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    Crystal Palace
    Crystal Palace
    Crystal Palace
    Ebook201 pages3 hours

    Crystal Palace

    By D.W. Jackson

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    About this ebook

    Thad and Bren learn that the scion lords are having a competition. With all their enemies in one place they couldn't pass up the chance and head toward the crystal city to face another challenge at yet another crystal city.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherD.W. Jackson
    Release dateJan 27, 2020
    ISBN9780463206164
    Crystal Palace

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      Book preview

      Crystal Palace - D.W. Jackson

      Copyright © D.W. Jackson Smashwords Edition

      Names, characters, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination, or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual event, organizations, or persons, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of the author.

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means whatsoever, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the author.

      If you would like to be placed on a list to be notified of future works from this author or if you would like to comment on the book you may send an email to forversidiot@yahoo.com

      Your email address will not be sold or given to any third parties or used outside to promote other works.

      PROLOGUE

      Thad sat upon the crystal throne that only a few weeks prior had belonged to one of the scion mages. Looking back now the fight with the scion mage seemed easy almost as easy as sealing the breach into the veil belonging to the other world, though it would still be weeks before that project was completely finished.

      The real problem were those that refused to return to their homeland. The protective bubble surrounding the city still worked though Thad was unsure how long that would last, as he was still unsure how it worked. Unlike with the doorway no humans had been given that knowledge though Humanius and a number of others were now looking into it. Without that knowledge the humans who stayed behind would not live long outside the cities boundary.

      Thad was interested in the boundary for another reason then just for the sake of the humans who had chosen to remain behind. If he could figure out how it worked then he wouldn’t have to worry about more of his body turning to crystal then already had. So far both legs a few inches below his knee as well as his arms up to the elbow had already been lost in that regard, forcing Thad to wear long shirts at all times.

      His limbs turning to crystal didn’t hamper him as they still worked like his normal body though he knew if he lost too much he would turn into a mindless scion like the others.

      My lord, a soft voice said stirring Thad from the thoughts that had clouded his mind.

      Turning Thad noticed a man a few years older than himself standing in the doorway to the throne room. Jarrod what brings you here so early in the day? Thad asked his friend. He had met Jarrod shortly after arriving in the city and the two had quickly become friends. He and his wife had been some of the many who had chosen to stay behind to follow him. He had protested their choice but it seemed that the scions had not endured themselves to the masses when they had forced many of them to migrate to the colony.

      Lord Humanius believes he has found the source of the cities protection, his friend said with a wide smile knowing that Thad was interested in it.

      CHAPTER I

      Thad followed behind Jarrod to where the retired warrior had left Humanius. Thad had expected the source of the protection to be somewhere within the palace but Jarrod was led out of the large gates and soon he noticed they were headed to the very edge of the city. After they had left behind the last sight of the houses Thad noticed Humanius, a creature called a god among the people from his own world. Humanius had silver skin and hair with golden eyes that seemed to move like molten metal when he stared at you. Thad was not very fond of the god thanks to his long imprisonment within the void with only Humanius as company.

      Humanius was not the only so called god that Thad traveled with, there was also two others. One was Humanius’s sister Belaroan who Thad had been raised to believe was the embodiment of all things evil, and the other was his own son Bren. In less than a year everything that Thad had believed had been rocked down to its very core so he held on to one simple thought, and that was who he was.

      What have you learned Humanius? Thad asked as he came within earshot of the god.

      Take a look for yourself, the god said motioning to a large crystal pillar that stood in front of the god.

      Thad let his left eye slip into magical sight. Long ago his left eye had been destroyed during a fight with a magical creature. He had still been young but he had fashioned a magical eye for himself out of the remains of the creature. It had happened so long ago he barely noticed that it wasn’t his natural eye, though it did come in handy allowing him to see things without having to rely on his own stores of magical energy. Most of the time he had staff Thuraman hide the magical eye with an illusion to make it look real so that it didn’t draw undue attention.

      What he saw when he looked upon the pillar amazed him. Thad knew that scions could not enchant the mother had explained that to him but what he saw was close. The pillar pushed away all magical energy in much the same way the crystals he had placed inside the glass bricks that blocked off the gate to the other worlds. The only real difference is that Thad couldn’t feel the spell that allowed it to do this nor could he see any lines linking the crystal to anything that might work as a body for an enchantment.

      How does it work? Thad asked after a long moment of studying the pillar.

      I think I can answer that for you, a soft voice said from beyond the protective barrier of the pillar. Looking up Thad saw the shape of a woman though she was made of pure crystal. Thad knew who she was at first sight. She was the embodiment of the ether itself, or part of it. The pillar is simply relaying an order from a scion mage that the ether should not pass. Of course ether will still slip through but only a fraction of what is pressing against the barrier.

      Can you replicate it mother? Thad asked a sliver of hope slipping into his voice.

      I could but anything I place could easily be countered by one of the other scion mages easily, she replied in a musical voice as if a number of beautiful women were speaking in concert. If one of the scions that I sent with you were to make it then it would be much harder for them to counter.

      Why? Thad asked wishing that his questions didn’t make him sound childish.

      Because they have thoughts of their own and the way they order the ether will be unique almost like a signature. Think of it in the way of locks. If they do it the key would be unique to them though if I did it then any key would work.

      Then I will see if one of them can manage the feat, Thad said though he still didn’t completely understand. Mother was a creature of magic but seemed human in almost every aspect besides her body.

      I must be off before my presence is noticed, mother said and her body started to lighten as if she had been nothing but a marriage and soon she was gone. Mother was still a mystery to him in many ways and Thad had never liked mysteries. That wasn’t true, he just liked to solve them and he knew somewhere deep within himself that Mother was one that he would never truly understand and that bothered him at the deepest core of his being.

      So now we have a hint of what to do to protect those that have stayed behind, Humanius said drawing Thad out of his reverie.

      I will let you talk to the scions to see which one is best suited for this task, Thad said having almost forgot that Humanius and Jarrod had been there. Enchanting the bricks for sealing the door take up most of my time and energy.

      Do you think it will work to completely seal off the doorway to the other world? Humanius asked though Thad was sure that the god already knew the answer to the question.

      Yes, Thad replied absent-mindedly. If will seal off the door from being opened from either side and as mother told us over time the veil will close itself off. Unless it is forcibly opened they will never have to worry about it again.

      How is the enchanting going? Jarrod asked taking Thad’s attention off the god.

      Slowly, Thad replied. It takes hours to finish one and then it has to be linked to the others. Thankfully the doorway isn’t larger than it is or it would take years to completely seal off.

      That means that next time you should get the basic enchanting done when you have time instead of waiting until we have access to the doorway, Humanius said offhandedly.

      It is not as if we knew it would take this long or be this involved, Thad said slightly irritated, though he knew that Humanius was right. If he had been working on the bricks in the months it had taken him to rise in the arena’s ranks then the task would have been finished after a week.

      Humanius was annoying at his worst though most of the time his words were only meant to make Thad think. Belaroan on the other hand was downright a bear when it came to finding any flaw that she could use to insult Thad. After a while Thad had grown to ignore her biting remarks but in truth they still stung from time to time, though he did his best not to let it show.

      As Thad followed Jarrod back to the palace where a mountain of bricks awaiting his enchanting. Thad let out a deep sigh. He loved enchanting but he enjoyed working on new ideas not preforming the same thing over and over. It wouldn’t be so bad if he had anything to draw his attention away from the tedious work but right now there was nothing. All he had was the crystal walls of the throne room and the large stacks of bricks sitting in front of him.

      Before going back to the throne room Thad made a small detour to the gateway which was located in a large garden in the center of the palace. The gateway was just large enough for a single wagon to go through without trouble. Over half of it was already covered in sparkling glass bricks with gems sit in their middle.

      Just as he did every few days Thad viewed the gateway through his magical eyesight. Nothing had really changed from the other times, the bricks still held strong and no ethereal energy seemed to be slipping through invisible cracks. As Thad looked at his glass wall he felt a nagging in the back of his mind. If normal glass blocked every stray strand of magical energy then the ones made of black glass were sure to do the same. What would happen to the mages then?

      I wouldn’t worry too much. I had the same fear but mother says that once magic has bloomed it will always remain though there will be changes. She is not sure how it will change just that it will though.

      You can talk to mother? Thad asked Thurman. From what mother had told him she could not talk to him without the aid of one of the scions when he was too far from her physical body.

      If I am the one who reaches out to her we can talk but not the other way around. It takes a long time to reach her but I had the same fear you did though I thought of it long before you even started your work on the glass wall. If magic ceased to exist in your world then I would as well.

      But how can magic still exist in our world when it will be cut off from the source of either? Thad asked more to himself than to Thuraman.

      Sometimes I forget how little you think. No world can ever be completely cut off from the source of ether since it is everywhere. The either created from each world is fed back to the center so that it can continue to create and expand. You have tried to make simple things before you know how much energy it takes for such a feat. Just think how much it takes for the center to create a whole universe.

      Thad didn’t reply to Thuraman knowing that the staff was just baiting him though it had made some valid points. In truth Thad silently thought that the world might be better off without magic though he knew that meant that the magical races would perish. Even knowing the number of beings that would perish without the ethereal forces, the world of magic Thad had known had been filled with bloodshed.

      Are you that blind that you think there will be less war if magic was gone? Magic or no the races of men will always find a reason to shed each other’s blood. The history of mankind is nothing but a long string of wars with short periods of peace in-between.

      You have a point there, Thad replied thinking that it might be best if all the intelligent races disappeared. It had not been the first time he had thought such things. It seemed that with intelligence came a desire for power and that inevitability led to bloodshed. He had to look no further than the throne he now occupied to know the truth. Most of the scions had lost their humanity long ago but not the desire for power. Without the need for food, water, or even air they still opened rifts into other worlds just so that they could have someone to have power over. It was as if life had no meaning without others in which to judge yourself against. Thad knew that he was no exception. He had often judged his own life compared to others and during the earlier part of his life had often felt bitter, but that bitterness had never turned into hate as it did with many of the less fortunate.

      Knowing that there was nothing he could do about the presence or lack of it right now he sat aside his pointless thinking and went back to work. It was the same thing as always, making the enchantments, then fusing the glass bricks together. What Thad really wanted was to get back on the road. Sitting still had never really been his thing and had it not been for Maria he was sure that he would have never gotten married but it was impossible to tell her no.

      By the end of the day Thad had finished a good deal but there still seemed to be a large amount left. No matter how many days passed it felt as if he would never be done. Though there were plenty of rooms in the palace Thad still made the walk back to his small house at the edge of the town.

      With most of the people gone the streets were mostly empty but the few people he passed greeted him with warm smiles. The smiles reminded him of the first few days after the war against the Brotherhood. The mages who had lived looked at him as if he were their savior and though it bothered him, Thad knew that deep down he enjoyed the attention.

      Once he was back in his room Thad started to think on what Humanius had found earlier that day. After more than an hour he was sure that there was no way that he could do the same thing through enchanting. That only left him with one choice and that was talking to one of the scions. In the end he found Heratio since he was the scion he felt the most comfortable with. It didn’t take long for Thad to explain what they had found nor what he wanted to know.

      I think I can do what you want, though someone with more power could easily erase the orders on the stones. Unlike enchanting I am just giving a part of the ether an order and imposing my will on it, Heratio explained.

      I wish I would have known about this beforehand. It would have made the trip here much easier, Thad said with a grunt. I never asked before but why are you helping out mother? From what I have seen the other scions have more to offer, Thad asked as Heratio turned to leave.

      We don’t want power, Heratio said and Thad could have sworn that the scion had a look of sadness on its face. We simply want to forget and that is something only she can provide. Once the veils are fixed we will join her in the center of the either and we will forget what it was to be human and return to the core. That is all we want.

      If that is all you wanted then couldn’t you simply kill yourself? Thad asked.

      I have thought about that, Heratio replied. "I have even asked the lady about it on occasion but the truth is there is a chance we could remain. There has never been scions like us before. Our power of controlling the ether in life let us keep our minds when

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