A Thousand Prayers For A Wish

A short story from the CHARRIOT universe.

By [alexdamien]


"I think you'll like it, Your Highness" was a phrase Lieuthenant Detrahl had come to fear with every fiber of his being. He wanted to just kill the bookseller and burn down the shop.
A small smile pulled at the corners of Evil King Shedreyeth's mouth. It was as close to a laugh as he could manage.
"Ancient Legends of the east? I think I have one like this"
"Oh, no, this is east of Angelus"
"Ah"
"There's a very interesting part there about something like a spell to get any wish you want"
"A spell?" the king flipped through the book "This doesn't looks like a magic book"
"It's not. It's said merely in passing" the old bookseller took the book from Shey's hands and opened it to a page that showed the image of a piece of paper folded to look more or less bird-like "It says that if you can fold 1000 of these birds, the gods will grant to you a wish"
"The gods hate me"
"Not our gods, human gods"
"I think those don't know me. So, any wish I desire?"
"Any. But, folding 1000 is no easy task, it requirese a lot of patience and time. Besides, it's just a legend"
Shey nodded, a vacant look in his eyes, his thoughts lost in a world of paper birds.
Lieuthenant Detrahl felt shudder.

Chief sorceress Kerena was summoned to the library. She hated being summoned there. Everyone hated it.
If you were summoned to the throne room it was sure you were going to be assigned an important mission, or executed. Either one was better than the library. Because then it meant the king wanted to talk<i> with you. Which meant that he wanted your opinion on something important.
Which also meant that if you screwed up you'd win a one way ticket to the torture room.
Kerena knocked softly on the door.
"Come in" ordered the king from the other side.
She entered slowly, thinking that if things got really bad, she always had that suicide poison capsule on her.
"You needed me sir?" she asked, standing next to one of the couches in the middle of the room.
"Yes, sit down"
Kerena had to bite her lip to not start sobbing. If he wanted her to sit down it meat this was going to take even longer. She felt like it already had been ages since she knocked on the door.
"I wanted your opinion on a theory I have" started Shey, his authoritative dark eyes fixed on her. Kerena limited herself to nodding as her answer. She felt she would start crying the moment she opened her mouth "You see, I read a legend, that says that if you fold 1000 of these" he put a small piece of paper folded like a bird on the table between them "You get a wish. And it got me thinking, about praying papers"
When Kerena heard that confusion overrode all survival insctinctcs and she asked
"Praying papers sir? The ones where you write a divine seal, and..."
"Yes. And write something you are thankful for and ask for something. By themselves they have very little power, and even writing 1000 of them would get me nowhere, but...what if I could use each one of them to amplify the whole?"
"What?"
"Yes, think about it. If I write 1000 divine seals in a way that each one forms a greater one, wouldn't that work like-"
"A magical amplicator!" she said, overjoyed. Magic was the fire that burned in her soul, and she could spend days without thinkin g about anything else "Of course! Why didn't I thought so before? It could work, but you'd need for them all to be genuine praying papers,each one with a very exact seal"
"So, I could use the praying papers, and fold them, and once they all are complete I'll have a perfectly working Wish-Crane"
"Uh? Crane..."
"Thank you Kerena, you've been very useful. You may leave"
And Kerena got up and left, having the feeling that she had just unleashed somethig greater than herself.

It took Shey a whole, day, but by the next dawn, he had designed a sigil which could be formed with paper birds made with prayer papers. He didn't really needed it to be made with paper birds, but he felt he ought to do it that way. It wouldn't feel right to not honor the thing that gave him the idea. And he quite liked to fold the papers into neat little birds. It was as relaxing as spending an evening on his library, and he saw no problem in doing the same thing a thousand times over.
What drove him mad were the paper prayers.
This were special pieces of immaculatedly white paper with the Calling seal drawn on the back. But that was of no use if you didn't wrote the prayer yourself. And even worse, for it to actually draw in the required energy, you had to write a thanks to the gods rulling the Calling sigil. And every thanks had to be different. By the 20th bird, Shey found nothing more to give thanks for, so he started to go around in circles, thanking for things like the air he breathed, the ability to read, the food he ate. And when that was over, he ran into other problem. The energy of the papers was taken from the prayer. This was no problem if you wrote one. Or even if you wrote five. And for someone who had such a great amount of magical energy as Shey, this seemed like nothing to worry about.
Until he blacked out while writing the 37th prayer.
His personal advisor, High Sorcerer Evirath, found him sprawled on his desk and thought for a moment that he'd fallen asleep while working. But then he wouldn't wake up. And he didn't wake up until two days later, when the kingdom had fallen into hysteria.

Shey's older brother Illay had rushed to Legreth, Shey's kingdom, and demanded to see his brother and know how he was and what had left him like that. The only things he knew were the twisted rumors that had arrived at the Higher Realm, telling that king Shedreyeth had fallen at an assassination attempt and his life was now in danger.
"What do you mean I can't see him? You think I had something to do with this?!" shouted Illay at lieuthenant Dethral
"No, no Ill..Sir. No, this was not an assassination attempt. This was merely an error in his majesty's current project. He was simply trying to achieve more than he could and he fell into shock. That's all. He's waken up this morning, he's alright now"
"But, then I can see him, right?"
Denrath looked at him with hard eyes, the same look he'd given Ilay just a little over two years ago, when they were still enemies.
"I think it wouldn't be good for his majesty's health, to see you in his state"
"Denrath, we don't hate each other like we use to anymore"
The lieuthenant seemed to ponder this for a moment, still very doubtful, but in the end he agreed. He led Illay into Shey's bedroom, a part of the castle he'd never seen. He opened a door and left him on an ample room with couches, and piles of books thrown around. Illay walked to the door where Denrath had walked through and heard someone talking. when he got closer he realized it was sorcerer Evirath, apparently talking to Shey, though Illay couldn't hear his brother's answers.
"I must really insist that you leave this. It will only leave you weaker and defenseless" Evirath paused, and Illay figured Shey was telling him to shove his advice where the sun didn't shine "No, sir, even doing only a few a day would be dangerous. Such constant magical usage would weaken you later. I'm afraid a thousand is simply not possible for you... Oh, of course I'm not saying something is out of your capacity, your highness, but please, the burden this would place on your body and mind would leave us very weak to any sudden attack by the enemy. You must think of your people sir" Illay winced, at hearing Evirath say that. Beyond being a mean bastard, and curel, and petty, Shey was a king. And he always put the good of his kingdom and his people before any of his desires. There was a long pause and then Evirath said "If you would tell us what you desire to achieve with this, then we will all be delighted to please you sir. We live only to attend to any of your desires and surely we can... I see..."
There was a rushing sound and Illay walked back to where he'd been left. Just in time to look innocent when Evirath and Denrath came out of the room.
"His Highness is ready to see you Illay" said Evirath, who unlike Denrath had never lowered himself to call Illay 'Sir' "But try to not alter his mood in any way. He's still very weak"
Illay nodded and walked into the bedroom.
"Shey?" he asked, not being able to see clearly in the near darkness of the room. Shey lit a couple more candles on the table next to his bed.
"What are you doing here?" asked Shey, but the usual cold antiphaty on his voice was missing
"I was worried about you. I heard this had been an assassination attempt. I can here the moment I heard you were ill"
Shey nodded, but said nothing more. He sat on his bed, looking to the darkness of the night outside the window. In his lap Illay saw a tiny paper bird.
"I heard this was some kind of accident or something?"
"I miscalculated on something"
Illay worried about what this all was, since he never had to pull the words from Shey as much as he was doing now.
"What were you working on?"
"Nothing big. I read something interesting on a book and wanted to try it"
Illay drew in a deep breath. Nearly all of Shey's craziest ideas were from odd arcane books.
"I see... what...?"
"I read that if I could fold a thousand of these I could get a wish. I just tweaked the legend a little and worked it into a spell. Unfortunately I do not have enough magical energy to complete the thousand Calling prayers needed"
Illay needed all his will power to stop his jaw from falling.
"What? That was it? You spent all your magical energy in prayer papers to get a wish?!" Illay covered his face and shook his head "Why Shedreyeth? Why do you always have to come up with these incredibly crazy things?"
But when Illay looked back at Shey, he didn't found the angered, murderous expression Shey always got when Illay told him his ideas were dumb. Instead, his brother looked to be blinking back tears, and he deliberately looked away, clutching the tiny paper bird in his hands.
"S-shey? I'm sorry, I was just..."
"Out! Go away! I don't need your mocked concern!"
"Shey, please, I didn't knew you-"
"OUT! Guards!"
Detrahl came in and pulled Illay out of the room.
"Evirath told you to not anger him!" said Dethral after closing the door in a biting hiss
"He's not angry. Gods, what is so important about that spell?"
"What?"
"He looks so...sad. I'd never seen him sad about anything"
Detrahl sighed.
"We don't know either. Obviously he wants to get something important if he's willing to do all of this, but he won't say anything. I mean, we could give him anything he wants, but he won't tell"
Illay bit his lower lip and crossed his arms. He had just screwed up and hadn't yet got used to the fact that screwing up with Shey wouldn't get him killed anymore.
"Will you spend the night on the castle or should I get the transport ready?"
"I'm staying until tomorrow morning. I don't want to leave like this"
Detrahl gave him an annoyed look, but said nothing and merely nodded, leading Illay out of Shedreyeth's private chambers.

Shey got up by the next day, decided to burn all evidence of his ever trying to do anything with the paper cranes, when he found seven paper cranes neatly arranged in the tea table of his library with a note that said "Sorry for being an asshole" signed by Illay.
He gritted his teeth and had to restrain himself from burning the letter on the fireplace already lit.
He went to his tall bookshelves and picked out one that read on the title "The Many Joys Of Tartan Weaving" and put the note inside it, then put it back on the shelve. He then pushed one of the low tables to a corner and arranged all of his 44 paper cranes on it.

"And he <i>broods and sighs about it" said Evirath, over his luch at the nearly empty cafeteria. Nobody knew what a 'cafeteria' was, but Shey had insisted on naming it that way, so everyone else just went along with it.
"Have you tried asking him what's the problem?" asked Shudre, the green skinned demon with four arms that commanded the third rank of soldiers
"I have. And Detrahl, and that damned Illay. This is all his fault. The king was getting over it already, and then he comes here, enrages him and then gives him even more of those damned birds." he turned to Lieuthenant Detrahl, who had been doing his best to pretend like he wasn't there "I can't believe you let him stay the night, the king ordered you to kick him out"
"Out of his room" he said, over a mouthful of whatever the cooker had decided to kill that day. At some point Detrahl decided that every single thing served there was chicken, and he had stuck to that idea
"He just said Out. I would have kicked him out of the kingdom"
"Well, if he wants a wish why don't you just give him whatever he wants?" said Shudre, wanting to nip any fight between the two of them from the bud. It never ended well anyway, and he was always the one left to clean the blood from the walls so the king didn't found out.
"We would, but he won't tell. He just says it's nothing. And then sighs, and broods, for hours. It's driving me insane. We have to do something...burn the birds maybe"
"Hmm, well, if he wants more birds why don't you just give them to him?"
"What? Are you dumb? We can't fold 1000 paper birds! The king blacked out at 37. We wouldn't reach 20"
"I know, I know. But, he seemed happy with the birds Illahdreyeth left him. I think he's just sad because he couldn't get the 1000. He might get happy if he sees you don't think his idea is stupid. Is it very difficult to make the birds?"
Evirath pushed his food around. He didn't liked the idea of the king thinking he thought he was being stupid. No only because it endangered his head, but because he honestly didn't thought the idea was stupid. In fact, in theory it should work; you just needed enough people to provide the energy. Leaving the whole wish thing behind, that could easily be a way to manipulate enough energy to affect the weather, maybe even get rid of the need for an Earth Pillar.
"No, it's not difficult" he finally said, his voice recovering it's usual coldness "but like Illay, we could only do about 7 until we run out of energy"
Shudre downed the contents of his beer jug and got up.
"Then, we fold until we faint?"
"Something like that"

When Detrahl, Evirath and Shudre reported in sick, Shedreyeth was ready to bash their heads through the walls.
Until he found the 21 paper birds in his library.
Then he tripled their pay and gave them more vacation days.

When the lower generals found out about it, they were thrilled. They hadn't had a raise in all the time they had served Shey, and if the king was feeling magnanimous, who would let go of the opportunity.
They each left 6 paper cranes in the library. The infirmary was at nearly full capacity.
But, Shey was so happy, he doubled their pay and gave them first pillaging rights.

When the soldiers asked what happened to the generals and found out everything, they rushed to the library and each made one or two prayer paper birds.
A pay raise, new uniforms, more vacations and conyugal visits later, everyone made line to make a prayer bird to Shedreyeth.
Evirath and Detrahl stood on the hearings hall, looking out the window at the line of people waiting to be haded a special prayer paper to fold.
"This is officially out of our hands" said Detrahl
"Nghk..." grunted Evirath
"The king smiled the other day. This can't be good"
"There can't be enough people on the city who know how to write a prayer. He won't get the 1000"
"And then we'll all be hung"
"We will"
"...Nghk..."

Illay took it easy after his return to the Higher Realm from his brother's kingdom, and spent the afternoons taking the sun in the easter garden of the castle, filling back all of his magical energy.
Princess Mireen found him on the third day and sat next to him on the grass, signaling him not to stand when he recognized her.
"It's alright, don't worry about it. I just wanted to know how Shey's doing"
"Oh, he's alright. It wasn't really an assassination attempt. One of his crazy spells went wrong and drained a lot of energy from him"
"A spell? It must be a big one if it can leave Shey like that. He's one of the persons with greater magival energy I've seen"
"It was just some dumb thing, about how he could make a 1000 prayers and get a wish. He then folds them into bird shapes, for some reason. He's just being dumb again"
"1000 prayers? Like, those paper prayers they sell at small temples?" asked the princess. Illay just nodded "But, how would he keep the energy together? All of them would certainly be powerful, but there's no way to use them as a whole"
"He found a way. Whatever it is. I think he's uniting them in a greater seal or something. He won't get it done anyway, so no reason to worry about it. He seemed very interested in it though, so I left him a few"
"You left him some of those...bird prayers?"
"I kind of made a bad joke, and he got angry. He hasn't sent any ghosts after me so he must have forgiven me by now"
"So sad, that he won't get the energy for his spell. In theory sounds like a good idea"
"But if he got enough people to write him a prayer, he would get it done" said a voice from among the trees, and fifteen year old king Lance jumped down from the branches"
"You were listening?" asked the princess. Illay let go of the handle of his hidden dagger.
"Yeah. I heard you were going to ask him about Shey and wanted to find out why hundreds of people were writing him notes in the capital"
"What?" asked Illay, getting up and helping the princess up too.
"He wrote to me, telling him about the birds thing and how out of nowhere everyone was helping him. He cannot explain how it happened, says he didn't even asked for it. Must have been those advisors he has that always bend over to please his every desire"
"Frankly, it doesn't sounds like a bad idea at all" said the princess "I bet the whole wish thing is a cover up. With all that energy, he could control weather should anything happen to the earth pillar he has. Shey's smart enough to have seen that. But, more importantly, if it works for him, we can do it too. Illay, please come with me" she turned and walked towards the entrance to the garden.
"What are you going to do now?" asked Lance, in a tone that made it sound like he was talking to any woman. Illay narrowed his eyes at him, but the princess just turned back and smiled.
"To make him some of those paper birds. I need Illay to show me how to fold them. Shey can paint whatever seal he needs on the back and refold it. But I think he'll be pleased to see I'm supporting him. It's always good to be on Shey's good side"

A few days after the princess sent the birds, she received an invitation from king Shey. He was doing a party for the day when he completed the 1000 birds.
"He's being so nice!" said the princess at lunch, showing Illay and Lance the invitation "I don't think he's ever done a party, has he?"
"Shedreyeth?" asked king Randor, with clear mocking "please, he'd serve you blood instead of wine"
"He sent me an invitation too" said Lance, nonchalantly and keeping attention on his food
"Really? You could almost say you're friends already!" said the princess. Lance glared at her.
"No. I sent him some of those birds too. I think this is just polite thanks. He probably read about it in a book about social niceties. It'd be so like him"
"Well, wherever he got that idea from, it's helping him. I'm sending him my response right away. The Evening Star can take care of everything in my absence"
"What? He's coming here?" asked king Randor, outrage in his face "That fag. How can you not only accept his crazy self-title of 'Evening Star' but also trust him enough to leave everything to him?"
"I know you don't like him Randor, but he's one of the best politicians and strategists there are. If not The Best there is. The fact that he's decided to support me and accept my rulership seems like a good thing to me"
"That's what I'm saying, it's too good to be true. You shouldn't trust him so much"
"Randor, I know you worry about the stability of the Alliance, but I'll be gone for four days at most"
"If you don't get sick by the smell of death and decay of Legret. I wouldn't be surprised if the Evening Star and Shey were into something"
"My brother hates the Star too, so I don't think that's possible" said Illay, painfully aware that he had no right to talk to Randor like that and the only reason the king didn't had him executed was because Shey would cut his head too.
"What you should do" continued the princess "Is send Shey a couple of birds. Then he'll invite you to the party too, and you'll know he's sincerely trying to be good"
"Bah, he's a monster and he'll always be one" said Randor, and stormed out of the dinning hall
"Well, he's and asshole and he'll always be one" said Lance about Randor. Illay and the princess laughed.

Illay said good bye to the princess three days later. The Evening Star had arrived the night before and the princess had left everything in his hands. Illay was just happy the star hadn't brought his husband too.
"You should come too. Shey will appreciate it" said the princess from the window of the charriot
"I will part as soon as I can after I finish the first tests with the earth pillar. I'll probably arrive a day after the party"
"You work too much" she said with an understanding smile
And the driver started the charriot towards the gates of the castle. Illay stood there watching them leave.
"You really should go. He's your brother after all" said a voice behind Illay that made him jump. When he turned, he found the Evening Star, all dressed in black and as imposing as only Randor and Shey could be; he looked down at Illay with deep blue eyes that seemed to read his mind.
"I know, but I can't ignore my responsibilities" said Illay. He wanted to also tell him that it was a bad idea to just appear silently behind people, but figured that might not go down so well, so he turned to start walking towards the castle.
"And where is Lance?" asked the start, walking behind Illay and talking in a tone as if they were old buddies.
"He left yesterday morning, sir" answered Illay, and smartly left out the part where Lance had said he had no intention to spend a minute under the same roof as him.
"Ah, I see" commented the star, as if he already knew what was happening.
And that was something else Illay hated about him, how he had a way of knowing everything that people did and thought. He felt naked around him. Which was also a disturbing feeling as the Evening Star had made it no secret he liked both females and males with his marriage to that strange man from the dessert. "You don't have to call me Sir you know. I have a name, it's Enrath. It's not like I'm going to eat you"
Illay was seriously considering leaving for the party.

By the third day after the Evening Star arrived, the silence in the castle was so absolute, you could hear a pin falling. The servants and advisors and generals all kept out of both Randor's and the Enrath's way. To Illay it seemed it was a lot like having two tigers who hated each other in a room full of five years old. They would destroy each other at any moment and not care who got hurt in the way.
It was particularly annoying to Illay because it seemed like the star wanted to honestly be friends with him. He kept telling Illay to call him by his name, and smilling, and being nice.
"Hi, you're done with today's work?" asked Enrath when he saw Illay on the dinning hall. Illay had hoped to pass unnoticed, but luck was certainly not on his side that night.
"Yes, si-...yes, I'm done" he was starting to understand why it was so difficult for his brother's generals to talk to him like an equal. After a while it stopped being awkward and started being a prickling in his tongue.
"Then we can have dinner together and you'll tell me if you found something about the pillar"
"Uh, well...I..."
But Enrath had already ordered the completely silent servants to bring dinner and wine, and by the time Illay realized what was happening, he was sitting at the table and Enrath was telling him some joke about two cats, a rat, and...Oh, no, he really was describing the ambience of the castle, and Illay was the rat.
"I mean, Randor is violent, but why are people running away from me?" asked Enrath at the end.
"I...I don't know, maybe..."
Randor bursted into the hall.
"Maybe for the same reason no one likes to be near Shedreyeth, neither of you have any semblance of how to act in society" he said
"Eavesdropper"said Enrath, and Illay bit his tongue, a bead of sweat rolling on the back of his neck
"Please, you're so loud I could hear you from the other side of the castle"
Enrath dismissed that with a small wave of his hand and a smile that was nothing more than a tug at the side of his mouth.
"Acting in society? Please, Randor, don't bother me with your boring and unnecessary rules. And do be considerate enough to not talk like that about Shedreyeth with his brother present"
Randor gave Illay a short uncaring look and turned back to Enrath.
"Ah, so now you're going to pretend you're morally superior?"
"Not bad mouthing people behind their backs isn't morality, it's just being nice. I'm sure it is a very foreign concept for you, but try to understand"
Randor looked about ready to tear Enrath apart, so Illay decided to dissappear.
"You know, I should check the princess arrived safely. I'm going to call Shey" he said, bowed and left the run as fast as he could without breaking into a run.
He passed by Kivall, who looked decidedly confused. Ilay sighed and approached him.
"Kiv, what's up? You have a problem?"
"Oh, well. You see, I left my last diary somewhere and can't find it, and I had my last orders in there, and...weren't you the one who gave me the orders?"
Illay smiled weakly. Yes, he had been the one to give him orders first thing in the morning, but as long as something was an integral part of a whole, it was a certainty Kivall would forget about it. Especially if that something extended for months, as did their tests on the workings of the weather alterations of the earth pillar.
"Yes, it was me. Don't worry, tell everyone I want them to help you find the diary. If by tonight you haven't found it we'll put together all that was there and I'll give you the orders again, alright?"
Kivall nodded and Illay told him he had to leave. He could hear the steps Randor's heeled shoes made on the stone, and they sounded too harsh for Randor to be happy.
He almost jogged to the communications room. There was a couple of sorcerors outside, bickering about how certain signs were supposed to work and why their call had gone so wrong. Illay didn't felt like asking them exactly where they'd called, and so he just nodded at them and asked if there was anyone inside. W"hen they told him there wasn't he entered and locked the door.
"Damn politics, they're going to be the death of me" he muttered and walked to the center of the room. It felt better to be there, just the walls, a small table and chair on a corner and the great window that let the light in. He sighed in content and walked to the sphere standing in front of the small pool of water in the table. He took the brush nearby and dipped it in the red ink next to it, then started painting the signs to Shey's castle carefully.
Until he heard the door give a creak, and then the lock breaking. King Randor entered, looking at him with murderous eyes.
"Illahdreyeth" he started
"Sorry sir, I'm in the middle of something, and-"
"Why do you not say anything about him? I can tell you hate him too"
"Hate? Hmmm, no, I don't hate him sir. I just...don't like that he keeps so much secret from everyone else. If he expects the princess to trust him like that he should at least tell her what happened, when he obtained his powers and all. His preferences don't matter much to me. Shey breaks any rule of decency all the time anyway, so...""
He finished painting and left the brush where it was, then threw a last glance at Randor, who held the doorknob on his hand and had left a hole in the door. It was things like that that made Illay be wary of the king. He would use manipulation and magic, and hordes of sorcerers; and then, like nothing, showed that he could very well tear anyone apart with one hand.
The sphere started glowing, and someone from the other side opened communication. But then there was nothing. No one spoke or said anything, there was just an odd rustling sound for a while and then a young voice said
"Hi, who is it?" it was King Lance
"Lance? What are you doing there?"
"Oh, hey there! You've got to see this Illadreyeth! This thing, it's either going to gain sentience and fly or grant Shedreyeth his wish. And I'll tell you, it doesn't looks like it wants to grant any wishes"
"What? So it really is working?"
"And how! It radiates power. Whatever Shedreyeth did, it's working...Or going really wrong, but I don't know how wish granting birds are supposed to work"
"Oh, no...Lance, you've got to stop him!"
"Of course not! I want to see how this all ends"
"What?! Have you gone mad?! Lance, it sounds like the least that thing will do is blow up, and it'll most likely take the whole city with it. That includes you, so stop Shey!"
"Don't you give me orders! I think you are getting a bit over yourself Illadreyeth"
Illay was about to yell something very nasty to Lance when king Randor took the talking sphere from his hand. He would have said something about it, but the king had such a dark expression on his usually relxed face, he let it go.
"Lance? This is Randor" he said on the sphere
"And what are you doing listenig to other's conversations? Who do you think you are to-!"
"My greatest apologies, but I have an urgent question for you"
"What is it?"
"How old are you?"
"That's all? I'm fifteen. Are you going to call me a brat again? Oh! They're about to place the last 100! I'm leaving, this is amazing! Leave you with Detrahl!"
There was a noise of the sphere on the other side being left on the table and nothing for a while. Then someone picked it up.
"Alo? King Randor?" asked Detrahl
Illay gave a step forward to shout at the sphere
"Detrahl, get my brother here!"
"Illay? What are you doing talking here? Have you no shame? To dirty such a happy day for our king with the sound of your voice!"
"What are you talking about? I need to talk to my brother!"
King Randor gave Illay the sphere and stepped back, shaking his head.
"Illay, I assure you I have no idea who is your brother, and that if I knew it I would make sure to kill him right away to cleanse the earth of the filth of your blood"
The sphere's light dimmed, showing that Detrahl had closed the communication from the other side.
"What is up with him?! Just yesterday he was calling me Sir and now-!"
"He doesn't knows you're Shedreyeth's brother"
"What? You think he suddenly forgot about it after two years?"
Randor's eyes turned darker
"No, it's just that for him, those two years never happened. I discovered it when you spoke with Lance. He was calling your brother Shedreyeth, like he did when they met at the first alliance council. He hasn't called him by his full name since his past birthday. When he turned sixteen"
Illay felt himself unable to breath.
"No. You don't mean."
"I have no idea if this is part of Shey's wish or if this is going really wrong, but the magic of that bird is altering their perception of time in some way. And they're about to finish it"
Illay clutched the sphere in his hand so hard it cracked. He wanted to scream, but feared that should he do so, he would never stop.
"We have to go there and stop it, there are only 100 birds left to finish!"
"But if we go, we'll forget everything we know, we'll go back years and years. I'll forget I ever became king, you'll forget Shey is your brother. You remember what you were years ago? You'll end up killing each other"
Someone laughed from the corner of the room. They whirled and found the Evening Star sitting calmly and writing something in a piece of paper.
"I'm going. I'd love to forget for a while" he folded the paper and put it in his vest pocket "I trust myself, and I'll follow whatever message I leave myself, even if I never thought I'd become a star when I was young"
"We'll never get there in time" said Randor, but his tone showed some doubt.
"Mindreth has a very fast vehicle. We'll reach the capital of Legreth before dusk. That, if we don't forget who we are and what we're doing the moment we enter Legreth"
"The bird takes it's energy from the people who makes the cranes, and if they're just inhabitants from the city I'm sure it's power only extends to the capital. Although what will happen once it's finished, I have no idea"
"All I have to do then is destroy Shey's last crane and burn the bird, right?"
"You don't think you're going alone, do you?!" Said Illay, at the border of panic. He walked to the table in the corner and took a pen. But then he stopped.
What was he going to tell himself? That he had to save his worst enemy? That Shedreyeth hadn't killed his parents, but was instead his only family? He was never going to believe it. He wouldn't trust himself that much.
"I'm done" said Randor. The Evening Star looked at him oddly with a smile that lifted only one side of his mouth.
"I didn't thought you would come"
"I cannot fight Lethar alone, and if that thing erases everyone's memories or explodes, my own kingdom will be in problems"
"Maybe we should ask the royal guard to come with us" said Illay, still not having writen one word. The Evening Star shook his head and said
"No. We cannot be sure that we'll destroy the bird, but we have even less guarantees that we'll all recover our memories once it's gone"
Illay dropped the pen. He hadn't tought of that.
"But. Then."
"Mindreth will remind me, and I already wrote myself enough to understand everything. Kivall's archives contain more than enough information for us to relearn whatever we forget and everyone else can fill in the blanks"
Randor bent on the table and wrote something more on his sheet of paper.
"That brother of yours, where does he gets this crazy ideas? Books? He has to stop reading so much" said Randor, and lifted from the table "What are you waiting for? We have no time already!"
"I'm going!"
Illay took the pen again and wrote the best thing he could think of.
"Done, where do we go now?" he asked Enrath
"Now you get weapons and approppiate clothes. I'll talk to Mindreth. We'll see each other at the main gates outside the city" he turned to the sphere and Randor to the broken door. Illay followed. He was already clothed to battle, and would pick his weapons along with Randor.
"'Where do we go now?' Can you please give him more power? I think he forgot he was in charge for a moment" said Randor
"He is in charge. At least until he can get us to Legreth's capital before dusk"
"I could do that too"
"Without using the energy of the earth pillar"
"It wouldn't matter anyway"
A thought came to Illay's mind.
"Uh, sir. Is it necessary that you come?" he asked
"What?!" asked Randor, but to Illay's ears it sounded more like a growl, and in the blink of an eye, he could see the beast hiding behind the mask of the elegant and polite king. The beast that burned his way to the crown, still reeking of the stench of his victims. And just as fast, it was gone "You think you two would be better without me?"
"No! No! Gods, that's not what I meant. It's just...You will all be there. The princess, Lance, my brother, the Evening Star...what if we fail? Who will be left to fight Lethar?"
Randor scoffed and kept walking to his chambers
"Here's a little math for you, to understand this. Let's say the earth pillar has about...a million 'magical points', let's call it that. Now, every prayer paper has 10 points. 1000 of them would have 10,000 points. But, Shedreyeth's little seal doesn't leaves the papers be, like nothing. Each one build's on the energy of the one before. So when you put two together you have 20, another and you have 40, another and you have 80; until you get to 1000. Guess what happens if, for some reason all that energy is freed, suddenly, with nothing to stop it. Don't worry about Lethar. If we fail, there won't be much for him to conquer"
"Oh, god. You knew about this? Why didn't you-?!"
"In theory, it should have worked. After I heard about it I researched into it and found something that could fit into all of Shedreyeth's criteria, including that dumb thing about the birds. I must admit now that should it have worked, I was ready to make something like it. Apparently something went wrong"
"You were waiting to see if-"
"If it didn't blew up like most of his crazy ideas. Yes. And it looks like it will at least blow up, so I won't be going on with it. Not until I find out what happened anyway. And no one but me could deal with something going even worse at the last moment. So, yes. I have to go" he entered his chambers and closed the door on Illay's face.

After the episode with Randor,Illay decided to wait for the two of them on the main gates. It gave him time to fume about how much of a bastard they both were.
Until Enrath's husband arrived. Suddenly. With no fanfare or anything. One moment Illay was looking into the distance, then he rubbed his eyes, and there he was, climbing off a funny charriot made entirely of some kind of shining black metal.
"You are Illahdreyeth. Shedreyeth's older brother" he said, with a foreign accent and a pronounced hiss to his voice. It wasn't a question, merely a statement. Possibly his way of saying hello
"And, you are?"
"Mindreth. Enrath hasn't arrived? He said it was urgent!" the man gritted his teeth, and Illay could see sharp fangs. He focused his attention on anything else but his mouth.
"Uhm, well, he must be getting his weapons, and things necessary for the spells, and..."
"So you're off to battle? With who?" he asked nonchalantly, pushing back his long black hair. His overly pale skin made him look a bit sickly
"Oh, not battle as it is. We're just...going to stop one of my brother's spells which got out of control"
"But it'll be dangerous"
"No...or, well, yes. Yes, it's going to be pretty dangerous"
"Deathly?"
"Very"
"He didn't mention that"
The danger sign in Illay's mind lifted.
"Oh, well..."
The kings came running. Randor dressed in a common leather armor, and Enrath wearing only less formal black clothes
"Mindreth. I didn't expected you so fas-"
"You didn't said it would be so dangerous"
Enrath looked like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
"No. I see Illay has told you everything"
"Everything I need to know, and that you didn't told me"
"Of course I didn't told you. You would have wanted to come"
"I'm coming"
"What? No! It's too dangerous"
"That's why I'm coming with you"
Randor looked at the both of them and walked to the odd charriot, inspecting the insides. Illay walked behind him, feeling a little disoriented in domestic affairs.
"Why couldn't you keep your mouth closed?" asked Randor, feeling the seats. In many ways it was like a normal charriot, squareish, black velvet seats and two doors. And then Illay hit the metal and saw that there were no horses or anything to pull it and felt very confused.
"What was I supposed to do? I thought Enrath had told him what we were going to do"
"For just a moment focus on the fact that the guy has hair longer than the princess and married Enrath. He is his wife. Would you tell your wife what we're going to do knowing that she could wield a sword as well as you?"
"Ungh..."
"Well, fine. If you can't stand that I go with you" said Mindreth, and Illay thought that maybe that was one of the reasons why Shey hadn't gotten married. Domestic problems were probably more than he could bear with.
"It's not that, and you know it. I just worry about you. Look, when we come back I'll explain everything"
"If you come back"
Randor turned around and called.
"Don't worry, if we don't come back everyone will die"
Enrath shot him a death glare and for the first time in a long time, Randor smiled.
Some more bickering later, the three of them got in the charriot.
"I hate you" said Enrath. Randor could barely contain his laughter.
Enrath pushed up one of the seats and pulled out something that looked like a big piece of chalk, then wrote the word Legreth's capital in the floor. He put the chalk back and pushed the seat back down.
They sat there for a while.
"So, what do we...?" started Illay
And then there was a pull, and he fell from his seat. Before he could realize what had happened, the pull was gone, and he looked up at Enrath and Randor, the latter held on to the seat hard enough to break it.
"That's why I always sit here" said Enrath, giving Illay his hand to help him stand up.
Randor looked out the window with a mildly surprised expression.
"Where did he got this?" he asked
"Family inheritance"
Illay sat back down and looked out the window. Everything passed in a blur. It was surreal enough for Illay to think fainting was a good idea.

They arrived at the capital at dusk. The energy around it making the air feel harsh.
"If I can feel it from here it must be worse than I expected" said Randor, climbing down from the charriot. He clutched his letter hard in his hand. so did Enrath, and Illay took out his own.
"There are no guards at the gate" pointed out Illay
"They must have forgotten they were guards. Who knows how many years their minds have gone back"
"I don't feel anything yet" said Illay, with the small hope that Randor was wrong about the whole time thing.
The three started walking towards the gate, and then Illay did felt something. At first it was just a small feeling that he was losing something, as if he had left something behind at the castle. He checked for his sword and weapons. Everything was alright. Then the sensation turned stronger. He had lost something, and it felt like he had been stolen.
They crossed the gate, and in his mind, his name turned much shorter.

#

"What am I doing here?!" he asked. The last thing he remembered was having dinner at Sherat's inn and planning a way to either reinstall empress Merath or defeat Evil King Shedreyeth. He looked to his right and saw a tall man with black hair and brilliant blue eyes, then he turned to his right and saw another tall man with long light brown hair and cruel eyes.
"Who are you?" asked the brown haired man. They both reached for their swords and found they were holding papers in their hands. "What is this? It says it's for me"
Illay looked down at his, it had his name in it. The blue eyed man opened the letter he was holding and read it. Illay did the same and so did the other one.
Illay's letter read:
"Illay. If you open this letter you must be on the capital of Legreth. You are on a mission to destroy Shedeyeth's energy machine. There is something wrong in it and he must not finish it under any circumstance. The energy it currently has created a sort of hole in time, and you don't remember much that has happened in the latest years. all you need to know is that Merath is an empress an the empire is doing well. You won! You're a true hero in the future. So, keep that out of you mind and focus on what you need to do.
The other two men with you are king Randor, from the kingdom of Erethar, he has light brown hair. If you have never heard of this kingdom then you don't remember absolutely nothing. Randor is very powerful in the future, so don't do anything stupid, but he also angers easily and hates you, so don't try to get him to like you. The other is Enrath, known as the Evening Star. If you don't know what that is, just keep in mind he is also very powerful but loyal to the princess of the Higher Real. You work for her now. It didn't work out with Edera, but you got over it later. You three have gone there to stop it and save everyone there. Everyone. If you can get things done without hurting any of the guards or monsters there, all the better. But above all, don't hurt Shedreyeth. He'll try to kill you, and so will everyone, but you must not attack them. I cannot tell you why you musn't kill Shedreyeth, you wouldn't believe me, and I'm writing to myself. Just don't hurt anyone and find a way to destroy that energy machine. It looks like a lot of paper birds put together. You can trust the others. If you all fail, we are all doomed.
-Illay (You have a longer name in the future, but I can't tell it to you)"

Illay looked up at who he identified as king Randor.
"So, we need to destroy some energy machine? Nice" said the man named Enrath "You're Illay, I suppose"
Illay nodded.
"It looks like-"
"A 1000 paper birds?" said Randor "This sounds like a very elaborate joke"
Enrath held his hands up and tiny lights crackled around them.
"Well, it looks like there is indeed a considerable amount of energy here. Too much energy"
"This has to be some kind of trap. I don't believe this" said Illay, crumpling the paper into a ball.
"Let me see that" said Randor, but Illay remembered that he supposedly hated him
"Let me see yours first" said Illay. Randor turned wary "Come on, do you believe whatever you have there?"
"I do" said Enrath, and took out his sword. It was a beautiful white blade with blue jewells encrusted in the handle. Only a very powerful king or emperor could have something like that "I could not have this if I wasn't a Star"
"The Evening Star" whispered Illay.
"So I'm a king then?" asked Randor and took out his own sword. It was also a beautiful weapon, but not nearly as beautiful as Enrath's.
"We have no time. We need to destroy that machine before it's complete" said Enrath, and started walking