Never Be the Brightest Person in the Room

Sigrid and Alexandros set me down before a pair of large double doors, flanked by yet more guards who looked warily at me but nodded in greeting to my friends. They didn't stop Sigrid and Alexandros from opening the doors, revealing a grand meeting room with gilded portraits on the walls and crystal chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. A long wooden table was crowded with important-looking officials in richly embroidered robes, who turned their heads to look at me. Among them was Captain Pritchard and Master Finnegan. At the head of the table was a man, heavily tanned with a short dark hair and beard, wearing a simple golden circlet inlaid with rubies. His plain white tunic seemed out of place in all the luxury surrounding him.

I knew if I hesitated even a moment, I would lose my nerve, so I marched in and got straight to the point.

"Are you aware that a wave of celestial magic from the sun is going to hit the planet?"

The room erupted in murmurs. The man wearing the circlet, presumably the king, held up his hand. Instantly there was silence.

“Sigrid, Alexandros, I assume that this is your friend who was kidnapped?”

Sigrid and Alexandros stepped up on either side of me. Guards inside the room closed the doors behind us.

Sigrid bowed her head respectfully, and spoke. "Yes, this is our friend Wish. Turns out she's the spirit that hit the mana repulsion dome."

Alexandros stepped forward. "We heard her down the hallway as we came to interrogate her. She was telling the guards about her captors. Rather than waste time, I thought it best if you all heard her story straight from her mouth, and asked her any questions we might not think of."

I noted his use of “I”; he was trying to take the blame if the king disapproved of this decision. I thought I heard a tiny huff of annoyance from Sigrid.

The king addressed me directly. "I do want to hear your story, but my mages tell me that this wave of celestial magic will hit tonight. We have taken precautionary measures, but if you have any additional knowledge on the matter, I think we ought to hear it now."

I gulped nervously. Once again, I wondered if maybe things were fine. Once again, I decided I shouldn't risk lives on a "maybe".

“You will have to pardon my limited knowledge of magic," I glanced at Master Finnigan, who gave me an encouraging nod, "But as best I understand, if this wave of celestial magic is small, it will only result in auroras. But if it is strong enough, it will affect any magical devices and any systems that rely on those devices. You said you have taken precautionary measures, and you have that mana repulsion dome up, so maybe this city will be fine. Um, do other towns have similar shields and precautions?"

An elderly official who looked ancient enough to keel over any second spoke up in a frail voice.

"No, though we have tried to send out warnings to all towns and villages. The villages don't rely as heavily on magic, they will probably be fine. The towns rely on magic more, but also have the means to at least partially prepare. We also told the villages and towns to warn any peaceful nearby spirits, because we don't know how it will affect them, nor how it will affect celestial beasts for that matter."

I was feeling more useless by the second. "Then...it sounds like you're doing everything you can already."

Captain Pritchard cleared his throat. "Since we've prepared as best we can for one problem, perhaps we should focus on the other; this group of dragon spirits are an unprecedented kind of hostile spirits. We've never had an organized band before."

My mouth went dry. "Did they hurt anyone else? They threatened the whole village if I didn't go with them. Sargas didn't even-" Orion's still body flashed through my mind, and I had to fight to finish my sentence "-didn't even tell me to come with him until after he had killed Orion."

Immediately Sigrid moved in front of me, placing both of her hands on my shoulders. Her gaze burned into me.

"Orion's not dead. Not yet. He's alive but in very bad shape. He's here in the city for treatment, because he's on the edge of becoming a spirit himself."

I couldn't hold her gaze. I looked down at the floor. I should have been happy, right? Why did I feel a buzzing blankness instead? My horror over his death had made sense; this absence of joy did not.

I heard the king's voice behind Sigrid.

"Wish, do you need to go see your friend before telling us your story? I will say, if you can bear it, we do need to know if others are in danger of being hurt as Orion was."

Still looking at the floor, I shook my head slightly. "No, I-I can do it."

Silently, Sigrid moved back to my side. Both she and Alexandros moved closer to me and placed a hand each on my shoulders; presumably to brace and encourage me. But I still felt nothing.

I do not clearly remember telling my story, nor the reactions of the officials; I had my eyes on the ground for the rest of my time in that room.