Kasiell's Disgrace

If someone needed to speak to me, I thought to myself, they could have been a bit more direct about it. Or more courteous. I sat in the closest chair available – as ornate as the rest of the dining hall in which it was placed – at the side of the massive banquet table. Its royal-blue velvet cushions were the only ordinary things about it; the rest of the chair - and in fact, all the chairs at the table - were made from the most elaborate and unusual alloys of platinum and diamond, precisely shaped gemstone and obsidian laid into the accents. It's not like it's worth more than wood or gold. We create all of it. It's not rare.

The great doors at the foot of the table swung open with a sound a bit like a god clearing his throat. Behind them was an Advisor, in the usual blue-and-gold uniform, outlined by nothing but the star-studded blackness of space beyond the window. "Master Archmage, sir?" He bowed deeply. "I present Journeyman Thayer, sir." He disappeared as quickly as he'd arrived. Somehow, Journeyman Thayer - with his towering headdress - had been perfectly hidden behind the Advisor to this point. Thayer glided past most of the empty chairs and took a seat right next to mine, at the side of the banquet table. The great doors closed noiselessly.

"What news, Journeyman? Is something amiss, that I've been asked to wait here instead of in my tower?"

Thayer furrowed his brow, making his already wizened face develop more wrinkles. "Kasiell, you must have been told by now. There's little point in acting coy."

No title? No honorific? "Journeyman Thayer, I am usually the first to know of any major developments in our system. Surely if it's as big as you're implying, I wouldn't have to ask down the chain of command."

"But that's just it, Kasiell." Again, no title? "There isn't a chain of command anymore. Not from where you're sitting."

"If this is about seating arrangements, then I don't have time for it!" I stood quickly from my chair and made to walk towards the door. Thayer's hand on my wrist stopped me. "Clearly I'm not as important as I thought. Tell me, Thayer."

"The rest of our council have made a decision. It may not be one that you'll enjoy."

"Since when have I ever enjoyed anything the council has decided upon? They serve only to get in the way. Worlds are being created out there, Thayer, and sticking to the rules and templates will not serve to advance the universe."

"Which is precisely why the council decided to disbar you from your post as Archmage."

"Without consulting me first? At what point was I to be involved in that discussion?"

"At this point, Kasiell."

"Why hold the vote without my presence? Shouldn't I deserve to be there to receive judgment?"

"With due apologies, we decided that proceedings would go...somewhat smoother if you were not present."

"Well then, to hell with their proceedings, if they can't be bothered to tell a person to his face!"

"That is exactly what is happening right now, and you are only serving to prove the council's point." Thayer straightened the headdress - I was never quite sure how it held itself up - and gazed straight into my eyes. "As much as your experimental worlds have furthered the progress of the universe, I assume that you've noticed by now that we are running out of Matter."

"Then destroy the experiments and reclaim that which I've used."

"Perhaps being Archmage has made you complacent, Kasiell, but you seem to have forgotten that destroying a world is no simple task. Matter cannot simply be reused. Surely you of all creators should know this." Thayer adjusted his headdress again, in that incessant manner that always made me regret being around him. "Destroying a world simply scatters it across the universe. The key ingredient, Kasiell, is Life. Without Life, a world is simply a collection of mass. Life takes Matter, and converts it to more Life. And once that has happened, the Matter returns to us. Just as a plant breathes the air we exhale and turns it back into air we may inhale."

"What is this, Basic Fundamentals?" I broke his gaze by turning away. "Thayer, surely we've been floating around this portion of the galaxy for...how long, now? It must have been long enough for some Life to have run its course."

"Your experiments never produced any life. They were wastes of Matter."

"Even the worlds that followed the templates have had their problems. There is no way to prevent the worlds from eventually running out of resources, and their life dying out. I sought to find an alternative - any alternative at all - that would stop it! I wanted to make a world that would last forever!"

"But all you've created, Kasiell, is a world where Life cannot exist to begin with. And that is the basis of the council's decision."

"Then just get it over with, Thayer! You know where my Orrery is, surely you're capable of righting my wrongs!"

"They shall be righted in the manner of our choosing," said Thayer. The great doors once again opened, and the same Advisor introduced another man wearing an Archmage's ceremonial uniform identical to my own. Thayer bowed to him, then motioned towards me. "Archmage Gregor, I have spoken to him."

Gregor's tanned face beamed as if he were exceptionally proud of something. I never liked him, and it's so much worse when he's wearing my clothes. "Good, good. How did he take the news?"

"I am right here, Gregor."

Thayer ignored me. "As poorly as expected, Lord Archmage. How shall he be sentenced?"

"Sentenced?"

Gregor ignored me as well. "He's already been stripped of his rank, hasn't he? What is left to do?"

Thayer was still bowing to Gregor. "The other Journeymen suggested that he be exiled, Lord Archmage."

"Then I suppose it is only fitting that he be exiled to one of the worlds he experimented with."

"Yes, that...would be a stroke of irony."

With a wave of Gregor's white-gloved hand, everything around me winked clear out of existence. I felt very cold, and then robbed of breath. As soon as my sight returned, I saw nothing but the stars before me, further away than I could possibly measure. Every single one was the work of a Creator like myself. Some of them were even my work. I pinpointed the one star I'd tried to name for myself. The one to which Gregor - who at the time, was but a Journeyman like myself - had said, "We create, but we do not name." I supposed he meant that the Life of our Worlds would come up with names on their own, but it felt so improper to create something as grand as a star, only to never give it some means to distinguish it from other stars.

A great planet seemed to appear below me. From where I floated, it seemed to be as large as the dining table in the Great Hall. The only thing I could do was try to float towards it. As the distance between us closed, I began to discern details in the landmasses, the shapes of the mountains. Of course...they wouldn't put me on an uninhabitable world. Thayer and Gregor weren't out to kill me, after all. They just wanted to teach me the error of my ways. My creations were a waste of Matter, but that didn't mean that I was. So it'd make sense to me, that of all my worlds I'd created, that I'd wind up on the only one I'd named for myself and not been shouted down. The world I'd called Kasellia.

Now that I didn't have to worry about what those over-righteous elitists were doing with my Orrery, I could retire to Kasellia. They hadn't exiled me. They sent me precisely where I'd have gone anyway.

I aimed myself for the huge sheet of ice on the southern continent, and let myself fall. It would be there that I'd begin my retirement.