Chapter 7 Forgiveness #2
“I… yes, well… But Finley is human! Until the Leviathan burst through to Earth half a decade ago, he didn’t even know magic was real! Now, he’s in the Under Dark and–”
“And?” Vex chuckled. “I think once you know Finley better you’ll find that regardless of when he had proof of magic existing, he has always been fascinated by it.
He looked to science, because that was closest to the magic he had read about, dreamed about, but now…
” Vex’s expression went almost dreamy as if he were seeing something other than the garden before them.
“But now he will finally wield that which has haunted him all his life.”
Silence fell again between them. Not an awkward silence, but one that was filled with too many possibilities.
Rhalyf found he had so many things he wanted to ask.
So many things perhaps he should have asked his uncle long ago.
He should be asking about where Aquilan and the others were, but he would find them himself in the end.
If Vex wasn’t killing him, why would he attack them?
Declan being his son… Aquilan being the Sun King… Darcassan being an idiot… Oh, so many reasons!
But if Vex hadn’t killed Finley, but actually sent him on a quest for magic, would he kill his best friend? Was Vex really here for his son? Maybe he loved his son… That was insane! But… could it be true?
Yet, as Finley definitely wouldn’t have been surprised by, instead of asking about anyone else, Rhalyf asked about himself.
“So you knew I had nothing to do with the coup against you then? If you’ve been watching over me so carefully?” Rhalyf stared hard.
Vex’s smile was sad. “I knew you didn’t. But you did not come to my aid either.”
Rhalyf’s mouth popped open. That was not what he had expected Vex to say. “But you don’t need me! You don’t need anyone!”
“I believe Aquilan would say that isn’t true.
That everyone needs someone,” Vex chuckled indulgently.
He had an absurdly fond expression on his face, which really anyone with any sense would have when they thought of the Sun King, but Rhalyf had never thought to see such a look on the Night King’s face.
“Yes, but Aquilan doesn’t know you! And he believes that there is goodness in everyone–even Vesslan–and… Did you… Did you need me?” Rhalyf stopped himself as the yawning realization of what Vex was saying came over him.
Vex had known he had nothing to do with the coup.
Vex had hoped Rhalyf would come to his side to defend him.
Instead, Rhalyf had simply run away to save his own hide…
He would never regret meeting Aquilan and becoming the Sun King’s best friend. He had loved every second of that, but had he abandoned his uncle?
Again?
“Need is such an interesting word, don’t you think?” Vex gave him a slow-blink. Rather cat-like. Dangerously cat-like. Just before they swiped someone with a razor-sharp claw.
“You don’t need me, but would you have liked for me to come to you?” Rhalyf clarified.
“Liked?” Vex tilted his head to the side. “Liked? Hmmm, would I have liked my nephew to have come to me to warn me of danger and stand by my side against my enemies?”
“Y-yes,” Rhalyf’s voice caught.
Put like that it made his actions seem cowardly and traitorous, but for an entirely different reason than the one that had him running in the first place. Would this be the reason Vex gave for killing him? Suddenly, killing him seemed back on the table. And he would almost agree with Vex about it!
Vex bobbed his head as he crossed his arms at the wrists behind his back. “Yes, I think I would have.”
Rhalyf’s heart fell. Again, he had not gone to his uncle.
Again he had turned away. Again, he had failed to take a chance on Vex.
His chest felt very tight. He tried to draw in a full breath, but could not.
Was Vex suffocating him? He leaned heavily on the railing.
No, he was having a panic attack. He hadn’t had one of those since…
Since in the Pedway. Gods, I’m losing my mind!
“But,” Vex said, echoing his own wailing “but” that had just appeared in his head, “we both know that I’ve not earned such loyalty or trust, have I?”
Rhalyf’s mouth opened. He closed it. He opened it again. He needed to answer this carefully. And honestly. Without offending Vex. Or blaming his uncle for what he had believed. Yet at the same time there was a very large “but” in there.
“I do not know you, Uncle. Only your reputation and that, of course, is perhaps not the face you would have shown to… to family,” Rhalyf answered.
“But what I thought I knew was that you wouldn’t care if I was f-family, let alone innocent or guilty.
You would simply destroy anyone and everyone who was connected to a coup against you without mercy or… or a moment’s thought.”
That about summed it up.
He had never had a relationship with Vex. He would have said that his mother had seen to that. But hadn’t Vex also? Vex could have sought him out. Vex could have pursued him. But he had not.
Vex was tapping his chin, nodding in agreement with all that Rhalyf had said.
But did that mean he found it understandable?
Forgivable? Or would he do–as Rhalyf’s mother had so often done–turn on a dime and lash out at him?
He held himself very still. Loose, but still.
It allowed him to react to whatever happened.
But would it matter? His uncle’s power dwarfed his own. He would be destroyed in an instant.
“You are not wrong,” Vex finally said.
He agrees with me!
But Rhalyf continued to hold himself still. Waiting for the ax to fall. Waiting for his mother’s temper to erupt in his uncle.
“And, perhaps–under other circumstances–you would have been correct,” Vex continued.
Rhalyf blinked. “But not this time?”
Vex slowly turned towards him so that they were staring directly into one another’s eyes. There was nothing romantic about this. No seduction. It was like being sucked into the fires of the Under Dark where Rhalyf found himself dangling above the roaring flames that would consume his very soul.
“Ashryn would have never sought allies among my own kin. She planned to kill all of you as well,” Vex finally said.
“Ashryn… Lady Ashryn Zinsadoral?!” Rhalyf stared. “So it was her…”
A tight nod and an even tighter smile. As thin and bitter as a lemon peel. “She would have known my sister–your mother–would have been the last person who would support her.”
“But why…” He bit back the words that had nearly come out.
Vex chuckled. “You know her lust for power well, of course! So why wouldn’t she take a chance to ally herself with our cousin and attempt to oust me once and for all?
Ashryn, after all, is… was, by far, the most powerful person to go after me in an age.
She had many followers. She was almost beloved by the populace. ”
And she had access to you. Personal, private, intimate access that few do. She would have been the perfect person to attack you. But she only had that because she loved you, Uncle, Rhalyf thought to himself.
“But the reason that dearest Ashryn went against me made it impossible for her to ever ally herself with your mother, with any of our family actually.” Vex’s eyes burned with a hot and bitter fire.
“Declan,” Rhalyf whispered the name almost against his will.
“My Rahven…. Our Rahven, I suppose,” Vex murmured.
“So you didn’t bring Declan to Earth to protect him–”
“Oh, no, she brought him here! And…” Vex stopped whatever he was going to say. He was smiling grimly, angrily, with grief and rage all mixed into one. His lips pulled back from his teeth that looked sharp and menacing.
Gods, he’s here to kill his son. That must be–
“She believed I would not let her keep the child. But she… wanted him.” Vex appeared confused by this. “So she acted in secret. She’s never been able to lie to me before but she managed it for a long time until… Well, when I found out about him, she took her shot.”
“And missed.”
“And missed.” Vex nodded. “Then she fled here with Rahven, Vulre and a small group.”
Rhalyf blinked. He and Aquilan had killed Vulre. Good gods, had Vulre been coming to Aquilan for help against Vex? Maybe to keep Declan safe?
And we killed them. Aquilan will never forgive himself for that. Then he realized something, Ashryn was not among that group. And Vex keeps speaking of her in the past tense. So she’s dead… But he didn’t kill her.
“I see. So you have come to ah–hello!” Rhalyf gasped the last when his uncle suddenly had a hold on his chin.
“Rhalyf,” Vex purred, “I forgive you for your past transgressions against me. They were made out of an error in your understanding.”
“I… I am so glad about–”
“But now that you know me so much better–or are getting to–I would ask something of you,” Vex continued to silkily speak.
“W-what would that be?” Rhalyf’s throat was tight. He could barely speak around the terror that gripped him.
“To continue being by Aquilan’s side,” Vex said with a flash of those very white, very sharp teeth, “as his best friend. As his confidant. As the person he turns to when he’s worried. As… Lord Rhalyf Neres. Just like you have been. All this time.”
Not as a Vex. Not as a Kindreth. But as a pretend Aravae. As a spy. For the Night King. Rhalyf swallowed as he felt that hold on his chin tighten. And what is also unsaid is if I do not do this… he will not forgive me. He will destroy me. And all I care for.
“Rhalyf! There you are!” Finley’s voice had him twisting around to see the young man jogging down the pathway to him. Finley had a dagger in one hand and a book in the other. He quickly stashed both as he approached. “I thought I heard you, but… who are you speaking to?”
It was only then that Rhalyf realized that Vex no longer held his chin. His uncle no longer loomed above him. He was, in fact, alone in the garden of the Temple of the Stag. Vex was gone.