Many of the most powerful men in Taisia arrived in the morning to view the king's body. The interim chairman of the local central bank, who was clearly a former soldier by his gait and his mannerisms; the mayor of Taisia City, who was clearly retired military; the governor of the Jelka Province, who wore a military uniform with the insignia replaced by civic symbols. Scylla was starting to see a pattern.

  At midmorning Klara summoned these various men to a meeting in the modest throne room on the second floor of the king's lodge. Klara herself sat upon the throne. It was a bad habit of hers that Scylla had observed for the better part of seven thousand years. If there was a throne, the woman needed to park her butt there. Considering the circumstances though, her presence on the throne seemed to ease the tensions between the various men. The testing and jockeying abruptly ended when they saw Klara flanked by her warriors, clad in her dusk-colored robes and ruby-studded fishnet gown.

  "Many of you may be contemplating the question of succession," Klara began when the men had gathered. "However, there is no question of succession, because there will be no succession. The king cursed his entire bloodline with the golden brands. His many children are now incapable of lying. What ruler can control the elites without deception? No. The Varelion family is finished. I will act as Reagent of Taisia until Emperor Adrian Maryy arrives on your shores. He will annex the entire continent into the Heylin Empire and nobody in this room will conspire to stop him. I will not tolerate disobedience in this matter."

  She waved her hand dismissively.

  "Spread the word to the other elites."

  The men shuffled out, leaving Scylla alone with Klara and her warriors.

  "What are you going to do with the children?" Scylla asked.

  "We will send them to orphanages in nearby cities," Klara replied. "Not too far away. We wouldn't want them to be so far away that we would lose track of them."

  "What will happen if Reyndell finds them?"

  "We don't know where Reyndell will attack first. What's your assessment?"

  "Of his battle plans?"

  Klara nodded.

  "I think he will attack Jelka first," Scylla said. "The broad river, flat floodplains, and nearby islands provide ideal locations for military bases. The rainforests south of the city would make great places to dig in and fight a defensive war."

  "Then we would not want to send the children south beyond Wave Crest. I will station a dozen warriors on rotation to patrol the orphanages and keep an eye on them."

  "Very good."

  "Anything else?"

  "No. I will go see if Lady Peace is awake yet."

  Lady Peace was preoccupied with the wellbeing of her new friend Ingrid. They went to the child's room and a pair of nurses were fussing over her. Scylla knew the girls would sit there chatting all day long and she intervened to prevent this. She escorted Lady Peace up to her room in the guest quarters. The room was equipped with a bay window seat, and the windows themselves overlooked the Tai River floodplains to the south. Scylla bade Lady Peace to sit quietly and attend the next lesson.

  "With the support of many of the other ascendants, Klara began construction of the Realms. The Realms are interstices, or places of overlap, between the Physical Realm and the Elemental Domains. Each Realm had a resident Elemental. Collectively, these resident Elementals created the infrastructure required to use sorcery here in this world."

  "And anyone could use it."

  "In theory, yes. In practice, only a handful of great houses were clever enough to preserve knowledge of sorcery across multiple generations. Hedge mages were very rare in those days. Many centuries later, the chroniclers named that early period The Golden Age of Magic. Humanity built many monuments. Empires rose and fell based on the decisions of individual sorcerers. Secrets relating to magic became extremely valuable. The very first promissory notes appeared during this period, and there is some evidence that such notes were used as a currency among the elites."

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  "Promissory notes?"

  "Little pieces of paper that make a promise relating to sorcery. It could be a promise to perform a specific spell, or a promise to teach a secret technique. Sorcerers would use the Realm of Light to brand the paper with a signature that other sorcerers could recognize. This eliminated the possibility of forgery. There were stories of promissory notes surviving for five hundred years, passed around as a currency only, before being honored by a sorcerer who learned about the signatory in a chronicle of antiquity."

  "Okay."

  "Of course this situation made Reyndell angry. Klara had presumably won their argument, however he still had his bond with the First of Darkness. His mistress, the Queen of Darkness, had promised him that the Firstborn's power could be used to get what he wanted. However, he quickly discovered that the power was difficult to use. Unlike me, he couldn't just use a rune to directly command an Elemental. Furthermore, runes cannot be used to command Divine Power. He was forced to communicate with his two High Daughters through his own mental commands, and therein lies the problem.

  "The First of Light and the First of Darkness have the unique property of heavily distorting the mental commands of the bond holder, at least when asked to draw upon Divine Power. The First of Light reads the heart and determines the highest ideal, the greatest desire, and then shapes the bond holder's luck to make that outcome more likely. The First of Darkness has the opposite behavior. She determines the greatest fear and curses the bond holder with bad luck to make the undesirable outcome more likely."

  "They would cancel out."

  "That's right, just as the Queen of Light promised. Reyndell's problem was that he lacked the mental and body discipline to control his emotions when he called upon the various powers of his Elementals. He deeply wanted to defeat Klara, and this manifested as two opposing forces, good luck and bad luck, which cancelled each other out. He never made progress so long as he held both bonds. His only choice was to get rid of one of the bonds. Which one would you get rid of?"

  "I would get rid of the cursed one."

  "Indeed, and that's what Reyndell tried. However, his advisor and servant, an Immortal Worshipper of the Queen of Darkness named Monroe, warned him of a potential edge-case. Monroe said that it would be easy for Klara to gain control of the First of Darkness once the bond had been passed. Reyndell said this would be the best outcome, but Monroe disagreed. Can you guess why?"

  The child considered this, then she shook her head. "I think Reyndell was right."

  "It is very subtle, and now that you hold the bond with the Firstborn it's important you understand this. Monroe used the following example. 'Imagine that Klara indoctrinates a child from birth,' Monroe said. 'She teaches the child that Reyndell's victory is the best possible outcome, and Reyndell's failure is the end of the world. Then she passes the bond with the Firstborn to this child, and when the child uses the Divine Power, the luck would primarily curse Reyndell instead of the child.' This is the second-order argument, and through experimentation Reyndell discovered that it was correct."

  "Am I that child?" Lady Peace asked.

  "Of course you are."

  "That's why you are teaching me."

  "I am giving you the tools you might need in the future."

  "Why don't you use your runes?"

  "Runes cannot command a goddess," Scylla said. "They cannot be used to compel an Elemental to draw upon Divine Power."

  "But you used a rune to curse Ingrid!" Lady Peace complained.

  "A curse like that only calls upon the Elemental Power. Yes, it required all the power available to a High Daughter, but my rune was sufficient for the task. Divine Power is significantly more dangerous because it can make changes to the entire universe. If such runes exist to command Divine Power, we elves were never equipped with them when we were first sent into the Universe of Destruction. Perhaps the goddess sitting on the Throne of True Light commands such power. I don't know for certain."

  "Will Ingrid get better?"

  "Ingrid will have the brands for life, but her body will heal. Now stay focused."

  "Okay."

  "When Monroe tested his theory and discovered it was correct, Reyndell created the Twin Fates Monastery. He built it atop the Ashe River Plateau, to the north of where we are now, and it was exclusively operated by Taisians. At the time, neither Klara nor Reyndell had much interest in the Taisian people, but there existed a cult of darkness atop the plateau which is why the site was chosen. This iteration of the Twin Fates Monastery was the first of two, which is why chroniclers named it the 'First Monastery.' Children could be isolated and indoctrinated and then granted the bond with either the First of Light or the First of Darkness, depending on the needs of the situation."

  "That doesn't seem very nice."

  "The children otherwise lived pleasant lives. In fact many parents would give their children to the monastery before sending them to orphanages, because they knew the children would be treated very well. In any case, Reyndell used the First Monastery to gain access to Divine Power, which was used to curse Klara's Realms. Sorcerers all over the world immediately lost access to their powers. This led to the Nights of Envy, where many former sorcerers were slain out of jealousy by charlatans and scammers who had no such powers. Reyndell cursed his own bloodline using Elemental Power, with a simple command like the one I used to curse Old King Varelion."

  "And Ingrid."

  "And Ingrid, yes. The descendants of Reyndell were granted access to sorcery, thus beginning The Dark Age of Magic, so-called because all sorcerers either directly or indirectly worshipped the Queen of Darkness. The Blooded, or Pure Bloods, lorded over the rest of humanity. Ritual sacrifices were common. It was a violent time."

  "So what happened?"

  "What happened was Klara returned from the Domain of Fire to find the Physical Realm in shambles. And she was very, very angry."