Magic and Gold

4: Scrap

Before darkness fell, I stopped by the throne room. There were no less than ten guards surrounding The Orb at all times. There was a locked door and several security wards and spells set up so that no one but the royal family was allowed to even touch it. But I was a Monrova, so I passed the security clearance after guards double checked that I was truly myself. If a guard took magic unsanctioned, the spells would drop him before he even reached the door. Once, someone had used magic to disguise them, pretending to be a royal. They did not live to tell the tale.

"Princess," an older guard said to me, nodding his head. Judging by the medals on his chest, he had authority over the other guards here.

"General." I nodded back. "I have need of magic. A generous amount today."

"Of course," another guard said, escorting me up to orb.

"Thank you, Officer." I placed my hand on The Orb, drawing out as much magic as I thought I needed. Magic had a warmth to it, filling your body with happiness and making you feel good. Magic was a drug kept under extremely careful clearance.

Magic was a fickle thing. Magic may have existed somewhere else for all we knew, but for us, The Orb contained all magic. For centuries, it had been controlled by the king under strict enchantments. No one knew exactly how The Orb came to be, or how much power it held. Some philosophers and scientists believed that there was magic in everything in this universe, but in extremely small portions. Since gold was the best known conductor of magic, scientists predicted that long ago, a huge chunk of gold conducted and centralized a large portion of magic, collecting for millions of years until The Orb became what it was now. There were always more questions, though. I myself had puzzled over the mysteries of it. Did it contain unlimited power? Did it regenerate? Did it become more or less powerful as time goes on? Magic was a mysterious thing.

There are things I, along with everyone else, did know, though. Magic was a fickle thing. Magic could be held and transferred, but it needed a host, whether it be the human form, the Orb, or gold. Gold was the best conductor of magic. It could hold the most magic for the longest amount of time. The human form, on the other hand, was a less efficient conductor. It only held magic for about a day, but that was all I needed. Magic flowed up my arms, and I kept it there for later use.

Magic could be used for almost anything. The guards probably assumed I was using this magic to make my hair sleek and shiny, or widen my closet to fit the new clothes I conjured. Magic could fix your performance at almost any task, could heal injuries, could transport you instantly, could change your appearance. Some people even kept lap-sized dragons whose life force was dependent on magic. The thing about magic was: the bigger the task, the more magic you need. Keeping a pet sized dragon would take a minimal amount of magic, but sustaining a dragon large enough to ride, fly, and breathe fire would take an unimaginable amount of magic. It was possible, but simply not done.

Most people used magic for small things like doing chores or instant travel, healing a headache, possibly to get a small bit of luck. Without gold, most people's magic wasted away within a few days if they did not use it. Magic was spread across the kingdom by the king, but allotments of magic were infinitesimal, smaller than they had ever been in history. The king awarded his closest followers with extra magic, so the nobles could use it for frivolous causes as the people on the streets died of disease and starvation.

Yet, people were still heavily dependent on that small bit of magic. Criminals were punished with jail or even worse, magic taken away for life. A lack of magic was the worst punishment. If you lost your right to magic, you were a normal person. Worse, you were poor and had to do everything all by yourself. People were scared to say anything against the king, ever, in fear that he would take away magic from all the peasantry. As the princess, I got as much magic as I wanted, which had wracked me with guilt when I was young. Then I began to do something about it.