Celindria became a permanent resident of Nox’s Castle on Cinder, to my distaste and the growing detriment of my relationship with Xelan. He didn’t blame me, but he kept his distance from Nox and ultimately from me. The last time I laid eyes on Xelan at this point was during the delivery of Celindria’s baby. Which he carried back to Earth alongside Merit.

[SS]: Remember here that Merit was developing her crush on Xelan. The crush that flourished and led to her sacrificing her nacre for him.

Both brothers asked me to watch over Celindria. Both for different reasons, but the outcome was the same.

I was on her ass twenty-four/seven.

The castle.

The city.

The market.

Vendors, merchants, and dealers. Everywhere. Never did she leave my sight.

So imagine my suspicion when she and Nox disappeared for weeks abruptly following Bin’s assassination.

[SS]: I’m wincing. “I hated reading that in his Verse.”

Living through it was surreal. Nox—my King—reduced himself to an actual assassin to vanquish his loneliness.

“My most unjust sin…” That’s how he thought of it.

Fuck.

All of Bin’s brothers… I kept their nacres. I’d hoped… maybe for a miracle.

[SS]: We took a break. Legir forgave Korac for following orders, but I wonder how the sole surviving Leader of Yu will feel about his sons’ deaths after reading these Verses. To read all the circumstances that led to the end of their lives. I hope there’s more forgiveness to come.

Back to my supervising the First Progeny.

Just one day, Celindria breezed into the fortress’ throne room on Earth and demanded to have Nox all to herself. Then the next, they ran off to the castle on Cinder under the guise of an urgent breakthrough in her lab.

Cast aside, Colita retreated to her personal harem and oversaw the city on Earth.

I was left alone with no Xelan and an ominous cloud on our horizon. One I swear only I could see.

Something shifted.

A short time after Nox and Celindria resurfaced, my King suffered a melancholy of great intensity. The royal brothers experienced similar episodes of hyper-focus, but with different triggers. Andrius visited briefly, and Nox’s mood only worsened. He demanded reports from me on Celindria in private. Over the course of a hundred years, it taxed his reason and my understanding.

This shift unnerved me.

Ementa’s visit further cemented my concern. At the desert fortress on Earth, she risked herself by asking for an audience with me. She waited in the throne room on her stilts covered in discrete armor and robes.

I swallowed my disappointment at the absence of her daughter. A business meeting, then. “I am relieved to see you, Ementa. I have some questions about—What is it? What happened?”

The open stress marring her features arrested me. Her voice shook with it. “General, there is something very wrong on Earth. We are retreating to Cinder. I advise you to do the same.”

The uprising rumors.

At this point, a few humans died in their attempts to raid Cinder for treasure. The acrid atmosphere guarded our planet far better than any Icarean soldier. Locally, gossip spread that humans experienced great atrocities under our “rule.” But the thing is, they could leave whenever they wanted. The humans flocked to our settlement, prosperous with opportunity. Someone exaggerated the number of our feedings, the unfairness of our public punishments for crimes, and an undercurrent of our designs for world domination.

I tried to assure Ementa, taking her hand and gently squeezing it. “Everything will work out. The humans know we mean them no harm. Our aims are aligned. It would be unwise to depart from that—”

“These are not a people into their wisdom as a species let alone as a civilization.” Ementa pulled on my hand to convey her sincerity. “They are paranoid, superstitious, and easily swayed. We live much longer than them, and they notice. Nacre-bearers are close to gods to them. Think. What are all people but those who test their superiors?”

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Well. Put that way. “I understand. Please be careful and discrete. Removing a hundred people from this city at once might give credence to the rumors and spur an evacuation.”

Ementa searched my face as if afraid. “They will target you and the King, and it involves the Progeny. Prince Xelan is safe as far as I know. Did he ever make progress with the samples?”

I almost let her see me wince. Ashamed and saddened, I admitted, “I have not seen his highness in over one hundred years. I stored your samples as instructed. They are still preserved. But…”

Ementa squeezed one last time before dropping my hand. “Look after yourself, General Korac. I expect to see you on Cinder.”

“And your daughter!” I called to her as she left.

“My. What a tiny lady.”

I whirled to find Celindria at my back. I… woo… I almost lost my composure on her. Instead, I professionally reminded her, “I am the General, and that was business conducted under the authority of Cinder’s throne. His majesty does not easily forgive spying.”

“He will forgive me. I am harmless and curious.” The First Progeny glided in with a graceful sway to her white-clad hips. She always wore these breezy ensembles with distracting glimpses of her dark skin. Those blue eyes of hers held answers to questions most were afraid to ask.

A crazed angel.

I pity Nox in hindsight.

[SS]: I’m tilting my head to ask without using words.

I never found her appealing, but I can see how she built empires on those looks. What about you?

[SS]: I shake my head. “I’m with you. She isn’t my type. Celindria feels too old in my head—What?”

He’s abruptly laughing.

Let’s not discuss age with me in the mix.

[SS]: Smiling, rolling my eyes, shaking my head—all at once. I explain, “She feels older than you. Older than Nox. Sometimes older than Tumu. There’s something ancient in her, and I’m always afraid that if I look her in the eye, I’ll see it moving.”

Very well said, amos.

So there I am. Face-to-face with that crazed ancient angel.

My hand itched for my whip, but I steadied myself. “Celindria. Stay out of this room. We conduct official duties here only.”

“Is this where I salute you? Go to my knee and place my fist over my heart?” Unconcerned, Celindria swept by me to examine a painting of Cinder before Li’s implosion. Through an emotion I can’t describe to this day, she elaborated, “I am not of Cinder. Nor of the Icari. I am of my own. Like the people out there. Those who question your place in this world.” Delicately, her fingers trailed along a river in the picture. “So beautiful before Elden damned you—”

I snatched her by the elbow and ground, “Do not disrespect our culture in our house.”

Something. Flickered.

Behind her eyes, a statue stood and crumbled. Celindria stared at me and all but ignored my hand on her. Her voice was quiet and breathy. “You belong nowhere.”

I released Celindria like it burned to touch her skin, and she quit the room in a billow of her white skirts.

I reported to Nox, and he assured me he’d handle it. So he followed her the next day and accounted for these events in his Verse. After he caught Celindria conspiring with Primary Remorse—promising to fuck the Tritan that very night—Nox returned to the fortress with his own strategy for reprisal.

A strategy Colita confessed to enjoying rather intensely.

[SS]: “Sleeping with her to get back at Celindria was petty and super unexpected.”

Korac gave a non-committal shrug.

What can I say? He was feeling petty. Super unexpected would normally work in his favor for such an ambush, but Celindria always knows…

I waited for Nox to march Celindria through the conduit from Cinder to Earth. As my King stated in his Verse, I wasn’t happy. Even though I hadn’t seen Xelan for ten decades, I knew this was a line I shouldn’t cross.

But my wings—Nox promised me my wings.

I wanted them for so long to experience the sky with my lover. We didn’t—I’ve never…

[SS]: He’s standing and spread them open, brushing them. They are beautiful. He’s caught me smiling at him.

For our next milestone, I’ll take you outside and explore those wonders with you.

[SS]: I take his hand and squeeze it. “A world of ‘yes.’”

He’s taking a deep breath before he begins. We know what happens from here. It’s not pretty, and I give him time to let it out.

I took Celindria to the stage we used to address the city. A thousand faces watched as the woman with the straightest spine I’ve ever seen went to her knees, pulled her hair aside, and loosened straps along her back until it bared to me.

This woman threatened my people, offended our savior, and abused my brother’s favor.

Fifty lashes weren’t enough.

I cracked the Phoenix Dragon tongue and split her skin open. Her scream satisfied a murderous hunger in me. The second lash cut into the bone—

And the wounds weren’t healing.

Horrified, I couldn’t keep the shock off my face. She shut down the repair systems in her nacre and endured the true damage. My silence—the crowd’s silence—was enough to draw Nox out of the observatory. We both stared at her, aghast.

When Nox gasped, “Why?” she called to the crowd, “I am like you. I am not like your Icarean masters. They beat me to frighten you. But know that I am not afraid.” Celindria glared at my King with madness in her eyes. “Keep beating me. I will free them in the end.”

I’d stomached more than enough of her poison. Cruel and unusual be damned. I beat her for the next forty-eight lashes, and I felt every single one was necessary.

But it cost me greatly.

“Stop!”

Fuck.

Xelan.

He alighted on the stage with his eyes wild and his hair—long again—battered by the wind. Rushing to her, he muttered reassuring words I couldn’t hear. Celindria sagged in his arms, drooling blood. I forgot to give her a bit to protect her tongue and teeth.

How unfortunate.

My Prince examined her back, and when he looked at me—

I endured a childhood of extensive abuse and trauma, but I was never scared in the traditional sense. It was always just one more day in Hell to me. But when my lover looked at me with Atramentous eyes, solid midnight blue, I feared a ruin I never imagined.

Xelan glared an obvious question at me. Why? How could you? And so on.

He wasn’t here to experience the answers. And looking like that—soaked in his “daughter’s” red blood—there was little chance he’d ever listen.

That anger. That parental concern.

I’d lost him.

“Never come near us again.”

Xelan flew off with Celindria.

[SS]: Despite the context, Korac’s smirking. It’s bitter and sad.

“Never come near us again.” Highly fucking unlikely. I wasn’t losing him without a fight.

Not to Earth. And not to Celindria.