AO 7 Ch 34

"It's a beautiful day, isn't it?" I sang, as Augustus and several other heirs of the Zenov family took their seats.

They all bore similar traits: jet black hair, piercing blue eyes, and a tall, straight posture. I wasn't sure if their noble upbringing was the cause of their thinness, or if it was simply a blessed family trait. Regardless, they had come just prior to lunch, and I was prepared to deliver.

The fact that Eva's suite included a full-size dining room was beyond ridiculous, yet I was not about to disparage my wife's fantastic setup.

“Pleasure. It’s Ard, right?” Augustus held out a hand. The man seemed scholarly and not necessarily in a mage sort of way. He just smelt like old tomes and had tired eyes from reading too much.

“It is. Do I call you Mage Zenov, Prince Zenov?” I glanced at the group and wondered how they’d know which one I was talking to.

"We address each other respectfully by our names because otherwise we're all Mage Zenov," he said, sharing some sort of inside joke amongst the palace.

Them all being called the same name would certainly get confusing.

I had a few jokes I wanted to turn to Emlyn to crack, but I held back, wishing that they understood the effort it took to not overwhelm them all with my hilarity.

"Yes, well, pleasantries aside, I think I must agree with your urgency. Someone is clearly playing foul. The sooner we get to the bottom of what is happening, the sooner we can all rest easy and continue on with whatever it is we desire," I said, gesturing at Augustus. "And in your case, what exactly would that be?"

"Outside of being a prince and a passable mage, I am a philosopher," Augustus stuck his nose in the air.

Called it.

"Oh, so you wax and wane whimsically on the natures of the world, yeah?" I offered.

"I wouldn't put it quite like that," Augustus winced. The man was painfully obvious with his expressions, he clearly didn’t play much Keeps and Mages.

"But it's accurate, no?” I tilted my head.

“It's accurate in the way of saying that a dog, like a cat, is an animal. But philosophers do far more than wax and wane. We research and we study the world, understanding the trends and the nature of things, so that we may predict what will happen next." Augustus told me. “It is important to know what’s likely to happen so that you may prevent the worst case scenario.”

"Oh," I said, pretending to be interested. "Then, if you're such a practiced and skilled philosopher, what happens next?" I lean forward on my hands, only for Eva to smack me. 

"Don't be an ass, Ard." Eva told me.

“Ah, Cousin Eva.” Augustus smiled at her. “I wondered who kept him in line.” 

Eva let out a humorous laugh. "Don't give me all the credit. It is an unfortunate joint effort." She gestured around at my anchors and goddesses. 

"So many?" Augustus asked as his eyes scanned my group, judgment in his tone. 

The Queen had over two dozen," Eva said sharply and glanced at two of the women behind Augustus.

The group behind him was interesting because I couldn’t tell who were the royals, anchors or just hanger ons. They were all dressed well with dark hair. One woman in particular caught my eye, not because she was beautiful, but because something tickled at the back of my brain. She saw me and gave a little finger wave before pointedly ignoring me and focusing on Augustus who was holding up his hands in surrender.

"I was never one to judge. I just find it hard to believe, given the circumstances I'm so used to," Augustus huffed. "But half the reason we are in this problem is because my mother was too promiscuous. Over the years, she simply sired too many children. And because of it, there was always bound to be conflict amongst us. In fact, I would simply call this current spat over the throne to be the latest of an ever-rising number of conflicts. It is the circumstance of our birth and the amount of competition that she fostered for the throne, even if, according to Gabriella, she grew soft in her final days."

"Uh-huh, uh-huh," I nodded along. "And so, Augustus, if you are to become king…"

He held up a hand. "I will not become king. I will turn Zenovia into a council of heirs. I agree that the royal family has been raised with the disposition and the training to take care of the kingdom, thus it falls to us to deal with managing the kingdom. However, nine heads are better than one." He nodded at me in a way that indicated he felt I would readily agree with him.

Though I had learned in my time amongst nobles that they were far better educated, I didn’t entirely agree with them having superior dispositions. Most of the nobles and royals I met trended towards rotten, greedy pigs.

"What happens when you need to act quickly, though? Or when people don't agree on what needs to happen?" I asked, shifting my attention to those behind him to see if they even agreed with the present actions.

They all were keeping their faces a practiced neutral. "We simply must have rules in place to prevent such situations," Augustus spoke down his nose at me somehow. 

"All right, and what if someone abuses those rules?" I pressed.

"Then we hold them accountable." He rolled his eyes at me and glanced at Eva as if to share a moment and say I was an idiot.

"That's probably not your best move.” Eva winced at him.

“He's asking such simple questions. We have thought through this for years." Augustus gestured at me. "How Avente rules its enclave would be similar."

"That's nice and all, but you do realize I just killed multiple of the elder mages of Avente because they were trying to take over the Enclave? The royal family put so much pressure on them and got their own people elected until, well, it was about to become nothing more than a puppet of the royal family." I told them. “Who's going to make the rules? Who's going to enforce them?"

"Well, the Royal Council, of course. It is a noble position, one in which only those of impeccable character will ever join. It is the height of honor, and those noble obligees will prevent most issues from ever happening in the first place. If it should happen, then they will be, of course, hemmed back into line, or, in the worst cases, discarded from the system entirely." Augustus told me glancing over his shoulder and getting nods from the people behind him.

"Uh-huh. And nothing is going to stop them like, I don't know, greed?" I rolled my eyes while Augustus scoffed.

"What is greed to a member of the royal family who has everything?" He asked.

"People are a lot less logical than you think, Augustus." I warned. He was too much of an idealist, I wondered how much he’d actually interacted with the types of people he wanted to work with.

He looked at me as if I was an idiot. "Of course there will be bumps in the road. As long as everything is set up correctly, those will be nothing but mere bumps."

"Right." I nodded. "Assuming everyone is smart enough to realize they're bumps and not just walls to eventually be overcome.”

“No one would be that stupid," Augustus said.

"I’m going to have to disagree. People are absolutely that stupid." I retorted.

As I spoke, Ditzy and Maribelle came in wearing maid uniforms that would be considered scandalous if they were the slightest bit shorter.

"Lunch is served," Maribelle said, coming over and bending down low to drop off a plate of finger sandwiches.

Augustus had no eyes for the sandwiches or even Maribel. His gaze was fixed rapturously on Ditzy.

"Do me a favor and close your mouth," I said, feeling a hint of anger rise up inside of me.

Augustus looked away and snapped his mouth closed wisely.

"I didn't realize you were quite so possessive," Ditzy giggled and set down another tray of sandwiches before she pulled out a steaming kettle from almost nowhere. "Tea?" she asked.

Her little kettle trick seemed to have worked because Augustus's face went into a solid frown. He was now realizing that there was more to the goddess than simply being a cute maid.

"Ditzy, if you really want to blow his mind, why don't you pour me some water while you're at it?" I told her.

"Of course, my Arden," she slid around behind me, running a hand over my shoulder and putting her finger just above my cup before a spout of water spiraled off of it.

In dead silence, the whole room listened to the splashing stream fill my cup. Augustus blinked, but before he could ask questions, one of the others behind him spoke first.

"She's a water mage?" One asked. Though some among Augustus’ people were less than impressed, leaning to the side as if to see the trick.

"Something like that," I said quickly with a smirk, "though at a certain level of magic the elements become less necessary." I pretended to know what I was talking about.

"I see," Augustus frowned, "and I hear you are an incredibly powerful four sphere mage."

"That I am. Though your council idea doesn't sound bad in practice. I think there are two fundamental flaws. One, you can't predict everything that could happen now and in the future. Thus, it needs to be flexible enough to change to new problems, and it needs to have the right incentive to change. The first isn't an issue. The second always is because someone is always going to want more." I shrugged, feeling like everything I was saying was obvious and feeling bad to point out all the ways he had not thought through his plan.

Augustus, the philosopher, frowned at me. "And how would you propose incentivizing a system to check itself?"

"I don't know." I sat back. "Like I said, it's always the problem. Just look at Avente and Garrish. Both were struggling under the weight of a monarch's greed. It took nothing more than a disaster of war for them both to be removed. However, in the process, Garrish lost nearly all of their serpent mages, which means they now have no healers. Their noble families are mere shadows of what they had been prior to all of this.”

The nobles had been devoured by Martin himself to drain their souls and empower himself.

“Don’t worry, we’ll prevent that sort of thing.” Augustus promised with a wave of a hand.

I shrugged at Augustus. "How could that have been prevented?" I asked, waiting for his response. I picked up a sandwich and dunked it in my tea, trying not to look smug as I leaned back in my chair. 

"Well, it's quite simple," Augustus said with a smile, already having an answer prepared for me. "You join the council and let your morals and power keep it in check."

"Oh, you want me to join this council?" I made a vague gesture with my hand. "Not a chance." I laughed. "I'm going to find somewhere very nice and quiet to raise a family. At least, I hope I will soon."

"But you are of the ruling class in two kingdoms. Don't you feel a call to grab fate by its reins and shape history?" He pressed.

"Nope," I said, slurping loudly at my tea. “Not even a little bit. I was raised on a farm.”

Augustus frowned and glanced at his compatriots for help. 

"I think what my dear brother is trying to say," the woman who’d waved her fingers at me before stepping forward, "is that should you support us, you would of course be given some level of influence over what happens next."

“Name?” I asked.

“Jezebel Zenov.” She dipped her head. “Advisor to Augustus.”

"Great, that makes this even easier. I'm not interested, Jezebel. I don't want to be a ruler. I don't want to have the weight of entire kingdoms depending on how I feel." I repeated my refusal, emphasizing each word. "I don't want to be on this council."

Jezebel scoffed. “I think we’re done here Augustus. If he’s going to act like he’s more righteous than royalty there’s nothing we can do other than wait for him to come to his senses.”

"Fair enough," I shrugged and chuckled at them.

“We could include Eva.” Augustus tried to pick up the pieces. “Through her you could have all the influence you wish or don’t wish to have.”

“I don’t use my women as extensions of myself.” I grunted, not liking the position that would put Eva in.

“But you have so many of them, they must be at least in part politically arranged?” Augustus scowled in confusion like a problem before him was faulty rather than his logic.

"Of course, our fathers made an agreement," Aurelia said, causing me to scowl at her. "He's in the royal family. That makes more sense to him than the fact that I'm actually in love with you. Doofus." She said the last part full of love. 

Augustus glanced over at Zuri, for perhaps he knew the Trevis family and thought her relationship with me was political. “And you? Do you want to be with him and so many others?”

She smiled at me softly, addressing me rather than him. "You value me and make use of every part. While I might be able to find that elsewhere, I certainly won't find it anywhere near as endearing a package as I do with you. That and, tactically speaking, I think my ability to run away is long past."

"Damn right," I winked. "You try to run away and the first thing I'm doing is yanking your soul out and dragging you back to me." I shrugged, accepting my possessiveness. 

The others in the room let out a nervous chuckle at my words.

"Oh, he's not joking," Eva said. "His powers with soul magic go beyond anything we've been taught," Eva emphasized. "I've watched him raise his anchors from the dead after their hearts had been pierced or their heads had rolled. He just simply puts them back together, slaps them on the ass, and they're on their way. To say he’s beyond our concerns is appropriate."

As if on cue, Maribelle came out, happy as a clam, blonde hair bouncing with her steps. She put down another tray of finger sandwiches. "Oh my. You are not very hungry." she said, glancing at Augustus and crew. 

"Maribelle, perfect. Arden needs you to die so he can give a demonstration." Zuri instructed.

Maribelle shrugged, a smile still plastered on her face as one of her bluesteel knives moved quickly, slicing across her throat. This was a demonstration of both my anchors’ devotion to me and also my magic. It was Zuri’s idea of how to put me above all of this mess.

"Zuri," I scolded my anchor, though there wasn't much heat in the words. "She got blood on the lunch. This was supposed to be a nice lunch. Now their appetites will be even more reduced." I shook my head. 

Meanwhile, Augustus and the royals with him were all wide-eyed and staring at Maribelle's corpse, where she had fallen. Blood gushed out of her throat for a moment before the arterial bleed stopped pumping.

I turned back to her, after scolding Zuri and with a wave of my hand, injected her soul back in place, and then used that connection to pump copious amounts of life magic through her body and start it back up. 

Maribelle got her feet under her and popped up a second later, a massive smile still plastered on her face despite the front of her maid outfit still dripping crimson on the floor. “Did I do a good job, sir?" She asked, clearly wanting a reward. 

"Fantastic. You performed something I didn't even know I needed," I said, casting a glare towards Zuri. It was her fault not Maribelle’s, the maid would do anything if she thought I needed it. Besides, she was in no real danger, her soul correctly snapped straight back to Soulgard.

"Anyway," I said, turning my gaze back to Augustus and his crew, "don't mind my anchors. They're just having fun at your expense." 

Augustus didn't speak, his eyes still fixed on Maribelle’s bloody and retreating form as she went about her business, as if she hadn't just killed herself in front of them. 

"That was an interesting demonstration," Augustus stuttered. "I didn't know that was even possible."

"For you? Probably not," I shook my head. "Being a four-sphere mage isn't just because you have four spheres, it's because you have a soul strong enough to hold four spheres. Cause and effect is reversed from what you understand."

Eva nodded along beside me. "I've learned a lot about soul magic while following Ard, cousin. We very much appreciate your visit, but if you aren't eating, then I think the discussion is largely done."

At Eva's ever-so-polite dismissal, Augustus and his crew fled. 

"I think that went quite well, don't you?" I turned, smiling at Eva.

"I think they realized what a fox they would be inviting into the hen house.” Eva said.

Emlyn snorted. "More like inviting a bear into the hen house. Hens can try and fight a fox. They can do nothing against Ard."

I grunted. “Doesn’t matter if it’s all a straw house that’ll be blown over with a little resistance.”

"I do have to admit that they are overly idealistic," Emlyn said, turning to me with the last. 

"Well, they're an option," I said. "It's a damn shame. I should have gotten them to kiss my hand and poked around in their heads." Something still felt off with Augustus, and it was hard to trust a collective that size. There were too many people involved even if Augustus spoke for them today, power might change hands rapidly after he served his purpose and got them as the ruling party.

I was still thinking about missing that opportunity to rifle around their heads when there was a knock on my door.