Chapter 47 #2
“Princeling, control your arm strength, or let me down.” Nayana glowered at me, and I relaxed my hold on her once more. I hadn’t even realized that I was squashing her again.
Fuck, how I despised being at court. How I loathed the king. And how I detested the idea of explaining what I’d never spoken of before. “It’s impossible for me to kill Galrach. Believe me, I tried everything.”
Except maybe Antas—who couldn’t be as ignorant as he always pledged—no one had ever found out what had occurred during the many, many months following the winter solstice when Galrach had assassinated my mother and had me… had my father executed, who’d been buried without a ceremony.
As young as I’d been, he must have sensed the abundance of power I was going to wield one day, long before my magic had surfaced.
He’d known, and to this day, I didn’t have a clue how.
Sometimes, when my thoughts were exceptionally dark, I considered that he’d had my parents murdered so he could control me better, without any outside influences getting in his way.
“Why not?” Nayana’s voice was soft. My tiny woman must really hate Galrach if she wasn’t even trying to advocate against violence.
“After my mother’s funeral on the same day she’d died and my father’s execution the next morning, he took me to a ritualistic chamber underground and chained me to the wall.”
“The one—”
“Yes, Naya, the one we’d been to. Even though the palace wasn’t built yet, our family’s mansion had been in its place.
Over the next months—no, winters—Galrach worked on weakening me.
A lot of my recollections are still blurry to this day.
However, he infected me with some sort of sickness, bound my newfound magic with internal and external hematite, plus, of course, physical torture, and when he was finally satisfied, he brought a bunch of light Wielder, those who could influence the mind.
I was more dead than alive, overgrown by the sentient moss my grandfather loves so dearly, extremely sick and weak, and after several moons, his squad of lackeys had succeeded—then died because he didn’t want any witnesses.
But the result of these winters still remains strong.
Galrach ensured that I could never attack him.
Whenever I try just as much as to punch him, I’m in such blazing agony that I can’t move anymore and lose my consciousness.
This happened quite a few times and always ended in severe punishment. ”
Shrugging with feigned disinterest, I concluded my story. Shocked silence hung in the air, and my comrades’ expressions ranged from abhorrence to pity, which shattered my calm demeanor. Heat burned in my chest as I bared my teeth at Ireas as a warning to wipe the unwanted sorrow off his face.
Fig’s features contorted into a frown. “That explains a lot. But what transpired during the High King’s centennial regency anniversary?”
“Liolog.”
“What’s a Liolog?” Nayana regarded me with her soft cerulean eyes, seeing right through me like every fucking time before.
“Liolog had been a friend of mine since we were faelings,” Antas said.
“And he was more than aware of what a plague my brother was for Galanta. One day, he attempted to assassinate Galrach. He was not the first or only one, but Liolog came closer than anyone else before and after him.” Antas’ voice cracked, and the spark of sympathy stirring in my insides irritated me.
Liolog had been Antas’ wife’s brother, and they’d been incredibly close.
My uncle stayed silent, examining his hands, so I decided to take over, even if the story was more his than mine.
“Liolog was a powerful light Wielder with the key facet of mental manipulation. And while Galrach is immune to such powers due to unknown reasons, Liolog had found a genius solution to this problem. He overpowered my mind and forced me to attack the king. His ploy might even have worked if he’d pushed me harder, or if Galrach’s elite guards hadn’t figured out in time what was happening and killed Liolog, which stopped the control instantly.
A few more seconds, and my grandfather wouldn’t have ended up severely wounded but dead.
From that day on, I’ve known that the magic binding me is about intent and not about action.
And of course, that I’m indeed way more powerful than my grandfather. ”
Contemplating the situation, I played with Nayana’s soft locks. “And the truth is, I’m not mad he took over and usurped my free will. His ploy had been a good idea, and I wish he would have succeeded.”
“Afterward, my brother exterminated every light Wielder with only an ounce of mind control and came out with a test that every faeling with this elemental predisposition is subjected to.”
The cruelty the High King maintained to secure his rule made even my blood boil. Yes, sometimes I was a hypocrite. So what?
Most light Wielder had mental facets to some capacity, and because Galrach was so fucking paranoid, he’d executed a plethora of capable males and females.
But the worst about his purge was how many healers he’d murdered since mending talents could only be found in those who had access to light magic.
These days, there were only a handful of them left since Wielder like Ireas, who hadn’t shown a single mind-ability, were rare.
Everyone was silent for a while, and I scanned Nayana once more to be absolutely sure she was unharmed. But although she still seemed fine during this checkup, I wouldn’t risk her any further. I had to act.
Soon.
And so, I cut through the silence, issuing a decree.
“We will leave this place in a quarter of a moon.” Finality ruled my voice.
“That isn’t what we agreed on.”
Of course, Fig challenged my authority without even considering my reasons. One of these days—
“I don’t care. Under these circumstances, seven nights is already a stretch and must suffice.”
“But if you flee from court, won’t that be regarded as treason? Won’t Galrach take hostages once more?”
The worried tone in Nayana’s voice warmed my heart—she was caring for my safety, after all.
Mine, not ours, I decided. Surely, she’d mentioned the others only out of politeness.
“Everything indicates that this will happen anyway,” Antas added.
“Finding definite proof is hard, but by now, I have more than just a strong suspicion that Galrach is not innocent concerning the weakening of the fabric of reality. It is only a question of time before he realizes that we are working against him, and the moment he does, Alaiann is the worst place to be.”
“And regarding another potential hostage situation, we did our best to encourage anyone close to us to vanish into hiding.”
“Dion, if we remain for a full moon cycle, as agreed upon, we’ll be able to collect more information. For example, where the chance of Wild Rifts appearing is higher. We discussed this at length only a few hours ago.”
“Fig, I don’t fucking care. My mind is made up, we’ll depart in seven days.
” After all, I had a female to protect, and doing so wasn’t possible in this environment—as proven today.
Besides, a fucking miracle would have to occur for Galrach to stay out of our way for an entire moon cycle.
Even a quarter was a stretch, and my stomach cramped in discomfort.
I would have preferred to vacate Alaiann this very instant, but there was a last important matter I had to tend to before we could leave the palace.
By Noelk’s shriveled nut sack, my whole situation was fucked up.