Green Eyes

Jared and Mara, however, did not. They had spent the ten days since arriving with Selene doing just as Johann had told them: poking around Jerel to find answers. But Jerel was huge and neither of them had an idea of what they were looking for; they didn’t even know the questions they were trying to answer. A needle in a haystack would’ve been an easier task.

The twins had combed through many of the city’s 50 towers to see if anything would turn up but nothing did. Just derelict barracks and old weapons, most rusted beyond hope. A few scraps of paper still remained a thousand years later, although these proved to be little more than notes about the war that happened some 1000 years prior. They were incomplete, badly damaged, and of little use or interest.

In all their searching, there was one place the War Masters had meticulously avoided and it was the one place in front of which they were now standing: the Imperial Palace, the home of the Kalashonian Emperors.

The Imperial Palace was built into the side of the inner wall at the southernmost edge of the city, directly south from the Temple. Surrounding the Palace proper was a thick wall with a four-chambered gate serving as the only entrance. Jared and Mara walked through the gate whose doors had been blasted apart in the war that had brought an end to the Empire and never been repaired into the courtyard.

Like much of the outer sections of the city, the Palace had not been taken care of. Indeed it appeared as if no one had been here in ages. Everywhere weeds had turned the once magnificent courtyard into a veritable forest. A fountain was being ripped apart by ivy while the marble paving the central path from the gate to the Palace itself was being shattered by a gnarled old tree that was probably five hundred years younger than the Palace’s last inhabitants.

To their right, the servants’ quarters looked like they would fall down at any moment and had a pine tree growing out the center of it. The stables on the left were little more than a few teetering columns and half a wall. Everywhere the twins looked were strewn the remnants of columns, statues, and masonry, all victims of neglect or opportunistic nature.

With a heavy sigh, the twins pushed through the brush towards the Palace, which seemed to be in decent shape. Even after a millennium of abandonment, it was still an impressive dwelling.

Around the outside was an immense colonnade four rows deep and 40 or so feet high. Originally each row had been painted the color of the Great Houses: red for Beth Har, gold for Beth Shemesh, violet for Beth Esther, and blue for Beth Yarack. The capitals also had reflected the unique heritage of the Empire: the red columns were topped with a hammer and anvil, the gold with sheaves of wheat, the violet with a scroll, and the blue with the hilt of sword.

But now the paint had faded almost completely and the capitals had been weathered beyond recognition. Even the great oak door that led into the Palace had been battered by time to the point that it limply hung by its massive hinges, the intricate designs long since sanded off.

The hinges had rusted to the point that the door would no longer move. After struggling for several minutes to move something that did not want to be moved, the twins gave up the gentle approached and tried to kick it in. The ancient wood that had been like iron was now little more than a fragile veneer. It gave instantly under their assault, cascading down on them in a shower of dust and woodchips.

Unlike the outside, the inside of the Palace was little different than it had appeared 1000 years ago. There were small invasions of ivy and other vegetation of course and the moths had eaten most of the ornate tapestries to dust but the rest was still here. Protected from the elements, the vivid murals that decorated the walls and the vaulted ceiling still looked down on the twins. A single circular skylight shone on the seal of Kalashon embedded in the floor at the center of the enormous foyer: a silver wolf howling at a crescent moon.

To their left ran one hallway that led to state rooms and other offices that the emperors would use while another hallway to their right went to the kitchens and the great dining hall of the empire. In front of them on both sides of the room were a pair of grand staircases that took one to the second and third levels of the palace where the guest rooms, libraries, and other residential necessities. Beyond that lay the Tower of the Moon, built directly into the inner wall that served as home of the imperial family. Directly in front of the twins, between the staircases, was another large oak door: the entrance into the throne room.

“Well, where do you want to start?” Mara asked, breaking the silence for the first time.

Jared looked around for a moment, studying the layout. “Throne room seems like a good place to start,” he suggested.

“Sounds good to me,” Mara shrugged as they went up to the massive oaken doors and pushed.

“Wow,” Mara breathed a moment later when they stepped inside.

“Yeah, wow,” Jared agreed, his own voice low with awe.

What they saw dwarfed the throne room in Jermelek, which was patterned after the one they were now in. Twice the length and width, instead of having a vaulted ceiling as in Jermelek, the Imperial Throne Room’s ceiling was open to the sky. It hadn’t been originally but weathering and lack of care had long since destroyed the glass that protected the inhabitants of the room from the external elements.

Interspersed between the massive columns that flanked both sides of the room were 43 colossal statues. Some were men; others women. Once they had been vividly painted but as with the outside columns, time had done its damage. Each bore a black sword in their right hand and an olive staff in the left. Or at least there had been an olive staff: time had taken that too.

“The emperors and empresses of Kalashon,” Mara observed as she stepped up to one of the women.

Even after so many years, the Esthorian craftsmanship was exquisite; they were tremendously life-like. The detail in the curvature of the faces, the folds of the clothing, and the pull of the lips into a faint smile were so real that if it wasn’t for the cold white of the marble, Mara would’ve expected the figure in front of her to speak. It didn’t, of course; it only looked down at her from its height from the only color that remained: her sapphire gem eyes.

“Too bad they can’t talk,” Jared commented from behind her, causing Mara to jump slightly. “They might be able to tell us what we’re supposed to be looking for.”

“Or maybe they are what we’re supposed to be looking for,” Mara considered.

“What can a bunch of old statues tell us?” Jared retorted.

“I don’t know,” Mara shrugged. “Maybe we ought to remember our history.”

“That is one thing I won’t forget,” Jared replied coldly. “The throne,” he pointed to the black marble chair at the far end of the room. As if drawn by a string, the pair walked towards it.

“It’s remarkable how everything here points to the unity of the world,” Jared mused as he and Mara regarded the seat of Kalashonian power. “This was supposed to be the home of the Kalashonian emperors and empresses, but there’s as much here reflecting Malchi or Anory or Esther as there is Kalashon.”

“I know what you mean,” concurred Mara with a sharp nod. “The detail of the symbolism is amazing; right down to the steps,” she pointed at the four-step dais. “Our throne in Jermelek has ten steps leading up to it; this one has only four.”

“Four,” Jared mused. “One for each of the great houses. Yeah, I guess that makes sense.”

“I find it kind of interesting that we have yet to see anything symbolic of the Navi here,” Mara remarked. “You’d think they’d be represented here.”

“They got an entire Temple that makes this place look like a dump,” Jared pointed out. “I don’t think they’re complaining.”

“This place is a dump,” Mara countered. “At least the throne itself is definitively Kalashonian.”

“That’s true,” Jared nodded. Two life-sized black marble wolves with sapphires inset as eyes served as armrests. Above the backrest was a silver, upside down crescent like the moon underneath a short obelisk that was crowned with a diamond.

“This is getting us nowhere,” Jared suddenly growled.

“Huh?” Mara looked quizzically at him.

“What are we doing here?” he asked her.

“Right now we’re exploring the old Imperial Palace,” Mara answered, unsure as to his meaning.

“I mean what are we doing here, in Jerel?” Jared clarified frustration evident in his voice. “We don’t belong here anymore.”

“Johann seems to think so,” Mara pointed out.

“Just because Johann is a Navi does not make him always right,” Jared snapped back. “This is the Navi’s city, not ours.”

“Maybe,” Mara allowed. “Johann said we’re supposed to be looking for answers.”

“Answers to what?” Jared demanded. “We don’t even know what the question is. How are we supposed to find answers when we don’t know the question? And even if we do, how is that answer going to make any sense?”

“Fair point,” Mara conceded. She walked up to the throne and slumped down in it. “I’m with you,” she admitted. “I’m just as frustrated, believe me. But Johann did have a point, do we really have something better do to? Where would we go? What would we do? Go find the nearest war and hire ourselves out as mercenaries like you? Farm? Take up knitting?”

“Well, we are pretty good with pointy things,” Jared dryly commented, eliciting a smile from his sister.

“At least you haven’t lost your sense of humor,” Mara observed. “The point remains: we don’t have anything better to do.”

“I guess,” Jared sighed. “Although, Micaela did ask me to come back and help the Amazons out.”

“Oh?” that drew a raised eyebrow from the female War Master. “And when were you planning on sharing this little tidbit of information with me?”

“I wasn’t sure that I was going to go back,” Jared told her. “If you didn’t have any ideas, I figured we could use it as a fall back plan. Since we’ve been poking around here, I more or less forgot about it until now.”

“You weren’t sure?” Mara looked dubious. “You’re telling me you don’t have feelings for Micaela?”

“I don’t know,” Jared shrugged. “She’s a special woman, no doubt and once we stopped fighting each other, we actually got along really well. But…”

“But you don’t do romance,” Mara finished.

“Not exactly,” Jared shook his head. “After Jael, I considered that maybe I could open up to someone again but with Micaela I didn’t really get the chance to find out. After all, we only started being civil to each other the last couple of days.”

“Now’s your chance to find out,” Mara replied from her lounging position. “You are attracted to her, right?”

“Definitely,” Jared nodded. “And not just her beauty either. She’s smart, kind, and can definitely put me in my place, which is strangely sexy.”

Mara laughed. “We’re over 40 years old but when it comes to romance, Selene might be more of an authority,” she observed.

“That’s a frightening thought,” Jared allowed himself a small chuckle.

“She’s growing up whether we like it or not,” Mara answered. “So shall we visit our friend in the Harosheth and see if the mighty Jared is capable of love?”

“Put like that…”

“Oh come on,” Mara taunted. “You’re being a pansy. You can’t tell me that the scourge of the Malchian Empire is terrified of confronting his feelings for a five-foot-nothing woman?”

“And now put like that, I guess I don’t have choice, do I?” Jared sighed.

“It’ll make Deborah happy,” Mara added. “She really liked her time with the Amazons. Well,” Mara stood and stretched, “I suppose we ought to get packed up.”

“Yeah, we…” Jared’s voice suddenly trailed off as he stared at something past Mara. “Mara,” he started again, “what does that look like to you?” he pointed to the obelisk above the crescent moon.

Mara turned and studied it for a moment. Then she got the same curious look on her face that Jared had. “It looks like a sword hilt,” she concluded.

“Yeah, it does,” Jared concurred.

“So?” Mara looked back at her brother. “It’s a Kalashonian throne; what did you expect? Flowers?”

“No, nothing like that,” Jared continued to fix his gaze on the hilt. “Still I wonder…give it a pull.”

“Give it a what?” Mara raised an eyebrow. “Wait, you don’t think…”

“Only one way to find out,” Jared shrugged.

“Okay,” Mara turned back, wrapped her hands around the obelisk, and pulled hard. With the sound of stone scraping against metal, the whole sword slid free of its rocky prison.

Jared could see Mara visibly pale even from behind. Slowly she turned around to face her brother, a mixture of horror and astonishment on her face. In her right hand was a long, gleaming, black blade.

“Is it really…”

Mara didn’t answer. Instead she flicked her wrist around and with a smooth, clean sound lopped off the head of one of the wolves.

“Yeah,” she answered in a quiet voice, “I guess it is.”

“So what do we do now?” Jared asked his twin, eyes wide. “I mean, you heard Johann’s prophecy.”

“‘The one who finds Herevi’Kalashon will rebuild the Empire’,” Mara quoted. “Of course I heard. You’re not saying that he was talking about us.”

“I don’t know,” Jared shook his head but not taking his eyes of the weapon in Mara’s hand. “You have to admit, the stars do seem to be aligning. I come back to Kalashon after all these years and find a Navi…”

“We find each other,” Mara picked up. “Against all odds we get Selene here.”

“And then we hear this prophecy and find this,” Jared finished, gesturing to the blade still in Mara’s hand. “That’s a lot to argue against.”

“But still,” Mara lifted the sword up and examined it, “us? I mean, of all the people the Creator could choose to rebuild his empire, we’re not exactly shining examples of purity.”

“It does seem strange,” Jared acknowledged. “We’ve shed enough blood to paint this room two times over.”

“At least,” Mara snorted. “You’ve killed for money.”

“And you’ve killed for revenge,” Jared replied.

“And we’re the ones who find the Sword of Kalashon?” Mara shook her head in disbelief. “According to the Navi, we’re the ones who are supposed to rebuild the Empire?”

“Do we even want to?” Jared asked. “Overthrowing Manasseh is the easy part. Even conquering the world wouldn’t be that hard; the world is ripe for it. But then we’d have to consolidate the current powers under one roof, blend the different cultures and values, and then have to deal with all the problems that such a vast empire naturally has. Do we want to take on that responsibility?”

“I don’t know,” Mara answered. “Twenty years ago, maybe. But now?”

“On the other hand, does what we want even matter?” Jared posed. “Everywhere we go, we see a world crying out for the Empire. Malchi is snapping at everyone’s heals.

Jared laughed aloud at that. “Ironic, isn’t it?” he asked her. “As kids, we dreamed of standing in the room, holding that sword, and bringing the Empire back. And now that fate seems to have chosen us just for that, we balk.”

“So what are you saying?” Mara questioned. “We should just charge into Jermelek and lop of Manasseh’s head and then conquer the world?”

“No, yes, oh I don’t know,” Jared groaned. “I don’t have any more answers than that statue over there.”

“I don’t suppose I could just put it back,” Mara glanced over to the throne that now had a hole in the top.

“Not really,” Jared shook his head. “I mean, you could. But it doesn’t change the fact that we found it and we know where it is.”

“And that brings us back to the original question,” Mara sighed heavily resting the sword tip against the ground. “What do we do now?”

Jared crossed his arms and echoed Mara’s sigh as his cobalt eyes screwed to his thinking pose. “We don’t have to do anything right now,” he observed. “Okay, we found the sword and there is a prophecy that whoever finds the sword will rebuild the Kalashonian Empire. Assumedly that means us and to do that, we will have to overthrow Manasseh and take the Kalashonian throne for ourselves. But at the end of the day, it’s our choice. It’s like with Selene: she was born with special powers as a Navi but it is her choice how to use those powers. She could join Manasseh and the sorcerers if she wants.

“Okay, so maybe we’re supposed to overthrow Manasseh, maybe we’re supposed to conquer the world, and maybe we’re supposed to recreate the Kalashonian Empire. But that doesn’t mean we have to. It’s our choice whether we do or not,” Jared explained. “And it’s a choice we don’t have to make today. I mean, we’re what? 40? When’s our birthday?”

“It’s in a couple of months,” Mara supplied. “But I see your point. We’ve got well over a century to do all that so we don’t need to make a decision right now. Besides, we’re not going to do something that grand without Selene, right?”

Jared grimaced. “As much as I hate to admit, yeah,” Jared agreed. “We’ll need her support as a Navi, as well as her powers against Manasseh’s sorcerers.”

“Exactly,” Mara nodded. “And she’s not going to be done with her training for another few weeks at least. We have at least that long to come to a decision. Let’s take that long to figure it out. Explore a little more. After all, this is our history and maybe our future. It’s here, we’re here: it’s worth a look.”

“Fair enough,” Jared assented. “So what do we do now?”

“I thought we just covered that,” Mara furrowed her brows.

“No, I mean right now,” Jared clarified with a laugh. “Want to keep poking around?”

“Nah,” Mara waved off. “I think we found what we were looking for and I need to spend some time with Deborah. She’s kind of gotten the short shaft the last couple of weeks.”

“How’s it being a mom?” Jared asked with a playful wink.

“It’s hard,” Mara admitted with a sigh. “I’m not used to having someone so dependent on me. My time isn’t my own anymore and I always have to keep her as my number one priority. It’s a huge adjustment and I’m still getting used to it.”

“I think Deborah understands that,” Jared encouraged his sister. “And for what it’s worth, I think you’re doing a great job.”

“Thanks,” Mara smiled gratefully. “What are you going to do? Poke around here some more?”

“No, not right now,” Jared shook his head. “This place is like a tomb. I’ll probably come back later but I think I’ll explore more along the wall.”

“Know what you mean,” Mara said with a slight sigh. “It’s almost lunch time; why don’t you join me and Deb?”

Jared glanced up at the sun shining through the open ceiling. “Good idea,” he accepted.

As they headed out of the great throne room of Jerel, Jared glanced back at the black throne, sitting empty on the far side of the hall. Part of him wondered if he might soon be sitting there.

*******