"Heart of the Crown" Chapter 88

[seymoure]

Chapter 88

Answers without Solutions

Have you ever stared at a painting for an hour trying to make something in the picture make sense? You know you know what it is, but it just seems to escape you.

Or have you ever been at a gathering and been confronted with someone who obviously knows you but you cannot reach back far enough in your memory to find them?

Then when you find that piece of the puzzle, you really cannot jump for joy because you should not let anyone know that you didn’t always know.

When Cela of Tar rummaged through her mindscape to put the puzzle pieces together for her present location, she knew that there was little reason for an evident display of the knowledge. She couldn’t let her captor have that much more leverage in this contest.

What she realized was that if her face appeared in a mirror for her to see, then she could not be invisible. She still existed here, and so it had to be an illusion.

It had to be in her head.

That meant that the enemy was also in her head.

She didn’t know just how far into her mind the other side was, but she didn’t want to let him have any more information that he already did.

But she did have an advantage for the first time in this conflict.

She knew that he didn’t have the power to create a whole world. He would have if he could have, but he didn’t. That put her into a league that she could deal with, and that was, in itself, a happy bit of clarity.

The chance was very good that this spell had been planted and left to stew within her. If that was the case, he could only gauge her by what he saw.

She dearly hoped that was the case.

She reasoned that he would already know she knew if the spell was otherwise constructed or maintained.

She began to concoct a spell that she would weave in the most secret of methods.

When she conjured, it would be vast and powerful.

It would be a conquest or a route. If its construction and witching were a surprise to her foe, then she could make a powerful first strike.

If he knew already, she would be in a great deal of trouble.

She had to catch herself before a smirk curled her lips. She was already in trouble; that was inescapably true.

That’s not funny, she told herself.

She still almost smiled.

© 2008 C. Wayne Owens
Chapter 89 is here.