Chapter 4: Multiple Shake-Up

It was a crisp September day as Melia drearily entered the training room. With Spear Break continuing to be an utter waste of her time for an entire one and a half years, and having learned nothing new since, the three-times-a-week sessions had turned into an unattractive drag. It didn't help that the public gossips had started to latch onto "the half-blood princess decided to learn ether because she's super-frail". She needed no reminder of being poor at something.

"How do you feel about learning something new today?"

Melia instantly perked up at Reddel's words. "That would be..." ...appreciated? Too obvious. Um, how about... "...bountiful." No! Too strange a word, stupid, stupid...

"Would it now? Excellent." Reddel summoned a flare into his staff, which sat in the spiral design. "Today, you'll be learning how to do this."

Without any impetus, the flare left the staff and started swirling around Reddel's head, before flying upwards and tracing complex designs in the air, and then finally dissipating.

"Given your exceptional discharge accuracy, I believe you're already subconsciously aware of how to control elementals with nothing but your mind. We just need to unlock that potential for your conscious self."

Melia's enthusiasm crawled out of the hole it had been hiding in for several months. The applications of learning how to mentally control the flight paths of elementals were obvious, for both spectacle and combat alike.

"So, let's begin by telling me about your flares. Back when we started your training, they moved in curved paths yet still never missed their target. Now, they move just as straight as your bolts. Why is that?"

Melia considered the question. She'd never really thought about why her flares tended to curve; it just made sense. "I do not know. I thought the curved motion was an intrinsic property of the elemental, and it has taken much effort to straighten it out."

Reddel nodded. "Remember when you first picked up the staff? You produced three straight-moving bolts and a steeply-curved flare. This primed your mind to recognise these as the elementals' natural paths. In fact, the only reason your elementals leave your staff at all is because you expect them to behave like physical objects upon making your exaggerated casting motion. You must learn to funnel this expectation into direct control. So, we shall begin with a course-correction exercise." He pointed to the numbered targets on the back wall of the room. "Only after you launch an elemental will I tell you which target to aim for."

Melia summoned a flare and gave it a light toss towards the wall of targets, causing it to float through the air parabolically, slowly moving towards the center of the target cluster.

"Three!"

The target marked with a "3" was the rightmost one. Melia set her gaze on it and imagined the flare making a right turn towards it. It didn't move from its existing path, trundling slowly towards the 5 target.

Move. Go right. Get over there. Melia kept staring at the 3 target, which was still not in the flare's path. Go on, turn right. Move over. Do something! She instinctively pointed sideways with her right hand. The flare immediately rolled over as if struck by a crosswind and picked up speed, slamming directly into the 3 target.

"Not bad," Reddel commented. "You still seem to depend on physical motion, but it's a start."

It did not take long for Melia to gain a strong grasp of directing elementals that were already in motion. Within twenty minutes, she could fire an elemental and make it soar around the entire perimeter of the room before dropping into a corkscrew and scoring a bullseye on any given target, using her free arm to direct its movements. Another thirty minutes, and she could control both speed and direction, and from there it was trivial to fire an elemental directly out of her staff just by pointing at her target.

"Impeccable as usual," Reddel applauded. "Now all you have to do is practise making gradually smaller movements, until you have it down to just mental power. It'll be more involved than the initial process done today, but once learned it'll stick with you forever."

Melia stared at the bolt hovering above her outstretched hand. Having complete control over elemental movements, whether it needed physical motions or not, had turned out to be highly satisfying. It was a shame that her Practice Staff couldn't allow her to practise such manipulation.

It only took a month for Melia to grasp mental-only control of elementals' movements, though it was still far cruder than directing them with physical motion, with slower response time and occasional lapses of concentration resulting in near-misses. Her interest in training re-spurred, she started having a variety of dreams involving herself fighting various make-believe enemies, with one in particular sparking a question. At the beginning of a training session in late October, she posed it.

"Mr. Reddel? What happens if two elementals collide?"

Reddel stroked his moustache. "Been thinking about fighting like-armed foes, eh?"

Melia nodded. She didn't feel it necessary to say that the dream involved her fighting herself.

"Well, why don't you try it out yourself?" Reddel directed an arm towards the empty airspace in the middle of the room.

Melia nervously looked between Reddel's arm and her staff. She had expected an answer, not an invitation to do something potentially dangerous - on the other hand, it must not be that dangerous if he was inviting her to test it.

She went ahead and summoned a flare, transferring it from her staff to her hand, and then moved to summoning a bolt. With both elementals active, she tossed the flare into the air and sent the bolt flying after it. When they met in midair, the flare exploded and the bolt tumbled down to the ground, dissipating on landing.

"As you can see," began Reddel, "the flare detonates on impact, while the bolt persists but with weakened power. If you were sufficiently committed, you could have made the weakened bolt continue to strike its target."

Melia nodded in comprehension. A reasonable result. I suppose if two like elementals collide, they cancel each other out completely, unless one user is much stronger than...hold on...did I...?!

"And now you are realising something else important," Reddel responded to the look of dawning recognition on Melia's face. "You have just controlled two elementals at once for the first time. With no apparent difficulty, might I add, an impressive feat compared to the vast majority of practitioners."

"You...you set me a task that you expected me to fail at?"

"On the contrary. It is most effective for the first-timer to not realise they are summoning a second elemental while the first still exists. And your ambidextrousness is a massive boon to controlling two elementals at once. I had complete faith in your success."

Used to her handedness earning her reprimands for doing things "wrong", Melia ended up blushing a little.

"I had planned to formally introduce you to multi-elemental control in three months, but you provided a perfect opportunity to jump ahead. Now, let's see you give it a more thorough try."

Melia nodded and summoned a bolt. The subsequent flare was indeed more difficult to bring forth now that she was aware of what she was doing, having to concentrate on both the elemental being produced and the one she was already keeping aloft. She experimented with tossing the two balls of energy between her staff and her free hand before launching the flare at a distant target, where it detonated with noticeably more force than usual.

"Now that you can command multiple elementals at once, you are ready to be taught another facet of their usage." Reddel summoned a pair of his own, which hovered over his head. "As long as they remain idle, elementals bestow a positive effect on the controller and nearby allies. Bolts provide a nexus of energy that amplifies offensive ether attacks, whereas the warmth of flares empowers muscles and allows more potent physical strikes. In time, you will learn when to fire elementals for damage, and when to keep them nearby for support."

Nodding again, Melia summoned a second bolt and had it collide with the first, resulting in both disappearing in a mighty bang. While being an all-out attacker was always what she envisioned herself doing, she knew that taking a more support-like role in fights would probably be more effective.

Over the next nine months of training, Melia made it a point to always keep two elementals active at once, no matter what she was doing. It started out as a hindrance, messily juggling two elementals over her head while trying to use Hypnotise or Burst End, but eventually developed into a skill trivial enough that she would sometimes forget to dispel them before leaving the room at the end of a session.

It was a hot day in July when an idea popped into her head.

I have never seen anyone with more than two elementals active at one time. Even in the cases of performances where one actor is surrounded by a large amount, it still appears that one practitioner is required for every two elementals. It must be at least somewhat challenging to produce a third simultaneous elemental. She looked up at the two bolts hanging effortlessly above her head. I'm going to try it.

Melia started focusing on summoning a third bolt. Her instinct was immediately proved correct; she could feel a mental block from trying to split her attention three ways, even though she was previously maintaining the existing ones mostly subconsciously. It was much like the first time she had ever tried to summon something, though with additional distractions.

Reddel noticed that Melia had stopped moving. "Is everything all right?"

Melia ignored him. She could sense the bolts above her head starting to move erratically, like slowing spinning tops, as the electric charge in her staff gradually built up. She was determined to make it work. After about twenty seconds, the third bolt finally materialised in her staff, and the other two bolts immediately stabilised.

That wasn't so hard. Melia lobbed the third elemental into the air alongside the other two. She had to consciously focus on all three to keep them aloft. A little challenging to create, but not really any harder to control. I wonder if I can get a fourth into the mix within a year or so.

"Well I'll be." Reddel's voice was enough of a distraction that the trio of elementals tumbled down a few centimetres before being pushed back up. "Given your overall exceptional affinity with the tools, I suppose I shouldn't really be surprised that you're a natural tripler."

Melia responded with a confused face; she didn't feel like she could put effort into speaking without dropping something.

"Only a very small percentage of ethermasters have the mental fortitude to manipulate three elementals at once," he explained, "and an even smaller subset of them believe it is worth the effort. It is a skill practised by few and utilised by fewer."

So probably no fourth then, Melia thought. Three is still quite useful though - one for offence and two for support. She could feel her mind getting exhausted from the effort of keeping all three in the air, and so decided to cast one away, knocking a punching bag off its stand. It's much harder to keep three around that it was to keep two at first, perhaps exponentially so. But practice should be able to solve it.

"Due to its difficulty," continued Reddel, "and the fact that I cannot demonstrate it myself, tripling is not something that I had planned to introduce to you at all. So, if you intend to practise it, I will need to delay what was to be the next step."

Melia hesitated for only a moment. "I accept the challenge." She immediately got to work on summoning a flare to hold alongside the two existing bolts.

Unlike learning to control two elementals at once, Melia could not focus on other tasks while straining to juggle three, so until reaching the point of being able to do so she had to take time out of training sessions just to practise "tripling". It was also more difficult to tell if she was getting anywhere - two months in, and she didn't really feel like there had been much improvement. But knowing that it was a rare skill was motivation to continue, to develop beyond what anyone else had done.

One day in late September, she was experimenting with various elemental formations, seeing if some positionings were easier to maintain than others.

This pyramid formation seems the least-mentally-intensive overall, she mused, face scrunched in concentration. It is as if the two bolts below are helping keep the central flare suspended. The question is, should I focus on an easier position and work on harder ones later, or-

Her thoughts were interrupted upon Kallian barrelling into the room like a man on fire. Melia didn't even have time to become confused before he spoke.

"She's dying."

It only took a split-second for Melia to parse the sentence and charge towards the exit, her elementals trailing her like beads on a string.

"MELIA!" Reddel called after her, but she was already far gone.

Tripping over the top step of the staircase leading to the observation room, Melia started running full speed down the palace corridors towards the hospital wing, oblivious to all around her. Like the rest of the imperial family, she knew that Empress Entirmina had contracted an incurable disease some months ago, but it was expected to merely cripple her legs within a year. The chances of it resulting in death were considered miniscule.

Melia had a complex relationship with "Auntie Enti". Upon the death of Melia's birth mother, the infertile and childless Entirmina took advantage of a few holes in the imperial texts concerning acceptable interaction involving royal nephews to take on a role similar to a distant second stepmother. Melia always got the feeling that she was a better pseudo-parent than Yumea, her actual stepmother, in that she always acted with charm and friendliness even when busy with imperial matters. But it was not entirely frictionless; she felt that Entirmina was always pushing her a little too hard to succeed, especially in the past ten years or so.

Reaching the entrance to the hospital wing, Melia blazed past the secretary and clumsily skidded to a stop outside the Prominence Ward, reserved for members of the imperial family. She was surprised to see the door closed and her father standing outside, his face blank.

"Father, what has happened?"

"Ah, Melia, you made excellent time." Sorean continued to stare off into the distance. While he was hiding it well, it was still clear he was under great emotional stress. "The disease has attacked much farther up the spine than was predicted, and with much greater force. Her heart has mere minutes left in it."

Melia did not expect such a dispassionate response from the empress's brother, but supposed it was his way of coping with the situation. "So...why can we not enter?"

"The Empress has called an emergency meeting with the Seer. I suspect he is sharing as much knowledge as he can in order to ease any personal regrets she may have."

The two stood in silence for a time. Melia watched the clock on the wall while trying to keep her mind out of the situation's gravity. She never really liked the current seer, a codgery old Homs named Zordes with an ankle-length beard and very little respect for anyone outside the imperial family. She knew he had a son named Alvis, and hoped he would be a more personable seer when he would inevitably take over the family position - not that she put much stock into the position of seer anyway. The fact that only one Homs bloodline in history was ever known to have prescience was always a a bit suspicious, as was each seer's ability to unfailingly pass on said ability to their one and only child.

After about two minutes, Kallian arrived. "Mother is visiting Flasch University. She has been discreetly sent for and may not arrive for some time."

Sorean nodded, his face still rigid. "It may be just as well. I would hate to see them come to another disagreement at such a time."

It was known even amongst the public gossips that Entirmina and Yumea did not like each other very much. To Melia, it felt like her inadequacies were the only thing they ever agreed on, and even then with much different attitude.

Three minutes later, the door opened and Zordes walked out, staring into the distance. He was shortly followed by a Homs boy, probably somewhere between 10 and 12 years old, that Melia supposed was Alvis.

"How goes it?" asked Sorean.

"It will not be long now," Zordes said in his typical distant drawl. "I have told her everything I know of the script of the future. All that remains is for both of us to exit the stage."

Sorean visibly jolted in surprise. "Both?"

"I have expended my remaining sight for this occasion. My duty to the empress concludes alongside her life. When you take the throne, it will be with my son Alvis as your Seer."

"...very well." Sorean let the two Homs walk a few steps further away before hurrying into the ward, with Kallian and Melia following.

Entirmina occupied the middle of the three beds, dressed in the same vibrant blue, gold-trimmed robes that she had worn for the past three centuries. Her waist-length hair was coiled into a collection of shoulder-length spirals. A device resting on her chest was transmitting her current heart rate, a measly 45 bpm and still dropping, to a monitor alongside the bed.

As the three relatives approached the bed, the monitor jumped up to 65 bpm as Entirmina opened her eyes.

"Well now," she uttered, "someone's brought in an energy surge."

Sorean gave a half-smile and nodded, ignoring whatever formalities that may have been in place. "That would be Melia. She seems to have taken her work here with her."

"Er..." Melia realised that she was still holding the Training Staff and had three elementals hovering over her head; the realisation suddenly put much strain on her mind as she now had to work to keep them afloat while trying to avoid dwelling on potential punishments for removing the staff from the training room.

Entirmina smiled at Melia. "As one of the most gifted ether users of the past millennium, I would expect nothing less from her."

The unexpected level of praise stunned Melia. She could not think of what to say, simply nodding with a straight face.

"And you, Kallian." The empress turned to the other royal heir. "Your brilliant mind and refusal to concede have been an immeasurable boon to helping my daily affairs over the past few months. I expect a similar level of success when you follow behind your father."

"You need not worry, Your Majesty."

"Oh, enough of the stuffiness, Kal. We're here as a family now."

It was Kallian's turn to be stunned, it having been over half a century since he was last referred to as "Kal". The look on his face was quite amusing.

Sorean chuckled and delved into sibling banter. "Don't break the children too hard, we've spent too much time building them up."

"And who appointed you the fun police?" A short pause. "Oh wait, that was me. You were what, twenty-five-ish? Desperate to have some sort of royal appointment, so I bestowed upon you the title of "Fun Enforcer". Father was appalled."

"He should've been more appalled about your hairstyle at the time, wrapping it around your ears like big frizzy earmuffs."

"With what little hair he had by then, who was he to judge?"

The two siblings shared a laugh and continued bantering about the past as the heart rate monitor gradually slowed down. Melia felt somewhat left out of the conversation, but didn't really mind, as she felt she had nothing to add and was busy keeping her elementals suspended. Kallian appeared similarly distanced, intentionally staying out of the situation's natural flow.

"...and then you tried to hit me with a fish." Entirmina tried not to laugh too hard. "Were you ever allowed back in the kitchens after that?"

"I should hope so. Your two hundredth birthday would have been a disaster if I hadn't noticed the Horned Orangejacket nest attached to the window."

"Even that feels like so long ago... A reign of three hundred years. Not many can claim that longevity. Pity that I couldn't set the record...what is it now, Bernus at three-twenty?"

"And he started at age ninety-three. You were given the throne at just fifty, not even out of elementary classes."

"So long ago...Bionis must have decided I was cheating." A short laugh. "It was so awkward to turn in written assignments with my own name as the year. Ah well. Start early, finish early, that's what Mother used to say."

Melia couldn't keep her elementals up anymore. Finally running out of mental power, they dropped from the air and dissipated as they scattered across the floor. The extra energy sources lost, Entirmina's heart rate fell from 40 to 15.

"And how early do you think my children should start? I am not a young man, after all..."

Entirmina's light mood faded alongside her heart. "I do not believe I should answer that...Zordes has told me more than I wished to know about the future...of triumph, pain, and the end of it all..."

29 September Entirmina 300 - THE HIGH ENQUIRY - 3G

DEATH OF ENTIRMINA - Sorean to be next Emperor

[Gim Fletcher, Imperial Correspondent]

The longest imperial reign in recent memory has finally concluded.

Empress of Alcamoth, Entirmina Antiqua, succumbed to an unusual mutation of Pendrort's Disease on Wednesday afternoon. The Empress, aged 350, was expected to lose nothing but the use of her legs when first diagnosed in April. However, the disease took a little-documented path and spread to her heart, leading to a swift and peaceful death.

"We are all saddened for this loss," reads a statement from the Imperial Bureau of Communication. "The stability that Empress Entirmina has brought to our people over the past three centuries cannot be understated."

Given the throne as but a child by Emperor Delus, who wished to spend his final years with his newborn son Sorean, Entirmina ruled with a level head and steady hand beyond her years. With the passing of Delus, she took on the additional responsibility of raising Sorean without a second thought, leading some to refer to her as "the Motherly". After 80 years of rule, she married Bellarius Rajek and prepared for what all expected to be a fruitful motherhood.

The news that Entirmina was infertile came as a shock to all of Alcamoth. The ancient texts were firm: none but the empress herself was allowed to bear children to continue the imperial line, and the only alternative was to abdicate to Sorean and implicitly cast eternal dishonour upon her father's name. Dedicating their lives to the task, Entirmina and Sorean worked together with the imperial bureaucracy to draft a suitable exception in a modest twenty years: in a case of incurable infertility, a sibling may be called upon to produce heirs. Alongside this radical new act came more funding towards fertility research and new sanctions regarding future rulers being tested early, hoping to reduce or eliminate the chances of such an event ever recurring.

Despite her terrible stroke of luck, Entirmina continued to hold her head high and demonstrate all the qualities a perfect ruler should have. Even though the divorce of Bellarius, the Plague of Relon, and the Great Strike of Her 214, she never once backed down from what needed to be done.

Sorean Antiqua, brother of Entirmina and father of the heirs Kallian and Melia, will officially be named Emperor at a ceremony on Monday. He declined a request for comment.

→ CNT'D PG.02