Wizards, mages, sorceresses, and the like had a colorful history on the rock. They even claimed they were the ones who named it Byd Seren, but so did pretty much everyone else, so it was unlikely.
Before the time of Malbec, the first great wizard, anyone born with magic had suffered terribly. There'd been no laws to protect them, and they'd been fair game for anyone strong enough to take them. Most were taken as children, by force or purchased from parents who gave into greed. Those who managed to escape until adulthood were often captured and enslaved as soon as their abilities were discovered. They were used until they died, and few made it to old age. In the darker period, there had even been breeding programs designed to produce more wizards.
Not that they had ever worked. All they had managed to prove was that magic did not travel in bloodlines.
Magic had been wild then, and there was little understanding of how it worked.
Malbec had been sold by his parents but escaped as a teenager and spent his first adult years growing so strong no one could ever put chains on him again. Power like that which Malbec had developed attracted people like moths to a flame, and by the time he was twenty-three, he'd formed a small village of followers. He'd started to free anyone with magic that asked for his help, whether their controllers agreed or not.
Whether he'd intended to or not was still debated, but he'd ended up in open rebellion.
His rebellion had upended the civilizations on the rock at the time, but he had succeeded. He'd built the City of Illumination in a small unclaimed corner of the Land of Antiquity, just north of the Land of Sorrow, and made it a safe haven for anyone with magic, and they'd flocked to it.
The kingdoms of the time had banded together to destroy it and him, laying siege for months before Malbec had destroyed their army in a single night. After that, the mere existence of his power was enough to force the surviving kingdoms to change their laws. Malbec had outlived every wizard that came before him, living long enough to ensure that the laws had become too deeply embedded to be changed.
When he had finally died, the City of Illumination had been a beacon in the Age of Darkness and one of the most influential powers on the rock.
What Malbec hadn't accounted for, or maybe he had and it just wasn't in any of his writings that had survived, was that the accumulation of power for those who had been subject to its whims for so long had produced several generations of wizards who believed they should rule the rock. When the Age of Darkness had begun, they'd refused to aid any kingdom that didn't acknowledge their authority, and those who refused had died out completely during the Age.
The wizards had become the tyrants they'd once suffered under.
The Age of Darkness ended when a few small kingdoms stood up to them and managed to last long enough for the leadership of the City of Illumination to collapse in on itself, destroying its hold on the rock.
As the Age of Darkness had given way to the Age of Illumination, the city that shared its name had barely been standing, and people with magic were seen as evil. The Age of Illumination had seen a significant change in societal and cultural beliefs across the rock, along with drastically changing borders. Wizards and their ilk had settled into a mercenary advisor role, exercising control over those willing to follow them but focusing more on controlling all knowledge of magic.
One of the major agreements that had come from that period was the barring of Wizards wearing crowns. Wizards could not rule any land but the City of Illumination, but in exchange, any wizard was free from serving or belonging to any kingdom they did not wish to, no matter what position or family they were born to.
The Camelia had employed several war wizards throughout its history, but they usually only remained as long as the conflict they'd been hired to assist with lasted. None of the great families of the Camelia had ever produced a child with magic, though not for lack of trying.
Likewise, the ruling families of the Land of Sorrow had never directly produced someone with magic until Eirian Soliel, and despite how little attention she paid that fact, it had played a significant role in her family's wealth and influence.
Eirian was still in the line of succession for the United Throne of the Land of Sorrow, but she'd fallen after the birth of her little brother. If her father and stepmother managed to have more children, she'd fall even further. It was possible her Uncle could still name her heir if her last surviving cousin died, and her father and stepmother could use the Agreement of Barring to argue she couldn't inherit the crown, but it was an Agreement, not a law, and as history had shown, crowns often adjusted the laws to fit their preferences.
It would be a fight, but it was one that Eirian could possibly win.
Chenzhou wasn't sure if she had any interest in doing that, but being Lady of the Camelia would certainly give her an advantage. Even with her magic, she was vulnerable to overwhelming numbers, but with an army like the Crimson Army of the Camelia backing her, she was significantly less vulnerable.
Chenzhou had brought her here to save the Camelia. He hadn't given any thought to whether she had any interest in the throne, if that was why she was so unhappy to lose her place in her family.
Yuze's intelligence hadn't said anything about plots for the throne, but it had revealed that she was close to her surviving cousin, the prince and current heir apparent to the throne.
Chenzhou had never met Prince Eric Soliel in person. As the youngest of the king's children, he hadn't been in line for the throne until the last of his older siblings had died two years ago. He was a soldier who'd often been away from the capital dealing with all the conflicts the Camelia wasn't fighting.
He'd been away from Aontacht in the Isles of Smoke during the entirety of the negotiations with Eirian's father and stepmother. Chenzhou wasn't even sure he'd returned to the capital now.
What did Prince Eric think of his cousin's marriage?
~ tbc