50.

Negotiating Death

Cedric's trance, his anxiety had completely faded by then. There stood Rykaedi, just ten paces away from him. He felt the ley begin to tingle at his fingertips. His Sylvet weapon was but a thought away.

Rykaedi pouted slightly. “Is that a no, then? You won't dance with me?”

He took a step. Faunia wrapped her hand tight around his arm. “Are you sure, Cedric?”

“It's only a dance, Faunia. I'll be back to dance with you before tonight's done.” He punctuated with another uncharacteristic wink.

She blushed and staggered at the gesture, accidentally released him from her grasp.

Then he approached her, that black-dressed, sour-faced one masquerading as one who had once been a friend. A sister to his own friend. She lifted a black-gloved hand supine to him.

He took the hand in his own. It was startlingly cold. Lavender filled his nostrils, quickly overwhelmed the other warring aromas of the hall.

The crowd still swayed in time to the music all around them, but he could no longer feel their presence — the weight of every action, he knew, left the entire congregation’s lives in his hands. One wrong move, and…

Left step, right step…

“...Why are you here, Rykaedi?”

Rykaedi stuck her tongue out sideways between her teeth in a grin far too sickly for Miriam's gentle features. “Can a lady not come to dance with her man?”

“You're here for Kogar?”

She stifled a laugh. “He's too uncouth for that, you know. I came only with you in mind.”

“You're here to kill me, then.”

“Must everything be so subversive in your mind? Have you no trust?”

“For you? No.”

Left step…

She pouted.

Right step…

“There is something, Cedric; you've got me red-handed. Though, perhaps not in the way you expect...”

He swallowed, released a hissed exhalation in anxious anticipation.

“...The last piece of Dyosius Maxim is here.”

The music swelled at her words — the notes grew to a ferocity that almost mimicked the glimmering lights in their precise beauty.

The two of them swayed in graceful step together. The music swayed alongside them.

“You've learned this dance quickly, Cedric!”

“This should have ended in Harth.”

She licked her lips sensually, placed a frigid cheek against his. “You've grown a lot since then...”

Shall we?

The ground crumbled apart at his implied agreement, his consent to be transported away. The brilliant reflections in the floor became bright marble tiles in masterful patterns and arrangements at their feet. Exquisite pillars rose toward where the ceiling had once been, now an endless expanse of bright gray, of dull white. Arches grew between the structures, floated over the winding paths.

Then greenery — precise hedges grew from the grassy patches between those marble tiles, orange flowers bloomed in vibrant life upon their leaves. Serenity befell his mind at the sight. It was unpleasant in those first resistive moments, but he soon became powerless to the psychic sensation — his whole body relaxed. The stiffness in his face fell into lethargy. A slight smile cracked, too subtle to see.

“This is the deadworld,” he admitted.

“Bravo, Cedric! Never again shall I doubt your intuition.”

“My time has come so soon...”

Rykaedi grinned. “We'll see.” And she led the way forward.

Cedric followed at a casual pace some distance behind her. I had expected a fate in hell to be my final answer... an eternity of suffering for my misdeeds, for killing Hunters and Sylvet and sending thousands to a grave in my attempt to save Calamon... But this... this is not such a bad fate to be dealt.

They soon came to a gazebo amidst the maze-like garden. There was a bench under that domed lid, a bright stone table, and another bench opposite

On the far bench sat Akvum Jirhali. His face was twisted halfway through a growl already.

But Cedric's worries, regrets, fears all had turned into dabs of paint upon the canvas that was his once-lived life. It was time to move on. Time to accept. Time to forgive.

Rykaedi cleared her throat. “It's not time for that just yet, Cedric. We've business to discuss, though I am glad to see that you're feeling quite unprejudiced already.”

“Mm,” he replied, and took a seat across from the big cat.

Akvum growled as though the bench was reserved for better company. His eyes flitted between the two of them. “You've grown weak if you're following her orders, boy.”

“This is where you've been communicating from?”

“I cannot leave until you release the memory of me — refrain from summoning my spirit.”

“Leave…?”

Rykaedi clapped her hands together. Each of her interruptions startled Cedric as though pulling him from a dream, and so badly did he want this dream to continue. “We're not here to bicker now, my friends!” she laughed. “There's something more important—”

“Dyosius Maxim.” interrupted Akvum.

Miriam pouted. “You really suck the life out of everything, dear. It's a wonder I ever had any fun toying with you.”

“And yet you continue — first with Liara’s schematics, and now with Cass’ very soul!” His voice shuddered with rage.

Cedric's eyebrows lifted slightly. He was trying so desperately to pay attention, not to get lost within the beauty of the staring, spectating flowers all around them. The fog grew, and so too did the black vignette around his vision.

Rykaedi looked to Cedric with an overbearing smile. “That's right. Liara was always too fearful to dabble with the once-ley. The once-ley powers animals, plants, nature… men and women, too. She begged, hoped, prayed that building a device from the once-ley spirits was not possible. But the dreams of optimists are ever easy to shatter; machinam fabrica does involve a technique toward the once-ley.”

“You're losing him,” said Akvum.

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

Rykaedi had to gently slap Cedric's cheeks to keep him awake. “Stay with me just a moment longer! We just need one potent piece of once-ley to finish the device, to complete the new Dyosius.”

“Once-ley…” muttered Cedric.

“He's not fit to consent to this, Rykaedi.” growled Akvum. “Take him back, he does not belong here.”

“Cedric? Cedric, honey, feeling good?”

He nodded dully.

“You're paying attention… right?”

He nodded again.

“Good enough for our purposes!”

Akvum stood and hastily rounded the table. He grabbed Cedric's hair, yanked him backward. His mouth fell open drearily.

“She's asking for your soul, Cedric. Your soul for the completion of her bastard artefact.”

Cedric murmured something. Akvum released him with a hiss of frustration.

"Your mind would mingle forever with Cass'... you'd become an aberration! A daemon deeper in the Pit than even Rykaedi, even Algirak!"

Then Rykaedi continued the thought, “Calamon will be safe beneath my rule, you need not worry. And Faunia, Marisol, they'll both be kept safe. I'll bequeen Faunia, declare Marisol her closest secretary. Everything beyond that will stay the same. Thousands would live, if just for this singular sacrifice.”

Akvum hesitantly nodded. “I hate to say it, Cedric, but... I believe her. She's not much of a liar, just a scourge, a demon, a witch!”

“Please, do not be so kind! You'll bring a tear to my eye, love.”

His eyes twisted from Cedric, up to Rykaedi. His whole face contorted. “Fuck. You.”

Cedric's eyes were shut tight. His lids were heavy like boulders. His arm fell limp beside his chair. And still, visions and dreams danced around within his mind; a world without him, a peaceful end to the war in Calamon, a quiet end to the Etherian conflict; Lorik's death, Kogar's death… Faunia takes the iron throne of Calamon. She marries a king, produces a child. A name comes to mind — Lorik. Not himself, but the name of the child. She names the child after me…

His eyelids flickered.

“There is one thing of note, Cedric…” Akvum muttered in his ear, suddenly much calmer. “You will not be able to return to this deadworld. You will be subject to a different sort of eternity. Blackness. Forever.”

His brow furrowed, but his eyes did not open. Thoughts of the flowers flickered away, the serenity died. A vision of Rithi passed, of Falskar, of Liara, of Ivalié, of Miriam…

Then Faunia. Marisol. A vision of sitting together in the deadworld, discussing their past lives. Laying together in the grass, gazing at the endless expanse of dimensionless sky. Speaking of nothing. Speaking of things they wished they'd done. Speaking of things they were glad they did.

Faunia begins to bicker after something crass he says. But Cedric only smiles. He laughs. Soon, she laughs too.

A smile befell Cedric's face. Akvum hummed under his breath. “...I think he's going to accept your offer.”

But the boy shook his head. Akvum’s eyebrows raised.

Rykaedi asked, “Cedric? Not going to accept? Even if it means saving thousands, tens of thousands? I'd kill Kogar the second this daydream ends. I'd return Faunia home, I'd send the Alisan oligarchy to hell and bring the war to a stifling stop — Faunia will take Calamon and Alisa to herself. Her crown will become the most powerful in all of…” Rykaedi's voice trailed off. Cedric was beaming a smile. His eyes opened, just slightly. Just enough to see her scowl.

It's selfish of me, but...

“I…” he mumbled. “I cannot leave behind the ones I love like that.”

“...Loved ones?” Rykaedi's hair rose up, slithered like snakes as twice-ley constricted around her, flowed into her and ripped into the air between them all. Her face contorted, began to shift and thin until the skin was tight around the bones. "Where's your altruism, boy!?"

Cedric lurched from the bench, twisted in her direction—

KRRRRRRRRRNNNNCH!

A deafening snap, the shattering of bones finally gave pause to the ensemble on the stage. The dream ended, the deadworld was gone.

Cedric was panting. His heart was beating faster than he knew was remotely possible, more like a ceaseless vibration than a beat.

Miriam was thrown back in a spray of blood, a whining, agonized scream split the air. Then her body hit, rolled over three times before it came to a sliding halt. She tried to pick herself up but collapsed atop an immobile arm — the top of her skull was caved inward through her brain. Her eyes were bulging outward. She lurched forward, heaved black bile all across the polished tiles.

There were cries and screams from the crowd, some more lurches and gags and releases of vomit. And then manic frenzy took them all.

Faunia ran to Cedric's side and placed her hands in Hunter-salute. “Everyone stay back! This woman is inhabited by an Eth… a daemon!”

Cedric pulled his bloody white glove tighter as he approached, flicked his wrist down twice in an effort to alleviate the numbing pain his own attack had caused him. “It was a good try, Rykaedi. Trying to get me out of the way before I can contest you? Before I can kill you?”

Miriam's body fell limp, fell lifeless against the floor. Her flesh crackled and tore, her bones broke and rearranged as her spine opened up like a tent flap, let rise the dark bone queen herself, the God of Marrow. The dress rose with her to leave Miriam’s body naked upon the floor.

She cracked her neck in either direction, raised as much of a sinister smirk to Cedric as she could muster. The chandeliers flickered and flared, all pulled taut to her like a black hole. Violet light surged in her own eyes, began to pulsate around the room. “You know not why I deigned to keep you alive. Very well, then;”

Her hand swept to the screaming crowds. At once, dozens dropped limp to the floor. Then they crawled back to life on the spines of the living, their eyes glowing occultic purple.

"If you will not give..."

Cedric summoned Serkukan and Ithlo around him, the white robes, the crimson coattails. Two black Sylvet swords summoned to his hands, flames engulfed them…

"...I will take."

And then Faunia swept her icicle sword in a sudden, unexpected movement for Cedric's throat.

He gasped, fumbled a step and nearly collapsed in horror. “No…!”

Her eyes were violet. She was possessed.

THOOOOOOOOMMMMM!

Dust consumed the room as ceiling shattered and fell thunderously to the floor, sent them both to a stumble. The floor shook and quaked with the dying tremors of a cannonball impact that had torn a gaping hole in a wall, left dozens of fleeing bodies beneath massive pale stones. He peered from beneath his braced forearm, beyond the unsteady Faunia — Kogar stood in the smog with Rykaedi's throat clutched tight in his giant black gauntlet, holding her aloft from the floor. Her raised corpses clung to his back and to his arms, but they could not overpower him.

And those he had just killed were already rising up.

She only beamed that same, crooked smile at him. And only for a moment did they share that gaze before Heji — Vol Krynn approached with a voice like an explosion, “Stop! STOP!”

Her bone feet padded gently to the rubble when he released his chokehold.

Faunia snapped out of her deathless trance at the very same second, fell forward to her knees that he could catch her in his arms.

She's alive.

He clutched her tight, like a father clutching his own dead child. Alive. Alive.

He almost didn't believe it; the pangs of his deadworld dream still struck through his mind like hammers. Her breathing was shallow, shallow enough to make his own heart race in sordid anxiety.

Why do I feel this way? She's alive. She's strong, she can more than take care of herself... How was she possessed so quickly...? Tirolith?

“Have none of you any decorum!?” Krynn barked, screamed with such intensity it appeared that the pressing veins in his forehead would explode in a surge of blood. The rage dug into his face was deeper than any Cedric had seen before, as though carved into hard marble.

Kogar turned from Rykaedi and, to Cedric's amazement, fell suddenly to a kneel at Heji's feet. But his mind was still faraway. His whole world was still clutched within his arms.

Rykaedi concealed her chuckle behind a bone-thin hand. “My apologies, Krynn. It's certainly been some time, hasn't it?”

“You know you are not welcomed here. You know the rules, witch!”

“What’s life without a little blasphemy?” She looked to Cedric. They held the stare for a long moment until she was forced to look away, back to her more immediate company. Cedric noticed that his teeth were tightly grit. His breathing was growing heavy.

Kogar was back to his feet. “Give me your word, Heji, and I will end her now. Your people should go untouched by daemons of her sort, you who all bow so graciously.”

“Oh, how unbecoming of a god; you've stooped so low as to take orders from mortal men? You stay your hand when they pull the leash, attack when they command?”

His cold gaze fell upon her. He said something in reply, he answered and bickered and continued their eternal argumentation…

But Cedric didn't hear it. He could only hear a deafening ringing. His eyes bored like a twisting knife into Rykaedi's form, and each of his thoughts were carved either for Faunia's life… or for Rykaedi's death.