“You kill Hemend or Eternine and it will destroy our presence here,” Murel warned.
“Like you said, Sono. The empire’s already dead. We have to take a side here. We can’t just watch as these people kill each other like this!” Nege said.
“I’m afraid…” Sono said, reluctance paining her voice, “that Murel is right. For the advancement of the planet, this city must fall. The sides are irreconcilable. If we favor one, we lose all influence.”
“Then let’s kill Hemend. The Teljuks will come back. They’ll try again. But in the meantime the empire might have time to prove you wrong.”
“Prove me wrong?” Sono laughed. “About what?”
“That the empire is harmful. That there is no good in it. Eternine will lead it, make it what it never could be without the threat of destruction. That’s what we’re trying to achieve, Sono, an empire of conscience, a kingdom of good. Why would you want to destroy it when it’s nearly happening? Why would you want to kill so many more Teljuks attempting to take the city?”
“You sound ridiculous, Nege.”
“I’m just not ready to give up on Eternine. And I hate watching people die.”
Sono shook her head, feelings of sorrow passing through her to Nege. It wasn’t sorrow for the empire she willed to fall, it was sorrow that Nege could not see what she saw. “It’s not up to you. And it’s not up to me. The Sept has decided. We must not interfere.”
Nege swiftly turned and walked away, realizing he couldn’t change the White’s mind, and that if he were to talk to her much longer he’d be tempted to reveal his weapon.
“Don’t worry, Nege,” Sono called after the fuming Red. “History will show us correct. History will mark this as a sorrow for culture, but a triumph for the planet’s future. You’ll see.”
All that day, Nege watched. All that day, Nege stood leaning on his staff on the empty walls. All that day, the engineers tried to rebuild the demolished third wall. All that day, they and the Red stared at the Teljuk preparations for the final assault.
He knew it would be the last. A leader doesn’t call for three final assaults and think the fourth will occur. This was do or die. If the defenders held, the morale of the Teljuks would eat away at their ranks. And Hemend was prepared to throw everything at Eternine to make sure that didn’t happen.
Nege could see it in the movements of the defenders and the attackers. If Eternon was allowed to remain the last remnant of the Truscan Empire, that culture and heritage would continue. The land of Estia and Gloria would forever be tarnished with this cult of Infinity. Yet it would be stable. The people would have the civil system the empire had brought. And maybe, maybe, with that stability, be able to evolve to a wiser, more advanced society. It was only a hope.
Yet if the Teljuks won, the crimes of Trusc would forever be washed away. The continents would be free of the cult of Infinity. Yet stability would be shattered. People would fear lawlessness and the mighty few who tried to seize power. The Prophets would be the only sign of hope for them. Instead of praying to Infinity they might begin to pray to Sevens. But maybe, maybe they would be free of those prayers, free to think, free to wonder. Maybe it would allow them to advance. And with the guidance of the Prophets, not the empire, it would bring Triumph to a new age. It was only a hope.
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Ten o’clock, two days after the battle for the tower, Nege slowly made his way to the imperial palace. He nodded at the guards who recognized him, passed to the imperial chambers where he knew the emperor would be. It was the same room he had spoken with the emperor in before the first major battle. It had been day then. There had been many people then. Now it was dark, and the palace was nearly deserted.
A single candle at the small doorway, and the feeling of eagerness behind it, told Nege that the emperor was inside this room. The door creaked as it opened.
“Don’t bother me, Gregory,” Eternine said, thinking he would see his attendant when he turned toward the opening door. “I’ve made my decision and… Oh.” Eternine grimaced when he recognized Nege. “Close the door.”
Nege closed the door behind him and approached the emperor. To the light of a single candle, Eternine was putting on a full suit of armor. He’d gotten as far as a chain shirt but was having difficulty lacing the breeches on his own. “What are you doing?” Nege asked.
“What does it look like I’m doing?”
Nege nodded, understanding immediately. “Let me help you.” Without another word, he set down his staff and tightened the laces on the emperor’s armored breeches.
“Thank you.”
Words were not necessary to describe what they felt. It was too painful for the two to make eye contact. And for the life of him, Nege hoped a slight amount of Mother-dweller empathy existed in the emperor so he might know how sorry the Prophet was.
“No, not that one,” Eternine said when Nege lifted the heavy breastplate the emperor had worn previously. “I’m going to wear that one.” The emperor pointed at a hardened but flexible breastplate that resembled that of a captain, not an emperor. Nege’s raised eyebrow relayed a simple question, to which the emperor shrugged. “It’s better for close combat. Less restrictive.”
Nege nodded, and strapped the simple armor onto the emperor. Then the gauntlets, the boots, and finally a captain’s helmet in place of the golden relic he’d worn previously. It took a very short amount of time, and no spoken thoughts, for the emperor to be fully armored and armed.
When he was finished, Nege stood back and examined Eternine. He looked like a soldier, a lowly legionnaire in the ranks of the Truscan Empire. His only mark of imperial authority was a purple cloak with a black ball and an imperial eagle emblazoned on the back.
“How do I look?” Eternine asked.
Nege couldn’t say a word, couldn’t say sorry, couldn’t dare say he wasn’t sorry. He only nodded, and handed the emperor a pike.
Midnight.
The moon unseasonably shrouded in fog.
The torches of over fifty thousand Teljuks, and just over five thousand Truscans, the only light in that eternal city on the hill.
Even as the bombardment continued, Emperor Eternine spoke with his troops. Nege watched from the same spot he’d been in the previous battles. But this time the emperor was not on the walls with him. He was on the ground, with his men.
“So you see,” Eternine said, and raised a massive iron key to the full view of his troops, “I am locking this gate.” The emperor put the key into a massive lock around the iron bars of the gate in the first wall, the final barrier between the city and its defenses. “We cannot enter the city. The battle will be lost if we leave these walls. There is no backward from this point.”
Even as the Teljuks marched forward, the emperor led his men.
“The third walls are lost. We must hold at the second gate. We must pin them in the gap between the second and third walls,” Eternine said as he waved to the few remaining men of the first regiment occupying the second walls, a few brave souls on the third. “They will pound the enemy with everything we have. All we have to do is stay put.”
Even as the Teljuks charged into the gaps in the third wall, Eternine didn’t duck under the barrage.
“Remember your ancestors,” Eternine said to the third and fourth regiment. The second had already engaged the Teljuks at the few gaps in the second wall. “Remember that you came from Trusc. Remember it was Trusc that tamed the beasts of darkness. Remember it was Trusc that brought civilization to Triumph. Remember it was Trusc that first found the will of Infinity. Remember it was Trusc that said to all of Triumph we are not of this world — we are not of lesser things and creatures. We are something greater. We are something more. You are the last legion of Trusc. Never forget what you fight for! Never forget who you are!”
Though the last legion cheered more than ever, though Nege’s heart soared with the shared enthusiasm of the moment, Eternine turned his gaze away from his men and up to the walls, catching the Prophet’s eye for a single, eternal moment. The speech had not been for his men. It had been for everyone who heard of what happened that day. It had been, above all, for Nege to hear and tell.
And then the Teljuks reached the gate.