| |
Wizards have no desires, no ambitions. Magic is their life, and they will study it, practice it, and apply it to create wonders, to control the enslaved sorcerers and direct them, and to discover that which is unknown. It is because they lack the drive and ambition that wizards mostly keep to themselves and remain aloof of men.
Aria had awakened in the middle of the night, and her mind screamed that she needed to open Magical Practicum and read. She never doubted her instinct when it spoke so clearly, and so she arose and took up the ancient text.
She had set the book upon its spine and let it simply drop open. She began to read from the first paragraph that caught her mind.
Men fear wizards because of their power. This is not a mistake, but a misunderstanding. Some wizards will do the bidding of men, but normally they only do so for food or shelter. Wizards are not known to use their power for anyone else’s advancement, as they are incapable of caring or otherwise expressing emotions about such.
Why do wizards lose their desire? The curse of the power. Sorcerers lose their will, they become slaves to magic, but wizards keep theirs. Sorcerers lose years and wizards gain longevity. Sorcerers can only be directed, focused on singular tasks. Wizards can see only that before them, only understand magic, only see the present moment, and with that, the world fades from care. Though that can show them a vision of the future, it is only in relation to their own time and studies.
Could a wizard break this? Can a wizard use his or her power to change the world for themselves, or for another? No. They lack drive, they lack ambition, and they lack desire. They do not hold interest for any kind of power but sorcery, and that is why they will not take such a position. Only their studies of the art hold any power or interest for them.
The one who can call up magic at will, the one who is equal to the sorcerers but free of will - as the wizards are - can make use of it in the way some most fear. She is neither wizard nor sorcerer, and she will become more than any before. Influence, desire, and drive are hers, and she will apply sorcery briefly, and willfully, when her time comes - and otherwise passively as she rises. His influence will become hers, and she will take it and add it to her own.
Aria read that paragraph again. She had read Magical Practicum a dozen times, but this was the first time she ever remembered this paragraph. Had it somehow been hidden? Why was it coming to light now?
A knock at her door startled her from her contemplation. Aria returned the book to its place and went to answer the summons.
Emperor Edvin was standing before her.
“Your Majesty?” questioned Aria, genuinely surprised to find him here.
“Apologies, Admiral Knight,” stated the emperor, sounding sincere. “I know that the hour is late, but I needed to speak to you.”
“That’s alright, sire,” stated Aria, regaining her composure. “Please, come in.”
“Wait for me here,” he instructed his guards.
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
He entered her quarters, and she closed the door. “Can I offer you drink, Your Majesty?”
“That would be acceptable, Admiral. Have you any rum?”
Aria grinned. “Of course, Your Majesty. What kind of sailor would I be if I did not keep a stock of fine rum? Please, make yourself comfortable, sire.”
Aria saw him sit at the table she had just been at as she went into her cabinet. She took a pair of goblets and her best bottle of rum.
“To what do I owe this visit, Your Majesty?” she questioned as she set a goblet before him and poured rum. She also filled her own, setting the bottle on the table.
“Please, Admiral, take a seat,” said the emperor.
Aria sat. “Sire, I am...out of uniform. I think it would be alright if you addressed me less formally.”
The emperor grinned, which surprised Aria. It was clearly not a familiar expression on his part. “Very well then, Ms. Knight. I wanted you to know that I fully support your carrier and fighter project.”
“I appreciate that greatly, Your Majesty.”
“Indeed,” replied the emperor, taking a draught of the rum. “Admirals Jorvan and Margrave...have some concerns.”
“So they expressed, sire,” remarked Aria. She wondered where this might be going, but she would play along.
“On the record, yes,” conceded the emperor. “But they came to me privately. I am normally a very good judge of character - I know who I can and cannot trust. Margrave and Jorvan have been in my service for a long time. But I am forced to admit you are a bit of a mystery to me.”
“I am an open book, my liege,” stated Aria.
Edvin chuckled, taking another draught. “That I what you claim. But...there are questions, and they have kept me up this night. I would have them answered.”
“I see, sire,” said Aria, swirling around the rum in her goblet a moment. “Please, Your Majesty, ask them, so I may set your mind at ease.”
“Very well,” replied Emperor Edvin. “Why was it that Captain Arico’s body was not brought home?”
“Your Majesty, with all due respect, we buried him at sea - as he would have wished. And we could not very well leave his body aboard the Talon for long. Replacing our meats and vegetables from refrigeration for a body is not how things are done. Burial at sea is tradition, especially for a sea captain.”
Emperor Edvin nodded, taking another drink from his goblet. “You have served, what, ten years total? How is it that a woman can rise from a junior officer to the admiralty in such rapid succession?”
Aria put on a look of surprise. “You find that concerning, Your Majesty? I have risen by merit and hard work. Did I not use my position to better the dominance of YOUR navy in the Ealantic?”
Aria took a drink from her own rum before continuing. Could the emperor be onto her, somehow? “Certainly, I recognize that I have come far in a short span. However, Your Majesty, I have not done so through some sort of connivance or trickery. The proof of my work is in the results of all that I have done.”
She changed her tone, ever-so-slightly. “I am aware, sire, that there are some that find a woman in my position to be disconcerting. If I were a man, I do not believe the same concerns would be present.”
Emperor Edvin was nodding his head as he took another drink. “I think the same, Ms. Knight. I really do. Your meteoric rise has frightened a number of people, yet none has presented a valid reason for their fears.”
The time to strike had come. This was why she had found the paragraph she had. This was her moment. In her most sultry voice, she put forward her will, her desire, and said, softly, “Do I frighten you, my liege?”
Emperor Edvin had been raising his goblet to his lips, and now he froze. Aria had caught his eyes, and she could see to his core. Yes, he was afraid of her. She suspected that he was also afraid of the feeling she stirred in his loins.
And that question had made him wholly hers, now.
“No, Admiral,” he spoke, just more than a whisper.
Aria arose, and she moved to his side, holding his eyes the whole time. “There is something, Your Majesty, or you would not have come to me in the still of the night. What is it? What do you need of me? What do you desire?”
It was the first time she had used it this way. For a long time she had known what she could be capable of. Yet she had never, actively, sought to use her power.
With the word desire, Aria had used her power to send the flow of blood in the Emperor’s body down, straight to his loins.
She would use what she knew was already there.
The goblet was lowered to the table, and the emperor slowly stood, his eyes never leaving Aria’s. She glanced towards his groin, and there was no mistaking what was holding his attention. Just as she had intended.
“My desire, Aria Knight,” whispered the emperor, a visible shiver passing through his body. “My desire...is you.”
She stepped closer to him, felt him against her, and looked up into his eyes. Emperor Edvin was lost in hers as she saw his desire overwhelm every other thing. He leaned down to her, pressing her lips with his own.
It began as a tender, gentle action, but it only took an instant to become a passionate, ravenous, hungry kiss. In moments, they were hastily removing one another’s clothing and moving towards her bed.
Aria let Emperor Edvin take her. Yes, he would believe she was his. She would allow him to believe that their lovemaking was initiated by him and that he controlled their passionate dance.
But the truth was very different. The truth was that now, Emperor Edvin was hers. He had not taken her...she had taken him.
Without question, Aria understood her destiny.