Chapter 512: Ensuring Justice
ARTHUR LEYWIN
It was a strange sensation, walking back into Indrath’s grand hall. I had only just left it, and yet the entire landscape of both worlds had changed in the space of an hour. We had not only failed to capture Agrona, but he had struck back, tearing open the rift that connected Epheotus’s pocket dimension to the physical world. Although my new godrune was no longer active, I could still feel the wound in the sky outside like the pressure of an oncoming storm.
The grand hall was already beginning to refill. From the looks of it, some people hadn’t even left yet, while others had hurried back after the wound appeared. Sylvie, knowing I was coming, had brought my mother and sister to stand near the door and wait.
Chul lingered nearby with some of the phoenixes who’d already arrived. He flashed me a grin, but his gaze quickly slipped back to Naesia Avignis, daughter of Novis.
‘I’ve kept them up to date on everything you’ve done, as much as I could,’ Sylvie thought as I entered the cavernous chamber.
Mom hurried over to me. Instead of wrapping me in a hug, she let her forehead droop against my chest, then lightly struck my shoulder with a weakly held fist. “Why oh why do you have to be at the center of everything, Arthur?”
I couldn’t bring myself to smile, but I gave her a wan, tight-lipped expression that was reminiscent of one. “I am the center of the universe, Mom.”
She let out a choked, humorless laugh, then she did wrap her arms around me. “What are you going to do?”
Over the top of her head, I watched more asuras spill in. Those from far-off clan-homes who hadn’t attended the earlier celebration were beginning to arrive, trickling in alongside dragons and guests who’d been elsewhere in the castle. Vireah of the Inthirah clan was among them. She quickly scanned the hall and caught my eye. Biting her lip in a frown, she nodded, then was swept away in the incoming crowd.
“I have to find Agrona,” I said softly.
Mom took a step back while Ellie stepped forward. “What?” they said simultaneously.
I rested a hand on each of their shoulders. “It was always going to come down to this, but I need you here.” I leaned in and lowered my voice. “ There’s no turning back from what’s happening out there. I’ve made some strides here, especially with the younger asuras, but…” I focused on Ellie, and she met my gaze unflinchingly. “I just didn’t have enough time. You’re going to have to continue what I started. You two now represent every human, elf, dwarf, and Alacryan on that world.” I pointed up through the ceiling to where I could feel the wound struggling against the space I’d folded. “Okay?”
Mom pulled Ellie close to her side, unable to keep the terror from her face. Ellie, though a bit pale, kept her expression stoic. Her lip pursed, and she gave me a single, serious nod.
From the corner of my eye, I saw Veruhn storm into the grand hall with Zelyna right behind him. The ancient Leviathan moved with a speed and purpose I hadn’t seen from him before.
“Is it true?” he said, stopping in front of me and breathing heavily. “About Agrona and Khaernos Vritra? The pearl?” He gripped my shoulder with a surprising strength for one so visually decrepit. “Is it true, Arthur?”
I looked around before answering, identifying multiple asuras who were paying too-close attention to us. “It is,” I answered, my voice soft but strained.
To my surprise, Veruhn nodded, his milky eyes darting back and forth rapidly. His hand fell to his side, and he breathed easier.
“What—”
Before the word had fully formed, the lights in the great hall flared white, and Kezess appeared before his throne. The room was now packed with asuras, and I saw that all of the great lords had arrived, even Ademir Thyestes. Kordri was there as well. The muscular, four-eyed pantheon was careful to keep equidistant between his clan lord and Lord Indrath, who he served directly as a combat instructor.
Without my realizing it, the grand hall had grown very loud, but the noise abated when the shifting of the light. Kezess did not waste any time. He took two steps down from the plinth occupied by his throne. Myre stood to the side, and she stepped gracefully in and slipped her arm through Kezess’s. Together, they took a single additional step forward, and the bright white lighting dimmed, leaving them in a spotlight that stood out against the rest of the hall.
“Gathered people of Epheotus, there is no need for me to explain why this meeting has been called,” Kezess began. “Each of you has seen the great wound in the sky, and by now, most of you will also have heard that it resulted as a direct attack by Agrona Vritra.”
Even Kezess’s presence couldn’t hold back the swell of fear and frustration that met these words.
“Please, Lord Indrath! Tell us what we must do to—”
“—stop Epheotus from bleeding out through the wound—”
“—here when we should be preparing for—”
“—so what are you going to do!?”
“Silence!” The word resounded from the walls and echoed back on itself several times over. But it was Lord Thyestes, not Kezess, who stepped forward, glaring around at the gathered asuras. “Our world is bleeding out, and you, representatives of our supposedly great clans, cluck like wyvern chicks and beg of your lord? What is he going to do?”
Ademir sucked his teeth, an uncomfortably violent sound coming from him. “What are you going to do, brethren? What are you doing here, right now?” Suddenly the patheon spun on Kezess. “For why have you brought us all together, Indrath? Why are we here instead of out there, fighting to close the wound in the sky—or if necessary, preparing to flee our homes?”
Kezess met Ademir’s eyes, and the force of their opposed personalities was palpable. Beside me, Ellie flinched and took a step away. I steadied her with a hand on her back.
“We are all here,” Myre began, smoothly pulling attention away from the stare-off happening in front of us, “exactly so we do not succumb to fear and doubt.” She smiled, her youthful face radiant. “Agrona has long made it difficult and dangerous for us to pursue him, but as most of you know, our extended family among the asura has grown one race larger.”
Most of the hall’s occupants turned to glance at me or my companions—my clan—giving us varying levels of hopeful, fearful, or confused looks. When Myre continued to speak, though, all attention was drawn back to her. “Great Lord Arthur Leywin of the archon race represents a new and better hope to ensure justice for this grotesque assault enacted by Agrona of the banished Clan Vritra—”
“Yes, my brother in vengeance!” Chul’s voice rang out, crashing through the silence like an avalanche.
Kezess continued without acknowledging Chul’s interruption. “And while he returns to the world of his origin, rest assured that the Indrath clan will be working diligently to ensure the wound is closed.”
“You’re sending a human after Agrona Vritra?” someone asked, the speaker lost in the crowd.
“No,” Kezess said, his voice subsuming the others that began mumbling throughout the hall. “We’re sending an archon to deal with Agrona Vritra. Lord Arthur has spent much of his life combatting Agrona’s efforts against the people of his world, safeguarding Epheotus from afar, and he is uniquely suited to ensure justice is done. As for us—”
“Forgive me, lord and lady,” Lord Thyestes interrupted. His tone lacked any sense of apology. “Surely you didn’t bring us all here…simply to lie to us?”
The hall became dead silent. Mom looked over at me nervously; I gestured that it would be all right.
‘Looks like things might get interesting before we leave,’ Regis thought, his eyes glittering in anticipation.
‘This is not the kind of “interesting” we need right now,’ Sylvie reminded him. The same agitation that roiled just beneath the surface through our link was tangible in the hall, shown clearly in the body language of the hundred or more in attendance. ‘What is Thyestes thinking?’
This question sparked a realization. My eyes narrowed as I focused on Kezess, who, after squeezing her hand gently, stepped away from Myre. The light seemed to dim and focus further, so that only Kezess was fully lit.
“Even now, Ademir, you are resigned to this charade of fault-finding?” Kezess’s lips curled back from his teeth, baring them like an animal. “This is no time for your instigation. You would divide our people in the exact moment that we—”
“Fault-finding?” Ademir scoffed. “Instigation? If I am malcontent, my lord, it is with your failed leadership. For too long you’ve—”
“Pantheons!” Kezess shouted, his voice transforming as it reverberated through the stones of the castle—the fully realized roar of a dragon. “Your homes may soon spill through the wound to crash upon Dicathen’s shores! Currently the Leywin and Indrath clans are working to prevent such a fate, and yet your leadership seeks to use this moment to tear us down in elevation of himself!”
Ademir snarled. The bright purple eye on the right side of his head stared directly at me as he said, “Even during the end of our world as we know it, Kezess Indrath seeks to find the best footing—with his heel on our necks.”
“Enough,” Kezess answered, his voice again cool, almost emotionless. “This is an emergency. We have no time for such quarrels. I call for the immediate removal of Clan Thyestes from their role as great clan of the pantheons.” The hall exploded with cries of dismay and furious shouts. “This role will be refilled at such a time that Epheotus is no longer in mortal peril.”
I pressed my eyes tightly shut. Ademir was right, of course. This was a calculated maneuver by Kezess. It was almost unbelievable that he’d be so petty, even in the middle of the collapse of his whole damned world. Almost.
And yet, by removing Ademir, he solidifies the asuran leadership and creates an environment where other pantheon clans may work harder to curry his favor in the hope of rising to the rank of great clan.
Ademir’s hands flexed toward his weapon, and for a moment the entire room seemed to be balanced on a knife’s edge, where the wrong word breathed in the wrong ear would be enough to pitch the balance toward violence.
Grinding my teeth, I activated God Step, and the aetheric pathways carried me across the room in an instant. I appeared between Kezess and Ademir, wreathed in aetheric lightning that rippled up my arms and down my legs. Realmheart lifted my hair up, and the crown of light representing King’s Gambit wrapped around it, floating over my head.
“Your home is dying.” I gave a long, hard look at the asuras gathered in the great hall. “Lord Indrath wants you all to return to your homes. Keep your people calm. Prepare them for what’s to come. Because your people are terrified, and when gods grow scared, bad—stupid—things start to happen.” I met and held Ademir’s four forward-facing eyes. “All of you! Your job is now to limit that stupidity while those who have a chance to fix this do so.”
Ademir’s eyes burned into mine. I did not flinch away. All around, people were moving. The sylphs, led by Lady Aerind, were already flying from the room. The hamadryads were retreating from the castle as well, although Morwenna stayed. Novis was still speaking to his people, but they appeared ready to depart. Chul had left the phoenixes and was waiting with the rest of the clan.
Finally, Ademir broke our eye contact. He half turned away, then paused, regarding me with one bright purple eye for just an instant before completing his turn. As he marched swiftly across the hall, his people fell behind him. Many shot rage-filled looks back. After a few seconds, Kordri broke away and followed the other Thyestes.
Kezess’s storm-purple eyes flicked to Kordri for a fraction of a second, the look too quick to be noticed if not for King’s Gambit.
I spun on Kezess. “That was petty,” I said in a whisper, so only he and Myre could hear. Louder, I added, “I’m going immediately. I leave my mother and sister in your care.” My brows rose a fraction of an inch. “I trust they’ll be kept safe, and in very good hands.” Mentally, I sent a message to Sylvie, who repeated my words—if more politely—to Veruhn and Zelyna.
“That was well spoken, Lord Arthur,” Kezess said. “Good luck.” And that, it appeared, was all he had to say, as the lord of dragons turned and marched swiftly away, convening with a nearby group of dragons led by Preah Intharah.
Myre gave me a wide smile. “I’ll see you on your way,” she said, holding out an arm. I let her take mine, and we headed toward the exit. Sylvie, Regis, and Chul fell into step with us. Regis became incorporeal and drifted into my body.
Ellie and Mom stood back, my mother clinging to my sister’s arm. I held Ellie’s focus, and my eyes widened ever so slightly, as if I could communicate everything that needed to be said with a look alone. I didn't need to worry them further.
Then we were out of the grand hall and marching down a busy corridor lined with tapestries, paintings, and statues. I paid them no mind, having seen most before—and caring even less in that moment.
“Arthur, please know, you aren’t being sent alone,” Myre said, her tone rich but her words very soft. “No one—and I really do mean no one—understands the threat Agrona poses better than Kezess. He does not intend that you do this without aid.”
She said no more until we reached the massive front doors that opened out to the crystal bridge. “I have something for you.” She reached a hand toward me, and I must have tensed, because she held back. “If you’ll allow it?” The corner of her mouth twisted wryly. “After all, you can always break it yourself if you wish not to utilize it.”
Thinking I understood, I let her press a hand to my chest. Aether flowed and danced between us, wrapping through me and fastening itself to my core, my channels, my aether itself, knotting and re-knotting until it seemed intrinsically linked within me.
“The other end will connect with Kezess,” she said simply, taking a step back.
“Can we trust this ‘gift’?” Chul asked. He was standing with his legs wide and arms crossed, scowling at Myre.
Myre cocked her head a few degrees to the side and regarded him sadly. “Oh, child of the djinn and the Asclepius. So badly have we wronged you.” Her voice caught, and she had to pause and swallow down the emotion. “I would question, rather, if you didn’t distrust us.” Her hand reached out, and she took my chin. The hand, I realized, was wrinkled with age. “You can trust me, Arthur. Please.”
Her words reached inside me, gripped something cold and withheld, and cracked it—the barrier of distrust that I had built up since discovering the truth behind the genocide of the djinn.
King’s Gambit was still active. I had already absorbed the details of the moment, cataloguing every aspect of her physicality, her tone, every indicator of honesty or deception that I had learned in either life.
I took her wrist in my hand and gently lowered her arm away from my face. “We’ll see, won’t we?” But I let myself give her a small smile. “For Sylvia.”
I couldn’t feel Sylvie’s mind—it was retracted away from King’s Gambit—but heard her subtle intake of breath. Myre’s lips paled as they pressed together. From the way her eyes darted back and forth between my own, the straightening of her stance, and the shift of her brows, I knew I’d just struck a chord.
She downplays the importance of her daughter’s death, but Myre felt that loss intensely. She still feels it. I rolled this thought around in my head, carried by multiple strands of my godrune-enhanced consciousness.
Myre nodded and took a step back. “For Sylvia.” Her fingers did a delicate dance in the air, and a portal opened in front of the bridge. The golden portal reflected the blood-red aurora. Its edges frayed and twisted, and a look of concentration came over Myre’s youthful face. “Go, quickly. It’s quite difficult to hold with the barrier between the worlds in its current state.”
She hesitated, then added, “Don’t forget my binding, Arthur.”
I considered how to respond, realized there were no more words to be shared between us in that moment, and stepped through.
A meat hook jerked within my ribs, and I grunted with pain as I stumbled into darkness. Regis leapt up from my flickering shadow, shaking himself and growling.
I spun, looking back at the portal, which on this end bucked and wrenched wildly. When Sylvie stepped through, she gasped and her eyes rolled back in her head. I grabbed her, keeping her from falling.
“Easy, Sylv, you’re okay,” I said consolingly, pulling her to me. “It was just the portal.”
Before she’d recovered, Chul tumbled out of the portal as well. He cursed and spit up a wad of blood, then turned and glared back at the rend in space. “Bah! What in the black fire is this trickery?”
“I’m okay,” Sylvie said, disentangling herself from me. As she spoke, the portal ripped itself to tatters, and then faded entirely. “Looks like it’s going to be pretty hard to get back to Epheotus.”
Regis snorted. “Get back? Who needs to? It’ll be here with us soon enough.”
Chul wiped blood from his lips. “Let us hope not, my little lupine friend.”
“Hey, who are you calling ‘little?’” Regis asked, although his heart wasn’t in the banter. He was already turning to look around where we’d appeared. “Oh, hey, look at that.”
We all looked in the direction his snout pointed.
I realized we were in a wide open cavern. Despite being underground, the cave was brightly lit by dozens of floating lights. My feet sank into a heavy carpet of moss, and the walls were equally green with climbing moss and vines.
My attention went not to the large tree that grew from the center of the cave, but rather to the copse of much smaller trees grown in a tidy row on the other end, making it look even more like the grove it was named for.
Myre had sent us straight to Vildorial, and to…
“Tess!” Sylvie exclaimed as Tessia walked around the trunk of the tree, frowning in our direction.
Tessia’s hands were partially raised, and mana had been condensing around her. Her building spell was released in an instant, and a broad grin spread over her face. The expression cracked and broke almost as quickly as it had appeared. “Grandpa, Arthur and Sylvie are here,” she said, unable to disguise the strain in her voice.
I hurried toward her, dropping Realmheart and King’s Gambit. As I approached, she stopped. A faint tremble ran from her fingertips, up her arms, and then down her spine. I took her hands and gave them a firm squeeze.
“Oh, Arthur,” she breathed, biting her lip. “Everyone’s been so afraid. Lady Seris said you’d likely be here soon, but…”
My brows rose in surprise. “Seris is here?”
Tessia nodded, her fingers sliding between mine to lock our hands together. She held up her right hand and my left, and looked at them in deep consideration. “Within an hour of that…thing appearing in the sky. She says Agrona did something.” Her face pinched together into the smallest of frowns. “Can you…?”
I shook my head. Sylvie and Chul had approached, and my bond moved in to give Tessia a firm side hug. Chul stood back a respectful distance, while Regis went loping around the tree.
Tessia let her focus wander briefly, taking in the others. “Then you’re here for Agrona.”
Before I could answer, a pink fruit the size of a nectarine flew toward me. I had to pull Tessia aside, like I was leading her in a dance, in order to pluck the fruit out of the air. A second one sailed toward Regis, who snapped it up and swallowed it without chewing. Two more flew toward Sylvie and Chul. Sylvie laughed as she smoothly caught hers, but Chul sidestepped his own, and it hit a rock with a wet splat and sprayed juice all over the ground.
Virion took a bite of his own fruit and grinned darkly. “The clouds gather and the storm crow wings in on bitter winds, aye brat?”
“Gramps,” I said, feeling a rush of sentimentality.
Virion approached and touched his forehead to mine, then kissed Tessia on the side of her head, his eyes lingering on our entwined fingers. “Glad you’re here, though I’ll be damned if I know what you’re going to do about that.” He gestured up to the roof.
I looked up at the obsidian dome, twinkly as it reflected the warmth of the floating lights. Somewhere beyond that, up through the sands of the Darvish desert, the same wound visible in Epheotus would stretch across the sky here.
“If Lady Seris to be believed, it reaches all the way to Alacrya,” Virion said with a shake of his head. He suddenly smacked me hard on the biceps. “Anyway, everyone’s understandably losing their sense. It’s good you got here before someone did something truly stupid.”
Amused, I considered the parallel between Virion’s words and my own in speaking to the asuras earlier. “Do we have anyone in fighting shape? The Beast Corps? Adventurers Guild?”
“He’s going after Agrona,” Tessia said, half exasperated, half proud.
“Of course he is,” Virion said, staring into the middle distance thoughtfully. “Better inform Seris and the dwarven lords immediately.”
“I’ll go,” Sylvie said, already walking backwards toward the cave’s single small entrance. “I’ll buy you thirty minutes.” She gave me a knowing smile, then spun on her heel and marched away. “Regis, you should head down to the deep labs and fetch Wren Kain and Gideon.
He rolled his eyes and started trotting off after Sylvie. “Fetch? What do I look like, a golden retriever?”
Virion stepped around us to look up at Chul. “One of your clan is here. Soleil, the healer. She’s been—”
“Ah, Soleil?” Chul interrupted, sharpening. He lost focus for a moment, likely searching for her mana signature, then snapped back and took a few steps before jerking to a halt. “My brother Arthur, I would like your leave to go in search of my clan sister. I am eager to hear what brings one of the Asclepius out of the Hearth, as well as to hear more about what Mordain is planning.”
I suppressed a smirk and instead gave him a grave bow. “Of course, Chul. I’d like to know what Mordain can do to help as well.”
He returned my gesture with amusing seriousness and jogged away, his heavy footfalls audible until he began descending the winding stairs that led back down to Lodenhold, the dwarven palace.
Still holding Tessia’s hand, I meandered toward the row of trees. “These have grown quite a bit since I was last here.”
“Oh, don’t bother,” Virion said grumpily. “We both know you’re not here to talk with an old man about his arboriculture.” He turned to walk away, heading back to the treehouse in the limbs of the large central tree. Over his shoulder, he said, “Once you’re done snogging my granddaughter, though, I hope you can spare ten minutes for your old mentor before you run off to save the world again.”
“Grandpa!” Tessia exclaimed, scandalized.
I grinned despite myself, and for just a moment, the burden of everything still waiting for me out there was lessened. “Don’t reward him by being shocked. He’ll only do it more.”
She shook out her gunmetal hair and released a put-upon sigh. “That’s true. He’s been teasing me about you since I was only, what, five years old?” She grew more somber. “Gods, that feels like multiple lifetimes ago now.”
I stopped, tugging her hand so she spun around to face me. Taking both sides of her face in my hands, I drew her into a kiss. She tensed, but only for a heartbeat before leaning into it. We stayed like that, almost motionless, two statues locked in a tender expression of slowly conquered love, both still afraid to give into the passion of it, but even more afraid to break away out of fear it could be the last time.
But eventually the slow, frozen kiss did break. Tessia stepped into me and wrapped her arms around the small of my back, her head resting on my shoulder. A leaf tumbled from one of the sparse, twelve-foot-tall trees we stood under, fluttered down, and caught in her hair. I stared at it, so like the pendant I’d given her the night we made our promise above the Wall.
“What happens next?” she asked, her arms tightening around me as if afraid her words might startle me away.
There was something deeply intimate about feeling her hands resting against my spine, where the godrunes rested dormant beneath my skin. I realized I still had a barrier up—a literal layer of hardened aether between us, armor that I never took off. With some effort, I did then, releasing the aether to be reabsorbed into my core.
Tessia shifted as the barrier between us melted away, subconsciously detecting its removal even if she didn’t know exactly what had just changed.
I pressed my face into her gunmetal hair and kissed the top of her head. “I was thinking maybe we could rebuild my parents’ old house in Ashber,” I said. My fingers traced the soft skin of her side, slightly exposed where her shirt had ridden up when she pressed against me. “Except bigger. With lots of guest rooms.”
Tessia giggled, nuzzling into me. “That sounds beautiful. I like the sound of lots of guests. But…you know that’s not what I meant.”
“I know,” I said into her hair. “But…let’s talk about anything other than Agrona, Epheotus, and the asura right now.” Playfully, I scooped her up, spun her, and then dropped us both onto a bed of thick moss.
She squealed, swatted me playfully, then grabbed the back of my neck and pulled me into another kiss, her lips moving experimentally over my own.
And there, for a while, we simply let ourselves exist in each other’s embrace. I shut out thoughts of the wound in the sky, of the battle to come, of the impossible task of saving the asuras and their home. Together, for a few short minutes, we simply were.