“Nine Swords and nine Seers, one pair for each province.”
[from “Justice is a Two-edged Sword,” a Mnemosynean short story, written for Powers of Detection]
“And then the king figured out a way to stop the wars.”
“He hopes so. Everyone was tired of war, like you and your father. It was expensive, and destructive, and it killed too many of us. How much do you get paid to work here?”
He grinned. “A lot. Enough for me to send half home to my mother every week.”
She smiled. “The king will be pleased to hear it. It was what he had in mind when he brought the Nine Provinces together to sign the Treaty, and when he worked with them to write the Charter.”
“How does it work?”
She had repeated it so many times over the past three months that it rolled off her tongue like a monk’s evening prayers. “In the Treaty, the Nine Provinces acknowledge the sovereign rule of Hestia. In exchange, the ruler in Hestia agrees to keep the peace.”
“And you do that.”
“And the Sword and Seer do that.”
“How many Swords are there?”
“Nine Swords and nine Seers, one pair for each province.”
His eyes slid to her sword. “How does it work, exactly? Is it permitted to say?”
She chuckled. “I am no wizard, young Zeno. I bear the Sword of Justice. It speaks through me. The Guild of the Magi has laid it under the most powerful of enchantments. Its power draws on theirs.” And hers, and the Seer’s.
“In Hestia? All that way away?”
“Yes.”
“I didn’t know magic could be made at such a distance.”
“I don’t think the wizards knew it, either, until the king wrote the Charter, and they had to find a way.”
