Chapter 5: Kira’s birthday

Finally, the day had arrived, and Neuverie practically glowed for the occasion as the civilian populations had been informed about and invited to at least some of the coming festivities. Almost as soon as he had gotten out of bed, servants laid out a small breakfast for him. This was so that he would have plenty of room left for the later feasting, chatting happily with one another as they did so.

Having finished eating and getting dressed in the ceremonial Arkadian uniform left out for him, Kira went out of his room and into the central area of the apartment. Here his father was already waiting for him, and he clasped Kira by the shoulder, smiling down at him. "Ready for today?" he asked, and, once Kira had managed a muffled reply, he was taken outside so that the day could properly begin.

The two of them proceeded to climb to the top of one of the towers guarding the citadel's outer gate, and Dain handed him a circlet of gold to wear as a symbol of royalty. Whilst climbing to the top, he had had only the slightest of indications of the crowd gathered outside as the walls seemed to have shielded the sounds of the people's voices. However, with him and the king now in full view of the public, there came a great cheer from the assembled people. Once the noise was beginning to subside, Kira's father raised a hand to silence them and the guards lining the wall stamped the butts of their spears at their feet to ensure that the request was understood.

Silently hoping that he would not be called upon to speak and dreading the seemingly inevitable need to do so, Kira had little choice but to stand and wait whilst his father addressed his subjects. He hardly registered what his father was saying but, once the celebrations were declared to have begun, the crowd cheered again and began to disperse back down to the streets below. Along them, long oak tables had been laden with food and occasional areas had been cleared for dances and other such entertainments.

From his vantage point, Kira could see that some of the entertainment had already begun with magicians, jugglers and dare-devil fire breathers all drawing in groups of their own. He could also tell that the people had come out wearing their best as the dance floors soon turned into a sea of mesmerising colour with people whirling about in all directions.

Taking him by the arm once more, Dain surprised Kira by leading him back down into the central courtyard of the citadel, without calling upon him to speak, which was now surrounded by tables that left a wide central area open so that dancers and other entertainers could move through freely. Now taking their places and standing behind their seats, were the lords and ladies of what was left of Arkadia and the occasional honoured guest from foreign lands. Sadis and Thea had been given pride-of-place seats, just to the right of a raised table where the royals would sit to honour the newfound friendship with Krinestadt, and Merek stood with them and his two apprentices.

Walking around their backs to the table raised above all others, Kira found his own place next to the king. The rest of his siblings had then been arranged in order of succession to his right, meaning that Owen was next, followed by Favian and then Maria at the end. Each wore their own gold circlets and stood waiting for him and his father to take their places. Having reached them, Kira expected a signal from his father to sit and instead found himself waiting through another speech thanking the various attendees for taking the time to be there on that day. While this was going on, it was noticeable to Kira that the proportion of demi-humans within the assembled crowd was significantly lower than in the crowd outside.

Kira was then called on to speak himself, and he attempted to project his voice to the expectant listeners whilst being very conscious of his own volume. He caught himself essentially just reiterating what his father had said by thanking people for coming and bidding them have an enjoyable day. Whatever he had said, his time standing up and speaking seemed to pass very quickly, and, before long, the king sat signalling to everyone else to sit simultaneously as well as Kira.

Cussing silently at himself for his own incompetence, Kira worked to maintain a cheerful face and watched as entertainers were brought on to take them through the morning whilst waiting for an opportunity to put his own idea to the test. The rest of the day went without a hitch with various skills being demonstrated, ranging from dancing with knives to performances involving supposedly dangerous animals. However, this particular act didn't hold much interest to Kira given that the animals on display were far less varied and well trained than the ones back in Illyria. It seemingly only incorporated types of placated bears, such as a brown bear that had been taught to push around a leather ball with its paws.

As a result of this, he was afforded plenty of time to observe the assembled guests. The differences between them and the civilians he had seen back in Alsport were all too obvious: the nobles sporting clothes clearly made from expensive imported materials such as silk and a far cry from the almost rags of the rest of the population. The way that they carried themselves was different as well. Whilst the nobles assembled here were acting in a dignified and kept their voices down to not distract from the performances, civilians from Alsport had been subdued but they had also been willing to make an effort to talk loudly and boisterously to distract from their situation.

Noticing this made Kira feel that he had been a lot more comfortable among the common folk who had been keen to say what they actually thought than these nobles who would sooner say what they thought he had wanted to hear. However, he quickly cast this train of thought aside as, even if he were to walk among them once more, they would be forced to acknowledge the difference in position between them. Therefore, he would be unable to truly integrate himself among them.

Along one of the tables, to the right of where he was sitting, a girl around his own age caught his attention. She had long flowing blonde hair and blue eyes, like his mother had supposedly had, and wore a tightly fitting light blue dress. However, this was not what had caught his attention. Instead, it was a small flower that he hadn't seen before tucked in behind her ear. This was such a stupid thing to get drawn in by, he thought to himself, but before he could look away he had successfully made awkward eye contact with her.

Saving him from yet another embarrassment, Owen tapped him on the shoulder, allowing Kira to tear his eyes away, and handed over a plate filled with small bite-sized pastries. "These are good," Owen explained before looking away again. Hoping that no one had noticed his unintentional staring contest, Kira picked up and ate one of the pastries, and it turned out Owen had been right as they were indeed good with a slight custardy flavour. With his worry becoming entirely justified, his father now tapped him on the shoulder too, smiled down at him, and nodded in the direction of the girl saying, "That's, Eleanor, heir to Carlyn and so a fine choice if you catch my drift."

"Your drift couldn't be any more blatant," mumbled Kira in return, trying not to blush.

What his father had said had been justified though, political marriage to join Arkadia and Carlyn would increase Arkadia's overall size by about sixty percent, and so was an enticing future prospect. This had somehow slipped from Kira's mind. As the sun crept past its zenith, whilst performers still continued with their various acts, anticipation grew for the coming banquet as servants came and carefully leant past people to lay the tables with the various required plates and cutlery. They were well practised in their role, and not one of them disrupted the conversations or the line of sight of the guests as they performed their duty.

Each place was laden with a couple of forks, knives, and a spoon off to each person's right side and a cloth was placed to their left. Basically, the banquet would consist of a variety of courses where each, except for the couple main courses that the cutlery was for, would be eaten by hand hence making the cloth necessary.

There was a certain art to eating at these events as no one was expected to consume everything placed before them, and instead people could pick and choose what to eat from each course. The meal then became a balancing act between trying not to get too full early on and not leaving too much room for later for fear of walking away from so much food still hungry.

Another hour of polite conversation later, a herald stepped forward into the centre of the plaza and announced the first course of the meal to be a set of finely sliced imported melon slices. When they were done speaking, the rest of the servants filed out of the keep, each carefully balancing four plates in their arms, and lined up in front of the guests. Once all was in position, the guests were then served simultaneously. The day went on like this for some time, with each course being announced and theatrically distributed before being recalled. The delicacies ranged from the initial course of melon to thin slices of exotic meats from specially reared herds of cows and other grazing animals.

Ten courses later, it was time for the first of the main courses: meat carved from a giant boar that had been wheeled in front of the guests and served with several different roasted vegetables. Not wanting to be left hungry and drawn in by the smell of the roasted pork, this was the first course where Kira actually ate more than one or two mouthfuls and he had nearly cleared his plate by the time the servants came back around to collect them.

After the main courses were cleared away, and with only the only cutlery remaining being the spoons, the guests were left eagerly awaiting dessert. This turned out to be a giant wobbling, raspberry jelly that had had to be rolled out into the centre of the tables much like the boar had been. It was then partitioned into bowls along with a cooler, vanilla sort of food and handed out to the guests, with the royalty being served first.

With the last of the plates were cleared away, Dain stood and announced the start of the gift-giving, where each of the assembled guests would walk up to the royal table and present Kira with a birthday gift. Each time such an event occurred, it tended to devolve into a contest of one-upping the person who went before you and so the presents themselves were varied and linked together by only one thing: their cost.

The first three people up were from the same family and each handed over one of a set of coloured diamonds that carried price tags beyond what common folk, saving for a lifetime, would be able to afford. Naturally, he had to accept them graciously and hand them over to a servant beside him for safe-keeping and storage, meanwhile hating every moment of the attention that this brought.

Working around the tables in a clockwise fashion, every guest approached with their own gifts and soon Kira was beginning to really struggle to remember to whom each gift ought to be attributed. A few standout ones, such as a clever contraption that was essentially a miniature clock and could be fastened to his wrist, were easy to remember. However, others - where people looked down in shame, knowing that their gift was not the most memorable - were harder to remember.

Thankfully he soon noticed a scribe, sitting by himself off in one corner, frantically noting down a short description of each present and whom they had come from, his hand a blur as the quill moved across the page with the rate at which the gifts were being given.

When one man stood up to take his gift from a demi-human servant stood nearby, a great sigh went up from the crowd. The gift was not being carried by the servant but was the man himself. Slavery was not commonly practised in Arkadia and even so, a demi-human wouldn't fetch the higher prices a human slave did. Recognising the person presenting such a strange gift as the earl of Alsport, Kira glanced up at his father for guidance as to whether he should accept the somewhat inappropriate item at all.

Dain then saved him from the decision by announcing that Kira would accept the gift, but only if the slave were to become a paid-for servant. Accepting this proposition with a smile, the earl handed over the demi-human man and walked back to his seat. Looking down at Kira and speaking to him directly, Dain whispered, "Quite a character that earl's got." Not sure how best to respond, Kira just looked back in front of him and prepared to receive the next gift.

Once everyone except the manipulators, who were not expected to produce anything much like the servants weren't, had had their turn, the king stood and walked out in front of Kira to deliver his. Dain gestured at an aide previously hidden in shadow who hurried forward and handed over a bound scroll. Winking at Kira and turning to face the crowd, the king unfastened it allowing the paper to unfurl fully.

As people strained to read it, he then announced, "This is a charter." the crowd then went completely silent, wondering what he might be planning, "This is a charter." he repeated, "A royal charter for the creation of a 'Royal Arkadian Society for Manipulators' to be headed by my son, Kira, and this will give him the authority that he needs for its creation." he then handed it over to Kira.

Retaking his seat after making such a show, Dain whispered to Kira, "I heard about your conversation with Merek." before leaning back away to talk with a servant.

Realizing that this would be the perfect chance, and perhaps his only opportunity tonight for his idea to be put into practise, Kira stood and gestured for silence. Slightly bemused and wondering what he might have to say, the crowd went silent again, eagerly waiting for him to speak.

Starting slowly, he first said, "With the power invested in me by my father, to become the leader of the Royal Arkadian Society for Manipulators, I would like to call all the manipulators present to come forward." watching Merek, his apprentices, and even Thea and Sadis come forwards, Kira had plenty of time to think exactly what he might say next. "Arkadian manipulators, as I am to be placed as your leader, I need to be certain of your loyalty," aware of Merek's probing eyes, he continued, "I would like you to place a condition upon yourself: to swear to serve and protect me."

With that, Merek's apprentices practically leapt up to where Kira was standing and placed the condition upon themselves, with the consequence of its violation being death. However, Merek himself seemed less than joyous about the whole situation and once he had made his vow, under the watchful eye of the king, he scuttled back to his seat, hoping to be out of earshot of Kira.

Kira then turned to Thea and Sadis, "Manipulators from Krinestadt, I am aware that you cannot be bound to be held in my service but, as a gesture of continuing friendship between our nations, I would like you to swear not to harm the rest of the Arkadian royal family or me."

Having no choice but to accept, Thea and Sadis placed the necessary conditions upon themselves, with the consequence of their violation again being death, and Sadis appeared to rage at a smiling Thea as they walked away. With another strange event behind them, the rest of the crowd got back to their conversations, and the relaxed atmosphere slowly built back up again. Later as the night drew in, everyone moved into the central area to partake in dances, Kira found himself next to Eleanor. With the whole evening turning into a blur, he ended up moving across the dancefloor with her whilst a band had detached itself from the background and was playing a jolly country tune.

With everything changing into an elongated series of goodbyes and, somehow managing to tear himself away before the moon had passed too far overhead, Kira ended up back in his room in the keep. This night, more than any other, the bed felt warm and comforting, and he felt like he was sinking into it as sleep took him.

He was then besieged by an unusually vivid dream.

It began with the sense that something was wrong and the swirling of colours, firstly red and then diversifying with shades of purple and occasional blinding whites. The rest of the space felt black and empty, and he recognized himself as having no physical form. Suddenly, his attention was grabbed by something below him.

Down there, down below where his feet ought to have been firmly planted, was just more colour. However, some part of him, or not even him really, wanted to dive down into it. When he did just that, under no instruction from himself, he realised that his eyes were not his own and that he was watching some story unfold through the eyes of another. Resigning himself to this idea and remarking at how his lucidity had held despite being in a dream, he watched as the colours moved around him.

He then knew that his body was trying to achieve something and that this person he was observing had a strict purpose in mind. Eventually, whilst the colours had not stopped moving, he felt that he had stopped and the colours in front of him slowed. He was made to be acutely aware of how they danced in front of him, and how he was observing saw them as not being random.

Instead, the person he was watching from the perspective of changed them, grabbing them with no arms, and warped them to their liking.

First, the reds all but disappeared, then, the flashes of white were eradicated, and all that remained were swirls of deep purple and indigo that stood with expressions of shock horror at the loss of their friends. Sensing a certain level of satisfaction, Kira was then somewhat taken aback as the indigo and purple transformed into green hues and feeling the significance of this, he watched with bated breath as the green fell in on itself.

The green may have collapsed inwards, but he could see right through it into other shades of red and blue as though some sort of high dimensional gate had been opened in front of his host's eyes. Moving through this hole in the green, he arrived in a world of red colours and the process repeated itself hence taking him into a world of blue. The repeats became faster and faster and faster still with shades of red, white, green, purple and red flashing by and the overwhelming sense of completion filled him, just as it might the accidental creator of a masterpiece of art.

With this speed, came a sense of disorientation, dizziness, a loss of self and finally came the sensation of falling. He was falling, and he was so sure of this fact that he suddenly jolted awake in his bed, drenched in a cold sweat.