Emergence Read Free

haunted by scores of igra chasing her and the Freilux’s laugh rumbling through the dark landscape of her mind.

Chapter 3
     
    In the morning, Melissa came to be introduced to Generals. Of course, it was less like an introduction than it was a presentation, for they scanned her from top to bottom, with a few even daring to scan her mind. Her mother taught her long ago how to rebuff such scans, but it took a little while before she could remember how to do it effectively, and by then her fear and indecision was plain for all to see.
    Toby and a few others manipulated rock to create several low structures to shelter the newly arrived troops, igniting a warming sphere in each. By the end of the day, Melissa saw Toby was exhausted, and lay without sleeping on a rough bed, wrapped in a thick canvas cloak with red stains along its hem. She thought he looked like a flying leviathan caught in a net, one whose bulk proved to be its undoing.
    “Brother, you’ve grown fat.”
    “What else is one to do when one is awake all the time?” he snapped angrily. “I could never have made this city if not for my sacrifice.”
    Melissa sat back against a wall, pulling her legs in tightly.
    “Are you still cold? Here,” he said, sitting up. “Let me fabricate another sphere.”
    “No,” she said, rushing to him, holding his hands down. “You have sacrificed so much already. I can manage.” She sat next to him, and they both huddled together for warmth around the lone firesphere. Melissa’s very soul was warmed by his presence as remembrance of her great love for him came flooding back. Images of their late nights spent staying up and talking came back, as well as the silly pranks they would play on the courtiers of father’s court.
    “What happened to you?” she meekly asked. “When you left, so many thought you . . . ran away.”
    “I know, and though I couldn’t care a whit what they thought, I did regret leaving you without a word. The Freilux . . . well . . .”
    “What brother? You can tell me anything.”
    Toby sat for a moment in thought, then asked; “did you ever tell me of the Freilux’s roving eyes, his attempts at seduction on you?”
    Melissa blushed. “How did you know?”
    “Your mind isn’t trained sufficiently to conceal even something that embarrassing from me.”
    “So . . . what did he do to you?” she asked meekly.
    He took a deep breath, like he was about to take a deep and dangerous plunge. “You know the Freilux went to school with our father. They were close friends, from what I’m told, though I believe he always envied the fact that father would one day rule not only Imathrin, but the entire world as well. He was always a small man who envied those with power, even cursing them openly to try to make himself important. He soon became father’s chief critic, questioning his every policy, persuading nobles of the court to conduct inquiries into father’s dealings and policies. At every council session he would propose that father relinquish his power in favor of a parliamentary system, where many would rule instead of one.”
    “So when father fell ill,” continued Toby, “and could no longer run the affairs of state, the Freilux was nominated to run them for him. When father died, we were given over to the Freilux, as by the code at the time, I would inherit father’s title when I came of age and was pronounced a Provni Archsussa. But the Freilux hated me and everything I stood for. He beat me mercilessly, slamming my head into walls, breaking my bones on the marble floor, only to heal them a few minutes later, so he could break them again. He was determined to keep me weak, so I would never become an Archsussa, and father’s title would fall to him.”
    Melissa grasped his hand and squeezed, shedding a tear. “I’m so sorry.”
    Toby shook his head, and smiled, himself holding back tears. “At first, I wasn’t skilled enough to even make a firesphere. But little by little I