Polynya

Two attendants come out with two baby griffins perched on white pillows. The attendants wear white robes with a thick black line down the middle. This black line extends onto their faces via a four-inch-wide strip of black paint. The sides of their heads have been shaved, and they wear dangly earrings shaped like crescent moons.

The attendants place the pillows on raised columns and the griffins stay put, oblivious to the crowd below. Next out of the doors are two male Thuleans in equally impressive white robes. They don’t have the black stripe painted on their faces, but they do have purple ponytails and sharp widow’s peaks.

Kodai smirks at the symmetry of it all. He does appreciate things like that, and order and balance is important, but all of the pageantry is utter bullshit.

His hood over his head, he steps out of the shadow of the tree statue and makes his way to the back of the crowd. He sees Tamana and Tomas on his left, the two mages on his right. Each has fanned out and blended in to the crowd.

A flash catches his eyes and he looks to the balcony to see four attendants completely in head-to-toe gold. The only part of their bodies not covered in gold are the two circles around their eyes, which are white.

The four step up to the balcony, open their mouths, and their tongues spill out.

People in the crowd gasp and murmur as their four tongues elongate. The attendants’ tongues start to expand in size, keeping their thinness. It doesn’t take them long to form a large, golden curtain descending from the balcony all the way down. The four get on their knees and bend forward to rest their chins on the balcony.

Kodai pushes further into the crowd.

He takes a place directly in front of where he assumes the Empress will emerge. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees the Shinigami get into place, their handles flashing over their heads.

Now, we wait, he thinks as a grin spreads across his face.

Trumpets sound as six men exit the balcony’s double doors.

They carry a vantablack palanquin with beaded tassels hanging from its bottom, and each bearer wears a sleek set of charcoal robes that match their black face paint. A four-inch strip of white down the middle of their faces is the only contrast with the black.

They turn, lower the palanquin, and after a moment of abject silence from all in attendance, Empress Thun steps out.

Interesting, Kodai thinks, watching the woman walk up to a crystal dais that wasn’t there just moments ago.

In contrast with her dark skin, white dots are painted above her eyebrows. Her eyelashes are long and white, and her lipstick is a soft shade of gray. The Empress wears an open-fronted gray robe with a V that dips all the way down to her waist and is tied off with a long, gray sash.

She raises her hand, and all in attendance bow their heads. Once they’ve done so, she begins speaking. “As many of you witnessed,” she says, her voice amplified by magic, “there was an attack yesterday in Porthos.”

She glares at the crowd.

“Let it be known, by the power invested in me by the Sage of Gotha, I will protect the three floating continents of Tritania. Working in conjunction with the Thulean Elders, and the government of Aramis, we will see to it that these types of attacks, against the very freedom granted to us by the Sage, will be crushed. All opposition will be crushed, and those that have any ties to these attacks will learn very quickly the extent of my power.”

Empress Thun scans the crowd, and for a moment, Kodai gets the sense that she’s looking right at him. His nerve is suddenly shattered; the Empress locks eyes with him and he swears, for that single moment, they are alone, just the Empress standing at the top of the balcony and Kodai below her.

His breath cut short, he exhales audibly when she turns to another quadrant of the crowd. After she’s finished acknowledging all in attendance, Empress Thun parts her lips into a half smile.

“Nearly two decades ago commoner time, we came together to stave off a terrible infection that would have taken all Proxima worlds had it not been dealt with. There were many a guild involved, and as all of you know, the Knights of Non Compos Mentis led the attack. I’m afraid to say that this force is back. It isn’t the same force as before; no, the Reapers of old have long been vanquished. This is something entirely new, but its ties to the past threaten Tritania, other Proxima Worlds, and the world of the commoners.”

Kodai slowly places his hand on the pouches attached to his belt. He palms two knife marbles, and an explosive marble.

Only one chance, he reminds himself, and as he does, he feels a force come into his body.

I’m here, the serpent woman whispers in his ear. I will guide you.

Good, he thinks. Thank you.

Empress Thun raises her finger and begins to make her final point, and as she does, Kodai fires off all three marbles at her.