Et Tu Johnie

  Professor Ragnel let the applause die down before he began. “I’d like to thank you all for coming to tonight's presentation. I know we have a large contingent of new enrollees to the Drake Academy here. I hope you find this experience both educational and entertaining. And finally before I get started, I’d like to give thanks to my crystalcast subscribers. Where are you at Weaverines and Weaverettes? Thank you. WIthout your support this would not be possible. Do not forget to pick up your complimentary recording of tonight’s presentation before you leave.”

  “Do you have any new information on the Shadow Emperor, Professor?” someone shouted from the balcony.

  “No. No. Not tonight. I thought long and hard about what order I wanted to do this semester's presentations. There have been updates made to so many of them. However, I finally decided to start with one that I’ve never done before from a perspective I’ve never used before. My own. Today, we will start with the day I met the emperor and found out who my grandmother really was.”

  10 year old Ragnel was excited. Not only was the 100 year celebration kicking off tonight, but he would finally get to see John Drake. THE Emperor. THE Legend. The founder of the Drake Empire and master of its mighty dungeon.

  “Are you ready Raggy?” His grandmother called as she appeared in his doorway. She was dressed in the comfortable casual greens and tans many of the elves of Homeworld wore as their day to day garb. Definitely not what you’d expect to be worn by the mother of one of the most powerful people in the empire. But Granny never really cared about status or flaunting the wealth that Ragnel had realized his family held. Of course, not many people knew she was the Warmaster’s mother or that Ragnel was the Warmaster’s son.

  Even at his young age, he knew he didn’t want to be treated like he had seen some of the children of the Senators or other important figures. Bodyguards, people fawning over you all the time. Not that Ragnel minded being the center of attention. But people just seemed to be so…fake…around the powerful. Ragnel liked meeting real people. Hearing their real stories. Understanding what they were really feeling.

  Ragnel understood his life wasn’t exactly what most would consider normal. They may not dress fancy or live in a palatial estate, but he knew it was not normal for the training areas of their home to be capable of being flooded with so much essence that it made your skin tingle. Grandma was always bringing him recordings of personalized lectures made just for him by the Empire's greatest fighters and craftsmen. He learned things like essence manipulation, the components of spells, and how your essence delivery and distribution systems were utilized when using skills or freeform fighting. All taught to him by people of legend. Ragnel was already able to see the flow of essence and sometimes could even recognize some shapes of the components people used when casting.

  “Yes, granny. I’m ready. Have you seen him before?” Ragnel answered as he took his grandmother’s hand and began leading her down the hall and to the teleporter that would take them to the entryway of the building.

  “Who?” his grandmother asked.

  “The emperor.” Ragnel said frustrated because he could tell that his grandmother was teasing him.

  “Yes, we’ve met quite a few times.”

  “What’s he like?” Ragnel asked as they stepped off the teleporter and he waved at Thomas the human that sold recordings and projections of illusions and special events. When Ragnel wasn’t training, he would often spend time in the man's small shop. Thomas would let him watch while he worked. When he wasn’t busy, Thomas would entertain Ragnel by weaving amazing animations while he would tell tales. Ragnel always found it interesting how the essence would flow into and out of Thomas’s mind as if he was remembering the illusions as he created them. Ragnel could recognize some of his favorite animations before they even appeared because he had watched Thomas create them so many times.

  “John…well…John is different. Somewhat disconnected or at least not fully connected the way normal people are when interacting. To many, he seems to only be interested in training. Getting stronger. But I know his secret. He loves teaching people. Helping them achieve their goals or just figure something out. When the empire was just forming and before he became so famous, it wasn’t unusual to stumble upon him training with some random group of people who had no idea who he was. He always played it off as if he was learning how other people approached training, but I’m pretty sure those he was working with gained much more from him being there then he did from working with them.”

  “That doesn’t sound like a greedy person.” Ragnel said, sounding surprised.

  “Why would you think he was greedy?” his grandmother asked, looking confused.

  “He keeps all the essence and won’t let anybody mine it.” Ragnel answered.

  “He doesn’t keep all the essence. He protects the primary essence veins of the planet with his dungeon, but he allows people to mine from the smaller veins. Our enchanters wouldn’t have anything to work with if he kept all the essence. What made you think he was being greedy.”

  “People say it all the time. They complain that we could make a fortune if we mined the main veins” Ragnel said as he admired the tall buildings of the city. Sizes and shapes that would be impossible if the buildings weren’t dungeon made.

  “Sure, we’d make some credits selling the essence, but the world would weaken. People wouldn’t be able to advance. We would stagnate and become a target of those stronger.” His grandmother replied as they entered the plaza. He saw his mother on stage and their eyes met. It was always like she always knew exactly what was going on around her and would instantly know when he and his grandmother were around. He would have waved, but he knew his mother wouldn’t wave back. She had her twin swords on her back and her staff leaning against her armored shoulder and was wearing her warmaster face. That cold look that seemed to unsettle those who made her angry.

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  His mother’s foul mood was probably due to the Senator babbling from behind an array setting within a formation of some sort that projected his voice and was going on and on about fighting for freedom, unleashing the yoke of tyrannical Imperial control of the planet's resources. Even to Ragnel this made no sense. If you wanted credits, the dungeon provided unlimited ways to earn them. If you wanted to become better at something, the dungeon provided ways to train. However, Ragnel had seen this man give speeches like this many times. It always made him uncomfortable. It felt like the man's essence wasn’t right. His whole being was somehow distorted and slimy.

  And then suddenly, HE was there. He was a little disappointing to be honest. He wasn’t short, but wasn’t really tall either. Just kind of average in every way. No radiant aura announced his presence. He was just standing there, a few feet away from the Senator who had finally stopped talking after saying, “And finally he is here. The man we’ve all been waiting so long for. The emperor. John Drake.”

  The emperor turned to look at the senator who didn’t really seem to be happy that the emperor was there and quickly moved back to join the other members of the senate when his eyes met John’s. The Emperor went to the podium but paused before he spoke. When the emperor had turned to face the crowd, Ragnel had seen the slimy senator send a slight amount of essence into one of the glyphs in the formation the Emperor was standing on. Almost like something one would use to trigger a switch to turn something on.

  The formation suddenly became much more powerful and tentacles of essence began reaching for the emperor. The tentacles seemed to be trying to burrow their way into the Emperor, but John watched the most incredible display of essence manipulation he had ever seen as the tentacles were dismantled and the glyphs adjusted and the power of the formation returned to what it had been when the Senator had been speaking.

  Ragnel glanced at his mother. She had definitely noticed also. She still wore the cold hard face of the warmaster, but Ragnel could sense the rage being tightly contained. Then things got really strange. He saw the senator’s lips moving like he was whispering, and the emperor began to speak in a calm, clear voice. No rage burned. No fiery death was fighting to be unleashed.

  “I thank you for coming to witness this great day in the Drake empire’s history. A day when the shackles of tyranny are removed from our world…” Ragnel realized the senator was saying what the Emperor said just before he said it. Had that been a puppet curse? Had the emperor failed to prevent the curse from taking hold? Ragnel began to look around wondering what to do, but he saw the heads of just about everybody in the plaza wearing armor and quite a few of the people not there as part of the official party moving from between the emperor and the senator with confused looks on their faces. They had also seen it.

  “A day when the Senate removes itself from under the heel.” Suddenly Ragnel felt the emperor’s rage flair. “Of a man too ignorant to realize that most of us can hear his whispers and see his lips move.” Ragnel couldn’t help but laugh at the senator’s face when he realized what the emperor had said. “A man too unskilled to realize that even children within this crowd could feel his pathetic attempt to catch me in a puppet curse.” the emperor said as he turned to look directly at Ragnel.

  On the other side of the planet, a man walked through one of the gathering areas of the dungeon picking an occasional fruit to snack on while he strolled aimlessly. He found a quiet area and looked around to confirm that no one was watching. He quickly pulled the complex array he had been given out of storage and placed the essence crystal into its socket. The array appeared to instantly transmit something before it suddenly broke apart and the man was engulfed by shadows. Purple eyes burned before him.

  “Who sent you?” the eyes asked.

  “I don’t know. I was at the Redbone Coliseum and was given the token to come to the academy and told to place the array at this time on this day.” the man replied.

  “The charge is espionage. The sentence is death.” the eyes said as the man sensed movement and his vision quickly dimmed. “For now.” The shadows disappeared and the man quickly walked away. “Destiny, I’d recommend using him for training the troops until the emperor can take a look at him. I doubt he even knew what he was doing.”

  Projections appeared above the emperor’s head showing human men placing complicated arrays down but being arrested by dragonkin dungeon guardsmen before they could activate them. “A man too stupid to know that a dungeon sees all. A greedy man who would sell the future of this planet and its inhabitants to the Draskari sect.” Ragnel watched as what looked like bands cut from an inverted shield wrapped around the senator binding him before the dungeon teleported him away. “A man who has breathed his last breath and has seen all of his estates erased from the dungeon and all the wealth and possessions of his family confiscated.”

  Suddenly the rage of the emperor flared much greater than before and Ragnel watched as the emperor took two slow breaths and pulled his rage back into his body. “I am sorry. I have failed you. There was a second plot. There were outsiders who were given academy tokens to come here and expose our location. One was able to send a single short burst before it was destroyed.”

  The emperor looked sad for a second before he looked directly at Rangel’s grandmother and continued, “Originals. I swore to myself I would never do this, but I apologize. Those that have retired, I ask that you reveal yourselves. War has come to the empire and we need you to show the younger generations what it truly means to be Drake. The senate is disbanded. The senatorial taxes are revoked. The senatorial debt will be repaid from my funds. War will come to the empire”

  Rangel felt a flash of essence and…and..the Mad Matron was standing where his grandmother had been just before. Another flash and Thomas stood next to her wearing battle robes and holding a powerful war staff. Some of the assembled guards and members of the mercenary guild stepped forward. Ragnel felt flashes of essence as other powerful warriors revealed their true selves throughout the crowd. Some of them he recognized as the heroes from Thomas’s tales, but one thing shocked him more than anything else.

  My grandmother is THE MAD MATRON. He knew the mad matron was also named Candrel, but that was just a coincidence…oh…I am such an idiot. That makes perfect sense.

  “We are not your slaves. You cannot just order us to fight the war you have brought upon us.”

  John turned and looked at the young and very pretty senator who was rapidly gaining fame for her speeches espousing the rights of the people. He looked at the globe hanging just over her right shoulder and analyzed it. A smile came to his face as he realized he had found exactly what he needed at this moment. The globe held a surprising amount of green and very little red. She may not like me, but she cares deeply for the people of the empire. Almost nothing would make this woman turn against the empire.

  As the emperor smiled, the senator froze…My gods. He’s eating my soul. I can feel him tearing me apart piece by piece. And the prick is smiling while he does it.

  “I did not bring this war to us. The man who you stood in support of so many times brought this war to us. However, you care deeply for the people of the empire. You will choose a few select members of the senate to help the Dragon Queen rebuild our government and make sure the needs of the people are not forgotten. You can not choose these four.” The emperor wrapped bands of essence around 4 senators and floated them over to be taken into custody by the assembled military members. “They were part of the conspiracy to expose our location.”

  The emperor continued scanning the senators and over twenty more were lifted and placed on the plaza in front of the crowd as he said, “Nor these. They care too much for themselves and not enough for the empire. They may never hold another position in government. The rest you may choose whoever you wish.”

  Ragnel was once again amused by a senator’s expression as the Dragon Queen …OMG the Dragon Queen… appeared and motioned for the young senator to stand beside her. John stepped forward and once more addressed the crowd, “Whether it be crafting armor or improving your skill with the bow, find the path that will allow you to protect your friends and family. Work hard. Train hard. Live free.”

  “Work hard. Train hard. Live free.” Ragnel yelled as loud as he could and accidentally weaved an image of the emperor and the Mad Matron in the sky… much to the amusement of the crowd.

  “See…Now there’s the spirit. Candrel, I assume I will get to train with the young Memory Weaver when he’s old enough?” John said as he walked over and shook hands with his grandmother who was blushing…the mad matron…blushing? And the emperor looked like he had suddenly forgotten how to speak and that nothing else besides his grandmother existed in this universe. His grandmother’s essence was raging inside her and John’s reminded him of a surprised cat that had jumped into the air and was now desperately trying to run away on a slippery floor but couldn’t decide which direction to go in.

  Huh…that’s interesting. Young Ragnel thought.