Chapter 5 – Dream Lover

The Castle Wevis was magnificent.

Even though Harks had known the King for thirteen years, the King had never once invited him to visit Wevis until now. Thinking back, it wasn’t until his twelfth year that he began to realize how special he must be to be a friend of the Ruler of the whole Avonova. His mother had an explanation. The King was the only surviving child. He had never known any siblings. He could not make good friends in the Palace since people there were too close to him and could take advantage of the situation. The only other place outside of the Palace the King was familiar with was the Academy. Harks was the only boy in the whole Academy. It would only be natural for the King to feel a sense of kinship with Harks, something his mother referred to as male bondage.

Harks always thought that after all these years of friendship, he knew Bola very well. He thought he’d never be surprised by the King. He was pretty disappointed when he entered the Palace. Bola never told him how beautiful the Palace was.

Harks had no idea so many ancient artifacts were kept in the King’s Palace. He knew the Palace had the largest collection of pre-Mage War artifacts but he had never thought it could be this huge. Art pieces made with lost craftsmanship decorated the whole place. They represent what weaving was, what weaving should be. A sudden anger grew within him. Why did people ever change the art into something destructive? Looking at these beautiful art pieces renewed Harks dream – to restore the lost art of Weave-Craft.

Harks looked around to admire the beauty surrounding him. His eyes fell on a particular piece hanging on the wall behind him. He was mesmerized by the picture of a landscape with a fall that actually seemed to run. It might be a trick in his eyes but after a time, the river grew darker. Upon closer inspection, he realized why. The landscape was growing darker. The picture was actually telling time!

“Amazing, isn’t it?”

Harks was startled by the voice. He had been so absorbed by the picture he didn’t notice the arrival of the King.

“The picture, I mean. Mother said in the prime of days, weavers could even make the scenery real. People could actually step through the picture and discover a new creation. But come with me now, Harks. You have the rest of your life to admire such beauty. For now, we have important business to tend to.” King Bola put his arm around Harks’ shoulder and squeezed gently.

Harks felt kind of uneasy by the touch. It was probably because he was offended by Bola’s distraction.

The King led Harks to the throne room. Even before the large double door was opened, Harks was overwhelmed by the presence of Kai – raw threads that wait to be shaped. He knew of three such wells of pure power. He had been to the one in the Academy, but it felt only like a drop of water compared to this body of ocean.

The High Queen had been waiting for them. Harks’ face betrayed his wonderment.

“Impressed, aren’t we?”

Seeing no response, the King squeezed Harks’ shoulder.

“Oh, my apologies, your Majesty… I mean your Highness.” Harks was so absorbed he forgot how to say sorry to a member of the royal family the proper way.

“That’s all right, Harks.” She then turned to her son and said, “Your Majesty, do you not wish to come back to your throne before making the announcement? A King always show some kind of dignity and formality.”

The only thing on Harks mind right now was how he could use this well and the artifacts in the Palace to realize his dream. With these resources, he was more confident then ever that he could restore Weave-Craft. His dream was turning into reality.

“—pronounce you as my wife, co-Ruler of Wevis, Queen of Centa!”

These words pushed Harks back to the waking world.

“What?” At first, Harks banished the words as an attempt by Bola to make fun of him. However, the King would not have gone through all this trouble to play a trick on him, at least not with the High Queen around. This isn’t what Thoron has told me! This is all wrong!

“I said,” the King cleared his voice, “I hereby pronounce you, Harks of the Tabuta family, co-Ruler…”

“Stop, no!” I’m not going to hear any more of this nonsense. “I can’t. This is all wrong. I’m a man. I can’t be your Queen, Bo…Your Majesty.”

Clearly, the King was expecting a different reaction from Harks. His looked shocked. “Harks, whether you’re a man or not is not important. I’m the King and I make the rules. You do love me, don’t you?”

Harks was turning inside out. This has to be a nightmare. After all these years. Bola thinks I’m his lover? “Your Majesty, I love you like a brother…only.”

“And you may continue to do so, Harks. I’ve endured all these years of socializing with the witches in the Academy. I don’t expect you to turn me down now. After all, I can make it as easy or hard as I want. In the end, you’d still have to obey the King’s order.”

The usual Harks would have been speechless and not know what to do. He surprised himself by not being frightened. After all, as Bola has said, I don’t have much choice. What have I got to loose anyway? “But you won’t make me, Bola. You love me too much to hurt me.”

“You don’t seem to have trouble hurting me though. Harks, I’m sorry if I never gave you time to prepare. I know how much you enjoy Weaving and I don’t want to trouble you with other thoughts. You’re just saying that you don’t like me because you’re not ready to accept the fact that two men can love each other. In time, Harks, in time you’d think back and laugh at yourself for being this foolish.”

“Yout Majesty, the very words you’ve said is making me shiver all over already. What if I told you to love a woman. How would you feel?”

“What about your dream lover?” High Queen Viona intercepted finally. “A he or a she?”

This is absurd, Harks thought. He had never paid much attention to one of the most popular magic in the Academy. He regarded it as a pastime and mostly a girlie thing. Then again, even if he had woven the magic in the Academy, no one would share it with him except Thoron. And Thoron would probably throw fits if he showed the old man something that stupid.

But the important thing was he knew how the magic was woven. He had seen Telerine perform once and was actually quite an easy Weave. I’ll weave the magic if that’ll help. But I’ll be careful. He began to wove the threads. He secretly wove another set of patterns behind the Weave. If anything went wrong, he was ready to open a portal to the library. Halfway through, an image of a girl began to appear in his mind. She looked familiar to Harks somehow. Must be one of the girls in the Academy. No time to think about her now. Concentrate. But he could not, the image grew more clear. The face was stern, her eyes determined. Her hair was blonde but dull. And then a realization came to Harks. She’s the woman in my dreams!

Harks’ hands seemed to have a mind of their own. While he was absorbed by the image in his mind, they kept weaving the magic. This was why he did not notice something wrong with the Weave. Rather than a haze, the air in front of him grew dark and expanded to the size of a door. Then the mist parted.

When Harks realized what was happening, he was already staring at a doorway. A dark and sinister corridor lied beyond.

And then someone came through it!

Before Harks could see who the newcomer was, she turned to face the doorway. Harks could only see her hair, and it was the same blonde, dull kind like the woman in his dreams. Looking over her shoulder, he saw what she was looking for. A person wrapped in robes with extending arms walked slowly toward them. Harks could detect an evil grin behind the hooded face. The was only one thing to do. Without so much as a thought, Harks tried to unravel the Weave. But something was blocking him. Someone was holding the Weave together. Who?

What the King and the High Queen saw was slightly different. They saw the mist, but no doorway corridor. When the strange appeared out of thin air, High Queen Viona knew that Harks had succeeded. Then she saw panic in his face and his hands began to gesture again. Before Harks could unravel the spell, Viona held it tight. The stranger did not look like what she was expecting. There had to be another.

Losinia had no idea where she was. This has to be another trick of the Father of Lies. She turned around and instead of seeing her mentor Kolin, the Father of Lies approached her. Where’s mentor? She pulled a dagger from her boot and threw at the robed figure.

High Queen Viona thought the dagger was aimed at her. Instinctively she ducked aside. In doing so, she lost her grip on Harks’ Weave.

The resistance was suddenly over. Harks was able to continue unraveling the magic.

The dagger met an invisible barrier at the doorway. Losinia tried to reenter it and met with the same resistance. The long nails of the Father of Lies had crossed the doorway.

And the doorway suddenly disappeared as if it were never there, leaving six broken nails on the floor.

Losinia was confused, but years of training had taught her how to deal with strange situations. She turned around, saw Harks, then moved to his back and put her sword at his neck.

“What’s going on?” Losinia shouted.

“Please don’t hurt him,” the King pleaded.

“Cease them!” the High Queen ordered.

“No!” the King countered.

“We must leave,” Harks suggested.

It was clear that the Queen’s authority overruled that of the King’s, as soldiers began to close in on the pair.

“I said stop!” King Bola hit on his arm rest with a punch and stood up.

Harks placed the final pattern and the portal he had woven behind the Dream Lover Weave materialized.

“Please, lady, we must go,” he said to Losinia.

“I’m not going anywhere, especially one of those again.”

“Look, if I took you anywhere unsafe, I’d still be dead by your hands. I’d rather choose to convince you to let me live, lady.”

Should I trust him? He doesn’t look dangerous. Yet I’m sure he’s the one who brought me here. Wait, that means he’s the best chance I have to get back! “Don’t do anything foolish. Let’s go.”

They crossed the portal. Little did Harks know that another thread went with them.

“Harks, when you come to your senses, please come back,” the King whispered as the portal vanished. “Be safe,” he added.