The Yinsai Kingdom

The Wisdom Palace

Redlichia had summoned his four other sons and his two daughters, and the nobles of the God-Given City had gathered to witness it as well.

The nobles put their heads together and murmured among themselves.

"Is something going on again?"

"Prince Yesael hasn't even set out yet. You don't think something's gone wrong?"

"It's already been decided. What could go wrong now?"

"Maybe the king's changed his mind!"

Inside the tall, rough-hewn palace, nothing caught the eye like the stone tablets set into the walls, carved over with Redlichia's script.

Tablets of the writing he had created with his own hands ringed the palace walls. They lent the hall a rich air of civilization, and at the same time they proclaimed his greatness.

Redlichia sat upon his throne with his queen beside him. Delight was plain on her face as she watched her children, and her eyes were full of encouragement and hope.

The King of Wisdom turned a stern gaze on the children kneeling before him. "Ense!"

Ense, the eldest son, stood at the very front of them all, and he came forward. "King of Wisdom."

Redlichia looked at him.

Here was the child whose birth had once filled him with boundless joy and hope, and here too was the eldest son whom disappointment had since made him give up on.

"I told you that I would give every one of you a chance."

"I am your father, and I am your king."

"A king's promise is never broken. Not to the divine being, and not to you."

Redlichia rose from his throne. His tall frame and commanding presence bowed every one of them low.

Step by step he descended from the high platform, and as he came he spoke the reason he had summoned them here today.

"Last night I prayed to God that my power might be bestowed upon you. He consented."

"He has scattered the radiance of His power down upon you."

"From this day forward, you shall bathe in the glory of God, and you shall be priests of God!"

Even as he spoke, Redlichia stepped down off the high platform to stand before his princes.

Light blossomed across Redlichia's body for all of them to see, as though countless fireflies were spilling out of him.

It was sacred, and it was dreamlike past all belief.

But what held every trilobite man far more was what Redlichia had said. Shock swept the faces of everyone present, and their pupils widened in an instant.

Never had they imagined that the king could actually bestow such power upon another, power overwhelming and beyond rival, the great wisdom ability itself.

What did this mean?

A true trilobite royal line was about to come into being, a bloodline standing above all else.

The King of Wisdom's power would not go back to the divine when he passed from the world. The wisdom ability would rule over the trilobite men forever.

Redlichia, the King of Wisdom, laid his hand upon his eldest son's head, and the sternness that had always lived in his eyes melted into warmth and gentleness.

"I bestow my power upon you, and lay the wisdom ability upon your bloodline."

"The ocean and the abyss can no longer hinder your steps. The mountains and land are no longer the end of your path."

"My children, the God-Given City is only where you begin. Go to the ends of the sea and the land, and carve out a world that belongs to you!"

Redlichia spoke the name of the divine technique aloud.

"Bestowing of Power."

Those firefly points of light broke apart in an instant and wheeled above the palace like a sea of stars, and at last they sank into Ense's body.

But Ense never saw the gentleness and the hope in his father's eyes. In that moment he was lost utterly in the ecstasy of newfound power.

He felt so powerful, so far beyond ordinary.

No longer was he merely a common child born of the Great King of Wisdom.

He was.

The master of wisdom ability.

Everyone dropped to their knees and cried out to the King of Wisdom in a frenzy.

"God Yinsai!"

"King of Wisdom!"

"..."

They longed desperately for the King of Wisdom's radiance to fall upon them, even the faintest trace of it. This was the supreme authority bestowed by God.

Redlichia broke the greater part of his power into six shares and gave one to each of his sons and daughters.

But one part of all his power Redlichia kept for himself alone, that portion of the wisdom ability which could commune with every living spirit, the supreme authority of the King of Wisdom that ruled over every trilobite man.

Off in a corner, a noble of the God-Given City carved this magnificent scene into a stone tablet. Within days the carving hung inside their own residence, and it drew countless people from across the city to come and pay their reverence.

The tablet became that noble family's most treasured heirloom, and the people of the God-Given City gave the carving a name of its own.

They named it the Stone Carving of the Royal Bloodline.

With the Bestowing of Power done, the princes who were to leave the God-Given City and found new lands of grace went from one to four, and the whole city buzzed with talk of it.

The King of Wisdom's eldest son, his second son and his eldest daughter would put out to sea as well, hunting for some warm stretch of water or some island where they might raise a city and call it their own domain.

The remaining princes would follow one after another as they made ready, each becoming a pioneer of new lands in his turn.

Astride a fusion monster at the head of his followers, the King of Wisdom's eldest son Ense looked back at the God-Given City.

"Yesael, I will not lose to you!"

"I am the one who will be the next King of Wisdom."

Trilobite men left the God-Given City in a great host, splitting off in different directions and racing for the ocean, opening a new chapter that belonged to trilobite civilization.

Group after group departed, and the God-Given City, once so lively and so crowded, fell far quieter than before.

The sun was bright and great waves rose across the sea, and giant beasts of every different shape broke the surface all at once, some like sea urchins, some like starfish, some like jellyfish.

Yet they all sprang from one and the same race, the fusion monsters, mythical creatures of life.

On the head of every beast stood trilobite men in no small number, and at the head of them were the very princes and princesses who had once left the God-Given City to open up domains of their own. They rode their beasts hard, tearing through the sea as they bore down on a distant island.

After all these years away, they had come home again.

The land under the divine's protection.

Ense gazed into the distance, and for a moment his eyes lost their focus. "The God-Given City."

Yesael turned to his followers with a smile. "We're home at last. And we've come home in glory."

A trilobite woman led her child by the hand. "I wonder how father has been."

They had come back on this day because it was the King of Wisdom Redlichia's birthday once again.

Ten princes and princesses, lords of their own domains now, came before the King of Wisdom in the God-Given City to pay their respects and offer their gifts.

They told the King of Wisdom at the same time that they had completed their task and opened up new domains of their own.

The cities under the King of Wisdom's rule had gone from the God-Given City alone to eight, and everything was moving toward a future of greater light.

The sea the trilobite men had once not dared so much as speak of no longer seemed fearsome to them. Going down into the deep sea to discover new and uncharted realms had become the young people's favorite subject of conversation.

The city-state spread and grew until it had become a kingdom.

A noble of the God-Given City came forward, bowed low, then knelt and cried out, "Great King of Wisdom, the God-Given City has become the capital of a nation. It is time to give a name to the realm you have founded."

"And today, as it happens, every prince and princess is here. Name your kingdom, I beg you."

Redlichia had decided long ago. He looked over his children with gratification and pride in his eyes, and said, "You have done well, all of you. You are worthy indeed to be my descendants."

"You have brought no shame upon the power the divine granted you, nor upon the supreme honor of standing as priests of God."

He rose to his feet and raised the scepter in his hand high.

"Yinsai Kingdom."

"From this day forward, every one of you is part of the Yinsai Kingdom."

The Yinsai Kingdom, in truth, meant the nation that held faith in God Yinsai.