^{Art by Melissa Conway and N.A. Soleil}

Hesa’s mouth twisted as though the words lingering on her tongue felt foul.

“When I first arrived on this planet on my Lady’s orders, I was out of sorts and unfamiliar with the environment and culture. The mass enslavement and atrocities swept across the Kingdoms from one side — opposite to where I landed. So, at first, I was stupidly unaware of the warning signs and groundwork being laid to bring it fully to bear, and announced myself as Celestial’s Prophet. Naturally, that only bought me the attention of those who wanted my Lady’s power through me.”

She gulped the last of the wine and the Golden Paladin refilled it obligingly, offering only warm silence. She stared into the cup bitterly for a moment before continuing:

“Kuhll was one such individual, and the worst of the lot. He wheedled his way to my side with promises to help me learn the ways of the mages here, and made good on just enough to convince me of his sincerity. Once my guard was down…” Her face crumpled into a mixture of rage and grief. “He drugged me. And when I awoke, I was collared.”

She took the tiniest sip of the wine after swallowing convulsively a few times. The Golden Paladin’s own throat constricted in sympathy. He wished he could tell her to stop, but… sometimes the words needed to be said.

Sometimes what you needed was for someone else to know what you had been through.

“He affixed me as a trophy at his side,” Hesa continued, setting the cup down with a soft tak, “and, using the hold over me that the collar provided, directed me to use my power only when and where he wished. My body was not my own with that accursed thing gripping my throat. And it was my body, and my power… that allowed him to finish what his compatriots on the other side had started. Using me, he brutally and mercilessly swept all opposition to consolidate his hold as an overlord.”

Her voice dropped to a pained whisper, eyes squeezing shut. “I wish I could say I lost count of how many I killed, but I remember them all. Their terrified faces are a parade I wish I could shut off in the dark. I begged my Lady for help — or to end me — so many times; but it was as though she could not hear me. 

“I rebelled in the only way I could — he could order me when and where, but not how; and so, I made each death as swift as possible. Eventually he caught on to that, too, and attached a siphon to my collar — which allowed him to pull from me as though I were a water tap.” She swallowed again. “Then he made me watch.”

She took a deep, shuddering breath. The Golden Paladin reached out hesitantly; she glanced at his hand, then inclined her chin. He rested his gauntleted palm on her forearm, willing some of his calm to flow into her.

She smiled faintly, but it was strained.

“That… is how I know his wavelength. Every time he reached into me, I felt it as a hated buzzing under my skin. However, his blessed cowardice and arrogance was his undoing. He flaunted me as a weapon none could touch, and it was true, but I was not truly bottomless. Nothing is. The other mages banded against him and attacked his territory over and over until he was forced to flee. I assumed he had been killed, as it wasn’t only the innocents he turned me against. He had enemies and grudges everywhere. Typical.

“He abandoned us, myself and the others he had enslaved, in his tower, while the infighting raged around us. That was how Arthur found me. A broken weapon, alone, in a dead mage tower, acting forever under the last orders he gave: to protect his territory. At least, through that, I was able to keep the others safe.”

Hesa’s ghostly smile was slightly wider, her eyes distant with fond memories. “Arthur simply walked through my defenses, as though they were nothing. I had never met an Ether before and, in my befuddled state, didn’t know what to make of her at first. I think I probably shouted something aggressive, to which Arthur likely replied in her unbothered way. She was the one to uncollar us all; though she has, to this day, not told me how she did it nor why she was there to begin with.”

Hesa snorted softly and took a more languid drink from her cup. Her eyelids seemed heavier, either because the wine was taking effect or because the release of emotions was bringing with it long-held-back exhaustion.

“She’s always been like that,” Hesa mused. “So damn mysterious. Anyway, you know the bald facts of the rest of the story. We banded together and formed a guerilla group that eventually grew to a full rebellion. Tale as old as time, by those who live to tell it.”

The sound of the wind outside and the calm night — soldiers doing rounds, someone talking and laughing in the distance, the chirruping of insects — took over as Hesa fell silent. The warm moment was a far cry from the horror carried on her words, and from the attack by the mages on the caravan that now seemed almost a lifetime ago.

“Thank you for telling me,” the Golden Paladin said quietly. 

Hesa smirked and met his eyes, though her gaze was still sharp. “Nonsense. I did it for my own benefit. Nothing more.”

The Golden Paladin smiled, knowing she would somehow catch the expression despite his full-face helm. “If you insist.” He stood, the chair scraping across the floor as he pushed it back. “I will take my leave, then. I have a few things to attend to before the night falls any deeper. Should I post a medic outside the carriage in case the wine gets to you?”

Hesa, in the middle of bringing the cup to her mouth, snorted laughter so unceremoniously it obviously surprised her. She snatched up a nearby scroll and whipped it at him; it donked against his helmet harmlessly.

“You — you are truly shameless,” she managed, while trying not to laugh.

The Golden Paladin ducked to leave the carriage, not bothering to suppress his own deep peals as they rang out across the hushed campsite.

Damn. Hesa’s been through a lot, huh? Good thing she has good friends like Arthur and GP to help her. (I hope you have good friends, too.)

Anyway! Sappy stuff over! Metacosm Trivia Time!

So how exactly did Arthur do all those amazing things that even the Prophet of Celestial couldn’t do?

Because she’s an Ether.

Ethers are… basically, living souls with no true physical bodies. The rules specific to the physical realm don't really affect them. They’re still at the mercy of quantum dynamics, being quantum beings, though. As the quantum’s prime purpose is to penetrate the physical, quantum beings can infiltrate and alter physical objects to the degree that is commensurate with their power and skill.

While the collars were very magically strong, they were still physical objects, in essence. Arthur was able to simply alter their construction to a more brittle one.

‘Course, to Hesa, that just looked like Arthur touching it, and the collar disintegrating. Not a lot to go off of, there.

N.A. Soleil is a portmanteau pseudonym of the two authors' names.