Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 99201 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 496(@200wpm)___ 397(@250wpm)___ 331(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99201 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 496(@200wpm)___ 397(@250wpm)___ 331(@300wpm)
So how did this little girl—who was bred to be nothing more than a child bride and a future mother of a godling—figure out how to wrap me up in a curse and spell me through infinity?
I didn’t know then and I don’t know now.
But once those words came spilling out of her mouth, I was caught. One might say she had entranced me. The whole thing was incredibly good. And by good, I mean well-crafted.
It was much, much more than just ‘clever.’
She put things in that spell not even a fully grown alchemist could think up.
For instance, starting the whole thing with the word ‘once’—that’s a special talent right there. It is specific in a general kind of way. And its meaning in the spell points to the past. But not a random past, all the past. My entire past wrapped up in a single word.
Once.
Then, of course, she ended that particular magic with the word ‘evermore’ in the middle. So that first part was meant to trap me as the man I was. Then it gets to the heart of the matter with the ‘time and tale’ stuff, trapping me inside the fog. And it ends with a command. ‘Be the man you know you should.’
And then… after she said all that, I heard a song. It was a strange song. Strange sounds. Familiar, but not. And the singing—it was a man. He was telling a tale about a ball and chain.
Of course, I know the song by heart these days. And I understand the sentiment. It plays constantly in my life. Even if it’s not really playing, it’s in my head.
Pressia is my ball and chain. Her curse rules my life.
And every bit of her spelling haunts me.
“Oh, my gods!” Callistina exclaims this behind me, her breath passing softly over my shoulder and pulling me out of my memory. “Look! It’s a city!”
I pull Ire up and we pause in the middle of the road. We were trotting for a long while as I got lost in time, so we’ve covered quite a distance and we’ve managed to find ourselves alone, between two thicker flocks of travelers.
“Wow. Have you ever seen this place before?”
I nod at Callistina’s question. But my attention is fully on the opening between the mountains where two giant pillars demarcate the end of the mountain road and the beginning of the glorious city.
“This is the Golden Road, isn’t it?” Callistina is starting to work it out now. And she’s excited about it. I don’t answer her, but she doesn’t need my confirmation. “And those… those are the Pillars of Glory! Holy wow!” She grips my shoulders, leaning into my neck. “When are we?”
And now, I have an answer. “We’re in the Age of Fire.”
“The Age of Fire!” I can’t see her face, of course, since she’s sitting behind me. But I know that her mouth is open in shock. “But that… that’s… thousands of years ago!”
Breath. Wind. Earth. Fire. Four Golden Ages and we are in the Fourth.
I scoff. Because when Callistina was counting us down back in the hallway, as we were getting ready to step through our doors, she used the old system of time. And I had forgotten about it. Like I have forgotten about many things over the course of my existence.
Especially the beginning, which this is.
I nudge Ire forward and we continue, walking now, since I am in no hurry to get to this city. It is Rome, but not the Rome where everything ended. It is Rome before that realm even existed.
The first city. Where magic was born and gods were made.
Where all the things that could go wrong went wrong.
If there were bombs in this age, like they have in the future human realm, I would drop them on this place. I would find a way to go all the way back to the Age of Breath and drop those bombs. Ending it all before it started.
I would, I realize, destroy everything.
And it would feel good.
We pass under the gates amid hordes of people. Most on foot. Many on horses or using carts and wagons. But Callistina and I are the only ones riding a pegásius. We are tall, too, sitting high above everyone else. Even the men driving the wagons.
Everyone looks at us.
It’s possible that the mere presence of a pegásius is what draws this attention. But it’s more probable that it’s Callistina riding behind me that keeps that attention trained on us as we make our way towards the walls of the inner city. It is truly breaking many rules to let her ride behind me. Though she is in chains, they are the wrong kind of chains.
There are many laws in Glory Rome concerning chimera. But number one is you do not clothe them. They are not sentient or in any way conscious or aware of who and what they are.