The Ghost of Adsophel

Eight.

Emerson Clarke came to us when I was nineteen. They arrived on the coldest day of the year, when the city was buried in snow and the sky was an eternal, cruel navy. Emerson carried nothing on them but a small rucksack and their father's old hunting knife. Their rich brown skin was riddled with scars and caked in grime, and their grey eyes coiled with rage. They were twenty-three and all alone. Clutched in their fist was the severed, crimson-caked head of a blood wolf.

They marched straight into the palace, shoving their way past guards, and dropped the head at the base of a stunned Zach's throne. "I want to work with you," was all they said. The blood wolf head spoke for itself.

-

As soon as Zach became king, he'd set to work reintroducing the old world to Adsophel. A week following the funeral, he had delivered a speech in the palace gardens, already dressed up in his new attire: a black suit beneath a violet-lined velvet cloak. The crown, a delicate wreath of stained glass and crystals, curled around his temples.

"Lovely people of Adsophel, it is now my duty to rule you. I plan to do so with as much patience, goodwill, and benevolence as my father, and his parents before him. I will maintain peace and order along our borders and within our city walls, the very same peace and order he worked so hard for. That is my vow to you.

"I have another vow to make, though. A rather personal one. You see, although Eric was a kind man, and a smart one, there are things about Adsophel that he, sadly, could not know. I, though, do. And I am making it my duty to share this knowledge with all of you. Here is my promise to you, Adsophel: I am going to lead you into an ancient, brilliant new age, the brightest future this country has ever seen."

He told them about finding the old ruins. He told them he'd been blessed by the dragons, by the gods themselves, to deliver this knowledge to them. "Once a week, anyone who is interested may come here to the palace gardens, and I will teach you what I know. I will teach you how to perform rituals and divination. I will teach you how to use herbs and make potions, far more powerful medicine than anything 'modern'. I will teach you about the creatures and spirits that walk among us, the ones so many of us can no longer see. I can teach you how to see them again."

For the first year of our rule, I lived with tense muscles, wary of everyone who came to the gardens. I feared he would be mocked and ridiculed as insane, or banished for his ramblings, or killed. I trembled with fear for him, because I knew he'd never stoop to fearing for himself. But weeks passed, and each time, more people grew curious and visited the gardens to learn. I watched him crouch among packs of children, passing around polished stones. I watched him help an elderly man prepare an herbal tea, and when a single sip eased his back pain, the man wept in relief and declared Zach divine. I watched him ease humble factory workers into a trance state, so they could finally see the secrets hidden in the burning light of the moon.

Thea was given the role of lecture. While Zach gave out practical knowledge or skill, she would tell people about the sky palace, or all manner of old world creatures. It was this, I believed, that most effectively brought people into the old world; it allowed them to realize they'd been interacting with spirits for their entire lives without knowing, and through this realization, it allowed people to see and listen to things they'd always ignored.

Thea gave lectures on the sirens - massive, humanoid creatures that dwelled around the mouth of the bay and lured sailors overboard to their deaths; the fae - spirits who nested within old trees and stole children's souls by asking for their names; the dreamweavers - jewel-tone spiders that fed on one's dreams; and the blood wolves - bloodhungry, cruel beasts that could rip apart stones with their teeth.

Blood wolves still roamed freely around our forests, all the way into the upper living district; they used to circle our house at night, no doubt seeking a way inside. Everyone knew someone who'd disappeared in the woods, and if a body was ever found, it was in pieces. Among all the predatory old-world creatures that Thea lectured about, the blood wolves seemed to catch people's imaginations and paranoia the strongest. They began eyeing the trees with suspicion, clutching their children as they passed. Sometimes, as I wandered the gardens, I'd find whole groups just sharing accounts, whether they be firsthand or a friend-of-a-friend's, about the blood wolves' malice.