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***
Ten steps forward, look in the mirror. Ten steps back, caress the golden ornaments on the large wardrobe. Ten steps back to the mirror, then again towards the wardrobe.
Frankly, Seth was beyond terrified. He was scared to meet his brother because he knew they expected something from him. What it was, though, remained unknown and that was terrifying. So, he just kept walking back and forth, looking at furniture that didn’t interest him just to avoid having to think about what was coming for him.
His teachers always said they were raised apart to cement their separate roles. His role was to learn and keep all the secrets of Shardiz, while his brother was destined to follow their father upon the throne. This way, Seth wasn’t allowed to long for the throne. Not that he wanted to, because that would have meant he had to become like their father, which was also terrifying.
Someone, probably a herald cried out outside the room. “Gracious Prince Eldan and Heir Idranil.”
The door opened. Seth’s time was up. He was supposed to rise beyond his fears, which he failed spectacularly.
On the front marched the prince himself, behind him walked Seth’s mother and first consort to his father. Behind them the one he was most afraid of.
His brother was barely older than him, three years or so, yet he looked infinitely more mature and definitely braver. His hair was cut in a princely manner already, short on the side, twined on the back, even his robe was more ornate than Seth’s white and silver gown. He kept sticking his head from behind their mother to peek at Seth’s small figure, which made him feel hunted.
Seth still couldn’t figure out what was he supposed to do, so he just stood silent in the middle of the room. He rather wanted to run away really fast, but that wasn’t how a soon-to-be Keeper of Secrets should have reacted. So, he just waited and kept looking at his father wide-eyed, sometimes sneaking a peek at his brother. He really tried to escape his mother’s grasp, like he was about to charge him.
Sweet Shardeen, what if he really was?
Luckily, he didn’t have time to further that thought, because his father walked up to him, reaching with one arm for each of his sons.
“The greatness of Shardiz always stood on many pillars,” the prince said. Seth just noticed how many were there in the room with them. Servants, silken-clad nobles, soldiers in shining armor, and many more he only saw in the throne room before.
“Ways of the sword, magic, science, and faith are all foundations elevating us above the other provinces,” the prince continued. “I am glad my two sons embody this in their person. Idranil, who shall follow me upon the throne, and Sethar, standing by him as the guardian of our knowledge.”
Suddenly the whole room went silent. Idranil looked at their mother expectantly, then, as she let him go, he darted towards Seth with a beaming grin.
“I’m so happy to finally meet you, little brother. We’re going to have so much fun,” he said, wrapping one arm around Seth.
The world was spinning around him, his stomach rumbled, but Seth took a deep breath and forced a few words out.
“I am... happy too... rani...” The sudden weakness in his voice swallowed most letters of Idranil’s name. He got it wrong. He didn’t even know what was expected of him, but still managed to get it wrong.
Some chuckled around him.
“Oh, no, I...” he said, looking at his brother, then at his nursemaid, but none paid attention. Idranil stared at the chucklers with a prickly look, while the maid just covered her face in her hands.
He let them down.
“I...” he said again, then something came over him. “I’m sorry,” he said silently, then ran like never before. He rushed past his father, past the chuckling nobles, out onto the corridor without thinking of where he was headed.
“Sethar!” his father’s harsh voice followed, but Seth didn’t even look back.
He knew they will be angry at him. He did something really dumb, but it didn’t matter. He just ran and cried while the corridor melted into a golden swirl around him, followed by banging footsteps. He hastened his pace, turning randomly and descending on the many stairs the palace housed until he hit an unfamiliar corridor.
It led even further down, without the lamps that lit up every other place. Even the air was colder, but it brought with sweet smells, so it must have been a kitchen or a pantry.
Seth took a moment to hesitate, but a sharp noise behind him urged him to rush down the corridor half running, half slipping on the steps.
The stairs seemingly went on forever. He was tired from all this excitement and running, so when he eventually reached an enormous closed door, he just turned his back towards it and sat down.
He couldn’t go back. Maybe sometimes later, when they forgave him, but definitely not soon. He couldn’t go forward either, not until he opened the door, but it was massive. Seth always thought himself weak and clever, he learned everything too fast, but that wasn’t something to open a door with.
Or was it?
He hopped up and looked at the door, just like the ornate wardrobe back there. This one was even more curious than that. His fingers ran over luminous patterns that ran along in a straight line then broke off into various directions. Like those magic doors in the Duneborns, transporting the characters into entirely different worlds, filled with treasure and adventure.
This door was very real, though, and refused to open. There was no keyhole, not even a doorknob, just the patterns and a shiny plate with a hand-drawing on it. Seth put his hand on the plate expecting nothing to happen – but it did.
“Bio...tric ...dentif...” a voice said, broken by loud crackling. Seth instinctively jumped back, but the voice continued. “New command... ccer... name?”
Sethar shook his head. It was either the door speaking to him or someone from the other side, which was more probable. As for why parts of the words got lost in the crackling, he paid no mind. After what he did up there, he wouldn’t have blamed anyone.
“Name?” he said. “My name... is Sethar Osirei, second son of the Prince of Shardiz. Please, let me in.
The voice kept crackling, then spoke up again. “New comma... Seth... rei”
The shining plate changed color to a warm green. The door split apart and slowly opened, revealing a most curious room behind.
There were many more plates there, like the one outside, but these were pitch black and dead-looking. There was a huge glass something, like a massive jar that could house the whole aquarium from the grand library. At the back stood a chair cornered by a lot of different machines, metal arms, straps and hemispheres, and things Seth couldn’t even describe. As if he really walked into another world, even though he could still see the stairs behind him.
He walked further in, looking for the origin of the voice, but only crackling and beeps followed him.
“Comman... Seth...” the mysterious voice said, but no matter how many times Seth turned around, he couldn’t spot it. Or her, as she sounded like a really tired woman. “Transforma... eady. Awaiting subject. Initiate?”
Subject. That word was familiar from the books, but he never heard it in that context befor.
“What subject? Where are you?”
One black plate lit up with tiny dots resembling letters, surrounding a rough shape of a man. The whole thing moved and flickered as if the writing refused to stay in place. Seth wondered if he accidentally stumbled upon the den of a malicious djinn who ditched the human shape for the plates.
“Terraf...ing, Fif... Project: Augm... Human Psi... transfor...?”
The voice still crackled and smudged most words, and even what got through were incomprehensible. Seth couldn’t handle his curiosity. He shuffled closer to the writing and tapped on a word.
“I don’t understand what do you want, or where are you. But I don’t want people to be mad at me. Can you hide me for a while?”
The voice didn’t answer anymore. The hemispheres surrounding the chair creaked as they turned and shifted, creating an opening – for Seth, most likely.
He didn’t understand what was going on, but he asked to be hidden. It seemed the magic room could hide him in the chair. That was his best option.
He hurried over to the chair and climbed onto it. It was cold and brittle, like the blade of his father’s sword.
“And now?” he asked after half a minute of silence.
The machines creaked again, and the whole room came alive. The metal arms clasped onto his ankles and wrists, forcing him down, while every plate started flashing wildly. The djinn was furious.
Something stabbed Seth’s shoulders and fire rushed through his veins. He screamed as loud as he could, but the djinn didn’t care. He was sure he was about to be torn apart, his ears ringed, the world fell apart and rebuilt itself from slivers, while the metal arms kept pumping something into him that set his insides aflame.
He couldn’t even move from the pain, just screaming and crying, grasping the armrest of the metallic chair.
Suddenly there was a loud bang. Then another, and another, then the pain started fading. The metal arms jabbing into him collapsed to the floor, the chair let him go and the rotating hemispheres stopped.
Seth turned to the side. Through his tears he could just make out the shape of Idranil, holding a metal construction in his hands, aiming one end at the chair. Seth wanted to run to his brother, but there wasn’t an ounce of strength left in him.
“Id... rani...” was all he could say, before a darkness crept into the corner of his eyes.
“Sethar! Are you alright? What is this... thing?”
Idranil jumped to his side and tried to help him out of the chair, although with half a free arm he was struggling. It was weird, considering how Seth barely felt more than a sheet of paper, a feather, tossed and dragged by the slightest breeze.
“I... I don’t know... She just said she’s waiting for... a subject,” he said, trying to shake the darkness out of his eyes. He looked at the cylinder Idranil was carrying, then tried to smile. “Is that a... princely per... preror...”
“Prerogative,” Idranil said. “Well, kind of. Father said it is the last line of defense, something I shouldn’t waste.”
“That’s a... trinket? Are you a mejai... raani?”
Idranil just smiled, as if he wasn’t angry in the first place. Maybe he wasn’t, and Seth ran away for nothing.
“No, I’m not. This is not a trinket, it’s...” He raised the cylinder, holding it to the dim light of the room. One end was wider than the other, curving like a walking stick, with a crescent-shaped piece of metal hanging in the middle of a circle. “Well, I don’t know what it is, but father said it’s older than the Old Garden. Come, let’s get a healer to see you.”
***
Seth couldn’t remember how long was he out until he opened his eyes, only the dreams. The colorful, senseless dreams, where box-like ancient spirits danced around him and begged to be commanded. They must have believed he was Idranil, when he was only the Keeper. He didn’t want to command the spirits, just shoo them away, but when he walked towards them, they danced even faster. They mocked him and called him imperfect, half-formed, and laughed.
When he finally awoke, he sat up wheezing, holding his palm to his forehead.
“No... I don’t... Don’t want to command...” he mumbled before he even realized where he was.
The room around him was his own, so was the bed. Idranil was sitting beside him in a chair, half asleep.
“Forgive me, Master Sethar,” his nursemaid said from a corner. “I couldn’t make him stay outside.”
Realizing his brother was awake, Idranil jumped up and climbed onto the bed, staring into his face from uncomfortably close.
“That’s so cool...”
Seth leaned back, but at that point, he had a hunch deterring his brother from anything was beyond his skills. Instead, he just folded his arms and shunned his eyes.
“What... what is?”
Instead of answering, Idranil got off the bed, clutched a handheld mirror from a table, then rushed back and held it to his face.
“See for yourself. Father said the room is a secret, so we can’t talk about it.”
Seth looked at his face, and he almost dropped the mirror. His eyes were always light brown, but now they sparkled with a lively green light. Like two jades in the sunlight. His irises swirled in the mirror, his reflection looking at him expectantly as if it waited for the real him to do something. He couldn’t make sense of it until his heart pounded harder and his ears were filled by the cackling spirits again.
Command and it will follow. We will make it follow.
Seth held the mirror further. “No,” he whispered, but it angered the spirits. They laughed even louder, made his reflection angrier and they almost blocked out every other sound.
Command! Give us an order!
“Fine!” he shouted, throwing the mirror down.
Beside his bed, cracks appeared out of nothing, like that part of the world was a mirror, too, and he had just shattered it. The shards danced around in the air, slowly gathering in a rough shape, then creating a perfect image of Seth. Larger than life, perfect in every detail, even the same shocked expression.
“Whoa,” Idranil said. “I think that is a trinket. A magic trinket. But they tested you, right? Back then.”
Seth crawled back to the wall, as far as he could from the magic mirror-himself.
“Yes. And nothing happened. No trinket worked, because I’m not a mejai... or am I?”
“Well...” Idranil picked up the mirror, which made the doppelganger disappear. “I think you are, now. Shame I destroyed that machine.”
Images about that horrible room and the chair flooded his mind, along with the bangs that freed him. He took a long, teary-eyed look at his brother and shook his head.
“No, it isn’t. You saved me. It hurt, if it could finish what it started, I would be dead.” Seth clutched his hand and the edge of his blanket in it. “Thank you, Idl... Ida...” he huffed, then decided to give up. “Thank you, brother.”
“You can call me whatever you want, Seth,” Idranil said, putting a hand on Sethar’s shoulder. “I like Rani. If those bootlickers don’t, then they can just stick to licking boots.”
Seth tried to smile back at him. Maybe first impressions weren’t everything.
“Father is mad at me, isn’t he?”
“Only because he got scared,” Rani said.
Seth hung his head in shame. “I’m sorry.”
Idranil jumped onto the bed again and sat beside Sethar. “He’ll come around, don’t worry. Point is, we can play together now whenever we want. I told you already: we’re going to have so much fun.”