“Don’t do anything rash.”
Zeke barely heard Eveline’s warning. Instead, his entire focus rested on the conflicting emotions flowing through his mind. Some were easily explicable, like the sense of relief underlying everything. He’d often wondered about Abby’s fate, fearing the worst, but now he had confirmation that she was alive and, from the looks of things, well. Complicating matters was the fact that she’d clearly survived by allying herself with his enemies.
Was she familiar with the evils practiced by the Imperium? That they’d enslaved whole swaths of the population, and for no more reason than their sense of human superiority? What’s more, had she truly given herself over to the Sun Goddess, despite all the terrible things Shar Maelaine and her followers had done?
In the back of his mind, he was already making excuses for her. Upon ascension, she’d been all alone. Likely, she had latched onto anyone who could offer her a modicum of protection. People did a lot of questionable things in the interest of self-preservation, so it made sense that Abby might have forgiven her protectors’ propensity for evil things.
Or maybe she didn’t know.
Abby had never been particularly curious. Even back in the Radiant Isles, she had been perfectly fine with accepting the inequality that was so prevalent. But then again, Zeke had accepted it, too, so did he have any right to judge?
“It looks like she’s in charge,” Eveline pointed out.
Upon further inspection, Zeke realized that the mind spirit was right. It only took a few seconds for Zeke to see the deference among the other members of the Imperium. She wasn’t some ignorant follower. She held a position of some importance, which meant that she knew precisely what the Imperium had done. Likely, she had benefited from it.
Zeke rolled his shoulders.
“Don’t kill them yet,” Eveline cautioned.
“I don’t intend to,” Zeke said inwardly as he stepped forward. A gentle wind disturbed the clearing, and the knee-high grass swayed under its influence. He barely noticed it, his mind roiled so violently with a multitude of emotions.
“It really feels like you do,” Eveline said. “Just take a breath. Listen to what they say, and if it proves necessary, then you can kill your ex-girlfriend.”
Zeke groaned. “Girlfriend has always sounded so childish to me,” he said. “Like we’re in middle school passing notes to one another.”
“I can’t do anything about your weird hangups with common language, Ezekiel.”
He didn’t respond. Instead, he glanced toward the kobolds and ordered, “Stay here. If I attack, I want you to spread out and surround them. Don’t let any escape.”
“Yes, Ak-Toh,” Silik said, a bit of eagerness in his voice. The kobolds didn’t live for battle, but they enjoyed it nonetheless. Zeke thought that was more about the thrill of victory – and, if he was honest, pleasing him – than it was about bloodlust, but he wouldn’t have sworn by that assessment.
At their core, they were still monsters after all.
Whatever the case, Zeke knew that they would obey the order, and with an eagerness that ensured success. So, with that in mind, Zeke strode forward.
* * *
“He’s coming alone,” said Captain Rodrick. “What does that mean?”
“I don’t know,” said one of his aides.
Abby spoke up, saying, “It means he’s not afraid of us. Be on your guard. This is the most dangerous enemy you will ever face.”
She didn’t need to inspect him to know what she would find. It had already been confirmed that Zeke had reached the peak, and according to their scouts, he radiated a sense of power that suggested he was far stronger than even that lofty level might have otherwise suggested.
That was no surprise to her. Zeke had always been stronger than everyone else, and so long as he avoided death, it was inevitable that he would reach the peak of the Eternal Realm. Now, she questioned whether anyone in the world could put him down. Certainly, she knew she could never accomplish that feat. Not alone, and not with the pitiful thousand Knights she’d brought with her.
The only hope was that she might succeed in her mission.
But given everything she knew about Zeke, she didn’t expect it. He was no idealist, but he would not stand for many of the things that were so commonplace in the Imperium. Likely, that was the entire reason he’d set himself against the Radiant Host. No alliance or concessions would deter him.
Which was why Abby had an escape plan. It would assuredly put her at odds with the rest of the Imperium – they didn’t take kindly to failure – but if it was between that and fighting Zeke, she knew which one she would prefer.
But somewhere in the back of Abby’s mind, she wondered if he might welcome her back into the fold. After all, a lot of time had passed since she had done what she’d done. He’d once called it a betrayal, but she knew it was just a misunderstanding. If he’d given it any real thought, he would have done the same thing.
All of that flitted through her mind as she watched the man approach. Finally, he stopped only fifteen feet away.
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“Hello, Zeke.”
“Hey, Abby.”
“You look good,” she said, though it was a bit of a lie. His hair was far too long, and his beard was unkempt. He’d always favored the appearance of a wild man who spent too much time in the wilderness, but in the years since she’d last seen him, Zeke had taken that to an extreme. What’s more, his body was crisscrossed with scars – some mundane, but most looking like magma-filled cracks.
He wore simple clothing. Just a white shirt, the sleeves rolled up on his forearms, and brown pants with sturdy boots. He wasn’t armed, though Abby knew his club was only a thought away.
By comparison, she felt a bit silly. If Zeke’s attire was the epitome of simplicity, then her armor was opulent beyond reason. Suddenly, she felt strikingly overdressed, like she’d come for a parade rather than a battle.
Still, there was a reason she’d fallen for him, and it wasn’t just proximity. Some of it came from the power he clearly wielded. Abby was honest enough with herself to admit that much, at least. However, he was objectively attractive in a rugged, battle-scarred sort of way. He made such a contrast with the preening men she’d known within the Imperium that he looked even better in comparison.
Or maybe more real, as opposed to a bunch of porcelain dolls with immaculately trimmed beards who wore armor more for the aesthetics than for the protection it offered.
“You do too,” he said. “Very shiny.”
She blushed, resisting the urge to glance down at her own gilded armor, which was even more elaborately decorated than the equipment worn by the men she was so quick to criticize.
Abby sighed. “What are you doing here, Zeke?” she asked. “You didn’t set out to fight a war, did you? That doesn’t sound like you.”
“I could ask you the same thing,” he stated. “You joined a bunch of megalomaniacal bigots who enslave anyone who doesn’t look like them. I mean, I can barely even tell your cronies apart. I know they probably have names, but I’m looking at them and labeling them blonde dandy number one through ten.”
“That’s not fair.”
“Fair doesn’t come into it, does it? Not for all the beastkin I’ve seen enslaved and treated like they’re not people,” Zeke said.
“You didn’t care so much about people when you left everyone to die back in the Radiant Isles.”
He shook his head. “I didn’t think I could do anything to help those people. They were doomed, Abby. We talked about this. We agreed –”
“I didn’t agree to anything. You just steamrolled me,” Abby said.
Zekes closed his eyes and took a deep breath, and for a moment, Abby thought he was going to ignore her. Finally, he opened them and said, “I’m not here to relitigate the past, Abby. You did what you did, and I did what I did. Nothing either of us can say will change that. So, let’s just move on. Why are you here, and why did you bring all these toy soldiers with you?”
Abby bristled at that insult almost as much as she inwardly raged at his dismissal of the argument she’d wanted to start. If it had happened even a year before, she might have ordered the attack then and there. However, she’d come a long way in the past twelve months, and the Radiant Host’s mental conditioning had faded just enough that she managed to push her anger aside.
Not without some difficulty, though.
After a moment, she said, “I come with an offer.”
“Why you?”
“Do you really need to ask? No one thought you would listen to anyone else.”
“So, they know about our past?”
“They know enough. It doesn’t matter, Zeke. I know I’m far from unbiased here, but I suggest you listen to what we have to offer. A lot of lives could be saved,” she said.
“And what would I have to give up?” he asked.
“We just want peace.”
“In my experience with the Imperium, that is categorically untrue. You only care about peace when someone challenges your authority,” he stated. “It’s easy to talk about peace when you’re not the one being oppressed, right? Besides, we’re winning. Why should I even consider letting you and yours off the hook?”
“I’m not your enemy, Zeke,” Abby said.
“You say that, but you sure are wearing their uniform.”
Abby looked away, a surge of guilt welling up inside her. She was under no illusions about the nature of the Imperium. They weren’t out-and-out evil – not like Zeke said – but she could acknowledge that they had compromised their values in the search for order. Sure, they’d enslaved a few beastkin, but that was a necessary evil they had embraced in service of the greater good.
And besides, beastkin truly were closer to beasts than to people. She had seen the way they lived. The way they acted. They were savages that, if left to their own devices, would descend into barbarism.
No – she was not the bad guy. She wasn’t good, either. No one in the Imperium was. But what they’d done was necessary.
Not that it mattered. Abby was no more capable of changing things than she could prevent the sun from rising.
“You will be given a place of prominence within the Imperium,” she said, reciting the terms she’d memorized. “You will be second only to the High Abbot himself, and that only in name. You will be given wealth beyond measure and all the resources you could possibly use. And finally, all past grievances with the Sun Goddess or her minions will be forgotten. When you ascend, you will do so under the umbrella of her protective embrace. Once in the Ethereal Realm, she will personally oversee your development until the heavens quake at your every step.”
She took a deep breath, then locked her eyes on his. “Do you accept?”
For a moment, he didn’t answer. Then, after a few long seconds, he asked, “Do you know the problem with diplomacy, Abby?”
“I do not.”
“It assumes that both sides want to end the fight,” Zeke said. “You have nothing I need. Nothing I want. I don’t care about your false goddess’ protection. You ask me if I accept your offer?” He spat on the ground. “That’s what I think about it. Now, let me counter your offer with one of my own.”
He raised his hand and pointed into the distance. “Go back to your boss and tell him that I’m coming,” he said. “I intend to free every single slave within the Imperium, and once I’m done with this little empire, I’ll head to the Ethereal Realm and take up my grievances with the woman in charge. I’ll probably kill her, too, when it’s all said and done.”
“You can’t expect me to –”
“Honestly, Abby, I don’t really expect you to do anything,” he admitted. “In fact, you’ll probably attack me at any moment. That’s fine. The moment I saw you in that armor and flanked by these evil assholes, I realized that you were already lost. I wish things could have been different. I wish you would have found another path. But if you think that our history will save you – even for a second – you’re sadly mistaken. You are the company you keep, Abby. You’re surrounded by and dressed like a bunch of slave-holding bigots. I can’t think of any reason to believe you haven’t become one yourself.”
Before Abby could respond, two things happened. First, the men to her left and right began to gather mana for an attack – which was not part of the plan. Second, the other members of the army – hundreds of yards away – charged. That was when she realized that Ignatius had never expected diplomacy to work. Instead, he’d only intended to bring Zeke out into the open, where the army could get a good shot at him.
For his part, Zeke took one look at the situation, then shook his head.
“Disappointing,” he muttered. “Not unexpected, but disappointing all the same.” Then, he locked his eyes on Abby and said, “You should run. If you’re still around when it all starts, I’m probably going to kill you too.”
That’s when the Knights let loose with their various attacks.
Abby didn’t see them. Instead, she took his advice, but instead of turning and running, she activated her escape skill. A moment later, she became a beam of light zigzagging across the sky.