Amelia Merlin and the Game for Okamila

Part 108: The Lord of Dreams

"Yes," Akkedis looked almost abashed as he pulled at his fingers. "Yes, I'm afraid you're right."

"What are you doing here?"

"The field? I thought you might like it." He looked around like a middle-aged woman who was scared her kid's birthday party wasn't going well. "Don't you like this place?"

"I do. I love this place."

"Oh, okay good." Akkedis gave a small smile.

"I meant, what are you doing in my head?"

"I thought it was time we met. We have a few things to talk about, and I don't want you getting the wrong idea about anything." his voice was soft and easy to listen to, he wasn't anything like what Amelia had pictured him to be.

"What do you want to talk about?"  She felt like an idiot, but she wasn't scared. This wasn't the Akkedis she had always known and the unfamiliarity of it was making her wary.

"Us." he grinned cheekily and Amelia almost laughed.

"Us?" she smirked. "Please elaborate."

"Well, I seem to think you might have an off impression of me. So I'm here to tell you my side of the story."  Akkedis was obviously trying to be charming but he looked sort of sad as well.

"Okay," she gestured for him to continue.

He took a deep breath before getting started on his story. "I was born here, in Okamila, about seventeen years ago. My mother was a housemaid and my father was a butcher. We were poor as all hell, Amelia. We didn't have anything in the world and people were always so cruel. I'm not trying to get your sympathy here, I'm really not. I'm just being honest when I say that I watched myself and my parents being trampled for our entire lives together.

When I turned eleven a man came to the house and took me away.  He told me I was going to be the most important person in the world so I went with him and he taught me all about dreams. He showed me how to get into people's minds, see what they were thinking and control what they were thinking. And for the first time in my life, I had some sort of power. And I can't tell you how amazing that was.

The man who was taking care of me taught me that I was going to be the most important person in the world. And when he showed me you, when he showed me your mind, he told me it was the most evil thing. And I didn't really understand it but I believed him, you know? You know how when your a kid you just believe things?" he started pacing around the field, pulling at his fingers that were tying themselves in knots around each other.

"And so the dreams began. I only did it because he told me to. And you weren't the only one I visited. I did a lot of work with sick people, and I did a bunch of things for people with broken hearts and unquenchable sadness and I could help them. You were the only person I didn't help and it wasn't until the man showed me what magic did, what it could do, that I felt okay about what I was doing to you. It was awful, magic was, I'm sorry if this offends you, but magic wrecks things. You can't have good magic without dark magic and the dark is so horrible. I do believe we would live in a more peaceful world if magic didn't exist.

So suddenly targeting you didn't become so hard. I did whatever I could to stop you but as you can see it didn't work." he smiled and Amelia returned the gesture. "When you arrived in Okamila, I don't know if you noticed but I've backed off you quite a bit. You've had an easy run of it-"

"Easy?" Amelia narrowed her eyes. "You think it's been easy?"

Akkedis looked surprised. "Yes, I do. Did you ever lose a battle? Did anyone try to contest you in any way? Because it looks to me like you had everything handed to you on a goddamn golden platter."

"You have no idea what I've lost to get here." she snapped at him. "Don't you dare tell me it's been easy."

"I hope you know, I've let you take this kingdom. I allowed you to waltz in here, destroy my army, take my city and win. But let me tell you something, sometimes in chess you sacrifice your queen to win the game and this one is not over yet." he hissed and paced towards her, his voice dropping to a whisper that was nearly lost in the wind. "You're going to lose the game for Okamila, Amelia Merlin."

"You don't know that. The prophecy says that my daughter is going-"

"Those are only the prophecies you hear. On my side, all we hear is that I will raise the Silver Son and he will be the one to defeat your daughter." his tone had changed from one of almost friendship to spite.

"Then neither of us have a sure thing." she growled.

"Except I know the game they're playing." Akkedis had a smug look on his stupid face.

"Nobody is supposed to know that."

"Except I do. And if I were you, I'd go see the elves as soon as possible and listen to their songs."

"Stop."

"What?"

"Stop trying to get me to do things! I'm not a child anymore and you can't just get into my head!" she yelled.

Akkedis gestured around them to the field. "Except I can." he gave a small smile that hinted at his earlier disposition. "Look Amelia, no matter what prophecy you listen to, they all speak of the same things, the Game for Okamila. And it's not a game unless everyone is playing with the same information. So go to the elves, okay? Trust me, darling."

"Don't say that to me. You know you shouldn't say that to me." Amelia felt herself feeling sick, her head was spinning from trying to fight off Akkedis but it was impossible.

"You're right, that wasn't very nice of me. And I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize to me." her vision started going blotchy and she could hardly stand anymore.

"If I can't talk or apologize than what can I do?"

"Leave me and my daughter the hell alone." she breathed heavily.

"I'm afraid I can't do that." Akkedis stepped closer towards her. "So get ready Amelia Merlin, because the Game for Okamila has only just been started."

"Get out of my head!" she yelled, her hands flew out in a shoving force and suddenly she was back in the throne room of Canavar, with everyone watching her. From the looks on their faces she knew they had no idea what had just happened. For them she had only just sat down.

"Long live the Queen!" they began to shout and their cries were heard outside the castle and the people in the streets joined in.

"Long live the Queen!"

"Long live the Queen!"

And so sat Amelia Merlin on the throne of Okamila, but the war was far from won.

End of Book Two