Ontogeny

Chapter 1a

     “How did it happen?” he asked.

      The King shook his head. “There are so many people opposed to the truce with Carrow. So many people who would profit from war. Somehow an agent got into the palace, through all our defences. We were so confident she was safe. So naive...”

     “But surely there are wards in place to defeat any curse...”

     “But that’s just it, don’t you see? Technically it’s not a curse. It’s a blessing. She’s being transformed into a Radiant. A higher being.”

     “But without Radiant parents to raise her...”

     The King nodded. “The transformation will be unguided, random. She’ll become...”

     “There’s must be a way to stop it. Some cure...”

     The King gave a bitter, sardonic laugh. “If it were a curse... The wizards know how to deal with curses. If the effects aren't too bad the victim can be raised back up. A blessing, though. Who would even think of using a blessing as a weapon? We simply have no experience with such a thing.”

     The Brigadier nodded. The King looked old, he thought. He had never looked young, despite the fact that he'd been human less than thirty years. The worries and strain of ruling a mighty kingdom had long since taken its toll, but there were lines around his eyes now and a tired look that had never been there before. That, more than anything else, worried the Brigadier and made him rack his brains for any solution, no matter how hopeless or desperate. “There are any number of ontomancers in the Kingdom,” he said. “Maybe a curse will reverse the blessing. I know the idea of...”

     “We approached Boll.” The Brigadier shot him a glance and the King nodded ruefully. “Yes, we had the same idea. A curse to reverse the blessing. All the court ontomancers tried, when we finally managed to convince them we weren't testing their loyalty. When they failed we approached outsiders. The finest licensed wizards we could find. They cast curse upon curse on her while the Queen and I just stood and watched. All to no avail. In the end, we turned to the most powerful wizard in the Kingdom, licensed or not. Lawful or villainous. We sent for Boll.”

     The Brigadier stared back down at the Princess, trying to imagine the young woman sharing a room with possibly the most evil wizard in the human world. Trying to imagine her parents bringing the two of them together, on purpose. “The number of times I’ve tried to find that man,” he muttered to himself. “He was like a ghost. Always one step ahead of us. All we ever found were his victims and, occasionally, the scum of the earth ambitious or desperate enough to hire his services.”

     The King nodded. “That's how desperate we were. We had him here, right in the castle, under a flag of truce and an offer of amnesty. We hired him to cast the most powerful curse he possibly could. A curse more powerful than any other human could possibly perform. A curse that, if cast on a normal, healthy person, would have knocked them not just one rung down, but two or even three. We paid him to do it. All for nothing. She still looks human, but the transformation has already progressed too far. She’s immune to all curses and ailments.”

     “So we think of something else. We still have time, do we not?”

     “It took her five years to change from Kestrel to human, It’ll take at least that long to fully change to Radiant. It is my hope that, somewhere in the world, there is someone with greater knowledge of such things than anyone we’ve ever heard of. Someone who can help her.” He turned to face the Brigadier. “That’s why I sent for you, old friend. Your experience out there, in the wild places of the world. I thought you might have heard of someone...”