"Hmph."
That final chortle from Eiriol shattered the silence at once, yet Dende Morningstar stepped off before her in a flash of light. Causing her to flinch in pain and throw out a curse under her breath before her pace resumed behind Titus, with Corym and Indra tailing close after.
In the end, all that was left in the expansive courtyard was Olga and me. Stuck in place, frozen from fear and shock.
"What in all the hells did we just witness?"
I knew it was coming. I knew it would happen. But still, I couldn't believe it. I couldn't even reply to Olga. I could only recount the madness that had just occurred and try to form it into something sensible.
The dragon wasn't dead. But, it wasn't here. So… it was banished. Probably.
Hopefully.
Aside from that, Amun threatened Titus. Twice. He insulted the Emperor, Dende Morningstar, to his face. Humiliated them both.
He slapped the Emperor in the mouth with reality. And the verbal assault contained nothing but truths. Darkness was natural. Darkness was eternal. Light was fleeting.
Amun read him like a book. Out loud and in his face. And again, his readings were right. The Emperor, Dende Morningstar did sit atop a pillar that has stood for over a thousand years. He did think it unbreakable due to that and he did expect everyone under the sun to bow in the face of his light. He did scry and spy on Amun in order to judge him as good or evil, ally or adversary.
He expected the weight of his name and the glare of the Storm King to intimidate Amun and did indeed resort to tactics far outside of his repertoire to pursue his ends.
All in vain.
Amun was nearly pushed into action. He remained unyielding in the face of the light. He was uninhibited by it entirely, somehow. And no one seemed to notice.
No one but The Light himself.
The only question now was… "What happens next?"
"Now, or later?" Olga wearily chuckled. But it was a valid question.
There was nothing Polaris could do for now other than keep him under surveillance, lest they wanted an international conflict on their hands. Whether they did or didn't was up for debate. But it was certain they'd do something in the coming years. After his work-study. During the Guildmaster course. That would be the time for them to act.
Either way.
"The paradigm has begun to shift."
"What do you mean?"
"Look." I nodded to Eiriol and the two wood elves rounding the same corner Amun disappeared from. "They think he's something special. The arbiter of change or something. And quite frankly, I'm starting to as well. I mean- his Sorcery aside. Himself aside, he's created a legion of monsters out of his peers. Amun was the teacher of Cooke Party. Not us. Not me and Zeff at least."
"No." Olga shook her head. "He taught them how to hunt, kill, butcher, and cook before I could and he taught them how to make all kinds of shit. All I taught them was nomenclature. He could've very well learned my lessons in a good library."
"I don't know if he's an archdevil or a god's champion, but the change he's bringing is here." I shook my head. "And I think Titus just made it a change for the worst."
"Yeah." She sighed. "Should've kept his fuckin' mouth shut. But all we can do is what and see what happens. If we manage to make it through this." Olga turned to me, sighing weakly. "I'm retiring."
"No." I shook my head at the corner that hid Amun. "There is something we can do. That I can at least."
Saying nothing more, I stepped off across the courtyard. Slowing only to give the elves distance after they'd left, and emerged around the corner to see Amun leaning against the wall. Staring distantly through the window with an amiable smile curled up in the corner of his lips.
And then he turned his cold eyes to me, disappearing his amiability at once.
"H-" My throat caught on something. I swallowed heavily, attempting to force it down. But failed, only mustering a meek nod while muttering. "Amun."
"Since when did you become so afraid of me, Doyle? Olga?"
I chanced a glance at Olga and saw her standing with the same, half-engaged stance as me. One foot back, body tilted to the side as if she were on the brink of fleeing for her life.
"S- since." I turned back to him while silently cursing my stutters. "Since the elves convinced me that you were… special? I guess. That you will bring change."
He said nothing. Gave us no response, visual or otherwise. He only stared at us with those cold, unblinking, indifferent eyes of his until Olga stepped forward.
His brow raised.
Then she asked. "How do you feel about… humans?"
Us. That was what she wanted to say. I could feel it in the deepest part of my being. Almost as if I had said it with her.
"It's… complicated." He sighed, causing a weight to fall through my stomach. "I love what humans are. Humans are idealists. Driven. Passionate. Tenacious. Full of conviction. Humans are capable of achieving great things in the short lives they live.
"But." He sighed. "I hate what humans can be. Slaves to their emotions. Hateful. Vile. Tribalistic. Close-minded. Judgmental. And above all else, cruel."
"I hate the culture." Amun declared. "I hate the growth that grows without end. Consuming all it touches until nothing remains. If it wishes to spread across Nonus, that's none of my business. But I refuse to let it infect me and mine."
"So you threaten that culture whenever it gets close to you?" Olga cried in a sudden outburst of emotion. "You just threatened an Emperor!"
"That's a matter of perspective, Olga." Amun laughed with a wag of his finger. "I was told to change clothes and go outside the barrier to fight a creature that wound up being a red dragon, of all things. And then, I returned to change and found myself surrounded by you two, scared shitless. Three elves, who were a mix between anxious and excited. And two humans who clearly thought too highly of themselves, glaring at me.
"No explanations. No introductions. No context, even. Only, 'what happened to the Bairn?' Am I wrong for being a truthful asshole in the face of ill-mannered arrogance?" He asked with raised brows. "Or, should I have ignored the disrespect and kowtowed to him because he holds a title that means nothing to those who dwell outside of his tribe?
"No." He laughed. "Respect is to be earned. Not given freely. But even then, I kneel to no one. Not even to my Great-Grandfather. If Dende and his dogs accept that and refrain from threatening me, or worse, threatening those I care about, I'll return to Maru and won't return to Nonus for centuries to come.
"But if Polaris wants to see me as an evil enemy because I slighted him in front of his dog then that's fine by me. I'll at least have the decency to wait until my time here is done before I go to work. In the coming times after that, however. Or should any of them try to spy on me or threaten me before then." He wickedly grinned at an ambiguous point over our shoulders. "I will seed Twilight across their lands and bathe Polaris in the light of the Blood-Soaked Moon.
"Should that day come. Just remember that I was not the aggressor. It was the Emperor of Polaris, Dende Morningstar, who brought such a calamity upon his home.
"And let's not forget dear Titus."
***
"And let's not forget dear Titus."
"BASTARD!"
If it weren't for the sense of control Titus had developed over the years, I'm sure his little outburst would have destroyed the acorn itself.
He was a man of many years. We both were. Although Titus Zlock was a generation older than me, I'd moved up the ranks to become his equal. Though he would never see it that way. To him, Mack Ronald was forever a subordinate. To me, he was a perpetual mentor.
A prime example of what not to do. Of how not to behave. Or rather, how to teeter the line of Breakage.
We were members of the old breed, but not old enough to be called old men. 'Aged' was more like it. Like wine or cheese or whatever it was people used to make less of their physical decline. But where he retained the unyielding traditions of times long past, I was one capable of seeing the greater picture of the coming future.
A tree and a dandelion.
Amun was right and it didn't even pain me to say it. The Emperor. Polaris. We brought this upon ourselves. Complacency and arrogance and close-mindedness brought us to this point over a thousand years ago. Only nobody knew it.
But of course, the signs were there. They were present in both the tales of old and the stories of new. A realm, vast and infinite, all to ourselves. All we had to do was take it.
Take.
We take like the first Emperor did when he slew a dragon and took over the land.
Like the families of light who came after and took what they couldn't have gotten within their kingdoms- Which was everything- They went somewhere else and took all of that. Spawning a wave of takers that lasted for thirty-eight generations and counting.
We took everything, and even now we take. Naturally, that evolved into us thinking we owned everything. It grew to us believing that everyone we met would adhere to our ways of thinking.
Good.
Evil.
We- most of us, like Titus. Like the Emperor- obsessed between the two. But a few of us, myself included, were fully aware of how dangerous such extremes could be.
"Who the fuck does he think he is!?!"
Having no target, Titus lashed out at the table next to him. Shattering it to dust and wooden shards in a childish display of frustration.
It was only a matter of time. All the skeptics agreed on that. The favorite theory of all skeptics in Polaris was that the families of light thought themselves untouchable because none who would stand against them were immune to their power.
That had remained true since before the portals opened. But all it ever took was a single person outside of their family to be granted an immunity to the light. Then everything they stood for would come crumbling down before them.
The sad part of the theory was that no actions would be needed on the anomaly's part. Polaris, in their fear, would strike first.
It was sad then. When I heard it at least. Now, it was bittersweet.
The families of light, of course, always thought it impossible. Now, it was reality.
I had no proof, but I knew it to be true. Amun. A being, in most people's eyes, who was the worst possible candidate to be immune to the light, was. And with Titus and the Emperor's stoking of the fire, the wrath of an undead shadow army and whatever power the half-elf had hiding up his sleeve was now aimed at all of Polaris.
Now, the situation equated to: Take the slap and walk away or fight back and risk losing everything.
The dragon was inconsequential at this point. The danger was now the crown itself. Takers never walked away from what they thought was theirs. The Darkworld below Polaris was all but guaranteed to be invaded by creatures of the night.
But that I could deal with. Twilight. The Light of the Blood-Soaked Moon. Those words bothered me the most. Not because of the implied threat, but because of the Emperor's reaction to them.
Because of the angst he hid until those very words met his ears, I was worried.
Because of his reaction to that angst, I was concerned. Concerned enough to change the perspective on my screen to look in the place I knew him to be. In Baker Party's courtyard.
Talking to his son.
I could practically hear the conversation based on Lance's expression. He was horrified, staring down at his father's boots with wide eyes as he kneeled. Dripping cold sweat onto the tiled stone from his shaking.
'Embarrass him as he did me.'
At that moment, I didn't see the Emperor of Polaris, known and beloved and feared far and wide. I only saw a scared man forcing his child to do what he couldn't- or wouldn't do himself.
***
"So, this is it."
While the obsessive humans of Light were fussing over the Darkest Devil, the true Plague remained hidden beneath their eyes and would remain so for some time to come.
I could still see it as I gazed out my northern window. The Void that beckoned the end. The Night that would consume me.
So too could I see what was to come. Tainted by the corrupted energies of the Darkworld, the first blighted plant would soon spread to the entirety of the Wilds before it and rise to the height of the mountains beyond.
For the Tree of Void had carved a vertical tunnel that loomed deeper than my roots could ever have hoped to reach. It made a portal to the Darkworld- and perhaps more- that breached the edge of my territory and the Scourge's alike.
Drow. Duergar. Deep Gnomes. Beholders. Whether Polaris acted against Amun or not, all sorts of foul creatures would soon be drawn to the surface by the light and spread across Nonus' entirety.
And then there was the matter of what I heard through the roots.
"Cononthoth. The first shadow dragon in existence. Accelerated in growth and perpetuated in life.
"How unfair."