Page 41 of Bright Blinding Ruin

The room around me shifts and changes, becoming blurry for a few moments before throwing me into another memory. I’m in a different room in the castle, a room littered with toys. The entire left side of the room is lined with tall windows, and the sun shines through it.

Frederick must be a year or two years old, not old enough to really play on his own. He’s not alone, though. Krotas sits in a rocking chair, holding him on her lap. She has some kind of toy in her hands, which Frederick is keeping occupied with. Some wooden animal whose neck moves when you pull down on the tail.

Krotas acts enthralled with Frederick, totally unaware that someone else has walked into the room with them: Fred. He hurries over to their side and bows his head as he says, “My lady, you wanted to see me right away?”

“Yes,” Krotas says as she sets the toy down and hands Frederick to his father. “As you are my closest friend and advisor, there is something you should know.” She holds her hands behind her back as she wanders to the closest window, and she closes her eyes the second the sun hits her skin. “Our work together on the portals… I have been experimenting on my own.”

“My lady…”

“I am old, Frederick. I have seen things, done things, which you cannot imagine.” She opens her eyes and turns back to Fred, her mouth tugging into a smile. “I found another world. It is so unlike our own. The things they have, what they can do—there is no magic, but at the same time, there is so much of it.”

Fred sets his son down and moves closer to Krotas. His voice comes out quiet when he says, “I don’t understand.”

“It is full of wonders, Frederick. I should take you there one day, if you’re willing. They have these… metal creatures that are like horses, and tiny things they talk into. The buildings, the clothing—it’s all so very different from Laconia.”

“How many times have you visited this… other world?” When Krotas only smiles, Fred says hurriedly, “My lady, it is not safe. What if this other world figures out what you are? What if they trap you somehow? You must think of your people—”

“You don’t understand, Frederick. There, I am not an empress. I am not Krotas. I am simply a person.” She chuckles softly and shakes her head, as if she’s stuck in a state of disbelief. “I… I met a man there. He stopped me from walking out in front of one of their metal horses. He bought me what they call coffee afterward—a disgusting drink, but he wants to see me again.”

Fred looks on as Krotas whispers to herself, “And I think I might like that, too.” To Fred, she says, “He has the kindest smile I’ve ever seen. And his laugh… I could feel it in my soul. You would like him.”

My head spins with what I’ve learned. Krotas could portal. She portaled into another world—my world, it sounds like—and based on the way she’s talking about this guy, she likes him a lot.

I blink, and everything changes around me once again. I’m suddenly standing in a war room of sorts. In the center of the room lies a table with a giant map of Laconia etched into it. Armored men and women stand around the table, all of their attention on Krotas at the head of it. Fred stands in the back, and I recognize his wife as one of the soldiers.

Or generals? I don’t know.

“My sisters and I will meet on the southern hills of Pylos. There, we will do what needs to be done. If we are not successful in our endeavor…” Krotas leans on the table before her, her armored hands flat on the wooden surface. “You must evacuate every village near the castle. Work your way to the main city. We’ve seen the blight and the plague centralize near each castle; hopefully moving everyone to inner Laconia will be enough. Start the preparations now.”

No one moves, and that causes Krotas’s anger to flare. “What are you waiting for? Go, now!”

With that shout, the soldiers leap into action. They file out of the room one by one—all of them except Fred, who waits until they’re alone before he speaks, “My lady, are you certain this course of action is wise? I’ve found no research on these woes—”He doesn’t bring up Invictis, which tells me, perhaps, he doesn’t know about the golden bastard yet.

Krotas glances to the war room’s door. It’s closed; the conversation they are about to have will be a private one. “That’s because there is no research, Frederick. There is only what hasbeen passed down from empress to empress. Memories so old they’re no longer clear. My sisters and I must act, for if we do not… Laconia will surely fall.”

Here, she wears flowing robes, and she reaches inside, to what must be a pocket, and she pulls out a crystal. A soul gem, one of three. She sets it on the table before her, her eyes on the bluish stone.

“My lady,” Frederick whispers as he rounds the table, stopping only when he stands beside her. “You are in no position to wage war against something we do not yet understand, not when you are—”

“I am the empress of Magnysia,” Krotas states as she bares her teeth. “It is always my position to fight and wage war when my kingdom is at stake!” Her shoulders rise and fall with emotion, and she takes a few moments to calm herself down.

Fred bows his head. “My apologies. I am with you until the end, my lady.”

“Good.” She pushes off the table and stalks out of the room, and the next thing I know, I’m standing in a field of green, on a hillside surrounded by the three empresses: Krotas, Gladus, and Morimento.

Seeing them stand side by side, in the bright light of day, is enough to give me chills. I can feel their determination, their will to defeat Invictis strong. They each wear their armor—except Krotas, who still wears that robe with nothing but gauntlets and shoulder pads.

It’s like moving pictures in front of me, everything crystal clear and sharp. Invictis appears in one picture, floating above their heads and shining so brightly he’s hard to look at, his wings spread wide enough to block out the sun. The next image is the empresses revealing their crystals, the soul gems. Then the gems are floating above their heads as they chant in unison.

Their will, their strength, is enough to divide Invictis and separate him for what they hope is for good. But that hope dies when they return to their castles with their piece of Invictis.

The blight doesn’t go away, neither does the plague. The scourge upon the land becomes more frequent as Invictis lets the kingdom know how angry he is. His madness seeps into the empresses one by one, even after they lock themselves in their castles in an effort to try to protect their subjects.

I’m thrown into another memory. Back in the war room, with Krotas and Fred. The necklace I now wear with three small vials full of aether sits atop the etched map, near Fred, who is slow to take it, dangling its emptiness between them.

“I am sorry I kept you here for so long, Frederick,” Krotas says. “You must take your family and go. Get them situated in Laconia, and then… then you must travel to my sisters.” She lifts a hand to her head, like she’s fighting a headache.

But I know it’s not a headache. It’s Invictis.

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