The OP Lich is a Returnee, Chapter 19 (Patreon)

Chapter 19 – Royalty

In the end, it was decided that the meeting would be a formal, though ostensibly private, affair, at Buckingham Palace. Instead of going low-profile, however, they would be announcing that a new, unique piece was being added to the crown jewels. So, a formal gown fit to my undead frame, with my own crown jewels, was the outfit of the day.

When I stepped off the private jet we’d taken from Tokyo to London, there was no coach or limousine to meet me, but that was by design. I tapped my staff to the tarmac, and a portal to my pocket dimension opened. From the portal came my carriage, pulled by two skeletal steeds and driven by a skeleton coachman dressed to impress, with the symbol of Risen Athelia upon the doors.

Two death knights in black armor and riding upon undead steeds in plate barding flanked my carriage. They each carried a lance and shield, with a sword at their side. They were to be my guards, not that I needed guards. But image was important, and important people had bodyguards, especially when carrying valuable items, so I had a token force, fit for a necromancer.

A police escort formed up around us as we rolled off the tarmac. Our procession was met with little fanfare but much interest, as people stopped and looked at the display while we made our way to the palace. Of course, there were pictures taken from every angle, since my arrival had been announced ahead of time, but that was the price of being famous, and meeting famous people.

The trip to the palace was uneventful, but that was as expected. Even the arrival at the palace was handled without incident. The carriage pulled to a stop, and the coachman dismounted to open the door for me. One of the knights dismounted, as well, and rested his lance in a rack upon the coach designed just for this, before following me, while the other remained, mounted and unmoving, by the carriage.

My guard stayed by the door when it finally came time to meet the King in one of the palace’s private receiving rooms. The King was young. Well, young for a king, anyways. The former Queen had lived a long life, unnaturally long. The tabloids had long suggested that there was some kind of magic keeping her alive, as it was only five years ago that she passed away, at the age of 130.

She had lived long enough, in fact, that the first two spots in the line of succession had opened up before she passed. Her son had, apparently, died of natural causes, a complication from a particularly nasty flu, but the grandson unfortunately met his end in a grislier fashion, a result of an automobile accident. It was on the 50th anniversary of his mother’s death, leading some to tabloids to speculate whether there was some kind of curse at play.

Regardless, the King was only in his forties, and had held the throne since his great grandmother’s passing. He was sitting in luxurious chair, across a small table from another, similar chair. Obviously, the room was designed for private meetings. As I entered, I saw the telltale look of someone forcing their emotions to remain off their face. Understandable, given what I looked like.

I bowed my head respectfully, as I would always do when meeting foreign leaders in their homes in the other world. The move was designed to show respect, both for their position and the fact that this was their territory, without conveying fealty or subservience. I may have left my kingdom behind, but I was still a Queen, and would not bow to anyone else.

“Your Majesty, it is a pleasure to meet you this day.”

The King nodded, and said, “And you as well, Ms. Akagawa. Please, sit. We have heard much of your exploits since your return. In truth, We agreed to this meeting as much to get the chance to meet you in person, as to receive the piece you made for Us.” His eyes left me for a moment, and focused on the staff. “Leave us.”

When the room had emptied, the King looked back to me, and breathed a sigh of relief. “Now that they’re gone, let us deal with business quickly. Afterward, I would love to hear more about your adventures in the other world, if you don’t mind sharing. The thought of waging a forty-year campaign boggles the mind.”

“Of course, your Majesty.” I reached into my pocket dimension, and withdrew a black wooden box, sliding it across the table to him. “As requested, this amulet will provide ample protections for the wearer against most threats. However, because of its power, I thought it best to ensure that it never fell into the wrong hands. As such, there is a binding ritual to complete before its powers will activate.”

I walked him through the process of binding the amulet. It was simple enough. A drop of blood, and an incantation, and that was it. Simple, but that was just on the surface. But there was more than just the surface at play.

The King’s eyes went wide as the binding was complete. “What is this?”

I smiled at him. “That, your majesty, is the magic of the amulet, informing you of its properties. This binding ritual has an ‘Identify’ spell worked into it, so that you, and those who come after you, may know the amulet’s abilities, and its limitations.”

“Yes, I see it. Or, know it. Like with air. It will filter out poisons, but it won’t create air if there is a vacuum. Those are the limitations you’re talking about?”

I nodded. “Yes. Or like how there are ‘thresholds of harm’ in some of the protections. You will be able to enjoy a nice beer, but the protection will kick in before you can black out from the alcohol. You may catch the common cold, but pneumonia won’t affect you.”

“Why is that, exactly?”

“Well, for the alcohol, I feel it is bad design to assume that the royal family will forever abstain from alcohol, or need the use of medications. If you completely lock things down, for instance, you would have to take off the amulet whenever you got a headache for some aspirin to help. And for disease, it would even prevent vaccinations and normal immune responses from working, leaving you unconscionably vulnerable if you took the item off years later, to say nothing of if a child wore it from an early age.”

I shook my head. “And also, the protections can be overwhelmed. For instance, a single gunshot would bounce off you, but it may only last, say, fifteen seconds against a minigun. Maybe twenty or thirty, depending on how accurate the fire is. That is not very long, but it will allow you to find cover before the protection runs out, and needs to recharge.”

“And it will work with any other protections I might have?”

“Yes, active protections, like a shield spell, will not be affected by the amulet. If you get any other passive defenses, you’ll want to test them, to make sure the magic doesn’t interfere. Think of it like drug interactions. Most of the time, the magic doesn’t care, and most of the time when they do interact, it is harmless, or merely annoying. The few times it is not, however…” I shrugged as I trailed off.

The King nodded. “Better safe than sorry, I understand.” With that, he slipped the amulet on, and, in a moment, it shimmered, and changed into a series of golden squares, linked together and bearing the symbols of the different countries making up the United Kingdom. Then it shimmered again, becoming a gothic-inspired piece of jewelry, with a silver dragon and a golden lion, before changing once more to be a simple gold chain that he could wear under his shirt.

Shaking his head, he smiled at me. “Simply amazing work, Ms. Akagawa. It is like something out of myths and roleplaying games, despite the world we live in, but made real. This takes a load off my mind, I must admit.”

“Oh, why is that? I will admit to some interest in why you commissioned me to make the amulet. After all, the royal family is always very well protected, as far as I know. Has something happened?”

The King sighed. “Simply put, tensions have risen over the last forty years. It started with the fallout from when people in certain areas voted to leave the European Union, while those in others did not. The fallout from that was only starting to be settled when the Awakening happened.”

I nodded slowly. “I heard that it was a complicated time for everyone involved. Obviously, I am only going off old reports that I’ve found on the internet, so I don’t really have any basis to judge.”

“Well, suffice to say that the rise of actual magic, along with some people warping into new forms that resemble those out of our myths and legends, caused a rise in tensions. And then religious groups found out how to channel belief into spells without a CAD, producing ‘miracles’. Obviously, dropping religion into the mix did not improve the situation at all.

“It started over in Northern Ireland, naturally. The Troubles returned, and with a vengeance, as radicals gained power in the chaos. It was even worse than during the 1970s, by the numbers. People were dissatisfied, and they were scared, and they lashed out. And people lashed back at them, until things grew out of control.

“Then, it started spreading to Scotland and Wales. They were already unhappy because of the business with the European Union, and the Troubles starting up again only fueled tensions. There was very real worry of an all-out civil war, but, so far, the violence has been contained to Northern Ireland, for the most part. But the tensions keep growing, and some of the rhetoric has called for more active measures.”

“How bad has the violence been?”

“Fairly bad, especially of late. Shortly before I took the throne, the Prime Minister and several key members of the Cabinet were assassinated. The perpetrators were caught, but the news that they had also planned a rocket launch on the palace shook the country. More recently, there’s been some talk that they might have had a good idea.”

“And so, when you heard of me, and what I could do, you wished to see if I could help.”

“Exactly. A bit of extra protection seemed prudent, despite the fact that I am one of the most protected men in Britain, if not the world. While the monarchy is largely symbolic, a successful attack on the royal family would threaten to destabilize the country, or send it down very dark roads indeed.”

I nodded slowly. “Symbols are powerful. They are ideas, and ideals. They can keep a people together, or drive them apart. Even the destruction of a symbol can send shockwaves through a society. I remember, before my summoning, that the United States still bore the scars, twenty years after two buildings were destroyed in a symbolic attack.”

“Indeed. Even an unsuccessful attempt on a member of the royal family would send shockwaves throughout the kingdom, but a successful attack? And especially against the reigning monarch?

The King laughed. “Let me just say that the ramifications of something like that were enough to get both the Prime Minister and the leader of the Opposition to tell me, as firmly as they could without risking jail time, that more precautions needed to be taken. Those two absolutely despise one another. And here they were, practically arm in arm, telling me off for questioning the necessity of more protections!”

I nodded. “Then it would seem that, despite their differences, they at least care about the future of the country. After all, either side could twist an attack, and the aftermath, to their advantage, if all they sought was power. To work with an enemy to avoid that? It speaks to their character.”

The King nodded. “Indeed. Which is why I agreed to their request. Though I did make it so the funds would come from the royal family’s coffers, rather than the Government’s. If it were something that would protect the palace, or the Parliament building, then that would be Government’s place to foot the bill. But just for myself? I’ll not have the kingdom paying that tab.”

I nodded, and was about to speak, when, unfortunately, the sound of gunshots rang out INSIDE the palace, along with an explosion!