Wei Caihong was waiting for him at the base of the stairs of the main gate. Hair let loose and gently flowing like a river past his shoulders. Nikola was blind to the display. He dreamed of curls reaching the waist and of sapphire eyes twinkling deviously at him.
"You came, my Emerald."
"I'm not your anything!" Nikola snapped, but he still took the hand offered to him and allowed for the stranger to hold his hand as they ascended the stairs.
"I can see the future too. I saw what you saw," the noble said calmly.
Nikola remembered the picture all too well.
"How is that possible?" He asked, doubting the words of the noble. Bezaliel had shared the knowledge of how to see through the veil of time with the Atlanteans. He doubted that the angel was going to share the knowledge any time soon, after the disaster the first time had been.
"I know many things, Emerald Emperor. I've spoken with your past lover, Penemue. He gave me a portrait of you, and I fell in love. I can make you happy. I can…"
Wei Caihong was speaking, but Nikola wasn't listening to him. Penemue had whored him out? How dare he!
After all the words of love over the years? After all the jealous fits?
Were they all a game for the angel?
Look at me and how well I play the foolish Emperor! Behold how I can sway him to do my biding!
Nikola realized how pathetic he was in that instance, for he was searching for the reassuring weight of the feather even now. A feather that wasn't even Penemue's.
"Have I upset you?" Wei Caihong asked, and Nikola snapped his head towards him. They were at the top of the stairs, on their very edge. The movement turned out to be too sudden and Nikola stumbled but was caught by the noble. "Careful now, my dear. You'll break your neck if you fall."
"What does it matter?" Nikola hissed in Wei Caihong's arms. "I'll just put my neck back in place and then in a few days it would be as if I never fell. Penemue won't let me die, you see. I'm his favorite pet…"
Nikola stopped at the last word he uttered, and his expression soured further. It was the truth, though, wasn't it? Why else wasn't the angel answering Nikola's prayers, uttered fervently every night before sleep took the once proud emperor?
"He wanted me to look after you. He feels guilty over Pallas," Wei Caihong continued, his arm bringing Nikola flush against him.
"You know nothing of Pallas or Vasiliki!"
Nikola was trying to take in a breath, trying to calm his raging heart. He hated this, he hated it so much, he was ready to…
"It's true," Wei Caihong's voice wavered just a little, as if he was uncertain how to proceed. But Nikola didn't give him a chance to.
"I can reduce you to a bloodstain on these very steps with but a word!" Nikola felt vicious.
Penemue had always calmed him down when he was like this. Now the angel was nowhere to be found, and the only lead Nikola had of finding his lover thought himself in love.
"You are not the only one who knows magic, Emerald Emperor. I can resist you," the noble sounded sure of himself. Nikola barked a laugh. By the time anyone found the massacre he would unleash in this place, he would have already taken his things and gone away at the back of a wagon.
He concentrated on his dark emotions and tried to boil Wei Caihong's blood in his veins. When the noble not only didn't scream but chuckled, Nikola blinked.
"You ultimately failed in keeping the world in check, Emerald Emperor," Wei Caihong said, as his grip on Nikola tightened. To the point it was almost painful for the brunette.
"So, the Watchers found a new Champion. But Penemue not only made you immortal all those centuries ago, but he also gave you a piece of his soul. He can't take it back, so you remain a relic of the past. There is much you can teach me. The Watchers didn't have much time to bestow their wisdom upon me, my Emerald. But they knew you'd wake again. Penemue placed you in a golden cage meant to protect you, after all."
"Let go of me!" There was slight fear in Nikola's voice. He wasn't used to having equals. He was taught magic by the angels. Sure, some of his people were too, but the big stuff? The blood rituals and the sacrificial chants? These were all things only he knew of. Well, now there was one more who knew.
And God only knew how many more.
"I'm not going to force you. I don't have the power for it. I can barely stop you from heating up my blood. To be perfectly honest, I feel warmth spreading all over my body. And that terrifies me, my Emerald. But I saw our future as clearly as you did. I'm not giving up."
"Where is Penemue?" Nikola was done playing games. He wanted his lover back.
He wanted his family with his many grandchildren back.
"In the Abyss. All the Watchers are there. Doomed to fall until the end of all the generations. I merely spoke with their aspects in dreams. But my concubines heard me mutter their names in my sleep, and they told others, and word reached the emperor. Now I am stuck here in this village, but I see that it was all for the best. For I have found you."
Nikola freed himself from Wei Caihong's arms and then whirled himself to face him. He did his best to search the noble's face for any lies, yet he found none.
Falling to his knees, he gripped his hair and screamed.
Penemue was out of his reach. He could only ever hope to see him again in a dream. And although that would be pure bliss for Nikola, he knew that the angel wouldn't show himself.
Not as eaten up away by guilt as he was. Wei Caihong was next to him and wrapping his arms around his shoulders.
Nikola didn't have the will to push him away.
"Stay for tonight, my Emerald. If you do, I'll speak with Penemue, and I'll beg him to show himself to you. This will tear at my heart, but it will make you happy. Please, say yes."
Nikola knew that this was merely a ploy to keep him dependent on the other magic user. He rather doubted that Wei Caihong was above using his connection to Penemue to get what he wanted from Nikola.
Granny Nuo Nuying's warning about the man were ringing in his ears.
The feather was still there, hidden in Nikola's sleeve. When it came to Penemue, his resolve had never been made of steel.
Nikola nodded, feeling the trap around his ankle…