CHAPTER 16 THE MASTER CLASS
1393 Words
POV Alistair
"Alistair of Ironspire," the Queen said. Her voice was a low, melodic rasp that vibrated in my teeth, a sound like the earth itself whispering through stone. "You look... good."
I straightened my coat, refusing to show the hollow ache in my chest where my power used to be. "And you, Your Majesty, look like a woman who doesn't trust her guests. Is the suppression really necessary for a simple talk between monarchs?"
"In my city, we don't call it suppression," she purred. "We call it clarity. Now that you aren't distracted by your little god-complexes, perhaps we can speak like adults."
She dismounted with a fluid, terrifying grace, her boots clicking sharply on the black glass of the bridge. As she stepped closer, Saffron hissed, a purely instinctual sound of distrust.
After a pause and a nod from the Queen, my jaw set. "My first demand is simple: Stop kidnapping the children of Ironspire. My people are not your livestock, and my borders are not a hunting ground for your kidnappers."
The Queen didn't flinch. She didn't even look offended. She simply tilted her head, the gems on her crown catching the dim light. "Kidnapping, Alistair? That is a very ugly word for a very necessary mercy."
"Mercy?" Jasmine spat, her hand twitching near her blade. "Stealing sons and daughters from their beds isn't mercy."
"I adopted the children your city would have left to rot in the gutters," the Queen countered, her voice dropping to a dangerous, low hum. She gestured to the scarred Thane beside her. "Kaelen, tell the King about your childhood in Ironspire."
Kaelen stepped forward, his eyes burning with a cold, focused hatred that made me recoil. "I remember the Spire," he rasped. "I remember begging for scraps outside your family's feasts while my sister coughed her lungs out in the cold. You didn't see us. We were invisible. The Queen saw me. She gave me an education, a purpose, a job, but most importantly, a reason to be alive. To me, you are the monster. You and your whole crime Family."
The silence that followed was deafening. I felt a flush of shame creep up my neck. He wasn't entirely wrong; the Syndicate had been a nightmare world until about two years ago, when Mercy found her weave.
"Things have changed," I said, my voice tight. "I take care of my own now. No one is left behind in Ironspire anymore."
"Is that so?" the Queen purred, her tone dripping with skepticism. "You speak of a future you haven't built yet. I speak of a reality I have maintained for decades."
We went back and forth, a verbal chess match where she checked every move I made. Eventually, we reached a bitter compromise.
She would be allowed to recruit in my town, but only from those who came willingly. No children under fourteen and anyone between fourteen and eighteen required a guardian's seal.
"I want an office," she added. "In your downtown core. My recruiters will be there to provide information, answer any questions, and liaise the first steps of the recruits into my Thane schools."
"Fine," I conceded. "But if I find a single one of your men pressuring my people or operating outside those four walls, I will send them back to Obsidian Guard in whatever pieces I deem fitting."
"Agreed," she said, her voice smooth as glass. "I have another matter. I have established orphanages in my city. I want anyone from any city, yours included, to be able to drop an unwanted child there without judgment. In doing so, they relinquish all rights. And you, Alistair, will relinquish all claims to those children. They become citizens of Obsidian Guard. I want this program to be advertised in your streets."
"Absolutely not!" I roared. The idea of her posters hanging in my plazas, telling my people they could just give their children away to a foreign power, was an insult I couldn't stomach.
But as the words left my mouth, I looked at her. I looked at the way her Thanes stood, disciplined, educated, and fiercely loyal. I looked at her black void of a cape and the sheer infrastructure she represented.
My town had just started laying the bricks for our first school. Most of my laborers couldn't read their own contracts. She had a military academy, a social safety net, and a literacy rate I couldn't even dream of, yet for my city.
Standing on that bridge, stripped of my weave, I finally saw the truth. I wasn't her rival. I was a novice trying to play a professional's game. I felt small. I felt like a boy wearing his father's oversized crown.
I was far behind. And if I didn't catch up soon, she wouldn't need to kidnap my people; they would leave for her city on their own.
I signed loudly and bowed my head slightly, and I was sure that didn't go unnoticed by Her.
"Let's table the orphanage discussion for another time," I said, my voice quieter now, humbled.
The Queen's veil fluttered as she let out a soft, satisfied breath. "Wisdom. Perhaps there is hope for Ironspire after all."
"And now, for the matter of my brother," I said, meeting the Queen's veiled gaze. "The negotiations are concluded. I want Gideon released. Immediately."
The Queen let out a soft, airy sound that might have been a laugh. She began to pull on her dark leather riding gloves, smoothing the fabric over her fingers with agonizing slowness. "Released? Alistair, your brother is a guest, not a prisoner. If he had truly wanted to walk out of my tower, I never would have stopped him."
Dante let out a scoff of pure disbelief, but I held up a hand to quiet her. I didn't know what kind of game the Queen was playing, but I knew Gideon. He was impulsive and prone to following his hungers, so if he had truly wanted to escape, he would have heard about the chaos and possible m******e.
"Regardless of his... hospitality," I said firmly, "the deal is done. I want your word that he is free to go."
"You have my word. I will make sure he knows the door is unlocked," she purred. Then, she tilted her head, her voice shifting to something sharper, more testing.
"But tell me, King Alistair... if I tell him he is free, and he chooses to stay anyway, would you like me to force him back to you? Shall I have my Thanes drag him to your borders and throw him at your feet, whether he wants to be there or not?"
The question hung in the air like a blade. She was mocking me, showing me that she had hooks in my brother like she did my town.
"You will send him back," I barked, my voice echoing off the black glass of the bridge. "As soon as possible. He belongs with us, and I will determine his next steps, not you. He is my brother, and his place is in Ironspire."
I might have felt small comparing my schools to her academies, or my militia to her war-trained Thanes. I might have realized I was decades behind her in statecraft. But I wasn't about to give her the power to keep my family as her playthings.
The Queen mounted her beast, looking down at me from the height of her saddle. The black void of her cape billowed behind her, momentarily eclipsing the sun.
"Very well," she said, her voice carrying a hint of bored amusement. "I shall send him home to you, Alistair. But be careful what you wish for. Sometimes, when you bring a wolf back from tasting the wild, you find he's forgotten how to be a dog."
She didn't wait for a reply. With a sharp command, she turned her mount, and the Obsidian Guard procession vanished back into the mist.
I stood there for a long time, watching the gray fog swallow the black crown. My weave began to thrum again as they moved out of range, a slow, painful return of my power.
"Alistair?" Saffron whispered, reaching out to touch my arm. "Are we... are we okay?"
"No," I said, looking toward the horizon where the Obsidian Tower pierced the clouds. "We're centuries behind."
- Writer
