Prologue

Secrets

Princess Lorelei of Garlesca walked out of her private chambers. Her father was waiting for an audience with her, citing 'an urgent matter' as the reason. Urgent matters could mean a lot of different things, and Emperor Kiordan has seen fit to keep everything a secret.

Her husband had fallen in battle, and the birth of his posthumous son soon after only complicated matters. After a brief discussion with her former brother-in-law, the infant was named after his father, as was dictated by Garlean naming customs. Little Corrado journeyed back with his mother from his birthplace in Garlesca, far across the Imperial Spine, until they arrived in the Electoral Palace of Wossaham, safe in Otharnic territory. He will be raised well, and Lorelei knew the beast to do so.

"Lori!" a high-pitched voice rang out from the top of a flight of stairs. A head poked through a balcony, revealing a familiar face - also an otter. Niels of Raskia may have been the kin of her father's sworn enemy, but he was raised by her father, and was one of her closest friends near her own age.

"It is good to see you again," he said. At twenty-six, he was nearing his prime, and was a good five seasons older than Lorelei, though he did not show it mentally.

"You seem to have waited for quite some time." She laughed. She was not the definite heir to her father's titles - her father may yet sire a son with her mother, and failing that, take another wife, yet he seemed to have given up trying.

"Oh…" Niels said, his not-entirely-there mind seeming to drift off into the distance.

"Could you pick up a cue for once?" Lorelei sighed in mock pity. "I know you're a bright beast, but it would not hurt you to pick up the tiniest tidbit of social guile?"

"Yeah, yeah." Niels's ears dropped, then perked again as he opened his mouth. "Has your father matched you with anyone? My nephew, perhaps? Lord Valdemar is seeking a bride from far and wide, and this match could resolve my brother's conflict with your father."

Lorelei shook her head. "It is not like Father to seek reconciliation. He prefers an alliance with Erlend of Kaldos."

"Erlend? A weird choice, considering his love for another beast. I'm surprised that your father even considered him."

"Father's managing the arrangements now. I have no idea if he will accept though. Let me guess…" Lorelei smiled. "You're jealous?"

Niels, as usual, declined to provide a straight answer. "Well, he is rather handsome, or so I've heard. Almost as good as his brother, and he looks better than most otters. Present company included, of course." The otterlord laughed.

"Good to hear your childish infatuation has faded." Lorelei smiled awkwardly.

"Lorelei?" another voice permeated through the walls of the castle, this one more booming, and definitely belonging to a beast with stronger will than Niels'.

"I have to go. Now. Goodbye!" Lorelei turned her head and walked briskly to the lower levels of the castle.

"Farewell!" Niels called after her. The princess thought she heard more sentences spoken in a softer voice, but she chose not to pay attention.

The corridors of the palace had been well-kept, with tapestries of old and paintings of new styles decorating the sides. Across the winding halls, Emperor Kiordan's favourite word pierced the air. "Useless! Useless! Useless!"

Lorelei smiled. Her father seemed to be winning, or else he would not be in such a mood. Finally finding the room in which her father shouted from, she opened the door from which the shouts emerged.

Behind the doorway sat Emperor Kiordan the Second. A beast with many titles and bynames, and 'Lorelei's father' was not exactly on the upper rungs. Still, that was probably the one he took most pride in.

He did not particularly shower affection on her, but he was an otter with many duties and interests - he may be the most powerful beast on the planet, but his 'ottery' characteristics pierced through his kingly aura more than his daughter would have liked. Tall and lanky, Kiordan loved fun. That smile on his face was omnipresent throughout Lorelei's memory. The black-furred otter treated everything like a game, yet somehow managed not to lose.

Kiordan was with that mysterious beast who was his spymaster. Between them, the remains of a game of chess sat idle on a table.

"Eight moves?" The other black-furred mustelid whined. "I got blasted in eight little moves - I haven't even moved all of the pieces!" Isangrim he was called, and Lorelei always thought that he was always up to something shifty. He looked like some sort of marten, but his chest wasn't a lighter shade of fur. And his ears were short. And he was awfully big for a marten. He had to be some other beast.

"Didn't expect that queen to arrive just in time, hmm?" The emperor picked up a crowned vulpine carving, its crown and dress denoting its significance. He grinned. A devil's grin, beasts called it, yet a less diabolical expression for Lorelei.

"I thought I was here for something more important." Lorelei snidely remarked. "A simple game of chess is hardly an 'urgent matter', as you put it."

"Well, your mother once said it is. For once, I'm not so glad that you're not so like her." Kiordan parried her concern away, like he had done for the previous twenty or so seasons. "Life's too short for chess, and not the other way round."

"Besides, I am one of the few beasts he can beat in a game." The spymaster chuckled, earning himself an annoyed stare from the otter.

"Now, daughter, on to more important matters." Lorelei turned to her father and smiled. The small talk was over.

"Politics first. Erlend of Kaldos is here in Wossaham." Kiordan grinned again, as if a puzzle of a thousand pieces was finally put together on that day by his own two paws.

"What?" Lorelei blurted out. Remembering the etiquette of a 'proper' princess, she shifted into a more calm countenance. "Shouldn't I, the lady, go to meet him on his own lands?"

"Oh, that's not his reason for visiting." The emperor grinned again. "No sane banker in Southsward or Travrik would ever lend money to him, so he's here, trying to secure a loan." He laughed even louder, with the spymaster in awkward silence. "From a stoat! An Ulfinger of Travrik borrowing from a stoat!"

"So will he come to meet me here?" Lorelei interrupted the revelry. "Or shall I go to him?"

"That is your choice," said Kiordan, his grin fading into a mere smile. "Yours and no other."

"Well I do wish to meet him." Lorelei smiled. Choices seldom came to her, but the Travrikan was a risk she could take. 'You're a higher rank than he is, so I doubt he'll be disrepectful. Besides, he's the one with all the pressure on him."

"Really?" Turning to Lorelei, Isangrim expressed his own reservations. "He's more boring than Niels, for Fates' sake. And what fun is lording over an otter as soft as butter? I may even say that you will only drive him into the paws of more females-"

Before Kiordan could react, his daughter's paw had curled into a fist, and crashed into the mustelid's muzzle, earning a very surprised shriek as his only reaction.

"Lorelei!" Emperor Kiordan barked, causing his daughter to turn her attention from the downed mustelid back to him.

The princess pursed her lips. "I apologise only that I did not reach for some sort of blunt instrument before going for him. That would surely be more colourful."

Kiordan sighed. "Nox will that you may not have daughters! But back to the urgent matter, and not the useless stuff." The otter chuckled as he caressed his queen chess piece, the carving seeming to smile. "A question. Can you keep a secret?"

"Er… Yes." Lorelei was not sure most of the time, but it was her father asking her. He raised her, fed her, played with her. She was his very future. Lorelei would do her best to keep his secret, whatever it may be.

Emperor Kiordan smiled. "Daughter, you do know what a Conjurer actually is, don't you?"

Lorelei rubbed her chin. What a random question. "They're in little stories that parents use to lull their children to sleep. And they are featured in a few ancient legends as well. That's what the books say, anyway."

"Didn't know you cared for books, but whatever. That means all three of us are living legends! Hurrah!" Kiordan was clearly enjoying his daughter's little fit of simmering irritation.

"Wait! Waitwaitwait." She pointed at the two males, and then spoke to her father. "So your spymaster's a Conjurer, you're a Conjurer," she pointed two thumbclaws at herself. "And I'm a Conjurer?"

"You're two-thirds correct. Nice work, little detective," the emperor said, the grin still stuck on his face. "He's not an otter, so he's a Thaumaturge. Not-so-useless distinction with a not-so-useless difference."

"Your daughter is an observant one," the spymaster remarked snidely, which earned him an angry stare from Lorelei. He flinched, clearly afraid of another impact to his snout.

Kiordan nodded. "Yes, yes. The power of Conjurers lies within our veins. This is why I had you as my only child. Can't risk any chances of a mundane brother of yours." The emperor played with his piece, then set it at his table. "Don't worry - your mother had no problem with that."

"I don't understand!" Lorelei wailed.

"You don't have to," the emperor smiled, throwing the queen, with its crown carved on her head, up into the air. "You just have to hold this in your paws."

Catching the flung piece, the princess grimaced. "And what would you have me do then?"

"Concentrate." Isangrim seemed to breathe heavily with every word. "Focus on the piece."

And so she did. The foxqueen was made of orange acacia wood, with some stripes decorating her clothes. A wooden carved crown sat on top, with a glass jewel clipped on.

"Now close your eyes." Kiordan said as his ears folded and his grin faded into nothingness. Lorelei seldom heard him use an uncertain tone, but he did now.. "Clear your mind of useless things, then seize it! Seize it with your mind!" Lorelei obediently did so, focusing on the texture of the wooden figure - smooth, with a few cracks within. Then, she discovered something else.

The figure started to warm up, as if a fire was smouldering within. She opened her eyes with a start. Then there was a light, white in colour, and with a piercing intensity that could be missed if one decided to blink at the wrong time. Another flash followed. Then another. The light emanating from the crowned head was as feeble as a watchtower viewed from miles and miles away, yet it still seemed to shine and bloom.

In a few moments, the foxqueen was just a regular, non-luminous piece of wood. The princess and the spymaster sat with their mouths agape, the former unable to comprehend what happened, the latter merely mirroring her reaction.

The emperor was emotionless for once - or so it seemed. Then, within an instant, he laughed. "And now we have actual proof that you're a Conjurer. You might see the future in short bursts. You might heal others of any ailment but death. But we have Gifts, Lorelei, and they have to be put to good use." Without warning, Kiordan nodded at Isangrim. "You may start now."

"Start what?" Lorelei asked.

But it was too late. A second has scarcely passed before Isangrim stretched out a paw. Lorelei felt something tug on her; a warm ripple, gentle to the touch. Then in one rapid moment, the heat became a searing flash, like she blundered into a volcano or something. She gasped at the imaginary pain, and was suddenly afraid of doing harm to somebeast else.

"What was that? What in the world have you done?" The princess turned towards the trembling mustelid. Now she was afraid of getting hurt. "What did you do?"

"I… er… bonded you." Isangrim's ears folded as he responded.

Lorelei didn't wait. Ignoring her father's confused stare and her own unexplained fear, she delivered another paw-blow to the spymaster, who doubled over in pain.

This time, however, he was not the only one. The otter felt the impact as well, as if somebeast just as strong just whacked her just as hard. Lorelei was one to recover quickly, but even she had to be shocked.

"What sorcery was that?" she asked, coldly turning her head, pretending that nothing had happened at all.

"The properties of a Bond are, to say the least, interesting," Emperor Kiordan continued to smile. "Of course, this is not to be confused with the bond between master and slave, as those blasted Tarelians might attempt some flimsy justification. As a result of being bonded by the Thaumaturge in front of you," he pointed at the groaning spymaster, "you would be stronger, he would be stronger, and hopefully everybeast will be happy."

"Well, I do feel that she's stronger," said Isangrim, rubbing his snout.

Lorelei scowled, biting back the urge to smack the mustelid again and again. "I have no idea what you're talking about, Father. Besides, what advantages can it bring to the idiot? He wouldn't just have bonded me for no reason - he's no fool. Or was I wrong here?"

"Well, yes. There is a concrete reason about the bond." The room darkened as Kiordan's eyes hardened, his whiskers twitched and his smile, for the first time in what seemed to be forever, froze. "You can now feel what he feels, and sense what he senses, but not think what he thinks. Remember that." His erstwhile smile returned almost immediately. "Oh. And you can know where each other are, albeit vaguely. This is not useless. And you can sense each other's locations, to add to the fun. This is the crucial part. I have to ensure that you won't lose each other as you're being trained. That will not do, plain and simple."

"So almost all feelings can travel up the bond?" asked Lorelei, still confused. Lorelei, or more accurately, Isangrim's confusion slowly faded. He must have some of her father inside him to be so smug. After all, the emperor and the spymaster have worked together for too long.

"Correct! Or so I have been told. There was that one time that we drank too much, and... I think I'll just say that we discovered that drunkenness travels across the Bond much faster than expected."

"That's… interesting." Lorelei sighed. "You know, I think I will keep your little secrets. But still, perhaps you could have asked me before? Or maybe to be so considerate as to tell me why the whole thing was done in the first place?"

"I am sorry, my Lori." Kiordan sighed. "I was desperate and short of sight, and needed results quickly." He smiled - he chose not to grin. "As for why, you will learn why over the course of the next few years." The emperor was quick to change the subject. "Don't tell anyone about this. Not your future husband, not your mother, and not your children. I told you all this for a reason. Beasts will die if anybeast else knows about Conjuration, or Thaumaturgy for that matter." Even if any one of your pups does inherit your gift, tell them nothing until I want you to." Kiordan's eyes seemed to burn with something. Rage? Desperation? Fear? Lorelei did not know.

"I understand." Lorelei suppressed a tremble that Isangrim could not hold in.

"Swear it. On the life of your son, swear it!"

"I swear that I will not tell anyone about me being a Conjurer without your permission." As if having to share a heart with this fake marten wasn't enough… "Why are you doing this now, of all times? Why now, after twenty seasons? Why is this an urgent matter?"

Kiordan frowned, the second time in as many minutes. "It will become evident, and do please refrain from asking questions. Be patient for once!" The emperor sighed. "We now know that our Empire is not the only realm to have beasts like us on their side. There are rumours of Southswarder and Tareller foretellings, so our plans will have to accelerate exponentially. We have been too slow to act, and now we pay the price. The flames of truth shall burn bright, until our world and its reflections are no more. All is etched in fate, and to deny fate is useless."