The Tinderbox

Chapter 1-4

Xander rarely, if ever, ventured outside. Lately, he worried away his hours with little more than the counsel of Olaf and a bottle to stem the tide of time and circumstance. Unsurprisingly, Allegra found satisfaction in the fact that her father seemed to be as much a prisoner as she.

“The Four Tellers of the Tiered Cities!”

Allegra took an involuntary step backward, startled by Chancellor Olaf’s proclamation. So snug was Geneva behind her that Allegra bumped into her and stepped on her foot, causing Geneva to stifle a gasp and a giggle. Allegra glared over her shoulder and gave her a not-so-gentle elbow in the midsection. As the guards opened the doors opposite her, Allegra turned her full attention to the room.

The Four Tellers flowed into the throne room in a swirl of fabric and mystery.

The man in front, The Why of Mist Tier, was most familiar to Allegra, but only because he resided in the palace and was a sometime shadow of Olaf and her father as they paced the palace corridors. She had never directly encountered the other three magi seers—The Where of Middle Tier, The When of Back Tier and The Which of Front Tier—and had only viewed them from a distance whenever they were summoned from their outlying tiers.

There were four major urban centers on Mano, named for their relative proximity to the capital city of Mist Tier. They were referred to as tiers because they all featured the tiered construction of the traditional Manolithic ziggurats. In truth, Allegra had precious little knowledge of her own city, gleaned mostly from books and the view from her balcony. Having never even seen the palace itself in its entirety from the outside, she had to content herself with the view of the massive ziggurats that capped the cliffs along the coastline, their levels like giant steps ascending toward the heavens.

As impressive as the buildings were, it was the natural beauty outside her windows that captivated Allegra’s imagination most. The capital city had been christened Mist Tier for the constant spray that rose from the pounding surf that assaulted the base of the cliffs encircling the Ocean of Manorain. It could just as easily have been named Side Tier or Throne Tier, and in her more sardonic moments, Allegra fancied that she resided permanently in Salty Tier or Bitter Tier.

Suddenly, the skin on Allegra’s cheeks tingled as if singed. She was certain that The Which of Front Tier had looked right at her. The last in line and the only female magi seer, she had taken the widest path to her position before the monarchs, and her arc had swept her closest to the now trembling Allegra.

So regal was the bearing of The Which that Allegra wondered if the average citizen would choose her as the true queen, had Allegra’s own mother not been seated on the throne. In addition to her exceedingly exotic aura, The Which was adorned with a luminous amber stone embedded in her forehead like a third eye. It served as both tiara and testament to her position and had been painfully placed there when The Which was very young, shortly after she had exhibited an ability to divine events.

The Which didn’t acknowledge Allegra as she passed, and now stood silently before the king and queen, seemingly uninterested in exposing her hiding place. That good fortune would not last long.

Geneva crept back up to Allegra like a winter’s chill and draped over her shoulder like a cloak.

“I can’t see,” Geneva proclaimed peevishly.

In a blink, Olaf’s eyes were on them. His movements were so subtle as to be almost imperceptible. He lightly touched Queen Nor’s shoulder with a waft of his wrist and, when her eyes met his, lifted his chin slightly and without expression toward the open chamber door. Allegra saw her mother see them. The queen’s brow twitched into a slight furrow, and her lips compressed into a thin line of wry disapproval. Wordlessly, she rose from her throne and approached.

“Nicely done, Geneva,” Allegra purred, perturbed but not angry.

Allegra kept her eyes defiantly forward, but she could feel Geneva wilting behind her.

Queen Nor stepped up to them with an unwavering gaze of her own. “Darling, you know better.”

Allegra thought she caught the smallest of smiles at the corners of Nor’s mouth. “Why can’t I be a party to this?” Allegra asked. “I doubt it will change my fate.”

The Tellers turned as much as decorum would allow. Xander the Firm rubbed his forehead firmly.

“Don’t be petulant, Allegra,” the queen cautioned. “You have everything else you could possibly wish for.”

“Except freedom.”

Allegra saw a flash in her mother’s eyes that reminded her of why Nor was equal in power to Xander. That glint of steel was the reason the chambermaids liked to refer to the crowned couple as King and Queen Neither and Nor. The queen’s tone remained measured.

“You should be honored,” the queen said. “It is your sacrifice that keeps this kingdom safe.”

“Then, obviously, I am well pleased.” Allegra’s verbal curtsy was more ironic and effective than if she had done it physically.

Nor considered her daughter for a moment. She gave in to a fleeting smile that was thin but not without pride. Still, she closed the door in Allegra’s face without comment.

As they departed the throne room, Geneva trailed Allegra like an inconsequential wisp of smoke after a processional torch.

“Allegra, I am so sorry,” she said.

“Don’t be,” Allegra replied. “What more could they do? Confine me to my room?”

Allegra strode down the corridor with renewed determination. This meeting of the magi seers might not be so mundane after all. Allegra knew of the Prophecy. Everyone did. It was the primary domain of the Four Tellers and certainly the reason they had been convened now. Her father lived in fear of the future, and that future was arriving much more quickly than anyone desired. Anyone except Allegra, of course.

* * *

“That’s your stubbornness,” Queen Nor murmured as she executed an elegant pivot past Olaf and Xander and settled back onto her throne. The Which watched her closely until the king spoke and broke her concentration.

“And your subterfuge,” he said. The king didn’t bother to look at her, focused instead on the Four Tellers as if trying to read the readers. The Which noticed the king’s blurry and bloodshot eyes and doubted that he could read much of anything.

“What news?” the king asked. “The Prophecy. Is everything as it was?”

“The Why of Mist Tier, report,” Chancellor Olaf declared. He never missed an opportunity to impose protocol. A fact about him The Which greatly appreciated.

The Why’s tone was dry and somewhat defeated. “The Prophecy remains as always, my lord. If Princess Allegra weds a common soldier, the reign of Xander the Firm will come to an end.”

At the mention of Princess Allegra, The Which risked a glance at Queen Nor. The queen registered no reaction. Nothing from Xander as well, but this portion of the report was rote and oft repeated.

The Which had indeed looked at the young woman lurking at the door, had marked her piercing expression when their eyes met. As one blessed with foresight, it always seemed an oversight to The Which that the Four Tellers always spoke about the princess without ever speaking to her.

There could be value in that conversation, The Which opined, if that intimacy were even remotely permissible.

Olaf’s voice, so unpleasant to others but not her, brought her back to the moment. “The Where of Middle Tier,” he addressed.

A hiss of strained patience seeped through Nor’s lips as The Where struggled to respond. “Isn’t it ironic, Xander,” the queen observed, “that The Where always seems to be somewhere else other than where he is?”

The queen’s barb seemed to focus the nervous advisor.

“Still…still here, my lord,” The Where stammered.

“I can see that,” Xander stated flatly.

“No, my lord…I mean, yes, my lord. Still here. I meant ‘still here’ as in still here in the capital city.” His mouth hung open as if waiting for the words to emerge. “If the actions come to pass, then they will transpire here, in the capital city of Mist Tier. Although, I couldn’t tell you exactly where in the kingdom…”

“We understand,” Queen Nor interjected quickly. “The Which of Front Tier, have you been able to become any more specific than simply ‘a common soldier’?”

The Which met the queen’s eye with confidence, knowing that her male counterparts would never do the same given the circumstances.

“I’m afraid not, Queen Nor,” she said. “However, the Predeciders were not random in their writing. It is a specific soldier who can access the Tree and harness the Dogs. Who that might be is still yet to be revealed. In all deference, I should certainly be the first to know since the Tree still stands on the outskirts of Front Tier. I anticipate an answer soon.”

The Why stepped cautiously forward. “With that in mind, Your Majesties, the only thing that has changed…Well, I must defer to The When of Back Tier.”

The When stood stock-still, his hands clasped serenely before him, his head bowed slightly, in deference or with introspection it was unclear. What was clear was that he was much older than the other magi seers and, fittingly, exuded an aura that was unrushed and measured like time itself. His deep voice resonated with tones more evocative of academia than alchemy.

“The only thing that has changed, Your Majesties, is time,” The When said. “It has elapsed since we last spoke. The time is nigh for the Prophecy to be realized.”

King Xander’s hand flexed as if groping for a bottle. “Have we discovered any way to stop it?”

The Why sighed. “King Xander, the Prophecy is hypothetical. Like any prediction, be it storm or seismic activity, any number of elements must align for it to come true.”

“Piss in a volcano! You’re saying nothing!” Xander exploded. “You’re supposed to divine, yet your counsel is providing no such intervention!”

The When raised his voice slightly but decisively. “The time is specific, Your Majesty. The Predeciders wrote that the time of the Prophecy will coincide with the appearance of the Aurora Constellation. As you may remember, Aurora is only complete every two thousand years…”

The When approached the dais and pressed an almost imperceptible button on the console. Twelve points of light erupted from the polished surface like a geyser and hovered in midair with no discernible pattern. The When pressed yet another discreet button, and the jagged shapes of the planets Indira and Mano materialized on either side of the floating cluster of lights. The When tapped a final button, and two larger glowing orbs representing the stars Femera and Amali floated upward from the console and took their places in the three-dimensional diagram.

“The constellation’s configuration is dependent upon the rotation of our planets, Mano and Indira, in respect to one another and to our twin suns, Femera and Amali,” The When explained.

With a wave of his hand, the holographic representation rotated. The random points of light began to slowly coalesce into a constellation.

“However,” he continued, “it is the placement of the three moons of Indira that complete the crown of the Aurora Constellation and make her appear in the night sky of Mano.” The When indicated the final three points of light as they drifted desultorily into place, crowning, literally, the now identifiable figure of a reclining queen. “That celestial event is less than a cycle away.”