Beyond?

“You want to live in peace? Go and live a simple life.

You want to be someone? Go and gain power.

You want to be the Great Shaman? First learn to be humble.”

-A simple truth.

***Quinn, Capital-Palace***

***Stella***

“Is there a problem?” Azir surveys the room with a doubtful expression, totally oblivious to what he just did.

“Hm. Hm. As expected from someone whom I regard as my equal. Simply applying an inverted wave as countermeasure is simple, but effective.” The Great Shaman nods and shakes his totem to show his approval.

“You... cast magic. Isn't... there a... counter-field up?” King Novak looks around, letting his eyes wander over the crushed soldiers. He pays extra attention to the guy who had his spine broken by Azir. The body is still lying in the middle of the room, folded backwards at an angle of ninety degrees.

“Dad, we have to do something about the crowd in front of the palace! Didn't Tiamat say that he organized a revolt?” Giana is the first of the royal family who regains her wits. “We have to stop them before someone gets hurt.”

“You... are right.” The old man rises from his chair and is immediately assisted by his sons, Leon and Ajax. King Novak loses no time and leaves the room with fast and purposeful steps. Queen Frey follows them with Lucas and the Great Shaman on her heels. The shaman's advisers also join the fray.

Lucas gestures us to follow him on his way out and I follow my father without question.

I am already halfway down the hallway when I realize that the most important person isn't following us. Returning to the conference room I find Azir on his knees, sorting through the chocolate desserts on the ground.

“Are you serious!?” I call out from behind him, which surprises him.

He almost drops one of the better looking pieces and turns around with a questioning expression on his face.

He is serious! I hurry to the table and grab one of the baskets which were used to carry the desserts. Then I sort the pile of better looking pieces into the basket and shove it towards Azir's chest. He has no choice but to grab the basket as I let go. “You are simply a lost case. Eat until you burst open.” Grabbing a few more of the fluffy chocolate foams, I pile them up in the basket. “Eat until you get sick. You could have told me that you aren't affected by the field.” I pull him to his feet and guide him out of the room. “I was frightened to death!”

“But there are still some good ones.” He complains. “And sorry... the answer was so obvious. I thought you realized it yourselves.”

“Since your magic seems to work you can abduct the cook later. Now we need you to deal with the crowd in front of the palace.” There is a revolt because of us coming to Quinn. Of course we were invited, but we just agreed to help them for giving us their magicians. It's a wicked trade which can be seen as both good and evil at the same time. “And how are we supposed to find out. You can't simply assume that I am good with all that physics stuff.”

“Chuck realized what I did though.” Azir mumbles while carrying the basket with both hands.

“The Great Shaman is a genius among geniuses among his people! Don't use him as a means of measurement!” I bark at him. What did I do wrong to not realize this quirky side of his character.

No, I always knew that Azir isn't quite normal in his head! It just wasn't that problematic while he was in school!

Now I realize that his childish outbursts from time to time were never a matter of his youth. Azir always lived with the memories of an adult. His childish acts are a part of his character. It simply wasn't a problem while we were in school. Beating up the vixens and other people who offended him didn't seem as bad. Probably his mother drilled it into him not to kill the members of other clans, causing a war by doing so. Being faced with people who aren't related to the country, or people who caused serious harm to him, he has no issue with killing them. I have to accept that, though I really have to find a way to stop him from eating from the floor. It's inappropriate!

Finally we reach the end of the long hallway and step onto a large, luxurious balcony. The view of the capital is excellent. Only now I realize how big Quinn's capital is. The population must number in the millions and rival Nict's capital at the very least, if not surpass it.

“There must be thousands!” Leon calls out shocked while watching the crowd which is on the plaza in front of the palace. The situation is still under control, but the soldiers who are guarding the palace seem to have problems with holding back the people. “If something goes wrong we'll have a civil war on our hands!”

I read the signboards which proclaim 'Don't negotiate with the Cursed!' and 'Put Cursed where they belong!'. There are also some even more offensive texts and I get the urge to throw a few very deadly spells at those people.

Ajax gestures at the people and a few destroyed shops at the plaza. There are always individuals who use such opportunities to steal and destroy. “But how can we disperse this? Look at them, it has gotten out of hand. We need to call the army.”

“Or we use the chance to drill some respect for mages into them. It would be the perfect opportunity to make a statement and show them the other side of the coin. It would also serve as a great show to persuade those who are hiding their nature to reveal themselves.” Lucas turns around and looks at me... or more likely someone behind me.

The others start whispering with doubtful expressions. “Are you sure?” “We can't let that maniac loose on civilians.” “Look at him, you wouldn't even suspect that he just slaughtered eleven people.” “We would need someone intimidating anyway...” “This won't work.” “He would kill them.”

I am almost frightened to do so, but I still turn around to take a look at my husband. He is hovering half a metre in the air, looking above our shoulders and eating his desserts. He is holding the basket in his right while eating with his left. The fingers are sullied with molten chocolate. Likewise is his mouth.

Azir is looking at the scene with a childlike innocence until he realizes that we are watching him. Though the eyes of the royal family of Quinn are glued to his feet which are dangling freely in the air. “Would you guys stop doing that? It's creeping me out. I am fairly certain that I did nothing wrong this time. Neither socially nor otherwise!”

His eyes wander to the Great Shaman. “Chuck, if you would be so kind? Obviously they don't believe that I can handle the situation properly.”

The Great Shaman coughs. “Hoh, of course. Since you are the one who is asking I might as well take part in this. Dwem was mostly watching the negotiations after all. We have to demonstrate that we aren't just for show.”

He turns around and stretches both his hands out to the sides. His advisers are immediately at his side and lift him onto the railing of the balcony.

Chuck shakes his totem and wriggles his butt while balancing on the railing's board. “Ahem... Mimimimi... yes, that should work.” He performs an objectionable dance in front of the rampaging crowd. Luckily nobody seems to pay attention to the dwarf who is dancing on the palace's balcony.

Finally he raises both hands to his mouth and I am forced to cover both ears with my hands. Chuck's voice booms over the plaza like and explosion.

“SHUT UP YOU FUCKING IMBECILES!”

I realize that he performed some kind of voice amplification. The sound was focused in front of us, many windows were simply shattered and everything is suddenly deadly silent. The people closest to our position were knocked down by the force and are trying to get to their feet again.

Chuck continues with a more moderate sound volume.

“I am the Great Shaman of Dwem and I am not happy right now! In Dwem we give everyone the same chances and you people are the accumulation of everything which we despise! I'll give you ten seconds to disperse this crowd before I use my cursed powers against you.”

“They can't disperse a crowd that big in ten seconds!” Queen Frey objects.

Chuck snorts. “I know. Sometimes you have to give people impossible tasks to show them the foolishness of their acts. Forming such a mass of people was a mistake in the first place. It violates safety regulations seventy five to two hundred eighty nine. Every child gets taught those in primary school.”

His voice booms outwards once more. “Okay. You failed! Don't say I didn't give you a fair chance.”  He steps out into the empty air beyond the balcony and shakes his totem. Suddenly his figure enlarges drastically and flames engulf him. A fiery giant out of old fairy tales lands on the ground in front of the palace. Chuck's gigantic head is at the balcony's height.

The fire elemental steps forward towards the crowd which starts dispersing in a wild panic. “Wahahahar! Where is your resolve now? Just a little noise and fire and you shit yourselves! I didn't even do anything... yet.”

Pearls of sweat appear on king Novak's forehead as he watches the gigantic, flaming form of Chuck chasing people around the plaza. They spread away from him like a frightened swarm of birds. The whole situation has something surreal to it. “It'll be hard to explain that to the church.” Novak wipes the sweat from his forehead.

“Harhar! Never forget why I am called the Great Shaman!”

“Stella?”

“What!”

“You were right.”

“Hm?”

“I feel sick, I might have to...”

“Go and fly over the crowd! I don't want to see it!”

.