0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Chapter Five

0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

When I finally woke up, I found myself lying face-down on some tiles. I blinked. The design of them was nothing remotely like what was found anywhere in the Emerald Empire that I knew of. And if my suspicions were correct, then…

“Ah, the boy has decided to awaken!” a jovial voice said, interrupting my thoughts. I quickly stood up and looked around. My suspicions were confirmed very quickly. I was in the Great Eastern Desert, across the world from my home. Sitting on a throne was a slightly pudgy man, wearing the most ridiculous get-up I had ever seen. The colors were bright, it was in far too many pieces, and it didn’t look very practical.

“…Who the heck are you?” I asked, glaring at him. He laughed.

“It’s been a long time since anybody has spoken to me in that manner!” he said, waving away the guards that were behind me. “I am King Pola of the Desert Realm. My special soldiers were the ones that saved you and Lady Siri a week ago. You’ve been sleeping ever since.”

“The way I remember it, they blew up some Rashkan tanks and knocked us out.” I replied, still glaring. “That seems more like a kidnapping then a rescue.” King Pola took my words quite well, waving them off. I checked and made sure my ring was still on. It was.

I carefully looked around, remembering my primary objective.

“Where’s Siri?”

“Ah, you mean that lovely girl who had saved your hide?” King Pola asked. “She should be returning fairly soon…” At that moment, the doors along the side of the room opened, and Lady Siri walked in. I stared. In response, the girl glared at me. She had been garbed in a two piece outfit, with her top being only two different colors of cloth that covered her breasts and left her stomach completely exposed. The other piece was a long skirt that had a slit up the side to reveal her legs. She looked gorgeous, especially seeing as how she had never worn those sorts of things before that I was aware of.

“You can stop staring!” the girl snapped at me. “We’re in the desert, our normal clothes are too bulky to be practical!” I laughed. No amount of clothing would ever change her fiery spirit, and that was probably a good thing.

“Well, now that we’re all here…” King Pola began. “Let’s get straight to the point, shall we? Lady Siri, I understand that your husband has recently perished, and that King Kkrat is wishing to wed you. You are young and quite good-looking, so I would like you to wed me instead and join my wives.” He gestured to a group of girls in the back of the room. I looked across from left to right, and noted that each was more beautiful then the last. I then looked from right to left, found that each was still more beautiful then the last, and decided not to ask how that was possible.

“You… What?” Siri asked.

“I would wed you myself!” Pola replied, laughing. “And if Kkrat has a problem with it, then he will feel the terror that the desert brings!” Siri stared at him.

“Um… W-why do you want me? You already have a number of very good-looking girls…” Siri began.

“Yes, but you’re far better then most of them.” Pola replied dismissively. “I would much rather be able to enjoy you then see Kkrat lay his filthy hands on you. That man has no morals, after all. We of the desert abide very strongly by ours.” Siri sighed.

“Look, I don’t want to be married again yet.” The girl said. “Maybe in a few more years I’d be willing to accept, but not right now. I’m sorry, but my previous husband has been dead for less then a month. This is not a good time.” King Pola sighed.

“I had hoped we wouldn’t need to delay…” he muttered. After a moment, he clapped his hands. “Show Lady Siri to the best guest quarters! She may have as long as she needs to decide to marry me!”

“Hold it!” I replied. Everybody froze and looked at me. “Hey, King, are you a gambling man?”

“Always.” The King replied. I smirked.

“Then I have a bet for you.” I replied. He looked at me with interest. “If I win, you will send Lady Siri and myself to a place of my choosing, with supplies. If I lose, Siri marries you now.”

“HEY! YOU CAN’T MAKE THOSE KINDS OF DECISIONS!” Siri yelled.

“What are you so worried about?” I asked. “I’m not going to lose. Well, King, do you accept?”

“Yes.” He said. “Wait, what’s the game?” I smiled.

“You accepted.” I said. “The game is that you will have one hour to find something that I am going to hide inside this castle.” I walked forward and pat his shoulder. “Or palace, or whatever this place is. Whatever. You may have as many servants as you’d like to help you search. It may be anywhere.” Pola nodded, and I stepped away from him. “Now, call all your servants to one area, so none of them will be able to tell you where I hid it. That wouldn’t be fair, right?” the King laughed.

Two hours later, I had explored the entirety of the castle. Whistling, I proceeded back to Pola’s Throne Room, and found Siri lounging on a large cushion, being fed grapes by servants.

“Oh, there you are.” The girl said. “Maybe losing wouldn’t be so bad after all, if I get this kind of treatment all the time.” I sighed.

“Whatever. Your Majesty, you may begin your search. All you need to do is find the coin of the Emerald Empire that I hid and hand it to me. I marked it very distinctively, so you won’t be tempted to try and fool me.” Pola waved, and a small army of servants flooded out of the room to go over the castle, searching for the coin. I smiled. They were never going to find it; I was always about ten steps ahead. “Well, I suppose it wouldn’t hurt if I got something to eat.” I said, picking up a bunch of grapes from the bowl the servant feeding Siri was using.

“James!”

“What?” I asked. “I’m hungry.” Siri sighed. I watched as a quarter of an hour, then half, then three quarters passed. “So, your majesty, worried yet?”

“Hah! They’ll find it soon!” the King replied. I shrugged. Fourteen more minutes passed, and I began counting down the seconds very loudly. Pola was now sweating nervously. When I finished, he sighed. “All right, you win, it’s been an hour. Where did you hide it?”

I emptied my coin purse onto the table. Sitting in the pile was a coin marked with a very distinctive red X. Slowly, the King began laughing.

“Hah! It has been many years since anybody has had the nerve to pull a trick like that on me!” the King said, laughing. “You hid a coin with a bunch of other coins, in a place no servant would dare to look! I like you, boy, it’s not often I get this sort of amusement! Let’s see… You wanted transportation and supplies, I believe?” I nodded. “Hmm… That will not be difficult, not at all. And you deserve an extra bonus for that sort of ingenuity… What shall I give to you… Ah, I know!” he gestured towards one of his wives, a girl our age with long, platinum-blonde hair. I raised an eyebrow, knowing enough about the culture of the desert to know that she must have been very highly prized. Light-colored hair was a rarity in this land, after all. She meekly stepped forward at her master’s bidding. “Lord… James, was it?”

“Dunno about the ‘Lord’ part, but yeah, that’s me.” I replied, mentally groaning. I knew where this was headed, and it was only going to be trouble. We didn’t need somebody else tagging along.

“This is Lily. I understand that your culture places great value on virginity, and that is something she still possesses. I give her to you, in acknowledgement of your admirably shrewd way of getting what you want.” Pola explained.

“Why do I always have to be right? Couldn’t I have been wrong, just this once?” I muttered under my breath. Then, a little louder, I added, “Siri, is it okay for him to do that?”

“Of course.” The girl replied, sitting up. “The Desert Realm is a land where much value is placed on the number of wives. A husband may buy, sell, or trade them as he wishes. It’s not allowed in the Emerald Empire, never has been, but here it’s a common and very accepted practice. It’s not like you’re married to her now, though, because it hasn’t been formalized as such.”

“Oh, good. I didn’t want that.” I said, sighing in relief. “But… She has to come with us now, right?”

“Yup. Look on the bright side. In exchange for somebody else with us, we get to go right to Likari.” Siri replied. I nodded and turned back to King Pola.

“You can relax, she’s not really going with you.” Pola said, smirking.

I sighed in relief again.

“Just kidding!”

“…Feh. Well, thank you.” I said, bowing slightly. “I will take care of her as if we were married.” Lily quietly moved over and stood beside me. I wasn’t sure if her quietness was her personality or how she’d been taught to act, but either way I wished she didn’t look so unfairly meek. If she kept that up, I’d find myself pitying her in no time, which would only be trouble.

Nothing else that was particularly interesting happened until we were well on our way to Likari, several hours later. The Desert Realm didn’t use cars; they used fairly advanced hovercraft to transport people. I was relaxing.

“So, Lily, how did you wind up being married to King Pola?” Siri asked.

“My hair…” the girl replied. “It’s… so unusual that he couldn’t resist adding me to his collection. He must have been especially impressed with Lord James, because even to his other wives he always said I was the most valuable.” Siri blinked.

“He was that impressed by one of the brat’s sleazy, underhanded tricks?” the girl asked.

“Hey.” I replied, feeling slightly hurt. “It was a sleazy, underhanded trick, sure, but at least it was a good sleazy, underhanded trick that only somebody like me would have the guts to pull on royalty.” Siri glared at me.

“Shut up.” The girl said. Lily smiled slightly.

“Actually, it wasn’t underhanded at all.” The girl said. “In the Desert Realm, being able to outwit your competitors is a very important skill. There is very little water and good land, especially when compared to all the other countries. What Lord James did showed that he had a number of admirable traits. He could think far enough ahead to outwit even the king, showing he was smart. He did what he did on the king, not knowing how my former husband would react, showing that he was brave. He never gave any hint that he had the coin inside his own money bag, which proved that he could keep a calm face during rigorous testing. Pola noticed all of that, being far more acute then he appears to be, and was impressed. That’s why he gave me to you as a servant.”

I blinked.

“He didn’t look acute to me. More like obtuse.” I said. Siri snorted, actually laughing. Even Lily smiled, understanding the joke. “Well, that may have been how it appeared to him, but I still agree with Siri. It was a sleazy, underhanded trick, and I’d do it again if given half a chance. After all, why make the chances of me losing a bet higher then they need to be?” Siri sighed and relaxed on a cushion again.

“Well, at least we don’t have to worry about Rashkan soldiers.” The girl said. “Illumia is right next to the Desert Realm, after all, so it shouldn’t really take that long to get there.” I nodded.

Several more hours passed, and after a delicious dinner consisting primarily of fruits and such, we all decided that it was a good time to go to sleep. However, before any of us even changed, Siri looked below us and watched the massive rocks and canyons beneath us go by.

“I thought deserts were all sand.” She said, blinking. Lily laughed.

“A lot of people do. But really, it’s only the outskirts that are just sand.” She said, giggling. “Most of the desert is rocky areas like this, and if you can carve out sturdy caves, it’s easy to live protected from the sun.” Siri nodded. I was simply glad that we were shielded by a dome from winds and such. Shrugging, Siri stretched out on the massive cushion in the middle of the area and grabbed my throat as I bent over her.

“No.” the girl said, glaring at me. I shrugged, and pulled back a bit before whisking around and kissing her on the lips. “JAMES!”

“Too slow again.” I replied, smiling as I headed over to a cushion along the side to curl up on. Lily quietly put a blanket over me before pulling a cushion onto the floor so she could sleep between Siri and me.

“Good night, Lord James, Lady Siri.” She said quietly.

“’Night.” I replied. Siri muttered something.

“Let James die in his sleep.” She muttered slightly louder. “And return me to my throne. Oh, and have Kkrat suffer a heart attack…” I tried not to laugh, somehow not surprised by what she was asking for. I wondered who she was praying to a moment later, and figured it was somebody really nice. I held Scarlet Flame between my arms as we continued to move forward, noting that the sword was giving off the perfect amount of heat to keep me comfortable.

“Thanks.” I whispered to it. The sword’s hilt glowed slightly for a moment, lending credit to my belief that the blade had a mind of its own. I smiled and drifted off to sleep.

Many hours later, as dawn approached, I woke up to see a very… well… unexpected sight. Lily was standing over a group of bodies, with what looked like a frying pan in her hand.

“And stay down, you dirty scumbags!” she yelled, kicking the only one still conscious in the stomach.

“What’s going on here?” I asked, sitting up. The girl whisked the pan behind her back.

“Um… T-these intruders… I… Um…” she said, sounding very shy. I began laughing, understanding completely what was going on. “Um… W-what’s so funny?”

“That’s an act, isn’t it?” I asked, hoping I wasn’t going to break a rib. “You’re not shy or meek at all; it’s just an act you put on to make people underestimate you!” Siri sat up a moment later, looked at the body on her cushion, and kicked it off.

“Well… Yeah.” Lily said, nodding. “That idiot I was married to until he gave me to you was very traditionally minded, and thought that all women should be shy and meek.” She snorted. “Pathetic. I’m really glad that I’m away from him.” Siri looked at Lily, shrugged, and went back to sleep. “My parents insisted I never act normally when I was around other people, or I’d probably be executed. It was so ridiculous.”

I smirked and strapped Scarlet Flame to my back.

“Well, no worries about not being yourself anymore. In fact, if you weren’t yourself, I’d bug you endlessly to make you act normally. It works on Siri. Speaking of which…” I moved over to my queen and dumped a glass of ice water onto her face. Sputtering, the girl sprung up and wrapped her hands around my throat.

“I’M GOING TO KILL YOU!” she shrieked. “I’m going to choke you to death, hit you to death, and then carve out your heart with a knife!” I laughed and pet her.

“Silly Siri. You’ll never be able to kill me.” I replied, pulling her hands off of my neck. “I’m far stronger then you, because I’ve actually trained, I’m cooler then you, and I’m a guy.”

“Being a guy has nothing to do with it.” Lily said, glaring at me.

“Of course it does! Guys are stronger then girls, ‘cuz our bodies are built differently.” I said, giving Siri a hug that was almost, but not quite, bone-crushing.

The girl muttered something.

“Get your dirty peasant hands off of me. Now. Before I bite your Jugular Vein.” The girl said, opening her mouth. I shrugged and let go.

“Well, now that you’re properly awake, what’s the schedule for today?” I asked, flopping onto a cushion. Siri gaped at me. “What?” the girl sighed and headed into our transport.

“Stay up there!” the girl yelled, shutting the hatch as she went to change into some new clothes.

“You two are… really close.” Lily said, sitting across from me. “I’m a little jealous… The only guy I was ever actually close to was Pola, and that was because he liked having me near, not because I liked him.” I just shrugged and looked out onto the dunes of sand.

“Siri’s my queen, and has had a really hard time. I’m doing the best I can to make her feel better.” I replied, sighing. “It helps a lot of the time, really, to know that what I’m doing will probably help her recover in the long run. Take a look at her pillow.” Lily moved over and held up the cushion Siri had used as a pillow, examining it closely.

“…Tear stains?” she asked. I nodded. “Oh… What happened? Oh, wait… Kkrat killed her husband, and he wants her, right?” I nodded. “I was listening in on some courtiers, and they were talking about the war that’s going on. Kkrat wants some weird artifact created by a demigod, and Siri to be his new wife. He’s such a weirdo.” I laughed.

“True.” I said, nodding. The conversation flopped into nothingness as we continued moving. Eventually, Siri came back up, wearing the only other item of clothing she had, which was similar to her other outfit, only it showed more of her legs in a way that was quite obviously designed to get the attention of men.

“Not a word.” The girl said, glaring at me. For once, I kept my mouth shut. “Good.” Siri said, moving towards the front of our transport. “Hey! I can see the edge of the desert!” Lily and I hurried forward, Lily moving especially fast.

“I’ve never been out of the desert before.” She said, sounding rather more excited then was entirely normal. “What’s it like where you two came from?”

“Green and wet.” Siri replied. “The Emerald Empire has lots of plants that are green all year long, which is how it got the first part of its name. It’s a lot better then this place. The air here can’t be good for my skin.”

“Siri, we’re inside a sheltered transport with filtered air.” I pointed out.

“Yeah, so?” the girl replied sharply. I sighed and moved over to the side. “Speaking of which, I’ve been meaning to ask… Why don’t your ‘Guardian Spirits’ appear whenever we need them?” I smirked.

“Well, my dear sister…” Siri glared at me while Lily looked on with interest. “It’s because I don’t want to rely on them. What should I do, have them feed me and clothe me as well as fight? I don’t think so. If I let them do everything, I’ll never grow. It’s good to have others around to help you, but you should always try to do something yourself before you ask for help with it.” Siri blinked and looked at me in a slightly odd way. “So, instead, I just play games with them and stuff. Life’s a lot more interesting that way, instead of being dull with plain studying.”

We officially left the desert right about then.

“What do you mean when she says she’s your sister?” Lily asked, looking between us.

“It’s a joke on a cover we use. I’m Sara, and he’s Sean, twins Summoner Apprentices.” The girl muttered. “Believe me, Lily, he’s a cold-hearted jerk. You’ll hate him as much as I do before long.” Lily laughed and didn’t respond further as our vehicle changed course slightly and sped up a great deal.

“Next stop, the Capital city of Illumia, Likari!” the driver called.

True to his word, near noon we arrived at the Citadel of Light. My very first thought was that it was accurately named; every building was a meld of bright colors, every citizen was wearing reds, yellows, oranges, whites, golds, and everything else in sight stuck out in some way from everything else.

“I feel dizzy…” Siri moaned. “There’s way too much color here.” I nodded in agreement, trying not to throw up. After the monotony of the desert, this was serious sensory overload.

As soon as we had adjusted to the absurdity of the place, which took almost ten minutes, I began leading the others through the town.

“Wait, do you know where we’re going?” Siri asked.

“Of course not. I’m looking for a Guard.” I replied. “Then I will ask him the way to the Crimson Tear and we can get the heck out of—“ my sentence was never finished, because at that moment I bumped into somebody, sending that person straight into the ground and myself a little backwards. “Er, sorry about that.” I said, looking over. I paled a second later. “Oh…”

Without pausing, I whirled around, grabbed Siri and Lily, and began running away as fast as I could.

“Hey, hold it, who was that!?” Siri asked, growling at me.

“That was the guy who ran the camp where they held me before you and the Master Summoners saved me!” I replied. An energy field shot up in front of us a moment later. “And… It looks like he found us.”

“What a treat this is!” the guy yelled. “Here I was, minding my own business, and you run straight into me! Now is the day when I shall exact my revenge upon you!”

I groaned.

“Does he ever shut up? Those lines are so stupid.” I muttered. Sighing, I pulled off my coat so it wouldn’t hinder my movements, turned around, and got into a fighting stance. The people outside the field gathered closer, anticipating a fight. “You two, stay back. You wouldn’t think it from his lame lines, but he’s very powerful.” The two girls nodded and hung back as I gathered some of my energy.

“Now die, you insolent fool!” the man yelled. A ring of flames surrounded me. I yawned very widely, mostly to bug him to no end, and put out the flames with a burst of water.

“I expected better then that from you. I mean, seriously, you showed power last time we fight. What happened, are you scared of going against a real Summoner?” I asked. I was struck from behind a moment later, and sent sprawling to the ground. “Okay, okay… I’ll give you credit for that one. You got me monologing. Fine, then.” Without another move, I got up and traced a rune circle into the air with each of my hands.

What I was doing was absolutely ridiculous. Runecasting was difficult and power-consuming as it was, and doing it with both hands was something only the extremely powerful or the extremely stupid would do. Many people would consider me to be in the second category, because I was not only doing two rune circles at the same time, but they were different rune circles.

Shrugging, I let loose the one in my right hand, which sent a continuous stream of water straight towards whatever-his-name-was. As it hit, I activated the left one, charging the water with an electric jolt that was strong enough to knock out even the most massive of beasts. There was an appropriately large explosion, and because of that I felt somehow very satisfied.

The fact that he emerged unharmed from the smoke rather dulled out that feeling, though.

“You have got to be joking…” I muttered.

“An interesting technique, my boy.” He said. I quietly scuffed the ground with a foot. “Indeed, that would be enough to fell most any normal opponent. However, I am far more skilled then many believe, and deflecting such an attack—“ he broke off as an attack slammed into him from behind and sent him to the ground.

“Don’t ramble on. Or I’ll do that again.” I said. Not wasting any time, I bit my right thumb once again and began etching a Summoning Circle. Seeing me do so, my opponent did the same. He finished first.

“I call upon the King of Tragedy!” he said loudly. I did something I rarely did right then, and cursed. The King of Tragedy was listed in The Complete Summoner’s Guide to Powerful Spirits That You Shouldn’t Summon Without A Good Reason as a phenomenally powerful spirit who had absolutely no qualms about destroying wantonly.

“I call upon the Immortal Angel!” I countered. The Immortal Angel was one of the Spirits who, like the King of Tragedy, had a name that almost nobody knew. He was, however, extremely old (though he looked about eighteen), and more powerful then even a large number of the Demigods. There were rumors that he was a full-fledged God himself who simply liked to interact with people. However, unlike the darkness in my opponent’s circle, mine didn’t do a thing. “Come on! I said I call upon the Immortal Angel!” I said angrily.

“Hah! You can’t even get halfway on a Summoning of that level! And here I was thinking that you were actually dangerous!” my opponent replied. The King of Tragedy appeared and glared at me for a moment before raising his hand and firing a bolt of shadow energy at me. The sort of energy attack that you know even the eight spirits guarding you stand no chance against.

I closed my eyes. Five seconds later, I opened them, and found that the attack was being repelled by a field of light.

“Honestly, you, if Azaron hadn’t asked me to take care of you, who knows what would happen?” a girl’s voice asked, sounding faintly disgusted. “Lomar, go back to the Spirit Realms where you belong.” The King of Tragedy stared at the girl floating above me, then gulped and fled. The onlookers probably didn’t understand that, but I certainly did. He was terrified of the girl.

“Um… Who are you?” I asked.

“I am known as the Moon Maiden by some. Others call me the Goddess of Mercy. You, I think, know me as Ciara.”

I fainted.

0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000