A Royal Welcome

Maybe they already knew, I thought as I flew towards the city. Maybe they too could sense the celestial mana shooting out from the sun. I could certainly feel it, now that I knew how to stretch my senses that far. Maybe they knew how to shield their devices, maybe the amount of mana wasn't so bad, maybe Meissa had meant something else by “act quickly”, maybe Meissa was flat-out wrong, maybe, maybe, maybe.

But I didn't dare bet lives on a "maybe". I knew from late nights of astronomy-focused web surfing in my old life that coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, were explosive waves of radiation and plasma caused by severe disruptions to the electromagnetic field of the sun; exactly what Dschubba had accomplished by shooting me into it. Although mild CMEs only resulted in pretty auroras, especially severe ones could mess with or even take down communication and power systems. I wasn't sure how big this one was, or how sensitive any of the systems in this world were. If this CME affected hospitals, lives could be lost.

As I sped through the sky, I saw another grouping of mountains even further south than the city, much smaller and cozier than the craggy peaks I was flying away from. The mountains around Haven? I wanted desperately to go and make sure Sargas had not razed the village on a whim. I shook my head and refocused on the city. One thing at a time.

Almost as soon as I passed over the city's massive cream-colored brick walls, I ran into an invisible dome of mana at full speed. It felt like crashing into a wall of sandpaper. The wind was knocked out of me, otherwise I would have screamed as I rolled down the slope, feeling it scrape painfully against my aura. The disorienting tumble felt like it lasted forever. There was a blessedly painless free fall as I went over the edge of the wall, then a significantly less painless landing on the grassy ground. I didn't stop to question why I hadn’t been knocked out by the impact. I got up and stumbled towards a nearby gate. Judging by the startled looks on their faces, the guards there had seen me fall. Well, at least I had their attention. As soon as I was within shouting distance, I gasped out, "Celestial magic coming, lots of it, I don't know who I need to talk to, but I need to talk to someone!"

I barely had time to wonder why the guards were warily backing away from me before a net made of fine chains spat out from a slit in the wall above the gate, hitting me square in the chest and completely wrapping around me. Knocked off-balance, I went down. A sickening sensation similar to the one I had experienced while in Dschubba's cage washed over me, and I noticed pendants with runes all over the net. 

I grumbled into the dirt as the guards approached. “Meissa, I blame you for this.”

I thought I heard a distant chuckle as the guards dragged me into the city.

                                                  ~~~~~~~<><><>*<><><>~~~~~~~

“-and I don’t know the name of the lady who was cutting the throats of the dragons, but I think she had claws or something, and I’m pretty sure they were trying to use those crystals from the dragons to power their device, but they figured I would make a better power source instead, and-“

I babbled on as the guards carted me through winding dungeon hallways in, humiliatingly, a wheelbarrow. I could see how it was a practical way to transport a person bundled in chains, but I still felt ridiculous, like groceries in a shopping cart. A familiar voice cut through my frantic ramblings.

“Wish? Is that you?”

I tried to twist myself around to see. “Sigrid?” 

Another voice chimed in. “It’s okay sirs, she’s with us.”

I managed to sit myself up, half-leaning over the edge of the wheelbarrow. “Alexandros!”

In my excitement, I fell out of the wheelbarrow and landed awkwardly, mostly on my back but with my legs still propped up on the wheelbarrow, feet pointed at the ceiling. I craned my neck back to look at my friends and beamed at a seemingly upside-down Alexandros and Sigrid, who burst out laughing at the sight of me. I joined in. It wasn’t that funny, but I think we laughed so hard because we were happy to see each other.

Once we had all calmed down, I asked, “What are you doing here?”

Alexandros replied as he helped me to my feet. “Actually, we’re here to interrogate you.”

“What?”

“It’s true,” Sigrid said, untangling me from the net with the help of the guards. “Captain Prichard recommended the king have us help with interrogating suspicious spirits because of my Heartsight and Alexandros’s Soulsight.”

“Wouldn’t have needed it,” muttered one of the guards. “She wouldn’t shut up.”

Arms free at last, I grabbed both of them in a hug. Without letting go, I looked up at Alexandros. “What’s Soulsight?”

He smiled mischievously at Sigrid, and I yelped as they suddenly they swept me up in a seat carry and strode down the hall, guards following in our wake. Alexandros casually answered my question as if nothing had happened.

“Sigrid’s Heartsight lets her see how people feel about things, whereas my Soulsight lets me see their motivations. Both useful for interrogations.”

The memory of my sister in the rain flashed through my mind. My stomach lurched. Dschubba’s words rang through my head

“They all wanted to destroy their old life."

“What motivates me?” I murmured.

At my sudden shift in mood, Sigrid and Alexandros glanced at me with identical expressions of questioning concern. Alexandros thought for a moment before replying.

“Everyone is motivated by fears and desires, good and bad. Things they want to get away from, things they want to work towards.”

My silence must have conveyed my dissatisfaction with this answer, for he continued.

“You, like many people, are motivated by a desire to simply feel better. Better than what, I don’t know, I can’t see your past. You also want justice, or perhaps validation, but it’s mixed up with vengeance. Again, very normal. As long as you choose to follow your desire to do and be better, I think those bad desires can be useful in their own way. I know my bad desires keep me humble.”

The three of us stiffened as one of the guards whispered loudly to the others, “Should we be listening to this? Sounds kinda private.”

I grasped for something, anything to change the subject.

“Um, where are we going now?”

Alexandros smiled. “I think it’s only right that we introduce our Queen of the Night to the king.”