The Vessel of Ra

Chapter 17: The Father

Caius Klaereon had Bound Neith the archer. Rather than summon Neith to carry out magical tasks like most Binders who had demons, Neith was always at Mistraldol, guarding the scroll with her arrows, ordered to shoot anyone but Caius and Octavia, his chosen heir, should they approach the scroll.

Good Klaereons, bad Klaereons, a wheel that kept spinning and stopping on random chance, until the wheel had stopped with Octavia in this place, this time. She and Ra betrayed Lucy, but Octavia knew where the blame for all this tragedy truly belonged.

Caius waited for her, sitting in the garden in a long coat and a straw hat. A slight paunch concealed by a broad waistcoat was witness to good living. What hair he had left was pulled back from his head into a black ponytail. Caius wore a white wig for formal occasions, making him a true albino, or Hamlet's ghostly father.

"Welcome home," he said. Octavia saw him note her glowing skin, the Egyptian way in which Ra chose to clothe her, in a sheath fashioned from sunlight, shimmering like the scales of a diamond fish. "It seems traveling has improved you."

Octavia's golden glow intensified. Caius shielded his eyes with long hands. Octavia's voice echoed with the overlay of Ra's, which startled her. She hadn't noticed she was speaking with two voices. "I have come home, Father."

"You have made a trade." Caius walked around her. "Where is Khun?"

Khun is no longer a factor.

Ra's voice dismissed him, made him a footnote. Octavia was ashamed her eyes brimmed with tears. "Khun was unimportant to me. You know he was weak."

"He chose you. There is no possibility you could be Ra's." Caius rubbed his chin. "Unless you never Bound Khun and he never Bound you." Caius' forehead wrinkled. "Octavia, what have you done?"

"The past doesn't matter. Ra and I are your heirs."

Caius tapped the walking stick he carried against the shin of his good leg. "Where is your sister?"

"She won't be coming back," said Octavia, her stomach souring as she thought of blood and bits of flesh.

"You killed her."

"Don't pretend you are disappointed."

Caius' face was noncommittal. "Oh no. It was your path. She had to lose her Trial for you to take your place. I had thought you and Khun, not this."

"All my life, you have told me Lucy was weak."

"She was weak. She was deformed."

"You never gave her the knowledge to win. You kept it from her."

"I did. For you. Do you think I would have allowed her to inherit Solomon's Scroll? She was an embarrassment to our family."

Ask him what happened to Bartholomew.

"Ra wants to know what happened to Uncle Bartholomew. I want to know what happened to Mother. You told Lucy she died from fever, but I remember something else."

Caius leaned in and kissed Octavia's cheek. She couldn't feel the brush of his lips. "I want you to be strong. Our family needs to be strong. My daughter, my real daughter, she takes what she deserves. You stole Ra from the twisted little cripple."

"I didn't steal Ra," said Octavia. "Ra and I saw a mutually beneficial opportunity. You sent Mother to the Abyss, didn't you? I saw it. I heard it. I closed my eyes and I heard teeth tearing into her flesh, crunching her bones. I couldn't shut out the noise, just like you and Ra and everyone, always pulling, always talking to me. Now I have Ra's voice, and you are silent. I know what to do. I know how wrong you were, how you hurt Lucy."