“Move.”

Trinne knew the road before her by heart. She had taken it unnumerable times, her whole childhood, but here and now, with the sun so high in the sky it made all shadows disappear, with the all-surrounding silence and the disease-like atmosphere, heavy, threatening, she could barely even recognize the road climbing on top of the Ducal plateau.

She felt the tip of a blade push her back, forcing her to take two steps forwards. It was immediately followed by the crashing of a metal gate where she had just stood.

She turned back to give one last freezing glare at the Commandare’s second.

“Thank you for your sacrifice, Trinne, daughter of Yarnt.” He said with an even voice.

She looked at him with disgust now. But stood straight and started her climb to the hells.

Ducal plateau.

“Aaaargh!” Trinne threw her training sword through the room. It bounced back on one of the padded mattresses that covered the centre of the area, before sliding to the wooden floor further ahead.

Nay immediately approached her friend, who was sitting down, and laid a hand on her shoulder.

“You’re alright?”

Trinne pushed the affectionate gesture away with a shrug.

“No, I’m not alright! A year! A year! Liz managed it in six months, and I didn’t get it even once! Not a feeling, not the slightest!”

Nay felt anger, but mostly disappointment in Trinne, growing over the weeks, and finally expressing itself. The young Legio put her hand back on her friend’s shoulder, who didn’t reject her this time.

“I am sorry Hani. I am to blame if…”

“Don’t give me that biach, Nay!” Trinne turned to look at her straight in the eyes. “It’s my fault and only mine! You’re doing everything perfectly, otherwise how would Liz have managed it so fast?”

“Maybe my method works with Liz, but that doesn’t mean it’s adapted to everyone…” Nay tried to explain herself, but stopped when realizing that against her friend’s distress, the best solution was maybe just to shut up and be supportive. She felt a bit helpless when faced with her redheaded friend’s unusual emotional outburst though. She was unaccustomed and hated seeing Trinne like that.

“No, there is something I’m missing, I know it…” Trinne answered. “But despite me thinking and thinking, I can’t find out what it is.” The young Legio saw the cogs starting to turn in Trinne’s brain.

“The Imperatrix never managed it…The Conqueror didn’t either. You don’t need to put so much pressure on yourself, just relax. And when we train, thought isn’t going to make you feel the Rreico.”

“…I know, you’re telling me all the time. But how do you stop thinking!?”

Before Nay could answer her, she felt a Rreico coming closer to them, and a few moments later, someone knocked at the door.

The anger on Trinne’s face was replaced with an unreadable mask.

“Come in.” She said while standing back up.

Nay sighed and turned to face the entering Konnie.

“Duchess. Miss Nay.” She bowed deeply. “It’s time.”

The young Legio looked at the pendulum clock hanging at the back of the room. They were late even. She swore internally.

“We’re coming Konnie. See you tonight Nay?” The redhead asked.

“Yes.” Nay grimaced at what was to come. She was making the Imperatrix and the Archbishop of Ja wait. She dried her sweat with a towel, drank some water directly from the jug, then left the room. She walked through the main corridor of the Imperatrix’ chambers’ second floor. She and Trinne, as well as Lisana when she came to train every two days, had special access to the floor of Hyn, as well as her private training room, which was, as you could expect, the perfect place to train. Nay’s schedule was packed but was clearly not as heavy as Trinne’s. Her friend was always up before her, and they usually just passed each other briefly in the morning. Trinne was studying politics and the books the Imperatrix had lent to her at those times, while Nay trained alone for two hours. The Legio then helped the cooks on the first floor for the midday lunch. The chef coq was a masterful pâtissier, but honestly a meagre cook, Nay had formed some sort of friendship with him despite their age difference, and they exchanged recipes. In the afternoon, She and Trinne worked on the Rreico together, with Lisana accompanying them half the time, and then Nay received private lessons from the Archbishop of Ja while Trinne continued her political courses. The two women were free in the evening, and Nay mostly lost against Trinne playing the Comptoy at those times. Normally, considering both of them were Jewels in training, they should have been supervised by a fully fledged Jewel, like Konnie was with Sapphire, but the Imperatrix had been true to her word, and was personally taking care of them. The most beautiful of women hadn’t been present much at the beginning, but as time went on, she had been more and more available. She had announced her upcoming abdication and the rise of Jarl the bohemian as her heir a few months ago, and the official ceremony was to occur during the holiday of the end of the Firante war, celebrating it’s one hundredth and twenty eight’s consecutive year.

Nay hadn’t met the heir a lot, half a dozen times at most, and it had been during official dinners, but Trinne had had more opportunities, notably when studying politics. According to her, he would make a satisfying Emperor.

Hyn’s increased presence was comforting for the young Legio, because it often meant she would not be alone with the archbishop during her afternoon lessons. She even had gotten a few private lessons from the Imperatrix herself.

The leader of the Empire of Ja could be somewhat terrifying, but her tips and teachings where more than extraordinary. What’s more, she was humble and open to criticism. Sometimes so much Nay forgot she was facing the most powerful woman in the Empire of Ja, and probably the world.

Today though, there were no private lessons. Today, she would be taught her first spell.

The room she was walking towards was on the first floor, and Nay climbed down on the carpeted stairs, still looking with awe at the gigantic painting of the Unbroken ones hanging on the opposite wall. She had to cross the entire corridor before reaching the chapel.

It’s door was opened, and she went inside. It wasn’t a large room, but it was quite long. Her footsteps echoed on the wooden planks, then on the stone slabs.

The further part of the room was dug inside the mountain. In front of the few simple benches stood an altar to Adienha. It was a hole in a corner of the ceiling, a simple sculpture lit up by the clear skies behind it. No enchantments were present, and cold air was engulfing itself through the opening to the outsides. On the ground behind it stood a dozen or so sculptures representing the other gods.

The Imperatrix was sitting on a bench to her left, lost in reading a very large pile of parchments. She was signing some of them, others she put on the ground at her feet.

The archbishop of Ja had his back turned towards her. He was kneeling in front of Adienha’s altar, kneeling in front of the giant black circle of darkness in front.

There were no enchantments in the room, none except around the deep black hole leading to nowhere between all the sculptures. It was a mark of void, a rectangular nothingness hovering in front of the stone wall. A permanent miracle, protected through the hundred of runes graved inside the mountain around it.

As she always did when facing the absence of light, Nay shivered.

“Nay. Hello.” Hyn finally noticed Nay and took off the round glasses on her nose, putting them on the pile of signed documents next to her. “Silent as usual.”

The archbishop of Ja stood up, wiped of his blue robe, then turned around.

“Trayx’ loved.” He bowed.

Nay grimaced but did as he did. “Ja’s loved.”

The custom was outdated, but like many other things, Sage Defin had insisted she learned the traditional rituals.

He had kept, during the year of theological lessons and miracle teachings he had given her, this same expression of blind veneration every time he saw her.

She was, according to him, a piece of the god of Death incarnate.

That was to say, she was still very uncomfortable in his presence.

“How do you do today?” He asked sincerely.

“Nervous, Sage Defin.”

“Just like me.” Hyn smiled at her warmly. But if she was really anxious, the Imperatrix showed no trace of it. Neither in her expression nor in her Rreico.

But Nay knew better than to try to interpret the Imperatrix’ rhythm of life. Feeling and understanding being two very different things.

“You won’t need your training weapons though. Of that I assure you.” The archbishop had a little mocking smile on his face.

Finally noticing her blades on her belt, Nay put them away on the bench on her right. “Sorry. I didn’t want to be late.” She explained reflexively.

Sage Defin shook his head lightly. “It is no problem. While I still must ask why you continue on the folly of training with such weapons. You are the most Touched of us all.”

Nay didn’t answer him, scratching the scar on her neck.

The archbishop ultimately turned to her sovereign. “Imperatrix.”

“I’m ready.” She rose to her feet, with a grace almost absurd if it had been anyone else.

Nay gulped.

“What are we going to do?”

“Well, we are going to prepare you for your first attempt at a miracle, my dear.” The archbishop’s eyebrow rose.

“I think she was asking what type of miracle we were going to propose she attempts.” The Imperatrix corrected.

“Ah, of course. Well, as I taught you my dear, a young Touched cannot control their power. While they can sing a psalm perfectly, they wouldn’t be able to instil more than a speck of their power in it. Never more, very rarely less. It’s what we could call the minimum power that was given to them by the Gods. With a normal God-touched, this would simply mean that the Gods would not answer, the miracle would fail. With you though, the effects of that little speck could be catastrophic. The miracle of the sun of Ja, for example, would most likely result in this mountain melting. Which is something we think would be best to avoid.”

Nay nodded, holding her neck more firmly in her hand.

The archbishop stopped a moment in his explanation. “Oh, but sit down, sit down, we do not need to be all standing like that.”

The young Legio obeyed. Hyn sat down as well, opposite of Nay on the single stair leading the mark of nothingness on the wall. She crossed her legs and turned to look at the incarnation of Ja’s power. She didn’t seem focused, but Nay knew it was far from true. She was letting the archbishop talk, and would only interrupt to correct or add a pertinent addition.

“The large majority of miracles are to be strictly avoided by yourself, for the same reason as Ja’s sun. Ja’s stones would be a disaster, Canna’s infinite water a diluvian calamity, Lebe’s miracles would create abominations against the laws of nature…”

“I know all of this. You have been very clear with it in the past.” Nay cut him off. Not only had she been forced to partake in lessons with this man making her uneasy, but she had also been forced to learn about miracles she would never use.

“It will never be said enough. Our land is not ready to accept your miraculous power. Generally, the first miracle of a God-touched is a miracle linked with the God that has chosen him or her. But as Trayx’ miracles are banned, and would be even more world-ending in your hands… Well, before we could start to train your control over your power, we needed to find a fitting miracle for you. Last week I was finally given enlightenment and is the reason why our current lesson is happening in this sacred room.”

Hyn nodded silently, but her expression seemed to ask: ‘You haven’t gotten it yet?’

Nay finally followed her gaze.

“No.” Nay shook her head left and right. “You don’t really think…?”

The archbishop continued, unperturbed. “There is a miracle that no one has ever been able to reproduce, the miracle given to the greatest of Gods to the greatest of Man. The one from the Conqueror himself: Rö’s phantom miracle! Even I, even the prince heir, never even managed to make the Conqueror’s door temporarily. Not a minute. Not a second. Greatest of miracles, forever unreachable, despite being the one that saved the Empire itself!”

The Imperatrix’ expression was unreadable. “The miracle inviting the Angels on our lands.”