She Who Has No Name

burned far above them in the night sky, and the people of the citycontinued tocelebrate beneath it, ignorant of what was unfolding in the palace.

Grand Master Anthem was waiting in the hall of the Desert Queen, where Samuel had witnessed their treachery. He was wearing his Order blacks and stood defiantly, straight-backed, in the middle of the room, surrounded by power. Alahativa was waiting to the side, with the Emperor draped in chains beside her. The man looked infuriated, but it seemed he was helpless against her magic. No servants or guards lined the walls. All had fled or been told to leave lest they be consumed in the coming conflict.

‘Samuel,’ Anthem said in greeting, granting a welcoming smile. ‘We have much to discuss.’

‘I want nothing to do with you any more, old man,’ he replied and Anthem scowled back.

‘I see you’ve grown a bitter tongue, but it would pay you to hold it until you have learnt everything there is to tell. Would you not hear how Gallivan and I fared in Garteny?’

‘I have already heard all I need to hear and I am in no mood to listen to more lies and stories. And what would you expect? Look what she’s done to me-my hand, my eyes!’ and he pulled his sleeve up over his stump, to reveal the mottled, pink skin that bulged around his elbow. He raised his chin to let the light fall onto his ravaged face and even the Desert Queen looked disgusted.

But Anthem was resolute and went on. ‘Yet,even blind, you have learnt to compensate for such injuries. You are truly gifted, Samuel.’

Alahativa also spoke up. ‘I applaud you for surviving my dungeon, Samuel. It is a feat that no one has ever accomplished.’

‘Your dungeon is much overrated, witch. First, Balten escaped, and now, so have I. YourEmpire is decaying from within. Even your own people have turned against you. You have lost yourEmpire with your madness.’

She looked enraged by this, despite her best efforts to maintain self-control. After a moment of tussling with herself, she snapped back into her perfect,beguiling smile. ‘Please, give up this foolishness. We all know that without the ring on your finger, you are helpless. You are blind and crippled. This is foolishness.’

‘You are wrong. Without the ring, I am more than I was. I have thrown away that crutch and learned to walk on my own. Without my eyes,I have learnt to see more than ever before. My body is just a vessel. It can be broken, but it can be mended and made new again. With every moment free from your mountain,my strength returns. I wanted to show you, old man, what I have become. There is nothing you can teach me any more. Behold.’

With that,he opened himself up like never before and his own fresh, untainted magic surged into him. Wonderful power rippled within him and boiled around his form. It was boundless power, and it was his to control. He willed it tobeconcentratedin his withered eyes and shattered stump,and it glittered there like the sun glimmering on still waters. Anthem and the Desert Queenheld their arms up to shield their eyes, for the light blazing fromSamuel’swounds was blinding. The magic swelled inside his skull, grasping and mending the flesh, creating and stitching matter where there had been none. He called from his memory all the sensations that he knew should exist, and filled his spell with his intent that he should be made whole, and his magic went to work. The orbs of his eyes grew into place,like tiny buds blooming into maturity, and,when he felt the spell was complete-when he could feel his eyeballs pressing and sliding against the backs of his eyelids-he let the magic subside and he opened his eyes.

The world appeared before him as it had before, cast in shades of colour and light, marked by depth and dimension, yet enhanced by his superior magician’ssight. But he did not rest there. He steered his magic towards the stump of his arm and watched as the veins and flesh rippled forth from around the shattered bone, knitting themselves anew. Meat and tendons stretched themselves across the bone that grew out from the wound. A layer of skin spread about to envelope the flesh, pale and soft, before it browned to match the skin around it, and soft hairs and freckles grew in place, exactly as he remembered each of them. His forearm grew voraciously up to the wrist, and then spread out as his hand came into being. The hand divided and five fingers sprouted into place. Pink nails slid out from beneath the cuticles as the digits rounded themselves off and sealed themselves closed.

When he was done, Samuel let his magic dissipate and the blinding light he hadcastabout himself flickered from existence. He turned his hand over before him and flexed his fingers, forming a fist and relaxing it, marvelling at the muscles bunching under his skin.

‘I was but a shell of flesh,’ he said into the room, ‘but now I am something greater. The tree has become the fire.’

His new flesh felt and looked exactly as it had done before-before it had been so suddenly hacked from his body. His senses all throughout his being felt heightened and he could feel the tiny,individual pieces of himself at work, all doing their tasks and assisting each other: minuscule motes that toiled individually yet together, forming the flesh and matter that comprised his whole. He was not a creature of flesh, playing with magic- hewasthe magic, riding upon a vessel of bone and meat that it had crafted, and the more power he summoned,the greater he became.

He would have continued examining the marvel of himself, but Alahativa began wailing and she disturbed him from his task. ‘What kind of man are you? What demon has taken you? Anthem, what have you created?’

‘This is not my doing, woman!’ he told her gruffly. ‘I have never seen anything like this before.’

Samuel gathered his words and passed them from his throat, echoes riding the air. ‘No. I have made myself. I would like to rejoice at these discoveries, but that must wait. What I have learnt from your own mouths has deeply upset me. It seems, Grand Master, that you have kept secrets from me all this time. You have been tending to me all this while, hoping only to harvest my son. I am bitterly disappointed.’

‘It is not as simple as you make it seem, my boy. My goal has only ever been for peace for Amandia. We killed the Emperor and I believed our work to be done, but it seems that was only the start. The world is in peril, not by gods or demons as Celios had raved, but from man himself. We need to stop these infernal wars before civilisationitselfis destroyed. This madness has spread like a plague, leaving only death and suffering in its wake.’

‘Yet you have surrendered Cintar to the witch. She will not spare its occupants. She will kill every last soul within its walls. How does that end this madness you speak of?’

‘But millions more will be saved. I know the cost is high but,in return,she has given us your child-a babe that will grow into a king-a magician beyond all others, even beyond what you are now, who can quell armies with his will. No nation will dare affront another and magic will finally bring peace to everyone. Such a prize is beyond value! It is immeasurable! I had no intention to harm you, Samuel. I had no part in the kidnapping. I only sought to pair you together and see what would result. When I arrived here,I thought you were dead. I only wanted to make most of the situation. The arrival of the Koian woman seemed too good to be true. The answer to all our problems had been delivered to our very door!’

‘How can I believe anything you have to say? You forsook her without a second thought. You did not hesitate at the mention of this wretch’s axe.’

‘I’m sorry, Samuel. I have been blinded by my goal. I am so close to achieving the world I always imagined that I have sunk to such shallow methods. It is my life’s dream.’

‘And you will never see its realisation.’ He turned to the Paatin Queen. ‘Give me the rings.’

She glared at him. ‘Never!’

‘Then I will take them. I cannot allow them to be used by the likes of you. I will take them to Cang, so the world can be kept from harm.’

‘You have no say in the matter,’ she said defiantly. ‘These rings are not yours to demand.’

Samuel struck out, calling forth his newfound power, and sent a piercing beam of magic at the woman. She had her protection in place, rippling from her finger, before Samuel’s spell could reach her. His brilliant ray of death spat and hissed, stopping in the space directly before her eyes.

‘You need more power than that to harm me, Samuel,’ she said with a teasing smile.

‘As you wish,’ Samuel said and pressed his beam in towards her. She had the power of her Argum Stone at her command and her defences would otherwise have been considerable, but to Samuel it was not at all difficult to overwhelm the woman. He felt as if his power was limitless; that, should he call for it all at once, he could slice her head clean off.

Alahativa’s smile vanished as she shuffled backwards, but the beam followed her, digging in through her shields towards her.

‘Stop it, Samuel!’ she bawled. ‘How can you do this? We were lovers, once! Does that mean nothing to