Chương 35: Book 2 Chapter 16: The What-Ifs of History

It was as they made their way to the industrial district, towards the inn where Jim had arranged a meeting with Decorus, that Katniss started talking about things that she probably thought were informative, but just revealed her weak mental state and inability to remain quiet.

"If we're meeting Ezengerdiens we have to be careful of their fire magic," she started.

"Their empress is supposed to be the strongest fire magic user in the world, it's why she's called the Golden Flame. Apparently it's a family magic, powerful enough that it once turned the winter islands of the archipelago into tropical ones by serving as a small second sun." Was what she said, amongst many other things nobody cared about.

"Uh, uh, yes, hmmm, uh, ah," were the things Jim replied intermittently instead of telling the girl to shut up, which he'd already done three times, and which hadn't worked. It was through this incredibly annoying dialogue that the meeting at the inn actually started becoming something Jim was looking forward to, because if anything, at least it would make Katniss shut up.

He was sick of hearing how the golden flame was apparently banned magic created in Rotto and stolen by its first wielder and how Ezengerd had overfished their waters so severely recently that they had to create an entirely new regulatory department in the government to control private fishing operations. Really, who cared about fish? Gross…

"We're here," Jim muttered as they finally reached the inn. He threw a disdainful look towards the abandoned church of the god of transformation where he'd been fighting Alice not even 24 hours ago.

"Good riddance," he said, before turning to Katniss, who'd already pulled up her hood.

"Just look menacing or something," he told her, receiving a nod from the relatively short girl who didn't look very menacing. Harry would have been more useful for this situation, Jim realised with a sigh, before entering the dusty inn usually unworthy of his patronage and quickly finding the golden-haired Decorus sitting in a remote corner and nursing a dirty mug of beer while his eyes shiftily checked every corner of the room in a never-ending sequence.

"Anyone ever told you you're the most suspicious looking fucker in the kingdom?" Jim asked as he stepped forward and sat down on the other side of the boy.

"I keep telling him to drop the hair colour, but he said even a mission shouldn't get in between him and his worship of the empress…" the marble at the boy's neck said in a muffled voice.

"Shut up," Decorus mumbled angrily.

"No one's caught me yet! I look too obvious to be a spy, you just don't get it." He looked at Katniss who'd remained standing.

"Who's the girl, did you adopt an orphan on the way?" he asked.

"She may look pathetic, but believe it or not, she's my muscle," Jim explained. He looked the frail boy up and down.

"She could kick your ass any day of the week," he determined after a brief analysis.

"What, tested it yourself? That's why you look like you got chewed up and shat by a rock golem?" Decorus asked with a sneer.

"It was a shapeshifter, and she was very strong," Jim said with his nose in the air.

"Our battle lasted several hours and nearly destroyed the city."

"Ah, so you were the drunks fighting below my window last night," Decorus suddenly said, running a hand through his golden hair.

"Sorry for emptying my chamber pot on you."

"Ah, so that was you," Jim replied with an angry frown.

"No wonder the shit smelled like it came out of a diseased maggot. Turns out it did."

"Shut the fuck up, both of you," the marble cursed from beneath Decorus' tunic.

"You came here to propose a deal. Talk."

"I have information, you have information. Let's trade." Jim proposed simply.

"How do I know your information is worth it?" Decorus asked with a raised eyebrow.

"How do I know yours is?" Jim responded.

"Just tell him, boy, he's as traitor as traitor can be," the marble told Decorus, immediately bringing the boy to heel.

"I'm not a traitor," Jim informed the odd duo.

"Being a traitor implies there was ever a cause I believed in. There wasn't. I only serve my own interests, it's called pragmatism."

"A man without a higher mission is a man without a soul," Decorus responded before shrugging.

"We've mainly been investigating one thing at the academy. The headmaster's faction and the ritual that they're trying to complete. We know it's something that is supposed to combat the calamity, but we don't know what, or where, or when. We only know that they're doing something, that all the most powerful mages of the kingdom have gone underground and that it will happen in Sredina." Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"I knew that," Jim said with a frown.

"How do I know that you knew that?" Decorus challenged.

"That's it, I'm taking over," the marble finally said, seemingly losing its patience entirely.

"I'm not talking to an object," Jim cursed, receiving stunned silence in return.

"You do know I'm just a person speaking through an object, I'm not actually an object, right?" the marble eventually asked.

"Of course I knew that," Jim blustered.

"I just meant, well, respect me enough to talk to me in person!" he demanded.

"I'm in Ezengerd…"

"Aha!" Jim exclaimed.

"But it wasn't me who told you to be there, was it!" The marble chose to ignore him and simply start talking.

"I'll just introduce myself, you can call me First. As for the information we collected, I can additionally say that the headmaster is dabbling in banned magic and that his faction is likely trying to use it to weaken the position of the royal family. One interesting fact is that all the books about the potentiality of time travel have disappeared from the academy library in the last few years. Inconclusive, as some other topics have gotten removed as well, but that's all we have for the moment." Jim frowned.

This was all stuff he already knew.

"Do you have any information on the calamity?" he asked.

"It's coming," the marble answered with what sounded like a shrug, "but you already knew that." Jim nodded slowly, the only new thing he'd really learned was that Ezengerd was partially aware of the ritual and likely wanted to disrupt it. Useless, since he was the result of that ritual. Some dots finally started connecting themselves in his mind.

"The Golden Flame is banned magic rumoured to have been created to combat the calamity," Jim suddenly said, hearing a small gasp from behind him, but choosing to ignore it.

"Now Ezengerd is sniffing around again. Trying to steal the fruits of others' labour?"

"That's defamation!" Decorus exclaimed. The marble for its part remained silent.

"The real story. It's not pleasant, but it certainly paints Ezengerd in a better light. Do you want to know?" it asked.

"Not reall-" Jim started before Katniss took a step forward, put a hand on his shoulder and interrupted him.

"Tell us," she demanded.

"All right," the marble said.

"It's not hidden history, although I certainly understand why it's not commonspread in Rotto. The reality is as simple as it is devastating. The Golden Flame is something that burns by feeding on life force. Now you might be wondering why Rotto at the time developed such an idiotic magic, and the issue naturally lies in the fact that the Golden Flame need not feed on the life force of its wielder. This is why all executions in Ezengerd occur by hands of the empress."

"What does that help against the calamity?" Jim asked, cutting to the point with the heft of his intellectual inquiry.

"The Golden Flame is banned magic, another cannot be created, it must be passed down from user to user and can realistically only be used once. The exception lies in the fact that the user can manipulate the flame when it is around them to a certain extent."

"The creation, it lies 500 years ago. How strong is it now?" Katniss asked urgently.

"Exactly as rumoured, it is as powerful as a small sun. It hangs high in the air and turns the land warm and arable. The royal family who wield it, are of course, not allowed to ever sleep, for when they do they will inadvertently release it and fulfill its original purpose."

"No…" Katniss whispered.

"Yes," the marble answered.

"The Golden Flame was not initially created to remain chained to a person, but to be thrown. You might wonder now, what happens to a fire that consumes life force and can be thrown? Why, it grows eternally as long as there is life to feed it."

"No… those bastards, it was all true, they…"

"Yes. Mitelos, those without. The flame was originally meant to consume the region on its way to the mountains and destroy any life dwelling within them forevermore before sputtering out over the sea beyond. The first wielder of the flame was carefully selected, but once it was time, he crumbled under the weight of what was being asked of him and fled. He used the flame to nourish a broken land instead of destroying one for the enrichment of the few.

That is the true story of how this banned piece of magic made its way to Ezengerd," the marble finished.

"How many people?" Jim asked decisively with a grim face.

"How many people lived in Mitelos at the time?" The marble remained silent for a few moments.

"There is no real census data available, but, to my knowledge, it was about half a million." A loud bang suddenly resounded through the inn, drawing the attention of the other patrons as Katniss slammed her fist into the wall as hard as she could. The crack that resounded was not of wood, but of bone, and she simply stared at her hand once she'd pulled it back as if not attached to it.

"Tell them what they want," she suddenly told Jim.

"I want to go."

"They have more information, I'm sure," Jim told her brusquely. The girl put a hand on his shoulder.

"Please," she begged. Jim turned to stare at her and saw tears streaming down her face from beneath her hood. He slowly nodded before turning towards Decorus who was sitting there calmly, likely having heard the story before.

"The headmaster's ritual is simple. His idea is to send someone back in time with information about the calamity, someone he trusts, with the secondary mission of overthrowing the royal family and installing a republic to lead the kingdom, although I guess it wouldn't be a kingdom anymore at this point. Good riddance I say. He likely took the books from the library because he doesn't want anyone else meddling with time and getting it banned before that point. The reason I have no love for the man is simple.

He is planning on sending out the first year graduates with amulets which collect first person data so as to give the time traveller as much of an advantage as possible. Those graduates are meant to die like dogs for mere crumbs of information."

"When, where?" the marble asked.

"A cathedral, I don't know which one. The ritualists are the very same mages you noted as missing. That's all I know," Jim said with a shake of his head and stood up.

"Thank you for your information," the marble said simply as Jim took Katniss by the shoulder and led her out.

"You're welcome," Jim muttered, mind still spinning about what he'd learned. Half a million Mitelosians… A one-time sacrifice like that… It could have saved humanity so much pain and struggle… But the Golden Flame. It still burned. Maybe?