"Absolutely not!"
What was she doing? Gods, she'd lost her mind. So had Mai, it seemed, in calling this meeting.
He had chosen to announce their union in his palace receiving room, at the very top of the city, to eight representatives of the Magisterium council. Mai sat atop a throne of rainbow obsidian that both drank the light and bled it out again in bands of oily colour. Face granite, wearing his briar crown, the ruby flecks in the deep, deep red of his formal robe catching the sun. He appeared a god.
Below the dais in ebony chairs sat four high-magisters, including the judge from the courthouse and Pilo; two magisters, Ro and Nab; and one acolyte: Anat.
There was also a Denese representative. Her. Not below Mai but beside him. This was what angered Ro.
Magister Ro continued her tirade. "How dare you? She doesn't belong here!" The former high-magister was now dressed in red robes to reflect her step down in status. Her blonde hair glinted under the domed-glass ceiling that hung above them.
"You forget yourself, Magister Ro," growled Pilo, his age-spotted hands gripping the side of his chair.
Rina peered from the corner of her eye. From the side of the raised dais, Olav's black eyes swept back and forth across the room like a rake across a gravel path. He shifted his feet. The leather of his full armour creaked, and a bead of sweat trickled down his face.
There were no walls to the room. Instead, fluted marble columns stretched to the sky, sprouting out into carved palm leaves that held up the roof. Outside, date palms and cypress trees mingled with oleander to create a living fence. The air flowed through the room, filling it with floral scents.
Ro's white finger pointed at Rina, and ice spiked through Rina's veins like sprigs of hoarfrost. "She forgets herself. The Arkis-spawned whore!"
A cold hand slid into Rina's. She looked up to her right, from where she sat on an ornate golden chair beside Mai. There hadn't been time to find another throne—not one that Mai believed would be sufficient for her. Mai's steady cobalt gaze held Rina's a moment, then he returned his attention to Ro.
"You forget yourself, yet again, Magister Ro." The words slipped between Mai's clenched teeth like winter air through cracks in a window casing.
The temperature plunged. Diamonds of refracted light danced across the floor, a shard of it across Ro's face. Ro's eyes were ice. "No, Your Magnificence, I fear you fail to recall The Devastation."
Mai barked a laugh. "Don't be a fool, Ro. As an eyewitness, I am the only person alive who is incapable of forgetting The Devastation." The fingers of his left hand curled tighter about Rina's. She sensed his sneer through the thread between them, heard it in his words. "I was Denese before I was Euran, magister and then your emperor."
Ro stiffened, swallowed. The veins in her slim white neck were chords of rope. "You speak heresy. Sacrilege. You know what happens to heretics, Your Magnificence, emperor or not."
A stone of dread fell into Rina's stomach at the threat. Mai had talked of rebellion in his ranks, but this was the first outright demonstration of it she had witnessed. He couldn't let this go—to do so would show him as weak. Worse, it would be the beginning of his downfall. For though the Magisterium controlled what information reached the outer provinces, something like this would slip through their grasp. Rebels, like her uncle, would learn. Worse, leaders in foreign kingdoms—kingdoms now far more martial than Eurora since their country relied on the Carnelian Way—might learn, and—
Was this what he feared—invasion?
Yet, she told herself, if Mai made an example of Ro, it would be okay. Surely.
Her other rested in her lap, itched to grip the arm of her chair. Mindful of maintaining the semblance of poise, she hooked her middle finger over her index and pressed.
"Since when did fact became profane, Magister Ro? Or is it that whatever doesn't suit your narrow ideals becomes a sin?" Mai asked, his voice now devoid of emotion. No, not devoid, consumed. Just as he had consumed the heat in the room, Rina could feel the warmth sucking from her palm. Below them, the representatives had begun to shiver. Anat visibly chattered.
Ro's mouth began to open but slammed shut again. The snap of her teeth was audible through the room. Her hands flew to her mouth, and her fingers tried to pry her lips apart.
"What's that something got your tongue?"
"Mmmh!" Ro's fingers began to claw.
"Come now, Ro, you have so much to say. I can see you're dying to spit it out." Mai released Rina's hand. He clapped his together and fell back in his throne. Like he watched an amusing play. "I'm waiting."
Ro's blue eyes were wide now, a film of tears making them gleam. She clawed at her mouth, red streaks of blood staining her face.
Rina tasted it, the metallic haze, and her breath hitched. The veil between this spectrum and the other dissolved. Streaks of light outlined the forms of the representatives, and the urge to consume them struck her.
Mai retook her hand. A pulse of heat warmed grew there. Trust me, it said—and she knew he saw and felt what she did.
A wail escaped Ro. Something was very wrong—this was wrong. Rina twisted to look at Mai, to beg him to stop.
He didn't face her as he spoke across the line. Calm yourself, my dear.
But she's—
Magister Ro would see you flayed if she had her way. What she did to that girl in Cartho was nothing to what she has done to other Denese.
Despite herself, Rina gasped, but she managed to hold otherwise still. You knew what happened to that girl?
I'm the emperor. The phantom words came haughty and cold, and something slick slithered through Rina's guts like a serpentine beast.
I've lived almost twenty of Ro's lives. If she thinks she can hide her sick perversions from me, she is a fool. There are only so many times you let a dog bite. I need to make a point.
And then, images formed in Rina's mind, formed of smoke and colour. Sick, twisted images of pain and blood and bone, and Ro.
Something feral awakened in Rina. The woman needed to pay. The beast in Rina crawled upwards, and her breath came short and shallow. She took a sharp breath, and the images disappeared like the wind sweeping away chimney smoke.
"Again and again, I have tried to find a way around your subversions, Magister Ro, out of respect for your devotion to our nation. But I warn you, my patience has its limit, and you fast approach."
The lower half of Ro's face was ribbons of red and pink. Her eyes wild.
"Your Magnificence." The judge stood, "Forgive Magister Ro, she—"
Mai twirled a hand, and as he did, a goblet of wine lifted from a side table and floated to him. He took a sip before speaking. "I know, High-Magister Balasi. Your esteemed colleague wants only the best for the land."
Balasi nodded, his head inclined respectfully, moving with grace of a long-lived politician, not a man watching a friend rip her face apart. "Sometimes, she lets her passions rule her, but she wants peace and prosperity for Eurora.
"A shame she does not understand what the best is."
Blood dripped to the white marble floor.
Ro fell to her knees, bloody hands slipping on the marble as she fought to keep her body upright—drip, drip, drip—but her wailing continued.
The noise cut into Rina. The faces of the council members were ashen. Anat had her fists clenched, and tears ran down her face. For a medic, this would be torture.
Rina assessed the guards spaced about the room, each with green-tinged faces, and at last turned to look at Olav, who also had a sickly complexion, his hand gripped around the hilt of his sword. She wondered who he thought to attack. Mai or the next council member to disobey him?
"They say the Taint is a snake," said Mai. "It slithers into a person's soul and gobbles it up, then takes over their mind."
Ro looked up. Her eyes were red-rimmed, the blue irises bright as ice melt, and she shook her head, mewling.
"So, speak, let us hear the poison of your words."
Through the bloody mess, it was hard to make out where her lips ended, and her face began. Then a hole that had been her mouth opened and something fell out.
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A/N: Next part is coming right up. I hope you like it!