“You . . . saved me?” he asked.
“You give us far too much credit, milord. We merely loaded you onto our cart and brought you here. Pray forgive us such a crude means of transporting you.”
The woman’s shoulders slumped. Her cheeks, now back to their former healthy hue, flushed with embarrassment. Ardyn remembered their pallor after he’d removed the scourge. It had concerned him at the time, and he was glad to see her looking so well now. Back then, pale as she was, her parents’ eyes still had welled up with tears, overflowing with joy when they saw their daughter’s mind restored. That alone had been reward enough. Drawing in the Starscourge was a small price to pay in exchange for a chance to bring such happiness to others.
“I owe you a great debt for your kindness.”
“Not at all, milord,” she said with a smile. She’d taught him anew what it meant to help those who suffered. There was no time to laze about in bed. He had to move on. But when Ardyn tried to lift himself up, the world began to spin.
“Lord Caelum! Please, you mustn’t! You have yet to regain your strength!”
“There’s no time to wait,” he said. “So many others are out there, still in anguish . . . ”
“And in such a state, I’m afraid you’ll be of no use to them.”
“Nevertheless, I must go. I must help the people.”
The sound of armored boots treading the earth came from outside. The young woman’s parents burst through the door. Ardyn needed only to see the looks on their faces to know whose men were approaching.
“Hurry, milord!” the mother implored. “You must flee!”
“Troops from the castle. They’re almost upon us!”
Somnus’s men yet again. Ardyn managed to steady himself and rise to his feet. He cared not about preserving his own life, except that his death meant an end to the people’s only means of deliverance. He recalled the column of black smoke, and his heart grew heavy once more. He readied himself to face the troops, but the young woman slipped past his side and rushed outside first.
“What business have you here?” she demanded. “Lord Caelum is ill!”
She stood braced in the doorway, arms flung wide, showing no trace of fear despite the soldiers now surrounding the building. Her small frame exuded uncanny courage. No one gets past, she seemed to say. Not a step closer to Lord Caelum than where I stand.
Ardyn placed a hand on her shoulder and drew her back inside. She reminded him of Aera, though physically they did not look the least bit alike. It was the girl’s spirit, so like Aera’s on that day they’d vowed together to deliver the people from the scourge. When he’d seen that resolve in Aera, he’d felt that as long as she were with him, he’d be able to continue, no matter how difficult the journey grew.
“Lord Caelum?” the young woman asked.
“Please, that’s enough. You’ve done so much for me already.”
He would not burden this household any further. He could not bear the thought of their happiness being stripped away again so soon after he’d managed to restore it. They would not suffer on his behalf, even if that choice meant suffering of his own.
“But, milord!”
“I will not forget your kindness to me,” he said, and walked through the doorway, each step unsteady.
Outside, he caught sight of a banner emblazoned with that all-too-familiar crest. Beneath it stood men in armor bearing the same. He could have never imagined the day would come when the symbol of his own house would signify the enemy.
What order had Somnus issued? Kill on sight? Or perhaps he wanted his brother taken alive, to be brought captive back to the castle?
The men did neither.
“Lord Ardyn Lucis Caelum, son of House Caelum!”
Ardyn could not believe what he was seeing. These were the same men who had chased him through the dark of the woods one night prior. Now they knelt before him.
“Last night, the word of the gods was heard. Ardyn Lucis Caelum, you have been chosen to serve as king!”
A cheer rose up around them. Ardyn realized that the villagers had been watching the exchange from afar.
The members of House Caelum and their retinues were gathered in the Crystal’s sanctuary. All were present, from Somnus and Aera down to the lowest-ranked soldier, all in full ceremonial garb.
“Lord Ardyn Lucis Caelum, son of House Caelum!”
The ranks lifted their swords in unison. The crowd opened a path for Ardyn as he approached the Crystal’s altar.
Somnus, kneeling at the forefront, abruptly stood.
“That will be enough. The charade stops here.”
Somnus wore a look Ardyn had never seen before―one he would not have believed possible of his stubbornly fair-minded younger brother.
“I’m ashamed to call you my kin,” Somnus began. “Is there no low to which you will not stoop? You flee and cower in the shadows, then stride back here as if you were a hero. Do you truly covet the throne so desperately?”
Ardyn was stunned. It was his brother who had sent the men and their message. The same men who had, not a day earlier, been out to take Ardyn’s life. Who was Somnus to speak like this?
“I was merely on a journey to heal the people,” Ardyn said. “I have no thirst for power. I do not seek control over the land.” Then he added, “Unlike you, ‘dear brother.’”
Ardyn had not once desired to sit the throne. Such power was only a means to an end. If the title of king bestowed the authority to reach more of the people and end their suffering, if it meant that no one could interfere with his calling, he would take it. That was all. That was why, when told he’d been chosen, he’d returned home.
“Ever does that mouth of yours twist the truth in your favor,” Somnus spat. A flash of blue, and he stood with sword in hand.
Ardyn found himself confronted by the gift of blades, as bestowed by the gods upon House Caelum. Weapons summoned at will, now brandished by brother against brother. Ardyn knew he could stay Somnus if he must; the power was split evenly between them.
“It was me, Brother. I was chosen by the gods!” Somnus raised his sword high and brought it crashing down.
Ardyn prepared to catch the blade with his own, when another voice rang out.
“Stop!”
Aera leapt before him.
“Aera!” he shouted.
Her body caught the flash of steel, and she fell. And to Ardyn’s eyes, the whole world was bathed in red.
Cold. Dark. Pain. They were everything. There was nothing else.
He was in a place deep underground, one never to be graced with the sun’s rays. Thick chains held him fast a dozen times over, allowing him not even the tiniest movement. And beyond the chains, beyond the walls of his stone cell, the sea extended in every direction. There was no escape from this place.
Angelgard. An island long revered by man. A place where the gods used to gather. The tides and winds pulled strong here, as if they were incorporeal guards stationed to keep mortals away. Days fit for a ship’s landing came but a few times a year, he’d heard. Even if he managed to break the chains and force his way free of the stone, he’d have no means to return to the mainland.
Why?
For some time after his imprisonment, it was the only question that ran through his mind.
Why am I here? Why am I still alive?
He saw the weapons―spear and sword―still lodged in his flank. As they’d slipped in, red blood gushed out, as it would with any mortal man. But the blood stopped far too quickly, and the wounds closed up. Around the steel still lodged in his body.
“He’s become the monster I knew he would be . . . ”
Somnus’s final jeer echoed in his mind.
No. The daemons were not monsters. They were simply victims afflicted with disease. That they returned to normal when the scourge was lifted from them was proof enough.
To save them, he’d simply had to remove the scourge residing within them. But what of himself? What of the scourge residing in the man who healed others? Filled with more Starscourge for every soul he saved. What would happen to him?
Ardyn had felt in some vague way that he’d not be able to contain the scourge within him forever. That if he continued to absorb the darkness from others, he’d eventually lose his mind and lash out at those around him. He, too, would one day be a daemon.
“Your devotion shall not go unnoticed. The gods will doubtless be watching over you.”
Yes, Aera. The will of the gods must not be questioned. They work in mysterious ways―ways which our feeble minds could never fathom. So, too, did I believe.
“Stop!” she had screamed, before the blade ended her life.
Aera, no! Oh, how foolish you were. Why did you lay down your life to protect me? Me, the monster who can never be struck down.
Worse still for her to die at the hands of a coward. A man able to raise his sword without a trace of guilt against an opponent unarmed and unaware. How could such a man be allowed to sit the throne?
Thus was sown the first seed of doubt about the gods and their ways. When Ardyn held Aera as she slipped from the world, as he climbed the altar stairs and reached a hand to the Crystal, he’d felt so certain. A man who slaughtered innocent lives was fit not for ascension to the throne but to be cast down by bolts of judgment.