Chapter 28 #2
“I wasn’t frightened in the vision, Theron. I felt triumphant.”
“What if she curses you?”
“Myrina will be nearby. Tell her we will have need of her.”
But his furrowed brow and troubled gaze were not appeased.
“It’s too dangerous. You should be the one to bring the nobles. I will help you plan what to say, how to speak so they will listen.”
“Theron, between the two of us, who has the ability to stop time?”
“Aurora…” He placed a hand atop hers on his cheek and leaned into her touch.
“No, of the two of us, it’s safer if I go. I can freeze Orithyia before she has the power to cast a curse. I can speed my own time up and run away if I need to. And if it comes down to it, my magic can kill her without spilling blood. I can age her to death. I’ll even bring my artefact to help.”
“I don’t like it. You burn through your magic far too quickly. If you do any of those things, you’ll harm yourself.” He hugged her close.
She loved that he was worried for her, but she was different now—and she had a whole realm to protect.
“I’m a queen of Aureum now, Theron. I have Aureum’s magic to draw on to bolster me. Please, trust that I can handle this.”
It was a long time before he spoke, but his gaze was tortured. Love, fear, pride, reluctance, and then finally, acceptance.
“Nireus.”
“Your Majesty?”
“You will go with her. Protect her with your life.”
Nireus bowed deeply.
“It will be my honour.”
“You all know your roles. Rest. Tomorrow at dawn, we expose the High Priestess of Lies.”
Theron rose, dismissed them all to their beds, and took Aurora to hers. There, she lay in his arms, drinking him in as he held her close, sleep beckoning.
“Vow to me, if anything goes wrong, you’ll get away. I don’t care who you have to sacrifice, or whose blood you need to spill. No heroics. No pity. I won’t survive it if you don’t,” he whispered into her hair like a prayer.
“I vow it. As long as you vow to come for me.”
“I will always come for you,” he promised, the rumble of his deep voice sending her off to sleep.
Aurora woke before dawn to Theron’s gentle nudging.
They dressed and ate, saying with their gazes all that needed to be said.
The plan was dangerous. A high priestess possessed magic that ensured she was no push-over, and her age only meant she’d had longer to perfect her control over it.
But Aurora trusted in her vision and in her husband.
Theron would be right behind her. Hyllus, Leukos, and Nireus would be at her side along with a small army. This would work.
Dawn bled red across the horizon as Aurora and her protectors assembled just inside the palace gates.
The nobles had already convened inside the throne room, awaiting Theron’s presence, none the wiser to the soldiers about to stream out of the palace.
Nerves threatened to assail her, but Aurora breathed through them.
“I’ll be right behind you,” Theron said.
“I know,” she said, smiling.
As she turned to leave, Theron caught her wrist. She faced him, only to be swept up in a crushing kiss.
Aurora melted into him, savouring the feel of his soft lips, his ticklish beard, the hot, wet brand of his tongue on hers.
He kissed her until she forgot who was watching and where she was supposed to be going.
“I love you, Aurora.”
“I love you too, Theron. I’ll be alright. I know it.”
He let her go with visible reluctance before turning on his heel and marching back into the palace. She watched him until the palace gates opened.
“Come, Your Majesty,” Leukos said, gently touching her shoulder. “We’ll see him shortly.”
Aurora released a pent-up breath and faced the city. It was just beginning to wake, the marketplace bustling with only the earliest risers.
“To the temple of Knowledge,” Aurora commanded.
As one, her soldiers marched. Hyllus and Leukos stood at her sides while Nireus took the vanguard. Their march drew the attention of all who witnessed it. Good. The more witnesses, the better. And yet her stomach was all in knots and her hands were clammy.
Breathe. You saw how this will go.
“Your Majesty?” Leukos asked.
“Hmm?”
“What has been the biggest difference between this time and your own?”
What an odd question at a time like this.
“Are you…trying to distract me?”
“Is it working?” he asked, a raised brow and a ghost of a smile on his perpetually grim visage.
An answering smile tugged at her lips.
“Your size. Everything is too big. From your furniture, to your staircases, to utensils, to even the architecture. I knew the people of this time were giants, I’d seen the bones, but living amongst you is a different story.”
“Is that so? What else?”
It was a silly, simple thing, this distraction, and yet it helped calm her racing heart.
“The land is greener. I’ve never seen such bounty before. The markets are full of things I’d never known existed in Trisia, or had only read about in ancient sources,” she said as they passed by the stalls of the marketplace.
Leukos frowned.
“Trisia is in decline?”
“I think so. It is something I would like to change. You see, in my time, Trisia is an empire, ruled by a single empress.”
Leukos’ horrified stare said it all. Then even the ancients considered such a thing a kind of blasphemy.
“How?”
“That is something I would dearly like to know.”
So much history had been lost not just to the passage of time but to the cycles of chaos and calamity.
Had the knowledge of what an empire would mean to the elder gods also been lost, or had the Viridian empresses only cared for their own power?
Aurora thought of Flora—grasping, greedy, cruel, and short-sighted—and feared the answer.
When next she saw Fae, she would ask her.
They were nearly to the temple district now. Unease slithered through her. What if she failed? Hyllus placed a hand on her shoulder and grinned.
“Aurora, whatever you’re worried about right now, it won’t happen. Remember your vision. Today is the day we triumph.”
“Right, you’re right.”
In her vision, she was triumphant. Aurora steeled herself.
Though she’d become a cleric of the elder god, her heart still held a special place for her patron goddess.
She knew she couldn’t be a cleric of both, so today, as her last act as an initiate of Knowledge, Aurora would restore Her temple to its rightful goddess.
Hyllus smile vanished in an instant.
“Hyllus?”
“Monstrosities. They’re coming.”
Merciful Triad. Not here, in the crowded city.
“Where?”
“Somewhere in the direction of the palace. I’m too far to be certain.”
Then he needed to get there before they erupted and slaughtered the people of Altanus. Aurora scanned the streets. A wealthy merchant atop his loper was urging it to a side street to get out of the way of the coming soldiers.
“You! As your queen, I command you to give the avatar your loper!” She turned to Hyllus. “Go, quickly.”
“But…” he said, clearly torn.
“I have Leukos and my own magic. And we’re about to enter the safest place in Altanus from monstrosities. Can you stop them before they surface?”
“I can.”
“Then go. Protect my city.”
Hyllus nodded, grabbing the loper and racing off towards the palace.
But what of Theron?
“Nireus!”
“Your Majesty?”
“Get to the palace. Warn Theron that Hyllus has just now sensed monstrosities. He must get to the temple district immediately.”
“But his orders—”
“Mean nothing if he is taken unaware by monstrosities. Now go. I have Leukos and fifty soldiers.”
“I will return shortly.”
“With my husband.”
“With His Majesty,” Nireus affirmed.
And then Nireus was off. She held on to how she’d felt in that vision. Confident. Righteous. She hadn’t been afraid. Perhaps by then, word would already reach her that Hyllus had stopped the monstrosities before they erupted. Yes, that must be it.
“Leukos, send some of the soldiers to tell the citizens to convene in the temple district immediately.”
He nodded, telling several, who raced off to spread the word.
Then Aurora ordered the march to continue until they reached the black temple.
As she stood on the black steps of the temple of Knowledge, all was as in her vision.
The pale, rosy light of dawn was absorbed by the black stone facade of the temple, the cool breeze announcing her entry, causing torches and candles to flicker.
For so long, the temple had been a home to her.
Today, she evicted the vermin infesting it.
“Your Majesty, what brings you to the temple this early, and in such fearsome company?” Orithyia asked as she descended the steps of the second story, several paladins at her side.
More streamed out of the corridors on the ground floor while priestesses poked their heads out of their rooms. Just as in her vision.
“I’ve come to put an end to your desecration of this temple. Archers, if she so much as twitches her finger, shoot her. Myrina will undo whatever curse her goddess places on you,” Aurora answered.
Her archers nocked their arrows as the paladins surrounded Orithyia.
The paladins called for the clerics to rally.
Not for much longer. Not when they discovered her true colours.
A path towards the eyes of Lies was cleared by her guards.
Leukos handed her the sledgehammer she would use to expose Orithyia for who she really was.
The screams of the temple’s clerics rang in her ears, but she was immune. She raised the hammer high and put all her strength into her swing.
Onyx.
The stunned gasps of the clerics. The instant shift in their attentions—and the bloodthirsty intent levelled at the high priestess.
Just as in her vision.
Aurora turned her gaze to Orithyia’s.
“Your reign is over, High Priestess of Lies.”
This was it, the moment Orithyia fell from atop her pedestal. The moment Aurora triumphed.
But all Orithyia did was laugh. The priestesses backed away from her. Her paladins turned on her, their blades raised. And yet still the high priestess laughed. Dread snatched hold of Aurora’s triumph, and in the darkness, consumed it.
Then the high priestess spoke.