Darius escaped Envy's reckoning with his life, but lost much in the process. Mortal and vulnerable, he seeks a new reason for his continued existence, and may have found it lurking below the mage city of Itheria.
The Sins and their immutable...
Iadlim's anger and disappointment rose like the unwinding limbs of an abyssal terror ascending from the depths. For the first time in a long time, Aurelius felt a sliver of fear slide through his heart.
No. No fear. I've nothing to fear.
A single command came charging down the shared link. <Return. Now is not the time for this.>
Aurelius' reply was short. <No.>
Then Iadlim's presence dissipated from the channel, because he was incandescent in his fury and he chose not to share it with his followers. The Absolians were confused, their thoughts sluggish with unease, only snippets of phrases and images managing to float through the communal link. Velrigan's voice came again. <Don't do this, Aurelius.>
But it was too late. The Absolian had forsaken the path behind him for new horizons, and he'd thrown himself fully into this pursuit. Half-measures didn't exist for a man like Aurelius.
<Where will you go?>
Aurelius grinned, glamour slipping. <Where my ambition wills me to.>
If a broken, Fallen fool could claim dominion of a world and prop himself up as a King, then so could Aurelius. He was stronger. He didn't belong beneath Iadlim's heel. A creature of his caliber aspired to greatness.
Aurelius didn't close the river connecting him to his kin. Instead, he opened it wide and allowed what he saw and what he thought to consume the link, overpowering the thoughts of the younger, weaker Absolians—until his whims sat heavy upon their minds. They knew Aurelius thought them superfluous, pampered. He braced his wings, his knees bent and fingers curled about the dome's ledge, and leapt.
Aurelius didn't bother to slow his descent. Cracks spiraled outward from the crater created by his landing in the parking lot, vehicles flipping end over end as boulders shook loose from the cliff and fell to the sea below. Wards and scripts tore like spiderwebs at his discretion—but stronger spells took their place, triggered by the men within who'd sensed his assault. Together, the Absolian and the syndicate barricaded within the domed tower dropped the glamour dampening their magic and took full measure of each other's power.
Aurelius was impressed. They'd woven a skein of energy so dense through the foundation and walls of their building it would be difficult even for him to intrude. These men were not the pinnacle of their society for nothing. Nothing short of utter destruction would break their defense—but Aurelius wasn't here for their destruction. His aim was chaos, and chaos he would have.
The Absolian flung a hand toward the sky, and from it screamed a bolt of pure magic, twisting and crackling with the winged creature's will, striking colors through the atmosphere the mortals had no names for. Aurelius wound his fingers through the strands yet connecting him to the energy and turned his wrist, eliciting new sparks from the innate magic of creation streaming forth from his veins. His skin burned vivid and luminous as the dawn.
Clouds came into being, thick and bulbous as those found in the dead of winter, and the golden sky disappeared behind their contorting silhouettes. The city succumbed to a night-like darkness and Aurelius grinned, brilliant as a bolt of lightning, as he sensed the disquiet overcoming the mortals in the streets below and the mages inside their sanctuary. The Absolian grappled for that new power inside himself, that power he'd inherited months ago from some unknown source, the one that had spurred him forth on his long-wanted rebellion.
The other Absolians watched with held breath as Aurelius employed that power, and bent the will of the night creatures to his order.
Vampires came sprinting from the gathered shadows, driven mad by the massive pressure of the Absolian's command, screaming and wild as ravening beasts. They came running from miles away, tearing through the mortal world without regard to the gawking humans, fangs bared, blood dripping from wide eyes and open ears.
The monsters swarmed through the entrance of the mage tower, able to pass through the ward—as it was keyed to an Absolian like Aurelius, not to these lesser beings. The horde ran inside and masculine shouts filled the air. The explosion of spells going off rumbled through the earth.
Aurelius felt the horror and curiosity of his winged brethren. Most had never left Absolia: most had never left Aromont. They'd never seen humans, never seen true death or destruction, as they were too young to remember the Rending and its bloody glory. They understood so little of their potential, too busy embroiled in the petty politics and societal games of the Absolian realm, too busy bowing their heads at every word uttered by their insolent King.
Aurelius showed them what existed beyond their narrow world. He showed them the blood, the screams, the ruin that could be wrought—and some were terrified, but fascinated. Aurelius felt the stirring of a response from a few of his Wandergard, the half-thought utterances wondering what else there was, small desires for a taste of what the Absolian Commander could offer.
Then the channel was gone, closed by Iadlim to cease the infection Aurelius' actions was wheedling through the minds of the others. He'd planted the first seeds of doubt. Doubt was the biggest enemy of the Kings, their deadliest challenge. Kings with doubtful followers held no power.
Aurelius let out a soft, lilting laugh as the screams heightened. The mages would be victorious in this battle—but it served the Absolian's purpose. Chaos would draw his true adversary forth, and these men had just the power he wanted. It struck with ferocity, and the vampires kept coming, and the eyes of the mortals turned to investigate. Chaos.
He won't be able to ignore me forever.
Something probed Aurelius' senses, and his wintry gaze flashed in the direction of the spiking energy. A blanket of banality had been tossed over the source, but it wasn't strong enough to hold whatever magics kicked and writhed beneath its cover, and so the blanket was slowly fraying at the edges. It had gone unseen by the Absolian before. Now it had his attention.
Humming under his breath, Aurelius thrust his wings out and down, throwing himself into the air once more. He soared off to investigate.
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