only one application of them, however. The Medathero waters multiplied his spatial and geometric reasoning, and he could understand the complex crystal geometry. He imagined new uses for them, far more sophisticated and beneficial than even the water purification, although that was of immense value to many millions of people in many kingdoms. He conceived of crystal geometries that could be used to grow entire structures on their own accord, with no additional labor applied. However, the Medathero waters that he drank – and to which he was waterbound – did not allow him to bend the crystals to take on those geometries. Yet, he found a way to do this.

  The ornate vials that he received as gifts were more than decorative. Rather, they were of great power, and they imbued the waters that were within them with other powers. He took the ornate vial that was associated with the waters of the Kazofen Ocean – whose waters were also known as the “diamond waters” – and poured Medathero Ocean waters into them, which he could drink. He then drank the water from this ornate vial and was given both powers: the power of greatly multiplied intellect as well as the power to bend crystals. He had such ornate vials corresponding to each of the twelve (12) great oceans, as well as the Dead Waters Ocean, whose waters offered no power that anyone ever spoke of.

  Duke Hagan experimented with various crystals – diamonds, rubies, sapphires, emeralds, topaz, citrine, amethyst and others – and discovered new uses for them. He could grow a topaz tower over one hundred (100) feet in height, complete with stairs and floors and doorways and interior rooms, by carefully manipulating the finer details of the crystal seeds that started it. He could build golems that were shaped like people, with moving arms and legs and the ability to carry heavy loads.

  He also drank the Medathero Ocean waters out of another ornate vial – the one associated with the Lujladia Ocean, whose waters were also known as the “light waters.” In this way, he continued to have his multiplied intellect, as well as the power to bend light. He could direct these crystal golems with the light he generated, and which they had been designed to follow.

  These ornate vials were immensely powerful, and h
e kept them on his person, and never told anyone of them. The kings who had given them did so because they trusted Duke Hagan to use them wisely, and ethically, rather than to subjugate and kill as others might. He conducted his experiments in hidden places, so as to avoid notice. One of those places was a castle inside of a mountain in the Trerada Ocean. The castle had been occupied, at one point, by the demon-worshipping Ahitan Empire. However, they were purged by the Hidden Paladins, and the castle was left behind. As the location and very existence of the castle was a secret to begin with, he decided to put it to a good use, and retain the secrecy. Herein, he could explore the various possible uses of these ornate vials, and keep them out of the hands of tyrants.

  Because of the demon-worshipping activity – including human sacrifice – that had occurred in the castle, restless evil spirits visited and he was troubled by them. He poured the Medathero waters into the ornate vial associated with the Zovvin Ocean – whose waters were also known as the “ghost waters” – and was able to explore the spirit world, and came to understand more about the nature of these evil spirits. He even learned of the existence of the Maelstrom of Vengeance – a place of torture for demons and those who worshipped them. Some evil spirits were of those who had lived lives of wickedness, but never went so far as to consort with demons. For them, the life after death in the material world often consisted of haunting the living and bemoaning their own restless condition. They had choices to make regarding atoning for their former evil deeds by performing great labors. Duke Hagan conceived of a use for the spirits – one which might put them to good use, and serve as an act of atonement.

  Duke Hagan considered crystals once again. He drank Medathero Ocean waters from the ornate vial that enabled him to have the powers of the Kazofen Ocean waters, as well, and designed a crystal structure that could contain energies of various sorts. He then grew one into an empty diamond golem, without giving it the energy of light that powered the others. Instead, he drank the Medathero Ocean water from the ornate vial that enabled him to have the powers of the Zovvin Ocean waters, as well.