Book 3, Chapter 32: One Last Tea
“Your Highness, what can I do for you today?” The wizard looked around my apartments, gaze roaming around the room. He was stiff. Like he was caught in someone else’s home. The guards had let him in, directed him to the visitor’s area, where we now were.
“Come with me, Wizard Etienne. Tea?” I picked up the tea from the counter, two cups, and headed down the long hallway to my private rooms.
“Yes, my lady. May I ask, why are we in your private rooms instead of your normal meeting halls?”
“I wish to have a private discussion with you.”
“Oh? Will you finally tell me how it is that you’ve invented new weaponry and new armor?”
“Not much to tell in that regard. Books, mainly. And lots and lots of thinking. Here,” I held the door open for him, trying to relax. Trying to appear relaxed. I’d rehearsed answers in my head, better prepared for such questions. “Any news on your investigation into these markings?” It had been a week since the coronation, and we were heading into winter. I’d hoped he had more answers, but that was not why I invited him here.
His brow furrowed. “None that I haven’t already shared with you.” He stopped just inside the door.
I passed him, going to the table by the main fireplace and setting down the teapot and cups. Red rug, dark brown sofa chairs, small table. Not unlike the guest hall at the entrance, but this was smaller, private, more intimate. Etienne looked at the library, then back at me.
He asked, “Not much to tell?”
“Yeah, not much.” I poured him a cup, myself as well, and he stood until I sat down, opposite each other. I was nervous. He could decide to kill me in the next few minutes. “Etienne, I need your help.”
“Anything, my lady.”
“Anything?”
“You have my word. To the best of my ability, whatever I can do for you. What is it I can help you with?”
“Before I ask, I’m curious, with the grand magister gone and likely not returning, should you be given that rank?”
“As a gesture, perhaps. But I am hardly the wizard Tye is. His powers,” Etienne stared into the fire, “are far and above what I’m capable of.”
“Just magister then? Not so grand?”
He smiled, “Perhaps ‘head wizard’ or ‘master wizard,’ if you intend to elevate me to leadership over your mages, my lady. Surely this isn’t the reason you brought me to your private quarters.”
I set my tea down. Ripples spread across the liquid. My hand trembled. “No. This is the reason.” Taking off my ring, my bracelet, blue flame lit up my hand, dancing up and down my arm.
He quickly sat straight, alert, eyes wide open. “How long? Since the scarring?”
“That very night.”
“You’ve kept this hidden well.”
“Only the iron, the perseidian iron. Without that, I’d be lost.”
“You want me to . . . train you in magic?” His eyes narrowing, staring into mine.
“I want you to shut it off. Or teach me how to control its energies. They’re too much for me. I’m like a power plant in full meltdown.”
“A power plant?” He cocked his head.
“I produce energy constantly. Only the iron keeps it down.” I walked over to the window, opened it, blasted into the sky. The energy lessened slightly. “I have to do this . . . from time to time.” I slipped the bracelet back on, the ring, the energy subsided. “Can you help me, Etienne?”
“Princess Cayce . . . it is forbidden for a ruler-”
“So, you will kill me?” Tensing, I wanted to step back into a fighting stance, but I fought that. I didn’t want him thinking I was violent. But what would I do if he tried? He knew I was violent. I’d already killed mages. Four.
He stood. “I must think on this.” Then he sat down again. Fingers tapping on the wooden table.
I walked over to him, knelt at his chair, resting my hands on his knees. Looking up into his eyes, the same color as mine.
He spoke in a low voice, “They’ll come for you. The grand magister must know. That must be why he left. To learn about your scars. Not to help you control these powers, Princess, but to destroy you. And believe me, he will figure it out and return.”
“Before you leave, I need you to see something.”
I rose, stepped back from him, taking off my rings on both hands, bracelets, necklace, earrings, then bending down to get the anklets. My body lit up in dark blues and indigos, lavender streaming out my eyes. A vortex of dark colors shifting around my body.
“Princess Cayce . . .”
I backed up more, sat down on the rug. In my mind’s eye, walking on the beach. The crunching of sand beneath my feet, crashing of waves against the shore. I could smell the salt. Wind fluttering through my hair.
“Unimaginable.” I heard him moving. “Open your eyes.”
I did. The energy was calm as it flowed around me, like gentle liquid. Etienne was sitting in front of me, cross legged as I was, hands on his knees, palms up.
“Look at me, but focus beyond, through me, off into the distance, past the wall, into the horizon afar.”
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