Page 76 of The Shadowed Oracle
The eyes of the small group of advisors glistened at that. Standing so close to the king, they were hard to miss, but once Ingrid noticed their animated scowls, she continued to watch them closely. If anyone could provide an insight as to what the grief-stricken king might want in return for helping them, it was these males before her.
They were older, pale and thin due to a lifetime dedicated to intellect and politics. Each standing slightly hunched over, weighed down by the thick robes and jewelry they wore about their necks.
“We hoped that you’d fight alongside us,” Tyla spoke up finally. She’d already lost some of the luster to her appeal, but it also gave her an unassuming, genuine tone. “That was our wish. Maybe a foolish one, but, as you can imagine, we are desperate.”
“Desperate?” The king’s posture faltered. He was of considerable size, but appeared small in the large golden throne, further dwarfed by the massive wall of portrait paintings behind him. The faces of old kings and queens hung in elegantly engraved frames, posed in that very same chair Nestor now sat in.
Nestor turned to Callinora. “Daughter, will you kindly inform your guests who the last person to come to me in desperation was? Will you tell them how I loathe that word? Why I…” The king trailed off, voice turning weak.
Callinora lowered her head, anxiously stroking at a large ring on her index finger. “Mother,” she said. “She was the last to come to you in desperation.”
“My wife,” Nestor added. “She was desperate, yes… yes. Desperate to save her precious forest. Her firsttrue love.” He spoke as if he were alone, talking to himself. “It was a bond! Abond like no other. Agrokinesis, she called it. A soil-bender. My sweet lady of the flower. She’d spend hours in the forest just outside our walls. Hours! Aggravated her mother and father to no end. When she was a child, of course. Yes, yes. When she was just a child. Supposed to be educating herself on history, language, swordsmanship, but no. No. She would go to the woods. Practice that hidden talent of hers in private. She didn’t tell anyone of her powers, not for many years. She didn’t see a motive in revealing them. She told no one! No, no. It was between her and the forest, that’s what she’d told me. A bond like no other. My lady of the flower.”
Nestor strained at the last words. He dug his elbows between his thighs, hands meeting the contours of his face.
“Father?” Callinora said. “Father, are you?—”
“I’m alright.” The king peered over his fingers with watery eyes. “As able as can be expected.”
“You don’t have to continue,” Callinora said softly. “Not withthisstory, father. Please. Don’t torture yourself. Not with this. Not now.”
Ingrid didn’t need to hear more. All breath escaped her involuntarily, and she buckled slightly at the knees. Nestor’s son,andhis wife. They’d been lost in this war.
“You need sleep,” Callinora begged. She looked to his advisors for aid, but got none. They had an odd, glossed-over look to their eyes, staring back at the Princess like she was a ghost. “You don’t have to continue.”
The king raised his head, struck by a brief moment of lucidity. “I’m afraid I’ve been rather distant since my wife passed. These last few months, I’ve neglected my duties. Delegated to my children. But not now. Not in front of friends of Karis.”
Something in his voice had smoothed out, become less unpredictable. With this change, the vast room seemed to light up, showing signs of the leader he once was, or still could be.
“We hadn’t heard news of your wife,” Tyla said. “I’m very sorry.”
“No one knew,” King Nestor wiped the tears from his cheeks. “It was a secret. Between her and the forest. Just like when she was a girl. With her back to the soil.”
Princess Callinora stepped forward, reaching a consoling hand out to her father. “She went out early one morning, but didn’t come back. The Ungii attacked her. As father grieved, my brother and I decided to send our scout legion to map out the infected areas in the south. Before they could report, however, they were cut down by Makkar’s army. Butchered and placed at our gate like waste. It was then that we decided to fight.”
One of the advisors couldn’t help but grunt in disapproval.
Callinora shot a glare at him.
Then, as if waking from a nightmare, King Nestor jerked upward. “I… I... I should’ve stopped it. Should’ve held court as scheduled.” He appeared utterly detached again. The mourning banners that had been hung along the ceiling of the throne room now seemed like rain clouds over him. “I failed them. I failed my son.”
“He rode out without consulting us,” Callinora cut in again. “A few men and women in the scout legion were like family to him. He rode for revenge, not tact. A mistake we won’t make again.”
Sensing the momentum shift, Tyla tried to reiterate her plan in a new way. “You won’t find a group more sympathetic than us, Princess. Our faction is entirely made up of people wronged by Makkar. People who will gladly aid you in your time of need. Please, let us join you.” She contemplated her next words carefully. “Let us come through your portal and fight.”
Audible gasps from the small audience of advisors echoed in the capacious hall. King Nestor snapped to attention, wringing his hands while the elders nearby pleaded with him to end the meeting. One counselor in particular, his stringy blonde hair swinging as he spoke, was listing off all the reasons not to trust Earth-dwellers.
“They’ve been away from Ealis for too long. Irreversibly influenced by humanity’s careless practices. How can we know they don’t aim for our land?”
“I understand,” Callinora gently argued. “But Ballius, other than the rhetoric that a certain King in the west would like us all to believe, what reason would you have to think they are telling the truth?”
Ballius didn’t answer, only tucked his hands behind his back and looked on like a pouty child as the princess spoke.
“Forgive me, father, but didn’t Karis himself spend many years on Earth? One of your oldest friends. He spent decades on the other side, no?”
With a huff, the king replied, “We all heard news of his efforts there. Finding lost Viator and adopting them into his cause. Can’t say I agree with it, but Karis always marched to a different beat.”
Ballius nodded and offered compliments to the king for his eloquent words. “Agreed. Karis might’ve been a friend. But he was hardly an ally.”
