The Kingdom of Noitcif

Chapter Twenty-Four - What the King Has and the Emperor Wants

  As soon as the door shut behind uncle and nephew, Espen found himself in a spacious room with a large window overlooking the Empire of Ytilaer. A Persian rug filled the middle of the floor, and a large, ornate wooden table littered with tools, glass vases, and numerous other odds and ends sat in the center.

  "What is this place?" Espen breathed, convinced something was about to leap out at him from a dark corner.

  Engres laughed. "You seem to show a keen interest in my endeavors, Estevan. I'm honored."

  The emperor pushed Espen into a large metal chair near the window overlooking the skyscrapers. As he sat, bands fastened around his legs and arms so tightly he could hardly move.

  "As for this room," Engres continued, watching as his nephew tried and failed to get out of the throne. "I call it my lounge, but it has turned into a testing room for projects now. It used to be much more cheery, but oh well; duty calls."

  As much as his bonds allowed him, Espen craned his neck to see what Engres was doing behind him. To his horror, he saw that he was picking up a large clamp and knife – both of which made the young king squirm as he thought of the implications. But instead of stabbing his nephew, Engres deftly snatched the Noitcif crown off of Espen's head and set all three items on the coffee table in the center of the room. He suddenly felt his chair rotate, and he found himself looking directly at what his uncle was doing.

  "So you didn't realize the power you had at your disposal?" Engres scoffed, lifting Espen's crown and pointing to a tiny, dark purple jewel placed at the back of it. "Pity," he quipped after watching his nephew's blank expression.

  The jewel looked so unimportant compared to the dozens of larger, more elegant stones that decorated the crown, Espen wondered if he ever noticed its existence at all - much less know what it did.

  Engres clucked his tongue. "I'd say this little gem needs to be in the hands of a more worthy owner." He grasped the crown with the clamp and carefully plucked out the purple stone with the knife.

  "What does it do?"

  "You'll see..."

  "And why wasn't I told if the jewel did something other than being... well, a jewel?"

  Engres shrugged. "Noitcif people have a tendency to only see the beauty in an item - completely forgetting its practical application. Except one..." At that, the emperor's mouth twisted into a lopsided smile. "... I'd say Lysander did his work well."

  Espen's mind was running in top gear as Engres slowly lifted the jewel up to gaze through at the light. With a quick motion, he tossed it upwards, snatched it from the air, and then quickly set it inside a small metal box, which began to hum as the lid snapped shut.

  "For your information, I'm drawing out the power and benefits this jewel holds inside, of which you were so ignorant," he sighed as the box stopped humming, and Engres opened the lid. "You must agree it's more fitting for this treasure to be in the hands of someone who's actually educated about it's purpose."

  However, as the emperor thrust his hand inside of the metal box to draw out his prize, he recoiled as if he had been seared by a hot coal. Once again he tried, but he only yelped and drew his fingertips back again.

  "What's going on?" Espen asked as calmly as he could – or dared.

  Engres barred his teeth and gingerly set the box down as he proceeded to dust himself off.

  "This isn't supposed to happen!" he sighed, striding back, lifting the lid, and peering into the depths of the box. "I'm from the Kingdom of Noitcif," he stated loudly to the gem. "I was born and raised there! Don't reject me like this!"

  Espen almost felt like laughing at this point, but sat stone-faced as his uncle wandered over to the window to stare theatrically at his empire.

  After a brief moment, the emperor twisted back, and strode across the room to grab a leather glove off of one of the workbenches against the wall. Espen watched as he walked back to the precious stone and drew it out of its box with ease.

  "Ahh, yes. Now, there we have it," he breathed.

  To the young king's surprise, he realized the tiny jewel was glowing with a blinding violet light.

  Suddenly, Engres' thoughtful gaze transformed into a curious grin, and he nodded his head towards his nephew - but didn't take his eyes off of the jewel.

  "Come here, Estevan. I want you to test something for me."

  He reached inside of his pocket, and Espen's bonds retracted back into the metal chair.

  For an instant, the young king to refused to even go so far as to get out of his seat, but when he saw that his uncle's gaze was now pointed directly towards him, he realized that he had to oblige. With a heavy sigh, he slid out of the chair and slowly made his way to Engres' side.

  "I want you to touch this for me," the emperor purred, holding out the tiny jewel in the palm of his gloved hand. "Nothing more."

  Espen nodded, and then slowly, carefully, thrust a fingertip out towards the blinding light. However, as his finger made contact, his eyebrows furrowed as he realized that he didn't experience the same searing pain that his uncle had. The gem was warm, to be sure, but nothing more.

  "Ahh, of course," Engres said with a nod and a smile. "It doesn't hurt you because you are truly an heir of Noitcif and haven't been disowned. That makes perfect sense."

  A crazy idea suddenly crept into Espen's mind, and before he even had time to process if it was worth it to take this risk, the right opportunity was upon him. His entire hand closed around the stone, and narrowly missed Engres' fingers trying in vain to snatch it back. The young king sprinted across the room with his uncle at his heels, yelling curses behind him, before he began to frantically glance around for the door. Finally, he found it, but by the time he started to reroute himself towards it, Engres was upon him. With a strength that surprised Espen due to of his uncle's thin form, he was thrown down upon the Persian rug, and the jewel went skittering out of his grasp and under a chair.

  "Teenagers," Engres spat, hoisting himself off of his nephew - for he had practically leaped on top of him in order to knock him down. "I want you to know that that was completely pointless. You're reminding me of Hyperion more and more, Estevan."

  The emperor strode over to the chair that the jewel had rolled under, but had hardly picked it up before his nephew clambered to his feet, thrust his shoulder into the large steel door, and escaped.