~ Chapter 21 ~
Keli was at her normal post behind Selenay's throne when the envoy from Rethwellan approached. He carried a long thin gift covered by a length of white fabric. Keli used mage sight to examine the gift for a threat and found none. Whatever it was, it was nonmagical.
"Your Majesty, His Majesty of Rethwellan, has commissioned a gift for You and His brother in honour of Your alliance." The Envoy said gravely.
The cloth was removed and Keli nearly choked, her Windrider was lying across his hands.
Keli felt for her own blade as unobtrusively as possible. It was still in its sheath with the leather bindings hiding the bejewelled hilt.
"Tell him we are grateful for the gift." Selenay accepted the sword and smiled slightly and offered a gold coin. "And a coin so it will not sever our alliance."
The envoy accepted the coin and bowed away.
Keli found herself fingering her blade absently throughout court. Later in Selenay's private quarters the queen and her husband examined the beautiful blade.
"I haven't seen anything like it before." Prince Daren stroked the smooth as silk steel. "It isn't a dress blade."
Talia glanced at Keli but said nothing.
"What should we do with it?" Selenay asked. "It is obviously meant for use."
"What about making it the Monarch's Own sword?" Elspeth suggested as she tested the blade. "It is fancy enough for court and a good size for either a female or a male."
"Tradition does say the Monarch doesn't go armed at court." Selenay admitted. "But Talia does not use a sword and it would a shame to hide it in a vault."
The sword was passed to Keli for her examination. Hers had a few scratches and the shield of Valdemar had been engraved on the blade but there was no other differences at first glance. She took hers out of the sheath and compared them.
"They are nearly the same size." Daren commented.
"Actually they are the same size and weight." Keli corrected and handed the blade to Talia.
"Pity I can't use a sword." Talia admired the blade.
Keli sheathed her blade. She was surprised the swords could exist side by side.
That night Keli stared out her window at the snow, it was coming down in fat flakes that drifted lazily down to the earth. She was a little worried about not enough snow this winter causing a poor harvest next year. This was the first real snowfall and it was already Midwinter.
Up north it was supposed to be much worse with drifts of loose soft snow that not even chirras were willing to face. It had been like that for two months now.
:You are brooding.: Solaris made one of her now rare appearances.
"I am just thinking about the weather." Keli corrected. "I haven't seen you around in a while."
:You haven't needed me.: Solaris said succinctly.
Keli turned away from the window. "Why are you here now?"
:I thought you might like to know you have changed the future a great deal. The Empire will still exist but it isn't as torn as it was.: Solaris told her.
"What about gryphons?" Keli asked.
:No.: Solaris said sadly.
"Not enough." Keli sighed. "I know you can't tell me anything about what I am supposed to do, but is there a war soon?"
:That's an odd question. Why?: Solaris asked worriedly.
"Prince Kris was just Chosen by Companion Allaria." Keli's voice didn't betray any emotion, a sign she was worried. "There are now twenty new trainees. And there are another twenty five Companions of age to Choose."
:I don't know.: Solaris admitted.
"I should have expected it." Keli sighed and sat on the end of her bed. "I never imagined it would be this difficult when I volunteered for this mission."
Solaris eyed her with an inscrutable expression on her feline features. :Do you regret coming?:
"No. I may miss a few things but here is home. I am needed here and that is important. There I was fighting an uphill battle with every decision and still doing nothing." Keli recalled.
:I heard the council has approved your idea of a university. Where is it being built?: Solaris changed the topic.
"To the south, near the paper mills. The Blues will still be educated here but there will be more room to specialize there. Right now we are taking building requirements; labs and the like. I was pleasantly surprised by the response. But it isn't a hard yes, it is a give-us-numbers-and-we-will-consider-it yes"
:I am certain you will bring them around.: Solaris said confidently.
"It shouldn't just be the incredibly intelligent who are taught extra skills. We can teach teachers so there is a more uniform education standard across Valdemar. We can offer courses in agriculture and animal husbandry. Even business classes." Keli expounded as she stared out at the snow.
:What about your plan to become a second Queen's Own?: Solaris asked.
"Selenay agrees with me that it is an excellent idea but she doesn't think the title should be Queen's Own for both. And the duties will be split between them and won't necessarily overlap. She thought the title of People's Own Herald was good but I am a little doubtful. I think it is more a matter of what the people who take the position will be like that will decide the title. Kenyon has been ever so helpful by saying absolutely nothing." Keli said in exasperation.
:That's a horse for you.: Solaris snorted.
"It can also describe Cats." Keli teased. "You haven't exactly been handing out any useful answers."
:Careful, I am armed.: Solaris raised a paw and unsheathed her razor sharp claws.
"Point taken." Keli laughed.
:How's Tris?: Solaris chose to ignore the pun and examined her claws.
"His last letter was ages ago, nothing is getting around up there, but he should be coming in soon." Keli said optimistically.
:Which explains the barely there nightgown.: Solaris said without looking up from her nails.
"You packed it." Keli pointed out. "I asked for useful things, like history texts. You packed nightgowns and undergarments."
:I knew you would want them. Are you saying you haven't been glad to have them?: Solaris finally put down her paw and gave Keli an arch look.
Keli blushed slightly. "They have been…welcome."
:And what would you do with an inaccurate text anyway?: Solaris asked.
"The texts I listed were from my mage school and would have been handy." Keli explained.
:Like you don't already have them all memorized.: Solaris said dismissively.
"I could have used them to convince others. Or to discover when this war started." Keli stiffened and smiled. "Tris has returned home."
:I know when I am not wanted.: Solaris teased and vanished.
It was nearly midnight so she doubted Tris would visit her that night. Keli did want to meet him in the stable but he was probably tired and thinking only of reaching his bed.
Instead Keli banked her fire with a thought and climbed under her covers, hoping instead to see him early the next morning. Soon she was fast asleep.
Keli woke to a feather light caress and a weight on the side of her bed. Expecting Fyn she opened her eyes to find Tris.
"I didn't expect to see you until tomorrow morning." Keli said as she rolled over.
"I didn't mean to wake you." Tris said quietly.
"I don't mind." Keli assured him. "I thought you would be too tired otherwise I would have met you in the stable. I assume you aren't too tired…" Keli slid her hand under his shirt.
Tris quickly proved he wasn't too tired.
~*~
Keli woke before Tris did and she spent several long minutes just looking at him. The scar from a year ago was still there but was now white. Most of the rest of the scars on his body had healed but Keli knew exactly where they had been.
"Good morning Lady Love." Tris greeted her as he finally stirred.
Keli's heart skipped a beat at the endearment. "The best morning I have had in nearly a year."
"Do you have to get up?" Tristen asked with little hope.
"No." Keli traced a finger across his abs. "Today is the first day of midwinter break." She reminded him.
"Perfect." Tris growled and rolled her underneath him.
"Hey Keli, are you awake?" Fyn knocked. "You said we might go riding this morning."
"Later imp." Keli called backed.
"Whose bags are these?" Fyn asked.
Keli's eyes flashed with amusement, "You didn't even go to your room?"
Tris shook his head and grinned unrepentantly.
"Is Tris back? Is that why you don't want to go riding?" Fyn asked shrewdly.
"Later Imp." Keli called.
Fyn giggled. "Keli's in love…"
"Fyn, go away." Tris called.
Fyn giggled again and they heard her footsteps retreating.
"Are you?" Tris asked softly.
"Do I love you? Beyond everything." Keli swore.
Tris looked very relieved. "I love you too. It's foolish for Heralds to fall in love but…"
Keli caressed his beloved face. "I know." She opened a link between them and showed him how she felt.
"Thank gods." Tris swore.
Out in the hall Fyn was whistling. She was very pleased Tris loved Keli too. They were her favourite people and she was glad they had found happiness together.
~*~
The entire town was gone, not just destroyed, but gone like it never existed. Just as the Herald had reported.
Keli stood where the main square should have been and saw only trees.
"There is nothing here, even to mage sight." Tris said beside her.
"This is the third one in as many months." Keli ran her fingers through her hair. "And we still have no clue what they did."
Tris rubbed her shoulder reassuringly.
:We will catch them.: Kenyon assured her.
It had been three months since Tris returned and shortly after he arrived the first hamlet had been reported missing by a field Herald. Tris had been sent out to investigate and had sent for Keli when he couldn't make heads or tails of the scene.
"Let's see if there is a perimeter of change." Keli suggested as she started towards the town boundary looking for any disruption.
Who ever was causing this had left no witnesses and had only taken remote villages that were rarely visited.
Nearly a candlemark later Tris called Keli over. He found a bit of a fence rail about the length of his arm.
"Five hundred people and this is all that is left." Keli sighed as she examined the wood. "I think we have to assume this is the start of the first of the mage wars."
Tris nodded sadly. "You said your histories claimed people were being sacrificed in the thousands in a single month. I think he is up to hundreds now."
"We better speak to the Queen." Keli mounted up.
Together they rode until they found a barn, far from the town site, and created a gate back to Haven.
The Council was waiting on their report. Keli knew they would protest it was impossible for a town to vanish. Despite fighting a war with mages and then the Mage Storms they still had a hard time with magic.
"Perhaps they will take us seriously this time." Tristen suggested optimistically.
"And break from form?" Keli was still coldly angry. Her people were going missing and they were sitting on their hands saying it was impossible.
:Easy Empress.: Kenyon urged.
Keli sighed. "I am not going to injure them."
"The council?" Tristen asked.
Keli nodded.
"If we could tell them what the spell is they may take us more serious." Tris suggested.
"I can tell them exactly who he is but they still won't believe us. His name is Hegrith, he is in the north of Valdemar about to embroil us in a twenty year war that will take a century to recover from." Keli said flatly. "I am fairly certain that is the catalyst for the Empire."
"I don't know what more to do." Tristen shrugged helplessly.
Keli led the way to the council chamber where they described the scene, in detail, to everyone. The Council reacted predictably and claimed they were being alarmist.
The meeting parted on the same note. Keli accompanied Selenay back to her room and let Tris return to the suite.
"I don't know what to say to get through to them." Selenay rubbed her temples.
Keli took a seat and listened to Selenay vent.
"Perhaps we should give them the whole truth." Keli suggested finally. "Tell them I came back to stop this war. Tell them I am the Empress of Valdemar."
"They will think we have lost our wits." Selenay countered.
"Not if we lay some ground work." Keli suggested.
~*~
The next morning the Council reconvened. All the councillors had bags under their eyes and haunted expressions.
Keli had been reluctant but used her magic to give them each a dream of her time and what she endured, with the perspective intact so it was if the had experienced it personally.
When she entered next to Selenay, each wearing her own Coronet. Talia walked a few steps behind both of them.
"Right about now most of you are wondering if you have foresight suddenly or if you are losing you mind." Selenay said. "I can assure you don't have to worry, we believed it was necessary for you to understand exactly who Kelisiaori is. You have all heard the rumours of her being born of the Grove and being here for a very specific reason."
The Councillors all eyed Keli warily.
"She risked everything to come back in time and stop us from being slaughtered by a great mage. Talia, Daren, and I have been aware of exactly why she was here and together we have been watching for the few warnings time had not destroyed. One of which was my son being Chosen by a Companion named Allaria."
"You are saying that dream was real?" A Lord stood and demanded.
"Yes, that is what I experienced. That was over seven hundred years from now." Keli's voice was pitched low but it carried to the corners of the room. "When I left Valdemar was locked in a bloody revolution and the root of all the blood shed is the war you don't even believe is coming."
"But no one has attacked." The speaker for the Guilds protested.
"He doesn't have to. He can make our country vanish piece by piece. These people are being sacrificed for blood magic purposes. I can even tell you his name, Hegrith. If we don't act fast he will become incredibly powerful. Imagine a mage as evil as Ancar with nearly unlimited power." Keli met each of their gazes.
All of them blanched.
"Now, you see why we must act without procrastinating?" Keli asked.
The Lord Martial stood, "Herald—Empress what can we do if he is that powerful?"
"Warn the other countries, start finding ways to keep him from taking more towns, start searching for him. Look at the Collegium, there are twenty new Chosen. You, Sir, are the expert in war. I will do all in my power to help but I do not have all the answers."
"Will you replace Selenay on the throne?" A Lord asked with concern.
"No." Keli glanced at Selenay. "The throne is no longer my place. I am a Monarch's Own and that is the position I will serve in."
This announcement brought an explosion of protests. Only Selenay, Talia, and Daren were aware of this plan.
Keli waited until the din quieted. "Can any of you actually think of any reason to protest this move?"
"We already have one." One of the councillors bleated.
"So why not two?" Keli asked. "There is more than one human could possibly do and still be the stable advisor the Monarch requires."
"It will change the balance of power!" Another cried.
"Think back to when Talimir died, there was over six years of power struggles that nearly tore Valdemar apart. By having two, one is always likely to be trained. We will rewrite the laws to apply a second Monarch's Own, as I won't be the last."
Selenay and Talia both nodded approvingly.
Keli smiled slightly, if she was going to stir up the council she may as well jump in with both feet.