Garden of Embers: Beneath Devouring Eyes #2

Chapter 14, Part B

"Are honored ancestors no longer welcome to pay our respects?" the eidolon asked in a lyrical voice, tilting her head of flaming golden curls.

Decus hesitated as the guards turned to look at him, the tension in every line of their bodies. After a moment, he gave a curt nod.

His body quailed as the pure promenia figure approached him on soundless feet. "I... I..." Sweet Eternal Radiance, was he going to die today? Perhaps he should interrupt the funeral and command Princeps Laetus to come to dissolve his dead mother. But no, the boy stood oblivious before his brother's bier, staring, pale and forlorn, at the riotous flames consuming his twin's body. Besides, one could not simply attack an eidolon in front of thousands of witnesses, especially not an Eidolon Principis, one of the most honored of ancestral guests. "I..."

"You killed my son."

The Rex felt the blood drain from his face, and Oliva and Fidentia both edged away. "I deeply regret--"

"You do not yet know the meaning of regret," the deceased Princeps interrupted, musical tone casual as she came to stand beside him.

Whispers spread like a wave through the crowd; eidolons who chose to attend funerals traditionally remained behind the black pillar, unable to venture far from it, but this one, unchained, ignored the artifact.

Her eyes stared straight ahead at her son as Laetus began reciting the epitaphius honoring his brother, his voice and body guided by Buccina's power. "Choose one," Verita said lowly enough that his ears almost failed to make out the words.

"What?" Decus frowned. "What do you mean?"

Still, she did not look at him. "You know what I mean."

Only then, as she said the words, did her intentions clarify in his mind. He shrank from her in horror, eyes darting over his shoulder and past the eidolon pillar to his six royal heirs. "I-I cannot," he hissed. "They're my children."

"If you are willing to slaughter other parents' children," she said coolly, "you must be willing to slaughter your own."

He shook his head, searching the crowd for a worldholder who could dissolve the eidolon. But few would be able to match a former Princeps Worldholder in skill. "It was painless. He is with the Eternal Radiance now." He knew he was babbling but could not stop the cascade of excuses pouring from his mouth. He had not encountered anyone more powerful than himself in over fifty years and his own terror shocked him. "I didn't want to kill him, but it was necessary for the common good."

"And now, giving me one of your children is necessary for the common good. Choose one." She turned to him, blazing eyes narrowing. "Or I will tear what remains of this world apart until only eidolons remain to walk the ruins. So choose."

Could she truly do what she threatened? He had no idea what kind of power an unbound eidolon possessed. Most of the entities commanded promenia with great felicity when visiting the pillars, but were unable to use their magic for ill.

She watched him, cool and confident. A bluff? If he misstepped and failed to take her seriously...

I will tear what remains of this world apart until only eidolons remain to walk the ruins...

He shuddered, heart-clenching in grief as he cast his eyes to his ruby-studded velvet slippers. "F-Felicitas." The youngest of his children and the least trained to serve the world. Eternal Radiance help his child, and him; he could not allow this creature to finish what her sons had started. "I choose Felicitas."

For several agonizing heartbeats, she watched the thick smoke from her older son's bier billow across the glowering sun.

Then she dipped her chin. "I will spare her," she said, and Decus's knees shook with relief. It took all he possessed to remain standing instead of sinking to the snow-dusted ground. "I do so only because I truly believe that you are willing to do anything you must to save the world."

"I am," he said, his voice weak. Breathless. "I do not know yet if it can be saved, but I will do anything and everything I must."

"Good," she said and turned to face him, molten eyes burning into him. "Ten thousand eidolons and daemons survived Trellis Descent. We are yours to command."

Decus blinked and then frowned. "And the others of your kind agree to this?" He doubted ten thousand unchained eidolons and daemons would care about commitments one of the youngest among them made on their behalf. Though the Eternal Radiance only knew what their kind sought or how they organized themselves.

Verita turned and narrowed her eyes at the black promenia pillar the Electi had placed on the ground. The Rex yelped as it dissolved in a brilliant shower of sparks. The mourners gasped, and even Princeps Laetus lifted his head to look, squinting past the sparks and flames of his brother's funeral pyre but unable to see what no longer existed.

Princeps Verita turned to look at the Rex. "They will agree," she said, "or I will hunt them down one by one and destroy them."

Decus shivered, grateful he no longer seemed to be the target of her wrath. How could such a being be stopped? No one on the planet possessed the ability to destroy an eidolon pillar, one of the only artifacts in the world impervious to a worldholder's power of dissolution. The art had been lost to time. What had Verita learned on the other side of death? What had all the eidolons learned?

"Why do you want to help?" he asked meekly, feeling like he questioned the Eternal Radiance itself.

She watched the pyre burn, grief heavy in her promenia visage. "One of my sons survived your cruelty," she said, voice soft. "He must have a world in which to live."