Spirit Speaker

The ball was in full swing, with the palace ballroom packed with nobles and prominent figures from all over The Kingdom. 

I was standing on the second floor, leaning over a balcony, watching the people in the gardens. 

There must have been close to a hundred guests. 

And at least fifty of them had tried to corner me in conversation. 

I shuddered, turned away from the balcony, and walked back inside. 

The ballroom was a two-storied affair, with the first floor dedicated to dancing, while the second story ringed the first, with seating for others to watch the proceedings below. 

I watched the dancers absently and spied the king looking around. I cleared my throat, and he looked up, saw me and smiled. 

"Stay there!" He called up. "I've been looking for you."

 I nodded and stayed put. 

The music was enjoyable enough, though the food seemed to be the highlight of the evening, with large groups of people congregating around the serving table when not dancing. 

Ilargia hummed and pulsed in time with the beat. He was one of the reasons why so many people tried to corner me. 

No matter how many times I begged him, he simply wouldn't stay still, shaking and spinning and pulsing with the music, bathing my immediate area with a dazzling array of different lights. 

"Lukas!" The king walked towards me, artfully dodging hopeful conversationalists.

"Lively isn't it?" He said, joining me at the bannister. 

"Sure is." I replied, "Though the princess doesn't seem too pleased with tonight's proceedings." I said, pointing at a table on the far side of the room where Anna sat, looking miserable. Spirits bounced in and out of existence around her, trying to cheer her up. 

She wasn't having any of it. 

"She's determined to be miserable." The king shrugged. "She'd much rather be outside in that pavilion of yours. But, instead, she's trapped here, with a hundred people that see her as a political tool, rather than another human being."

"Predatory wolves, circling a sheep," I watched as one particularly bold nobleman approached the princess, requesting a dance. 

The princess let him down gently, and the nobleman nodded and returned to the circle of dancers. 

"You're rubbing off on her." The king said, impressed. "She's able to fake a smile with the best of them now."

"I don't fake my smiles, majesty." I protested. 

The king laughed. "Of course not, Lukas. And the fact that the servants have taken to calling you The Princess's Thundercloud is proof of that." 

"I think the princess herself is the source of that particular nickname," I said, smiling proudly. "She's been trying to find ways to get back at me for dropping a bucket of water on her head at least twice a week."

"She told me about that!" The king's eyes were filled with mirth. "It's an odd tactic."

"My master used it on me. There's nothing quite like vengeance as a motivator. She's been studying nonstop, trying to find a way to get me back."

"Unsuccessfully, I suspect."

I grinned. "For now. She's getting there though, yesterday she caused a rose to bloom from a seed in just a few minutes."

"Really?" The king marvelled. "I wish I'd paid closer attention to my studies while I attended the Academy. I have no talent for magic." 

"You don't need to have any, sire," I replied. "You've got me." 

The king looked at me speculatively. "I do, don't I? Your loyalty seems to lie with us, more than it does with the Academy."

"To be honest, sire, my loyalties lie with the princess. And that extends to you and the queen."

"That's actually what I wanted to talk to you about." The king turned around and rested his elbows on the bannister, his back to the dancers. 

He wore a black shirt, with a white waistcoat over it, white dress slacks, and black dress shoes. 

The outfit shaved at least twenty years off him and helped him portray an air of easy confidence. 

"Sire?"

"Tila has proposed the creation of a Royal Council. They will act as an advisory council to the ruling monarch, and will be able to take some of the pressure off of him."

"A good idea sire. It works well for other kingdoms. I've always wondered why we haven't followed suit."

"The nobles are a bunch of corrupt sycophants." The king replied simply. "They would bribe and murder their way onto the council, just to get a taste of the power."

"Then why start now?"

The king shrugged. "I don't know exactly. Tila's been quite busy lately. She's preparing for something, but she won't tell me what."

 Your death, most likely. 

"And I come into the picture how, my lord?"

"We want you to lead it." 

My grip on the bannister slipped, and I almost lost my balance. I recovered just in time to prevent an accident. The king was watching me, an odd smile on his face. 

"Lord?" 

"And that's why we want you to lead it, that reaction right there. A good leader doesn't seek power. I've been watching you these last six months, Lukas. You've had every opportunity to use your position to grab power, and every single time, you've let it pass you by. Either you are very loyal or you have absolutely zero ambition."

"Which do you think it is, lord?"

"Well, you don't become the youngest Master Mage in the history of the Academy without at least a little ambition." The king looked over the ballroom, watching the dancers. "Which leaves loyalty."

He gritted his teeth. "Look at them, mage. Dancing, laughing. You wouldn't find a bigger group of thugs and scoundrels anywhere in The Kingdom than that group of people on the floor right now."

"And I tire of it. I tire of corruption. I tire of my people suffering because of greed. And we're going to do something about it, you and I."

I didn't know what to say. This didn't happen last time. None of this did. In my previous life, the king had given up on rooting out corruption in The Kingdom. 

But something's changed. There was a fire in his eyes this time around. And nothing short of a crossbow bolt was going to snuff it out.

"What will you have of me, Majesty?" I asked. "Speak, and I'll do it."

"Lead my council, Lukas. Work with Tila and me to make a better kingdom for Anna to rule."

"And who else would you have sit on it? And how many? And what powers will it have?"

The king waved the questions away. "Details that can be discussed later. Right now I wanted to gauge your level of enthusiasm for the position."

"I'd put it somewhere at cautious optimism, sire. I don't believe I'm the right choice for the position, but I'll do as you command."

"Good man." He pulled out a silver flask and handed it to me. "Then let's drink to it." 

I met the king's eye as I held the flask to my lips. 

Whatever was in it burned like fire down the back of my throat. 

I wiped my mouth on the back of my sleeve and handed the flask back to him.

The king raised it in a silent toast and drank from it. 

"Now, that that's dealt with, Tila would like to speak with you. Though I have no idea where she is." He looked around. "If I know my wife she'd probably be out in her private gardens, trying to find a place to hide from all this." 

He handed me the flask. "Go and find her, will you? I have no idea what she wants to talk to you about, but I get the feeling it's important."

I swallowed, unscrewed the cap of the flask and took a deep drink from it, the alcohol burning all the way down. 

"Does she frighten you so much, Lukas?"

I wiped my mouth on my sleeve again. "She terrifies me, my liege."