The Beginning After The End

Chapter 489: Nor a Gift

Chapter 489: Nor a Gift

“You have asked, and I will answer. The power that I wield is Fate itself.”

The words, thick with the resonance of the aether that imbued them, hung heavy in the air.

The full force of my aetheric intent pressed down with the weight of all my power, responsibilities, and fears, and with King’s Gambit burning bright and hot against my spine, my mind fractured into dozens of parallel branches in order to process every potential shred of information from the asuras’ responses.

Their eyes, all different colors, shone with the reflection of purple and gold light from the aether glowing through my skin and the crown hovering above my floating hair. Each asuran lord’s reaction carried a throughline of true surprise, but each also was branded with a particular emotion individual to themselves alone.

Straight across from me, Kezess revealed the least about his thoughts through his outward expression. His lips were slightly parted and his eyes dilated by a fraction. There was a stiffness in his shoulders, down his arms, to his left hand, which rested on top of the charwood table. This alone spoke to his surprise. It was the twitching of the small muscles of that hand and the darkening of his purple eyes that gave away his anger. It wasn’t a wrathful anger that was likely to burst the boundaries of his control, but a simmering bitterness that I registered distantly as being more problematic. Not because of any danger, but because I didn’t fully understand it.

To his left, Morwenna of Clan Mapellia, great clan of the hamadryads, was giving me only half her attention. Her lips were pressed tightly together, highlighting the subtle wood-grain pattern of her skin. She had pushed herself back from the table, and the muscles of her legs, hips, and back were tensed as if she were ready to spring to her feet if commanded. Every half a second, her eyes twitched to Kezess.

Beside Morwenna, the leader of the sylphs, Nephele of the Aerind clan, had sunk down into her chair. Her mouth was open in an almost perfect circle, and a snapping wind was blowing around her, making her hair and the cloud-like cloth of her clothes whip about. Her blue-gray eyes had gone lightning-white, and there was something hungry in them that I couldn’t quite parse.

Veruhn, just to my right, was no less surprised than the others, but within his surprise, there was something more. Under the influence of King’s Gambit, I didn’t feel any emotional response to what I saw reflected back at me in Veruhn’s reaction, but I recognized what I should have felt. Because, through the doddering old uncle act, beneath the feeble exterior he presented, there was a being much greater and older and, most of all, fiercer than he allowed anyone to see.

In that instant, Veruhn couldn’t hide himself. Some of the faded color returned to the ridges that ran along his head, and there was a purple flush to his cheeks. The wrinkles smoothed, and a grim, victorious smile flashed across his face. Even his King’s Force surged, the leviathan hidden beneath the wrinkled old man flailing to be set free.

“And beings of light descended, bringing with them magic unimagined. Bringing with them power too terrible to behold. And they called themselves deva, and they, in their power, were terrible and unimaginable. They marked the world with their power, and then they left, never to return.”

The softly spoken words came from Lord Rai of Clan Kothan, the basilisk who had replaced Agrona among the great clans. Sitting to Kezess’s right, he was pale as a ghost, and his hands, clasped before him on the large charwood table, trembled.

“Silence,” Kezess ordered without looking at the basilisk.

Rai’s words sent ripples through the room. Beside him, the phoenix lord, Novis of Clan Avignis, had been watching me with wary thoughtfulness, his brows creased as he fidgeted in his seat, but he stiffened as Rai spoke, glancing at the basilisk from the corner of his eye nervously as Kezess ordered silence.

On Rai’s other side, Ademir Thyestes crossed his arms and huffed. “We should all be embarrassed by the utterance of fables and fairy stories at this table.” But, with King’s Gambit active, I could see the truth. The hairs on Ademir’s neck stood on end, and the pantheon lord’s breathing was shallow and troubled. He shot a glance out one of the windows, and by the way his eyes focused, he seemed to be looking at something a long way off. Following his gaze, I could almost make out a village far, far in the distance, well beyond the range of sight, surrounded in green and blue grass.

Simultaneously to my examining the response of the asuras, I was attempting to dissect what Rai had said.

“And beings of light descended, bringing with them magic unimagined.” Beings of light? Could the magic be mana, or maybe aether?

“Bringing with them power too terrible to behold.” This is from the perspective of the asura, I have to assume. What kind of power could be too terrible even for the asura?

“And they called themselves deva, and they, in their power, were terrible and unimaginable.” I’d never heard the term deva before. The repetition of terrible and unimaginable really drivesthis message home, but this is also a kind of asuran storytelling I wasn’t expecting to here.

“They marked the world with their power, and then they left, never to return.”

This final passage, I didn’t know what to make of. I reached out for Sylvie or Regis to help, but both had been forced to pull their minds away from mine, unable to stand the effects of King’s Gambit.

Lord Radix of the Grandus clan stood. His eyes, which sparkled like the multicolored gemstones that studded his belt, studied me intently. His own surprise had quickly subsided, and unlike the dismay that the others had displayed at Rai’s utterance, Radix was intent, his eyes darting side to side in an indication that he was thinking rapidly as he considered something.

The titan took a step closer to me, stroking his beard. The mana was moving strangely about him, like it was acting as an extension of his senses. Like he could see and feel through the mana itself. Although Radix had a similar signature to Wren, I had never experienced this phenomenon with Wren before.

“That is enough, Arthur,” Kezess said firmly, his voice tight with carefully concealed frustration and, I thought, even a quiver of fear.

I held his gaze for several long seconds before releasing my godrunes and recalling the aether that was providing the glowing effect back into my core.

I was left feeling sluggish without the godrune active, and I had to steady myself to keep from wobbling.

‘You good?’ Regis asked, easing back into my thoughts.

It’s nothing. There is always some sense of…sobering up when I release King’s Gambit entirely, I answered through the brain fog.

‘Look sharp, Arthur,’ Sylvie thought, dragging my attention back to Radix.

The titan rested a hand on my shoulder, forcing me sharply back into the moment as my knees trembled from the unexpected weight of it. Aether flooded my body to strengthen my legs. My shoulder ached, and I realized that Radix was manipulating the density of his own body to somehow test mine.

“May I?” he asked, moving around behind me and reaching for the hem of my shirt, forcing Sylvie to step out of the way, her brows raised in surprise.

“Uh…” was all I managed before the titan had pulled up my shirt to regard the skin of my back. There, I knew he would see the false spellforms that the first djinn projection had provided, meant to disguise my godsrunes when I was among the Alacryans. What I didn’t expect was the tingling I felt within the godrunes themselves.

Through my connection with Regis, I felt Radix’s eyes trace the connection between us before landing on my companion. Regis’s hackles raised defensively, and I could feel Radix’s penetrating senses outlining the shape of the Destruction rune contained inside Regis’s physical form.

“I see,” the titan said, his voice an earthquake rumble, and then he returned to his seat.

I felt myself frowning, but before I could ask, Nephele beat me to it.

“Well, do share with the rest of us, Rad. What’s really going on here?” The sylph was floating above her seat again, her hands on her hips, her entire body rotated at a thirty degree angle.

Radix leaned back into his seat, his arms crossed, one hand stroking his beard thoughtfully. “I’ve seen enough to change my mind, and I call for a vote of the Great Eight on the subject of Arthur Leywin’s status as a new race of asura.”

This sudden proclamation seemed to catch the others off guard.

“Now wait just a moment, we need to—”

“—but what did you see? It would be beneficial for us all to—”

“—blessedly short meeting, and then we can—”

“This is not a decision to be rushed!”

This last was accompanied by a heavy fist slamming down on the charwood table, making it jump and cutting off the other voices as they spoke over each other. The others bristled, even the carefree Nephele, as Ademir glared around at his fellow lords and ladies. His King’s Force was like the edge of a blade pressed against my throat.

“Many of us at this table measure our lives in millennia,” he continued, more controlled. “In the centuries I have sat across this table from you, I have never experienced such a sudden urge for immediate resolution.” His attention shifted to Rai. “The decision to name Clan Kothan to the Great Eight to replace the Vritra clan took us fifty years, and even that was a short time in comparison to our deliberation on what to do about Agrona himself.

“Now, faced with a question that, depending on our answer, could very well redefine the nature of our world for the next ten thousand years, we are supposed to vote based on a bare few minutes in the presence of this boy?” Ademir’s gaze fell to his fist still pressed against the tabletop. “If you are set on forcing this vote, Radix, then let me be the first to refuse. The pantheons will not recognize Arthur Leywin or his clan as members of the asuran race.”

Anger flushed hot through me. He wasn’t just voting against me but stating plainly that he refused to accept the results of any vote at all. Regis, standing at my side with the flames of his mane snapping around him, reinforced my emotions, but Sylvie attempted to temper us both. ‘Don’t forget that the pantheons are a warrior race. They meet challenges head on. And as far as he knows, you are responsible for the deaths of both Taci and Aldir.’

‘It may be that you’re not the real source of his anger,’ Regis added begrudgingly, surprising me.

Realizing I was letting myself get frustrated, I channeled aether into King’s Gambit. Only a little, just enough to expand my thoughts out to a few simultaneous threads, which had the added benefit of dampening any emotional reaction I had to the proceedings.

“Those are dangerous words, Lord Thyestes,” Morwenna said, her eyes narrowing. A slight flush crept up her neck, again emphasizing the subtle patterns in her skin. “Express your opinion as you wish, but remember that we have all sworn to uphold the will of the Great Eight, even when we disagree with its decisions.”

Rai cleared his throat. Holding direct eye contact with me, he said, “My mind has not changed. I vote that Arthur be named first of his race, head of his clan, and a member of this council.”

“Sure, me too,” Nephele said, looking very seriously up the ceiling, having rotated half around so she was nearly upside down. “Let’s see what fate has in store for him?” She chuckled suddenly and flew down to nudge Morwenna. “Fate? See what I did there?” She giggled happily to herself, apparently oblivious to Morwenna’s icy look in response.

“I’ve seen enough,” Radix said in answer to the vote he himself called for. “Perhaps, in the most traditional sense of the word, Arthur is not an asura. But whatever transition he has undergone has brought him closer to us than the lessers he was born to.” Speaking directly to me, he continued, “I hope, Arthur, that you’ll work alongside the Grandus clan in more fully exploring these changes in the future. But for now, I agree that you should stand among us.”

I nodded, not wanting to promise anything yet. Most of my mind was still on Ademir’s words as I considered the potential ramifications and fallout if he followed through on his threat to refuse the will of the Great Eight. I couldn’t bring myself to believe that his hostility hadn’t been accounted for by either Kezess or Veruhn, which meant that one or the other was likely working directly against him.

Ademir shook his head as he stared around the table. “Novis? Morwenna? Surely you won’t fall victim to the wishful thinking of the others. You must agree with Lord Indrath and me.”

Morwenna looked up at Kezess, whose floating throne made him slightly taller than any of the others.

Kezzess nodded. His face was so carefully placid that it seemed almost smug in the absence of expressed emotion.

“I am in agreement with the others,” Novis said simply, his demeanor reserved.

Morwenna’s head cocked slightly, and she gave Ademir a hard look as she said, “I bow to the will and wisdom of the Great Eight. I find myself convinced to, at the very least, give Clan Leywin their place at the table. We shall see what happens beyond that.”

Ademir scoffed. Almost in desperation, he turned to Veruhn, but the old leviathan smiled sadly.

“I’m sorry, old friend. You know well where I stand on the issue.”

Ademir’s jaw clenched and his expression turned stony. Slowly, defeated, he looked at Kezess as if he already knew what the dragon was going to say.

Kezess stood, carefully tossing his wheat-blond hair. There was a gleam in his lavender eyes as he tugged on the gold-embroidered cuffs of his fine shirt.

Sylvie shuffled her feet. ‘Why does this feel staged?’

“Friends. Leaders of your respective clans and people. Members of the Great Eight. I respect your opinions and thank you for sharing them.” His gaze lingered longest on Ademir, and despite calling him a friend, there was no friendship in the look they shared. “This body is divided, but the opinion of its majority is clear. While I’ll admit I have my reservations, I am nonetheless in agreement. Arthur Leywin has transcended his nature as a human. Despite some draconic aspect, he is not a dragon, making him something entirely new.”

There was a cadence to his speech that reminded me of watching a play, just as Sylvie had suggested.

“Arthur Leywin is henceforth named an asura, his lineage that of an entirely new race. His clan, the Leywins, will transcend the boundaries between human and asura, even if they themselves do not share his qualities. As leader of his clan, the only clan of his race, he is also immediately offered a place among us here, a member of the Great Eight.”

“It’ll need a new name,” Nephele said in a stage whisper to Morwenna.

Ademir stood and glared at Kezess. The clash of their opposing King’s Force seemed likely to rip the tower down around us, but it lasted only a moment. Without another word, Ademir spun on his heel, crossed to the nearest balcony door, jerked it open, and flew quickly out of sight.

Even Kezess, always so carefully controlled, could not hide a half-formed smirk before he returned his attention to the rest of the group. A chair appeared behind me, and the rest shifted slightly to accommodate it. Those sitting in them hardly seemed to notice.

“Speaking of names, Arthur, you will have to name yourself,” Kezess said, forcing a tight smile to more fully hide his smirk. “Have you given any thought to such a thing?”

I opened my mouth but didn’t speak, realizing that I had completely failed to consider what my race might be called. Despite the asuras’ decision, I wasn’t sure if I’d ever think of myself as anything other than human.

“I have a suggestion,” Veruhn said. He paused to cough into his hand before giving the others an apologetic smile. “Long ago, it was theorized that beings of power might one day coalesce out of the barrier between worlds itself, formed of that power and carrying the spark of it as their consciousness.” He paused, taking a few breaths before continuing to speak. “Their appearance never manifested, but the name we gave their myth still echoes down through the ages today.”

“The archons,” Radix said, steepling his fingers in front of him and breathing through the shape it made. There was a flare of mana, but I couldn’t tell what he’d done.

Kezess eyed me curiously for several seconds. “Arthur Leywin, head of his clan, archon of the Great Eight. Is this acceptable to you?”

‘I like it,’ Regis thought immediately. ‘It’s very…august, you know. Regal. One might even say majestic.’

Doing my best to ignore him, I addressed Kezess. “I accept your offer to be recognized as a member of the asuran race, and the name of archon. Thank you.” To Veruhn I added, “I appreciate everything this council has said.”

“Very well. Arthur Leywin, lord of the archon race. Welcome to the Great Eight. Now, I’m afraid I have other business to attend to,” Kezess said abruptly. “I encourage each of you to carefully consider what today’s decision means for your people.”

Then, just like that, he was gone. None of the others seemed surprised.

Rai and Novis turned to each other and began speaking in low voices. Morwenna, Radix, and Veruhn each stood, while Nephele blew over to me on a gust of wind that tossed my hair and made the fabric of my shirt flutter.

“Oh, but thank the summer grass and winter winds for a short meeting,” she said, her tone softening as she released some of the forced cheer she’d held onto throughout the meeting. “It is tedious being indoors, don’t you think? These meetings would be a lot more productive under the open sky or the boughs of trees.” She grew wistful and stared out the window. “I think I’ll go, for a while. I’ve had enough of great events and the insides of buildings for one day.”

Nephele’s body became incorporeal and mostly invisible, little more than the shape of her drawn in white lines of wind. She grinned, her eyes pressed shut, and she flew out through an open window, did several twirling summersaults, then vanished against the blue sky and floor of white-gray clouds.

‘I’ve learned of the sylphs, of course, but I expected their queen to be more…refined,’ Sylvie thought as she watched Nephele go.

‘I don’t trust her,’ Regis answered. ‘To be fair, I don’t trust any of them, but she seems a little…flighty.’ He gave a barking laugh at his own joke.

I held back my groan, focusing instead on Radix, who was reaching for my hand. “Thank you for your vote of confidence,” I said as I took it.

“Confidence?” His beard twitched with apparent amusement. “No, Lord Leywin, do not thank us for what we’ve done. It isn’t a gift, nor does it show confidence. Each of my fellow lords and ladies will have their own reasons, but mine I would call a fledgeling understanding.” His gemstone eyes sparkled. “Until next we meet, then.” His hand released mine, and the titan descended the stairs without a glance back.

Morwenna gave me the same respectful bow the others had shared when first arriving at the meeting chamber. “Do not celebrate this as a victory. It is a responsibility of the highest honor to represent your people among the Great Eight. Our choices shape worlds, Lord Leywin.” Moving as stiff and straight as a tree with legs, the hamadryad followed Radix down the stairs.

“That was nicely done, Arthur,” Veruhn said, standing straight and unbent now that the proceedings were over. “A good show with the godrunes. Even caught me off guard, if I’m being honest.”

I glanced at the phoenix and basilisk and raised my brows slightly.

Veruh waved away any concerns I had about speaking in front of the others. “Lords Avignis and Kothan are as interested to see what you might accomplish with your new station as I am, Arthur. It may have seemed like a sudden decision today, but we have spoken at length about this possibility.”

Rai and Novis stood as Veruhn spoke, and they both nodded their agreement. “Before I go, I’d like to extend an invitation to visit my family within my home, Featherwalk Aerie. It is tradition for a newly named representative of the Great Eight, generally, to travel Epheotus and present themselves to the other lords. There will be an official ceremony later, of course.” Novis gave me a pained smile. “I think it took—what?—half a decade to plan the ceremony for my own naming, even after Clan Avignis was promoted to the Great Eight.”

“Clan Kothan extends the same invitation, of course. At your leisure,” Rai added. Unlike Novis, he had a pinched expression and was clearly worrying over something, but he didn’t speak his fears aloud. “The way things move here may seem very slow to someone used to moving at the speed of lessers, but I’m certain you’ll adjust to a somewhat…longer-lived pace.”

“We’d be honored to meet your clans,” Sylvie said. “For the moment, though, our own clan needs to be informed of today’s events.”

Novis and Rai exchanged a look at the words, “our own clan,” but neither mentioned it. Instead, they wished us farewell for the moment and left out different balcony doors.

“Might I escort you back to Everburn, Arthur?” Veruhn said, holding open the door Novis had just left from.

“Of course. Thank you, Veruhn.”

As we took flight, I yearned to fully activate King’s Gambit to better dissect what had been said during the meeting. I was afraid, however, to give Veruhn, or anyone else who might be watching, the wrong impression. Instead, I let my body go on autopilot and turned all the branches of my thoughts to the meeting, aware only of the occasional words shared between Veruhn and Sylvie as we flew.

Of some things I was certain, but the meeting had left more questions than it had provided answers. I was confident that Kezess had manipulated things in order to put Ademir on the outside, but why? Was I just a pawn in some larger game I didn’t understand? And were the other lords playing the same game, or their own?

Am I really being placed on even footing with these ancient beings? Or do they see me as a pet?

I could hazard several guesses on why Kezess might really have allowed my ascension. Even if he feigned otherwise, I couldn’t discount the fact that I’d just become subservient to him in a way I hadn’t been before. And yet, I also had a certain equality with him, now recognized officially by the rest of the Great Eight.

‘But how independent are they each, really?’ Regis thought from where he hovered near my core.

That was a good question. Despite their claim that the Great Eight was a ruling council, it had seemed that everything still hinged on Kezess’s will. What would have happened if everyone else had been in agreement, but he had still declined?

I became distantly aware that someone was speaking to me. “I’m sorry, what?”

Veruhn gave me an inscrutable look. “Forgive me, Arthur. Clearly you were deep in thought, which I understand entirely. I do not wish to intrude on your first meeting with your newly named clan, and so I will leave you here.”

Glancing around, I realized that we were already on the outskirts of the city.

“Before I go, however, I wished to extend the same offer as Lords Kothan and Avignis. Please, visit me in my home. It is on the very coast of the great Boundary Sea. I think you will find it worth the journey. There is much yet for us to discuss, I think.”

“I will, of course,” I answered, genuinely interested in the leviathan’s home. “But first, I’m afraid, I need to settle something. My friend, Tessia, has waited patiently for me here, but it is time for her to return home.”

Cheerfully stating his understanding, Veruhn dismissed himself. With a wave, he disappeared into a wave of rolling, frothy sea water.

We completed our journey in the air, flying over the rooftops of Everburn. As we approached the residence where my family had been staying, I landed on the sloped roof of a house not far down the street, careful not to dislodge the tiles, and looked down on Ellie, Mom, and Tessia. They were sitting at the table in the small front yard and chatting animatedly with a couple of young dragons who appeared to have stopped on their way past, their arms laden with cloth bags, likely from the market.

Everything was going to change now. My life would never be the same, and neither would theirs. The risk suddenly seemed borderline foolhardy, the danger creeping in from every direction. I was a clan of five, and two of them were humans.

Sylvie and Regis remained silent, not intruding on my introspection but buttressing me against the weight of my thoughts.

We sat like that for a long time, until Mom, Tess, and Ellie all stood and went back inside. I sighed and prepared to inform my family that they’d been promoted to deities.