Broken But Unburnt

Chapter 8 - Kazimir

Chapter 8: Kazimir

Palace of the Nebula Throne: Kingdom of Idoria

Kazimir often wondered about the men who created prophecies. The so-called prophets who opened their mouths and spewed a rhetoric that the people around them believed to be predictive. The charlatan trade of fortune telling, those women with golden bracelets and vibrant dresses who lied to young girls and sent them off kissing toads to find a prince. Were those prophets? The men who wore crowns and claimed to rule by divine right. Were they prophets? Who decided what was a prophecy and what wasn't? Who decided what constituted true foresight and what was mere trickery?

He leaned over the long desk in his darkened study and squinted down at the book again. He would read it again and again and however many more times it took until something clicked, until he memorized it, until he understood it. Because this prophecy, these written words spoken by a man long dead, were speaking of him. They had to be.

And so he read:

There will come an age in which humanity will be granted a gift. Two conjurers, both of whom will hold more power than has been seen since the dawn of time. They will be opposites to one another in every way. They will rise to the forefront of their age and humanity will be forced to choose between them. One, if chosen, will bring the world to utter ruin, destroying the fabric of time itself and sending humanity careening towards extinction. The other, if chosen, will bring about a new Age of Legends in which the saints themselves will return and magic will flow once more into the world as water.

Kazimir slammed the book shut, rubbing his tired eyes with the heel of his palm. There was no sense in reading it again, not tonight. He'd been sitting here for hours already, contemplating the news from the east and the plans which he and Jareth had concocted. He stared at the note on his desk which had prompted his sequestering in his office. Written in Eldric Hann's own hand, a vicious accusation that Kazimir -or as Eldric and the rest of the world referred to him the Chaos - colluded with the Idorian throne to order a magical assassination upon the King of Karil.

As if any plan for assassination that Kazimir came up with would have been so clumsy, so ridiculous as to send in unarmed girl into the palace single-handedly. Though, he had to admit, he was impressed that it had worked. He might have even felt pride for a fellow conjurer if he weren't presently being blamed for their crime.

A knock on the door distracted him from the note and he glanced up, bidding his visitor to enter. Jyn pushed the door open a moment later. A petite young woman with a thin frame, colorless except for her bright purple, pixie cut hair, Jyn was Kazimir's personally appointed assistant and she positively relished the role.

"The Congregation has arrived, sir," she said, jutting her hip out as she stood in the threshold with crossed arms and an indifferent expression.

Kazimir sighed but rose from his seat.

"Thank you, Jyn."

He strode from his study and down the hall to the chambers where the Congregation met.

Established during Idoria's conversion to the Allegiance religion, the Congregation had eight members, one for each of the Saints representing each categorization of magic; Saint Vesna of the Electrons, Saint Vidar of the Telepaths, Saint Zhivka of the Inferni, Saint Cedomir of the Aquators, Saint Pia of the Naturalists, Saint Stoyan of the Cardiants, Saint Milja of the Oracles, and Saint Damek of the Welders. This was how the religion of the Allegiance began, with these saints and their magic disciplines. Now, each discipline was represented by a Makana warrior, chosen by the King to serve their own discipline in matters of rule of law. But the King himself hadn't attended a single meeting since appointing Kazimir as leader of the Makana and his personal ambassador for all things magic.