…

The last rumbles of the black hole faded. The quaking in their ears declined to a low vibration.

“...Mm…ic! Get me a…”

Cedric's eyes cracked open and quivered. The stars had vanished — now there was a big domed ceiling above, a gold ceiling that had crumbled and shattered apart. He could see a darkening sky outside.

…Calamity…

He turned his head.

"...Medic!" There was Faunia Vleren, limping up the steps. There was Marisol Ruin at her side. Her Hunters of…

Cedric blinked.

…I'm alive? Where's…?

“They got away.” said a powerful voice. Cedric looked up. There was Akvum, sitting on a big chunk of broken throne beside him. “They escaped. Both of them. You're not ready just yet.”

“...Did I call you again?” Cedric finally groaned. His voice was barely audible.

Akvum shook his head. “I brought myself. I felt Kogar's power swell. I felt Nihil Maxim shatter.”

Cedric didn't answer.

“Don't let me take up all of your time. You've got places to be.” He nodded to Faunia and Marisol as they reached the top of the steps. "We'll speak again. And soon."

“Cedric!” Faunia gasped and fell from Marisol’s grasp, dropping to her knees beside him. She held his head in her lap.

His eyes began to shut.

“Tirolith, to me.” Just like that, his own unseen damage began to heal, however ruined his body was. The aching pain began to dull until it was little more than a headache, then his consciousness swelled back into existence with his vision and hearing following shortly thereafter. Soon enough, it was like he'd never been injured at all.

…If only I'd had Okella with me. If only...

His hand became a fist beneath himself.

“Cedric, you're—” Faunia's eyes were welled with tears.

Marisol looked on somberly before turning back to her soldiers. She hastened down the steps toward them, barking orders for where and how to maintain the barrier.

He mumbled, “...We—”

“We didn't fail.” Her tears began to run. “We didn't fail, we were interrupted. Heji was killed. But we didn't fail. We still have time to achieve what we wanted to in Aeon, we can still talk to his council.”

Cedric began to sit up. Faunia tried to use her left arm to steady him, winced and cried out in pain.

He didn't even have time to process the thought — her necrosis vanished instantly. Her arm and her leg were suddenly both back to normal.

And the ley settled back into place.

Faunia gasped. She cried only harder.

“...What's wrong?”

“In face of all of this… all of this death, and evil, and suffering… I have to wonder: why am I the one who is spared? Why me, always?”

But Cedric had no answer, for he had wondered the same thing all too many times. He could only embrace her, hold her head close to his chest. And he hoped that would be enough.

“The king — is he…?”

“The queen is, too.”

“And her unborn child…”

“Princess Arobella will have the throne. She's the heir…”

“The sky is turning black. It's darkening this way from Calamon, but right over the palace…”

“There's a bright spot. There's hope.”

“The king… No!”

Cedric and Faunia were bombarded by swaths of golden soldiers and guards in strict formations the instant that they'd stood atop the shattered steps.

Cedric eliminated Faunia's tears with the slightest thought. They both turned themselves to face the onslaught of spears and halberds. Cedric held his hands up in faux surrender. Faunia elbowed his ribs.

“The king is dead.” Faunia declared. “Rykaedi and Kogar, two members of a faction called Kasian’s Twelve, interrupted our peaceful mission and murdered Heji. If there's a… vice executive, we'd be happy to speak to them. They'll know about the pact that he broached—”

The sea of guards parted. It seemed as though a golden light shone down through the broken ceiling on a singular person, an individual soul amongst the crowd.

Cedric glared. Princess Arobella.

But her smirk was not her own — he recognized that cruel, mischievous sneer as Rykaedi's.

And then his sword summoned to his hand.

The armors clattered in unison as the pikes stiffened toward him all at once.

Kill them all... and then her.

…After a moment of hesitation, he dispelled his black blade. He spoke in booming command, “Your princess — your queen has been replaced by one of the Twelve. That's you, Rykaedi, isn't it?”

Arobella pouted uncharacteristically with her fat bottom lip. “I'm sure I have no clue of what you speak?”

“I'm betting you killed the queen as well?” Cedric began down the steps. The soldiers began to surround Arobella for a moment, but she gently caressed their armors and stepped through to meet him. And then they were face to face, close enough that they could feel each other's breaths, see the glistening in each other's eyes.

Arobella whispered, “I remember our pact well, Cedric. I remember those... secret words we exchanged in my bedchamber. I remember our dance… do you remember surrendering Kylinstrom to me?”

There may as well have been a knife in her hand. So close, she was weak, easy to kill. The guards, too, would be nothing more than ants beneath Serkukan's… the Heretic’s might. Cedric's might.

…But then, what would happen to Calamon? Another war, from another side? To make so many enemies in such short time wasn't suicide for him, but it would be genocide for the people… for his people.

“...I remember.” Cedric murmured. “Yes. It's all included in the Aeonic-Calamoni pact.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Her smile screamed disdain. “I knew you'd remember.” And she kissed him on the cheek, her lips cold as ice.

When the new queen turned back to her ensemble of men, she snapped her fingers and their weapons fell low. Then she swaggered through the chamber with the confidence more of a braggish adventurer than a queen at all. “Come, my men! Let us secure the perimeter — the sel ley barrier will keep Kogar and Rykaedi at bay at the very least!”

And her guards followed to escort her out. They were eventually left alone with Marisol’s small gang of sel. Once they'd reformed their circle unmolested, that intricate weaving of iridescent lines began to expand from them again. The sel ley barrier was restored. Serkukan, Ithlo’vatis, and Tirolith were all laid quiet by the overpotent aura.

Marisol approached. She said, “I guess we showed up right on time.”

“I'll say.” Cedric sighed, chuckled slightly. “That was the most singularly immense experience of my life. Inside of that black hole of his… We need to stop him. Before the crimson moon, if it can be helped.”

Then Faunia asked, “How did you get here so quickly, Mari? I thought you were occupied with Calamon?”

A confident grin stretched over her face. “I think revealing that little secret will do well enough at raising your spirits.”

When they arrived at the grand steps leading from the massive palace into amber sunset, they both could only gasp in complete astonishment.

“Marisol, this is…” Cedric murmured. That was all he could manage.

54.

Dragonsail

Planks of wood surrounded red flesh, enough planks to build a mansion with. Giant balloons of cotton sat held by thick ropes from the thing’s spines, the only part of him that was exposed through the topside layer of the construction.

Cedric's mouth was still hanging open. The sheer scale, the scope… the fact that this invention of hers worked at all was beyond belief.

“Marisol, that's insane!” Faunia cried, though her face was stricken with delight rather than horror.

They'd strapped the crimson Etherian dragon Ozzod to a massive airship. It was almost as though they'd just built a boat onto a big dragon's back and strapped harnesses and chains around his red scales to keep him still. It was amazing, incredible, completely unfathomable.

Marisol said, “I found schematics for flying machines in Calamon. The biggest problem was with propulsion… That was when Ozzod arrived and offered the answer to our problems.”

“We can go anywhere with this…” Faunia muttered.

Cedric nodded along with his jaw still hung open. As he approached, the dragon lowered his head, a head bigger than Cedric's torso, and hummed, “Lorik Valenkir. I told you we would meet again.”

Cedric's eyes widened. “Valenkir…?”

Ozzod raised a brow. “You do not remember our conversations, I take it.”

“I don't remember a whole lot, no.” He placed a hand upon the crimson scales of the dragon’s neck. There was a wound there, a deep black scar. Beneath the patches of broken scales was still new flesh, speckled with blood.

“My wound from our bout with Rykaedi. Necrosis.”

“Cedric can heal you up once we're past the barrier.” Faunia flexed her hand and fingers. “He’s getting damn good at this.”

“...Not good enough to stop Kogar from escaping,” the boy admitted.

Ozzod shook his head. “Few would have been able to. I felt the ley split around him, he's outgrown his old power.”

“...Yeah.” Cedric released his grasp. “We'll talk later, Ozzod. Better yet, we'll fuse. Maybe between your mind and Ithlo’s power of Truth we can derive some clues for how to better face Rykaedi. I have a feeling we're not too far off from that fight…”

The great dragon lowered his head.

Cedric turned back to the palace, began back up the steps.

Faunia fell into step with him. “We're about to make a powerful ally by signing into this pact. We give them sel soldiers for barriers and defenses against Etherians, they give us resources and money to protect Calamon, to finish this battle.”

“And as far as Kylinstrom…?” Cedric wondered.

“We still have to visit Azar'kara, remember?"

“And we may want to check on Harth as well — it was Rykaedi's home once. She may choose to hide out there again now that the whole of the region has slipped into her grasp.”

"We stop by Calamon, then Azar'kara, then Harth. And we finish this fight." Faunia nodded, turned and held her knuckles out before him.

Cedric thought of Ivalié, of Okella. Of Hemah and Tartys. Will killing Rykaedi and Kogar really put a stop to this? Will any of our efforts be enough in the end?

He bumped his knuckles to hers. And so their fate was set.

X

The gavel slammed hard against the court’s dark wooden table. There were dozens of rounded benches climbing the sloped floor behind the two of them, more benches laid atop the balcony overhead from which double the spectators were looking down over the council of elders.

Then all of their hands clapped in unison.

“And so,” began Rosgir through the mouth atop his forehead, stood amongst the six elders as speaker of the white-gold council, “the Aeonic-Calamoni Pact is now in effect. Ratified by the members of the King's Union under direct approval of Queen Arobella I, Aeon and Calamon are now unified in the face of any threat, any danger. Our resources are your resources, King Lorik.”

And they clapped again.

Cedric looked abashed for just a moment. Then he cleared his throat, took a deep breath, and held his head high. “I accept the mantle of this responsibility. It's with great honor and pride that we… ratify this pact. And the same can be said: our resources, our men, our tools... are yours to share.”

Rosgir only smiled as the applause grew again. Cedric looked away uncertainly.

And then the six councilmen left the podium and came down the short few steps which joined them to Cedric and Faunia. The roar of the crowd grew and grew as each of their acquaintances were met.

Royce Blackwell, a tan man with the huge body of an azar, a handshake that could rip an arm off, and long white hair that dangled around his square jaw.

Balko Vitori, a slender woman who wore a robe like a mage, bowed in lieu of a handshake, and was as bald as an egg.

Rudolph Bajrami, a tall man with dark skin and a big white beard, with a flimsy, unimpressive handshake.

Tzimisas das Bled, a pale man with a rotund frame and dark, empty eyes, along with a handshake held for a moment longer than was comfortable.

And finally, before Rosgir, Jolanus Mazarin, a tan woman with a full head of dark, curly hair, and very masculine features. Her handshake was the sternest of them all.

Cedric and Faunia bowed once the handshakes were at an end. The crowd clapped unanimously once more, and then began to file out of the audience chamber.

Rosgir crept close and whispered in Cedric’s ear, “I thank you for your courage, Cedric. If you hadn’t arrived, despite mine and the king’s word, who knows what would have happened?”

“I hardly think Kogar and Rykaedi would have come to blows here in such a case. If anything, it’s my fault the king is dead.”

“Nonsense. He took a beast ‘neath his care, and he paid the ultimate price. His visionary powers were too slight to sense that inexorable fate.”

“...I suppose. But then I wonder; how was his power undermined? He was a Teller… what does that mean? How does that power work?”

Rosgir cracked a slight smile, then shrugged his shoulders. “I fear my understanding of such things has ever been weak. Your guess is as good as mine.”

Faunia’s shoulders relaxed slightly. More questions. Always, more questions…

Cedric turned to her. As though reading her mind he said, “At least we learned about Kogar. We’re better for it. We’re better for most of our time in Aeon, discounting those we couldn’t save. Discounting King Heji himself.”

She smiled. “Yeah.” And they tapped their knuckles together.

X

Cedric trailed down the long hall of white bedroom doors in the palace, between gaudy golden wallpapers. He passed the servant’s rooms, Heji’s room, the queen’s room…

The door to the queen’s room was opened a crack. He stopped, tilted his head back just enough to peer into the crack. A dark shadow was moving beyond the gap in the door. He pulled upon the ley barrier: reveal it to—

The door launched itself open. There was a sneering Princess Arobella, donned in only a silk bathrobe.

Cedric stifled a gasp. “Rykaedi—”

She pushed her lips hard against his. Then she bit hard into his lower lip; hard enough to draw blood.

“Gh!” He recoiled, brought his wrist to his mouth.

“Admit it, Cedric, you’re looking for me. To finish what we started?” She posed herself with one hand on either side of the doorframe, let her silk bathrobe slip, though not enough to expose more than the pale bits of innocent skin he could already see.

Cedric pulled his gaze away. Her fingers touched his chin, pulled his head back toward her.

Then she wrapped her arms around his neck, pulled herself up to his height…

“Won’t you be my plaything, Cedric? If only for a little while?”

And he grit his teeth harder than ever before with the foul taste of her venom running through his lips.