On Madoopalus, there is no dawn, no night. But there is day, when the Queen shines her face upon her newest subjects.
On such a day, the carriage of the Prime Minister Euler hit a bump in the road, and the young girl in the back seat awoke. "Father?" she asked sleepily, wiping the tears from her eyes.
"Yes, child." Euler replied.
"Is he alive?" she asked, voice temporarily breaking with emotion.
"Yes," the Prime Minister replied. It was the first lie Euler had ever told his daughter. It would not be the last. "We tracked him through the checkpoint. He's hiding somewhere in the city, but the authorities won't find him."
"Why not?" the girl asked. "He's the only person who can stop us!"
"He won't stop us when he knows we have you-" Euler replied. "If he finds us, the first thing he'll do is take you from us."
"They won't find him either." she added. "Didn't you just say that he's hiding?"
"Yes," her father replied, again not telling the truth. "I said he was hiding "
"You're lying." she said adamantly. "You told him, didn't you? You told him that we'd be returning with him, and that we had the secret formula to make all the witches and wizards on Madoopalus powerless. You told him the greatest invention of all. I bet he'll make all of them powerless, just like he did to my mom!"
Euler didn't reply. He was already trying to stall for time, but he knew there was nowhere to go. The carriage hadn't been heading for Madoopalus for more than a week, and the monsters on the outside had far too strong of a sense of smell.
"We're here, darling." Euler said. "I need you to be brave now."
"Why?" she asked. "Are they going to kill me if I'm bad?"
Euler didn't hear her. The door to the carriage was already opening, and he threw a silk cloak around his daughter as he ran to the front door of the cottage. It was a large house, probably once used as a summer home, but now it was clearly abandoned, and the alleyway in front of it was an ideal place to lie in wait.
Now focusing all of his study into the blood of the Kalnas region, Euler knew how the magical families on Madoopalus had secured their power over time. They were distantly related to the dragons, the ancient beasts he could see flying in the sky, and the humans on Madoopalus didn't even know that their ancestors were related. But history had shown that it was the females who exhibited the magical traits, and that the females and their powers passed down the female line. And it was through that blood that the witches had established their magical casus belli and secured the cooperation of their sisters in the magical families.
Where the humans on Earth had similar blood, it was very weak, and it was Euler's mission to show the human governments the full potential of their blood, whatever the cost.
When Euler entered the abandoned cottage, he found the door that he had left unlocked. The lights were all off, and the lights on the security cameras in the hallway were off. A sign of a vampire's power, or of magicians' fear of Madoopalus' most hated ancient enemy.
Euler opened the empty window and leaped inside. His daughter screamed as he ran up the stairs to the second level, but Euler could not spare her seeing what he knew. As he reached the second floor, he found his target. The man stood in front of a window in his bedroom, looking out at the city. Euler knew him well.
"What took you so long?" the man asked.
"We took the longer way." Euler replied. "I wanted to make sure no one was following us."
"Did you bring my daughter?" the man asked. "After all the time you've taken? Only the people who have her can make the preparations for the ritual. I'm ready to go. I've been ready for centuries."
"But why?" Euler asked. "Why do you have to do this?"
"Because my people are dying, and there's no way to repair the damage." the man added. "Many are dying, and they need the blood, the magic that will make them holy again."
"My daughters have the answers that we've been searching for, for centuries." Euler said. "Our blood may be weak, but it is pure. You just need to add the blood of my daughters, I'm sure you can find a way...they'll let you reach the rest. You see, the problem is that you believe in demons-"
"I do too believe in the demons." the man agreed. "But the demons are weak, and they've become weak. They don't want the blood. They don't need the magic. They want only to spread, to multiply. We need to fight them, or we'll be like the rats in the street."
"The rats will take over our planet." Euler added. "We can be together, but please, stop. Just wait-"
"I'm waiting for them to transform." the man replied. "There's nothing you can do."
"The transformation is happening." Euler replied. "The evil wizards are coming to your planet, one after another, to join with the evil dragons, and to build the power of the dark arts. The reason there aren't more waiting for me is because they've all left to join the promised dark lord whose arrival they wait for now. He has given them these powers you believe in."
"Not all of the wizards are evil." the man replied.
"But some are." Euler added. "And more will follow. They are our curse- and the end of a very good thing. Madoopalus has been the center of human exploration for fifty generations, we've sent out so many ships. They all want to settle on Madoopalus, to get the magic of this planet, but if it's true what you say, if they find the truth you've hidden away...then they'll ruin us all."
"That's their problem." the man replied. "And besides, you don't know for sure. You can't know everything..."
"I've become friends with humans, yes." Euler said. "But I also know we are not so different from them. There are human governments and human legal systems, there are courts and jails. Humans respect their own laws, even the ones that don't make sense."
"So you think the wizards will be respectful like that?" the man asked.
"I can't say." Euler replied. "There are too many variables."
"Then let me talk with you at a later time." the man said.
