Chapter 14 In The West #2
“I don’t disagree with you that something must be done.
But simply eliminating the ruins won’t stop the Leviathan from coming,” Aquilan remarked slowly.
“Perhaps we should ask Darcassan about his thoughts on them. He was the only one to realize they were massing in the Under Dark. Even the Glass Scholar scoffed at the idea of a rift to Illithor despite Finley having sketches of very recognizable parts of it. But Darcassan pushed forward despite the disbelief.”
“Finley?” Vesslan’s brow furrowed.
“Yes, I introduced you to him. General Baston’s son. One of the three survivors of Tyrael?” Aquilan prompted. Vesslan looked blankly at him. “You met him not an hour ago?”
Vesslan’s expression didn’t change even as he murmured, “Oh, yes, yes, I remember now.”
Aquilan highly doubted he did. But maybe that was best. He wanted Vesslan nowhere near Declan while Declan and Finley were mostly joined at the hip.
It was much like him and Rhalyf. Just thinking of Rhalyf had him feeling a mixture of love and worry.
Something was off about his best friend.
He needed to get to the bottom of it, but there was so much going on!
He felt another wave of power from his bedroom. He glanced quickly at his brother but Vesslan seemed completely oblivious to it. He let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding and took a large sip of the sparkling wine.
Let him remain oblivious. Let him go on about cabbages and land acquisitions. Let him talk of getting one over on Rohannan and missing the fact that the Night Prince is under our roof!
“I admit that I am surprised that there was anything to Darcassan’s conjectures. Ah, well, he was very clever about this, I suppose. But the boy gets obsessions. Sometimes he gets lucky,” Vesslan said with a shrug.
“He’s your son,” Aquilan found himself blurting out.
“Yes. And?” Another sandwich devoured.
“You should be proud of him. He’s not just lucky. He is smart. He saw what none of us did,” Aquilan pointed out.
“Yes, yes, but I still wouldn’t form any war plans around my son’s thoughts,” Vesslan said with a wave of his hand. “I assure you that he was lucky this time, but it won’t hold. He takes too much after his mother.”
Aquilan shifted slightly in his seat. The Sun flowed down through the trellis above them.
The roses that clung thickly to the cross-hatch pattern of it filtered some of it out.
A sweet scent filled the air as the blooms warmed.
Speaking of Vesslan’s dead wife was a sore spot at best. He would just leave that there for now.
But he couldn’t have Vesslan discounting Darcassan or Elasha.
“And yet, Vesslan, I think it would be unwise not to ask Darcassan his thoughts about the Leviathan threat,” Aquilan finally said. “I’m not altogether clear how he figured out about this one. He clearly has some insights into our enemy that no one else seems to have.”
Vesslan’s eyebrows lifted. “If you think that my son’s counsel is so important–”
“I know it is easy to see Darcassan and Elasha as children–”
“They are children, Aquilan,” his brother sighed and looked meaningfully at the bottle of sparkling wine chilling in the ice bucket.
Cellica quickly moved from the corner where she watched them to top up his glass. She went to put a touch more in Aquilan’s, but he made a subtle negative movement. She replaced the bottle and retreated to the corner of the gazebo.
“They are quite mature for their age,” Aquilan asserted. “And they were wonderfully brave in the Pedway and in Xradatha according to Snaglak and Helgrom.”
“Snaglak? The–the orc? The one that brought that blasted pooping naki into the palace?” Vesslan sniffed loudly. He had stepped into one of Glom’s deposits on the stairs.
“He tried to get Glom down to the garden in time, but…” Aquilan shrugged. “Glom ate quite a few fangs. His stomach was upset and sometimes one just has to go. I cleaned it up.”
Vesslan stared at him in what could only be described as fascinated horror. While Cellica was blinking rapidly at him, too.
“Cellica, are you all right?” Aquilan asked.
“My king, why–why did you not let me do that? Or another of the servants?” she asked aghast. “We would have–”
Aquilan shook his head, cutting her off. “Snaglak is quite protective of his fangs so it was better that I assisted him. He would not think the Sun King was trying to steal his treasure.”
Now both Vesslan and Cellica were staring at him with horror. Aquilan took another long swallow of wine. He felt a trickle of power coming from his bedroom. Not Declan’s… Vex?
Vex, are you here?
No answer. The feeling was gone. It likely had not been Vex. It was daylight and unless the Night King could create a rift into his bed chamber, Vex would not be making an appearance here.
Not yet.
He had said he would grant the Night King a boon if he opened a rift for them to Earth.
And Vex had honored his end of the promise.
Aquilan would not put it past him to show up on the Eryas Palace’s doorstep with a grin and little else on.
He wondered what Vesslan’s response would be to the lightly dressed Kindreth royal.
He almost smiled about it. But then reminded himself that it would likely lead to some kind of inter-dimensional incident.
Best to keep Vesslan and Vex well apart from one another.
Besides, the trickle had been so brief and it was gone now that he wasn’t sure he had felt it at all. Yet he knew that he wanted to get back upstairs and see Declan. His Shadow had endured so much in Illithor.
His chosen family is with him. What would I add to the mix?
He nearly shook himself. Here he was being ridiculous about Declan again. He must think of the young man and not his own feelings. He would be supportive. Lend a willing ear and a strong shoulder. Not that Declan seemed the type to cry…
No, just the type to wipe out his enemies with a wave of his hand…
“Speak to Darcassan, of course. I won’t stop you.
I would simply craft anything we say about this to the Council very carefully,” Vesslan advised.
“And to make sure we don’t let an emergency go to waste.
For not only will Rohannan lose whatever pitiful support he has for retaining those ruins, he will look like a fool for protecting a Leviathan breeding ground.
We have warned the Separatists about it time and time again, but they wouldn’t listen.
And now, here is the result. Yes, yes, I really think we could make this work. ”
Vesslan tented his fingers under his chin. Distasteful as it was, Aquilan agreed with Vesslan in part. The ruins could not be allowed to remain. They were too hard to patrol by half.
“The Separatists want to have something of their history preserved, Vesslan. They are not acting wholly irrationally,” Aquilan pointed out.
“You haven’t been exposed to them as much as I have.
Irrationality is Rohannan’s middle name,” Vesslan said and settled back to eat a curried chicken sandwich with slivered almonds.
“Fancy that the rifts there really did lead to Illithor. We could use that as another point of pressure. The very fear that name evokes–”
“We can’t tell anyone about Illithor!” Aquilan retorted sharply which caused Vesslan to lift an eyebrow. “Your own son wanted to go there to get weapons from the city. To steal from Vex. Others will have the same foolish idea.”
“Weapons? He thought that red-eyed dark dweller left anything of value there?” Vesslan scoffed.
Aquilan’s jaw tightened. “Do not call Vex or any Kindreth that, Vesslan!”
“Why? You suddenly care about Kindreth?” Vesslan shook his head.
He thought of Declan upstairs. He thought of Declan wanting to be himself in Tyrael. He thought of his brother flinging such insults at him. He thought of his own hypocrisy on this. He had allowed this attitude to fester. He had made this world less safe for his Shadow.
“The Kindreth may have become our enemy for a time, but they were our allies for far longer. They deserve respect,” Aquilan reminded him even as his own mind went to his experiences with Vex.
He had been as fair as any Aravae. Perhaps more.
And his power was undeniable. The beauty of Illithor had also been without peer even in the Aravae Empire.
“To–to show such ignorant prejudice lowers you, not them.”
Vesslan stared at him as he slowly lowered his chicken sandwich. “Where is this coming from, Aquilan?”
“I just came from Illithor, brother. Seeing that city… seeing what once was… what Vex and Ailduin accomplished together… We are fools to speak ill of them like that,” Aquilan shook his head.
“You were always fascinated with them. With Vex and Ailduin. But I never thought that seeing a dead city would wash away the memory of our dead parents,” Vesslan said softly. Dangerously.
Aquilan tensed. Only the ticking of the bugs in the flowers and the tweets of birds broke the awkward silence.
Would it make you feel better to believe that I killed them? Vex’s voice echoed in his mind.
His own retort had been so certain, Would it… no! I want the truth!
Do not be so hasty. You do not know the alternative to it being me.
What… What alternative? They were coming to find you. To negotiate a peace or… something. Probably to save me and you… you would not negotiate so they must have… must have…
Your memory, my old friend, is not something to be trusted.
Not to be trusted…
“Having been in the Under Dark, I can assure you that there are plenty of things that could have killed our parents, Vesslan. It would not take the Night King to do it,” Aquilan finally answered stiffly.
As silence fell between them again, Aquilan realized that he had not truly thought about the revelations he had learned of in the Under Dark.
He was Ailduin reborn! Vex had saved his life, but in exchange for it to become the Night King’s property.
Vex had mentioned nothing about claiming that right. But he could…
And then there are my parents… His eyes flickered to Vesslan. Our parents…
“Vesslan.” He shifted in his seat. “Was Mother… Mother sick when she was pregnant with me?”
Vesslan blinked. “Her? No, not at all. But you made up for that.”
“Me?” He blinked. Bewildered. “I haven’t been sick–”
“Not since our parents died, no. But you were quite the invalid before they left for the Under Dark.” Vesslan leaned back in his chair and sipped the sparkling wine.
“I don’t recall that at all,” Aquilan said weakly.
Your memory, my old friend, is not something to be trusted.
Did that mean that Vex had come to see him during that time? Repressed more memories of his being Ailduin so that he would not perish? Was that also why he had no feeling for Ailduin now?
“It appears that you’ve grown out of whatever ailed you as a child. Good thing, because I have no idea how they cured you,” Vesslan remarked dryly.
For some reason that had Aquilan looking up sharply at his brother. It was ridiculous and wrong and hateful, but he thought Vesslan sounded like maybe he hoped Aquilan would get sick again. A sickness that could not be cured.
“I–I am feeling tired. I will retire for the evening,” Aquilan said as he abruptly stood up.
There was nothing more he wanted to speak to Vesslan about. Indeed, with his uneven mood and his concern about Declan, he feared they might fight. He didn’t need that after not having slept… He wanted to get away. He wanted Declan.
My Shadow. I want to simply be with you. In your presence. Even if we do not talk. Even if you sleep. I want to be next to you. Hear your breathing. See your eyes move beneath your lids as darkness falls…
“We need to speak more about this, Aquilan. You won’t do anything with the Council without me, will you?” Vesslan asked.
“No, of course not. And you will do nothing without me either,” Aquilan said. He shouldn’t have had to say that.
“I am at your service, my king.” Vesslan inclined his head.
As Aquilan hurried up to his bedroom in the West–to his Shadow–he heard–or remembered, he couldn’t be sure–Vex saying in his head, The worst is family, Ailduin.
You’re told over and over again that you are to trust them.
But the truth is that they are the least trustworthy and the most dangerous.
Because they can get closer to you than anyone, and before you know it, their knife slides swiftly into your heart.