Chapter 40 #2
With that, Emere wondered. Did this one word absolve him of his culpability for the Great Fire, two years ago, that had robbed Rakel of her husband, along with hundreds of other lives?
Did it excuse him for the twenty years of dream-chasing?
Probably not, but he felt relieved in his answer.
Maybe this really had been his destiny all along, to say “No.”
Loran tilted her head, stood silent for a brief moment, then spoke. “Regardless, you must make a decision. What will you do with the hundred years of suffering and sorrow built up here?”
“Why must it be me and not Ludvik? If you needed a decision, he would’ve suited you better. He was more than willing.”
“Councillor Ludvik had made up his mind very early, and very easily. He never questioned his own convictions. He thought we urged him to destroy Arland. We merely showed him what he wanted. He was a man capable of only one answer. There is no value in such an answer. His only use was a cause for an effect, a stepping stone, a use which he has proven perfect for—as he brought you to this moment. The one who had been chosen from the start was you, Prince Emere, and only you. You were chosen by standing here, and you stand here because you are chosen.”
Loran held out her hand to Emere.
“For you are as we are. You wandered the world and took it all in, yet were unable to reconcile its contradictions. Not once have you been free from questioning. Never have you made an easy decision, nor have you been satiated in your wanderings. You have the same pain as ours. So give us your answer. It shall be our purpose, your first and final act as our king.”
Emere took a deep breath. The Tree Lords had taught him that one could not pick the moment of choice, but at that moment, the future depended on the choice one made. This was a moment that he couldn’t shirk. Destiny, it turned out, was a duty. Emere opened his mouth.
“I see that such things cannot simply be bottled up in you.”
The moment he said this, a weight he hadn’t even known existed was lifted from his heart.
The memory of wandering the world, burdened by his vague sadness, now made him smile.
The beach with sands of crystal, the moldy inn during the rainy season, and Rakel against the dusty winds of Mersia, only her bright eyes showing through her face wrap.
“Councillor! You must be careful of how you speak from this moment on.”
A man’s voice. Emere turned and saw Cain standing there. Loran’s head also whipped toward his direction.
“Sleeping King, your turn is past. Do not interfere.”
Cain ignored Loran and spoke directly to Emere. “You must not set off the Star of Mersia again, Councillor. We cannot let monsters decide human destiny.”
How odd that sounded in this moment. Human destiny. A most Imperial choice of words. The Circuit of Destiny was made of humans, and made by humans. Wasn’t it a fine enough thing that it would be used by humans?
“Cain, I believe I am different from you. You told me you killed the man who tried to cause the Star of Mersia in the Imperial heartland. But I am already dying, and you are trapped inside here. You can’t stop me.”
“So you will really destroy the Imperial Capital, and with it millions of people who live in and around it?” Cain bristled with hostility.
Emere shook his head.
“Didn’t you hear me saying no to that already? One city turning into ash will not bring down the Empire, nor will it bring peace, even if that city is the Imperial Capital.” Emere paused. “No, I want to set off the Star of Mersia all over the world.”
“What?” Cain’s eyes widened behind his spectacles.
“Ludvik wanted to destroy Arland to set an example, but that would mean Mersia’s destruction a hundred years ago only led them back to the same place.
Ludvik’s peace is one that eats countless lives every hundred years.
Such peace is worse than war. I’ve seen enough of the world to know that much is true.
The Empire has created the burden, but the whole world needs to carry it together. ”
“Have you lost your mind? I can’t listen to this anymore. I will—”
Cain vanished without a chance to finish. Loran’s voice was heard.
“Prince Emere. You don’t have much life left. You must make a decision now.”
She was nowhere to be seen. “What’s happened to Cain?”
“We’ve banished him to a corner of our mind, for now. Do not worry, Prince Emere. Now is the time for you to be king.”
Emere smiled. The Circuit of Destiny, when it had first taken Loran’s form in his dream, had told Emere to become king. It had told him to reach out to the star. That was what he was going to do.
“You must know what I want now.”
“We do.”
Ludvik had wanted to destroy Arland and control the world through fear.
But if the suffering and fury pent up in this place could be spread thinly throughout the world, the Empire’s rule would become precarious everywhere.
Provinces would then join forces to resist the Empire.
He had discovered this possibility—a glimmer of hope—when Loran and the Ebrians had come together to fight the Zero Legion.
Loran continued, “As you have decided, the future is clearer to us now. It will not be as quick and thorough as what happened to Mersia. The poison will take a million forms, each twisted figure filled with resentment and malice. Like earthquakes or hurricanes, they will come at unexpected times to unexpected places. The world will die slowly by a thousand pricks of our diluted pain, and suffering will be long. King Loran truly shall bring about the future Ludvik witnessed, as the spearhead of the world’s revenge upon itself. ”
Emere managed to smile through the pain of his battered body. “The world will not die. No matter how great your history of pain and sorrow, it can’t be infinite. It is caused by man, so there must be an end to it. And I believe in King Loran.”
Loran, who had fallen from the sky like a blue comet. The Ebrians, who had charged fearlessly into a legion fortress of the Empire. And Rakel.
“I believe in the world.”
Emere was seized by a constriction in his body, and he fell to the ground. He tried to take up his staff to stand again, but his hands refused to move. His vision darkened. And soon, he could hear nothing. His last thoughts were of hope and of faith. And of Rakel.