Chapter 312: Changing Fortunes

The blue moon shone brightly as we hurried down the Spire. We felt safer after passing through the misty lightning clouds. I held Mynasha’s hand and guided us with earth speak. Once we cleared the clouds, it grew much darker, the clouds obscuring the moon’s light.

Mynasha kept glancing up as if she feared the Titans might change their minds about letting us go. After we climbed over the rubble of an old guard post, she asked seriously, “You’re not from Desia. Are you an outlander?”

“We called them otherworlders in Telha. Besides, I think outlander is copyrighted,” I said dismissively. I was distracted, angry, and trying to figure out a way to keep my secrets. Although, outside of Telha, my secrets mattered less.

“Copyrighted?” Mynasha asked, confused at the word.

“What?” I said, preoccupied. My mind was a jumble of thoughts. Maybe the Titans had fished around and scrambled my brain a bit, as it was difficult to focus. I shook my head, trying to clear it. “Never mind. If you believe Khrusos, you are one as well, but not from where I came from.” I paused in thought. “At least not from the same time as me. You aren’t a murloc, are you?”

“A murloc?” The war cleric tried another unfamiliar word on her tongue. She was still in some shock herself. The Titans were essentially powerful enough to be considered gods, and thought of themselves as such.

I waved my hand, revealing the truth. “Forget it. It was a bad joke. Otherworlders from my planet, Earth, founded the Telhian Empire two thousand years ago. I was pulled here two years ago. Otherworlders have stronger affinities when they arrive, allowing them to become powerful quickly. In the Telhian Empire, they are hunted to prevent them from threatening the First Citizens’ rule.” I started walking again, thinking the best place to ambush the other clerics would be at the base of the Spire. They would be tired and unsuspecting.

“Stop!” Mynasha spat, exasperated. “I am not an otherworlder!”

I sighed and turned to her. I had felt violated and humbled by the storm giants. I lost a lot for her Trial, and so far, I haven't gained anything except promises that depended on whether she was raised to lead the Caliphate.

I bit down on my anger. “I don’t know if you are or not. Do you remember anything before you were adopted as an infant? Otherworlders arrive in groups.” She gave me a blank stare, clearly unable to recall her early years. I sighed. “Well, your ability to pull aether from ley lines means you have a strong affinity for convergence. How many other rare affinities are you strong in?”

We stared at each other for long moments in the dark. “You have a strong affinity for space?” she finally asked. I nodded slowly. It was obvious after my dimensional space had vomited out everything I had secreted away over the last two years. She exhaled and spoke. “Of the rare magics, I have strong affinities for convergence and worlds. I have some affinity although weaker in the other rare magics,” she admitted. I gave her an I told you so look, which she may not have been able to see in the dark. Orc dark vision was not as good as my aether sight.

“Are there other otherworlders in the Caliphate?” I asked hopefully. It was a mystery I had been too busy to investigate. But there had to be others. Maybe others from Earth. I had feared looking too hard would draw attention to me and reveal my origins.

Mynasha looked to be slowly accepting the truth of it. “Glasha would know better than I. I recall that about forty years ago, there were some elves, but it is said that the Supreme ransomed them to Esenhem. I was not alive, so I don’t know any details, but Glasha would,” she responded numbly.

Knowing how powerful otherworlders were, I had my doubts that they were ransomed. Giving your rival neighbor powerful mages didn’t seem wise. “From what I know and from what the Titans just confirmed, otherworlders come from multiple other worlds. My planet was Earth,” I reiterated. I looked up nervously, but I hadn’t felt anyone scrying us. “Let’s get down to the base of the mountain in case the Titans change their minds about letting us go.”

In the dark, we made good time, but the effort was draining. We didn’t have any water, as my stock was all left on the audience chamber floor. I was dehydrated and my mouth was gummy. The ring of sustenance still required me to drink, and I had been sweating profusely. Mynasha was feeling it too, and she stumbled in relief at finally seeing the towers that flanked the base of the Spire. Sunrise was not far off, and I stopped looking for a way to climb the tower.

“Why are we stopping?” Mynasha asked with a cracked voice.

I wasn’t sure if I should tell her my plan. “Go to town and ride back with your prize. I will wait here for the others.” I could see the confusion on her face slowly crystallize to realization.

“You are planning to kill them.” She didn’t seem upset. She was just stating the facts. “That is not honorable and would cause me to forfeit as a candidate.”

“I cannot let them know about my powers,” I said firmly.

In the darkness, I could see the incredulous look on her face. “Powers? You mean your dimensional pocket? You think you are special?”

I felt that was unfair, given how much I had supported her through the Trials. “Yes.”

“You are not. There are a dozen clerics with pocket spaces,” she said.

“As big as mine and capable of storing living beings?” I retorted. I could see her suddenly recalling the griffin. My dimensional space had only been about two-thirds full when Khrusos had torn it open, but even at that level, it demonstrated the immense space affinity I possessed. They would probably figure out I had stolen the pixie. I made a mental note to find out how Khrusos had managed to force open my space.

Mynasha was still processing. I gave her time as I looked for a way to climb up the tower. She drew my attention when she spoke. “No. I believe yours is bigger. But it is just one spell form and not a threat to the Caliphate.” Oh, how little this one knew.

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“There are many more powerful mages than you. There are clerics that can change the weather and bring a blizzard at the height of summer. Clerics who can summon a Kraken to sink a fleet. Clerics who can bring the dead back to life. Your own Emperor was the most feared void mage in a millennium. I can call down lightning to destroy cities from a mile away.”

My opinion of her decreased. I didn’t think she was connecting the dots that I could store people—and parts of people. “Still, I plan to wait for them.” I turned and quickly climbed up thirty feet to a ledge with an entrance to the empty tower. Mynasha, surprisingly, climbed up after me. I looked at her questioningly.

She looked a little smug about my surprise as she sat on a large stone in the tower across from me. “I will wait with you. I owe you too much honor, so if this is the path we must walk, I will stand with you as you stood with me. Do you have anything to eat?” she asked, arching an eyebrow.

I was a little shocked that she chose to stay with me and was setting aside her quest to become the leader of her people. I fished around in my belt pouches and found a number of potions, coins, and pellets that I already knew were there. In one pouch, I discovered a small pile of apples—just five that I had made easily accessible for Ginger and forgotten about. I handed her one and ate one myself. Ginger would be very upset that I only had three apples remaining.

The shadow of the Spire was cast on the landscape by the rising sun. As it moved in front of us, we waited for the fate of the other candidates. After a few hours, all but one of the apples were gone, and Mynasha had fallen into an exhausted sleep. Many things that Khrusos had said were playing through my head.

In my first few months on Desia, I longed to return to Earth. After Macha, that yearning had slowly subsided, and I had accepted my fate. Deep down, I had always believed there would be a way to return.

My life here was definitely more exciting, and I was someone important. Well, relatively speaking. At least to my friends. Yes, I was happy with my life here, but maybe one day I would search for others from Earth. Perhaps I could send a message to my family on Earth to let them know I was alive and doing well. It was probably a fanciful thought.

Around midday, Mynasha’s stomach growled in protest, causing her to wake. She moved to empty her bowels in the far corner of the tower. She wasn’t shy about it at all, talking while she did so. “What if they don’t come down?”

“What?” I hadn’t considered that. How long would we wait? “We will wait till sundown.”

“We don’t have food. We could return to the town and come back,” she offered, returning to me at the ledge. “We can tell Woolasha we don’t have an artifact yet.”

My mind went to another possibility. “What if you are the only one to return? Will you become the Supreme?” I asked, thinking that if I killed the others without Mynasha knowing, perhaps her ignorance would allow her to take the seat.

“The Elders will divine the fate of the others,” she answered, reading my unspoken thoughts. “Your deeds will be seen as mine.”

Magic was always the wildcard factor. I made a decision. “Let’s return to Becar.” Mynasha looked surprised, so I explained, “The best way forward is for you to become the Supreme. I will leave the Caliphate with my companions and the goliaths before anything can come of it if you become the Supreme.”

“If that is what you want,” she said, but I could tell she was relieved. We scrambled down the rocks, and she gasped when she thought I had jumped the last ten feet. Instead, I used air discs to create steps for a quicker descent. We were soon walking on the rocky terrain back to the town.

“What is your world like? Is it different from Desia?” Mynasha asked with curiosity.

I slowed a little. I hadn’t talked to anyone about Earth in all my time on Desia. “There is no magic, but technology that is far superior to what mages can do with spells. There are a lot more people, too. We have myths of the Titans and some of the creatures on Desia. Somewhere in the past, people from Desia must have traveled to Earth.”

We walked in silence for a while. Mynasha was deep in thought as the town came into view. A few black sheep trotted over to greet us. Mynasha shared her troubled thoughts with me. “If I am not from Desia, I wonder what the planet I came from is like. Do I have family there? Would my life have been different if I had never been brought here?” I finally understood why she had been willing to give up the Supreme’s seat. She was questioning everything. I was not the best person to give her guidance, so I remained silent.

We reached the town, and Cleric Woolasha greeted us while others from the town looked on. “You were the last to leave, but are the first to return! Did you meet with success?”

Mynasha appeared impassive. “The Titans were challenging to deal with, but my First bartered for an artifact.”

Woolasha’s eyes lit up and his face bore a tusky smile. “That is fabulous. I can send word to Glasha that you are returning! I will let her know if anyone follows you. Your mounts have been well cared for and will be saddled shortly.” As if they had been summoned, two young boys came forward, leading the gray and Ginger. Ginger was excited but restrained herself from dragging the young orc to greet me. It was nice that she had been worried.

Ginger’s head pushed into me for attention and an apple. Maybe she wasn’t worried about me, but her supply of apples. I didn’t have the heart to tell her I only had one left. I didn’t even have any grain to supplement her diet of grass. As she munched on the very last dungeon apple, we mounted and turned to the road.

I took one last look at the Spire in the distance, the peak hidden behind the lightning clouds, and couldn’t help but wonder what was happening up there.

We didn’t rush back to Becar, but maintained a safe pace for the horses. My conversations with Mynasha mostly entailed answering her questions about Earth. Reflecting on my old home was starting to make me feel homesick. I wondered what my parents and sisters thought when I disappeared. Did they try and find me?

Glasha and Tarnasha met us at the guard post when we arrived at the entrance to the Elders’ valley. Glasha was finely dressed and grinning at us. Both looked like they had been waiting for some time. Glasha practically shouted, “You found success and are the first to return!”

“Is there any word of the others?” Mynasha asked, sliding out of her saddle. Her legs were unsteady, and Glasha moved to heal her.

“Fioasha is dead,” Glasha said, sounding unremorseful. “Cleric Jhuarkasha and Warlord Rhuuk left Rosenrock two days after you. They also were successful in obtaining an artifact from the Titans.” I didn’t like hearing that Rhuuk still lived. When we had stood in judgment before the Titans, there was something in his eyes that had worried me, a predatory intelligence.

Tarnasha was delighted as well. “The Elders are fighting among themselves about what to do now that Fioasha is no longer a viable candidate. We don’t believe Jhuarkasha currently has enough support among the Elders to be named Supreme.”

“Neither does Mynasha. But our position is tenable, and the Elders will have to announce the final Trial when Jhuarkasha returns,” Glasha added optimistically.

When we reached our longhouse, I was stunned. A dozen orcs and a few human slaves were inside, along with furniture and crates of supplies. Glasha was a bit smug. “Some of the warlords are hedging their bets in case Mynasha becomes the next Supreme. Over a dozen wish to take a meal with her or seek an audience for advice.”

Mynasha’s jaw was slack at how quickly her fortune had turned. My mind processed what was missing. “Where is Maveith?”

“Ah, yes. Our goliath friend got into a little bit of trouble,” Tarnasha said with a bit of wariness.

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