Chapter 38

After a few moments, Boyd asked, “What keeps an Empress in check?”

“The other Empresses. Keltria had many worlds to govern. They were equally powerful, but two of them could remove the items of a third. Apparently, that was very rare in their millions of years of history.”

“So, if I accept the box, it’s more a new title than an upgrade,” Boyd surmised.

Adel shook her head, “No, it is a serious upgrade. For one thing, Queens can control who can get a new magical item and make them. While Guild Mages can repair items like replacing broken gems, they can’t get a new entity to join with a set of items or a single item if that is what the Queen made.”

“I’ve read that if there are no wizards on a world, then a High Mage can make new items and if the entries like the person, they will join with them. More often than not, the High Mage has the capability of gaining a higher rank.”

“A distant relative of Adelia’s was able to do this. That is from when most of our items came from. We were all surprised that Catia wasn’t able to produce new magical items when she found the High Wizards’ boxes and claimed one.”

“Most thought it was because she is basically a Nature Wizard. Normally it’s the person who claims the Lore Wizard’s box who can make new items. It could be because she had the Queen’s box too.”

“But I’m an Earth Wizard,” Boyd stated.

“True. One reason I can think of is that this planet suffers a lot from large meteorites that make it to the ground. In that case, a Queen who is still dominantly an Earth Wizard would be advantageous. I also think attitude and integrity have a lot to do with how wizards and Queens are chosen.”

“I’ll buy it, as those reasons are as good as any. Even so, the people here are not going to be happy that an Earthing will be ruling them.”

Adel scoffed, “A lot of people here need to pull their horns in. Personally, I think it will do them good to be reminded that they are not the only people on this world, and they are no better than the other races here either.”

Boyd raised an eyebrow at this statement before finishing his tea.

Adel then said, “Adelia had a book that said the Therians were made by the Pix people using science and magic. They had added a new planet to one of their systems, and the Therians were designed to survive in harsher conditions.”

“Because we all have a predator and a prey animal that we can change to, we would never starve. I’m not sure when our people were changed to stop us breeding with someone if they didn’t have a person from another race as a parent or a grandparent and were in the same situation.”

“It does serve as a reminder that we are not that superior. Unfortunately, it doesn’t stop us from breeding out the other races or killing them off. I’ve often wondered if that was why the male-born children we have are not born as Therians.”

“Catia said that they are infertile,” Boyd pointed out.

“Well, while that is true for a few, it is not true for most of them. Therians have this phobia about matting with them as their sons very rarely become Therians. So, they are shunned.”

“However, most of the females they sire are born as Therians despite popular belief. You can be a Therian and never change your gender or form more than once or twice in your life. Some do have difficulties doing it, so they don’t, or they just don’t want to.”

“When they started doing research into our ancestry, this little-known fact came to life. We have one male-born for about every three hundred Therians. However, it wasn’t publicised. Adelia got quite mad about the information being suppressed, and she resigned.”

“Daniel, Catia’s last child and the last to be born that I know of, was male-born. He was fertile, but she tried to fix him so he could be a Therian. All she did was make him infertile.”

“So, where is he and all the other male-born? He wasn’t at the house,” Boyd asked with interest and sat forward.

“Oh, he lives in the third house on the left when you walk to the markets. As far as I’m aware, we currently have about two thousand, four hundred and fifty male-born living here, including yourself,” Adel grinned.

“Adelia made the town of Rocks to be their refuge. The rest mostly live in the big cities where they can become anonymous. She has a wicked sense of humour as she said she has all the hot rocks here.”

Boyd chuckled as he got the double innuendo. “Thank you, Adel. You have given me something to think about,” Boyd replied.

He sat thinking while Adel when to get them some of her wicked cake to go with their morning tea. It tasted like carrot cake but was made with a local root vegetable that was a reddish-purple, not orange in colour.

Boyd had always been partial to carrot cake.

Boyd found himself in the workroom staring at an ornate box.

It was about 45cm long, 35cm wide and 20cm deep. The edges were trimmed in a pale green metal that was formed into scrolling patterns. At first, he wasn’t sure what the metal was called, but he detected gold, silver and copper in its making.

He also detected small amounts of another element, but it wasn’t one he was familiar with. Upon further inspection, he deduced it was cadmium. He finally remembered it was called green-gold. Whatever it was, it was an attractive colour.