Chapter 27: The Bardking of Fortune’s Decree
The Bard of fortune was a ludicrous figure. Its limbs were bulging things, absurd muscles carved into them. The headpiece on its ring was a half head, just the mouth and a chin like a block of wood.
Sprouting from this head-piece was a mane of black feathers with bits of blue crystal woven in throughout.
Its legs clenched onto the sphere that it was its throne. Within the ring, a core with four triangle faces stared at its own flexing metal muscles. This core had a differing number of eyes at each side of the triangles.
“Who has disturbed our rest?”
It had a chilling voice, like silken gloves strangling a dove, or oil running down a duck’s back, a smoothness, but such a peculiar one, along with a hint of avian cruelty. It was the kind of voice that you would want to laugh at, but wouldn’t for fear that the one speaking would do something fatally unpleasant to you.
That didn’t stop Gander from faintly chuckling of course, really it was quite likely that had Gander not become a familiar he would have been devoured by a spirit of greater power and short temper.
-It seems hard to believe, but this must be their king- Susasov said, not quite having faith in his own words.
“Bard king, how?” Ka questioned aloud before anyone could stop her.
The bard of fortune was taken aback, but then sneered, which was an odd expression when its eyes were below that half-mouth.
“Impertinence, but we are not surprised that an inferior fails to grasp our brilliance! We shall explain it in a manner best for your deficient minds!”
It lazily swept its hand before it, then got down to the business of carefully inspecting the nails of that hand.
Just as Olice and her spirits were thinking that the bard had done nothing, words began appearing in the air and a booming voice followed after, reading them aloud. Olice’s hair was blown backwards and she put her hands over her ears but she could still hear the voice.
“THE GREAT BARD DID MAKE WORDS THAT SPOKE, TELLING POWERFUL TALES OF THE SOLDIERS AND MAKING GRAND ORDERS FOR THEM TO FOLLOW AND THEY DID REVEL IN THE BARD’S CREATIVE MIND AND WORKS, SO IT WAS THAT THE GLAMOUROUS WONDEROUS BARD BECAME THE RIGHTFUL RULER OF THE SPIRITS OF ROUMOTTE AND VOICE OF THE GRAND EYE’S WILL!”
-The Ironbird king had power, but not power over their hearts?- Susasov mused.
“I wager it wasss more power over their earssss” Gander snickered.
The bard turned king turned its contemptuous gaze back to Olice and her spirits. As it did so, its eyes settled on Olice. There was a click and its core-head started to roll. A look of disbelief was on its eyes when the core came to a stop.
It slipped right off the sphere it had uneasily been clinging to. There was a crash as it hit the ground. The soldiers and the ironbird all crowded around their fallen sovereign, with various cries of ‘milord!’ and so on.
“You fooooooooools why did you bring her to me, why did you bring Silver Bane! GET HER AWAY AWAY!!!! AAAAAAA!!!!”
The voice of the bard was now more akin to the screech of a dove than anything else as it flailed its arms in Olice’s direction.
The ironbird king of fortune stepped in front of the bard protectively. It spread both its wings and its power!
Gander was shocked, he had thought that the ironbird would have been weaker than him, but it was stronger, far stronger than Gander. As the spirit rolled its core, Gander flung himself in front of Olice while uprooting as many shadows as he could for extra protection.
However, of the ironbird’s twenty faces, the one that came up to glare at Olice was one with three eyes.
There was a moment of stillness.
“Not agai…” The ironbird spirit began before its words turned into a squawk, as a metal cage slammed around it.
“You know, I’m not Silver Bane! I’m Olice!” Olice protested. “Bring her to me and I’ll prove it”
There was another click and the bard’s core-head rolled again. The eyes blinked disbelievingly at Olice.
“What foul scheme is this?”
One of the soldiers that had brought Olice threw itself at the bard’s feet. The bard froze for a moment as it absorbed memories given to it by its subject.
“We see…” It said quietly.
It turned its back on Olice, it would have had a more dramatic act if it wasn’t for how the core-head continued staring at Olice. These magifactured beings didn’t have a regular torso after all.
It began softly laughing, like an owl that was having trouble going, this progressed into full bodied hoots, which then abruptly transformed into booming cackles.
“Interesting, very interesting!”
It spun around and spread its hands wide.
“Our people! We have a problem! We have two silver haired beasts! But only one is the Silver Bane! You know what we must do?”
“Trial” The ironbird king cackled excitedly.
“Trial!”
The word rippled among the soldiers, with each mention being louder than the last, it became a roaring chant!
“TRIAL TRIAL TRIAL!”
The room began to shudder.
-This may have been a terrible idea!- Susasov said.
The spheres that made up the room began to spin individually, then they began spinning in rows in a circular motions, then in columns.
There was more shuddering and Olice struggled to stay upright as the fortress shook violently. The soldiers continued their chant while the bardking went deeper into its cackle.
There was a tornado of spheres around them, then the spheres flew outwards.
Olice watched in amazement as the fortress reconstructed much of itself as a grand arena. Olice was left inside the bowl of this arena, while the bardking drifted away. The walls became lined with chanting soldiers.
Soon everything was in place, but one more thing was still moving, It floated over to Olice, a being that looked just like her, but each of her limbs were bound inside a sphere. It had a vile smirk on its face.
It was the other!