Korac and I waited on the rock floor with our backs against his door. The hall--usually filled with staff--echoed empty in its vastness. Black rain fell from the sky in fat drops. It smelled of misery. Or maybe that was just my mood.

Xelan went into see mother half an hour ago. To say goodbye. I let him into her room with both of us sharing a heavy heart. He let me hug him for the first time in millennia. It was a good moment overall.

But now... now the tension in my neck threatened to kill me. What could Savis possibly tell him in that span of time? I imagined every scenario and prepared the best responses. I could handle a bereft little brother. I could do this--

Xelan walked out of that door no longer little. His eyes aged a million years, dark and angry. All that innocence stripped away.

Korac hopped onto his feet and approached him.

I didn't bother. I knew.

Xelan's midnight eyes seared into the marks on my soul and found them wanting. He stormed to the parapet and flew into the storm.

"Prince Xelan!" Korac looked back at me from the banister.

"His quarry is in the Spire. Go search for him." I told my guard to do what I knew he wanted to do, anyway.

Korac rushed down the stairs to seek him out.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

I had a more pressing affair to attend.

White gauzy sheets draped from mother's ceiling. With the rain, the airiness took on a dreamlike quality. Through the billowing material, she called, "My revenge came to me in the end. Xelan believes you let Umbra poison me all this time. That you refused to help me."

I approached her bedside. "Why, mother?"

"You and he will harm the Icari more than your father. Him with his abominations. You by giving pieces of yourself away to the Tritans for more power. And what will you do with it? Burn the rest of Cinder. Or the Third? My father--" She choked on tears and gave the words up for breathing.

Even dying, she managed more evil than I gave her credit for. I stared at the beautiful wraith in the bed and understood a strength in frailty.

"Savis, tell me the story of the stars. Tell me, as you have always told Xelan."

Tears spilled from her eyes as she gazed at the ceiling, breathless and weak. She stared as if she still saw the night through the stone. Through Li. "Stars are beautiful lights in the sky. Sweet twinkles in the night. Sometimes they fell and shot through the black. On clear nights, they powdered the velvet in their diamond dust..."

Beneath her bed, I removed a loosened stone. She hid the instruments I sought within.

"...I remember the stars so clearly. Not every star is jealous like Li. Many die for your happiness..."

I took her hand and squeezed. Her lashes didn't even flutter. No feeling remained.

"...The planets and stars exist in harmony. Cinder cannot find its place because it was not meant for this..."

With my heart pounding and my hands steady, I plunged a syringe into her wrist and sank it home.

"And one day, you will see them..." She stopped and gasped at me. "What--"

I kissed her on the forehead. "I love you, Bene. I hope you finally find your peace in eternity. May Elden welcome you home."

"My... son..."

Savis' eyes closed. Peaceful. Hateful.

I killed my mother not for mercy, but to hurt her for destroying the last shred of Xelan's faith in me. I could never recover it. And on a lie?! The truth was awful enough. But at least this way, mother died knowing that I am the monster she always feared me to be.