Chapter 11 #2
Aquilan sat up in his chair. Killing someone? Finley had to kill someone? Someone had tried to kill the young man? His lips opened to say something. Anything. But no words came. His eyes darted to Rhalyf and Haera, but their expressions remained unchanged. Helgrom let out a soft grunt.
“... it was the only way to get The Dark Gift and the Drethes Umbra,” Vex was saying quietly. “Ipraxus Kane had to destroy whole civilizations to gain them. What is one mostly dead creature for that kind of power?”
“So you’re saying that even if that creature had been innocent that I would have had to… to…”
“Luckily, they were not and so you do not know what you would have done,” Vex chuckled dryly.
Finley’s shoulders hunched. “Is that lucky?”
Vex stilled. Finley had surprised him by asking this question. “Lucky that you wouldn’t have to take another life–”
“No,” Finley interrupted. “Is it lucky that I don’t know what I would have done if that creature was innocent? That I don’t know what’s in my heart? In my soul?”
Vex slowly blinked. “Knowing oneself is… useful.”
“It’s imperative, I think. Especially in magic,” Finley murmured.
“You already know that,” Vex breathed. “Good gods, Finley, you are meant to be a Mage.”
“There’s this story called The Hobbit where someone small and ordinary finds a magic ring.
He takes it, but later has to do things to its intermittent owner,” Finley grimaced and shook his head.
“The thing is that he made excuses for what he did, that he wasn’t a cheater, wasn’t a liar, wasn’t a thief.
But he felt he was. No matter what he proclaimed. And this lie ate into his soul.”
The fire crackled and popped. Aquilan could see the first version of Finley and Vex rollicking back and forth in their chairs as Finley described the skeletons he’d discovered who looked ready to move.
“What lie do you feel you are telling?” Vex asked in the second–and real–version.
Slowly, Finley lifted his head so that he and Vex were eye to eye. “That it wouldn’t have mattered if the creature had been innocent or if they had not intended to hurt anyone after they left that place, I would have taken the book and the dagger from them in whatever way I had to.”
Was that a faint smile on Vex’s lips? Did he nod in approval? Aquilan wasn’t sure, because it was then that Vex seemed to realize he was seeing the second version. Vex’s eyes flickered to his and the Night King winked at him.
Aquilan didn’t remember rocketing to his feet.
It was only when both version one and version two of Finley and Vex were both staring at him open-mouthed, not to mention Rhalyf and Haera were blinking at him, that he realized he had moved.
Haera had half risen from her seat as if to acknowledge that if he was up then she should be up.
Only Helgrom looked unsurprised by his sudden, almost violent, movement.
“Aquilan?” Rhalyf asked, concern tinting his voice and furrowing his brow.
But Aquilan moved his right hand to silence his best friend. “King Vex, I would speak to you now.”
Vex blinked those large red eyes almost innocently. “Oh, well, I am right here and listening–”
“No, outside.” Aquilan gestured to the back door of the Dawn where deliveries were made.
Vex’s blinking slowed. “Outside? In the Sun?”
“Yes,” Aquilan answered and started walking. He was certain that Vex had something even more powerful than the Adiva that Rhalyf had enchanted for Declan to keep him safe from the Sun on him, but still it was quite the ask.
Vex vainly protested, “But Rahven will be bringing out breakfast soon–”
“Then you should move quickly so that we can return to a hot breakfast,” Aquilan called over his shoulder, not slowing down.
He went around the bar and into the kitchen where Declan was standing before the stove. Aquilan’s heart lifted upon seeing that lean, but muscular figure. He longed to bring Declan’s back against his front and bury his face in Declan’s neck. But there was no time for that right now.
Declan had several frying pans going at once and was moving between them expertly.
Rashers of crisping bacon were in one pan while three other pans contained a thin layer of batter that was turning golden as it cooked.
Declan was putting plump, juicy raspberries in serving bowls just as Aquilan was walking past him.
Declan lifted his head–he still had on his sunglasses–and lifted an eyebrow as he asked, “Anything wrong?”
“No… and yes,” Aquilan answered and gave the first real smile he'd given since the second version had appeared before him. “It is all right. I–”
The door opened behind him and Vex stepped into the kitchen. His eyes went immediately to them. Aquilan gestured for him to follow after. He didn’t want Declan to be drawn into this discussion. Vex lightly padded after him on bare feet. As he reached his son, he plucked the sunglasses off his face.
“Those are mine,” Declan said quietly. “You can get your own.”
“But we are family, Rahven. That means we share. And the mean Sun King is forcing me to go outside,” Vex murmured, still being charming, but there was a slight uneasy cast to his voice and movements.
Have I surprised him for once? That is good. Put him on the back foot.
Aquilan pushed open the back door and walked into the horseshoe shaped courtyard behind the Dawn.
Barrels of wine, whisky and beer lined the walls.
The heavy scent of alcohol perfumed the air.
He crossed his arms over his chest as he waited for Vex to join him.
He was not surprised when the Night King appeared by his side without any sound or even the barest movement of air.
“Are you really out here or is this another mirage?” Aquilan demanded to know.
Vex chuckled. “I am really here, Ailduin. Suffering for you.”
The Night King was wearing the sunglasses, but he made no other movement to indicate that the sunlight was bothering him. Aquilan had a momentary qualm about making him come out here. He didn’t want to hurt Vex.
He is not being hurt. He is perfectly fine.
“I don’t intend for you to suffer. I want to speak to you alone,” Aquilan told him dryly.
“If that’s all you wanted then we could have gone into an interior room with no windows. So don’t back down from your power move, Ailduin. It was really quite a good one,” Vex flashed a set of very white, sharp teeth.
“Why that show in there?” Aquilan asked.
“It wasn’t a show. It was simply two versions of a conversation. A public one and a private one. I was merely allowing it to occur at the once,” Vex rolled one hand through the air as he said this. “Saves time.”
“Private and public?” Aquilan lifted an eyebrow. “You mean truth and lies so I wouldn’t know the danger you actually put Finley in.”
“You think I did that for myself?” Vex shook his silvery white hair.
“I think you sent Finley to find something that is dark and dangerous. Something that could lead him down terrible paths if he doesn’t speak to someone about it who can help him,” Aquilan said.
“You don’t think I can help him?” Vex arched a delicate eyebrow above the top of the sunglasses.
Aquilan pivoted to face Vex. “You see enemies everywhere, Vex. Even your son. Teaching Finley to see the world in that same way, to view everything as a zero sum game, will blacken his heart.” He lifted a hand to stop any objections. “I’m not judging the choices you had to make.”
“You aren’t?” Vex let out a light laugh that wasn’t light at all.
“The Under Dark is a dangerous place with limited resources,” Aquilan acknowledged. “What you feel is acceptable and right to do–what must be done–to keep you and yours safe is not the same for Finley. Not here.”
“Acceptable?” Vex spun towards him. “Now this I must hear!”
“You sent Finley into a place where you knew he would be in mortal danger and have to defend himself. You knew this, but you did it anyway,” Aquilan said, his voice tense with anger.
“Yes, I did.” Vex was completely unrepentant.
“You like Finley, Vex. I can tell that. So why would you do that to him? Why would you put him in a position to take a life?” Aquilan demanded.
Vex tilted his head to the side and studied Aquilan. “You think it would have been better if I had just patted him on the head and sent him back to Earth after a single Leviathan nearly killed him? That I would be more of his friend by leaving him powerless?
“Not powerless. I’m certain that there was another way for him to gain the same information than throwing him into a life or death situation!” Aquilan protested. “And what is wrong with sending him home? He is safe here–”
“Is he?” Vex was smiling, but it was a hard, angry smile.
Aquilan stiffened. “The war with the Leviathan is over.”
“That nest in the Under Dark would seem to indicate otherwise. My son destroyed that. Not you! Not your foolish nephew or niece either! My son,” Vex reminded him.
“And absent my son, you’d have never gotten to the Under Dark at all so…
maybe you should check your own point of view and the choices that the Lieran Plane–and its seeming safety and abundance–have allowed you to make. Not that I’m judging.”
Aquilan clenched his jaw, but he forced it to relax and… nodded. “Maybe you’re right.”
“Right? I’m right?” Both of Vex’s eyebrows were up. “I should record that for posterity.”
“You have some points. But so do I. Vex, having secrets like killing a man is not good for Finley. For him to believe he would kill an innocent for power when–”
“You don’t believe he would?” Vex challenged, but softly.
“No, I don’t. And I don’t think you do either.
” Aquilan frowned as he struggled to put into words what he’d felt as he’d listened to Finley.
“Someone told him he was bad at some point in his life. And so he believes it. But, regardless, with power comes responsibility. If he is to learn how to control that power, he needs to learn everything that comes with it. Taking a life… that changes someone. Do you remember your first killing?”
“Of course, I do. It was my father, after all,” Vex said coolly.
That fact lay between them like a vast ice floe. Aquilan slowly blinked as a memory bubbled up to the surface.
“... there is a limit, Ailduin,” Vex had said, “beyond which there is nothing a person won’t do.
What my father did to Lysanthir was mine.
But I should really thank him for being the monster he was.
Because, after that, nothing surprised me.
No betrayal. No depravity. Nothing. And I am now free to react in kind. ”
Declan opened the back door. He blinked and shaded his eyes from the Sun as he said, “Breakfast is ready.”
Vex let out a delighted laugh. “Excellent! I don’t want to get hangry!
You wouldn’t like me when I’m hangry, Ailduin!
” Vex started walking back into the Dawn rubbing his hands together and chortling about free food, but when he reached the door that Declan held open for him, he said over his shoulder, “No where is truly safe, Ailduin. Not the Under Dark. Not here. And not even the Lieran Plane. You cannot save everyone. Trust me on this. The best you can do is give people the chance to save themselves even if that blackens their hearts a little bit… or a lot. At least, they are still with us. That is much better than the alternative.”