The Moderator

Chapter one

The normally lively halls of the palace were quiet. Huge red curtains were hung over all of the huge windows, making the typically brilliant marble walls and floor look dull and dead. The halls were filthy and the halls cold, as all the servants were on a forced leave. The only bread available was old and stale, the cheese moldy, and the meat maggot-filled. However, to Enki, the worst part of the castle’s new arrangement was all the sorcerers.

He had never liked sorcerers from outside and they had never liked him. He believed that they were even worse than normal women as far as being judgmental and cruel. They believed that he was worthless and had no right in learning magic. However, they just had to hold their tongues. He was Queen Dema’s only possible heir, and so was under her protection. That was, until a week ago. Now, thanks to the non-magics being removed, the only protection he had was the two high court sorcerers, his father, and the four walls of his bedroom.

However, both of the court sorcerers were incapacitated at the moment, and his father was in no better shape than a glass vase after an earthquake. Because of that, Enki had spent most of the past seven days in his bedroom.

He rolled onto his side and the scene played once more through his mind: a woman, so very pale, lying in her bed. Her breath was heavy and ragged, she often coughed up blood. Her skin had become loose and wrinkled since she had gotten sick, and her head burned with fever. Her eyes were bloodshot and her hair had become white and brittle. However, between bouts of deliriousness, occasionally you could see deep in her eyes the great queen she once was. Then, suddenly, she asked for Enki to come to her, her voice strong and demanding as it had been when she was still powerful. He arrived and took her hand just in time for her grip to loosen and her eyes to slide close.

That was his last day of being himself, the last day that there really was and Enki. Now, there was just a question of making him Dema. Normally, he would have been officially given the name as soon as the last Dema was buried, but for the first time in history there was an actual question of inheritance.

Enki heard a sharp rap on his door.

“My lord? Are you in here?” Rossa asked breathlessly, “my lord?”

“Yes!” He called back, “Enter!” Rossa was one of the few people Enki actually wanted to see. He just hoped that she would not continue to call him “my lord.”

“It’s happened,” She said, opening the door.

“What’s happened?” he asked.

“Wara’s delivered.”

Enki leapt from his bed and the two ran as quickly as they could in floor-length robes. Rossa stopped them just before they reached Wara’s room. Enki lifted a hand and gently knocked on the door. To Enki’s surprise, his brother, Joel opened the door.

“I thought no one without magic was allowed to be here!”

Joel scoffed, “The sorcerers knew better. No force on earth could keep me from seeing my child. But come, I would assume you’d like to visit your niece.”

“Niece?” Enki asked, his heart soaring.

A girl? Then maybe, just maybe… But that didn’t matter now. Enki stepped past his brother to get his first look into the new room. Wara was sitting up in bed, holding a sleeping child to her breast. Her pale face was flushed and her long brown hair was messy and sweat-soaked, but her smile and azure eyes were as beautiful as ever.

She laughed. “you can come closer, you know. Neither of us are going to explode if you come nearer than ten feet.”

He edged closer and peaked into the folds of cloth to get a good look at his niece. She was absolutely adorable, with a small button nose and pudgy cheeks. He gently extended a hand and stroked her cheek.

“Oh! You’re so cute!” Said Rossa, who had somehow gotten right next to Enki.

“Isn’t she?” He asked.

“I meant the both of you.”

“I resent that! I may be a sorcerer, but I’m also a grown man!”

“I’m sorry,” said a cold voice, “But you cannot be both.”

Both Enki and Rossa turned to see who had spoken. It was a tall sorcerer with long silver hair.

“And that is why,” She continued, “I have come. Give me the child.”

“What?!” Wara demanded, clutching the little girl closer to her chest.

“It’s a simple procedure. I’m simply here to check if the infant has magic or not.”

“I thought everyone agreed that I was going to do that!” Rossa said.

“I’m sorry to interrupt,” Joel said, “But I think all of you are missing something very important.”

“I take it you are this child’s… father.” She seemed to have trouble saying the last word.

“Indeed I am.” Joel said, “But that’s not what’s important. What does matter is that I am also the captain of the guard.”

“I noticed that you had plenty of those disgusting bulges you brainless non-magics call muscles.”

“What this means,” Joel said, ignoring the woman’s comment, “Is that I’m very familiar with certain laws that those who live in small towns or as hermits do not, such as the fact that it doesn’t matter that no non-adult can become a full-fledged Dema.”

“So? We can arrange a co-regency with her mother.”

“No. In addition to the previous law, it is also written that the next Dema is the person next in line at the time of the previous Dema’s death.”

“What? Why have I not heard of this before?”

“I would imagine that it would be because you didn’t allow the non-magics back into the castle.”

The woman seemed speechless. She simply turned and walked away.

“Nice one, Joel!” Rossa said. “I had totally forgotten that!”

He laughed, “Maybe you sorcerers will think twice whenever you want to call either men or non-magics stupid from now on!”

“Heh, Not likely.”

“Oh, be nice!” Wara said, but her tone was kind.

The three of them we no doubt happy, but the same could not be said for Enki. The boy just stood there. This would not end well.

***

“Our Queen’s rule was long and great. She made us a powerful nation, as well as a peaceful one. She will, doubtlessly be remembered for hundreds of years to come.” Rossa said, “But you already have heard that speech. It has been eight days since she has passed from this world, and for those eight days, Dema was only a land without a face and a guiding mind. But no longer will we accept that! I know that it may be difficult for some of you to adjust to a new face, but it is time! And so, I present to you, your new state, your new master, and for the first time in living memory, your king!”

That was Enki’s cue. Even though they had practiced it twenty times yesterday, he had trouble bringing himself to move. This was it, it was really it. He was forced into public eye, and everything that he had been for his entire life was going to be stripped away from him. Why, oh why did he have to turn sixteen just before his mother got sick?

Of course, in addition to all of the mental baggage, his formal robes were heavy. They were made of mainly dark blue velvet, with several lighter pieces to add more depth. According to Wara, it brought out his eyes, but he just felt greedy- blue ink was not cheep! The heavy gold chains (“Oh! These will go wonderfully with your hair”) were not helping either.

However, eventually he managed to get out of his chair and go out onto the balcony. The applause was deafening, but to Enki it sounded quite hollow. Eventually, it died down, and Wara motioned for him to come up to the front and give his speech.

He moved forward. Was the sun always that hot? He was sweating bullets. He opened his mouth, but felt a huge lump in his throat.

“Oh gods,” he thought, “My voice is going to crack so that I sound like I’m seven. I just know it.”

He cleared his throat, trying to get the lump out of the way and said, “I-I know that I’m not- not what you all w-were expecting,”

“Oh come on, I practiced this at least a hundred times last night! What’s going on?”

“B-but that doesn’t matter! The gods decided to place me as your ruler, and I am going to do the b-best I can! I may be a man, but I am the son of the last Dema. Her magic is mine, a-and in turn, that magic belongs to all of you!”

To his surprise, they started to clap. The lump went all the way away, and he felt as though a huge weight was lifted from his shoulders. He smiled. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad after all.

Enki turned around and began to walk back inside, but then he heard a voice over the cries of the public.

“Prove it!”

A hush fell over the crowd. People stepped away from the person who said it. Enki recognized her as the woman from yesterday, who Joel had outwitted. She raised the ground she was standing on so that she was atop a pillar as high as Enki’s balcony.

She turned and addressed the people on the ground. “If this man truly has the power of Dema behind him, he will be able to push me back to the ground where I would belong. However, if he cannot, he obviously is not fit to be our leader.”

“Hah,” Enki thought, “Listen, lady, no one would ever accept that as fair! You’re old enough to be my grandmother. Not even a god could- wait, why are they cheering? Why are they cheering!?”

Indeed, the people of Dema seemed to approve of the idea, if their shouts were anything to go by.

The woman laughed. “Come on, little boy, show me what you’ve got!”

Enki took a deep breath. Did the sun magically heat up again? It didn’t matter. He had to do this.

He slipped off his shoes and took a strong stance on the marble, just like his mother had taught him. He reached his arms out to either side, feeling the entirety of the ground shut his eyes to increase concentration.

“It’s Just flat, flat dirt going out for miles until it reaches the forest to the north and west, the desert to the east, or until it fills with grasses and crops south of here. However,”he brought his arms in and placed them vertically against his chest. “There’s this one patch right in front of me. It’s sticking way up. It would certainly be better if it was FLATTER.”

With the last word, he reached his hands up over his head and began to push down. He felt resistance. That bitch was fighting hard! But she wouldn’t win, she couldn’t win. Not only was he doing this for his people, but for the ground. She had pulled it out of it’s place, and it wouldn’t like that.

And yet, nothing happened. He heard the woman laugh.

“I knew it wouldn’t work, fool!”

But then, there was a loud crunch, and the woman screamed. The crowd clapped and cheered.

Enki smiled, “Hell yes.”

The column had moved an inch. Sure, there were 299 left to go, but it had moved.

The invisible war between the two sorcerers went on for about fifteen minutes. Enki kept going, and going, and going. She was almost down! Three feet left! But then something peculiar happened. The king began to feel dizzy. He was almost out of power. He wanted to fall to his knees. It was over.

“No!” He yelled.

He released for a moment, and then shoved his hands all the way down, using every drop of energy he had. There was the loudest crunch yet, and the woman dropped from above the other spectators. Enki fell too, having thoroughly exhausted himself. The crowd cheered and he felt prouder than he ever had before in his life.

But then, there was another cry that came.

“He failed! He failed!”

“What?!” Enki cried, “There’s no way! I felt it go flat!”

Wara shook her head. “I’m sorry, Dema.” She whispered. “You’re probably too tired to feel it, but… there are about three inches left.”

And then tired and disgraced, the king passed out.

***

When Enki next regained consciousness, he was back in his room, lying naked beneath his blankets. He noticed a plate of food and a pitcher of fresh water sitting on his bedside table and launched himself at it.

After he had devoured about three fourths of the food and drank about half of the pitcher, he heard a familiar voice.

“I hope you don’t eat like that all the time I’m not around, you’ll ruin your girlish figure.”

“Karu!” Enki cried, “I didn’t notice you!”

He laughed and stood up. “I’m an assassin, Enki, that’s what I do.”

Karu was fairly impressive looking. Tall as an oak tree, thin as a reed, and with hair the color of fire, most people steered clear of him. The man’s affection for knives and proficiency in murder also had most members of society backing away slowly. However, Enki spent enough time with him to know him as a fun-loving, playful guy.

“Hey! You still use my real name!”

“Someone has to,” He said, sitting on the bed next to his friend, “Don’t want you forgetting who you are. But, I suppose that if you’re too high-and mighty now that you’re also Dema-“

“Oh, Karu, don’t be that way!”

“What? I was going to say I’d call you Ki-ki, like my little sister used to.”

“That’s even worse!” Enki said, laughing. “So what brings you here?” he asked, grabbing an apple.

Karu smiled, “I just wanted to make sure that you knew somebody still liked ya.”

“Oh,” Enki said, looking down at the apple in his hands, “I was hoping that that was a bad dream and I had just passed out from heatstroke.”

Karu sight, “Unfortunately, that’s not the case. You did lose that challenge. But hey, it’s not that bad! All of us in special-ops accept you. Besides, the masses are fickle. Just lower taxes or something and they’ll call you god.”

“I can’t do that! Mom figured it out perfectly. As long as nothing changes in real life, I won’t change what’s in the books.”

“And that, my friend, is why you’ll be a kick-ass Dema.”

“But then what am I supposed to do?”

Karu laughed, “I was hoping you’d ask. Me and some of the guys came up with something that’s just hair-brained enough to work.”

“What’s that.”

Karu smiled dangerously, “You summon The Moderator.”