Time goes flying. It was hard to believe it had already been a year since I had returned to being part of the Empire. My visits had been few and short, but still I felt like I was back home. Walking through the hallways besides Kimball and my son was an especially pleasurable experience, it was a way to share with them a part of me I couldn’t before.
Our dynamic was a little complicated, Kimball was there as a representative of the Shadows’ Clan, but I was there as part of the Imperial Clan. Ethan was always changing his title depending on circumstances or his mood, sometimes he was the heir to the Shadows’ Clan, sometimes he was just another youngster in the Empire. I knew that he would get in trouble because of that, sooner or later, but until that moment, I just let Ethan do whatever he wanted.
The Reunion arrived without giving me a chance to talk to my daughters, for some reason their caravan had been delayed, and we didn’t get a chance to catch up. I finally saw them when we were walking inside the meeting place, Greca and Ethan were going to the Heirs meeting while Malkia and Antrax were with us as part of the meeting with Pompeyo.
The tension that had been there during our previous meetings was gone, as was the animosity between the Imperials and the Assassins. Everyone in the room could tell something had changed. Pompeyo looked more calm and in complete control, and that change in attitude was having a clear impact on the rest of the leaders.
The first part of the meeting went without problems, it was mostly an overview of the agreements and problems the Empire had faced since the last time we had gathered, but at the end of the meeting it took an unexpected turn. First, it was something I was already expecting, it was a full introduction to what the Dominion was and the plans we had to trade with them. Some clans already knew about them and were already working on their own deals and the possibilities the Dominion opened to them, but for most the Dominion was something they didn’t understand, something Pompeyo had tried to change with his speech. Then there was a mention of their plans with the Light, but the important part was what came after that.
“During the last few weeks we have been negotiating with the Rebel Clans and we reached a cooperation agreement,” Pompeyo announced. “Before any of you decides to say something, you have to understand this is something that was going to happen sooner or later. Things have changed a lot in the last few years, our new reality is that we don’t have to be constantly at war with someone, there are better ways of using our time and resources. Right now we are working on finding a new way to set the limits between the territories of the Rebels Clans and our people. Once those issues are resolved, both sides have agreed that the fights over territory will end, in exchange, we agreed on working on trade agreements with the Rebel Clans.”
“You really expect those people to respect any agreement?” one of the leaders of one of the clans that shared a border with the Rebel Clans protested. “They will go back to trying to steal our territories as soon as they can, they can’t help it, it’s part of their nature, and that won’t change just because you sign a few treaties.”
“Once those treaties are signed and the limits are drawn, any part that tries to take more territory than assigned will have to fight, not only the affected clan and their allies, but their own allies as well,” Malkia explained.
“Malkia has been working with us and with the Rebel Clans trying to find the perfect solution to that kind of issues, in case we find them, and we have concluded that the best way to deal with them is by creating a new independent group that will be in charge of negotiating the borders and then dealing with anyone who breaks the treaties. The punishment the offending group will receive will the same as if any of you decided to betray the Empire.”
“And why is an Assassin working with Imperial matters?” someone asked.
“Even if Malkia is an Assassin by adoption, she is also part of the Imperial Clan, as you all know. Anyway, the reason she is working with us is not important, she is doing it, and when the time arrives, you will have to work with her. There will be other changes in the Empire as well, but those changes won’t affect your territories or your lifestyle, unless you decide to make changes by yourselves.”
“I’m not sure I understand the advantages these proposed changes will have for our people,” one of the leaders said. “To me, it seems all of these only benefits, as usual, the members of the Imperial Clan.”
“That only proves how short sighted you are,” Flora said, “the opportunities are there, you just have to see them and take them. Nothing will fall on your lap, you need to work for what you want.”
“It looks to me that this a good opportunity for us,” said the leader of one of the lower clans, one that was under complete control of the Imperial Clan, “and we still have to give them a chance before deciding it’s a bad idea, anyway.” I could tell he was already considering this his chance to find more freedom, and find a way to improve his standing in the Empire. That was the kind of reaction I was looking for, and I hoped more people would realize that and start taking advantage of the changes.
“The changes will come one way or another, it’s up to you to decide if you are going to take advantage of the situation or not,” Malkia said. “Instead of fighting and trying to delay the inevitable, I would recommend you to start looking for ways to make these changes work in your favor. The world is bigger than we thought, and it’s time to adapt or we will be left behind the rest of the world.”
“You’re just saying that because this benefit you and your clan, but the rest of us don’t have the same advantages as you,” one of the leaders said, looking at me and then to Kimball in a significative way.
“Those are just excuses,” Zola said, and the excuses are nothing more than the tools the weak use to justify why they don’t have what others do. You can take advantage of the opportunities presented to you, even create your own, or you can keep crying because your clan is staying behind while the rest of the Empire moves forward to the future.”
“People in the Dominion have a lot to offer, but so do you,” Kimball added. “There are people in my world that is not so happy with the new agreements we are working on, but there are others that are open to trade and are already looking forward to what you have to offer, this new trade agreements will open the doors for you to obtain great benefits, especially from our technology.”
“We don’t need their help,” the right hand of the Tecnnologic Clan said. “We are more than capable to create our own tech, we don’t need your help.”
“Maybe you have great advances in the war side of inventions, but we use our tech in every aspect of our life,” Kimball said.
The discussion was still going between them when I started to get uneasy, and then I was hit by a wave of energy, a wave in the fog. No one else seemed to notice any change, they were all still talking, or more accurately, fighting over the changes, but I knew something was going on, and after a while I realized that it was Ratu, she had awoken as a seeress.
Ratu, just like other members of the Imperial Clan, was watching the proceedings from one of the corners of the room, since she was not a General, she couldn’t sit on the table, but she was still part of the proceedings. Because of her position no one realized something was going on with her, even with her air barrier waking up when her vision started, no one was close enough to feel the air currents moving around her.
Some started to pay attention when she got up and went to the door, I could tell by her movements she couldn’t wait to be out of there, but I wasn’t sure why she was so eager to get away, not until I realized that Fedelm was in the room, and even with the blindfold over her eyes, I could tell that all her attention was focused on Ratu.
‘Ratu just woke as a seer, and Fedelm will try to go after her, you have to do something,‘ I let Pompeyo know, he sent a quick look my way, but nothing else betrayed the fact that he wasn’t paying all his attention to the issue at hand.
My focus, on the other hand, was far away from the discussion taking place in the room. When Fedelm got out of her seat, she caused a bigger reaction than Ratu, since she was sitting at the table, even if she was on the other side of it, it was hard not to notice her.
I didn’t need my powers to tell that Pompeyo was talking to her, trying to make it clear that she couldn’t leave, but from her expression, I could tell that Fedel was going to ignore him.
“The Reunion is not over yet,” Pompeyo said out loud.
“I’m so sorry, but there is an important issue I have to take care of, it’s something related to my people and it can’t wait,” Fedelm said.
“I suggest you get back to your seat,” Pompeyo said, the strength in his voice left no room for further protests. Fedelm went back to her place, but I knew she wasn’t going to give up so easily. Fedelm’s trick of blinding herself to improve her clairvoyance powers made it hard to see in which state she was. It was easy to see if someone was in a trance if their eyes were open, but not in her case with her eyes hiding under the blindfold, and the way she was sitting, it was also hard to read if she was just relaxed or out of her mind. But despite all that, I was sure that Fedelm had stepped into the fog, and I worried about that. I started to feel bad, just before I was attacked, a feeling that reminded me of the time they had trapped me in a vision. It had been a long time since then, Sofia had helped me learn how to fight back, but that didn’t mean that I wasn’t worried about it. Even if I could fight back, I knew that Ratu had no training and was vulnerable, especially since she had left the room.
‘Fatima, I need you to find Ratu,‘ as usual, my guards had to wait outside the room, and it was very possible they had seen the way Ratu had left and were able to find her.
‘Any particular reason for that?‘ I could read on Fatima’s mind.
‘I’m worried about her, she just woke up and became a prime target for Fedelm,‘ a bunch of impressions went through Fatima’s mind, and I realized something that I wasn’t expecting, Fatima hadn’t felt Ratu’s awakening, which could only mean that Ratu was a stronger seeress than Fatima, and I had always had the impression that Ratu wouldn’t be than powerful. Still, the fact that Fedelm had noticed her, meant that she was still stronger than Ratu.
My vision was going blurry, I guessed that had something to do with the fact that they were still trying to trap me in a vision. I wasn’t sure why they were still insisting on that, they already knew they couldn’t get to me that way, even inside the fog, my body was able to protect itself, and that wasn’t taking into account the fact that I was surrounded by all my friends and allies, any attack would be unsuccessful. But maybe they weren’t after me, they were just trying to keep me busy.
I was still feeling uneasy, and had stopped to even try to pay attention to what was going on there. I needed to go and see what was going on, but I wasn’t sure it was a good idea to interrupt the meeting.
“Kaiserin! What’s happening to you?” Kimball asked, his voice breaking the trance I had been starting to fall into even without noticing.
“Mother?” Malkia asked from the other side.
I felt something wet under my nose and noticed I was bleeding. Clairvoyance had never been one of my favorite powers, and the truth was that there were a lot of things I still didn’t understand from that power. I had thought nothing would happen if I kept fighting the pull to fall into the fog, but maybe the effort of staying out of it was having a bigger impact on me that I had thought.
“Could you excuse me for a moment? I have to go take care of something,” when I tried to stand up I felt dizzy, I wasn’t sure if I was being attacked by someone in the room or if it was another secondary effect of the other attack. Something that was clear was that I wasn’t just fighting Fedelm, there were other seers involved in it. I was sure that one, or even a couple of them wouldn’t be able to affect me like that.
“What is happening?” Pompeyo asked me out loud, I was sure he had already guessed it had something to do with Fedelm and Ratu.
‘Fedelm is planning something, and if I’m being affected by it, I can only imagine what Ratu is going through,‘ I told him telepathically.
“Stay,” Pompeyo ordered, “the rest of you, we will continue with this meeting later, it seems there is something I have to take care of.
“But…” someone started to protest.
“You heard the Emperor,” Maddan interrupted, “we will continue our discussion later, tomorrow we have another meeting, we will continue then. Take this time to think about everything we discussed today, maybe tomorrow you will be more willing to reach an understanding.”
“Don’t even think we will leave,” Kimball said, getting out of his seat and going to my side. “What is going on with you? How can I help?” Kimball put his arm around my shoulders, offering his support and protection, something that I was going to need.
One of Pompeyo’s guards went to where Fedelm was sitting and proved that she was in a trance, I guessed she was in the fog, maybe she even had Ratu trapped there. I waited until the rest of the clan had left the place to explain what was going on. Only the Assassins and the Shadows remained, mostly because they were worried about me, it was not normal for me to bleed.
“Ratu woke up as a seeress a few minutes ago, and it seems that Fedelm haven’t accepted that she won’t be under her control. The moment Ratu left the room, I could feel that Fedelm wasn’t going to let her go easily, she has been trying to trap me in a vision since then, and I have a feeling that she did something similar to Ratu. Even if she will be able to keep her enemies away, I’m afraid that sooner or later the effort could prove to be too much, we need to stop Fedelm before she has a chance to hurt Ratu.
“And how can we do that?” Inionri asked, I could see she was worried, even if she was trying to appear calm.
“I will go into the fog, but not following the path that Fedelm wants me to follow. Kimball, try to contact Sofia or Melchizedek, it would be useful to have some support in the fog. Inionri, if you can reach the rest of the seers and make them stop the attack, that would be a great help. And if someone can find a way to take Fedelm out of her trance, it would make our fight easier.”
People around me started to move as soon as I spoke, I could tell that Inionri was worried, Pompeyo also looked worried, but mostly he looked mad, which was good for me. Taking my seat again, I went into the fog, the storms I could see in the landscape were a clear sign that many seers were involved it whatever it was they were doing. Walking through the fog was already hard, but it was even worse with the storms, a seer’s hand could cause chaos in that place, but through my years I had been able to navigate the fog even in worse conditions, although without an anchor it would be very hard, I trusted that Sofia or Melchizedek would arrive in time to help me find my way back.
The advantage of the storm was that it was showing me what way to go, and I moved closer, I noticed a big number of seers already there, it was as if every seer in the Empire was gathered there, it was very likely that was the case. In the fog things were different than in the real world, we were in a different reality. Despite the threats of the group around me, I knew they couldn’t hurt me, all they could do was try to get me lost in the currents of time, but I was better than them at finding my way, and because of that, I was able to reach Ratu.
“This has been a harsh awakening,” I said, trying to make the situation a little more normal.
“What is this place? Where am I?” she asked, a little scared an a lot lost. I didn’t need my empathy to realize that she was terrified. “Where…” her words were cut the moment she stepped into one of the paths and was lost inside a vision, but with me there it was easy to get her back. “What is going on?” she asked, looking around. She wasn’t sure what she was looking at, with so many paths and so much information around us it was easy to get distracted and get lost, especially if she didn’t have the right information to find her way.
“We are in the fog of the future, the place where you can see all the possible futures. Each path is a different possibility, each one can open into even more paths going into infinity. With so much information available, it’s easy to fall into the trap, but you need to leave your curiosity to the side and resist the temptation of going after every possibility, or you could spend the rest of your life in here.”
“What I saw, I didn’t like it. Everything we did was to keep me away from the Imperial Seers, but I was trapped by them, under Fedelm’s control, that isn’t what I wanted.”
“There is a possibility that something like that could happen, but that doesn’t means that it will happen, there are other options.”
“Haven’t you done enough damage giving her false hope?” Fedelm interrupted. “It’s time for her to accept her new reality and embrace her destiny.”
“I should have guessed you would try something like this,” I told Fedelm, “but we both know that even if a path is possible, it doesn’t mean it’s probable. This path we are standing in, it barely has light, it’s your power that’s keeping it open, but there are other paths that have a better probability of becoming real. Come with me,” I told Ratu extending my hand in offering, “let me show you other realities, lets see what you can really do with your life if you follow your own path.”
“For every path where I’m not there, I can show her one where I am. This proves nothing,” Fedelm said.
“The longer you go, the more uncertain the path becomes, and we are far away from the start,” I took Ratu to the breaking point. “Do you see how these paths are breaking apart? Those are the possibilities that are no longer, the paths you didn’t take. “Do you see how behind you there is only one path? That’s the path you already walked. Every path in front of you is a different possibility, everyone depends on a decision taken, not always yours. Right now you are trapped in this place, but you still have many paths in front of you, and those not only depend on the decisions you take right now, it also depends on what’s happening outside.”
“You can’t escape your destiny, some things can’t be ignored, and there is also the risk that the path you follow will take you to an even worse situation that the one you are running from,” Fedel said.
“Do you see how some paths look clearer while other look blurred?” I asked Ratu, ignoring Fedelm and trying to get Ratu to do the same. “Each path is a possibility, some have a higher probability of becoming real. When you are studying your future is important to know these differences, sometimes you can find ways of strengthening the paths of increasing their probabilities by taking some decisions or taking certain actions. This is what Fedelm is doing, she is trying to make sure that only the future where she is in control becomes real, but you can do the same, you can look for the future you want and take the path that takes you to it,” again I asked her to follow me, we started walking through a more defined path, but I didn’t let her stop. “It’s also important when you choose a path to find the consequences of taking it, and how it affects others, to realize what possibilities you are letting go.”
“This is much more complicated than I expected,” Ratu was only catching fragments of the future that could be, but as I had predicted, the path we were walking wasn’t one that included Fedelm. “How can I learn about the consequences of each decision taken?”
“That is not easy, it requires a lot of training, you normally can only realize that when you see that in the future you chose, you are missing an important person to you, or you find something worse than what you tried to avoid waiting for you. In one of my first visions I saw my father died, I was so focused on stopping his death that I didn’t stop to think about the consequences, I ran to his side to protect him, and even if I managed to save him the first time, my victory only lasted a few hours, at the end, I didn’t just lost my father, but also my partner. But that’s not something you will learn from a moment to another, it requires time and training.”
“My future looks fine in this path, but how do I know that things won’t go bad further along? The possibilities to explore are too many.”
“And that’s another of the risks of being in this place. Sometimes you have to go with your gut, sometimes you have to take risks, because if you start looking at every path, every possibility, you will stay here forever. You’ve already seen that there are other options other than staying under Fedelm’s control, you saw there is a chance to stay free and be part of the Empire. It’s time to get out of here.”
“But there is so much to see,” Ratu protested.
“It’s easy to lose your notion of time in this place, it’s easy to get lost, but if you stay here, your body will collapse sooner or later. Right now you could be under attack, and your defense is wasting your energy. You don’t want to leave here only to find yourself dying because you’re having a psychic headache.
My words scared Ratu into following my instructions to get out of the place. But I still had a job to do, I couldn’t get away yet. Fedelm was still near me, but she wasn’t the only one, Melchizedek had finally arrived.
“Thank you for coming, it’s good that you found me,” I told Melchizedek.
“You are a beacon in the darkness, finding you wasn’t hard, the problem is with the people around you. Even if your power and your presence is creating an oasis in the middle of this chaos, the energy of all these seers is affecting the flow of the fog.”
“I have experience walking through this place, but not enough experience fighting here.”
“Me neither,” Melchizedek said, “you know that I’m a peaceful person, but that doesn’t mean I will let anyone threaten the designs of the Goddess. At some moment people will have to learn that certain things are inevitable.”
“I’m not afraid of you, nor your friend,” Fedelm told us, a group of seers moving behind her.
If they were looking for a storm, they I would fulfill their wish. When I was finished with them, they would wish never to have crossed in my path.
Kaiserin Novel 