“The necromancers are broken,” Emily said.
Void continued, as if he hadn’t heard her. “It took years - decades, really - for me to realize that things were not going to get any better. The kingdoms were going to keep contesting for superiority. The magical enclaves were no better. The White Council would not - could not - evolve into a genuine government. There was too much suspicion and distrust and outright fear, even when selfishness wasn’t involved. None of them would give up their power for the common good. The less power they had, the more reluctant they were to give it up. They’ve fought wars over lands that were lost centuries ago...”
He met her eyes. “Do you think Queen Alassa would give up her power for the common good?”
Emily wanted to say yes, but the words died in her throat. Alassa wouldn’t. She’d been born and bred to rule. She’d made concessions, she’d accepted she couldn’t hope for near-omnipotence, that she’d have to allow her people a say in government affairs... but she wouldn’t give up power. She couldn’t. She wanted to pass her throne, and her kingdom, to her daughter. If she’d been willing to leave, she could have left well before she’d been crowned.
“Yes,” Void said. He’d read her face. “She wouldn’t give up anything.”
He shook his head. “I knew something had to be done. I knew I couldn’t rely on anyone, not when I started planning a coup. It had to be done carefully. I put my pieces in place one by one, positioning a handful of allies in some key locations and spell-controlling others who wouldn’t otherwise help me. It took years, but I had years. I’d subvert the kingdoms and the armies, then the enclaves. I knew I wouldn’t get everyone, when I finally moved into the light, but there wouldn’t be much resistance. I’d have the vast majority of the Allied Lands under my banner. The remainder could fall in line or be crushed.”
Emily felt her eyes narrow. “How long were you planning this?”
“Years,” Void said. “Longer than you’ve been alive. Most monarchs, and patriarchs, are short-sighted. Even the genuinely intelligent ones give way, inevitably, to selfish, stupid, and often dangerous successors. They couldn’t comprehend the mere concept of a plot that took decades to put together, let alone counter it. I lost some of my agents along the way, but never enough to slow me down for more than a few years. If anyone suspected the truth, they kept it to themselves.”
He frowned. “Lucknow might have done. He might have worked with me, but he never really trusted me.”
“Is that why he arrested me?” Emily found it all too believable. “He thought I was working with you.”
“You are my apprentice,” Void reminded her. “I suspect he thought he was killing several birds with one spell. But we’ll come to that in a moment.”
He grinned, suddenly looking a lot more like his old self. “I had to keep up the pressure on the necromancers as well as plotting a coup. I couldn’t afford to step into the shadows completely or too many people would start to wonder what I was doing. And besides, one of the selfish idiots would probably do something disastrous if I wasn’t keeping my eye on them. I knew Shadye was experimenting with the Black Arts and, fearing the worst, I moved to stop him. Imagine my surprise when he summoned you.”
Emily shuddered, remembering the necromancer. She would have died, sacrificed to the darkest of gods, if Void hadn’t saved her life. And yet...
“I wasn’t sure what to make of it, at first,” Void admitted. “You could have been anything, anything at all. I ran a bunch of tests on you while you were asleep, trying to determine if you posed any danger. It took me a long time to determine you were truly ignorant of magic, even though you possessed it. I arranged for you to go to Whitehall, knowing my brother would take care of you. It never crossed my mind that you might turn the entire world upside down. Or that you would become so attached to Zangaria.”
“You made me,” Emily said. “If you hadn’t sent me to Whitehall...”
“You disrupted my plans, quite by accident,” Void said. “Your innovations changed the world. You kicked off a shift in the balance of power, allowing commoners to challenge their overlords and mundanes to counter magicians. You even raised the possibility of me not having to launch my coup, despite all my hard work. I hoped your work would lead to the dawning of a new age. But I was wrong. The reactionary movement was threatening to either undo your work or trigger a massive civil war. It would be disastrous.”
“You triggered the civil war in Zangaria,” Emily said, heatedly. “And you plotted to take control of Laughter.”
“Yes,” Void said. “It was a good place to test the concept before I launched the coup itself. Or so I thought.”
He shrugged. “I knew we were running out of time. Rangka and his allies had finally devised a scheme to break through the Craggy Mountains. When Lucknow asked for your assistance, I was happy to allow you to go while I put the remaining pieces in place. Your plan was a good one, I thought, and it would keep you
