The Immortal Queen Tsubame: Ascension (5 page)

“I can agree with that.”

“Of course you can. It’s the story of your life.”

“Just how many wars and revolutions have you lived through?”

“The American Civil War, Three World Wars, Vietnam. You name it. I was there—somewhere,” Marcel added.

“Three World Wars?”

“Oh. That’s right,” Marcel said. “I forgot you all haven’t even gotten to that point in time where that happened. If it’s even going to happen.”

“Did you fight in any of them?”

“Fight might not be the word, but certainly involved.”

“How?”

“Which war?”

“What was World War III about?”

Marcel laughed. “I knew you would ask me about the one war I can’t tell you anything about.”

“Why not?”

“Because that hasn’t happened in this timeline yet and we haven’t reached that point in this timeline yet so it might still happen. It’s dangerous enough that Tsubame brought us here to begin with, but telling you future events that could still happen isn’t wise.”

MaLeila stopped walking, turning to look directly at Marcel as she said, “That can still happen? I thought we were from different timelines.”

“We are.”

“Okay. Forget the wars you’ve fought in. Tell me how alternate timelines work and how the same events can still happen in two different timelines.”

Marcel nodded and went over to a vendor who had a pen and a receipt book. Marcel asked if he could borrow it and without waiting for an answer, nodded MaLeila over to the side of the vendor table.

“Contrary to popular belief, not all timelines run parallel to each other,” Marcel said as he drew a line and then two lines from the top of it that went in different directions.  “They diverge.” Then he drew another line that came out from lower on the first line and eventual crossed with the line that forked from the first at the time. “They cross paths.” Marcel continued on the same line until he was tracing the line that forked from the left. “They even merge. All a culmination of the many different choices we all make, could have made, would have made, never will make, right down to simply deciding to meet someone’s eyes in the crowd or choosing where to get your coffee. All those choices make the difference.”

“So in essence when a timeline runs parallel, the same things happen at the same time in each and at any point, they can diverge in another direction which creates the differences between them and causes them to go in another direction,” MaLeila stated.

“Essentially and that’s based on the little Tsubame and I have learned about them. The universe has to keep her secrets of course,” Marcel chucked as he handed the vendor back his receipt book and pen.

“What choice do you think made our timelines so different?” MaLeila asked.

“Could have been anything. You know how many events that changed the course of history wouldn’t have happened if two people simply resisted the urge to sleep together. What do you think it was?”

If MaLeila went by what Marcel had explained to her about timelines, at some point their timelines had run parallel, the same events happening the exact same way until someone made a different choice which caused a domino effect and the two timelines to go in different directions. And while she couldn’t pinpoint exactly what it was that made the differences, certainly the fact that Marcel escaped being sealed while Nika was sealed was a factor.

“I don’t know,” MaLeila said. “But since you can’t tell me about any potential future wars, tell me about the Civil War.”

5

In the end, after deciding the best way to get to Tsubame was to infiltrate the Russian army, only he and Bastet ended up going on the mission to find MaLeila. Irvin was whisked away by his mother to deal with the escalating fallout of their country leaving the European Union, especially with what was no doubt an impending war. While Tilila and her husband were better suited gathering intelligence and doing historical research for them that could give them context in future encounters with Tsubame.

The Romanovs weren’t a magic clan that wasted a lot of time. They started their operation to attack Tsubame two days after Bastet and Devdan finished planning how they were going to use the chaos to get into Tsubame’s compound and find MaLeila. As misguided and greedy as Devdan thought they were, he could see why the Russian Clan was in such a rush considering their first attack had been foiled by Tsubame and then delayed by the failed peace treaty that the Magic Council had arranged. If Devdan weren’t directly involved in the matter, he’d be amused by how threatened the infamously aggressive clan was by Tsubame.

The Russian Clan was convinced that aiding the now allied factions in a ground invasion with some of their best spies and sorcerers mixed in the army would be the best way to go against Tsubame. People, at the very least could cover their eyes and get over the discomfort of a sandstorm. And once Tsubame had been subdued, they could drop as many bombs and send in as many drones as they wanted to wipe out the remains of the army.

“The commander is pretty confident that they’ll be able to siege Tsubame’s city and kill her in a day,” Bastet said, disguised as a heavily armed desert soldier. “I hope the Russian Clan is prepared for their plan to go greatly awry.”

Devdan said nothing as he stared out into the night desert, waiting for word that they would start to approach the city using the cover of night.

“Not even a huff? A condescending side eyed glance? Honestly Devdan, what’s going through your head?” Bastet asked.

“I was thinking about the binding,” Devdan replied.

Bastet groaned. “Devdan, if you’re still nursing anger over that I’ll blow our cover right now and kick your ass because you’re not going to back out of this because you think MaLeila’s no better than your previous slave masters.”

“It’s not that. Though don’t get it wrong, I’m still only doing this because I’m not letting you go in by yourself.”

“Then what is it?” Bastet asked.

Devdan had never been one to particularly care about the particulars of magic and its theory beyond how those particulars would help him achieve using magic, and even that was a rare occurrence considering how innate magic was to him, how easy it was to feel the realm of possibilities with his magic, even if he hadn’t reached the potential to use it a particular way. But he’d be a liar if he said he hadn’t been intrigued by the binding between him and MaLeila and hadn’t gone off to do his own research.

The very nature of the binding had been weird to begin with, starting with the fact that MaLeila couldn’t just undo it in the first place. He’d heard of situations similar to theirs happening all the time during slavery. Sorcerers who owned slaves would die and bind the remaining slaves to their children just by a will being read out loud, and the child would release the bind and send the former slave on their way. Thus MaLeila certainly should have been able to do the same. And she had tried. Of that, Devdan was certain of, sensing the tugs and yanks on the magical chains as she spent hours on end inspecting them. But it shouldn’t have even taken that kind of effort. And if MaLeila couldn’t do it while actively trying, then it begged the question what had caused the binding to dissolve when she hadn’t been trying?

“Claude was a powerful sorcerer who was always trying new magic techniques. There’s no telling what caused the bind to break. So stop thinking about it,” Bastet snapped after Devdan explained his initial thoughts to her.

Ignoring her irritation with him, Devdan said, “What if it’s like the marriage binding?”

“The marriage binding?”

“A binding that can be broken by mutual agreement with the parties because the binding was mutually agreed to in the first place,” Devdan said while stilling looking out at the desert.

“What the fuck are you getting at?”

“Maybe the binding Claude put on us was the same way. Maybe all of us had to really want to be separated from each other at the same moment for it to be broken and until that moment, for whatever reason, all of us really truly didn’t want that bind to be broken.”

Before Bastet could refute the idea, Devdan continued, “Don’t tell me that at that one moment during that fight with Tsubame, if you really think about it, where we really realized how truly fucked up our relationship was you didn’t with all your being hate the way we were tied together; that deep down in your heart you truly hated how fate had bound us and wanted to do anything in your power to severe that bond, to control your own destiny.”

Bastet hesitated before saying, “I’m not denying that. I’m arguing with your point that it was that one moment that broke the bind. Besides, there was nothing mutual about that bind. Neither one of was asking for another master to claim us nearly two hundred years after Claude died. So that mutual bind theory doesn’t explain anything.”

“I’m not saying that we mutually agreed to the bind. I’m saying that all of us were mutually forced,” Devdan said.

Bastet didn’t say anything, not immediately, and then after a while Devdan figured she wasn’t going to say anything at all. Because though it seemed impossible, it was the only thing that made sense. A binding forced between them with neither having the power to break it alone because all parties were masters of the binding while being the slave to it at the same time. Devdan had thought it through over and over again while recovering from his bullet wound and the more he mulled over it, the more it made sense.

“Why would Claude do that though?” Bastet finally asked

Devdan shrugged. “You said it. Claude was a powerful sorcerer who was always experimenting with magic and probably had no damn clue what he was doing when he bound us to a girl who wasn’t even born without any precedence for the situation.”

“So you’re actually giving Claude the benefit of the doubt?” Bastet asked.

Devdan huffed. “I guess if that’s what you want to call it. If anything, I will admit that in some sick twisted way he cared for us, no matter how wrong it was and he might have actually thought he was looking out for us by binding us to MaLeila so one day we would find her. That much, I can admit.”

Devdan sensed Bastet had something else to say to that, but whatever it was she didn’t get a chance to say because their commander called all their troops in to let them know they would be moving onto the city in the morning, when they could take Tsubame by surprise. If that was their goal, Bastet was right. The factions were going to fail spectacularly. There didn’t seem to be anything that could catch Tsubame off guard if only because she had proven herself to be adaptable even in the direst of situations. Devdan nor Bastet stuck around long enough to find out what was going to happen on the rebel’s front through. As soon as they got the chance, they broke off from the main army and made their way for the main compound in the midst of the chaos.

“This is too easy,” Devdan pointed out as they made their way to the compound which was suspiciously lacking guards or any other type of security. “We could literally just walk through the front door.”

“And that’s what you’re going to do,” Bastet said. “I’m going through the back. More than likely this is some elaborate trap which is fine because we never thought confronting Tsubame would be easy, but if it is this easy then I’m not going to just look a fucking gift horse in the mouth.”

Bastet said nothing else as she made her way around to the other side of the compound, leaving Devdan to walk in through the front. Immediately, Devdan knew something wasn’t right. There was no one in the halls to meet him, no guards, no maids or servants bumbling around or looking at him in alarm. Maybe he was just too used to going into places like this with his gun already smoking or maybe it was that back when he was on the plantation even showing up on the front lawn of the big house caused all of its occupants to look at him on edge. Either way, Devdan remained on alert, ready for some skilled guard or even sorcerer to jump out of the shadows and attack.

Nothing ever did, even as Devdan made his way upstairs to a hall with doors that led to what he assumed were bedrooms. He decided to start with the one on the end that was already half open. He didn’t expect to find her there. If anything, he half expected her to be barricaded in some secret sanctuary where no one would be able to get to her, not somewhere it would be easy for her to escape.

Even though he didn’t make a sound when he entered and he was keeping his aura concealed, she was still acutely aware of his presence and turned around as soon as he crossed the threshold. Devdan always thought that had something to do with the bind, but now he knew that wasn’t the case. He wouldn’t dwell on that though.

“Devdan. What are you doing here?” MaLeila asked, eyebrows furrowing in confusion.

Devdan shrugged. “Same thing I always do when you’ve been spirited away by our opponent, coming to save your ass. Although I was expecting a few more fights and to meet you halfway in trying to fight off our alternate selves.”

Comments like that used to make her smile at him, especially after they had become somewhat fond of each other. But even Devdan was shocked at the biting resentment laced through his own words.

“That’s not what I meant. I meant I didn’t expect you to try to come after…”

“I wasn’t,” Devdan replied quickly. “But Bastet was coming regardless and I wasn’t letting her come alone. If it were up to me I would have left you here.”

MaLeila rolled her eyes. “I haven’t even done anything to you and haven’t seen you in two weeks and already you’re being an asshole to me.”

Devdan scoffed. “Please. Don’t even try and pin the blame for all this on me or have you forgotten your part in all this.”

MaLeila opened her mouth to reply, but before she could Tsubame stepped into the room walking right past Devdan to stand in between them.

“Now, now. There’s no need to fight,” Tsubame said. “Come with me so we can talk. How about the gardens?”

Tsubame didn’t wait for either of them to reply as she turned and made her way past Devdan and back into the hall. MaLeila met his eyes once more before averting her gaze and following Tsubame out the room. Devdan briefly debated whether he should follow before deciding there was no harm in following the woman for now. As much as he didn’t mind starting a fight, he wouldn’t start one if he didn’t have to. Besides, Bastet had been trying to get more information on Tsubame and here was the chance. He finally followed behind MaLeila as Tsubame led them down a flight of stairs different from the ones Devdan had taken and then through the dull halls, passing through the kitchen before they were in the gardens.

“It’s such a cliché. The dictator who everyone’s clamoring to find a way to control enjoys the quiet peace of her garden because there’s just something about nature.” Tsubame said as she sat on a stone bench next to a bright red plant with thorns all over it. “Of course, if we consider that most of the world’s dictators have some type of magical potential then that the cliché begins to make sense because magic is always so much purer when you’re surrounded by nature instead of things that, while having originated from nature, have been manipulated by man to suit his needs.”

Devdan supposed that was true, but it was particularly ironic to him that Tsubame still believed she was surrounded by pure nature when he could hear the gunshots of the fight and cries of soldiers and civilians getting caught in the crossfire coming closer and closer to the compound.

Tsubame, who had been playing with a thorn on the plant next to her and inspecting it like it was a piece of intricate art, turned to look at Devdan and MaLeila.

“Devdan… What makes you go by that name?” Tsubame asked.

“People generally go by the name their mother gave them,” Devdan replied.

While her expression didn’t change there was a slight almost imperceptible tilt to her head that told Devdan she was surprised for whatever reason.

“Interesting. I guess that’s as good a reason as any,” Tsubame said before turning back to look at the plant whose thorn she was still looking at. Suddenly she said, “I don’t wish for you all to be enemies.”

“Who?”

“You, MaLeila, and Bastet of course.”

Of all the things Devdan was prepared to hear Tsubame say, it wasn’t that. Considering that she wanted MaLeila as her prodigy, it seemed natural that the first thing she would want was them out the way so she could shape and mold MaLeila to her whims.

“Don’t act so shocked. Think about it, ask yourself did Marcel ever purposefully do anything to try to drive you all apart, to turn you against each other. Sure you could blame him for starting a relationship with MaLeila, but trust me when I say he didn’t do it to drive you apart. That fallout was bound to happen on its own sooner or later.”

Devdan was beginning to hate the way Tsubame could state truths that people tried so hard to hide like it was obvious. And he hated to admit how right she was. Whether MaLeila had dated Marcel or not, she still would have wanted to start her own life, one separate from him and Bastet, and then they would have again been forced to reveal the binding to her and that it was likely that their entire relationship was artificial and if she couldn’t find a way to break it, he and Bastet would essentially be stuck with her.