legacy of leaping

[marycatelli]

There's a superpower -- well, a magical prowess (I may change that term) -- where a knight can pass from one place to another without going through the intervening distance. They call it leaping. Sometimes they can take other people, and things as well.

Fortunately, it's an old power in that world. A mature technology, perhaps. They have wards that prevent leaping in a place. They have wards that prevent leaping into or out of a place -- the first time a wizard was in his tower when the king fell ill in his throne room in a castle that prevented leaping entirely encouraged that invention. There are wards that shunt the leapers into a place. There are at least research into wards that bar all leaping except from a certain person, or perhaps refine the destination by person.

One element is that kingdoms have such wards on their borders. No armies being leapt into the king's castle, or into his lands at all. There are those who leap their forces to the border, cross it, and then leap onward, but it limits the region needing guard. Also, hinders smugglers. . . though, mind you, except for small, precious items, non-magical travel still works best, especially once they started to have trains.

To join two kingdoms entirely, the ward has to come down. Until then, you at best have a personal union -- two separate kingdoms that happen to have the same monarch -- and more likely, a subjugated country. But a king who inherits a second kingdom (let alone conquers one) probably wants to assimilate it before he does that.