Chương 38: Chapter-38

"Tal, I wish this tasted sweeter. Thanks Tal," Janes said. He gave the magic a moment to work, then tried the porridge again.

"Too sweet."

"Just right. Thanks Tal." He sat in his room, eating and thinking. He'd gotten pretty good with magic. Well, he'd gotten pretty good at praying to Tal, technically. There wasn't any real difference for him between those two things. Tal didn't give him everything he wanted, or even close. But if it was small and reasonable Tal seemed to always find a way to answer. He wondered why more people wouldn't pray to such a powerful god. I mean, sure he wanted to rule the world.

But he'd promised not to execute everyone if they just let them say he was in charge. Janes had even discovered that Tal would make him smell pretty. What a weird thing for the god of death to care about. But he'd said one day "By Tal, I wish I wasn't so sweaty," just because he was so used to swearing by Tal these days. And then his skin had tingled for a moment, all over. And afterwards he'd smelled like some kind of perfume.

The door to Jane's room opened, and he was surprised when his adoptive father was carried into the room. A chair was brought in after him, and the servants spent a few minutes making him comfortable. Huberlin had been old for as long as Janes had remembered him. Too old to be his real father, more like grandfather or great-grandfather. He'd been so scared in those first few years of his life, knowing that he was being held hostage by the man who had killed his parents. But Huberlin had never been cruel to him.

Nor to the other orphans whom he'd made. He actually built many orphanages and paid for them to have all the things the children need. And Huberlin had given him magic. The servants left, closing the door behind them.

"Hello, Father," he said.

"Are you having a good day today?"

"It's better than yesterday," the man said.

"How are you, Janes?"

"I'm fine. If you wanted to see me, you should have asked. I would have come to you."

"Your room is more secure, believe it or not," the old man said, laughing.

"And there are state secrets which I must tell you before I embrace Tal completely. So. Here I am. And we are alone. And I am using magic to make certain that our voices do not leave this room. Nobody can see us, so they cannot read our lips. Wat I am going to tell you must stay between us for the rest of your life, and you can only tell one person. Ever." Janes had his entire focus on his adoptive father—the man who had killed his birth parents—now.

"I'm listening."

"I'm going to tell you how to kill with magic." Janes almost fell out of his seat.

"But, why are you telling me that?" he exclaimed. The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

"Because I am naming you my successor. You are too young to rule, but I am putting Sir Trenald in place as your regent. He will teach you to rule on your own, but more importantly he will rule until you come of age. That is why this is a secret. It was told to me by Tal himself, and he bid me only tell these secrets to the one who would wear the crown after I was gone."

"Why me?" Janes exclaimed.

"Why not Sir Trenald, since he's—""The people love you, Janes. They respect me after these last few years of rule, but they hate me for conquering them and killing your parents. I regret that every day, Janes, but it was a direct command from Tal. I can only guess at why he ordered their execution, but I had little choice. It was them, or it was you."

"What?"

"Tal said that an example must be made. He said that if I did not kill your parents, he would kill all of the orphans that I have made. And he would kill you as well. So I made the choice of the lesser evil. The people hate me, Janes, but I have always chosen what I thought was the lesser evil. That doesn't make me a good man. But I like to think it makes me less of a monster."

"I don't think you're a monster." The ill old man smiled.

"Thank you, Janes, but I know perfectly well what I am. But enough. I must tell you how magic truly works."

"It comes from Tal."

"When you pray to Tal, he answers because Tal is the one who gave me this crown and the right to rule. When it was placed upon your head, I had to make a choice. I could either authorize you as a child of mine, or I could order you executed." Janes went pale. He remembered that day very well. He hadn't known the entire time he'd run around with the crown on his head, he'd been skirting with death. He'd been playing with Tal. Maybe that's why Tal liked him.

"Naturally, I told the magic of the world that you were my child, and it granted you magic. If you prayed to Tal. I had to argue with the world a little bit to get your magic to work, you know? It was a little frustrating, and that's why your magic grew so slowly. But it's getting stronger, and it will get stronger yet when you don the crown." Janes nodded, still feeling green.

"Okay."

"I'm not going to teach you how to use the crown," Huberlin admitted.

"The crown will teach you how to use it itself, over time. When you wear it, it will ask you if you'd like to do magic. If you answer yes loud enough with your mind, it will happen. Eventually, it will not need to ask you before it uses magic, and it will only be when you tell it to stop that its magic will not work. The crown is probably as smart as you are, and you'll learn each other quickly enough."

"That's amazing."

"But there's another way of casting magic," Huberlin said. He pulled out a book.

"These are magic spells. Be careful where you practice them. Nobody can cast them except for you, and your successor. Perhaps I waited to long to give you these. I can't show you how to use them. But I can tell you the important bits. How to make a spell that will kill." Janes swallowed.

"Do you think I'll need to use magic to kill people?"

"I hope that by the time you're skilled enough to use magic to kill people the wars will be over and the world will be at peace," Huberlin told him.

"Now listen closely. This is the word to make a spell that will kill. It goes at the front of the spell." Huberlin spoke. He knew what it meant in the ancient tongue.

'Safety Override.' A spell without those syllables in that order at the front of the spell would never harm or kill. It was difficult to say, the pronunciation had to be just right and the way it was written in runes didn't match the way it sounded.

"There's a second part that you have to say at the end of the spell," Huberlin explained. And he spoke the word of death.

'Execute.' He felt chills on his spine even as he knew nothing would happen. He hadn't said any of the magic words that would have any dangerous effects. He'd been careful.

"Now practice them. Here and now, while I'm here to correct you. Practice them until you get them right, and then never say them again until you're ready to mean them. Because once you put the crown on your head and it asks you if you are it's rightful owner, the magic of the world will listen to everything you say or do. And if you say the words of death, then people might die." Janes swallowed. He looked around and got a drink of water from the pitcher on his nightstand.

Then he practiced how to kill with his words.