"The four years of my boyhood that I spent with the God-Queen made me the man that I am today. Many have asked me how it was to be in her presence, how it was to live in the splendor of her golden city. It is what I imagine Heaven to be, pristine and peaceful.”

  Prism watched the televised speech of Sguvi's thin, wild-eyed leader upon a large screen that sat on a stack of heavy-duty crates. Singular Gusa stood within a darkened hall with what appeared to be a large, glowing blue crystal several meters behind him. The man was being uncharacteristically calm in his demeanor. He showed reverence for the Queen while wearing nothing but flowing, shimmering pants made of silk and gold thread.

  “I never knew my own mother, as she died while giving birth to me. As a child, I felt that the God-Queen was my mother. The women of my village who helped my father raise me had showered me with hugs and kisses. The God-Queen never showed me warmth, never smiled at me or hugged me. What need does a god have for such trivialities?"

  Despite being 50 years old, the singular looked as young as a 25-year-old. His body featured extensive modifications that made him almost more machine than human. Very few of the cybernetics and genetic enhancements were apparent from a distance, though the man’s body movements seemed a bit unnatural to Prism.

  "Another gift from the God-Queen." Prism mockingly thought to himself while he laid in his cot in what the clocks told him was the late morning. Still within the True Twins' cave complex, Prism was taking a break from the previous two days of rigorous tele-circle enchantment.

  Gusa bowed his head in silent prayer, showing off his signature buzzcut. Prism stared at the crazed man's low, patterned haircut, a staple of all the country's previous singulars. The detailed designs and tapering of the hairstyle told a story in a language only known by the nation's most learned Monarchist-Eizavobist theologians.

  "The God-Queen was greater than any mother I might have had. She was harsh and unrelenting as she tested me, as she pushed me to the limits of my human potential. Her Court tended to me when my young body was broken by their trials, only to then rebuild me in their own image. I was given gift after gift, blessing after blessing. I was chosen by the Third Coming of Eizavoba to lead our holy land into an indomitable future!"

  Prism heard some of the True Twins within the largely empty cave chamber groan and curse at the screen as Gusa's speech hit its crescendo. The fighters had been assigned to assist Prism with his work, but Prism knew that they were merely monitoring him on Kitra's behalf. They'd been nice enough to him, even exchanging the odd conversation when they weren't watching him create the engravings of the tele-circle. But Prism could sense the fear crawling through their hearts when they saw his powers at work; a fear that they kept from showing upon their disciplined faces.

  "Why do you all watch Gusa’s speeches if you despise him so much?" Prism had asked the guerillas the previous day.

  "Know thine enemy." One of them had said to Prism with a stern look.

  Prism sat up in his cot, a simple green canvas tautly connected to a collapsible metal frame. It was only a few meters from the edge of the tele-circle he'd created. Prism took in a deep breath as he felt the cave's rich mana soothe his overworked body.

  He'd struggled to connect the tele-circle to the others he'd created within the Conjunction. The cave's unique properties not only blocked electromagnetic waves but also restricted the outside flow of mana into it and vice versa. The mana that managed to seep into the cave system was pure and characterless, as all mana was in its basest form. The mana filtration had created a special challenge for Prism and he wasn't entirely sure he'd solved it.

  Ordinarily, sleep allowed Prism’s magical body to maximize the mana absorption of his physical body. However, strange dreams that he couldn’t remember had disturbed his sleep since he’d arrived in Sguvi. He’d run himself ragged, and he worried how useful he’d be once he left the cave.

  "The God-Queen graced me with her presence mere days ago. She traveled to this very place, to the Ewada itself. In this crystal's light, she told me of the forces amassing against us."

  Gusa stretched his arm out behind him, pointing his open palm to the quartz-like crystal behind him that gave off an eerie blue light. The crystal extended down to the chamber's floor up past the camera's frame to the chamber's ceiling, and looked to be several meters wide. Prism wasn't sure if the crystal was being illuminated externally or if its glow came from some sort of chemical reaction occurring within it. He simply knew that it was eons older than its namesake Ewa, the human partner of the first incarnation of Eizavoba.

  "Oh did she, now?" Kitra walked into the chamber and jeered. The tight black top and dark brown shorts she wore revealed how athletic her body truly was. She crossed her arms as she stood in front of the screen not far from Prism. He and the other guerillas glanced at her before returning their attention to Gusa.

  "The mongrels of the Red Wolves Company, led by the Fairy Prince himself, are launching an attack on our very shores! Even now, the impure animals are worming their way through our most sacred Viga, leaving nothing but death and ruin along their path!" Gusa's crazed expressions maximized his alarmist message.

  "Hmmm..." Kitra grabbed her chin and looked down at the black floor in front of the display screen before turning her attention to Prism. "Not surprising that they know you all are here. Let's just hope they don't know the specifics of our locations." She spoke with a detached objectivity that distanced her from the panic she and her allies began to feel.

  "The idea of me leading the Red Wolves is almost more ridiculous than me being the Fairy Prince..." Prism chuckled in hopes of lightening the mood. His words got no acknowledgment from the others, many of whom continued to fixate on the screen.

  "These vicious, godless heathens dare to trespass against us, and they are aided by the heretics who still hide among us! An unholy alliance has been formed that threatens to send all god-loving people into a new era of terror and depravity!" Gusa shouted before leaning into the camera. Faint golden seams could be seen running down the light brown skin of his forehead and his cheeks. Even his big black eyes occasionally gave off a golden glint. "The "True Twins Gospel" is perhaps the biggest lie ever told! And it is spreading like a plague across our holy state, infecting the minds of once decent men and women! How can we fight against such madness!? How can I, as the Singular of our faith and nation, rid our holy land of this foul malady!?"

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Gusa gripped his scrawny bare chest as he teetered backwards away from the camera as if he was suddenly shot through the heart. After turning away, he slowly brought his gaunt face back up, revealing a wide smile that reeked of madness.

  "Urgh." Kitra shook her head as she kept her eyes on the screen.

  "Through the God-Queen, all things are possible. Through her unshakeable will and divine intellect, she shapes reality into whatever form she wishes it to be. Fear not, my dear people; Eizavoba has never turned their back on the Holy State of Sguvi, not in 3000 years. Rejoice in the radiance of the God-Queen, and know that all will be well. Know that our enemies will be obliterated, and that the faithful will be rewarded for staying steadfast in the face of such wickedness. Know that each and every heretic will be found and plucked from our land like weeds from fertile soil. Know that the Fairy Prince Prism and his bloodthirsty wolves will be executed the same way they have wantonly slaughtered our own compatriots. Know this, and be well."

  Gusa delivered the last part of his speech with a solemnity and gravitas that Prism didn't know the man possessed. Gusa bowed slowly as the screen faded to black. The fighters that had gathered around the display walked off without much conversation between them, leaving Kitra and Prism alone in the center area of the room.

  "I'm glad you're here. I'm ready to perform the first live test of the tele-circle now." Prism said to Kitra as he stood up from the cot. He stretched his arms up into the air while he yawned out what was left of his sleepiness. Kitra side-eyed him before following him over to the edge of the intricate circular pattern he'd meticulously made upon the ground.

  "Proceed." She said with an open palm pointed at the large circle before them.

  Prism flashed her a smile before he walked out into the center of the tele-circle, 25 meters from its edge. "I suggest you stand back a few more meters so that you aren't caught in the teleportation's area of effect." Prism said loudly enough for Kitra to take several steps backwards.

  He closed his eyes and placed the fingertips of his hands together, causing his hands to take the shape of a pyramid. Seconds later, the tele-circle beneath him released an iridescent glow from the grooves of its engraved surface that grew brighter with each passing moment. Kitra and the other fighters felt a humming deep within their chests that made them feel uneasy. In less than ten seconds, the light pulsed in a final flash of brilliance, causing Prism to vanish from sight.

  Kitra looked around frantically for him like a woman possessed, sure that it was all some sort of trick. She paced about the underground chamber, checking around and behind the few crates that remained in the former storage cave. Just when she was about to order the fighters near her to expand their search, she felt the now familiar humming in her chest. She turned her gaze back to the tele-circle as it released a flash of colorful light, revealing Prism standing at its center once again. He had a cheeky smile on his lips, as if he took pleasure in how much the scene had shaken Kitra.

  "I'm back!" He stretched his arms out to his sides and bounced his eyebrows while he looked at Kitra. He saw her eyes drop down to the tele-circle's patterning, deep-set into the floor. He could see her trying to make sense of it, though he knew she would never understand it. "They're geospatial runes, with a smattering of stabilizing and conversion runes. Think of them as symbols representing magical spells. I had to use about 37 separate spells to get this tele-circle just right. There's still some discomfort during the teleportation process, but it’s not significant enough to warrant mo-"

  "You speak of this "magic" as though it were a science of some kind." Kitra raised her hand to quiet Prism's rambling. "This power is greater than that of the Queen's. She can bend space with her gravity powers, but it seems that she can only transport herself that way. This "magic" must be understood by my people. We'll be able to attack Gusa in the Ewada directly and decapitate the entire government in one attack." Prism saw Kitra's expression become excited, even crazed by her own ideas.

  "The other two RED teams will be coming through the tele-circle soon. How about you wait to see that work before you leap to any conclusions about my magic." Prism crossed his arms and walked out of the circle. He stopped beside Kitra, who whipped her tiny black braids to the side as she turned to face him.

  "The sooner I learn how this all works, the sooner we can get rid of the Singular and his mad Queen." Kitra looked up at Prism with an anger that was familiar to him. It reminded him of someone on his team; a man with a particularly prickly personality.

  "I don't know why, but humans on ?ba can't use magic." Prism said while looking down into Kitra's eyes.

  "Being the only person on this planet who can use this extraordinary power makes you indispensable. How very convenient for you."

  Prism didn't like the implication she was making, but he knew he wouldn't convince her of anything with mere words. He walked away from her, but a firm grip on his wrist made sure that he didn't get far.

  "There are Sguvan elders who claim to wield power like your own. Most are just con artists calling themselves fortune tellers, but some seem to be truly gifted.” Kitra let go of Prism’s arm and softened her voice slightly. “I've never seen them teleport, create light, or engrave surfaces like you do, but they have their own sort of magic. I’ve experienced it firsthand. I just didn’t think…”

  Kitra paused. Her eyes dropped down to the ground between her and Prism. Creases appeared on her small forehead while she considered her words carefully.

  “You didn’t believe it could be real, did you?” Prism lowered his own head and spoke into the woman’s ear as quiet as a whisper.

  “Thats!” Kitra’s head shot up. She stared at Prism with a viciousness that would startle most people. “You don’t know ANYTHING about me.” She cursed before walking away from him.

  Before she could leave the chamber, Kitra felt a rumble deep in her chest. She saw the walls of the cave’s tunnel become washed with the multicolored light of the tele-circle. It felt warm on her back, like midday summer sunlight. She closed her eyes and basked in it for but a moment before turning around to see it dim.

  Four humanoid shapes became visible at the center of the circle as the light fell away, revealing men dressed in the same red combat armor that Prism had stopped wearing when he began creating the circle. Red cargo crates featuring the Red Wolves’ logo appeared scattered around them.

  “Hey there, Pris!” The group’s boisterous leader shouted with glee with his right hand raised high in greeting. His left hand pointed his dark-red PAW at the ground. The precision weapon was made of the same light-bending meta-material as his combat armor.

  “Please don’t call me that, Major Ruzuda.” Prism shook his head and looked away from the thick-necked man.

  “Just as long as you never call me “Major Ruzuda” again.” He said while gritting his teeth. “Call me “Ruz,” just “Ruz”.”

  A smug smile formed on Prism’s lips. “It’s a deal.” He said after a brief period of tension.