Chapter 16
C HAPTER 16
RION
T HE A URORA —287 Y EARS A GO
“ W ould you like to feel him kicking, Your Majesty?”
Rion turned away from the window to find the midwife wiping her forehead with the back of her hand. Meora had started bleeding earlier that morning and called for Lisette to ensure everything was right with the child.
“Good news, it was only a little scare,” Lisette added. “Sometimes it happens as we near the due date, but the baby is fine. You have a strong one growing here.” She wiped her hands on a cloth and beamed down at Meora, who lay on the bed, sweat coating her face, her hair a nest of dark tangles.
She looked at him expectantly, running a hand over her bare, swollen belly as if hoping a sliver of affection would manifest for the child who would soon join their lives.
With his hands behind his back, he approached and stared down at her.
Nadir.
The Torch had confirmed it was a boy.
Meora had chosen the name to represent its connection to the celestial sphere.
But Rion saw it the other way.
This child was his downfall. The lowest point of his fortunes.
Perhaps it wasn’t right to blame him. And Rion didn’t blame him so much as he did the boy’s mother.
He’d wondered, too, when all was said and done if he might summon up something close to affection for the child. Part of him had expected it after the bonding when there would be no turning back, but it had yet to manifest. When he closed his eyes and imagined him, this child born of his skin, all he saw was everything he’d lost.
Rachel had made good on her promise to depart from The Aurora, and he had no idea where she’d gone. It had been six months without her, and it was eating away at the edges of his heart.
Perhaps she’d return to see him in time, but something told him that would never come to pass. He’d lost the love of his life over a petty grudge and one night of random passion. He’d lost his heart for one mistake.
“No, thank you,” Rion said, addressing Lisette’s question before turning towards his bonded partner and giving her a curt bow. “I have matters to attend. ”
“We’ll need to send out invites for the blessing,” Meora said. “Since the birth will be soon.”
Rion resisted the scowl that curved on his lips. They’d have to smile and pretend to be a happy family as the kingdom’s citizens came to pay their respects to the next Primary and future king.
Outwardly, he wouldn’t let his disdain show. He’d keep up appearances, at least until his father finally expired. Garnet was weaker than ever, the Withering ravaging what was left of his body. Still, the king clung on, and Rion was ready to tear his hair out.
“Excuse me,” Rion said, and then he swept past the midwife and out of the room, heading for his wing in the Keep.
Recently, he’d made a discovery occupying much of his attention, and he could hardly wait to return to this object of his current obsession. One night he’d had a dream. He’d been exploring the vaults below the Keep and had come upon a chest. He couldn’t tell what it was in the dream, but the moment he’d awoken, he’d descended into the bowels to explore.
It had been filled with journals. At first, he’d dismissed them as pointless history, but after another dream leading him to the same spot, he once again found himself down in the vault late one night, perusing the pages by the light of a glowing yellow orb suspended in the air.
They belonged to King Herric—the last Aurora King of the First Age. It was a miracle these relics had survived for so many years, but the airtight seal on the chest had preserved the pages, though they were extremely delicate.
He’d had the entire chest brought up to his study, where he’d been poring over them every night. The first few journals contained little but mundane accountings of ruling and the same problems that plagued kings even millennia ago. But eventually, his interest snagged on a passage about when something changed in The Aurora.
The sky is dark again tonight. By my count, it’s been nearly three weeks since the northern lights last appeared. Even worse, reports from the mines grow increasingly alarming. Tomorrow, I will journey with my advisors into the tunnels, though I fear what we will find. Without our jewels, The Aurora is lost.
Rion felt the king’s despair and understood it. He couldn’t imagine what force would cause the jewels to disappear and hoped he’d never live to see it. Without its jewels, The Aurora would have nothing to trade, and he’d lose his position of power. While that passage had been interesting enough, it was everything that came later that truly held his attention.
Herric had been present at the beginning of the Second Age. And while the old stories held that an Artefact had been bestowed upon each ruler then, they left out some key details.
Like the existence of gods named the Empyrium and the fact that Herric had volunteered for Zerra’s role and been turned down. But the history books credited King Elias as the first king of the Second Age, so what had happened to Herric during those early years?
Tonight, Rion entered his study and poured himself a drink before he settled on one of the soft velvet divans facing the window. The lights danced across the sky in ribbons of red and blue and green. The sight always moved him when so little else did.
Rion grabbed the next journal from the chest, flipping to the front. Herric was certainly verbose, and while normally Rion would roll his eyes at this level of self-indulgence, he found himself appreciating just how much this ancient king had revealed.
Recently, he’d finished a journal about Herric’s trips to the Evanescence, where he’d whored himself out for information while searching for Zerra’s weaknesses. He’d had every intention of finding a way to replace her.
Rion scanned the pages, searching for something interesting, skimming through Herric’s self-loathing over using his body to achieve his ends. Rion shook his head at the dramatics. He would never hesitate to do the same if it meant he could become a god. What was sex anyway? Only one person in his existence had made it mean anything.
When the current volume produced nothing, he picked up another, landing on a passage about a dark substance Herric had discovered in the mines that could channel magic.
This was something new.
Rion sat up and leaned forward as he devoured every word.
It’s taken years to dig deep enough, but we’ve finally found it—virulence. I don’t know why I didn’t remember it earlier, but the events with the Empyrium have weighed heavily on my mind. I felt the magic and power in that stone before I was taken to the Evanescence. It sparkled like it was alive. While I attempt to pick apart Zerra’s weaknesses, perhaps there are other ways to take back the power I lost.
This magic I’ve been granted is a gift, but it is difficult to contain, and it does little to raise me above others. That little queen in Heart is said to be the strongest, and I cannot allow her the upper hand. Perhaps this material is the key. When infused with my magic, the stone alters its state, changing its properties and granting me abilities beyond my nature. Next time I visit Zerra, I intend to test for its other capabilities.
Rion continued reading, discovering that not only did virulence channel magic, but doing so would affect Zerra in adverse ways. He read about Herric’s months of meticulous testing, weighing the pros, cons, and outcomes of channeling his magic through the stone in her presence. He’d read about witches who lived deep in the forests of The Woodlands who used stone or wooden carvings of someone’s likeness to set curses upon them and had adopted the principle to create a set of objects intended to harm the goddess.
Rion then went on to read about the arks Herric had created in her image. He’d gifted one to each ruler in Ouranos, promising it would help control their magic. Through his testing, Herric had determined it would take vast quantities of magic used over time to bring Zerra down. While the rulers believed Herric had handed them a lifeline, they were slowly killing their goddess without realizing it.
Rion couldn’t believe what he was reading. He’d never heard of these arks. Did his father know about them? Was this information imparted only to the ascended?
But it then occurred to him that if Herric had gifted them to the other rulers, perhaps he had only made six. Rion looked around the room at the walls of his study and the glittering black stone walls of the Keep.
He stood up and placed his hand against the surface, attempting to feel something buried in the layers of stone. This Keep had been standing here throughout most of the Second Age. Again, King Elias was credited with its construction, but had Herric surrounded them with virulence, and no one had ever realized it? Rion sent out a tendril of magic, anticipation churning in his gut. It touched the stone, but nothing happened.
He frowned. Perhaps this wasn’t virulence after all and he was wrong about how it appeared.
No matter the case, now he had to know more.
Was there more to be found under the mountain? Could he use it to conquer Ouranos? To finally take his crown?
Like the king who’d once ruled this kingdom thousands of years ago—it was time to start digging.