The Rifts of Psyche by Kyle West (i love reading .txt) 📕

chapter in the human legacy.” She paused. “And I will see it through to my dying breath.”

“I want no part in that.”

“You have no choice, Lucian. It is your path. If you find the Orbs, it will prevent the fraying from destroying us. From there, it’s only a matter of time before the mages rule the Unarcane, because they can never hope to stand up to us. If not me, then another figure will come along. It will be war all over again, but this time, we cannot lose. And the society we build, whether that’s through an autocratic star empire, or through a representative democracy as we saw in the latter part of the last millennium, will be better than the one that now exists. You, Lucian, are the Chosen of the Manifold. My decades of work building up this world, marshaling its people and resources, have been in anticipation of your arrival. My empire was built to be your legacy. Maybe you don’t see it now, but you will one day.”

Lucian fought to keep his face neutral. His legacy? The woman was mad. But he could also see her point. If he found all the Orbs and did nothing with them, the fraying would end. Some mage, whether that was Queen Ansaldra or someone else, would start a new Mage War. No longer limited by fraying, the mages would probably be impossible to stop.

What was more, he would be immortal, barring accidental death. Lucian wasn’t sure what to think about that. Assuming he attained that impossibility, as the Queen believed he was destined to do, he would be more powerful than any mage that had ever existed since the Immortal Emperor of Starsea. There was still a missing piece of the equation. The Oracle of Binding wanted him to destroy the Orbs, which would destroy magic forever. Only that could stop the Starsea Cycle, and it would also prevent the Queen’s plans from ever coming to fruition.

There were still too many intangibles. Lucian needed to learn more. And yet, the only person he could learn from was her.

He didn’t like that part of the equation. Not one bit.

“Once, I thought myself the Chosen,” she said. “However, I saw this was not the case as time passed. The Orb of Psionics, after all, never revealed itself to me. As inexperienced as you are, as young, as powerless, as unqualified, you are the Chosen. And as such, it’s my role to help you. We mages must stand together as a united front. As we once did fifty years ago. Do you think the League will ever tolerate our existence? Even if the fraying were to end, do you think they would let us call the shots? They are terrified of us. And for good reason.”

“You lost at Isis. And because of the mages, that planet was destroyed. That’s why they created Psyche.”

The Sorceress-Queen laughed. “Is that what you think? No. Xara Mallis was a brave woman. She failed in her own quest to find the Orbs, but I would stand behind anyone who had a chance of finding them. Isis was only the pretext for what had already been planned. Psyche would have happened, with or without Isis, with or without the Mage War. In fact, Psyche was the inciting reason for Xara and Vera to abandon the Academy Mages, the spark that set off the Mage War.” The Queen watched him, unassailable on her throne. “We were betrayed, Lucian. Stabbed in the back by the League that had promised us a place in its society.”

Could such a thing be true? If it were, then everything Lucian thought he knew was wrong.

She seemed to watch him for some sort of reaction. Lucian did his best to not betray any emotion, but against the Sorceress-Queen, such an exercise was one of futility. She could probably read almost anything he was thinking. What did the Sorceress-Queen know about Vera? It was hard not to ask questions.

“Vera had no idea what she had in you,” she said. “And now, you have the chance to right the inequities of the past. To become the champion for all magekind. You have a greater part to play in all this, Lucian. Surely, you’ve felt it. It’s not your fate to run and hide. I don’t want your Orb. I only want to work with you, to help you. You need training. If you are ever to find all the Orbs, how can you ever hope to do so with barely any education? You need me. Who else is there to teach you?”

That was a fair question. The ether the Orb of Binding could draw might be limitless, but at the same time, it had betrayed him almost to his death. And he had no idea why.

“The Orb of Psionics is hidden somewhere in the Burning Sands,” she said. “Over the years, I’ve searched for it many times to no avail. Shantozar will only reveal it when the Chosen comes. If I were Chosen, he would have revealed it by now.”

“How do you know all this? How have you spoken with this . . . Shantozar?”

“Shantozar has only given me such information as it pleases him, but I’ve used my own knowledge of The Prophecy of the Seven to put the pieces together. Not all, but enough.”

As he thought before, she knew as much or more than him about this. Everything, except for what the Oracle of Binding had told him. She could never find out his true plan for the Orbs.

If she did, then she might kill him.

“I believe I know your reason for wanting the Orb of Psionics.”

Lucian’s skin went cold. Had she read his thoughts?

She continued. “Or at least, the reason others want you to find it.”

Lucian felt himself relax, if only a little bit.

“The one called Elder Jalisa was once my student during the early days of Psyche. I’ll admit, she was the one to interpret that section of The Prophecy of the