Page 9 of Stranger's Choice
Chapter 4
“She is athreat. She has more power than any oracle before her. You can tell that simply by the fact that she still wears the dark veil.”
Sebin sighed. This was the third day in a row that Tjalik had spent the morning trying to convince him to dismiss Auraelie. Meanwhile, Sebin had discovered nothing about her but her name. “What does her veil have to do with anything?”
“She wears the dark veil.”
“Yes, you said that. I’ve seen that. What does it signify, Tjalik?” This was the first time the rebel had mentioned the oracle’s clothes in relation to why Sebin should dismiss her. It intrigued him enough not to shut the conversation down right away. The veils were a Kalitalo-specific fashion, and though their meanings sounded straightforward enough, Sebin doubted he truly understood the customs. He did know that most members of the Emperor’s Will wore sheer veils, not the opaque style Auraelie always had on.
“She has influence over the Emperor.” Tjalik said, leaning in close. “The imperial oracle has always been a servant of the Emperor, but she has power over him. She must be terrifyingly powerful. Every second we spend close to her risks everything.”
Sebin still did not understand what this assessment had to do with the veil, but he focused on more important matters. “I think her assignment as my attendant proves how safe we are, Tjalik. Yes, we should be careful, and I know you do not want to risk being scanned by her, but I am protected. If she could see my future, she would not waste her time staying close to me. She would have already reported everything she had seen and moved on.”
“How can you be so sure you are protected against the oracle’s power? I thought her race had long since died out in your homeland.”
Sebin hadn’t explained the spelled ring he wore to Tjalik. The charm to nullify all magic was something few people knew was possible even back home. Sensitives, humans with magic and no blood of the magical races, had historically been considered able to sense magic and nothing more. There were tales of human mages able to negate other magic, but most people believed them to be just that: tales. Sebin had as well. Then he had visited the sensitives training to navigate the Mladin Storm Barrier.
The nullification ability had come up in conversation. Most of the sensitives admitted that they had always assumed the power to be nothing but fiction. But one claimed that she had accidentally discovered she could nullify magic. When she explained how, the others had all been able to duplicate her ability. Every single one of them.
From there, it didn’t take them long to figure out how to infuse their power into charms. What they struggled with was deciding if they should make their ability public knowledge. A few wanted to start selling the null charms; their power had never seemed so profitable. Others wanted to keep the ability secret, because hidden talents were more powerful.
Sebin had argued that charms designed to nullify the powers of the magical races would cause problems if they became widely used. In Moial, there was a large population of incubi. The incubi fed on the emotions of humans through touch, but their feeding did not harm humans in any way. Nonetheless, Moialan social mores created a conflict between the incubi and the humans.
If the people of the kingdom knew about null charms, they would become a fashion statement. A spurious proof of purity proclaiming the wearer immune to an incubus’s lure. The more people who casually wore such charms, the harder it would be for the incubi to survive—for they fed off non-intimate contact as well. The relationships between humans and the magical races were already strained enough.
With careful persuading, the sensitives eventually agreed with Sebin. He, in turn, had offered an alternative way for them to profit from their newfound ability to make null charms. Instead of selling them to humans to be used against the magical races, he started putting the sensitives in touch with representatives from the incubi enclaves. The charms were a lifesaver for mixed-race children. If a succubus mother held her half-human child, she fed off him, but he could not feed from her. And unlike with humans, the feeding drained the half-blood, because he also needed that emotional energy to survive.
Sebin’s cousin, Khiran, had to live with his human father rather than his succubus mother because of that issue. Most succubi refused to have children with human men for the same reason. Sebin hoped the null charms could change that dynamic and encourage the races to mingle more, without becoming a weapon to use against the incubi.
Of course, since he already knew about the charms, and the sensitives who could make them, Sebin had commissioned several for his own use in Pynth. Once Tjalik had explained that the Emperor had an oracle to scan his court, he knew he wanted that advantage if he traveled across the ocean.
He didn’t want to admit that his charm could protect anyone from the oracle’s power. He didn’t trust Tjalik enough to offer such information. So he explained his immunity simply and inexactly. “I am safe from all magic. It doesn’t matter that I had never encountered an oracle before coming to Kalitalo.”
“I still think—”
Sebin cut Tjalik off. “We need to head out. People will wonder if we don’t go to breakfast soon.”
Tjalik scowled but let the subject of the oracle drop. No doubt he’d bring it up again the next morning, since Sebin had no intention of dismissing Auraelie in the interim.
When they arrived in the breakfast room, she already stood by one table, a cushion ready and a plate filled. Sebin glanced at the items filling his plate. He was thankful that the Emperor only served the finest selections, because he was certain he was eating the worst items offered—and they were still delicious.
He wondered if she had found something inedible to serve him yet. Every time he remained expressionless, it seemed to goad her on to bolder and bolder actions. Auraelie’s reactions—subtle though they were—whenever Sebin remained silent after she did something no servant would do, were the highlight of his day.
He was at the point now where he was developing a taste for multiple varieties of wine mixed together. It was a matter of pride to finish what she served him. Thankfully, he wouldn’t have to deal with that until the afternoon, though. At breakfast, she served him a variety of fruit juices, and they honestly tasted wonderful no matter what combination she mixed together.
Sebin sat down and nearly sprang back up to his feet as something sharp poked him. He kept his expression even, and tried to shift over, but the placement gave him no good options. One eye on Auraelie, he tried to sweep his hand under himself without being obvious in order to dislodge the sharp rock she had placed under his cushion. Except she hadn’t placed it underneath. He left his hand under the cushion a little longer than intended, confirming that the rock was sewn inside the cushion.
Auraelie forgot herself enough to watch him openly as he settled so that the rock only jabbed at his thigh. She must be proud of that one, to not keep her eyes lowered.
Sebin looked at her directly. He raised a single eyebrow, and she hastily lowered her gaze.
When he finished his breakfast, Sebin didn’t get up. If he remained seated, Auraelie was bound to do something else under the guise of attentiveness. He wanted to see what else she would try more than he wanted to make connections with the courtiers. Granted, part of his reluctance to mingle had to do with maintaining the impression that he did not speak Imperial. With everything filtered through Tjalik, he found conversations harder to direct to his liking. Subtleties of tone, looks given in time to certain words, none of it was possible. The interpreter also embellished his words. He didn’t change their core meaning—he knew Sebin understood what he was saying—but his word choices changed the tone.
Tjalik approached the courtiers from the perspective of a servant. Sebin did not want them to think of himself as lesser, but his interpreter could not seem to help adding flowery phrases and flattery when he translated.
Still, the occasional conversation he overheard because people did not know he spoke their language was worth the frustration. He had to send Tjalik away before he heard anything of genuine interest, but even with the interpreter by his side, the overheard conversations gave him insights into the court.
At least dealing with Auraelie no longer involved Tjalik at all. The other man kept his distance from the oracle and ignored her. Sebin’s battle of wills with her was a relief—they were both relying on silent communication, and he did not feel disadvantaged.
