Chapter 49 A Plea for Peace
Time To Turn In
The two camps had gathered to stare at each other across the span of ground that had been set as neutral territory.
Katarina stood with her arms crossed, staring icily at her husband. Finlay Ashowan was at his daughter’s left shoulder, his eyes scanning the crowd behind the king as though looking for someone.
King Norman and Mr. Howard were placed near Eric, murmuring together.
And Tam had gone to get Kraken.
The only figures in the neutral ground were Wixim and Aradia, who rode him.
“So,” Kat called loudly enough for multiple rows of soldiers to hear across the chasm. “Nice of you to show up.”
Aradia arched an eyebrow at Katarina before sliding off the dragon.
She strode down the neutral ground until she was between Eric and Kat. She looked at the king, then at Kat.
“You are the ones who made the city a nightmare of confusion and chaos. I had wanted to avoid alarming people.”
“We made this city a nightmare of confusion?” Kat exploded incredulously. “Are you… drunk? Honestly! Did you take some drugs? Did that bloody lizard drop you at some point? You caused all of this, you dense wench!”
The first witch rolled her eyes upward toward the sky.
“Your kingdom was going to have a breakdown between the witches and its people again. It was a matter of time. As soon as you took the throne, it began. I’d even argue as soon as your father was forced into the role of diplomat, witches started to be used as tools for the kingdom. ”
“We all had a choice, and we have listened to the people,” Eric interrupted somberly.
Despite the fact that the king had been the one to form a deal with the first witch, there was no warmth in his eyes when his gaze rested on her.
“It is the witches who suffer,” Aradia returned evenly.
“And the way you have gone about illustrating this point managed to create the most conflict bloody possible. Well done,” Kat bit out acidly.
“If I may…” Finlay Ashowan spoke softly, yet all eyes moved to the house witch as he slowly crossed the chasm until he stood toe-to-toe with the first witch.
“I chose my role as diplomat of my own free will. I was asking for far more from my kingdom than I was owed. It was only right that I paid a price. And for the record? I would do it twenty times over. I have no regrets.” Fin stared down at the first witch, the flicker of white light behind his blue eyes causing her to go still.
A look of envy and longing overcame her features for a brief moment.
“It’s true, I see. You have met with the Gods,” she whispered.
Fin smiled sadly. “I have. And I will again one day. I wish you and I could have had a chance to talk sooner.”
Kat tilted her head. She had never seen the first witch look so… unsteady.
But why?
“You,” Fin said, a gentle smile lifting the corners of his mouth, “are craving some good stew and a cup of tea. Maybe a bit of brown bread. You seem tired, Aradia.”
The first witch swallowed. “I came here to talk. To you and your familiar.”
Fin blinked in surprise. “We can arrange that.”
Kat made a growling noise in the back of her throat, which Fin ignored as he stepped aside and gestured to a distant fire. “Shall we?”
Aradia bowed her head and proceeded on ahead.
Fin followed, but he locked eyes first with his daughter, then Eric, before he held up his hands to keep them where they were and continued on.
Kat felt her heart start to pound, and her grip on her sword hilt tightened.
Despite the peaceful request from the first witch, she had a bad feeling about how the night was about to play out. She wished she could say that her gut instinct had been wrong even once in her life, but sadly, she could not.
★ ★ ★
Fin regarded the first witch as she sat with her hands loosely clasped in front of the fire. Mirroring her position, he studied her face while waiting for her to talk.
“I want your familiar to appeal to the Gods to allow me to go home,” the first witch announced abruptly.
“By yourself?” Fin asked carefully.
Aradia leaned back in her seat. “If they will allow it.”
“You do realize that because of how events have unfolded, even if you return home, you have placed a great many people in danger. Including my own son and grandson.”
Aradia’s eyes hardened. “Your son has made his choices. That is his responsibility.”
Fin straightened in his seat and proceeded to fold his arms. “He chose to keep his loved ones safe. He does not deserve the wrath of two kingdoms.”
Aradia tilted her head. “Maybe. Maybe not. He does deserve their fear, though.”
Fin’s brows lowered, but before he could say anything, Aradia continued.
“Your son has a power that could rival those of the Gods, house witch. In my opinion, he should not exist. His abilities? They are capable of breaking this world. All it takes is for him to learn a little bit more about them, and for him to decide one day that someone or something has angered him enough. It is the same argument I made to your king and son-in-law when he and I spoke. When a being holds too much power, the world is prone to breaking. It’s imbalanced.
The same can be argued for a government, a monarchy…
Look at your own family. You have amassed great power, and now, as it crashes down, everyone around you is getting pulled into the chaos.
” Aradia gestured vaguely toward the distance, where the castle had once been.
Fin considered her words. “It was a decision made by the Gods to bestow my son his abilities, and I have no choice but to trust in their judgment. As for how power can crumble… That is life. The brightest, largest flowers wither to seeds. The tallest tree will fall. It is not for us to tell nature how big it should or should not be.”
“But it should not be manipulated to be larger than it is destined to,” Aradia argued.
Fin took a deep breath. “Tell me, do you know the great picture your parents have in mind for all of us? Or even just yourself?”
Aradia fell silent.
Fin gentled his voice for his next words.
“As powerful and knowledgeable as you are, Aradia, there is a finite amount we can understand about how the world is meant to be. We can try, and we should continue to try. But just because you are powerful or come from power, that does not mean you know any better than the rest of us.”
“I have lived longer than any other being in this world. I have seen things and know things you cannot understand. I know the secrets of the Forest of the Afterlife.”
“And for all that, the future is still not yours to force into your mold.”
Aradia’s lips pressed themselves into a thin line.
Her fingers gripped into fists, then released.
“We can argue philosophy for years. As much as I appreciate your personal insights—particularly because you have met with the Gods—I’m sure you of all people understand my greatest desire: I want to go home, house witch. ”
Fin smiled sadly. “I do understand. But before I help you, I need my own home to be safe, Aradia. So can we think about how we can do that?”
The first witch stared at Fin, her expression and thoughts indiscernible.
However, their conversation was interrupted when an uproar broke out between the two camps behind them.
Shouts, screams, and then the clangs of swords.
Both Aradia and Fin were on their feet in an instant.
At first, nothing could be seen as a battle waged before them. But a sudden blaze of aura lit up the night sky brighter than any flame, and Kat, moving with inhuman speed, barreled forward. She held a child who wore oversized clothes and clutched a peculiarly shaped sword.
“Kat! What is happening?” Fin burst out as his daughter skidded to a halt in front of him.
His eyes then homed onto a blooming bloodstain on the front of Kat’s tunic.
“It’s Luca!” Kat cried out. “I don’t know how he got out of the void, but he walked through my men and was heading straight for the dragon when one of those witches near Eric shot him with something!”
Fin’s heart plummeted as he seized his grandson from her arms.
“Oh Gods. Is it fatal?” Fin demanded, his eyes roving over the bloody left shoulder and chest of his grandson, whose eyes were screwed shut in pain as he continued hugging the sword. “Luca! Luca, can you speak?”
Kat suddenly whirled around, cutting an arrow from the sky that had been whistling straight for her back.
“COWARDS!” she roared, her aura tripling in size.
Fin swallowed and raised his hand. His shield of lightning crackled to life, surging around himself, Luca, and the first witch.
He didn’t notice until too late the way the first witch stared at the boy with the fixation of a starving man on a loaf of bread. She pulled a vial of water from her pocket and downed it.
“What are you doing?” Fin demanded, his hold around Luca tightening.
“Something many witches are ignorant of,” Aradia began, her voice even, “is that I wielded all elements back when I had full access to my power. When I restore even a small measure of my abilities, I can wield magic like any mutated witch.”
Fin didn’t know what she was getting at until she seized Luca’s injured arm, and a gold shield of lightning wrought with ancient symbols flared from her own hand, bubbling out until it hit Fin… and shot him outside of it, ripping Luca from his arms.
“NO!” he shouted right before he was launched into the air and catapulted into his own shield, both knocking his body to the ground and the wind from his lungs.
Fin dropped his shield, his gaze fixed on the scene within the golden dome in horror.
It had all happened so quickly… and there wasn’t anything he could do.
★ ★ ★
The small boy fell onto the ground and gradually pushed himself to a sitting position. He calmly stared up at the first witch.
Aradia let out a long breath, tears of relief coming to her eyes as she slowly crouched down. “I guess you do truly care for this family, seeing as you are finally sacrificing yourself to end this.”
The boy was pale from the blood loss, but he managed a smile. “I do. They mean everything.”
“Are you ready to do this?” Aradia asked. The sounds of battle and shouts outside the shield faded into the distance as she felt time slow before the poignant moment.
Her brother nodded grimly. “I am.”
There were fresh bellows of surprise from the battle that had Aradia glance up and around enough to discover that the castle had reappeared and…
Someone, an earth witch most likely—and a powerful one at that—had managed to separate the soldiers from one another, constricting them with mounds of soil and vines.
“I take it your father is coming for you,” she noted before dropping her gaze back to her brother, who struggled to his feet, still clasping the oddly shaped sword.
“Yes. Let’s finish this, Aradia.”
The Daxarian queen’s shouts could be heard distantly over the hum of the shield.
His small hand came out.
Aradia arched her brow at it.
She would have been worried, but the shield they were in, similar to the house witch’s, blocked any magic inside —the only way Aradia had been able to use any magic was because hers was not from a natural source.
It had come from the water of the Goddess’s Pool.
So it wasn’t as though he could pull any tricks. She controlled the space. Completely.
Aradia pulled free the ceremonial dagger she had kept sheathed at her hip. “I suppose this was always how it was meant to be. I just needed to try less.”
She proceeded to rest the blade against her throat, then paused. “What’s with the sword?”
Her brother shrugged. “It’s a good sword. I figured someone could use it after I’m gone.”
That was strange.
Aradia flipped the blade and handed the knife to her brother. “In case you have forgotten, you have to say your name. Say that you wish to finish your fate.”
The boy took the blade and with great accuracy laid it under his jaw by his ear.
There was a quick pull.
The sword he held fell to the grass, and abruptly he shot up, and Tamlin Ashowan stood before her.
Blood poured from his throat. He stumbled, then clamped a hand onto her shoulder to steady himself.
“Wh—” Aradia tried to back away in shock, but the weight of Tam’s dying body stopped her from moving.
“I, Tamlin Ashowan, wish to end my fate,” he said weakly, passing the knife to her hand. “I promise this will work. I just needed everyone to realize it was me all along so they’ll leave the boy alone.”
Aradia dumbly turned toward the battle where the two armies were in an uproar at the scene unfolding in the golden dome.
While Katarina Ashowan, tears streaming down her face, kept screaming and pounding her fists against the golden lightning.
Aradia turned back to Tamlin Ashowan. The light was fading out of his eyes.
“It will work,” he whispered. “And if… not… you’ve lost nothing.”
She swallowed with difficulty.
Hand shaking, she took the knife from him.
She sensed something right about that moment.
She put the blade to her own throat, much in the same way he had, and with a short move she, too, felt herself grow weak. “I… Aradia… wish to complete my fate.”
Aradia watched the way Tamlin Ashowan looked at his father, who was on his knees outside the dome, crying and begging.
She saw the way his dark eyes found Katarina, and how he smiled, as though to say everything would be alright.
But then his expression went blank, and his body slumped to the ground.
Aradia must have cut deeper and wider than he had, because she felt herself falling toward oblivion.
“You… my brother used to look at me like that,” she whispered, her bleary gaze briefly finding Katarina Ashowan’s.
She half expected herself to regenerate. For it all to have been for nothing. Leaving her with an Ashowan family that would never want to negotiate with her again…
But she didn’t.
Rather than the pain and rush of skin regrowing and reforming…
She felt cold.
Then her muscles gave way, and she, too, fell to the ground beside Tamlin Ashowan who… somehow… was leaving the world with her the way she and her brother had first arrived. Side by side.
Next thing she knew, Aradia found herself seated on the bench of Death’s cart beside Tamlin Ashowan. Sunshine poured down over them, and peace filled her.
At long… long last…
She was heading home.