Chapter 23 ~Vaxan~ #2
Winter burst forward and conjured his shadows into the water itself, where they swirled around Zayn. But as he started to lift him out, he was hit by a pulse and went spinning out across the grass.
Evira snarled and bellowed out a battle cry, then erected one of her ice walls in front of us.
Pulses slammed into it, cracking and denting, impacting its integrity.
“Fuck,” she exclaimed, clearly not used to it.
Because it wasn’t the same as taking a brute force attack, or even a standard magical bombardment.
This was vibrational resonance.
I looked to see Winter cursing as he staggered to his feet. Unharmed. Relief flooded me, then I went to see to Zayn, but he abruptly burst out of the water, his Ifrit flame blazing around him and lashing violently.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” he spat, shuddering, but his flame drying and warming him quickly.
As Winter rushed back over to us, he frantically asked Zayn, “Do you need my shadows? To help you dry?”
“No. My flame’s got it this time. Still way too close to that Keuric situation for my liking, though. Déjà vu, Win. Completely not-fun-one-little-bit déjà vu.”
Evira grunted as the wall endured further damage all too quickly.
I caught sight of ripples traveling across the ground—they were going to decimate the foundation itself from beneath.
No.
With a spark of my magic, I called my twin jeweled daggers forth, spun them in my hands, then leapt over the wall, clearing it, and landing in a deep crouch a few feet in front of it.
Employing my senses to their fullest, I locked onto the closest two targets, then tossed my daggers.
They shot across the distance with blurring speed, then came to an abrupt halt at the same time as I heard two pained cries.
The camouflage slipped away and then two assassins came into view a dagger buried in each of their hearts.
My daggers laced with my venom, which I hadn’t held off with like the last time I’d used them in battle, that being against Temperance.
I twisted my wrists, then the daggers tore from their bodies and sailed back to me, snapping back into my hands.
The hostiles slumped forward and collapsed on the grass.
Nothing could save them now. My venom directly in their hearts was a death sentence. They had mere moments left to live.
“Reveal yourselves!” I boomed across the distance. “Don’t continue to present yourselves as cowards. You dishonor our kind. Your Empress and her Consort have already done far too much of that.”
I added the last part purposely to incite exactly what I needed to end this quickly with far less chance of casualties—for my loves.
I cared not for these agents of my parents.
Coming at me and in such a disrespectful manner at that, one that threatened those I loved, that dishonored the Basilisk people as a whole and their collective call for me to take up the mantle…
they’d marked themselves beyond salvation.
The fusillade of pulses ceased.
“How dare you?” a familiar voice hissed.
There it was.
I’d felt her energy here in among them.
Norla Canor.
My so-called mother.
High Empress of the Excetra Crown.
As her energy was interlaced with the assassins, I hadn’t been able to determine her precise positioning.
In the next moment, she and the remaining eighteen assassins revealed themselves, dropping their camouflage and pushing out into the clearing between the trees and where I stood a few feet from Evira’s ice wall that she was reinforcing rapidly.
I took in the agents of Septna covered in moss-green, black, and sickly yellow armor etched with serpentine markings.
The armor wasn’t leather like other Basilisks such as myself wore when entering battle.
No, for this twisted yet elite unit, their breastplates, greaves, and bracers were made of a material that was a cross between stone and metal—a special material forged only within the Basilisk Dominion.
Norla was even adorned in it.
Hmm. She’d most definitely thrown herself so heartily into this.
Into killing her son.
It should have been a surprise—a shock, even. Should have upset me.
But I’d long forsaken viewing her or Syde as parents of mine.
As for him, it was no surprise that he wasn’t here alongside her. He definitely wanted me dead as well, but he was a coward and would never stand against me in battle.
This confrontation had essentially been inevitable.
She stepped forward in front of her assassin pets. “You undermined my rule, Vaxan!”
“You undermined your own rule. I warned you. Alas, your determination to hold onto power at any cost won out. You exert authority and domination for your own ends, no longer for the good of our people. They’d already felt it.
My recent visit only cemented it for them.
You really believe eliminating me will enable you to hold onto the crown?
It will cause the kingdom to crumble. They will oust you and with me gone, no sovereign to lead, chaos will reign. ”
“No!” she screamed, utterly irate.
Her composure had not only cracked. It had been completely decimated.
“With you gone, the people will calm without your poisonous influence veering them away from my rule.”
“I’m not actively campaigning against your rule. This is the desire of our people. They called on me.”
She flinched, then started shaking her head wildly. “This is treason!”
“Treason? I am High Lord Heir of the Excetra Crown.” I gestured at those with her.
“You’ve also restored an outlawed unit. You are acting against another royal without authorization.
You are threatening me with death upon the mortal plane—again, without authorization to even deploy here.
Let alone to carry out a kill order.” I pointed with one of my daggers at my loves behind the wall, all three of them with their power raging, prepared to make a move at any moment, from the slightest sign of physical provocation again from Septna.
“You’ve also attacked the Dracoryn Realm princess.
Winter Nox, too. I can’t even quite quantify how many lines you’ve crossed where him being one of your targets is concerned.
Zayn is protected by Requital.” I stepped forward.
“And by my hand. They are my Chosen.” A snarl escaped me. “You dare to come at Chosen of mine?”
She hissed back at me. “You are denounced. Your title rescinded.”
“Too late. Nor does it work like that, Mother. Your only option, should you value your life and that of Syde’s, is to stand down. Immediately.”
Another hiss.
And then she completed her dishonor.
She gave the command for Septna to murder me.
As they tore toward me with her at the forefront, I felt Evira make a move to force-teleport me behind the wall with her, Zayn, and Winter.
But then a thunderous reverberation shook the ground beneath my feet.
Countless rushes of power rolled through the area.
Norla stilled her assassins in their tracks.
And then scores of people materialized either side of me.
Behind me.
Flanking me.
My people.
The Basilisk people.
More bursts of movement intensified the thunderous reverberation through the immediate area.
More eruptions of magic as others teleported in.
Before long, there were hundreds taking position with me.
Standing with me.
Intimately familiar bursts of power caught my attention through it all, then Evira, Winter, and Zayn were right beside me looking on awed.
Zayn rubbed my arm excitedly.
It was indeed something to be deeply awed about.
It was truly incredible.
I swallowed thickly, not wishing to show emotion on the battlefield, yet most definitely feeling it so very intensely.
Norla let out one of her reverberating hums, her royal call that demanded silence. A hum that the longer it went on would intensify and cause significant pain to all Basilisks within range.
However, this time, silence didn’t descend.
Instead, a collective chant drowned her out, one that had me awed once more.
Especially as every Basilisk standing with me slammed their fists to their chests.
“Vaxan! Vaxan! Vaxan!”
“Incredible,” Evira breathed.
Winter was grinning at me.
And Zayn squeezed my hand, eyes wide with utter amazement.
As Norla and her assassins took staggering steps back as the chanting continued, actually even growing more ferocious and determined, I strode into the fray.
Spinning my daggers, I came to a stop just three feet from her.
The chanting ceased the moment I raised my hand for a mere second.
A reverent quiet fell over the battlefield.
Norla tried to glare out at me, but I saw it wavering.
She finally recognized it now.
It was done.
“Kneel,” I rumbled.
I felt the tension ramp up, my loves, and all my supporters at the ready.
“Honor the will of the people,” I spoke. “Recognize your new Sovereign.”
A cry of rage tore from her throat, which was met with collective hissing from those with me.
And then it happened.
She lowered herself to her knees.
The moment she bowed her head, cheers, applause, and whistles rang out, filling the entire area.
Before I could even begin to reconcile how to settle into it all, a burst of green magic had me spinning to my right just as Ryker Morgan materialized.
And he wasn’t alone.
Within seconds, dozens of Guardian Movement members arrived on scene also.
One of them had Syde in cuffs.
As I stowed my daggers away with a flick of magic, I smiled inwardly, realizing now the full extent of what had happened.
The Basilisk people had gotten word of this Septna attack and alerted the Guardian Movement in a bid to protect me.
Ryker gave orders for Norla and the assassins to be taken into custody.
Then he stepped up to me and smiled, a glint in his eye. “Nicely handled.” He slapped a hand to his leather pants. “Now, are you ready to handle all of this?” he asked, gesturing out at the crowds of my people.
It had come about earlier than I’d intended, and not in the way I’d intended. I’d been aiming for a much smoother transition for their benefit.
But Norla had ruined that tonight.
It didn’t matter. I was nothing if not highly adaptable.
And my people’s belief in me wasn’t unfounded.
I knew well what to do.
I could see to this.
I smiled out at Ryker. “Without a doubt.”
That was as far as the conversation got before my loves were rushing to me, all over me in the next moment.
Cheers and more whistling rang out from the crowds.
I turned, taking them all in, registering the sheer magnitude of it all.
Their support.
The beginning of a brighter day.
My loves wrapped around me.
And I smiled.